Results from Gerweck.net.

I was out this weekend with an illness, so not only did you not get a preview last week, but you didn’t get the review yesterday either. Well, have no fear, dear reader, you get two for the price of one today with dual commentary from Birdsong and I. Unfortunately, we weren’t at the same place at the same time to record our commentary (must be a Burt Ward / Adam West kind of thing), so you don’t get the full-on McCartney and Stevie experience, but I’m trying the best I can to make it up to everybody, especially Birdsong, who reliably did his part in getting me his preview on time so his stuff won’t go to waste.

Let me pose the opening question: will Ring of Honor supplant TNA as the #2 wrestling organization in the company now that they have PPV?”

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Well, that’s what WWE.com would have us think. Apparently the climax to the months and months of idiotic feuds with Shawn Michaels, Donald Trump, and Bobby Lashley was Vince McMahon going nuts over the past week-and-a-half talking to himself and others like he was trying out for Mercedes McCambridge’s part in The Exorcist. Top that off with McMahon getting into an uncustomary white limousine (he generally rides in black) and people lining up to watch him ride off into the sunset, you could tell that something bad was about to happen. I mean, does he think he’s Albert Finney at the end of Big Fish or something?

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I put up some WWE and TNA news updates on my blog last week. One of them involved a fairly racist gimmick for Sonjay Dutt where they play up his Indian ancestry. As he remarked, maybe they’ll have him drive a cab as part of the gimmick as well. Well, if that’s not the job they all have, then maybe they should have him as a tech support operator named “Larry” instead.

Results from Gerweck.net

Sorry there was no PPV preview last week, but I was on vacation, and I forgot to delegate it before I left. Anyway, I can’t imagine there are many out there that were waiting on pins and needles to see this show that was pretty irrelevant considering there was another PPV two week ago. Of course, I’m sure that the half a million that watched Saturday Night’s Main Event burned up the phone lines afterwards calling their cable company, but whatever…

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Results from Gerweck.net.

In a word… anticlimactic.

Ric Flair defeated Carlito. The match was a solid opener, but the finish was questionable. Carlito tapped out cleanly to Flair’s figure-four leglock. Dude must really be in the doghouse if they let the old man go over him.

Bobby Lashley defeated Shane McMahon, Umaga and ECW Champion Vince McMahon in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match. This was over quickly, but Vince announced after the match that he was still champion because he wasn’t pinned. After the match, Umaga took out Lashley with the Samoan Spike. Yawn.

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Why is Kane on the poster for a PPV when he’s not on the card? Anyway, regardless, you know the cast of characters: me, Birdsong who owns Hulk Hogan underoos, Eks the Southerner, and Corey the even more Southerner. How y’all doin’?

Here’s the long, drawn-out opening question: Ken Kennedy lost his Money in the Bank shot due to injury, but after they turned it over to Edge (who subsequently was given the World Championship after Undertaker’s injury), they found out that Kennedy’s injury was not so severe, and even if it was, he would have returned in plenty of time for the build to Wrestlemania 24.

So… did WWE jump the gun by switching the Money in the Bank from Kennedy to Edge or did they do the right thing to get the right guy in there?

The answers were a lot more controversial from our panel than I expected.

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I rounded up some news last week on my blog. Check it out here.

Results from Gerweck.net.

X-Division Champion Chris Sabin retained over Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt. I’m actually shocked that Jay Lethal did not get the win considering he was actually over with the crowd, but maybe TNA will give a feud between him and Sabin a chance to develop and be showcased. Then again, maybe Hell will have frozen over by that time too. This was your by-the-numbers 3-way dance: the challengers teamed up against the champ, turned on each other, then let the champ take over. Nice action, including a spot where Sabin tied both Lethal and Dutt into the tree of woe. Sabin won by shoving Sonjay into Lethal and rolling up Dutt for the win. This was a hot opener, and Sabin really does deserve a long run as champ to cement his place on the roster like AJ got. After the match, Lethal and Dutt fought each other, Kevin Nash tried to break it up, Dutt kicked Nash in the leg, and left. Am I the only one that thinks adding Kevin Nash to anything in TNA makes it worse? Apparently Nash will get Sonjay this Thursday on Impact.

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I don’t know if this is any indication to how much interest TNA is generating with wrestling fans in general or if the card is just that weak, but our collective interest in this show on the Shotgun seems to be much lower than it was for Backlash last month. That leads into the opening question you’ll see below. Starring in this prognostication of sports entertainment are myself, Lyrical Lounge editor and lifelong Hulkamaniac Jonathan Birdsong, and reviewer and former booker for World 1 South AWA Steven Ekstrom.

The Russ: Here’s the opening question for this edition of the roundtable. Is TNA heading in the right direction to compete with WWE?

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Results from gerweck.net.

Thanks to all who’ve dropped the feedback into our feedbag on last week’s Backlash rasslin’ roundtable. It ended up being a lot more fun to do than I thought it would be, and I thought it was a pretty entertaining read after looking at it again yesterday. I’m looking forward to the usual suspects meeting up for future confabs, if only for me to nag Birdsong about his place of employment and that damn computer that they sold me.

The results of the PPV notwithstanding, I loved how WWE snuck in the ads for Steve Austin’s movie “The Condemned” at every moment in order to boost that sagging $3.8 mil at the box office to bump it out of a ninth-place debut. That was some fabulous marketing genius, considering the fact that those that plunked down $35 to watch the PPV probably weren’t going to run out of the house at 9:10 PM EDT to run down to the multiplex and put even more money in Vince’s pocket for the night. I caught a snippet of a review Saturday on Ebert & Roeper, and they basically said it was more of an unintentional comedy than an action movie, and that WWE Films basically has produced a lot of crap so far.

Apparently most of those who watched the show were pleased with the entertainment value. On the other hand, I think those same people are appalled with what is going on in ECW right now, and that Vince uses some kind of ECW-brand toilet paper or something. But, I’m ahead of myself. Let’s run through the show…

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With the Shotgun relaunch and after just coming off Wrestlemania, we thought it would be a great idea to bring all the wrestling minds on the site together, knock each other’s heads in, and come up with our PPV predictions for this Sunday’s WWE Backlash in Atlanta, GA. Starring in this prognostication of sports entertainment are myself, Lyrical Lounge editor and lifelong Hulkamaniac Jonathan Birdsong, fellow wrestling contributor Corey Henson, and reviewer and former booker for World 1 South AWA Steven Ekstrom.

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How ironic that he’s wearing “prison jumpsuit orange” in that picture… 

Here’s the coverage I promised last week on the Disco Inferno fiasco. Also, check out my WWE News and Notes from last week.

Stay tuned for the Rasslin’ Ring Roundtable PPV Preview later this week. Steven Eks, Jonathan Birdsong, Corey Henson, and I will go for the gusto and preview WWE Backlash this Sunday on pay-per-view. Let’s hope we can work in a joke about Sid Vicious stabbing Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors in there somewhere.

Ah… the days when promos were promos and you didn’t need a TV script for your 15 Minutes of Crap.

While I reflect on the “good old days”, here are some thoughts of mine from last week, including an interview with The Rock’s former sparring partner Kevin Kelly. The only thing that was ever funnier was Rock getting The Coach to dance.

WWE News and Notes Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Kevin Kelly Interview Recap

Where Are They Now? Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman

Wrestlemania 23 Highlight Reel

WCW vs. GLOW

Former WCW Tag Teams to Reunite

Ex-Pro Wrestler Hurt in Fight

Steve Austin Interview (on The Condemned)

TNA Television News

Check back on Friday for my review of Mick Foley’s Hardcore Diaries and news on a special contest from WWE Books where you can get a phone call from Mick himself! I’ll also have my thoughts by then on the Disco Inferno poker bust and other odds and ends.

Results courtesy of Gerweck.net.

Don’t forget… the gimmick for the entire show is the SIX SIDES OF STEEL. It’s not overkill or anything.

The pre-show match had the Voodoo Kin Mafia over Serotonin, who acted as Christy Hemme’s mystery team. For one thing, it was stupid to promote this match for the main show when they didn’t have a team to put in there in the first place. It made TNA look like a bush league indy promotion that they promoted an empty spot in the card that they had to fill at the last minute with their own guys. To top it all off, then they had Hemme go out with Raven’s group. At what point did they align? This was just bad storytelling all around. Later on, Raven went to cane everybody, but Hemme ran off and Kazarian is the one who got caned after arguing with Raven. I care about none of this.

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For a post-Wrestlemania week, things seem to be awfully slow up there in Vinnie-Mac-Land. Here’s some pro wrestling stuff I had on the subject on my blog last week:

Guess Who’s the Biggest Wrestlemania Mark?

Autopsy Report Rules Bigelow’s Death an Accident

As I See It (Bob Magee on steroids and unhappiness in TNA)

WSX News and Notes

As I See It (Bob Magee on pro wrestling as a consumer-driven business)

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