Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Cliff Compton just tweeted "I will do the TNA Gut Check for $1,000,000. How about it @TNADixie". He been asked to do it and refused perhaps?

I think its more to do with them saying they were signing him and then telling him where to go because they couldn't afford to fly him in.

[garynysmon]

How old was Benoit when he came to WWE? 35?

 

Not quite the same though is it? Benoit was a recent WCW champion with years of national exposure.

[The Dart]

EDIT: Cliff Compton just tweeted "I will do the TNA Gut Check for $1,000,000. How about it @TNADixie". He been asked to do it and refused perhaps?

Gut Check is not for ex-WWE guys like Compton. It's for indy people only. This is just a case of Compton being Compton and having some fun on Twitter by making ridiculous statements.

 

Is that an official rule, or just a general idea? Didn't Jay Bradley do Gut Check?

 

The reviews for Hardcore Justice were pretty poor, I recorded it, is it worth watching for how bad it was?

Edited July 12, 2013 by The Dart

[pgi86]

EDIT: Cliff Compton just tweeted "I will do the TNA Gut Check for $1,000,000. How about it @TNADixie". He been asked to do it and refused perhaps?

Gut Check is not for ex-WWE guys like Compton. It's for indy people only. This is just a case of Compton being Compton and having some fun on Twitter by making ridiculous statements.

Is that an official rule, or just a general idea? Didn't Jay Bradley do Gut Check?

It's not an official rule per say (there are no official rules when it comes to this) but the idea is to feature guys who've never had any success on national TV, undiscovered/new talent if you will. While technically Jay Bradley was on WWE TV for a cup of coffee he fits the "undiscovered talent" label since he really wasn't on WWE TV for long at all and nobody remembers him being on TV anyway. Chris Masters, for example, wanted to do the Gut Check when it first started last year but TNA told him he can't since it's for new talent and not guys like him (they did bring him in for a try-out eventually but that was a totally separate thing).

[IANdrewDiceClay]

but the idea is to feature guys who've never had any success on national TV

That's usually WWE's idea when they hire someone from TNA.

 

I joke, I joke. I think you're putting way to much stock into TNA's idea for Gut Check. Christian York was on ECW years ago when it was on TNN (now Spike). That was national exposure. Cliff Compton isn't exactly WWE alumni. I bet if he did Gut Check nobody would have any idea who he was. I bet he's more well know for Colt Cabana's podcasts than as a member of Deuce and Domino. I bet (for example) if Kevin Thorn or Luther Reigns were in the area, they'd be a fit for Gut Check. Nobody remembers those two as anything much of anything. They wouldn't be worth hyping to debut. From 2004-2009 WWE had some many people debuting and then getting pulled from TV and put back in developmental it was hard to keep track. They had three brands filled with a million people. Christian York's reason was for "getting his last shot". They could do that was past it WWE acts, as a proving ground to see if they still have it.

 

I'll be honest, though, as a fan I have no idea what Gut Check is about. The rules keep changing and the criteria is absolutely mental. They could put George Steele in TNA Gut Check and they could get around it by adding another rule. Its just confusing as anything. When it went from veteran vs. Gut Check to green bloke vs. green bloke it turned rotten. You need a Doug Williams in there with them.

Edited July 12, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[garynysmon]

I'll be honest, though, as a fan I have no idea what Gut Check is about. The rules keep changing and the criteria is absolutely mental. They could put George Steele in TNA Gut Check and they could get around it by adding another rule. Its just confusing as anything. When it went from veteran vs. Gut Check to green bloke vs. green bloke it turned rotten. You need a Doug Williams in there with them.

 

Seconded.

[DeanoTheGame]

What's the general consensus on TNA's 2013 then? The last episode I watched was 7th of February, in the UK. Is it worth catching up or should I just jump back in with the most recent episode? Have I missed anything particularly great?

[Dirty Eddie]

The ladder match between Taryn and Gail Kim was really good on this last Impact. If only they'd show Taryn how to throw a decent clothesline, the match would have been pretty much faultless. It was really hard hitting, with innovative spots and a fresh finish. Really good job. That one match was better than the entire hardcore Justice PPV. In fact, irony and amusement aside, that was the worst PPV from any company that I've watched in at least a year. Utter gash. The only good bit was Bully Ray ripping the piss out of Bob Holly before the main event.

[Arch Stanton]

Hardcore Justice 2 was a real novelty show. With all the old faces returning, it felt a bit like when WWE put on the original ECW One Night Stand PPV, only much, much shitter. I shouldn't even be comparing the two really. Bob Holly looked like his old trunks and boots are now stored up in his loft in a vacuum bag and he couldn't be arsed to pull down the ladder and get up there to crack them out just for TNA, so he thought 'fuck it, I'll just take my top off'.

 

It wasn't a good show, but it was more fun than the average Impact purely for the novelty of seeing the likes of Spike Dudley, Funaki, Little Guido and Kizarny on your screen one more time.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Their One Night Only shows are a big waste of time. Nobody in their right mind would pay a tenner to watch those PPVs. Wouldn't it have been better just to clip a best of together and air that? Put "the best of Sting" or "X Divisions Flippest Matches" on instead, and you'd no doubt get more people watching that this. TNA did 6000 buys for Bobby Roode vs Jeff Hardy last year. By that pattern only about 4 people will have paid to see the return to television of Funanki and Spike Dudley. WWE had an NBC deal where they had to provide content. And when the Saturday Nights Main Event specials bombed a couple of years back, they just aired documentary pieces or the Tribute to the Troop shows instead of producing live events to air. TNA should have just put a documentary on instead of running shows to replace their PPVs.

Edited July 14, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[UK Kat Von D]

That ladder match was brilliant. I would go as far to say one of my favourite ladder matches and easily my favourite women's match of the last few years. I genuinely though they had fucked it before the crossbody

[KingOfMetal]

Bob Holly looked like his old trunks and boots are now stored up in his loft in a vacuum bag and he couldn't be arsed to pull down the ladder and get up there to crack them out just for TNA, so he thought 'fuck it, I'll just take my top off'.

 

Didn't he end up doing it his jeans and trainers in the end? Like Bulldog when he came back to WWE the last time

[Dirty Eddie]

Hardcore Justice 2 was a real novelty show. With all the old faces returning, it felt a bit like when WWE put on the original ECW One Night Stand PPV, only much, much shitter. I shouldn't even be comparing the two really. Bob Holly looked like his old trunks and boots are now stored up in his loft in a vacuum bag and he couldn't be arsed to pull down the ladder and get up there to crack them out just for TNA, so he thought 'fuck it, I'll just take my top off'.

 

It wasn't a good show, but it was more fun than the average Impact purely for the novelty of seeing the likes of Spike Dudley, Funaki, Little Guido and Kizarny on your screen one more time.

 

It was the utter lack of any effort in any department that struck me.

 

They failed to bring back any of the well-known old hardcore lot like Sabu, Sandman, Dreamer etc.. While I know those people are nothing special any more, they would still have gotten a decent pop. Johnny Swinger and Guido are hardly suitable replacements, as much as I like Guido.

 

Bob Holly came out looking (as said above) like he couldn't be at all arsed, then he worked about a minute of the match before getting pinned. Surely a one-on-one hardcore match with a recent Gutcheck winner would have been better. Just let Bob chop and wail on some kid for 5 minutes, smash his head in with a bin and powerbomb him through a table.

 

They had 2 Cold Scorpio on the show, a great talent who could have had a blinder with a number of current and past TNA and ECW/Extreme talents, yet they stick him in the worst gauntlet match ever. Wankers. I would have a taken a straight singles match with Scorp and pretty much anyone over this. Maybe even Scorpio and Funaki Vrs Kash and Gunner. Instead he was in there with the likes of Sam Shaw and Crimson on an over-long, lazy borefest.

 

The "Monsters Ball" was the same streetfight/hardcore rules match that everything else on the show allowed. Literally no difference to the Jackie Vrs ODB match with regards to rules. No barbed wire, no thumbtacks, no blood, little effort. Fucking rubbish and boring.

 

Talking of rubbish and boring, how fucking long was that Jackie/OBD match? They just rolled about and tried to attack each other with cans of shaving foam and crap like that forever. What was the thought process behind any of it? "Have you got some fun spots worked out ladies..?" No, is the answer. None at all.

 

We didn't even get lazy/drunk Taz on commentary like one of the other One Night Only PPVs, which was a disappointment. It was bad like the last WWECW PPV (December to Dismember?), not a particularly funny "bad", just a boring and monotonous bad. The not all that relevant video packages they used to pad it out featured better wrestlers and better spots than everything on this show.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Its hard to have effort when nobody will work for you, though. There are some decent size indies out there right now that the ex-ECW and WWE guys can get good deals on. Sabu and Carlito aren't going to go to TNA for their $300-500 pay offs. TNA has to make do with shite like Funaki and Spike Dudley. These mini-PPVs were a big eye opener as to who TNA can or cant attract right now. Dont want to give anything away, but their World X Cup this year attracted so little talent they had to make the Aces and Eights its own country.

 

Next year they should forget about countries and do more novelty teams. Have 4 Shark Boys vs 4 Pirates and stuff like that. Sharky coming out with a shark in a bag was class, though. Shark Boy never disappoints. He's such an easy laugh, I'm surprised they dont use him more.

Edited July 14, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Dirty Eddie]

Yeah, I read some of the names for the "International" show, it sounded laughable.

 

Regarding Hardcore Justice: I get what you are saying about the lack of funds, but that still doesn't explain the total half-arsed booking. I baffles my mind that any booker from any company would look at the talent list for that night, see 2 Cold Scorpio, and say "Yeah, just stick him in the gauntlet thingy with anyone else who's left". Mental.

 

They should have ponied up for Sandman at least. I would have liked to see Bad Influence Vrs Scorpio and Sandman.