[creepy]

I gotta agree with Serg here. Joe was so gung ho about fighting at the begining of the show, but as soon as Angle shows up he kinda looks like a pussy for not being around. Cage wanted some fight and he showed, but where was Rhyno? I can see LAX holding off, though. That made sense.

Two show ending beat downs in a row? Shouldn't next weeks show end with a beatdown so you pay for the revenge if you want to see it? So 3 show ending beat downs in a row? C'mon......

And Nash's turn on Joe will seem way to predictable. I hope Joe still keeps it in his first true test.

[Lucky]

Joe has no beef with Angle, though. His fight is with Booker. And the only problem he has with Booker is that Booker's been talking shit and they're facing off in KotM. But Cage talked shit and he's facing him too. So he's got no dog in that particular fight. Neither side has a friend of his and both sides have an enemy. Like I said, I think his inclusion in the opening segments was stranger than his absence from the closing.

LAX DID have a fight there. Team 3D and Booker beat them down so while they don't necessarily have any reason to aid AJ and Christian, they do have a reason to want to take out the "Bad Guys."

Rhino's just an asshole apparently.

[creepy]

With Lax not coming out seemed like a smart tweener move. They got called out to open the show, then attack when Christian, Rhyno and Joe attack Booker and 3D. But when you add Tomko and Kurt and subtract Rhyno and Joe from a beatdown AJ and Christian, it just seems logical that they would stand down. Joe, though, told Booker at the beginning that here he was, so let's fight! (C'mon, LAX and Xtian/Rhyno!)


To me, LAX staying away made them look smart and cunning while staying away made Joe look like a puss after he called out Booker earlier. But I guess Joe could say the same thing LAX did: "That's a sure beatdown. Fuck it."

[Lucky]

Joe's as much of a tweener as LAX, though. And he has less of a reason to want a fight than LAX do. LAX got their asses beatdown by Team 3D/Booker. Joe got called fat. So I don't get why LAX are smart and Joe is a coward. Especially when LAX initially challenged Team 3D/Booker before Cage, Rhino, and Joe showed up and thus they were outnumbered. LAX seemed ok with an uneven fight just to get revenge.

I'm basically ok with saying both LAX and Joe are tweeners who said "This is a losing fight and I don't care about AJ or Christian, so fuck it." I just don't get how if you single out one of them as being cowards for not jumping into the fight you pick the one who has no good reason to fight.

[creepy]

I guess It's because I got stereotypes on the mind. Samoans are ass beaters. Latinos look for an edge.

I guess I figure Joe should back up his "I'll fight you anytime, anywhere, any situation" meantality and bravado. LAX seem to be smarter at picking their shots.


But you're right. Ultimately they're both tweeners, so what's good for one should be good for the other.

[franklloydwright]

I give TNA a 1 for not having Joe or LAX come out for the save. But I give them a 10 for avoiding the obvious. WWE could use some of that thinking.

[Batman]

I think the real question is, why are Team 3D and Booker still working with Angle and Tomko? They had a reason to last week: AJ was Booker's obstacle to get into the KOTM. But this week, there's no reason for Booker to help Tomko--Tomko is going to be one of his obstacles at the PPV, AJ's a non-issue for him now.

If Booker and Team3D hadn't been out there, or if they hadn't done the opening segment the way they did, it wouldn't necessarily have been a problem for Joe and LAX to say "fuck those two guys." But the way they did it, it looks like Joe's ducking Booker and LAX is ducking Team 3D.

Now, Rhino on the other hand could have had really interesting reasons not to have made the save. If he and Christian are still bffs next week like nothing happened, that would be stupid. But Rhino could say something like: "What the hell were you doing out there? One of the main reasons I settled our past differences was because we agreed on one thing: we both hated AJ. Besides, on Sunday you're going to be an obstacle. Something that weakens you isn't bad for me."

That would be cool.


In other news, Kong's victim this week had a real nice set of headlights....

[Lucky]

I don't know, Serg. You and I seem strangely at completely opposite ends where you think Rhino is the easiest to swallow and Joe the toughest. I'm totally the other way. I mean, I see what you're saying about Rhino but his character IS a guy who (a) is supposed to be Christian's friend, (b) is Christian's tag partner, (c) had enough of a problem with the bad guys to come out and charge the ring at the start of the show, and (d) is a face that has come out to defend other faces in the past. LAX and Joe aren't most of those things. But meh. I agree that it was awkward the way it was done when you look at the two segments on the show. The absence of Joe, LAX, and Rhino was VERY noticeable and the repeating the beatdown that was so awesome last week just felt unnecessary.

Tomko didn't qualify for KotM, Cage did. So at the moment Tomko, Booker, and Angle don't conflict at all. Angle's got AJ, Tomko's out of KotM, and Booker's in. So I have no problem with them working together. Tomko and Angle have a mutual enemy in AJ and Team 3D and Booker got jumped by AJ at the start of Impact. So it stands to reason that they'll want more licks. Plus they're heels with egos so they're just annoyed that he's standing up to them, and they have the numbers so fuck it. Why not?

If this grouping of heels sticks together after Slammiversary I'm gonna be kind of annoyed. Tomko, Booker, and Angle are too much to be together it seems. Tomko allying with Angle in the first place was kind of iffy because he made such a big deal about setting out as his own man from Cage. But he got the tag belts with AJ so he had a different goal than Angle. But if they're all singles then they're all basically on the same path. Someone may be sidetracked by a grudge but in the end its going to come back to KotM or a Gauntlet or something. The Title. So that these guys kind of just came together because of AJ shouldn't really keep them together past a few weeks, right?

[Batman]

May 30, 2008 17:31:24 GMT -5 Lucky said:

I don't know, Serg. You and I seem strangely at completely opposite ends where you think Rhino is the easiest to swallow and Joe the toughest. I'm totally the other way.

Nah, I don't really disagree with you about that. You're right, Rhino was the only one who actually had a tag-team partner getting beat down. All I was saying is that they could actually choose to acknowledge that fact next week and there are interesting directions that they could potentially go from there. Or they could just sweep it under the rug, and that would suck.

Tomko didn't qualify for KotM, Cage did. So at the moment Tomko, Booker, and Angle don't conflict at all.

Damn. My mistake.

Angle's got AJ, Tomko's out of KotM, and Booker's in. So I have no problem with them working together. Tomko and Angle have a mutual enemy in AJ and Team 3D and Booker got jumped by AJ at the start of Impact. So it stands to reason that they'll want more licks. Plus they're heels with egos so they're just annoyed that he's standing up to them, and they have the numbers so fuck it. Why not?

There's just one reason Booker and the Dudz shouldn't be wasting their time on AJ: Because they ought to be concentrating on LAX and Joe.

[Lucky]

Eh, its not like they haven't attacked them. I mean does running out during the main event segment to attack AJ take away from beating up on LAX and Joe? Is the idea that they should use that time back there beating them up? One could argue that they could use the AJ beatdown to lure the

Which probably brings us to the simplest reason the 5 of them are working together. Numbers. Ok, Booker and the Dudleyz don't really have anything against AJ. But fuck it. Beating him down means Tomko and Angle owe you. And if that means you got numbers when LAX or Joe come calling? Good. Its just basic heel mentality to me. Now when their egos start to conflict or their goals conflict? Then I think they should break down real quick. But TNA's always been big on heels working together when there was no reason for them not to. Roode's sort of made a career off of that since he left Team Canada since he's never been officially allied with anyone but he has worked with Storm, Angle, Tomko, AJ, VKM, Steiner, and probably others I'm forgetting. If they got mutual enemies or if its potentially beneficial, why the hell not? Its not like jumping AJ means you can't jump LAX too (because they did both last week).

Now of course a bunch of heels ally against individual faces and the natural story is that the faces are forced to ally to fend off the threat. Or that the egos with the heel group clash and it breaks down. But that's what makes them heels. As far as I'm concerned this isn't a group until they have a single entrance or until they last after Slammiversary. Until then its like the Roode, Storm, and Kip alliance that was around a month ago. Or that Joe, Nash, and Cage alliance that formed briefly for a purpose. TNA just likes to book heels working together to get an advantage and faces being forced to join together.

Of course TNA also likes to book monster heel stables, so I'm waiting.

[Batman]

True. My point was just that if they had Booker and the Duds concentrating on Joe and LAX and not helping beat up AJ, we wouldn't have to wonder why Joe and LAX weren't coming out to get their licks in on them, y'know?

[Lucky]

Yeah, I get it. It was very busy and there were a shit load of parts. I mean, 10 different wrestlers in the opening segment making 5 separate entrances without Angle and Tomko even involved. Lots of random parts going in lots of directions and then it didn't play out as expected in the end. It was a mess to diagram.

[Mr. Dashbee]

Do we know the identity of the crowd victim "Leva Baes"? 'Cause I'm pretty sure she's in this picture yet again...

[Batman]

I don't know. Victim #2 has the same straight black hair as bottom row 3rd from the left.... Maybe she got implants since that picture was taken? If so, compliments to the surgeon, those are niiiice.

[Byrntrigan]

Nah Serg, she's the chic 3rd from the left on the bottom. And I agree, she and her tits are nice.

[Byrntrigan]

Huraay for me being a moron and not really understanding that Serg and I agree. Oh well, going back to my corner now.

[jetskid48]

May 30, 2008 14:34:23 GMT -5 Lucky said:

It almost makes me think Morgan, Abyss, or Sting return next week to save the faces and take on Tomko at Slammiversary. But they basically had make the faces look weird this week when you look at the opening and ending of Impact.

Lets see...they may need to set up something quick to get Tomko on the card...

PPVs in Memphis...

How about....Jeff Jarrett?




By the way, is it completely crazy to think that if Angle is healthy enough, that AJ/Angle should probably be the main event on the card? The KotM is the star match of the night, but with only one real guy who has a chance at winning the championship from Joe (Booker) doesn't it seem like the Styles/Angle stuff is more important to fans and has been carrying as much, or more importance in the programs the last few weeks?

[Byrntrigan]

I don't know, I think it would work better as the semi-main. I really don't think this will be the blowoff for this feud. Remember this is TNA, no feud is blown off in 1 match

Plus, Joe needs to continue his dominance in the ME scene and having him not be the last image of the PPV holding up his belt being the ONLY champion to come out of KotM.

[Lucky]

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.