This almost belongs in entertainment news at this point.

I think I'm going to exalt all three of you.

I think Tyson Dux looks just like Henry Rollins.

Matt Hardy is the US champ. He beat MVP for the belt

It was not an unreasonable mistake to make. In looking for an image of Hennig to compare I came across a 411 thread where someone did the exact same thing you did. Found that post with images that said Hennig debuts, saw the guy who kinda looks like Hennig, and presumed that was him. Thread went about 20 posts with a dozen posters before someone stepped in and made the Nemeth/Hennig correction. So really, it was an honest mistake to make. Someone says "Hennig debuts" and posts an image of a guy who looks like Perfect... makes sense.

Dibiase and Hennig have tagged together quite a bit on the indies. Ted's also teamed with his brother Mike. So I really do think there's a ton of options for WWE with that role and I think its why everyone is so interested in the 2nd Generation stable idea. Ted Dibiase, Mike Dibiase, Rhodes, Afa, Deuce, Smith, Jesse. There's just so many of them on WWE's payroll at the moment that there's a lot of interesting ways they can go.

Mike Dibiase and Joe Hennig are new to the WWE Developmental system, though. So I think there's a real chance that they're too green for even WWE to throw out there. If I remember correctly Hennig hasn't even been wrestling that long. I'm not sure Ted Jr has been in WWE's system too long either, though.

I'm pretty sure Afa's already doing a basic Samoan tribal stereotype. There was a time awhile back when he was tagging with Eric Perez and Sonny Siaki as Urban Assault who were basically a complete ripoff of LAX back when LAX first hit huge and had the industry talking. Then Siaki and Afa turned on Perez and formed the Samoan Fight Club which called on the old island images but from what I saw was a fairly straightforward pair of fighters. Then Siaki left WWE/OVW and Afa got teamed with his cousin (or whatever) Rosey as the Sons of Samoa. So my impression has been that since he first showed up in WWE's developmentals they've slowly turned him more and more into the traditional Samoan character.

Personally part of me says we should just embrace the stereotype, give it to Deuce and form a Sons of Samoa stable with Afa, Deuce, and Umaga.

I don't like Jericho there for 2 reasons. (1) I think a face works better as the grizzled vet and guy who people are tested against. Not to mention being a fan favorite, especially playing off of the ECW cred (which Jericho has but wouldn't be able to capitalize on as a heel). Plus, ECW's always had plenty of heels and has decent collection of them at the moment. Bringing a kid and making him cocky or grabbing some underused guy and making him bitter is much easier to play off the over face than it is to get a face over against a heel, IMO. (2)I really am hoping that some of these ideas that we've been tossing around come to pass on RAW. And even if none of them do WWE are just the biggest fucking morons on the planet if they plug Jericho into the best story in WWE with Batista/HBK, turn him heel in a great way, and have him do a number on Cena/HHH... only to pack his ass off to fucking ECW. I mean sending him to SD would be stupid since you couldn't properly captialize on this stuff but ECW? I'm looking for a guy who has nothing happening in WWE and can be a good hand. Jericho could certainly fit that category but he has too much going for him right now.

Hardy I do think fits but I also think the best place for him at the moment might be SD. ECW title isn't any better than the IC title so it does no good for him in that regard (while Rey could easily vie for the IC or US but hasn't won either to the best of my knowledge). I do think WWE could give him a shot at the SD title. I like the idea of Edge and Matt play even if its not original. And basically I just think he has stuff he can do on SD while Rey has already done everything he can do there as he's spent his entire WWE career on that brand, and a move would be nice.

I've only been able to catch Impact it bits and pieces these last several months, but I just watched my tape of it fromlast week and damned if you guys weren't right about it being a great show. Plenty of wrestling (and good wrestling at that). I'll even overlook the BS of the Roode/Storm vs LAX match (since when was a manager ever able to convince a ref to restart a match?)

Also, since I've been watching in bits and pieces, I haven't seen Sonjay in months. Holy shit, is that guy juicing or what? 6 months ago he looked like he was 150 lbs soaking wet with a brick in his tights. Now look at him.

Haha, you seen the new one that David Cook recorded? Too funny.

TEX! Welcome back!

This is strue. Steroids are used by such a wide demographic that it's impossible to pinpoint just who is on the gas and who is not. On the other hand, there are nautral guys who look like they're hooked up to an anabolic IV 24/7.

The bottom line is that anyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, what line of work they're in etc., can be a user. It doesn't matter how big or small they are: if they look to be in above-average shape, there's a chance that they are using or have used in the past.

Recap up.

Gee, great ECW lineup

looks like it's


for me.

Even though the Game 3 fix is likely already in.

Wow. That show had Khali, Vickie, Kozlov, the introduction of a 2nd women's title where half of the competitors suck, Batista overacting, Mark Henry, Hornswoggle, some dude related to Jimmy Kimmel wrestling, and Colin Delaney. I don't think there was 1 thing I liked about that show. That's impressive, even by RAW standards.

AND WWE's bookers screwed with my sense of logic because they treated 2 former CW champs as pathetic jobbers... but they are jobbers... but they were WWE champions and current WWE wrestlers... and Foley agreed with me... my head hurts.

Haha, I'll tell you what... I'll give you the Future Mrs. Demko's cellphone number. If you can convince her that we should invite you, we'll do it. I think it'll probably involve you paying $100 or so cover at the door, though. LOL

I KNOW! Fuckin' TNA only pushes former WWE guys like Angle, Christian, Booker and Kazarian. Its total bullshit.

He's 35. And in a world where your two world champions are 34 and 38, your IC and US champions are 37 and 33, 35 isn't that big of a deal. He could have a good 5-10 years of real quality matches in him.

and all is right with the world

Swinging leg hook fireman's carry slam

See, the thing is that you've enjoyed WWE's current/recent product a lot longer than folks like me and Dev. And you have much more faith in WWE than us. So you're content believing that the turning point and the change may be just around the corner and if we just have some patience we might see a change.

Me? JR telling me things are going to change means nothing because he's said stuff like that before. The emergence of some new talent means nothing because I've seen new talent debut and nothing come of it (Hell, I saw it with Burchill). The potentially increased focus on tag teams means nothing to me because I've seen this before and it faltered away because WWE would break up a team (Murdoch & Cade) or two (Rhodes & Holly?) when creating a new one (Dibiase & Rhodes?). The Draft doesn't give me any hope because I've seen it fail and I know that in years past WWE has saw it only as a means to give their top guys new cannon fodder. Or nothing more than "rearranging deck chairs..." So while I think Dev's reaction to Kennedy was a bit off because Kennedy is one of the few guys WWE has TRIED to elevate I totally understand where he's coming from. Its frustration because none of this is new. WWE didn't just start getting stale and limited. Its been there for a long time.

Which is where "turning the world upside down" fits. Because its a drastic and CLEAR change that you can't help but have interest in. Hate it, love it, it DEMANDS change. Its drastic. It sends a clear message. Its why WCW "reset" things because they had been stale and fucked up for so damn long that the fans couldn't be convinced that little things meant anything. After all, WCW had elevated Steiner and Jarrett before that, had a really compelling tag division and midcard, and even gave the belt to Benoit for a whole day. But small changes weren't received as real, even by the roster. It took something drastic to make people think WCW might actually change.

Now the New Blood reset was an utter failure but it wasn't because the reset was a bad idea (whether you think it was or wasn't). It was because it was a giant cluster fuck of mistakes. They booked the stale main eventers the fans wanted moved out as the faces and the held back youngsters as the egotistical heels wanting something they didn't deserve. A great core of the held back midcarders that the fans had cried out for left in the prior year so instead of having Benoit, Malenko, Eddie, Saturn, and Jericho ready to step up they had Booker, Kidman, and Vampiro who (Booker aside) didn't have the same momentum and fanbase. And of course they decided it made ANY sense to give the fucking title to a D List actor 1 month in thus killing any hope for change that the WCW audience had.

But it took that drastic act to give people some hope. And quite frankly I think comparing 2007-2008 WWE to 1999-2000 WCW is a pretty fair comparison to make. The only true differences (I think) are that WWE has no true competition and has stable ownership and thus is in no true danger from a business standpoint, where WCW was always fighting WWF and they had ownership that didn't even want them. So for guys like me and Dev small shit is meaningless to us. I'm interested in Burchill, Dibiase, and the Divas on RAW at the moment. But I don't believe that the Women's division will stay at this quality or grow or that the tag division will see any growth or that Burchill will get any kind of sustained push. If all that happens 3 months from now maybe I'll feel different. But WWE has worn us down just like WCW did many from '99-'00 and TNA did many over the last few years and that WWF itself did in the mid '90s that opened the door for WCW.

WM26/2010, or whatever they're gonna call it, is (from what I hear locally) all but announced at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. Of course, with Atlanta having their laws relaxed in terms of wrestling, they might get it over us. So until the announcement is made, I sit with my fingers crossed for 2010.

Now THAT would be awesome.

Add the Iron Shiek and that team has all sorts of potential for awesomeness!

I might even forgive them going up to $50 a pop for the quarterlies, if the stories wind up being good enough. It might help them to regain some of the lost revenue from the lower priced monthlies.

Yeah, KotM isn't a signature side show like Lethal Lockdown. Its supposed to be the big main event of TNA's Summerslam like show. Slammiversary existed (if not in name) before Bound for Glory or Lockdown and KotM has been going longer than any other gimmick match in TNA. Jarrett winning the first one gave him a nickname he carried for years even after other men became "King of the Mountain."

I'm of two minds. Part of me thinks the World Title should be the main event all the time. Its the company's title, it deserves that. Back in the years when the Tag and X titles were treated as World Titles I came to like it when TNA would give them the main event slot when they deserved it and they did it to Kong/Kim for the Women's title awhile back. So in theory I'm not against Angle/AJ getting the main event because it could deserve it.

But the timing don't work here. KotM is established. Joe's establishing himself as champ. And the story SHOULD be where Joe can be the first champ in 5 years to retain the title in KotM. TNA's screwing up IMO not pushing that more. Joe's been kind of storyless the last few weeks because of the nature of the match but they really could have done it with Cornette, Nash, Tenay, and others reminding him that no champ has retained and have him confident he'd be the first. I think it would have been cool to do a segment backstage where AJ, Cage, and Joe are talking. AJ and Cage both grateful that Joe put them in qualifiers also warn Joe that they both went into KotM matches as champs and like everyone else lost. But I think they missed the boat on this one.

Still, the story coming out of KotM should be Joe standing tall as champion doing something that no TNA Champion has accomplished. They're doing a KotM X Division match this Thursday for a shot at the title on the Impact following Slammiversary. Presuming Joe retains at KotM the story going in there is theoretically how Joe as World champ is facing his 7th opponent in 2 months. So putting Joe and KotM in the main event seems to make more sense for the long term than Angle/AJ in the main event will in the short.