Wrestling unpopular opinions

[LEGIT]

On 4/30/2020 at 11:15 PM, garynysmon said:

The Hogan Bischoff era in TNA was great.

I actually watched and enjoyed most of this to a point. From my own perspective the first few months were enjoyable just in the novelty and randomness. I remember Hogan and Abyss fighting Styles and Flair on Impact, for all the faults of hotshotting such a match on TV, it made a fun show. Jay Lethal and Ric Flair's mini feud, it was borderline parody but great fun all the same. Even the many shitey angles that were developed then dropped: Orlando Jordon's gay character, big Rob Terry's push, the Nasty Boys, The Band. I kinda enjoyed them all despite their faults. I'm not even sure why. It was like watching WCW again. 

My interest waned a few months in during Abyss's turn and the whole "they" angle. I stuck around on-off for a while but gave up on TNA sometime during the Aces and 8s shite. What a load of crap that was. 

Edited May 2, 2020 by LEGIT

[Merzbow]

I'm still not sure if I actually liked The Nasty Boys stuff or I just loved how upset people got over it, probably a mixture of the two.

[The Cutting Edge]

I agree, I was a big fan of "Immortal" and Jeff Hardy as a heel was a shame it didn't last longer.

"Reaction" was a great show too

[RedRooster]

There was a point in the Hogan Bischoff era where it felt like TNA was firing on all cylinders. Aces & Eights started strong, the AJ Styles/Dixie Carter storyline was intriguing (and then Claire Lynch happened), Bully Ray was one of the best characters in wrestling and Bobby Roode and James Storm felt like can’t miss prospects. 

TNA, at least for me, failed when it came to the pay-offs. They were great at building intrigue and mystery, but struggled to build towards strong conclusions. They were Lost, if Lost was wrestling basically.

[IronSheik]

Vince Russo's invasion angle on Kayfabe Commentaries Guest Booker was on paper brilliantly entertaining and made sense. 

[Pogue]

37 minutes ago, IronSheik said:

Vince Russo's invasion angle on Kayfabe Commentaries Guest Booker was on paper brilliantly entertaining and made sense. 

Yeah, dead unpopular opinion

Anyway, even I wouldn't say it was brilliantly entertaining, just better than Cornette's hideous 'the fans know Vince picks the matches but it's not really exposing the business if Funk holds onto a small package' trainwreck

I'll point out I normally like listening to Cornette and have no time for Russo but Christ, Cornette's invasion must've been some sort of piss take 

[Hugh Thesz]

13 hours ago, RedRooster said:

There was a point in the Hogan Bischoff era where it felt like TNA was firing on all cylinders. Aces & Eights started strong, the AJ Styles/Dixie Carter storyline was intriguing (and then Claire Lynch happened), Bully Ray was one of the best characters in wrestling and Bobby Roode and James Storm felt like can’t miss prospects. 

TNA, at least for me, failed when it came to the pay-offs. They were great at building intrigue and mystery, but struggled to build towards strong conclusions. They were Lost, if Lost was wrestling basically.

The knockouts division was fantastic too, great matches along with strong storylines all playing in front of hot crowds not forgetting Austin Aries Plan C

[RedRooster]

10 hours ago, Hugh Thesz said:

The knockouts division was fantastic too, great matches along with strong storylines all playing in front of hot crowds not forgetting Austin Aries Plan C

Definitely agree about the rise of Aries, but I thought the Knockouts division went off the boil a bit during the Hogan/Bischoff era and had been far better before they arrived. The ‘Brooke Hogan’s the boss’ era was particularly weak. 

[WyattSheepMask]

I missed this whole Plan C stuff because I’d give up watching f TNA by that time. What was it and what was Plans A and B?

[Lorne Malvo]

2 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

I missed this whole Plan C stuff because I’d give up watching f TNA by that time. What was it and what was Plans A and B?

This may not be 100% accurate as I've not watched it in years, but IIRC;

Aries at the time was X Division champion who had pretty much beaten everyone else in the division and wanted a shot at the World title held by Roode. Hogan cut a promo saying he didn't want anyone holding two belts, so option A was that Aries could vacate the X Division title and go for the World title, or Option B is Aries continues to hold the X Division title but doesn't get a World title shot. Aries came back the next week saying he wanted to go with his own idea, Option C - basically he trades in the X Division title for a shot at the World title but on the condition that every year, at that specific PPV, the X Division champion whoever that may be gets the same choice of trading in that title for a World title shot.

It was a pretty cool idea. I know they had Sabin go the Option C route a year later and trade in the X Division title for a shot at Bully Ray but not sure if it's been used since.

I do remember Aries/Roode being a cracking match though, up there with Jarrett vs Angle as my favourite TNA match.

[Statto]

6 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

It was a pretty cool idea. I know they had Sabin go the Option C route a year later and trade in the X Division title for a shot at Bully Ray but not sure if it's been used since.

They did it again the following year too, again with Aries, but he failed to beat Lashley for the world title.

Agreed it was a fun idea, kind of a MITB thing but because it was a title belt it was always in play & they created some fun scrambles to be the champion in the right place at the right time.

The year Sabin "cashed in" he actually won the title from Aries about a week before the PPV, Aries himself having won it the week before by beating up Suicide & nicking his suit to disguise himself and get into the scheduled X-Division title match. IIRC that led to them revealing that TJP was Suicide and soon after the name change to Manik.

Think this coincided with the period when the X title was defended every week, always in a triple threat, with whoever took the fall/submission being removed from the following week's title match and replaced with a new 3rd person. That wasn't such a great idea.

[King Pitcos]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:14 AM, Pogue said:

Yeah, dead unpopular opinion

Anyway, even I wouldn't say it was brilliantly entertaining, just better than Cornette's hideous 'the fans know Vince picks the matches but it's not really exposing the business if Funk holds onto a small package' trainwreck

I'll point out I normally like listening to Cornette and have no time for Russo but Christ, Cornette's invasion must've been some sort of piss take 

Do you know if Cornette has ever talked about this on his podcast? Surely people have asked him about it.

[Pogue]

2 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

Do you know if Cornette has ever talked about this on his podcast? Surely people have asked him about it.

That's a good question, I've never heard it ever mentioned on his podcasts but I usually just listen to clips on YouTube rather than listening to the whole episodes 

I'd imagine if he was asked, he'd just laugh it off and say about how it was just a bit of fun, the cheque cleared years ago after all

As I've said previously, I usually like his take on a lot of things but if Russo had done a dvd on the Invasion and come up with the exact same ideas as him, Cornette would still be ripping it to pieces now 

 

[The Cutting Edge]

Ive been listening to a lot of Cornette clips on YouTube, I assume there from his podcast or something.

I like him he's always got an interesting view on things, I don't always agree with him on stuff but he's certainly entertaining.

He's pretty down on current product for being goofy and silly but then suggested Aleister Black should drink his opponents blood for satanic rituals to give him an edge cos he's not intimidating enough.

He's very hit n miss but I like JC

[tiger_rick]

Cornette talks the invasion on the YouTube video discussing the Ruthless Aggression "documentary". He just expresses the same opinion as most people though. He doesn't mention Dusty Rhodes once.

I've also been listening to loads of his clips on YouTube. Mainly started from an argument with our kid about whether JC is a twat or not. I disagree with him a lot but he is wildly entertaining. 

There's one where they ask him who he'd like to manage if he was still working and he cuts a great promo laying out a backstory for Jacob Fatu out of nowhere. He really can be brilliant. Most of the time, he's just baffling.