Welcome back to ringside folks. I’m sure you watched the end of the football game instead of wrestling tonight so at this moment, you NEED me.
News & Shit
There’s really not much news out of TNA this week aside from this:
*Gail Kim could be in the X Division
Yeah, talk about killing the division. Truthfully, I have nothing against Gail Kim. She is a very good female wrestler and if there was a women’s division in TNA, she should be the champion. But this is the X Division. This is the division that carried TNA during their weekly PPV era and during the beginning stages of their monthly PPV era. This is the division that produced great matches with Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin, Petey Williams, and others. This is what you thought of when you thought of TNA (that’s rarely the case nowadays, which is sad). Gail Kim should not be in this division. This move could be a worse move than WWE adding Chyna to the IC division all those years ago. Folks, I’m not sexist or anything like that but in a wrestling ring, men should wrestle men and women should wrestle women for the most part. I understand the occasional mixed tag match where the man wrestles the woman for a short period of time but this is not that situation. This is taking Gail Kim, having her face men on a weekly basis, and actually have the matches be competitive. That’s right, these matches will be competitive and Gail Kim might win a few because if they actually pull the trigger on this idea, they aren’t going to bury her.
I know wrestling is scripted and it’s not as real as something like UFC, but you sure as hell wouldn’t see UFC take the top women’s fighter and stick her in there with the likes of Ortiz, Liddell, Hughes, and others. That’s pretty much what TNA is doing, whether you want to admit that or not.
The Truth Hurts
So Impact opens with LAX showing that they are a dominating tag team by dominating the Mack Brothers (Minus Rodney). Squash matches are annoying but until TNA gets that second hour, we all have to cope with them. Hanging the belts after the match was a nice touch but didn’t they (Styles and Daniels) do the same thing to Samoa Joe before Against All Odds? TNA had me at “Tag Ultimate X” so anything they do with this feud build wise from now to the PPV is just a bonus in my mind. Not much to talk about here, the big stuff will be at the PPV.
It was nice to see Heenan back on TV as no matter what he does, he always makes it interesting. We all know that Roode isn’t going to pick Heenan (although I wouldn’t complain about that combo as I’ve always called Roode a cross between Hennig and Rude and Heenan managed them both to my knowledge). It also gives Roode that sense of importance as such a high profile manager wants to take him to the top. It will be tough for TNA to screw this one up.
I don’t know what to think of Lethal, Sabin, and Dutt taking a liking to the Jackass crew. On one hand, I like it because now these guys actually have some type of personality but on the other hand, it’s just stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jackass. I have the first movie on DVD and I plan on seeing the next movie when it comes out because everyone in America loves violence. When you see someone with a Superman t-shirt, you just want to shoot him and when he bleeds you just say, “I guess not”. I digress. It will be interesting to see how far they take this thing as I can’t see it lasting past Bound For Glory because the promotional tour will be over by then.
Here’s another thing I pondered while watching this segment: Why is it that every time TNA does a promotional type thing, Sabin (and Dutt to an extent) seem to be involved? First the White Sox, now Jackass. When TNA decides to team up with the Orlando Magic, I’m sure Chris Sabin will be the one greeting JJ Redick at the door.
AMW continues to fight and I continue to not like it. You’ve all read my displeasure with breaking up AMW so I won’t go into it. Instead, I’ll talk about Shane and Kazarian. Scratch that, they’re jobbing. How about The James Gang? Nope, turned into a job team. Smiley and Sharkey? Hell, they are the biggest jobbers of the group. How is it that the team on the verge of the splits, is picking up the win? Does that make any sense to anyone?
I actually like that they’re delaying the push of The Naturals a bit. There’s no need to rush things with them right now because Styles & Daniels vs. LAX is a hot feud that is going to be blown off in a hot mat. Save their push for November or December and allow Styles & Daniels vs. LAX to last until Bound For Glory those producing 4 great matches between the teams and the best tag feud since AMW/Canada.
The Raven promo was honestly one of his best date and as I have mentioned before, the matches between Raven/Abyss won’t be technical masterpieces but the mic work from Raven and Mitchell will be lyrical masterpieces.
Glad to see Killings show up for what could be his final match in TNA. It was a good TV match and that’s really all you can ask for I guess. We all knew Christian was going to win but Killings saw shown as having a chance. I think Christian vs. Rhino has a chance at being the 2nd MOTN at No Surrender (honors going to Tag Ultimate X of course) as both men are highly motivated and seem to have a new fire under themselves that I haven’t really seen from either man aside from their initial TNA debuts.
So Joe vs. Jarrett is the main event (of sorts) at No Surrender. Once again, it’s another thing that I have mixed feelings on. I like that Samoa Joe is in the main event and that he’s facing Jeff Jarrett but this match is non-title and when Joe wins, he can only go backwards (side-ways at best). Honestly, when Joe beats Jarrett at the PPV, where does he go? TNA has it in their minds that Sting vs. Jarrett will headline Bound For Glory and with the contract signed and the stipulation in place, I can’t see them changing the match. But Joe just beat the champion, he should earn a shot right? That’s what logic tells you but this is wrestling and logic isn’t the strong suit of the business. So what where would Joe go from here? I’ve honestly narrowed it down to two choices and I personally don’t like either of them but both of them would work:
*Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage: I don’t like this match for obvious reasons. Both of these guys are hot right now and with this being the biggest event of the year, a clean finish is a must. So who does the job? Christian doesn’t need to be the one to beat Joe but on the other hand, Joe beating Christian pretty much ruins your hottest heel at the moment. The match makes sense as it appears that neither man has a match for BFG but I just don’t like the match for the reason I mentioned.
*Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels: I know, how in the hell did I come up with this match and to tell you the truth, I really don’t know. As I sit here typing this, it literally just came to me. Now before you call me crazy, just think about it. These guys have had 3 matches and each man has 1 win. So why not have the final match between these three men on TNA’s biggest stage? It also gives each man something to do until they finally decide to give Joe the World Title and move Styles & Daniels back into the X Division. This match is highly unlikely but the more you think about it, the more it seems to work….right?
Whatever they do with Joe, I just hope they give him the belt by the end of this year. They’ve teased us long enough, go ahead and put the belt on the future of the company.
Plugs
Botter continues to cover the Kurt Angle story.
Vinny asks if the new ECW is really ECW.
Not much up this week as far as columns as the hype for IP3 seems to be the most important thing at the moment.
The End
Next week is my birthday, which means the annual Birthday Rant will take place. Drop me a line at AMPLine4Life@aol.com and join me next time, At Ringside.
