TNA At Ringside: TNA Genesis PPV Preview

Columns

Welcome back to ringside everyone. This week I give you the Genesis preview, talk more WWE screw ups, and introduce a new little feature that will help you get to know me better. Away we go.

We Hate Canadians

So this past week it was announced that Chris Benoit’s contract is coming to an end in WWE and they are currently low-balling him on money. Yeah, that’s smart. They tried this with The Dudleyz and they tried this with Christian. Look where it got them. Now they are trying it again with another one of their top workers. Listen, if you want to low ball Chris Master, that’s fine. He sucks on the mic, sucks in the ring, and may get busted for steroids. Chris Benoit on the other hand is passable on the mic, awesome in the ring, and a workhorse. Why would WWE even try this? I am seriously, I can’t stress this enough. Who’s dealing with contracts in WWE? Who’s the genius saying “Let’s pay The Undertaker 100 million dollars to take 6 months off, not sell, and get over based on a gimmick that expired 10 years ago while we pay Chris Benoit 10 dollars to work every night, put on a good match every night, and who needs no gimmicks.” It’s just f*cking stupid.

So what the hell is Chris Benoit to do? Take less money, work more dates, travel more and be angry or take less money, work less dates, never travel and be happy? I would choose the latter. If I’m going to take less money, I want to work less. It’s just that simple. Chris Benoit would be happy in TNA because he would be around people that respect him. He wouldn’t be around some young punk saying “the RAW locker room is a better place to be than the Smackdown locker room” (Matt Striker). He wouldn’t have to be involved in stupid storyline where he loses the U.S. title because a chick interfered (Booker T and Sharmell). No, Chris Benoit could go to TNA and wrestle. Chris Benoit could go to TNA and have fun. Hell, Chris Benoit could go to TNA and win the World Title. And when he wins the World Title, his match will be last because he’s the World Champion. He won’t be facing Kane, playing second fiddle to HHH/HBK even though he is the World Champion.

So I beg WWE, I beg you, low-ball Chris Benoit. Offer him less to do more. And when it backfires and you’re stuck with Kane vs. The Undertaker and Batista vs. JBL while TNA showcases AJ Styles vs. Christian and Chris Benoit vs. Christopher Daniels you have nobody to blame but yourself.

By the way, did anyone bother watching Helms vs. Rosey on Raw this past Monday? Was it just me or is WWE trying to turn Gregory Helms into Christopher Daniels. Same ring attire, same jacket, and more emphasis on the shining wizard. Just a thought.

Never Wrong PPV Preview: TNA Genesis

That’s right, I have given a name to my PPV previews, I’m that lame.

*Team Canada vs. 3 Live Kru: Is anyone else sick of this match? I’ll give you the PBP on this match before it happens. 3LK does their stupid mic act, Killings dances, Konnan throws his shoes, BG dances, Team Canada dominates until a hot tag, D’Amore interferes, Kip interferes, match over. That’s the entire match summed up in a few lines. I honestly don’t care who wins, ok, actually I do. I hope Team Canada wins, BG James turns, Kip joins BG, the Outlaws re-unite, and TNA fans can all say in unison “FINALLY!” Too bad 3LK will probably go over with the help of Kip.
Winners – 3 Live Kru

*Monty Brown vs. Jeff Hardy: Why is Jeff Hardy in a number one contenders match? What big PPV win has he had in the recent past? He lost in the Monster’s Ball match, he lost to Bobby Roode, and before all that he was suspended. I understand that Jeff Hardy gives you name value but damn, a guy like Raven deserves this spot way more than Hardy at this point. I say Monty Brown wins because he has had a side feud with Jarrett going for a while now.
Winner- Monty Brown

*Sabu vs. Abyss: This match is a match made is wrestling heaven. First off you have Sabu, a crazy bastard that will jump off a bridge because that’s his idea of fun. Then you throw in Abyss, a good big man who’s idea of fun is throwing guys off a bridge. See how perfect is it? TNA always seems to deliver a top notch PPV brawl and this match will be it. Sabu will probably blow a spot or ten but who cares, the more pain he’s in, the better the match will be. I say Abyss goes over since he’s more in it for the long run and has more gas left in the tank.
Winner – Abyss

*Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Alex Shelley & Roderick Strong vs. Chris Sabin, Matt Bentley, Sonjay Dutt & Austin Aries: This match will be the shit. The only problem I have with it is that I feel that Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels should be on opposite sides of the ring. It’s perfect really, Joe and Daniels don’t like each other so they each pick 3 men to be on their team in the elimination match. All you have to do is switch Bentley with Joe and it’s an awesome match. Hell, it’s already an awesome match, I just think TNA should have taken storylines into consideration with it.
Winners – Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe survive

*AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams: This is a match that I don’t mind seeing twice in 24 hours. Yes, Styles and Williams will be wrestling on Impact the night before the PPV in a Finisher First match. I actually like the finisher first concept because even though the worker hits their finisher, the announcers could play it up like the other worker could have kicked out. This should be a good match but with the World Title scene looking too crowded for AJ, I say he holds to the X Division title a bit longer.
Winner – AJ Styles

*Jeff Jarrett & America’s Most Wanted vs. Rhino & Team 3-D: I Honestly don’t see the point in taking the World Title off Rhino if this is the PPV match. Why does it matter if Rhino is the World Champion for this match? They could have set up a Jarrett vs. Rhino match with Jarrett pinning Rhino, claiming he gets first shot, and then you have Jarrett vs. Rhino at Turning Point. With Rhino moving down in the World Title picture after this match, I say TNA uses this to elevate the AMW/3D feud. I say a Team 3-D member pins a AMW member to advance the storyline a bit more.
Winners- Rhino & Team 3-D

Now I probably could have said that Christian would interfere in the Main Event, attack Jarrett, and that would set up Jarrett vs. Christian, but that’s too predictable. No, TNA should go a different route with Christian. I say he should just come out in the middle of the PPV and give a shoot interview. It’s that damn simple. Every time a big name debuts in TNA, it’s always a save or some type of attack. With Christian, just have him come out and talk. That’s all I want out of Christian. I don’t want him attacking Jarrett and pushing back the Brown vs. Jarrett feud. I just want Christian to come out, shoot on WWE, and say he’s TNA 4 Life or some shit. Something that basic can be fully effective.

Look at what Scott Hall did when he entered WCW. He came out (mid match I might add) and cut a promo. Something that simple, led to the NWO. It’s not hard to book good talkers, give Christian a mic and let him go to work.

Overall I think this PPV will be better than first thought. The X Division Elimination match along with the X Division title match will no doubt be ***1/2 star and up matches. Sabu and Abyss will most likely deliver a **** or higher brawl. The other matches are more or less storyline advancement matches. The 6 Man Tag match shouldn’t be too bad as AMW is good in the ring and Team 3-D looks motivated. Brown and Hardy will be good if Hardy takes 3 Pounces like that jobber on Impact. The Overall PPV score will be helped by the “major acquisition” debut.

Wrestling Score: *** – ***3/4
Entertainment Score: *****, that’s right if the TNA acquisition is Christian, that alone is worth my money.

Quick Hits

The C Cup is gone and Quick Hits is in. Basically this helps you get to know me better and to get a taste of things I’m into. I do it for the kids.

*Patrick Nguyen and I agree, Terrell Owens is the f*cking man. He delivers on the field and always puts on a show off, what more could you ask for?

*Michael and Marcus Vick are not Quaterbacks, if they are then so is LaDainian Tomlinson. LT can run and throw just as well as the Vicks. Michael had one good game against the Dolphins passing, BFD. Marcus got his ass handed to him by Miami. I hope Peppers kills Vick when my Panthers play him.

*The NHL shoot out rules, ’nuff said.

*After next weeks The O.C. preview on Fox, I am f*ckin hyped for next weeks show, too bad it’s about a week away.

*The new Eminem song “When I’m Gone” is the shit. I advise every rap fan to download it and give it a listen. If you don’t like it, you suck.

The E-Mail Bag

Hey Jeremy, how you doing? I wanna say that I loved the special last night except for the last match. I was more into that show then I have been into a RAW for a long time. But my point I wanna talk about is Jeff Jarret. To me Jarret has never really had any credibility, lets just skip over his early WWF carrear cause I mean come on now. In WCW we all knew that Russo had a hard-on for him and would push him to the moon if he could. Now, his own father owns the company, so its no surpise he keeps getting what he wants. To me and im sure a lot of other viewers, TNA will never become credibile as long as JJ is still holding the title, or doing that thing he does of losing it and winning it right back. I enjoy NWA very much and like their product but seeing JJ manipulate the title picture is much more annoying the HHH to the point where I may give up on it cause Jarret will never allow anyone top billing over himself. Tell me what you think if you dont mind.

-Tom Pasquale

I think most of the IWC feels that Jarrett is holding the company back by holding on to the title so much. I think that will change in the coming months with Christian and possibly Benoit and Jericho coming in. There’s no way you can keep the title on Jarrett this much with those 3 names in the company. Monty Brown looks like he’s about to be the long over-due new World Champion in the near future, so all is well.

Hey, it’s Jed from Inside Pulse. Just thought I’d drop you a quick note on your latest TNA column. Not bad, but you made a small factual error: The Dudleys were not fired from WWE. Their situation was an exact mirror of Christian’s: their contracts elapsed, and since WWE had been sitting on them for seven months, they (The Dudleys) elected not to renew their contracts. It was Spike Dudley who was fired.
Other then that, good column.

-Jed

It’s a honor to have Jed drop me a e-mail and take time out from reviewing and rewriting the book. I thought that Dudleyz were fired because it took them a while to get to TNA and I thought that was due to the compete clause. If their contract was over I figured the complete clause wasn’t in effect and they could make the quick jump. I trust you did your research and that’s better than me going off my memory. Thanks for the correction.

hey man, what’s up…great column as usual…I agree the 6man X match was the shit…Pure action throught, which is really what the X division is all about…And I must say I was impressed with Aries, Dutt and Shelley, especially since 2 months ago I could have gave a f*ck about them…Alex Shelley I believe has huge things in store for himself in the future, as his reactions, expressions, and mannerisms during the match are priceless, besides the innovative “hybrid” style that Don west creams over…I used to hate Dutt, but it seems that since his big vacation in India, he’s returned with more personality than ever, and even tho the Sprinkler is goofy as hell, the crowd digs it and I love the guy’s ringwork…As for Aries, I never really liked or disliked him before just indifferent…Now however, he’s starting to grow on me as I’ve had a chance to see him more and I like Aries as a face…The ROH style dueling chants for Shelly and Aries were cool and I must say the crowd in Florida really makes the shows that much more enjoyable, unlike most of the E’s shows where the crowd usually shits on 90% of what they see, and rightfully so…Speaking of ROH, I live in NW Indiana, and despite hearing so much about the company, I’ve never been to an event or even seen any of their DVD’s…I’ve watched a few videos on their website, but I’ve never even seen a Bryan Danielson or Homicide match!!!!But they will be in Chicago tomorrow and I really wanna go, but I’m afraid that I wont be able to make it…The card looks good and I wanna go so bad but it’s not likely…My question to you is, have u ever been to a ROH event, and if so is it worth it to skip out on a surefire poontang session just to see the Rottweilers in person? And yea I already thought of taking the bitch with, but you know how that goes…I guess I could always just wait til Sunday, when the E comes to Valpo, which is half the drive to Chicago…But……I dont think so…Damn, this is a long rant..My bad…The whole point of this email is I noticed u referenced several video games of the past that were the shit to me…I remember Royal Rumble for Genesis that was alright at the time, but Raw is War kicked its ass a year later, with the ability to change attributes and the Super moves, or whatever they were called…I remember renting random WWF tapes, which were usually sucky I might add, just to get the codes!!!Remember how Doink’s bucket could be used as a weapon? Classic! Then we had Wrestlemania the arcade game, which for what it was was decent enough as u said…In your house was pretty sucky tho…And u already know about the terrible string of WCW games including Nitro, Thunder, Backstage Assault, and I think there were a couple other ones that sucked donkey balls…I will admit tho, I bought Thunder for $5 and got my enjoyment based on being able to move people between the Flock, Horsemen, WCW, Wolfpac, and NWO Hollywood….But u reference WCW vs The World…A lotta ppl never played this, but for a long time that game was the shit…I wish there was some way they could bring it back for 2006…The roster was awesome, and the matches my friends and I had in 8th and 9th grade with Malenko, Habenero, Regal and Benoit was the shit…Moving on, a lot of people think No Mercy was the best wrestling game…I disagree…No Mercy was great, but the gameplay seemed slower than Wrestlemania 2000, which is my choice for best wrestling game ever…And dont forget about its predecessor WCW Revenge, which was also great…Last but not least, the Smackdown series was overrated I think, as I still have Here Comes the Pain and dont plan on getting the new one…Sorry about the outrageous length of this email, but I had to get it out there…You’re the only one I know so far that has played all these games like myself, so you were the victim of this random rant…Thanks for listening

-Rusty

I agree the Florida crowd adds a lot to the TNA show. To answer your question, no I have never been to a ROH event. Only live events I have been to is some WWE and WCW shows. I say go to the event if you’re that interested but if you’re on the border I would skip it because it may disappoint (although I doubt it would based on the DVDs.) I think the entire Wrestling Video Game run on N64 was good whether it was WCW or WWF. Maybe I didn’t like WCW vs. The World because it wasn’t well known, I do know that WCW put out horrible games like Backstage Brawl though. Based on the IGN review, Smackdown Vs. Raw 06 seems like it’s going to be so I will be picking that up on Tuesday.

Hey,

in your column you mentioned that skipper pulled off one of the biggest moves in
TNA history. I don’t watch TNA very regularly and was wondering which move you
were refering to?

thanks.

-hammo

It was Turning Point 04. If you have seen a Elix Skipper match then you will notice that he often tight rope walks the ropes and then hurricanranas a sitting on the ropes opponent. At Turning Point he tight rope walked the top of the steel cage and hit a hurricanrana on a member of AMW. TNA shows it a lot in their video packages and it was highly talked about for the next few months in the wrestling world. It’s tough to explain, you have to see it to believe it.

The End

That’s all for this week. I hope everyone either checks out IP’s Live Coverage of TNA Genesis (done by PK I believe) or actually pays the money to check out the PPV live. Drop me a line at AMPLine4Life@aol.com and join me next time At Ringside.