Forrest

Borash was ace on Xplosion when he was dropping references to their ratings war with Family Fortunes and Catchphrase.

Impact's just too sad to watch these days. I was going to tape it tonight, but I don't think I'll bother.

Lesnar ending the streak will never be topped. They evoked an emotion that I've never felt before or will ever feel again from wrestling. It felt like someone had died. It was the only thing that still meant something to wrestling fans and to watch it be destroyed was something to behold. Surreal to think it actually happened even now.

Mr. Anderson will always remain the worst, but he was relatively auspicious compared to Kane who was all over the main event this year, so Kane gets the nod.

Has Rusev got a figure yet?

I'm hoping for it to cut suddenly mid-main event to Jeff Jarrett being suddenly woken up in a Panama City Beach hotel on the morning of the 26th of March 2001 by a phone call from Bischoff telling him the Fusient sale had went through after all as they'd found a new Network for Nitro.

Does anyone know what the crossover for Destination America and Velocity is? For example, does every home with DA have Velocity or vice versa?

Someone had mooted both of them showing at different times through the week, as they're sister channels. If there are people on different who get one and not the other, then magic. If not, the repeats might pick up some spare business.

That said, as the days go by, I feel that there's no deal on the horizon and Meltzer's at the wind-up. I eagerly await the announcement that Ocean Finance TV, XXX Mums and that mental conspiracy theory channel that just used to show programmes about chemtrails and GM crops all the time have launched a co-bid for the ownership of TNA.

To be fair, I work for Sky and there has been a load of people on our in-house social media scrabbling for answers from higher-ups, but nothing is forthcoming.

Sky staff are as clueless as everyone else. We asked and got told that there was nothing but rumours and to redirect customers to WWE.com..

I have a question about the current TV shows on the Network.

I know it takes 31 days for them to appear on the Network, but how far back do the episodes for Raw and Smackdown go back? I've been quite desperate to go back and watch the gaps I'm missing for Rusev. Do the episodes stretch far back enough that I could watch his debut, for example?

Similarly for Superstars and Main Event, is it the full run of those shows? Or is it the last month or two of shows?

Yeah, probably my favourite Rumble finish in a decade or so. Although the ultimate outcome was obvious, as is the case in most Rumbles anyway, there was a very brief moment when the entire arena got caught up in the idea of Santino doing the unthinkable. Santino was absolutely brilliant in those sort of spots.

Absolutely agree. I completely lost it when he appeared from under the ring and that exact moment where you just think "oh my god, he's going to do it!". I was screaming at the telly for him to chuck Del Rio over and win it. I don't think I'll get as wrapped up or involved in a Wrestling moment like that again.

Then he did it again in the Chamber and it was magical.

Santino was ace.

Reading about Geoff Capes online and he said he done a bit of the grappling. Did he do anything in the wrestling world? Cheers!

I know of at least one match with Capes taking on Chris Dolman, a Dutch shooter, in Holland. Even though Dolman did shoot fights, this looks to be at least in the worked realm style-wise.

Nothing too exciting, but interesting to see Capes in the ring. Absolutely no information on dates or other matches, I just have this video to go off.

Still gutted that Geoff Capes vs. Giant Haystacks never happened.

What was the state of British wrestling in the mid-90s (I'd say probably between 93 and 97 is the period I'm interested in)? Was it really a case of WWF tribute shows ruling the roost? Was there any decent feds out there? Who were the big names?

Also, can anyone give me info on Reslo around this time? Was it mainly English wrestlers doing the matches, or was there any Welsh main eventers?

Didn't he get super kicked by HBK at Wrestlemania 12? Damn, sad to see a long time employee get the sack. I guess they figured they can employ someone young to do his job for a fraction of the cost.

 

On that note, exactly what is a timekeeper's job in wrestling? Matches typically don't have time limits nowadays, so what do they do beyond bell ringing?

I always thought that they were responsible for recording an official match time for the archives?

In fact, do WWE keep records of results from every event they do?

Really silly little thing. but I loved Dean Ambrose's interview on Superstars this week where he teased choosing an Big Japan-style Alligator Deathmatch with Seth Rollins as the stipulation at Summerslam. I know it would never happen, but the idea of WWE in 2014 invoking the spirit of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga just made me chuckle.

Did anyone see that WWE sent out a survey about the network to fans in Canada? It asked about fan interest in different promotions, namely:

* Stampede Wrestling (Calgary, Alberta): 1948-1989

* Grand Prix Wrestling (Montreal, Quebec): 1971-1975

* Border City Wrestling (Windsor, Ontario): 1993-Present

* ASW - All Star Wrestling (Montreal, Quebec): 1967-1975

* Northern Championship Wrestling (Montreal, Quebec): 1986 - Present

* Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling: (Moncton, New Brunswick) 1960s-1986

* NWA All Star Wrestling (Vancouver, British Columbia): 1960s-1989

* ECCW - Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (Vancouver, BC): 1996-Present

* Maximum Pro Wrestling (Windsor and Toronto, Ontario): 2010-Present

Scott D'Amore, who runs Border City Wrestling and recently organised a GFW talent search, also owns the tape library to Grand Prix Wrestling. Interesting to see some current promotions on there. Someone on the LAW (I believe it was Pollock) mentioned the possibility of WWE doing something similar to Invicta on Fight Pass, giving Indies some airtime. I highly doubt it'll happen though.

TNA brings back Saturday morning wrestling.

News: Challenge to launch Saturday morning TNA Wrestling show

 

All-new TNA Xplosion will be the FIRST ever TNA programming designed for a family audience

 

Challenge and TNA Entertainment have joined forces for a historic announcement

Looking through this month's Sky employee handbook, there was a question asked about the WWE network and whether or not Sky would be carrying the network or any shows from it. They said that there was no plans to do anything involving the network, however it did say that the new deal meant that Main Event would be shown on Sky Sports in the future. They specifically listed Main Event as an example, but didn't mention NXT. I don't know whether this was just an error, but it was something that stuck out as interesting to me.

He was on Xplosion this week. Ian linked to the segment on the last page. It was great.

No-one has mentioned that the two at the back of that picture are on stilts. I hope they wrestle in stilts. That would be amazing.

Maybe Dixie can side with them as the bearded woman?

Matt Hardy has a new belt.

1) After watching the six-man tag from Raw a few weeks ago featuring Cena, Sheamus and Big E taking on the Wyatts and in particular, the exchanges between Sheamus and Rowan, it got me thinking. Can anyone name notable occasions where two gingers have fought each other in the ring? The only one I can think of off the top of my head would Sheamus battering Heath Slater at some point, but before the likes of Sheamus and Slater, I struggle to think of occasions where there was more than one ginger in a match together.

2) On NXT last week, when Corey Graves took on Sami Zayn and locked on a headlock for an extended period, Regal referred to Graves grinding Zayn down on the mat and used a specific term for the technique. He said it was a British term, but what was the word he used?

3) Can someone run down Joey Ryan's monstrous title run in PWG and the numerous loopholes he used to keep it going? I know he kept retaining the title via Dusty finishes, but I have no clue as to the specifics.

The thing TNA needs is a guy who will question decisions. They need a continuity proofreader. They need someone to ask all the questions that we all ask such as:

"Why was the PPV main event announced on TV 13 minutes from the end of the go-home show?"

"Why was Gunner's dad in the front row at a show where the announcers said he was in hospital after being malkied with a bottle the week before?"

"Why was Eric Young's title win rushed with no build, when Gunner was given a ton of vignettes that actually made you believe in him as a contender, only to lose the match?"

"Why is Willow dissing Meltzer in nonsensical promos?"

"If Sam Shaw lives in his mum's basement, then what the hell was the deal with that fancy apartment that Christy interviewed him and where he kept that shrine?"

"What happened to Knux's dad's carnival that got flooded, now that Knux is leaving again?"

"Why is our World champion a comedy character parodying the company who are the dominant force in our industry that we are trying to present ourselves as an alternative to?"

WHO? WHAT? WHY? These should be things people are asking. They shouldn't be dragging their arse on stupid plotholes that even the most casual fan can pick up. Someone needs to stand up and stop being a Yes man and address the stupid fucking decisions TNA are making day in, day out. They need to stop surrounding themselves with mindless drones and actually get someone who will upset the apple cart and sort things out.

But they won't, because they're TNA. They'll continue to employ the same lazy bastards who half-arse it every week and take no attention to detail and they'll continue to make stupid mistakes like cameramen who veer between not being there to engaging in conversation and then back to not being acknowledged in the space of a segment. They will continue to parody WWE or not build their PPVs and the fans will continue to not buy the PPVs or take anything they do seriously.

This is probably the worst I've ever seen Impact (although to be fair, I've only been watching since the heydays of the MEM). Wrestlers are leaving in droves, their PPVs are so non-consequential that it's hard to even remember they exist, and people just don't care about TNA anymore. It all reeks of last-chance-saloon desperation plays in an effort to try and get back to what it once was. The fact that people have been burned so many times with TNA is bad enough, but the fact they're still doing it is just depressing.

At least WCW 1999/2000 didn't show it's arse when it came to it's dying days. They still tried to act like they had loads of cash, blowing it on monster trucks and KISS concerts. Even then, you had mental shite like Chavo selling Avon, Scott Steiner fighting people in a giant steel thimble or Dave Penzer accidentally winning the World title to keep you going.

WCW was like watching a madman trying to fight his way out of an FBI siege. TNA is like going to see an uncle with a terminal illness every few days in hospital as he watches the clock run down.

I know it's the irrational smark in me, and I know they didn't do it on purpose... but it does my tits in how much the logo for Extreme Rules reminds me of the Pancrase logo.

I swear at first, for a second, I thought they had bought the rights to Pancrase for the network or something. I hope they just throw the script out and turn it into an all shoot PPV, just to see Hunter school the Shield with knees to the skull and the like.

I would be very interested to see how this does in comparison to Sacrifice next week, because that build has been so shite that I imagine if ROH really promoted this to death and had a good build, they would run it close.

I'm one of those people who, if it's on the telly, I'll probably buy it and watch it. I know everything's available for free, but I hate the hassle of having to watch it on a little screen, try to navigate pop-ups or taking five hours to download part one of four for a PPV. I just want to be able to turn on my telly and have it there for me without having to worry about my internet not being fast enough or the servers crashing. It's all a pain in the arse to me and I know there will be lots of people out there who will agree, so this is a massive plus.

Surely he's had more than that? I could have sworn he fought Robbie E loads more than that.

I've always been an advocate of, when the World title was still around, Santino getting a run with the belt. I think his moments with Bryan and Del Rio at the Chamber and Rumble show that there is an amazing underdog story just waiting to be written and that the crowd want to get behind him. Santino with a secondary title run trying to keep his dream alive could have been great and it shows to me that with the right creative team, people who are fiercely over with the crowd but are never regarded as a legitimate contender like Santino, EY, Duggan or Too Cool could be built up as a credible underdog champion. Grado winning the ICW title is a perfect example of that.

This didn't achieve that, it was booked in an hour and a half. Why couldn't this have been at Sacrifice? They could have built it up with vignettes and promos putting over how important this title is to him and everyone in the company. Instead, like everything in TNA it's rushed within a week with no build and a lackluster payoff as a result. What's the point of doing all this on free TV?

Still prefer it to Sabin though.

They don't own it, but they have used the King of the Death Matches footage with Funk and Foley quite a lot in the past. Didn't they also include it on a Foley set before?

I just noticed on Twitter that wcw was trending. I thought maybe the WWE Network was the reason for this but looked it up. Apparently it stands for Women Crush Wednesday. Where people just post pictures of women they like.

A couple of weeks ago, TNA posted a bunch of knockouts' photos under the hashtag #WCW. As you can guess, the IWC troll patrol had a field day.