The Wrestling Thread

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Does anyone know the score with Genesis this week? I've looked on the Sky guide for both Bravo and Bravo 2 but I can't see it on there. Has it gone to another channel, or even Sky box office. There's no way I'm going to pay for a TNA PPV if that is the case!

[DomDom]

Sky won't have TNA so long as they have WWE.

[The Naitch]

Sky won't have TNA so long as they have WWE.

Spot on.

TNA really should be making the most of their partnership with Virgin Media (on demand material, PPV, etc) if they really want to make strides.

[The Hero of the Day]

I quite enjoyed Bubba Ray's promo on the Nasty Boys on Impact!

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Bubba the Love Sponge - TNAs new backstage monkey seems like an utter c**t. Here is a quote from his twitter.

"I say f*** hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba".

Surely he should get the sack for spouting such bile.

[The Naitch]

Bubba the Love Sponge - TNAs new backstage monkey seems like an utter c**t. Here is a quote from his twitter.

"I say f*** hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba".

Surely he should get the sack for spouting such bile.

Seems like he's just being controversial for the sake of it. Poor form.

[RussellV1]

http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/item/1701-uk-fans-important-info-on-sundays-genesis

UK Fans: Scheduling Change For Broadcast Of Genesis PPV In The UK

TNA Wrestling’s January 17th pay-per-view “Genesis” will be available in the UK starting at 3 PM Monday, January 18 on BT Vision.

The program will be available to all BT Vision customers. BT Vision is BT’s broadband IPTV service.

[The Naitch]

http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/item/1701-uk-fans-important-info-on-sundays-genesis

... and that is pretty good use of the media partnership they have over here. Just a pity that Sky customer's can't see it 'til Wednesday night.

[The Naitch]

Does anyone know the score with Genesis this week? I've looked on the Sky guide for both Bravo and Bravo 2 but I can't see it on there. Has it gone to another channel, or even Sky box office. There's no way I'm going to pay for a TNA PPV if that is the case!

http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/item/1701-uk-fans-important-info-on-sundays-genesis

I've just clocked what Sherrif John said there... he's right - there is NO sign of the PPV being on Bravo/Bravo 2/Virgin etc this coming weeks so it looks like that BT Vision coverage posted above is the ONLY coverage of the PPV on telly. Poor form.

i'm sure it'll be online soon enough anyway.

[The Naitch]

Done a little more digging re TNA's PPVs...

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/116036/TNA-Genesis-now-an-online-PPV

Who is going to pay that much to watch it live? Online streams aren't great at the best of times so I'm not sure how many they expect to shell out for that.

The BT Vision deal looks to be a more permanent thing (they're showing Impact on demand as well) so that means neither Sky or Virgin customers will be able to see TNA PPV for the forseeable future.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

The state has added another charge to Jeff Hardy's case, that being a felony charge of conspiracy to traffic in opium, related to the valium . Hardy will go to trial on March 17th in Moore County, North Carolina

[DomDom]

Who is going to pay that much to watch it live? Online streams aren't great at the best of times so I'm not sure how many they expect to shell out for that.

The BT Vision deal looks to be a more permanent thing (they're showing Impact on demand as well) so that means neither Sky or Virgin customers will be able to see TNA PPV for the forseeable future.

TNA doing something completely counter productive ? Imagine, of all of the companies in the UK you can freeze out of watching the biggest PPV TNA have done in yonks, they freeze out Sky and Virgin Media.

Well done TNA. Good play.

[DomDom]

Dragon Gate Dead or Alive 2009 PPV

Decided to watch this, since the card from bottom to top looks like it has some right potential.

Akira Tozawa, Kenshin Chikano, Anthony W. Mori vs. RYOMA, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson

Nick and Matt are The Young Bucks, who are in turn Generation Me, who faced MCMG on Impact and made them look like the most bog standard tag team ever. The rest of these guys are just Dragon Gate alumni, although the team of Young Bucks and RYOMA represent Warrior-5. OO !!! The match starts like a basic Japanese young guys match where everything is kept simple and then all of a sudden The Young Bucks pull out all sorts of silly tag team moves which have you thinking "YUSS !" and then it suddenly becomes some crazy spotfest. Kenshin Chikano was particularly fun here, intense and screaming any time he could be. Good opener. ***1/2

Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa vs. Syachihoko Machine vs. Jackson Florida

This would be the comedy section of the show. Stalker Ichikawa sees fit to become "T-4" for the night, bringing out an older model of The Terminator, complete with the T-2 theme music, just for clarity. There's some right moments of comedic gold here. Jackson Florida is the highlight of the match with his "leg injury" and his selling of it. The main highlight being when he gets whipped into the corner, but he doesn't reach it, kiels over and ends up on the floor. The use of The Terminator is pretty disappointing, but then again, I'm not sure what they could have done. The wrestling was horrible, but that wasn't the point of a match like this. It was entertaining at times, if a little bit muddled. **1/2

Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii vs. Naoki Tanisaki, Super Shenlong

This is basically old guys vs. young guys. Masaaki and Fujii are just BRUTAL to watch. Shenlong is the main story of the match though as he unmasks much in the way that Misawa done, except the heels just continue to murder the poor wee guy. I guess unmasking wasn't as big as you thought kid ! Fujii and Masaaki are brilliant here as the pissed off veterans and the entire time they are beating down the poor Shenlong, you get some real enjoyment from it. Infact, when the babyfaces come back into it, the match loses all of it's life. Which is a shame, because Tanisaki in particular is a brilliant talent. It's a fun match but had more potential. **3/4

KAGETORA vs. Shingo Takagi vs. Masato Yoshino vs. Cyber Kong

Now. This is more like it. Elimination rules here. Cyber Kong is the biggest man in the match, and to represent this, he has painted a ripped body onto himself as always. The opening minutes of this match as awkward as hell. Once we get to the point with Cyber and Yoshino spending a lot of time in the ring, it starts to get better. Much better. This match features the best Tower of Doom move I've seen. The final exchanges of this match are extraordinary and make one of the guys involved look like an absolute hero. There is some real tension and drama in this one. Definately lived up to what I expected. ****1/2

YAMATO vs. BxB Hulk

These two guys had the first ever Dragon Gate USA PPV match. Selling issues aside, that one was superb. We see a buildup video for this which makes this look like a HUGE match. It's Darkside Hulk tonight. Good grief, YAMATO has fucked up big time. It takes a long time for this match to really get going, but both guys seemed determined to tell their story in their own time. Darkside Hulk is an eerie, violent and horrible man. Which might explain the crowd being a bit hesitant to cheer him. This is NOT the fun loving BxB Hulk we all know and love. The selling makes sense here as he takes a LONG time to recover from injuries before going too mental with the offense. It's a shame that, despite all of this, for the most part this match simply does not click. Could have been better. **

I'll do the second half of the show later, which includes Akebono, the man who faced The Big Show in a Sumo Match. Dunno what he's doing in Dragon Gate.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I know TNA on UK telly has come a long way since the days of The Wrestling Channel, but it is still very amateurish in places.

It is great that we get Impact only 2 days after the States but whenever Impact is a 3 hour special in the States we get shafted with a cut down 2 hour version - I can't imagine Sky only showing 2 hours of a 3 hour Raw.

Also this situation with the PPVs is embarassing for TNA, I realise we wouldn't get free PPVs forever, but for them to only show them on a TV service that a miniscule proportion of the UK receive is madness. What next? TNA Lockdown live and exclusive on Ceefax!

Surely the most important thing for a growing wrestling organisation is to make your product available to as many people as possible? The WWF realised this in the early days of Sky and within a couple of years the WWF sold out Wembley Stadium.

Hopefully the suits at TNA get this sorted as soon as or else TNA will become an absolute non-entity in this Country.

[Denji]

Can I watch the latest TNA online anywhere? Had a look myself but don't really know what date to search for as I don't know when it's actually on.

[DomDom]

Look for TNAWrestling on YouTube because the official YouTube site has the last two episodes of Impact, which is basically the start of the new era.

It is great that we get Impact only 2 days after the States but whenever Impact is a 3 hour special in the States we get shafted with a cut down 2 hour version - I can't imagine Sky only showing 2 hours of a 3 hour Raw.

I don't think that TNA had the 3 hour specials in mind when they cut the deal with Bravo, so I don't think they can be blamed for that, and in fairness to them, they did make sure we could see the 3 hour special.

Also this situation with the PPVs is embarassing for TNA, I realise we wouldn't get free PPVs forever, but for them to only show them on a TV service that a miniscule proportion of the UK receive is madness. What next? TNA Lockdown live and exclusive on Ceefax!

I don't see why we couldn't get them forever to be honest. TNA are about to find out why that's the case. How many people in their right mind are actually gonna buy TNA PPVs ? Who cares enough about what they do to consider paying money for it on TV ? This is a cock up of a monumental size that you could only really get from TNA.

WWE have done everything right with their TV deal and also their PPV deal has worked well and has been worked in over a long number of years. UFC did a great thing getting their deal with ESPN and when it looked like one of their biggest shows wouldn't reach a wide UK audience ? They made sure it did. TNA seem to be doing everything in their power to f**k their UK audience over. As I've always said. Bush league.

[RussellV1]

From PWInsider.com

Say goodbye to the six-sided ring. TNA has a traditional four-sided ring set up in the Impact Zone for tonight's Genesis PPV.

TNA had been using the six-sided ring since debuting at Universal Studios in May 2004 for their first Impact taping.

Seems like a change just for the sake of it to me

[DomDom]

Nah. Hogan HATED the Six Sided Ring. He was gonna change it for Impact, but decided to do it at the PPV. He had the same reaction to the Steel Asylum.

The original change to six sides was a change for the sake of it anyways.

[The Naitch]

Nah. Hogan HATED the Six Sided Ring. He was gonna change it for Impact, but decided to do it at the PPV. He had the same reaction to the Steel Asylum.

The original change to six sides was a change for the sake of it anyways.

Yep, Hogan has never been a fan of the six-sided ring so it's good to see he's put his foot down on this one and got it back to a 4-sided ring.

[djchapsticks]

Bubba the Love Sponge - TNAs new backstage monkey seems like an utter c**t. Here is a quote from his twitter.

"I say f*** hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba".

Surely he should get the sack for spouting such bile.

He is an utter w****r.

The fact that every time he has Hogan on his radio show he does nothing but figuratively tounge Hulk's old wrinkly ringpiece. I mean there is marking out for someone and there is Bubba with Hogan.

But then Hogan loves being around these fannies who'll tell him all day and night that he's the greatest thing to ever happen to Wrestling and it's a much shittier place without him, he feeds off it, and Bubba just amps it up more than any others. Hogan is an egocentric cock of the highest order and always will be.