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Final Resolution

AnubisPosted on 01/16/07 at 05:34:25

As for TNA, they fuck up plenty, and Final Resolution is no exception.  I just read the report, and it's not pretty.

TNA has a solid midcard, no doubt about it.  Alex Shelley, Austin Starr, Kevin Nash, all very entertaining.  Senshi, Petey Williams, James Storm, it's all good.  Alas the good ends there.

As seems to be the case since Vince Russo took over, TNA seems to have no grasp as to how to book a main event.  Abyss was a flop as Champion, and Christian Cage was a flop as Champion.  Why do they insist on passing the belt back and forth between the two?  I can only hope that it all finally ends with a Kurt Angle title win next month.  I hope, I pray, for the sake of TNA, that this is just leading to Angle as Champion to duke it out with Samoa Joe over the belt.  That would be wonderful.

Still, not holding my breath.  If it's one thing Russo has proven over the years, it's that he knows how to shock people, and usually not in a good way.  At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Tomko was put into the match as a three-way and then Tomko turned on Christian Cage to take the belt himself.  Talk about killing the pretige of a century-old title . . . Let's hope my worst fears don't come to pass.  With Russo, anything's possible.

Either way, this moron has no clue how to book a show.  I am convinced now that Ed Ferrara was the brains of the operation, because outside WWE, Russo has never done anything right.  These main events are atrocious.  Who wouldn't love to see Sting and Angle get it on next month?  A match no one ever thought would happen?  Sting still has it, and Angle is going strong.  That would certainly be more entertaining than recycled WWE garbage.  Abyss and Cage just aren't good Champions.  Abyss is lame in the ring and Cage is just plain lame.  Ugh . . .

I really wish I had better ROH access, because this crap with WWE and TNA is driving me crazy.
AllPowerfulGARTHPosted on 01/16/07 at 13:34:50

Popular wisdom holds that Vince Russo's late-1990s booking in the WWF was only kept tolerable because Vince McMahon kept him in check. Russo doesn't have the absolute dearth of good ideas that most WCW and recent TNA fans seem to think he does. He just needs someone who can look over his ideas before they see the light of day and have the cajones to tell him, "Hell naw, man, nobody's going to like this one. Talk to me more about this idea you crumpled up and threw in the trash, it looks like it might have promise."

This lack of checks and balances, as it were, is likely also largely responsible for some of WWE's dumber booking moves of late (pushing the Great Khali, "Donald vs. Rosie," etc.). There really isn't anyone backstage willing to tell Vince or Stephanie no. If both Vinces would be open to hearing objections -- or at the very least, constructive criticism -- I imagine both products would be much better.
pszPosted on 01/16/07 at 14:07:35




See my other posts about Russo's lack of mental projection unto the prime material plane ;->

And yes, the biggest problem with WWE *AND* TNA is the fact that nobody is allowed to say "Woah, that's just a bad idea".

In some cases (Mark Henry) you have someone on the roster you HAVE to use, or lose money on, so you'll throw him into anything. Pity it took until the end of his contract for them to give him a tollerable gimmick (Hurting people) that worked.

Abyss is to TNA what Umaga is to WWE: Big, Evil, Monster. Both work in that regard. Neither are used well, because of the mentality of "Since his Big, Evil, and a Monster, he'll be the next Undertaker/Kane/Big Show!"

This is all well and good, except that if every Big, Evil, Monster is pushed that way, you'll have nothing but 7 foot tall, 350lb guys who can't move (Kane and Taker being the exception now, Big Show when he was younger) filling two hours. I got no problem with big-man-wrestling style, but I can only deal with so much before I flip the channel.

Summary: Umaga and Abyss are cool, I guess, but NO WORLD TITLES  PLEASE
91Posted on 01/18/07 at 23:37:50

On 01/16/07 at 05:34:25, Anubis wrote:At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Tomko was put into the match as a three-way and then Tomko turned on Christian Cage to take the belt himself. Talk about killing the pretige of a century-old title . . .
Yes, Tomko winning the title would be the first thing that one could pinpoint as killing the prestige of the NWA title. Seriously, it's been shot, stabbed and run over by a truck a ton of times now... not that I'm endorsing a Tyson Tomko title reign mind you.
AnubisPosted on 01/19/07 at 00:16:48

Hey, up until Christian Cage's first run with it, it had regained a bit of prestige.  Jeff Jarrett, love him or hate him, was at least credible due to the way he was booked, just like Triple H was always credible even during the height of his ego trips.  AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Raven, all credible and deserving Champions.  Christian Cage is the one who mucked it up.

You know, given how TNA is supposedly more match-based than angle-based, I would have kept the belt on Sting and had him drop it to Kurt Angle ASAP and let Angle and Samoa Joe feud over it for the next year or two, simply because they're the best workers in TNA at the moment.