Total Nonstop Weekly – 10.26.09

Columns, Features

Good afternoon/evening everyone! I hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready to begin the new week. Let’s see what TNA has done in the last seven days.

RapidFire

Paul Heyman won’t be coming to TNA. You can quit asking.

Booker T is officially done with TNA, as his profile has been removed from the roster.

Chris Sabin suffered a stinger during a match against Team 3D at the tapings last week. He left on his own power and is thankful that the injuries weren’t bad.

In more injury news, Daffney suffered a broken arm at Bound for Glory in the scary bump she took. There’s no news on how long she will be sidelined.

TNA will be going to France in January 2010.

TNA signed an agreement with W9 out of France to air TNA iMPACT on their channel.

10.20.2009: The Day the Universe Imploded

It was a relatively quiet day Tuesday in terms of wrestling news. Then, out of the blue, Pulse Glazer was the first person on the Pulse that broke the news of TNA signing a huge superstar.

Nigel McGuinness.

That’s right. The same Nigel McGuinness that agreed in principle to a WWE contract a while back. Why the sudden change? Word was going around that WWE simply took too long in inking a contract that TNA scooped McGuinness up out if the blue. However, the truth started to come out about WWE taking back their offer once McGuinness’ prescreening came back. It seemed that WWE didn’t want to chance the possibility of McGuinness being injured as he had a history of past injuries.

What does this do for McGuinness and TNA? Well, McGuinness is known mainly by Ring of Honor followers and other people who heard his name mentioned. TNA signing him only does him more good than harm because it allows McGuinness to adjust to becoming a household name. While CM Punk garnered huge success in the WWE, we are reminded that Evan Bourne is somewhere in the RAW comedy division and Scotty Goldman was released since “creative had nothing for him” (despite reforming of the Second City Saints with CM Punk, but at the time WWE didn’t care about tag teams).

Does this mean that McGuinness has no chance in the WWE? Not at the least. The WWE machine is smart. Once McGuinness works through his TNA contract, WWE will be in a better position to offer him a huge contract. It will then go back to McGuinness whether or not the WWE is good for him or not. Until then, TNA fans and ROH fans alike will brace TNA’s newest star…Desmond Wolfe.

My friends, this is the move TNA needed. They can’t mess this up.

Kevin Nash Cares about Other People?

I could mention how evil space aliens kidnapped Kevin Nash and made him start to care, but that may be too outlandish. Maybe Kevin Nash has his heart in the right place and how he actually cares about people working safely with others. Case in point, at the tapings last week when Chris Sabin suffered a stinger at the hands of Team 3D, Kevin Nash made it a point to “shoot” on Team 3D for not protecting Sabin and he blasted TNA Management for not stopping the match after the injury took place. The “shoot” will most likely be edited from the show when it airs, but it raises some suspicion whether Kevin Nash found himself in the doghouse or if this is Vince Russo’s way to fool the internet writers like myself in reporting this.

Kevin has a point, if there is any truth to this. He probably thinks that with his knees the way they are that one sloppy move from someone could end his wrestling career and he wants to speak out that everyone needs to protect each other during the match. Of course, it’s not a 100% way to prevent injury as injuries can come at any time. We’re just hearing one side of the story as Team 3D hasn’t made any mention of this, so it’s hard to speculate as to what actually went down.

Question of the Week: Is TNA Taking Too Many Risks?

I’m busting out new features for my column as I look to see what sticks and what doesn’t. This week, my question concerns the overall risk-taking that has been seen since Bound for Glory. When I read that certain wrestlers suffered injuries, I wonder what could be done to keep them healthy. Looking at the WWE, you haven’t heard as many injury reports in a while (aside from busted implants), so it seems that they are keener on working safe spots and not doing many high risk moves. With Daniels, Suicide, Daffney, and Chris Sabin recently suffering injuries, is TNA taking too many high risks? Sound out in the comments section and I’ll give you my thoughts to this question next week.

TNA VideoZone

Kurt Angle meet Wolfe…Desmond Wolfe.

Motor City Machine Guns v. World Elite

iMPACT ThrowDown

Homicide d. Amazing Red (Gringo Killa; pinfall) – Amazing Red suffers his first loss since being paired with Don West. The commentary seemed to be pushing this feud as something that happened at Homicide’s wrestling school. This should be an interesting feud since the win vaults Homicide up in the X Division Title rankings.

Matt Morgan d. Scott Steiner (Lashley interference; Carbon Footprint; pinfall) – Steiner transitions from one of his best performances in a long time back to his same old self. While I’m not as hyped about a Lashley/Steiner feud, you got to give them something to do. Too bad they have to involve Lashley’s wife in the fray.

Kevin Nash & Samoa Joe d. AJ Styles & Daniels (Nash Chokeslam on Daniels; pinfall) – This match stirred the pot on the upcoming triple threat match at TNA Turning Point. AJ Styles was protected in the loss and Daniels is crazy for working after nearly dying at Bound for Glory.

Awesome Kong d. Raisha Saeed (Implant Buster; pinfall) – And thus ends the career of Raisha Saeed and the beginning of the new career of Alyssa Flash. It will really be interesting to see what Kong does without her associate.

Hernandez d. Rhino (Big Splash; pinfall) – Rhino says how TNA is pushing the old guard out and that he’s booked and that Team 3D and Angle wasn’t. Rhino quickly realized that he was booked to be a JTTS as Super Mex made short work of him. It was nice to see Team 3D pity Rhino despite screwing them at Bound for Glory.

Motor City Machine Guns d. Lethal Consequences (retrieval – new #1 Contenders to the TNA World Tag Team Titles) – We have an Ultimate X match days after an Ultimate X match at Bound for Glory. Gimmick overkill? It’s easily forgiven as the Guns finally find themselves as a serious contender to the World Tag Titles. This makes Turning Point a true “Turning Point” for TNA

Beer Money d. The British Invasion (Referee Roughing In a Steel Cage; Disqualification) – I’m going to overlook the fact that the match ended in DQ because it was a brilliant set up. The British Invasion are the bad guys, so they need to find any trick to keep the tag titles. I say that Beer Money screws the Brits at Turning Point and we’ll get new tag team champions because that is how they roll. It was an unique matchup and the angle continues.

TNA iMPACT Rating from 10.22.09: 1.1

The Road to Turning Point

Here is what Turning Point is shaping up to be…

TNA World Title Match: AJ Styles v. Daniels v. Samoa Joe
TNA World Tag Team Title Match: The British Invasion v. The Motor City Machine Guns
Kurt Angle v. Desmond Wolfe

Rumored
Eric Young v. Kevin Nash
Scott Steiner v. Bobby Lashley

Elsewhere on the Pulse

Mark Allen keeps us up-to-date in what goes on in the WWE.
Vinny T. ends last week with a story about going from heel to face.
Hack Johnson brings the latest indie news.
Will Pruett recaps the year of the Main Event Mafia.
GRUT remains the only person in the IWC saddened to see Booker T gone from TNA.
It takes two writers to discuss why Vince hates talent (I’m supposed to say “black people”, but “talent” is a better word choice). Daniel Douglas starts it off and Pulse Glazer responds to a reader request!

Until Next Time

RAW is on tonight, so I’ll have your live coverage at 8PM EST! I’ll be back next Monday for another Total Nonstop Weekly! Have a good week!

Paul Marshall has been with Pulse Wrestling since September 2007. He currently does a weekly WWE Column titled "This Week In 'E". Follow him on Twitter here.