Wrestling...thats right, Wrestling!

[Olorin]

Some guy on a fitness forum I use met some of the wrestlers in a bar in a hotel last night, apparantly Mark Henry was a complete tool. Pushed people out of the way who were standing at the bar so he could get served, and told others to "fuck off" when they tried to start a conversation with him.

Sounds like a charming guy.

[Malcolm]

TNA issued the following press release today inviting Sarah Palin to the Final Resolution pay per view. They want her to join the Beautiful People as an "honorary member".

TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION (TNA) WRESTLING INVITES ALASKA GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN TO JOIN ?THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE?

TNA ANNOUNCES SPECIAL ?SARAH PALIN CEREMONY? FOR DECEMBER 7 AT ITS ?FINAL RESOLUTION? PAY-PER-VIEW IN ORLANDO. TNA AGREES TO DONATE $50,000 TO GOV. PALIN?S FAVORITE CHARITY OR ALASKAN YOUTH HOCKEY LEAGUE.

Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling has announced that it is formally inviting Alaska governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to become an honorary member of ?The Beautiful People,? the elite group of TNA Knockouts led by Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.

TNA officials said a ?Sarah Palin Ceremony? is scheduled for December 7 at its ?Final Resolution? pay-per-view as part of her ?Honorary TNA Knockout? membership in The Beautiful People, and TNA President Dixie Carter will personally fly Gov. Palin and her husband, Todd, from their home in Anchorage to Orlando, Florida, for the December event.

TNA Wrestling will make the formal invitation to Gov. Palin Thursday, November 13, on ?TNA iMPACT!? at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Spike.

TNA will present Gov. Palin with a $50,000 check at ?Final Resolution? made out to the charity of her choice, or will make the donation to the youth hockey association in her native Wasilla, Alaska.

?Governor Palin has combined her experiences as a wife and mother with her political savvy to prove to America and the world that politics aren?t just a man?s game. I know firsthand what challenges you have to face when breaking a glass ceiling in a male-dominate profession,? Carter said.

The stars of TNA Wrestling can be seen for two hours each and every Thursday night on ?TNA iMPACT!? (9 p.m. ET/PT, Spike). The TNA roster features Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, TNA World Heavyweight Champion Sting, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett, Christian Cage, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, among others.

That would be awesome...I love Palin...I wonder if there trying to get her involved in a story line

[Izzy]

That would be awesome...I love Palin...I wonder if there trying to get her involved in a story line

Ah man, I liked you

Now i guess you must be some kind of right wing crack pot, 'death before gay marriage!'

Please tell me you like her as...(a person?) and not for anything that comes out of her mouth

Tommorow lets go kill wild animals!

Palin'a outdated views are frankly embarrasing

...the only way TNA would invite her to join the Beautiful People is to make some heavy handed comment about her being unbelievable shallow

Frankly, I'd invite her to team with Morgan and Abyss because, not being a neo fascist, I consider Palin as much a monster as those guys will ever be

Drill for oil everyone, take that environment!

[slash666]

Just got back from the Raw house show in Newcastle, pretty good night of wrestling.

Quick Recap:
Firstly we had Santino Marella vs William Regal, decent match with Regal getting the pin. Also Layla is sooo fine in person!

Next was D-Lo Brown vs Haas Hogan, nice little 5 minute match with Haas getting the pin after the legdrop. Also D-Lo was heel for this match

Beth Phoenix vs Candice Michelle w/ Mickie James as guest ref. Well typical womens match with Beth winning clean. Mickie is pilling on the weight 

CM Punk & Kofi Kingston vs Cody Rhodes & Manu. Punk pins Rhodes after gts, great match with nice teamwork from Kofi & Punk

Kane vs Snitsky - both heels although fans cheered Kane, I can't believe I watched a Snitsky match that lasted 10 minutes. Kane won with chokeslam

Shocks of the night, *ding ding ding ding ding* Out comes JBL which I was suprised at as he rarely does house shows and after a really good 10min promo (including singing God Bless America) off goes some familiar music. Shawn Michaels! I totally marked out for this cause I didn't expect him at a house show. Really good match with HBK winning with sweet chin music.

Main event was Mysterio & Batista vs Orton & Jericho, it took 20 mins from the first entrance (Orton) for this match to get started. Good match with Batista pinning Orton after a 619 followed by a batista bomb.

Good show with probably Punk/Kofi vs Rhodes/Manu & JBL vs HBK as matches of the night

[pilferk]

TNA in 3....2.....1...

I hope not

God he was awful

If he showed up in a match u already knew the result

He was booked horribly.

Put him in the X-division, where he would be allowed to shine, and I think you'd be surprised at the result.  WWE is no place for wresters like Super Crazy...they just can't thrive in that environment.  I'm not saying he's the next AJ Styles....he's not...but he'd be a solid addition to the X division, IMHO.

[Hammy]

^ Exactly watch his ECW stint and you should be won over.

He was doomed from the moment he started declaring himself to be "Super" and "Crazy".  You can tell he had become uninterested in recent years, he has got quite fat.  Word is he has no desire to go to TNA anyway.  TNA has to be careful not to sign too many ex-WWE guys otherwise it just looks like a reject show.  They'd be wise to sign a talent like Elijah Burke though, how he got let go and so misused is anyone's guess...

any one hear that douch bag Striker make that CHINESE DEMOCRACY reference during ECW?

free pub

No what did he say?

"A fight with Dreamer is like Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy, you eagerly anticipate it but once you have it you might not want it".

[Hammy]

Well as you all know I went to the RAW/ECW Taping Monday Night.

Here is a little diary of sorts of my day in the "Powerslam" vain.

Arriving in Manchester just after 12 I was ready to make a day of things.  Unlike most blokes I actually like shopping...or sorts.  A gander round for Vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Clothes (Well Rock/Metal/Sports Gear).  In hindsight setting off/getting up so early probably wasn't a good idea since I'd attempted to watch TNA Turning Point and hadn't go to sleep until about 3.a.m.

First thing to do once me and my sister arrived was to get our tickets from the box office.  We sensed there might be problems since the card she bought them with had been stolen several months since.  Always one to avoid hassle I chilled with my Ipod on while she sorted the tickets.  Something wasn't right though, turned out I'd let Velvet Revolver sneak on to my Ipod Shuffle, damn the randomness of this device!  A few skips later and a bit of Pantera...Cowboys From Hell....that fitted the mood for the day better.  Anyway sorting out the tickets turned out to be easier than expected so after that it was time for the important stuff...Lunch + Beer then not long after...getting my caffeine fix Starbucks at the ready!

Throughout the day I was in and out of shops, grabbing an ECW DVD and a new Hat, I was keeping my spending low for once.     Around 3ish I was starting to get bored, having exhausted all the places I wanted to see, even the amusement of watching people make idiots of themselves on some "Singstar" machine in the Arndale was wearing off.  At this point numbers throughout Manchester of those wearing wrestling gear was increasing.  I now know why D-X plus their Merchandise ALL the time, its seriously what everyone seemed to be wearing, except for one guy, who really was a shining example of why people have such a low opinion of wrestling fans.  Stood outside a Tesco Metro, along comes a guy, probably about 50...looking more like 65....Beer Belly....John Cena Hat....White Tanktop....World Title belt around his waist and Spinner Belt over his shoulder.  Remember this in November in the UK...I was freezing wearing my hoodie.  The weather wasn't bothering this guy though, the site of a guy his age alone dressed like that in summer is one thing, but in winter, only thing I'm gutted about is I didn't get a picture with him....darn!

Fast forwarding on....coffee...beer and a crap meal later (my sister had us go to some french place)...We were back at the M.E.N waiting in line to get in.  Doors weren't opening until 6.pm.  But having run out of places to go we thought if we are going to sit around anywhere it might as well be there.  Upon getting there 5.30ish I was mildly surprised to see so many people already waiting in line.  First place to visit though was the merchandise stand....out of curiosity more than anything.  At nearly 23 I find it really difficult to buy a wrestling t-shirt and keep my self respect in public, if they'd of been cheaper I would have been tempted but at ?25 a pop I thought not, the only one that grabbed me was a Chris Jericho one.  Now if they had a Miz, Chick Magnet one....   I'd of been straight in there.  I'm fighting sunday and wearing one of those would piss my instructor off no end and for shits and giggles it'd be worth it

After a quick scouting of the merchandise and hearing a false rumour that spread quickly of there being Benoit merch, we got in line.  To my amusement we were stood next to 3 very bad tempered people.  They were arguing with each other, and their voices sounded muffled, don't ask me why but initially I thought they were Scottish, I mean clearly they weren't from England and I've had trouble understanding Scottish people I've met before (not you Evolution) and it was noisy in the venue (and I was tired).  Anyway a few minutes later when I'd had a chance to listen a bit more and use my brain, I realised they were in fact...Italian!  The fact that they were tanned and one had an Italian badge of his shoulder should of been the give away earlier.  The older one of the 3....I'm guessing the dad...played up to all those stereotypes you think are false and just overdone on tv.  The flicking of the hands off the chin that The F.B.I. did, it was there haha!  That kept me quite amused anyway as we waited in line.  Stupidly the M.E.N had a sign about no cameras, I say stupidly because most people had them, since they were doing searches, sending me in first worked a treat.  The security guy got so bored going through my bad full of magazines, clotheres and other such crap that he didn't bother searching my sister....with the camera....Result!

Upon entering the arena itself the first thing that hit us was the size of the ring...it seemed so much....smaller in person.  Still being fairly early...we were about an hour or more until showtime it was time for a beer and a sit down.  So many people there so early meant many a "Woooo"....and "Hooooo" and to a lesser extent "Kennedy....Kennedy" and "Let's go Regal"....Strange really that only one of those 4 was there 

Prior to 7.30 we had Chimel arrive to get the crowd going and introducing Grisham...cue nobody caring...and Striker....cue many Boo's.  Following this it was dark match time and out came Snitsky to a chorus of boo's.  Next up Roddy Piper's music hit and the crowd went nuts as well all forgot for a minute that Haas is going round dressing up as people.  Once everyone realised who it was the crowd kind of went dead.  Still I enjoyed this short match if for nothing else it was first ever live match.  Haas won after Snitsky missed a big boot and Haas got a roll-up.  The crowd actually popped quite big for the win despite being dead throughout most of the match.

[Hammy]

After some motivating from Chimel "We are soon going to be live on Sky Network Television get your signs ready for the cameras, we are going live in 10 seconds!".

First match of ECW was the 6-Man, Live it was a great match, of the 2 tapings it was definately one of my favourites, people seemed indifferent to Swagger and Morrison but Miz...ha...what a heat magnet, I think I was his only fan.  I would of started a "Let's go Miz" chant but I value my life   It's also crazy how over Cryme Tyme our, out of the 2 tapings they got one of the loudest pops, no wonder WWE resigned them.



I think it was after this we cut to a Matt Hardy interview.  Now having watched the show on tv now, I realise he was responding to the commentators, but since we don't hear them, to have him come on the screen and start off with something along the lines of...."I though Finlay would say something like that..." - Or something of the sort, just seemed plain odd.

Next up we had the Mark Henry squash match, once we saw the UK Jobber in the ring you KNEW what was happening and subsequently the crowd didn't care at all, not even bothering to cheer for him, only notable thing about this is Henry's entrance theme live is good to bounce to....yeah I know I'm really scraping the barrell with this one....moving on.

Main Event time.  Having watched it on tv now, the commentators statement of it being a 50-50 split was bullshit!  Hardy was way more over and the "Let's go Hardy" chants outnumbered the Finlay ones 3-to-1.  Decent match with a slow building leading to a good yet predictable finish.  And that was ECW done.

Not long after Chimel introduced us to Lilian who did "God save the Queen" and introduced Cole...."Booooo!"....and Lawler who got a massive pop, weird, can't stand him these days myself.

One thing that was clear throughout RAW, was the fans cheer decent characters/wrestlers and don't give a fuck whether they are heel or face.  The opening segment was so much fun, we had a massive "RKO" chant going in our section.  Reminds me of the days Christian was getting cheered over Batista, Yes Dave, you are shit!  When Steph came on screen people started doing "What?" which seemed pointless since it was clearly pre-taped and wasn't going to knock her off track.

Next up we had Santino.  The crowd was initially boo'ing in part but the Honk-A-Perfect-Mountie Meter won EVERYONE over and we were all chanting his name, it was quite funny to see him actually thank the crowd, he seemed quite touched by it, the dude is great.  Obviously Regal got a huge pop.  People were thrilled with the win but also shocked at the speed of it.

After Regal's speech we had D'Lo coming out next with the dreaded commercial break entrance so you knew he was laying down.  At least it was to someone I liked, Mike Knox' beard is a triumph, somebody give that man a pat on the back!  Although we knew D'Lo would lose you didn't expect it to be so quick, he could well be on his way out already, we had only just started our "Let's go D'Lo" chants when I saw Knox get him in place for his finisher, following my "Bollocks" response, it was all over....poor D'Lo.

The Mysterio vs Kane match came across very well live, I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of seeing them go at it again but it was enjoyable.  Strange seeing Kane job clean...again though...I'm a monster but I lose to midgets.  How long 'til Hornswoggle beats him?

People were pissed with Rhodes replacing Orton.  Fans were really behind Orton and wanted to see him wrestle.  Team Priceless and very hated, so much so Batista actually became popular again.

Now it wasn't shown on the tv broadcast (least not over here) but JBL came out in his neck brace to cut a promo on HBK and announce a 5 vs 5 Survivor Series Match between the two.  Now he also said he had ?1000 to give away and called out an audience member.  To get the money he had to name 5 US Presidents, when he did JBL then had him try and name the Vice Presidents which he couldn't....this lead to Cryme Tyme coming down and a segment that went on far too long and had some areas chanting boring, long story short, Cryme Tyme gave his money away.

Beth vs Mickie was not a good match to watch, the Women in WWE seem really clumsy at the moment, true to form, Santino was the most over, rather than cheering on either Diva a "Santino" chant broke out which kept us far more entertained.





Main Event time and we got a solid scrap, but for out section of the crowd there were times where it was a bit boring.  Having them go all the way over to the titantron when we were behind the announce table was one thing, but it seemed to take them forever to get there.  You don't notice on the broadcast because its cut out with commercials, but they literally spent ten minutes punching each other as they made their way to the Tron.  Things picked up when they came back though and broke out the Ladder.  The last 5 minutes were extremely fantastic and that JBL chair shot was a beautiful thing to see.

After the show went off air, JBL's music hit and he returned to beat down HBK.  Since most were leaving we made our way right to the front.



After taking a bit of a beating HBK, recovered and nailed Sweet Chin Music and then celebrated in front of us.





After this he left and we had Lillian thanking us (she is ultra hot in person...never noticed her much before...but...WOW!...Uber nice to...always waving to and interacting with the crowd in between segments)



So they packed up....



Oh and there's me.....



.....And King forgot his precious Crown



Upon leaving the venue it was time to relax at the train station with a coffee waiting for our lift home.  One last piece of entertainment was a drunk hobo in the train station who wrestling fans either filmed or asked "Was he Ready" ala Triple H....or "What you gonna do Brother".

Anyway, class day!

[Axl4Life]

Great read Hammy always enjoy reading how people get on at these events. Aye the rings like a big toy in person, that was my first impressions too. And yes, I was front row for a Raw house show once and I saw all the divas close up within 6 feet from me. Most of them you need a chisel to remove the makeup they have caked on. But Lilian is easily the hottest WWE Diva. And people claim shes 42...I feel inclined to disagree....strongly...

Really cool for you to see HBK that close aswell. Apparently he stayed and done the whole tour...strange..because I thought he was done with house shows especially European ones.

[Izzy]

Dark match + ECW + RAW

..damn how long was that - surely 5 hrs plus?

I'm off to see Smackdown in April (with a detour via TNA in January)

[Evolution]

Quality post Hammy! Pretty good vantage point.

[Izzy]

After this he left and we had Lillian thanking us (she is ultra hot in person...never noticed her much before...but...WOW!...Uber nice to...always waving to and interacting with the crowd in between segments)

You never noticed her before?

Hell, I've been watching wrestling for years largely because of her...

[BlowUpYourVideo]

I also found the ring quite small on first sight. 'Tis odd.....

[Hammy]

After this he left and we had Lillian thanking us (she is ultra hot in person...never noticed her much before...but...WOW!...Uber nice to...always waving to and interacting with the crowd in between segments)

You never noticed her before?

Hell, I've been watching wrestling for years largely because of her...

Nah well back in the day it was Sunny and there was a time for Stephanie McMahon, then Ariel......

...saying that it was only the other week I properly noticed Rhaka Khan...Wowza!

[Izzy]

...saying that it was only the other week I properly noticed Rhaka Khan...Wowza!

a woman that can deliver a chokeslam always gets my heart pumping

...trouble is, I have a suspicion she would eat me...and not in the goood way

...and Stephanie McMahon was/is dammmmmmmn fine.

...as the years pass I have come to accept that I may not be watching wrestling for the wrestling...

[Izzy]

Turning Point

what did people think?

I just dont...get...TNA PPV's

Impact is consistantly excellent..and PPV's always seem a bit underwhelming, they lack that sense of occaison WWE manages (sometimes) to create

Wasnt any real matches that stood out for me, it was solid overall

[pilferk]

Turning Point

what did people think?

I just dont...get...TNA PPV's

Impact is consistantly excellent..and PPV's always seem a bit underwhelming, they lack that sense of occaison WWE manages (sometimes) to create

Wasnt any real matches that stood out for me, it was solid overall

Great at the buildup, not so great at the payoff. 

I agree.

I've ONLY been watching TNA lately...sworn off WWE almost entirely.  Just bored with the product.

But with TNA...I can "read" the PPV recaps and be perfectly happy.

[Hammy]

RAW was good last night, I really enjoyed the Dirt Sheet vs HBK and Mysterio, Loved the finish!  Shame the rating sucked.

And Zigglers back HBK's bit with him and his bit at the start of RAW with JBL was good to.  All round good HBK.

Oh and Armando's been released, Deuce and Burchill need to go into hiding  (It worked for Knox and he even gets treated well now, and heck even Parisi got away with it for a bit).

[Izzy]

Not sure why WWE wont use Burchill

A faction centered around Regal is the way to go - does WWE need everything spelled out for them?

[Hammy]

Not sure why WWE wont use Burchill

A faction centered around Regal is the way to go - does WWE need everything spelled out for them?

I was saying the same thing to Evo earlier.  They have enough English stars on the roster.

William Regal, The Burchills, Harry Smith & DJ Gabriel.

Regal is the midcard to upper midcard one  (aka the Triple H role).  Burchill & Gabriel take on the Tag Team role (aka the New Age Outlaws role).  Katie Lea...a much more attractive and better in ring version of Chyna and Harry Smith takes the X-Pac role, one step behind Regal with tensions often rising between the two.

Yeah, it's Degeneration-UK