I would have flipped the Hulk/Andre match with the HBK/Razor ladder match. Other than that, I think it's a decent list.

Sorry Partner, but that is SO an exalt.

Damn....

From tomboy to that?

Damn ;D

ahhh, side and underboob.

Not as good as full boob, but pretty damn sexxay if you ask me...

On the 13th of September, I went to Glasgow's Kelving Hall for
THE GATHERING: A CALL TO ARMS
The 2008 edition of the wrestling SWA Wrestling event we went to last year. Though they might as well have called it The Pandering: A Call To Xenophobia, as the event was to see "Scotland battle England in the biggest face off Scottish wrestling has had to endure."
So the show was heavy on Scotland vs. England theme, with all the english wrestlers being easy to boo a-holes and most of the scots being easy to cheer, kilt-wearing/Saltire Waving patriots. I do rip on this and some other things a bit, but I will stress I enjoyed myself. Not as much as last year, but there was still some nice stuff, and my pal Iain's enthusiastic (and probably very audible) heckling of the wrestlers was pretty funny.

Britain's Most Wanted defeated The Playaz, The Nattrass Boys and Fight Club V2 (Kid Fite and Red Lightning) in a Gauntlet Match to win the SWA Tag Team Championships.
The Playaz and Britain's Most Wanted were representing Scotland, and the former started firs tagainst the Nattrass Boys. The whole thing was pretty double-team heavy, with the Playaz getting the win with a Death Sentence variant with a stomp of the top rope rather than a legdrop. They then had to face BMW, who were the pretty agile well-coordinated team who took on Fight Club at last years event, having a competitive match that ended with one of them hitting a Celtic Cross for the pin. Then outcame Red Lightning and one half of Fight Club. Both of them are scottish, and the other half of Fight Club refused to wrestle against scotland so Red Lightning decided to step in because they weren't proud to be scottish (BOOOOOO!), but in the end BMW picked up the win and the titles.
Score 1-0 Scotland.

Cruiserweight Triple Threat
Zak Zodiac (English) defeated Liam Thompson(Scottish) and Darkside(Scottish).
Before the match, England's Team Captain Ricky Knight came out to complain about how under-represented England was, and demanded that if Zak Zodiac won, it should be worth 2 points. This was agreed, and while Thompsom and Darkside would often team up on Zodiac, the match got pretty competitive and was won when Zodiac took advantage of Darkside getting dumped out of the ring to counter a sunset flip from Thompson with a sit down pin and grabbing the ropes.
Score 2-1 England.

Ricky Knight and Sweet Saraya (England)vs. Majik and Nikki Storm (Scotland).
Mixed Tag rules here with the men fighting the men and the women fighting the women only. It was also the match that really drove home for the first time, how "this wasn't WWE", or even TNA for that matter. With Ricky Knight looking like this:

Sweet Saraya looking like a bit of a crack addict, and Majick a lankier CM Punk with some of Steve Austin's wardrobe. Nikki Storm was cute, but she looked barely out of her teens and spent most of the match getting beat up. I don't think she got a single offensive move in, and jobbed after Knight got a sneaky legdrop on her.
Score 3-1 England.

Adam Shame defeated Eric Canyon by KO to win the Best of the Best Trophy.
The culmination of a King of the Ring type tournament and the continuation of an apparently epic feud between the "The Paisley Wrecking Machine" and "The Fist" (perhaps over who has the funniest nickname?). This was seperate from the Scotland vs. England thing and probably the best match of the bunch. Canyon tried to start it early into a brawl, and they really sold the animosity throughout, and when the matched spilled out of the ring Canyon did dive off the upper tiers onto Shame and his manager (the guy who was managing Doug Williams last year). The match ended when Canyon got distracted by the manager to allow Shame to hit his Full Nelson slam variant. But both couldn't get up right away and a ten count was started, which Shame only just managed to get up from, giving him the win as Canyon collapsed. BTW, people who complan about Jericho's new look ought to be made to watch an Adam Shame in action in his two-colour shorts.

Lionheart(Scotland) defeated Johnny Moss(England), Falcon(Scotland) and Dave Moralez(England) to win Money in the Bank TLC Match.
Not as good as the ladder match from last year, the spots were a bit sparse, though appropriately big enough when they came. We got a Van Terminator, Sunset Flip Powerbomb into the ladder, a Tombstone off the Apron through the table, Frogsplash off the Ladder, also an Elbow Drop of it two. Those two were comicsl though as the ladder was very wobbly so anytime someone wanted to come off it, they had to have the ringhands and refs hold it steady for them. Also the ring was so small and the case hanging so low that even when the ladder was in the corner, it would swing right in front of their face and they had to bat it out of the way to hit their move! There was also an earlier table spot I missed because Johnny Moss was distracting me as he oversold being cut open. Also, as appropriate as having high-flier types Lionheart and Falcon in this match was, I have to wonder about the roly-poly Moralez being included.
Score 3-2 England.

The Raging Bull(Scotland) deated Donny Bull(England) by DQ.
The Superheavy Weight (read: fatty) match. What was weird was Raging Bull was pretty much a normal guy from the chest up, it didn't really match his lower portion. Made it look like he was wearing a fatsuit a bit. Anyway, bit of a snoozy brawl. Funny moment when Raging Bull did an Angle Slam, but it put his back out. When he started to make a comeback, Donny Bull lowblowed him for some reason, causing DQ.
Score 3-3.

Wolfgang (Scotland) defeated Martin Stone (England) to retain the NWA Scottish Heavyweight Championship.
Wolfgang went for the Pandering trifecta I believe. A kilt, some Scottish Flags, AND a Live Bagpipe Entrance Theme! After a pretty good main event with a nice moment when the crowd started singing Flower of Scotland, Wolfgang pulled out the win after being the on the defensive so long with a rollup.
Final Score : Scotland 4-3 England.

After the match, Stone started beating on Wolfgang(humorously, the SWA Lockeroom were visible at the back of the crowd near the backstage area since the main event, watching this without wanting to do anything about it), until Lionheart did a walk-briskly-while-holding-your-stomache-in, somehow scaring off Stone, only to immediately cash in his Title Shot from the Ladder match to hit a Frogsplash on Wolfgang and to become the NEW SWA Scottish Champion (of the World?).
Both lockerooms came out, and Wolfgang said there was no hard feelings, but he'd be coming back for the title eventually. We were also prompted to give the English Lockeroom an ovation so we did. Wolfgang then awkwardly sheathed a sword the winning team received in his shorts and vaguely threatened to use it on one of the english wrestlers who started something.
So overall a fun, if not blow-away evening. I've found out SWA are doing an "adults only" more extreme rules thing in october, so that might be good. And it's in a nightclub, which should be an experience...

You know, no...he did not. I had expected him to be 'in character,' and he was maybe a little bit, but he actually came off as very down to earth. He talked about wanting to move back to Southern California, which he is doing soon. That'll make my stalking of him a bit difficult....

Oh, he also talked about OVW (he's apparently been living in Louisville all this time... SO CLOSE!), explaining how it's like minor leagues in baseball, and then when they have an idea for you, then you get the big time. He made some character-ish jokes with the DJs, but was basically fairly normal sounding.

TNA did this with Slammiversary or Lockdown and is doing it again with Bound For Glory. They put a bunch of past BFG matches on Youtube for free viewing.

World Title Match (Kurt Angle vs. Sting - 2007)
Tables Match (The Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D - 2007)
Ultimate X Match (The LAX vs. Triple X - 2007)
World Title Match (Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting - 2006)
8 Mile Street Fight (Christian Cage vs. Rhino - 2006)
Six Sides Of Steel (The LAX vs. AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels - 2006)
X Championship (Chris Sabin vs. Senshi - 2006)
Monster's Ball (Abyss vs. Rhino vs. Sabu vs. Jeff Hardy - Bound For Glory 2005)
World Title Match (Jeff Jarrett vs. Rhino - Bound For Glory 2005)

LAX vs Styles/Daniels and LAX vs XXX are the standouts to me. Great teams in a cage and Ultimate X.


If you like something else you can find the matches on TNA's Youtube page, although you'll have to look around or search a bit. Or TNA has a bunch of them easily linked.
www.tnawrestling.com/content/view/909/84/
www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=TNAwrestling&page=3



And a very Daizee Haze centric ROH Video Wire.

For that? Hell fucking yes I would.

This is truly a dark day in TNA history

Rap is Crap was Curt Hennig, with Barry and Kendall Windham and Bobby Duncum Jr.

Yep. 20 or so years of dealing with this stuff, that's usually the way it works out.

Foley fat? He seemed so trim on Robot Wars!

isn't that the point in wrestling?

Gametrailers did an episode on the TNA Game and Suicide is talked about:
www.gametrailers.com/gametrailerstv_player.php?ep=37&ch=1&sd=1

Sounds like job for Bulldog...

NICELYDONE! Exalt.

Yeah, I'd heard that they decided to take him off life support. I didn't think it would happen so fast, though. What a great loss to the wrestling community. Not the nicest guy in the world, from what I've heard, but one of the best trainers there ever was.

i had pretty good seats to this , only they were about 20ft back but sill on the floor

ok, I think I fixed it


And I am not trying to be a dick or anything, I should have tagged it with the spoilers. Just trying to have a little fun with the edited posts here, so no one get all worked up

Cena won't job to an exploding gas station, but jobs to a little neck injury.

[glow=pink,12,300]Pussy.[/glow]

I attended the SD/ECW show in Pittsburgh. I was sitting behind the announcers (and the Steelers players).

Dark Matches:

FCW's "Generic" Jake Hager d. Jamie Noble. Noble was helped to the back afterwards.

Funaki d. FCW's Nic Nemeth. Nic is looking more and more like Billy Gunn by the day.

Before we go "on air" a set is quickly assembled. Grish and Striker hit the announce table and off we go!

ECW 9/2:

Dirt Sheet opens the show, where Miz and Morrison talk about the ECW title scramble. Miz brags about how he'll be champion and Morrison apologizes to his fans. They introduce the rest of the participants to the scramble, playing it straight for Mark Henry, but then two of them "Sing" his entrance music. They claim that Finlay's not in the building and cut to his "Brothers" (Charles Robinson and someone else) who are supposedly at a pub telling drunken stories about him. Finlay and Hornswoggle do come out after a bit, and arent' all that amused. Matt Hardy comes out to a huge pop and from here we have a lot of words exchanged. Brawl breaks out, Evan Bourne and tommy Dreamer get involved and the faces clean house.

after they get teh Dirt Sheet set torn down, the Titantron shows that hostilities are still a-brewin in the back. Teddy Long breaks it up and announces the main event- an 8-man tag match (Henry/Chavo/Morrison/Miz v. Finlay/Bourne/Dreamer/Hardy).

Super Crazy d. Gavin Spears. Crowd wasn't really into it.

Ricky Ortiz d. Ryan Braddock. Their new ref (he's going under another name than his OVW name "Goose" Mahoney) made this a developmental match. We tried to start an "FCW FCW" chant. Towels were passed out to the floor cameraside section for Ricky. Ortiz wins on the "Big O" splash.

8-man tag was fun, ending with all the faces attacking Henry (including the SSP and Hardy actually landing the Twist of Fate). Crowd went bonkers for this. Faces celebrate, then Hornswoggle gets a few little kids to come into the ring with him. This leads to Finlay, Tommy and Evan joining in on the fun. (this will likely not be aired)

Chimmel and Charles Robinson come out to chase the kids away so they can swap out the ropes and aprons for SD.

Ross and Tazz head for the announce table.

SD

Undertaker opens the show with a full entrance. He has a microphone where he talks about how Vickie Guererro has doomed herself because of recent events. He tells her she will "Burn... in... hell". He drops to a knee in Tribute and the ringposts erupt in flames.

R-Truth debuts against Kenny Dykstra, who comes out with a mic and whines that he can't even get on TV. Truth clobbers Kenny to shut him up.

On the Titantron we see Vickie in her office, apparently panicked at Undertaker's words. The phone in her office doesn't work and she flings it at a wall..... conveniently hitting a framed enlargment of a WWE magazine cover (which, big surprise, has Taker on the cover). This only unnerves Vickie further.

We cut elsewhere backstage, where Maryse interrupts Michelle McCool in the middle of a photoshoot (where Michelle is posing with the Butterfly belt). Mean words are exchanged.

Divas tag: McCool/Maria v. Maryse/Natalya. Match seems to end pretty quick when Maria looks like she's knocked out. Not sure if this was the actual finish or not.

Summerslam rematch: Jeff Hardy v. MVP. I think this is the first time I've actually sat somewhere where I could get a look at them assembling MVP's tunnel. Good match, slow start because of MVP's heel stalling. Jeff falls on a Whisper in the Wind attempt, that might get edited out. Jeff wins again on a Swanton bomb. Afterward, Shelton Benjamin comes down and lands the Paydirt (his Codebreaker DDT) on both of them.

Jesse/festus v. the Clones is interrupted by the Big show, who apologizes and calls his little run-in an "oversight" on his part. "My bad."

Backstage, Vickie continues to panic, but again, she says nothing.

Victoria is taken out by new SD Diva Brue(?) Bella. ms. Bella got the match to spill out of the ring and they went under the ring... where I'm sure the other Bella came out with Victoria and got the pin.
(referring to the Bella twins from FCW)

We cut to backstage where The Brian Kendrick talks about his preparations for the Championship scramble. He mentioned that he and Zeke are getting mentally prepared for the match. Kendrick holds up a hardcover copy of The Art of War. . Zeke is seated nearby, methodically pouring over.... Cat in the Hat ? Kendrick doesn't seem to notice.

Main Event: Triple H v. Shelton Benjamin. Pretty even matchup, and eventually Khali comes out to try to distract them. Hunter is not swayed; in fact, he pedigrees Shelton as a warning to Khali. Once he has the match won, he dares Khali to hit the ring. khali gets in there eventually, but HHH has forgotten about shelton, who hits him from behind with the US title. Khali is then free to flatten HHH with a chokebomb as we go off the air.

After the cameras stop rolling, Triple H grabs a mic and taunts Khali back into the ring for a "Pittsburgh Street Fight". The only weapon involved was the sledgehammer - which flattened Khali for the win.

not a bad show, crowd was a little flat. Arena was mostly full.

I third or fourth the exalt for Sal.

Does it make me a bad person that I sorta want to see fire wielding dominatrix Gail?