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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 21, 2012 17:55:21 GMT -5
{Spoiler}According to PWInsider, {Spoiler}Mike Knox was one of the members on Thursday. So was D-Lo Brown, but he was just a placeholder, they have been rotating the guys under the masks to throw people off the scent of the members. Think it's safe to say that {Spoiler}Wes Brisco (the long haired blond one) will definitely be one of the dudes. I hope these guys are in the final group...they will be pretty awesome and fresh additions if given completely new characters and a push. EDIT: sorry for not tagging it spoilers. The first one mentioned was NEWZ, the others were mentioned on this thread.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 10, 2011 22:39:36 GMT -5
Seriously. When he was around all I kept hearing was, "Don West is terrible!" Now he's gone and everyone wants him back. You don't know how much you love something till its gone. Haha at all this Don West stuff. This week, I went back and watched the Unbreakable AJ/Daniels/Joe match, and I was shocked, finding myself thinking..."I can't BELIEVE how much better this is with Don West". I always hated Don West on commentary. He's much better than Taz.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 10, 2011 22:31:16 GMT -5
I thought it was weird that an unknown, underdog babyface would come out wearing a fur coat, looking like a total heel.
I thought that was stupid on the part of Haskins. Not the time or place to be looking like a MNM-like heel.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 10, 2011 22:27:13 GMT -5
I honestly hate that TNA is making a Dudley breakup work better than WWE could. Yep. And I can't stand how both guys look like they've lost 40 pounds since having to work as singles wrestlers. Good for them, but talk about coasting on name recognition. If they both would've tried that hard to evolve their characters and get into shape when they were Team 3D, their act wouldn't have gotten stale years ago.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 10, 2011 22:19:11 GMT -5
I was thinking during the PPV that Angle & Beer Money were actually the only TNA talents I actually kinda missed seeing during the PPV.
You could have the guys who competed during Destination X as the entire TNA roster, plus Angle, Beer Money, Pope, Morgan, and Jarrett and be just fine. Abyss & Morgan would actually stand out more working with that roster.
I'd bet they'd get the same TV ratings, and probably better PPV numbers because people would know they'll always get good matches.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 10, 2011 18:35:52 GMT -5
The "Razor" & "Diesel" WCW invasion angle was excellent and compelling. But it wouldn't have worked as well without Hogan as a payoff. That took it to a whole other level. Hogan being a "bad guy" felt historic. Great angle.
The butterfly effect of Hogan being the 3rd man was huge. Brought so many old fans back to wrestling, and the NWO forced McMahon to change his whole approach to compete.
Right place, right time, right talent. It's funny reading old newsletters where people are speculating that the 3rd man is Bret, Bam Bam Bigelow, Jeff Jarrett, Hennig, Luger, Savage, etc.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 6, 2011 14:39:29 GMT -5
To this day, Eddie Gilbert was blamed for spilling the beans to dirtsheets that WCW was gonna work with Memphis/USWA for a Luger vs. Lawler unification match. The whole deal fell through because of this.
I think this was 1991. Lawler was supposed to beat Luger for the WCW World Title in Memphis...then drop the Unified-Unifed World Title to Luger on WCW PPV. The seeds of that storyline were planted in Lawler interviews on Memphis TV.
WCW and USWA would then do a talent exchange. Some of the younger USWA wrestlers with potential (Austin, Jarrett, Brian Christopher, PG-13, Sabu, RVD) appearing in WCW (although I think Austin was in WCW by this time).
Alternately, midcard WCW name guys (Rock N' Roll Express, Freebirds, One Man Gang, Arn Anderson, Terry Taylor, Bobby Eaton, Junkyard Dog) would appear regularly in USWA to help pop gates in that territory.
Green WCW guys like Oz (Nash), El Gigante, PN News, etc. would have spent time in Memphis for seasoning...probably working programs as monster heels vs Lawler. I can totally picture Lawler throwing a fireball at Kevin Nash or El Gigante in a Mid-South Coliseum main event.
Also, the WCW champ (now the Unified World Champ) would regularly defend against different USWA guys at Mid-South Coliseum. This would've usually been Luger, Sting, or Vader.
Whole deal fell through though, and Jerry Jarrett & Lawler hooked up with Vinny Mac the next year. It kind of sucks for WCW & USWA that this didn't happen. It could've only helped WCW during their crappiest era (Post-Flair 1991). And I think it would've been less one-sided than WWF & USWA's relationship (because Vince didn't need USWA's help as bad as WCW).
I think Bill Watts would've kept it going through 1992-93. Watts always did talent/booker exchanges with Memphis when he was with Mid-South, and tried to start the same WCW scenario that I just described, but a year later, and with Smoky Mountain.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 6, 2011 13:58:48 GMT -5
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I see Joe being in the mix at the end, possibly even winning it.
Before the series started, he was doing the start of a losing streak gimmick where they were mentioning his "tough losses". That's still happening, right? When an established guy just gets jobbed out, it's never mentioned that he's losing all the time. So HOPEFULLY this is to set up a big comeback.
Plus after Crimson beat Joe, didn't Tenay and Taz make a point to mention a couple times that Joe mouthed "I'll see you again. I'll see you again." Or something along those lines? One of Russo's few strengths is that he does mix stuff like that in and have it pay off...it's just the 9 million things that happen between Joe saying that and him facing Crimson again in a meaningful match that make it mean nothing from a storyline standpoint.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 6, 2011 13:47:55 GMT -5
As someone who works in a creative field, I've never understood threatening legal action towards a place you want to work at. If you think you're good and would like to work there, is winning a nominal fee in a court case worth burning a bridge? To me, no.
True story...I submitted scripts to a TV show last year in hopes of working there. Didn't get hired. During the season, a part of the show had some striking similarities to what I submitted. Too bad for me, but I don't think they stole them. Nor would I accuse them as stealing ideas. Somebody else just came up with an idea similar to mine.
Maybe I'm naive...but oh well. Ideas are disposable. Everybody has them. Everybody has new ones. I'll just come up with better ones. That guy should use this as a golden opportunity to come up with a better gimmick.
And in fact, at most places in a creative field, if you send them sample material in hopes of getting hired...they own the rights for air on their show/film/etc. They won't sue you for doing your own idea (you may have to pay a small fee that's like peanuts), but it protects them from guys like Crimson/Villain from suing them.
But yeah. And I've watched PWO. The CK3 gimmick was lame the couple times I saw it. Kind of came off like a HHH/JBL hybrid ripoff. And then he does the Joker.
Come up with something better, and don't threaten legal action. Maybe you'll get hired.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 4, 2011 22:29:24 GMT -5
One of the biggest shames of TNA is that they've completely wasted most of these guys since around 2006. Their "youth movement" isn't very young anymore.
AJ's 33 now, Samoa Joe's 32, Daniels is 40, Beer Money are both 34, Matt Morgan's 35, The Pope's 33...most of these guys are gonna start slowing down in the next few years. In Joe's case, he's probably past his prime as he's completely ballooned in weight and slowed down, maybe past the point of no return.
The guys they still have in their 20s...Lethal was released (maybe, still not sure if that was storyline), and The Guns had one good push in FIVE YEARS, and who knows if Sabin will ever be the same after shredding his knee. They put Amazing Red under a mask and dressed him up even more indy than he already was, and then took him off TV.
I appreciate what they're trying to do with Gunner & Crimson. Gunner's only decent though, and Crimson is the absolute wrong guy for THAT push. He sucks. They already have a guy who wasn't green that could make something out of the Goldberg push (Matt Morgan), but they've booked Morgan like a complete turd.
2007-2011 has been pretty crappy for TNA...if only for the fact that it peed away pretty valuable years in most of these guys' careers.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 4, 2011 16:10:01 GMT -5
Every play in the NFL, somebody on one side of the team gets hit harder than anybody in a pro wrestling match. More times than not, do you see them "selling" the next play, unless they're injured? BECAUSE THE NFL ISN'T FAKE. This is wrestling we're talking about. A fictional exhibition of narrative storytelling. In real sports, you need to hide your pain, so that your enemy won't see it and get cocky and steamroll over you. In fake entertainment, you need to display your pain, so that the audience has an emotional investment in the tale that you're telling. What the f*** is the point if a wrestler is like Steven Seagal, blasting through all his opponents in an overwhelming fashion while showing zero vulnerability? "Wrestlers shouldn't sell because ________ don't sell pain in real life" is a goddamn horrible excuse which ignores the fundamental nature of wrestling as being a theatrical performance. Stop using it. In trying to present wrestling as a sport such as an "important" fake wrestling "title match" like Edwards vs. Richards, you just gave yourself the very reason WHY they wouldn't sell. And you took my NFL quote out of context, because having played contact sports...contact can stun you or knock you down, but a lot of time doesn't "hurt" therefore you don't have to "sell". More times than not you "feel" that pain hours later or the next day. Look. I was blown away by the HHH vs. Undertaker WM match where they were laying around for five minutes in between big moves. But those "characters" are portrayed as 40+ year old men...and in Undertaker's case at Death's door. As fake wrestlers, Richards and Edwards are portrayed as young, proud, hungry athletes. That's apples and oranges too. As apples and oranges as comparing fake wrestling pain to the NFL.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jul 4, 2011 4:13:03 GMT -5
Every play in the NFL, somebody on one side of the team gets hit harder than anybody in a pro wrestling match. More times than not, do you see them "selling" the next play, unless they're injured?
Anybody that plays (or has played) contact sports at any level knows about adrenaline and what it does to the human body to neutralize pain. Only old-school wrestling psychology has taught us about "selling" in wrestling matches.
But if Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards were having a real "fight" like that and no bones were broken, then it's completely plausible for them to "no-sell" if they're trying to "win" a "fight" for a "championship".
In a contact sport, if the injury isn't serious, it goes away almost immediately and you don't feel it for a couple hours, or until the next day.
Kind of like a minor car wreck...where you don't think you're hurt, then wake up the next day with a giant bruise on your knee, or you're sore.
So they aren't wrong. It's just not what we're used to, or what we like about great wrestling matches.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 21, 2011 22:47:11 GMT -5
He started working out with triple h and Batista... Maybe they were sharing their "vitamins" because Flair looked like his head literally grew. This. It's also why he lost all that hair in the period since Evolution. Healthy 54-56 year old men with a full head of hair don't just lose most of it in a short period of time for no reason. It's a shame too. When he came back to WWE, Flair actually looked 5 years younger than he did when WCW closed. To me at least. The workout "stuff" that worked for HHH isn't something a man in his 50s should be doing. And at Flair's age, he can easily get prescriptions for the kind of "hormone replacement therapy" that a younger wrestler couldn't reasonably obtain from a doctor.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 5, 2011 19:08:30 GMT -5
Jesse Ventura and Superstar Graham both come to mind as entertainers. Both of them would cut AMAZING interviews, so amazing that it made it almost forgivable (at least to me) that they were so awful in the ring.
They could both sell tickets with a mic, even though you knew the match was probably gonna be terrible. And it was okay, because they were so entertaining.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Jun 5, 2011 17:03:15 GMT -5
It's a shame that the guy can't/won't get back into shape. He had a lot of potential.
Heck, during the last days of the TNA Weekly PPV era, they made Harris look like a legit threat to the NWA World Title. I think Storm was out with an injury or something, so they gave Harris a HUGE believable singles push. He was pretty damn good back then.
And a couple years later, that Harris vs. Storm street fight or whatever it was on Impact one time was one of the best things TNA's ever done, IMO. Great brawl.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 21, 2011 13:54:57 GMT -5
For 10 years, WWE has hired too many developmental guys based on looks. What you have is a bunch of decent looking dudes with big muscles who don't look like they could win a pretend fight.
I'm not saying appealing to the ladies isn't important, because even redneck territory bookers booked acts geared towards the ladies like Fabulous Ones, Rock N' Roll Express, Rockers, Fantastics, etc. and they drew.
But remember...WWE's ratings are in steady decline, too. The answer isn't in finding more John Morrisons, Randy Ortons, John Cenas, and Cody Rhodeses.
Book all four of those guys in TNA the way that TNA is currently presented, and it wouldn't make an ounce of difference.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 21, 2011 13:37:59 GMT -5
Sorry for the rant, but having watched a bunch of old Randy Savage promos from ICW/Memphis/early WWF reminded me of what wrestling is sorely lacking.
That's danger.
Randy Savage looked and acted like a legitimate psychopath. Even when he weighed only around 200 pounds, he looked and carried himself like a dangerous badass. Him and his family used to go on ICW and say that Memphis Wrestling was fake. But they were real. And he made you believe.
This business is being crippled on one end by a promoter (McMahon) who is always looking for the next Hulk Hogan & John Cena, and another company TNA looking to compete by doing the same things WCW did.
I think the answer is just in finding people who are believable. To me, guys like Davey Richards and The Briscoes fit the bill. Kurt Angle fits the bill. Bobby Roode fits the bill. Guys like AJ and Motor City Machine Guns are a little more flashy, but they fit the bill too, if only because their offense is so crisp.
But they don't even have to be good in the ring. In the early 1980s, the Road Warriors were just two musclebound, green stiffs at first. But in 1983, they went on TBS every Saturday and beat jobbers half to death, worked hard (even though they were limited), and were believable. And they stayed stars for 20 years. Years later, after the wrestling companies were even saying it was fake...Goldberg was presented as the same way in WCW, and people still talk about Goldberg.
Rob Terry is a big muscle guy, but there's nothing dangerous about him. There's nothing dangerous about Matt Morgan. There's nothing dangerous about Crimson, even when he's carrying a sledgehammer. There's nothing dangerous about Mr. Anderson. He's funny 30% of the time, but does the average guy think Anderson could win a real fight?
But that's all in how they are presented and directed. See Samoa Joe. When booked like a dangerous a**kicker, he's awesome. When he's not, he's just a fake fat guy walking around.
TNA or Impact Wrestling doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. They just need to produce a wrestling program for people who don't wanna see Saturday Night Live or Cartoons when they watch wrestling.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on May 21, 2011 13:04:00 GMT -5
While there was something pretty awesome about the Guns/GenMe empty arena "fight" that aired on TNA Reaction, I don't think you can present a whole show like that.
It's a wrestling show. Everyone knows it's fake, but they want to feel like it's real. The problem now is...WWE is basically SNL with wrestling. Impact tries to look like Friday Night Lights backstage, but with wrestling, and long-boring interviews with people who are never going to wrestle.
I didn't like the presentation of ROH either (at least when it was on HDNet), the directing during the matches sucked. That's more of a technical complaint.
But you can't present wrestling like Sons Of Anarchy and The Wire, because wrestlers are crappy actors. There's a huge difference between cutting promos and the level of skill in dramatic acting that would keep that show from being super cheesy.
I think the answer for TNA is just presenting a believable product based around action. And people will say, "Before Hogan & Bischoff came in...Angle vs. Wolfe and AJ/Joe/Daniels didn't draw ratings".
TNA always gives up on that too soon (the ratings drop .1 or .2, and someone there goes "See...told ya"). Present that for two straight years. Present stuff like MCMG vs. Beer Money's Best Of Series regularly. See where that gets you.
However, they just do what they've always done, and they keep getting what they've always gotten. But even the original idea in this thread's a better idea than holding WCW Nitro in front of 700 people, which is what Impact is.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Apr 10, 2011 17:17:36 GMT -5
This is very sad. Just a week or two ago, when he made the video with Larry Z (RE: Jericho), Hall looked and sounded sober and happy. I don't think it was an act, his face had cleared up, which was a sign that he hadn't been doing anything.
Hall has said he drinks mostly beer...so it would take A LOT of beer to make a 6-foot-6, heavy dude with a high tolerance from years of abusing alcohol to look in that bad of shape. It has to be the meds he's taking.
If he has heart issues, he already has one strike against him for just being tall. That's not counting the years of abusing alcohol, drugs, and steroids.
Really sad. I was always a huge mark for him, and came to respect his knowledge and love for the business after reading a great shoot that Keller had with him, printed in the Torch.
Years of burning bridges and goofing off probably cost him a spot in creative or as an agent. He's been working with that wrestling school in Orlando, which seemed cool. Hopefully he gets healthy again to keep pursuing that, even if it's a side hobby/distraction from his demons.
Hopefully it's not too late.
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Post by "Nature Boy" Ric Moranis on Mar 5, 2011 20:24:59 GMT -5
It's odd that Jericho uses ECW as a positive example when tearing down TNA. ECW did more parodies and took more shots at the competition, and did more "When I was in WWE (or WCW) I was left behind and I was held back" interviews than any wrestling organization EVER.
Yes, ECW had some great matches. But alot of it was posturing, stupid parodies, guys griping about getting held back by other companies, and putting down the competition.
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