Welcome to the return of Total Nonstop Weekly. For those who are not in the know, this is your weekly dose of TNA news, rumors, videos, and God knows what else I’ll put in here. Forgive my two week absence, but I had issues that were not under my control. I won’t explain my issues, but know that I’m back and it is time to see what is going on in the Land of Russo.
TNA Rapid-Fire
News from everywhere.
Angelina Love suffered a concussion during the Knockout’s Title Match at Lockdown. Due to this, she not expected to compete this week during the TNA tapings.
Kaz should be back as Suicide within the next month. Currently, Christopher Daniels is pulling double duty with the gimmick.
TNA will release the TNA Knockout trading card series on April 28th.
Reports are coming in that Lockdown drew around 4500 people. No word on how many paid, as it was noted that TNA was heavily papering the event to boost attendance.
A DVD featuring TNA Tag Teams is due out on May 5th.
JB has it right, Vince Russo is the most popular person…on the Internet.
Paul London was set to debut in TNA, but he suffered a back injury and pulled out from his scheduled appearance. There’s no word on his future in TNA, however.
TNA will be adjusting their television schedule this summer, most likely July and August. They will tape four episodes of iMPACT over four consecutive days.
Not TNA-related, but check out Jim Cornette’s new website. He blogs about the wrestling business; and his biography is very extensive. It is like reading from a wrestling history book.
TNA Continues to Grow
Over the past few days, TNA has seen an influx of talent come into the company. We’ll begin this discussion with Bobby Lashley. Bobby Lashley debuted at TNA Lockdown as one of the former world champions from another organization. It’s rumored that his deal with TNA will allow him to compete in MMA, as noted with the Lashley/Sapp match on June 27th being made official. This news doesn’t come as a shock with the WWE, as many within the company knew he would eventually sign with TNA. However, where the grass is greener over in UFC, it seems that Lashley screwed any chance at being considered for the company. However, stranger things have happened, since Brock Lesnar is the current UFC Heavyweight Champion.
In somewhat a spoiler, “The Dark Angel” Sarah Stock, Trevor Murdoch, and the Amazing Red were at the recent TNA tapings. Sarah Stock was with CMLL before heading to TNA. She hails from Canada and it proves that the more talented women wrestlers do come from Canada. Trevor Murdoch was with the WWE before he was future endeavored due to the company not having anything for him. I won’t spoil much more about these two signings, except that the Amazing Red wasn’t used.
Will the latest group of new hires bring anything to TNA? It’s clear that Lashley’s signing is for more exposure and an attempt to get the MMA crowd drawn to TNA programming. However, everyone knows what happened when Kurt Angle faced off against Samoa Joe at last year’s Lockdown. Besides, where the hell is Frank Trigg now? Sarah Stock would be a fine addition with the Knockouts, but I’m still begging for Raisha Saeed to dump the burka and wrestle as Cheerleader Melissa. On the other hand, Trevor Murdoch would be good in the tag team division and a possible contender for the midcard titles. TNA’s tag team division is more competitive than the WWE’s tag team division. It is a shock that Lance Cade didn’t join him, but maybe that is for the future.
Taz “Rumored” to go to TNA
I use this very loosely, but it has caught the attention of some fans. I can break it down for you. Last week, TNA’s Mobile service hinted at a “second former world champion” that signed with TNA and that they would “unlock” the mystery beginning at Lockdown. Most everyone assumed that Stevie Richards was the second man that they were referring to, even though Stevie has no world title reigns, unless you mention the indies. However, some of the fans noticed something different and it involved Samoa Joe.
Before the Lethal Lockdown match, Samoa Joe was wearing a black towel draped over his head and was getting advice from someone in the background. During the match, Samoa Joe proceeded to hit varying suplexes on his opponents. This screams the beginning of the “unlocking” process. Most of us know that Taz wore a black towel over his head when he was a competitor and that he is the Human Suplexing Machine.
Taz isn’t bound with a no-compete clause because his contract with the WWE expired. I don’t expect TNA to quickly reveal Taz, since the way they did it seems to be more involving. I also don’t expect Taz to compete due to his nagging injuries from when he was a full time wrestler in the WWE. However, I could be very wrong, as Mick Foley did win the TNA World Title at Lockdown. For all we know, if Taz actually does come to TNA, it might be to be a mentor/manager to Samoa Joe. I’ll have more discussion on this as the story unfolds. As of right now, I’m treating it as a rumor since nothing official has been mentioned anywhere.
TNA Ratings
Over the last few weeks, TNA has maintained a 1.3 rating for iMPACT. They did break the 2 million viewer threshold recently, but the last iMPACT before Lockdown lost a few viewers. For this week’s prediction, I’m banking on iMPACT to break their record. iMPACT doing a 1.4 would be a safe bet, while a 1.5 would be a daring bet. I doubt Foley’s title win will bump the rating past a 1.5 unless it was done the same way that Foley’s first title run in the WWF(E), with WCW spoiling that moment. I’m sure more people will tune in, but it’s not like we’re going to see anything drastic on a ratings increase. 1.4 to a 1.5 is a fair enough guess – that’s only an additional 100K viewers most likely, depending on how ratings to viewership ratio works.
Lockdown Throwdown
Eric Young d. Danny Bonaduce (pinfall, rollup) – One of my main complaints was how this wasn’t on the main card, but after seeing the match, thank God it wasn’t on the main card. Good to know the “hometown person loses in his hometown” edict is alive in TNA for the most part.
Suicide d. Kyoshi, Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal, & Sheik Abdul Bashir (Suicide Dive from top of the cage onto everyone else, leaving Bashir behind) – Good opener that lived up to its expectations of being a huge spot fest. Daniels worked for a dozen men in this match, and would work for a few more later on in the night.
ODB d. Sojourner Bolt, Daffney, & Madison Rayne (pinfall, Liquid encouragement to Sojo’s face, followed by a powerslam) – Ugh. Good thing they didn’t do the reverse battle royal like they did last year.
The Motor City Machine Guns d. No Limit & LAX (pinfall, Made in Detroit on Yujiro) – The outcome wasn’t surprising since it is unknown if New Japan would even allow their title to change hands at a TNA event.
Matt Morgan d. Abyss (pinfall, powerslam on thumbtacks after Dr. Stevie’s interference) – Oh geez, did we need to see Dr. Stevie slap Abyss like a child? More importantly, why are we even trying to neuter Abyss more? Father Mitchell is gone; we don’t need Stevie to take his place. At least let Stevie be supportive.
Angelina Love d. Awesome Kong & Taylor Wilde (pinfall, Kong kicks Wilde, Love makes the cover despite being K”TF”O by Wilde; New Champion) – The finish came awkward since Love was legitimately knocked out after the crossbody by Taylor Wilde. This could easily explain the camera confusion with Love talking to the referee. It appears the finish was called on the spot since Love didn’t remember how the finish was supposed to go. When you get concussed, it’s easy to lose your memory, so I can’t knock this match even if I could. Love deserves to be commended for finishing the match despite the nasty bump she took.
Team 3D d. Beer Money (pinfall, 3-D to Roode; New TNA Tag Champions) – The match lived up to expectations of being a serious fight. Too bad that once the New Japan tag titles were put on the line, the result was known, since again, we don’t know whether or not New Japan would allowed their titles to change hands in a non-IWGP sanctioned match.
Team Jarrett d. Team Angle (pinfall, KABONG to Booker; Styles scores the pin) – The Frontline had to win, plain and simple. This restores credibility that the Frontline has against the Main Event Mafia. I won’t discuss Lashley, since I said too much about him earlier.
Mick Foley d. Sting (escape; New TNA Champion) – If this was 1999, this would be a three to four star match. However, this is 2009 and the match didn’t live up to the hype that the two men were building for. Everything leading to the match was perfect, but age played a huge factor in this bout. The hardcore stip protected Foley from having to put on a classic and I was curious as to why he’d make it escape from the top of the cage only. This seems to be a move to see how the ratings for iMPACT will be like. It also freshens up the title scene a bit, so overall…no huge complaints.
This Week in Wrestling
ECW / RAW / Lockdown / ROH / SmackDown / iMPACT / Superstars
This Week on the Pulse
Mark Allen discusses the WWE Draft.
Vinny T. talks about how he was influenced to try the other wrestling products out there.
John Wiswell blogs about ROH in Canada and Dragon Gate
Until Next Time
Thanks again for checking out my TNA weekly column. Next week, I’ll have more news, rumors, ratings, and results from Total Nonstop Action. Keep it to Pulse Wrestling for the latest in breaking news from around the wrestling world. Enjoy the weekend!
