Sunday, November 7, 2010

WWE Nexus, The Unusual Suspects

As WWE Suvivor Series approaches I once again find myself waiting with baited breath, feeling my prediction of a John Cena heel turn and a shift in the balance of power in WWE.  I have had months to think and speculate on who the higher power behind Nexus could be, and now it's about time to tell the why's behind the who's that I have posted on twitter over the past few weeks.

1. John Cena:  Perhaps the most unlikely to be considered the higher power behind Nexus he is also the one who makes the most sense.  If Cena was the mastermind of  Nexus then when he turns heel at Suvivor Series and remains a member of  Nexus when he has the opprotunity to leave it would make the situation look better for him to be the guy in charge instead just another member willing to take orders.  He's been the top guy so long it would be hard to swallow him as anything other than the alpha dog: face, heel or otherwise.

2. Triple H:  The Game has been my prime suspect for the longest amount of time.  For Helmsey to be the mastermind behind Nexus would allow him to return as a heel and maintain his feud with Randy Orton.  Throw in Stephanie into the mix as the possible Raw GM, and it returns the McMahon-Helmsley Faction to play, this time using Nexus in an attempt to wrest control of the company from Vince.

3. Michael Cole:  And I quote.....myself!  (As I quote myself.)  Although my prime suspicion has been that, the pot who calls the kettle black by calling Daniel Bryan a nerd, is the anonymous Raw GM I actually have also entertained the idea that he is the person in control of Nexus as well.  I pointed out a few weeks ago that I felt that Nexus was soon to make itself present on Smackdown, despite Wade Barrett's claim that Nexus has no interest in Smackdown.  However, since Smackdown's debut on Syfy Cole has apparently joined the announce team on a permanent basis.  Also members of Nexus claimed the WWE Tag Team Championship from a Smackdown tag team, as well as the fact that the Tag Team Champions can appear on any brand.  To be an announcer on all of WWE's main broadcast as well as the RAW GM would make Michael Cole a prime suspect to be the leader of Nexus.

Update:  Since this blog entry was first posted Nexus has made a physical presence on Smackdown two weeks in a row and the Nexus-Kane collusion continues!

4. Steve Keirn:  For those of you unaware of who Steve Kerin is he was a member of a tag team known as The Fabulous Ones in the 1980's, before his tag team partner, Stan Lane, joined the Midnight Express with Bobby Eaton.  Keirn has always been heavily into the Florida wrestling scene, and he currently runs Florida Championship Wrestling, and is the onscreen president of the company.  FCW is currently WWE's sole developmental territory, and it is also where every single NXT contestant has come from.  Since every member of Nexus with the exception of John Cena has come out of FCW so far is it too far of a leap to suspect the man in charge?  After all Keirn, for the most part, has the same background as a majority of the individuals who have competed on NXT, he wrestled a majority of his career on the independent circut, very well known in the NWA, AWA, Mid-South and the USWA, but realitively unknown in the WWF/WWE.  Perhaps masterminding Nexus would be Kerin's way of making himself known to the WWE Universe in a huge way.

5. Linda McMahon:  What, really?  "Liberal" Linda McMahon?  Well now that she has lost the senate race in Connecticut Mrs. McMahon has nothing else to do, and since she has resigned from WWE and holds no office there it would free her up for a lot of screen time.  She could claim that she knew that her rival was going to target her connection to WWE all along, and that she had created Nexus to take down the company she predicted was going to ruin her political career.

6. Vince McMahon:  Yes, it's true (hahahahaha), that Vince has been in a coma since getting a 450 splash from Justin Gabriel during a Nexus attack due to the fact that he had made the claim that he created and controled Nexus.  However, this is also the kind of typical swerve Vince likes to play.  Remember that Vince turned out to be the greater power that the Undertaker obeyed while in the midst of the Ministry of Darkness/Corporation feud.  The Corporate Ministry was born as a result and the rest is histroy, but as we know, especially in WWE, "where anything can happen", history tends to repeat itself.  And let's not forget that Vince himself invited the nWo to WWE in the past in the hopes of destroying his own company.

7. Shane McMahon:  Well, okay, I mentioned the rest of the McMahons so why not throw Shane under the bus too?  It has been a while since we saw Shane, and as the build up for the next Wrestlemania begins it would be as good of a time as any for him to come back.  Plus Shane and Vince have not majorly been at odds with each other since Shane "bought" WCW out from under Vince and the supsequent WCW/ECW invasion of the WWF.  Despite the fact that Shane has never been a major suspect in my book I would say that Shane-O-Mac had all the right tools to be the mastermind behind Nexus.

8. Chris Jericho:  Yes, I do hold out hope that Y2J his swerved us all.  Perhaps his slight feud with Nexus and recent injury are just a part of the "Greater Plan".  After all it was Jericho who acted as Wade Barrett's pro for NXT Season One, and at that time Barrett seemed to have respect for Jericho, despite the deteoriation of their relationship since Nexus appeared on Raw.

9. The Raw GM:  Okay, I truly believe that Michael Cole is the anonymous Raw GM, and my second choice for the mysterious General Manager is Stephanie McMahon followed by Zach Ryder as the third choice.  However, in the event that the Raw GM is someone entirely off my radar I would have to say that it doesn't matter, because the Raw GM is obviously connected with Nexus.  After all the general manager had the opprotunity to get rid of Nexus before it started, but instead put them in a position where they would be awarded Raw contracts.  Also the GM continually backs Wade Barrett's decisions, a very unusual move considering that a WWE authority figure's prime allegence should be to the company and not the leader of the group trying to bring it down.  In my opinion the Raw General Manger is too shady of a figure not to be a member of Nexus.

10. Brock Lesnar:  There is a great deal of speculation that Lesnar is set to return to the WWE, at least for Wrestlemania 27.  Could he really be the mastermind behind Nexus though?  Well why else would Nexus interfere in the Undertaker's Buried Alive Match at WWE Bragging Rights the night after Lesnar lost the UFC Heavyweight Championship and had a verbal confrontation the Undertaker?  Again I point out that it was not the first time that Nexus aided Kane in beating down the Undertaker (both Smackdown superstars)  Remember that the WWE Undisputed Championship was split into the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship after Lesnar chose to be exclusive to Smackdown and not appear on Raw to defend the title there.

11. Dixie Carter:  Waaaah?  Yes, Dixie Carter.  What if the TNA President knew that the company was a sinking ship as soon as she took Hogan and Bischoff on board and TNA Impact! failed to ignite a new Monday Night War Era against WWE Monday Night Raw?  What if she signed a secret contract with WWE, since as the primary owner of TNA she did not have a TNA contract with a non-compete clause in it, and became the General Manager Raw?  Masterminding Nexus would be Carter's way of taking revenge on the WWE for her own personal woes against the McMahons and the wrestling business in general, as well as a way to promote new talent, much the same way she did for TNA.

12. A Carter/Keirn Alliance:  Last on the list, maybe the most implausable, former TNA President Dixie Carter and FCW President Steve Keirn working together.  With both the Impact Zone and FCW based in Florida it would not be unlikely that at some point that Carter and Keirn have not met.  Perhaps it has all been a mutual scheme since Keirn was contacted about the creation of  NXT, he calls his friend Carter and tells her he had found on out for her with Hogan and Bischoff running TNA into the ground.

Well that would be my top dozen list of suspects for the mastermind behind Nexus.  Some of it is serious, some of it impossible and some of it implausable.  But at least I hope that it was more entertaining the anything on TNA Impact! for the past month.  Who is the mastermind of Nexus and what is going to happen?  Only time will tell, but my truest suspicions are in the top five on the list.

PS: I just used my acoustica audio mixer to create John Cena's post Survivor Series entrance music, the first few seconds of his current theme, The Time Is Now, fading right into We Are One.




Tuesday, October 26, 2010

WWE Boring Rights? Could Have Been Better!

Well WWE Bragging Rights came to pass, and along with it the knowledge that although many of My predictions did not pan out that the possibility is still open for most of them to happen.  I still eagerly anticipate that John Cena will make a full heel turn, and I think that there are many subtle hints that it is still going to happen.  Perhaps story development at WWE is waitng for a bigger pay-per-view, and for the results of the senate race in Connecticut.

Presenting Cena's heel turn will be all about presentation and surprise.  I know that he captures that all important 8 to 10 year old demographic the WWE has been after for the past few years, since it became a TV-PG Rated show.  If you look at it logically the WWE cleaning up its act (changing the F.U. to an A.A. and the like) was just the first step in cleaning up the company's image prior to Linda deciding she was suddenly going into politics.  And just as I knew it when I visited Fairfield this summer and walked into a pizza place where a commercial was running showing "Liberal" Linda McMahon kicking Jim Ross in the balls the senate race itself has been just as entertaining and dramatic as anything in WWE.

But back to Cena, who I had predicted would "accidentally" hit Randy Orton with a chair while the ref was knocked out at Bragging Rights while trying to hit Wade Barrett, before getting an evil look on his face and proceeding to beat Orton unconscious, and then getting the ref back into the ring to count the pin.  If you look at the things that have happened the past few weeks you get the sense that things are being purposefully to show him in a good light.  The Raw before Bragging Rights Barrett ordered him to do an A.A. on a beaten down Orton, before changing his mind at the last second and having him hand him over.  Then again last night Barrett ordered David Otunga to lay day and be pinned, again so that Cena would not be precieved as doing anything remotely bad, even under Barrett's "orders".

Now as to the sublte hints of Cena's impending heel turn?  Well the first would be the poster for WWE Survivor Series that was posted on Saturday.  The poster shows a scowling Wade Barrett on it, and since he is the only superstar on the poster it would seem to be an indication that he more than likely is going to become WWE Champion at the next pay-per-view.  Then last night on WWE Monday Night Raw when Cena confronted Barrett in the locker room there was another sublte hint in the background between the two men.  Sitting in a locker cubby was a Nexus hat.  I don't believe I have to point out the fact that the only person in Nexus who wears a hat is John Cena.  If you still have Raw on your DVR you will also note that the locker room was re-dressed for Barrett's confrontation with David Otunga, with other Nexus paraphanelia up but the hat missing.

The last little sublte hint was that as of last night all currently active on-screen Nexus members have held WWE championship gold  with the exception of Wade Barrett himself, so one can only but assume that the plan is to put the WWE Championship on him soon becuase traditionally the leader of any heel faction is going to be the top singles champion (i.e. Ric Flair, Raven, Triple H, Hollywood Hogan).

As for Bragging Rights it was a mix of the average and beyond all expectations.  I find it a little shocking that in the Bragging Rights match itself the defeat of Team Raw was played up as defeat from within.  Not that Team Smackdown didn't have all the tools to be victorious, but I was quite certain that Nexus would interject themselves into the match to help Smackdown win for no other reason than to humiliate Raw.

Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler I think was another outstanding example of a repeating theme, as last year The Miz won his one on one Bragging Rights match for Raw.  It was spectacular, and most would agree the rematch on Raw was just as spectacular.

Then there was Nexus's actual involvement in the PPV.  Cena and Otunga winning the WWE Tag Team Championship was totally unexpected.  It was also the first subtle hint that Smackdown will eventually, as I predict, have a Nexus prescence on it sometime in the very near future.  Why else would the decision be made to have a hot and dominant team like Smackdown's Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes drop the titles so quickly to an untested Raw tag team?  And then there was the interference in the Buried Alive match (which I was sure the Undertaker was going to win as him being beaten back to back in a Hell In A Cell and a Buried Alive match seemed unlikely under any circumsttances).  On Raw Wade Barrett assured that they had their reasons for helping Kane, but remember this is not the first time that Nexus helped Kane destroy the Undertaker.  I think the act of Nexus burying the Undertaker (the man viewed as the most dominant figure on Smackdown) is very symbolic, and shows to me that Nexus has plans for a Smackdown take-over.

In regard to the "Greater Plan" I think that there are a great many players in place.  My feeling is that Raw and Smackdown are going to be portrayed as being "taken over" by Nexus as secret members come to light in the wake of a John Cena heel turn.  I believe that Alex Riley, Tyler Reks, Caylen Croft, Trent Baretta, Sheamus, Zach Ryder and David Hart Smith are in fact secretly members of  Nexus.  The supposed former members Darren Young, Skip Sheffield and Michael Tarver are probably just waiting in the wings and biding their time so the fans will forget about them..  And let's not forget "Raw GM" Michael Cole, who is now reading and reacting to the e-mails a lot too fast.  And again I still firmly believe that Triple H will be revealed as the mastermind of Nexus, sometime atfer the Connecticut senate race is over.

As to what is upcoming at the next pay-per-view WWE Survivor Series.   Maybe I sound like a broken record, but Wade Barrett will win the WWE Championship when John Cena turns heel and takes out Randy Orton.  The catch is that Cena is the guest referee for the match, and if Barrett looses he will be fired, but if he wins he will supposedly be released from his obligations to Nexus.  It's all show to make Cena's heel turn that much sweeter. Immediately following the match The Miz will bring in another referee and attempt to cash in Money In The Bank, and Alex Riley will reveal his involvement in Nexus by knocking Miz out with the Money In The Bank briefcase as Barrett feigns an injury from the previous match to hold the ref's attention after the bell rings, until he miraculously revives and covers The Miz.  Survivor Series will end with Cena as a heel, Barrett as the WWE Champion, the Money In The Bank "Gurantee" broken, and Michael Cole saying, "If you're not Nexus you're against us," as pandemonium erupts around the ring.

Friday, October 22, 2010

TNA: Very Little Impact!

Last night I was messing around a little on twitter when I saw a retweet someone posted from Eric Bischoff basically saying to be sure to tune into an exciting TNA: Impact!.  Unable to help Myself I clicked on respond and asked, "Is there actually going to be any wresting, or will it be another hour and a half nWo style promo?"

Now, no, ATM Eric did not reply to Me, but I am sure about 10,000 other followers were sending him messages, so the chances he saw My lonely tweet are pretty slim, but it was just the principal of the thing, and it was a valid question.

Before getting into Impact itself let Me give you a quote from Dixie Carter that was replayed on the opening moments of Reaction that MY DVR happened to catch.  "I am here to make history, no to repeat history."  Again a fitting and timely quote since TNA Wrestling went from being a fairly innovative company to WCW circa 1998 in four days flat.

Yes, Virgina, there was wrestling on TNA Impact! , squeezed between a nice chunk of promos.

Now for those who don't know I was in Lakeland, Florida in 1987, for the first stop of the NWA Great American Bash, On Tour.  (Yes, that's right NWA Great American Bash)  And I have to say that the action I saw 20 plus years ago and later brodcast on NWA Florida Championship Wrestling (yeah that same FCW that Nexus and the rest of those WWE NXT hopefuls were pulled from) was a lot more exciting and innovative for their time than anything I saw on Thursday night.  (The only simularity between the two events was that Ric Flair was at both of them).

After the opening promo between Mr. Anderson, RVD, Jeff Hardy and Eric Bischoff, to set the tone for the evening we were treated to a squash match between Robbie E. and Amazing Red.  Really?  One of the most innovative high flyers in TNA is delegated to being a mid card jobber?  Well nothing new, crusierweights have always been pushed down low on the card under Bischoff's watch.  You never saw Chris Jericho or Rey Mysterio become WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and they were never close in the Bischoff Era in that company.

What's next?  Going to make all the masked wrestlers in TNA unmask?

Oh, wait!  I guess that happened in a way since Kazarian passed the Suidice torch on to Kiyoshi.

The Shore is about the stupidest thing in TNA right now, and believe Me it is at the tail end of a list of very stupid things.  At least when Dustin Runnels debued as Sevin everyone knew it was not going to work and it was an abortion right on the spot.  I can't say I really want to watch a wannabe Zach Ryder doing an impression of a wannabe Jersey Shore cast member.  (On the Zach Ryder note let's call him the Garden State Stink-EE).  If Strauss and Treston care anything about the fans or the business they should break their contracts and leave.  He can go back to Jersey Pro Wrestling and she can head back to CZW or ROH, where as individuals they still might have some relavence.  No feud with Jay Lethal.  If the plan is to put the X Division Title on this no-talent you might as well see if Doink the Clown and Kergan the Interrigator want shots at it next.

The next thing I have to ask is just what the hell crack pipe were you smoking when you decided to do a promo of ex-Katie Lea Burchill, Katarina Waters, as Winter a ghostly woman who apparently only Angelina Love can see?  Did somene say, "Here, let me hit on that bitch, cause man I got a good idea.  Why don't we have Katarina be a ghostly kind of figure, just like when the Warrior kept appearing as a specter to Hogan in WCW.  Man that would be so cool!  Ratings will go through the roof!"

(For all you who may not get that above I am sorry for being one of the five people who actually remember the Warrior's stint in WCW).

"Gee, what else could we rehash?", Kevin Sullivan ask after a bong hit from his perch in the Tree of Woe.  Well of course, feuding color commentators.  I mean it worked so well between Mike Tennay and Don West last year, let's do the same thing with Mike and Taz?  I might have worked if: One it had any relevance, and Two they didn't go from between suspicious, to working well together, to suspicious, to working well together, to suspicious all in the course of the same match.

Mickie James debued.  Snore.  Her bouncing the fun bags around as she made her way to the ring when she wrestled in WWE is the only reason anyone cares about Mickie.  Her finishing kick to Serita was so telegraphed that Hellen Keller could have seen it coming.  Hey, Mickie!  You're about nine months too late to come to TNA to start a serious career in women's wrestling.  Just as Angelina Love and "Winter".

In case you think I have forgotten I am not mentioning the match between The Pope and A.J. Styles that Eric mandated that Fourtune could not interfere in, I haven't.  It just isn't worth talking about, other than the fact that as far as action was concerned it was the high point of the night.  It was another of those swerves that Hellen Keller could have seen a mile away.  I mean I was as convinced that someone else would not interfere in that match as I was that Nick Dinsmore was Eric's real nephew, Eugene, that Jesse Barr was the long-lost Funk brother Jimmy Jack and that any of the Andersons (including Mr. Anderson) are actually related.  (Yeah, yeah Olie and Gene are, but Arn, C.W. and Ken are not).

YW for that wayward plug, Asshole.

Seeing RVD and Sabu work together again was a treat, but altogether short lived.  The shoving match after the mis-cue and the defeat by Beer Money may be the only part of intersting story-telling on all of Impact.  An attempt to show cracks in the old ECW/EV.2 brotherhood is something no one has ever seen before.  However it just comes off as so hard to believe that RVD could have pulled out a 12 gague and blown Sabu away and the fans still wouldn't buy it.

Then a heafty bong hit later Vince Russo says, "Hey, Eric, Eric.  I got an idea.  Man, I'm so stoned I can feel myself thinking."

"What is it, man?," Eric questions.  "Like the New Blood and the Millionares Club?"

Oh, no of course not.  How about a main event where the face is against all odds?  Oh, yeah, vintage WWF Attitude Era stuff.  A one armed Ken Anderson in an Ultimate X Match.  As innovative as putting Hornswoggle and the Great Kali in a ladder match (Any guesses at to who would win?  No because even with a ladder Hornswoggle still couldn't reach whatever was suspended above the ring.)  The true innovation was that the main event was a squash match of the worst kind.  At least when Stone Cold Steve Austin was in a no-win situation he always won.

I have to skip ahead to the end because I want to save My main point for last.  As likely as Eminem and Elton John's duet, Easy E and the Nature Boy are leaving to go to the club together in a limo.  There is, for some stange reason a camera filming inside the limo as well as outside.  Huh???????  And suddenly Kurt Angle appears, bashing in the windows and basically ruffling Ric Flair's feathers.  Could have worked.  Maybe.  IF JEFF JARRETT HAD BEEN IN THE LIMO TOO!

Finally back to the end of the main event, after clearing Fourtune from the ring Mr. Anderson is attacked from behind by Jeff Hardy.  Other than in the opening promo, Jeff has nothing to add.  No taunting Anderson while he is down and out, no telling the fans how great his is as the anti-Christ of pro-wrestling, nothing but getting into the faces of the fans at ringside and yelling at them as he is getting ready to make his exit.

ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING STUPID AS WELL AS SMOKING CRACK???!!!

Between Hogan, Bischoff, Taylor, Russo, Sullivan, Flair and whoever else is contributing to story development at TNA there has to be at least 100 years of experience in the business between you.  You can't have a heel World Champion without letting him have free run of the mic.  I said last week that it was going to be a make or break deal.  Jeff Hardy has the company on his shoulders now, he's the champion, THE MAN, as Flair would say.  He is the guy everyone wants to hear talk about himself and his evil deeds, not guys who are either retired from the business or non-wrestlers.  If this is to be the pattern, of the silent Jeff Hardy adding nothing new as a heel other than just being a "bad guy" then TNA Wrestling has nowhere to go but down.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

WWE Bragging Rights Logo Says It All

The addition of the Nexus logo to the WWE Bragging Rights logo seems to say it all to Me.  Although many of My predictions for Bragging Rights were off base I still maintain that John Cena will make a full heel turn, taking out Randy Orton and handing the WWE Championship to Wade Barrett raising his hand in victory at the end of the match.  I also still believe that The Miz will come to the ring to cash in Money in the Bank, and that Alex Riley will hit him with the case as Barrett feigns an injury  at the beginning of the match to reveal that he is a member of Nexus as he aids Barrett in retaining the championship in his first defense.

Although shaky I still feel some of My predictions will eventually pan out.  I am still convinced that Michael Cole is both the Raw GM and a member of Nexus.  I believe at some future point, perhaps after the senate race is over, that Triple H will be revealed as the mastermind behind Nexus.  I am also still pretty sure that Tyler Reks is a part of Nexus and that at some point in the not too distant future that there will be a Nexus presence on Smackdown.

As far as any further Bragging Rights predictions: Well since it is a Buried Alive match the Undertaker will definately be victorious against Kane.  I can't see him loosing a Hell In A Cell and a Buried Alive match back to back.  Plus since no championships are on the line Daniel Bryan will defeat Dolph Ziggler with ease.  As for the Bragging Rights match itself, it goes to Team Smackdown, due to interference by Nexus to keep Team Raw from winning.

Be sure to follow StandUpForWWE on twitter.  If TNA Wrestling's Eric Bischoff endorses it then everyone else shoud too.


Monday, October 18, 2010

TNA: Itchweeed To Stankweeed, Jeff Is A Heel!

So TNA Bound For Glory 10-10-10 came to pass.  "THEY" appeared to take over.  A couple of weeks ago I gave My predictions of who THEY would be, since THEY were already there and had been there since January.  The ringleaders and puppetmaster were revealed as Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Eazy-E Eric Bischoff, just as I knew they would be.  However a few of My predictions fell short, and there were a couple of suprises.  I had fully expected that during the three on two handicap match that Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash would turn on their respective partners.  Of course that did not happen, but to My surprise Jeff Jarret turned out to be the one aligned with THEY.  Second prediction not to come to pass, Kurt Angle did not win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.  That honor went to Jeff Hardy, who was also aligned with THEY, a group that for the time being at least is calling itself Immortal.

History, whether a work or not tends to repeat itself.  The closing moments of Bound For Glory 2010 no doubt took many long time fans back to 1996 and WCW Bash At The Beach.  You could say THEY gave you the biggest hint as to what was going to happen since both pay-per-views took place in the same building and a little over 14 years apart.  The image of Jeff Hardy standing in the ring with Hogan and Bischoff as fans threw trash in the ring vividly mirrored Hogan himself standing with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash 14 plus years earlier as fans threw trash into the ring when Hogan revealed himself to be aligned with The Outsiders.

Jeff Hardy.  The charismatic enigma.  The rainbow-haired warrior.  The insane and twisted Itchweeed himself!  Oh, no!  Jeff Hardy has gone heel.  It is the most terrible thing to happen in his career.

Or is it really?

Let's face facts.  Sometimes a heel turn can make a wrestler's career.  The history of the business is replete with faces turning heel and it working wonders for their career:  Chris Jericho, Barry Wyndham, Stan Lane,
Shawn Michaels, Shad Gaspard.  (Okay I am still waiting on the last one to pay off, but I still say he is the destined to be the new Shawn Michaels).  When you look back to 1996, when Hulk Hogan became Hollywood Hogan, it revitalized his career.  He was still popular, and without a doubt the most famous wrestler alive (as he still is), but without joining the nWo and turning heel Hogan really had no where else to go.  He made the heel turn, joined the nWo and changed wrestling history forever.

Now, remember again, history has a way of repeating itself.  But I will get to that in a minute.  First let Me turn My attention to Jeff Hardy.

Turning heel is going to work wonders for Jeff's popularity and career.  I realize from what little he had said on TNA Impact! this Thursday that the development of his persona is in a embryonic stage, but I did love the fact that he sounded like a cross between Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear, the Hal 9000 Computer from 2001 and Raven.  A good gimmick does not come overnight.  Remember Hogan was paraphrasing "Anything else would be uncivilized," from a commercial he had done between working for the WWF and WCW for several weeks before someone finally came up with, "nWo 4 Life".

Jeff has the histroy to be the guy who was doing everything he could for the fans, putting his body on the line for little reward other than the cheers of the crowd.  Anyone who has followed his career knows that he spent a majority of his WWF/WWE career as probably the most popular wrestler who never went anywhere.  Jeff was stuck high on the mid-card, either being a tag team champion with his brother Matt, or fighting back and forth battles for the Intercontinental Championship, while in the meantime guys like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and Edge were being handed world titles left and right, and all but one of those guys came along after Jeff had his career well established.

I think it is fitting that Taz has talked Jeff up to this point as a former world champion.  WWE squandered his talent and missed their mark by not keeping either the WWE or WWE World Heavyweight Championship on him for any length of time.  They blew the WWE Championship title reign on a pointless feud with his brother, when they just should have kept their aborted plans to unveil Christian as Jeff's mystery assailant.  I know I would have much rather seen a feud between the Hardys and Edge and Christian rekindled that the series of matches that Jeff had against Matt.  Jeff's World Heavyweight Championship reigns were wasted to do nothing other than to put C.M. Punk over as a heel (another late comer to the WWE who already had longer world world title reigns than all of Jeff's combined, and you can include his days served thus far as TNA World Heavyweight Champion in on that.)

So he has the backstory of the world champion who barely ever was and was never given the chance to really speak by his former employer.  (And as a reminder, to keep you from forgetting, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were former disgruntled WWF employees when they first showed up in WCW).  But what else does Jeff have to bring to the table as a heel?  A heel has to speak, a lot, and in the past Jeff has always been seen as more of a man of action than of words.  Jeff's brief heel run in the WWF when he and Matt were the New Brood, he really did not do any speaking.  However, although I have not seen much from his early days in OMEGA, I do know that one of the characters he played there, Will-O-The-Wisp, was quite the talker.  And if you have ever watched The Hardy Show and seen Jeff play Itchweeed you know he can talk some seriously funny and insane shit.  Perhaps he needs to develop a character along those lines for TNA.  Let's call him Stankweeed, and he can be a heel who is funny and entertaining on a different level than Hall and Nash.

So how will Jeff ultimately play out as his heel personal in TNA develops?  Only time will tell, however he needs to be allowed to come into it on his own, and not play it as a Hogan or Bischoff directed character.  The fate of TNA is now in Jeff's hands, and the role he plays as the bad guy is going to make or break the company.  You may think that sounds unlikely, but the fact is he wants to be the make guy and not the make it for a couple of years guy.

Coming off what TNA Wrestling considers its biggest pay-per-view, Bound For Glory, TNA Impact! was an exercise in disappointment, and wrestling fans know that the WWE Monday Night Raw following a Wrestlemania is something special and spectacular.  Again I was taken back to any given WCW Monday Nitro in the late 1990s.  As soon as the as the shot panned into the arena The nWo Theme hit and Hogan and Bischoff come strutting out through the pyro.  Then began what Chris Jericho called in his book A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex, One of the nWo's "endless opening promos."  The high point was when Fortune came out, although I expected from those early days of the nWo that TNA'a top heel faction was coming to save the day, it pleasantly turned out to be something different.  I did see it coming, knew Hogan and Flair were going to hug and not fight before Flair had his trusty Rolex off.  That was innovative and refreshing, however already it meant that Immortal had as many members as it took the nWo to pick up in nine months.  Ric Flair hugged Hollywood Hogan, and that My friends was the highpoint of the night.

The opening promo lasted for 30 minutes.  Then for another 20 minutes there was backstage action between Dixie Carter, Kevin Nash and Sting, followed by more of the same between Carter, Hogan and Bischoff.  At 50 minutes in there was finally a match.  (If you can call it that).  The worst TNA Knock-Outs Match in history.  I'd rather watch the late Rhonda Sing and Harvey Wippleman in a dress rolling around in a kiddie pool full of gravy.  TNA has always provided half-respectable women's wrestling, but I think we can kiss that goodbye as long as Bischoff has any power.  Then the only time the show really came alive, Kurt Angle's confrontation with Jeff Jarret, but even that was brief and not as deeply personal as it could have gotten.  One hour and 20 minutes in we finally had a real match between Abyss and Samoa Joe, followed by a five on one handicap match between Fortune and the Pope.  Unfortunately since I refuse to watch TNA Reaction the DVR cut off after the match between RVD and Mr. Anderson barely began, but I have a sinking feeling of how things went down.  And just to say one last thing about Reaction, at least when Nitro went to three hours it was two hours of wrestling and an hour of promos, and not this pseudo doucumentary crap that is so boring the only way to hook anyone into watching it is to run Impact! over into its time-slot.  LIKE EVERY FUCKING WEEK!  At least WWE had enough respect for the fans to take WWE NXT off brodcast television in the U.S.

Whether it was a work or whether it was a shoot, Kevin Nash and Sting were shown doing the right thing by walking away from TNA.  Since it has gone from zero to late 1990's WCW Monday Nitro in less than a week it would be a clear sign to a blind man that the Titanic is sinking.  Bischoff (ATM Eric) was once thought of as a wonder in the business, but it is fairly apparent he was a one hit wonder.  The only way to prove Me wrong is for something really new and innovative to happen in TNA, which I feel that he and Hogan understand the things that make it work as much as Vince McMahon understood what made ECW work.  Despite the fact that Bischoff had perhaps the longest stint as WWE Raw General Manager he really did not do anything too inovative in his tenure.  If the idea is to rehash the nWo in the hopes of drawing ratings it will only work for the short term.  If the fans do not have a new and spetacular angle within, I would say, six months, then this will end only in one way, with Vince McMahon chuckling to himself as he purchaces the TNA archives to run on WWE Classics On-Demand.

So if Bischoff fails it will be up to Jeff Hardy, the Charasmatic Heel, to carry TNA into the future.  Given the mic, the motivation, the chance, and above all the right persona, Jeff can out talk Austin, Cena, JBL, Randy Orton or any other guy off the street that WWE has given a chance to while overlooking Jeff for years.  If Jeff does not step up and assert himself backstage and design a character to stand along with the greats TNA Wrestling will either go out of business or be sent packing into relative obsurity like the National Wrestling Alliance.

A Lion's Tale: Yes 2 Jericho!

Earlier this evening I finished reading A Lion's Tale: Around The World In Spandex by Chris Jericho.  The book was all I expected it to be and more.  In it Y2J himself, relates his life and career from the fan, Chris Irvine, watching matches on TV in the basement with his grandmother to the moment the "Millenium Counter" hit zero and he walked out to engage in his first verbal confrintation with The Rock as he stepped onto WWF Monday Night Raw for the first time.

Jericho gives a revealing, funny and sometimes sad and tear jerking look into his career.  He seems to hold nothing back, and unlike many books I can clearly hear Jericho's voice in My head as he tells his tale, as well as the voices of several members of the pro wrestling scene I remember from through the years.  I think I was actually surprised, truly realizing that there are only a few years which seperate us in age, and like him I remember the glory days of the independents and territories.  I also watched several shows from various promotions over the weekend (oh, the glory days).

It was great to have an inside look at many of his memorable moments.  I vividly remember him building his feud with Dean Malenko.  Loved his crazy security guy, Ralphus, and could not wait for him to cut promos.  I will never forget that first night he came to Raw, which blew me away since I did not know he had left WCW.  My ex-wife was pissed, and told her friends that only watched WWF wrestling that they would hate him because all he did what whine and cry whenever he lost a belt.

Jericho is the man, and he is special, as I do not think any other wrestler could spin this tale.  No matter where he is now you have to admit he was special, not only booked to win the first undisputed WWF-WCW Championship, but to do it by beating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same night.  Many forget that the man at the very bottom of the pile in that four man tournament was Kurt Angle, who did not advance to the finals but is somehow considered the greatest wrestler alive.