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| With TNA’s pending big announcement this weekend I thought I would take an in depth look at TNA, and share with you some of my thoughts. I think the one thing we can all agree on is that TNA is an important part of this industry. The North American wrestling scene really does need a non-WWE option. By having a second option there are more places for the boys to work and more leverage in getting a fair deal. The same can be said for fans. By having a second option fans can pick and choose the product that they like and send a message to promoters. Promoters have to give fans more bang for their buck if there are other places to shop. Lets face it, a large portion of the current audience are die-hard wrestling fans who aren’t going to just tune out and stop watching. If a wrestling junkie needs a fix and there is only one dealer in town, that dealer doesn’t have to push their product very hard or ensure it’s offering quality. Competition is always good for the consumer. I think TNA’s existence also benefits WWE. Vince has always been at his best when he has an opponent. Vince is a warrior and a competitor, without an adversary a warrior can’t stay sharp. WWE hit it’s all time best when WCW was kicking its butt. I’d love to see Vince get backed into a corner again, just to see the way he comes out swinging. This raises the all-important question; can TNA grow enough to compete with WWE? To be honest I doubt it, and I don’t think competing should be their goal, at least not for a long time. The industry can support 2 companies so their goal should be to succeed on the own first and if they can do that they will become competition by default. This may seem a small point but succeeding is going to be a tough enough battle without challenging Vince head on from the start. The reason I think succeeding is so tough is that Vince has done such an amazing job of brand recognition. He has almost completely destroyed the “pro-wrestling” industry. WWE is such a strongly identifiable name that it has surpassed the term pro-wrestling. I think a lot of fans are to the point where they see themselves as WWE fans not wrestling fans. If asked they would likely say they watch RAW or SmackDown each week, not that they watch wrestling. Again this is a small point but little things like this add up and it’s harder for TNA, or any group for that matter, to gain an identity. They have to establish themselves as a worth while wrestling product and then convince WWE fans that they are in fact “wrestling” fans and TNA is something they would enjoy. I think the name TNA is a hindrance as well. When TNA began I thought it was going to be the NWA and that TNA was going to be the name of the show, much like WWE is the company and RAW or SmackDown are the shows. When trying to introduce new fans to TNA (an absolute must) it always takes extra explaining. There are two problems with the name in my opinion. The first problem I have with the name is that the name makes no sense from a company stand point. If I worked for TNA I would feel silly telling someone I work for Total Non-Stop Action, if they asked me what TNA stood for. The company name is an acronym that doesn’t make any sense as a company name. I could be a part of World Wrestling Entertainment, or World Championship Wrestling, or The National Wrestling Alliance, but being a part of Total Non-Stop Action requires further explanation. The company name is more a play on words for T & A, and when trying to establish a national brand name basing it on childish sexual innuendo is likely not the best route. I also find it confusing that there is no TNA champion; there is an NWA champion. If you are a TNA wrestler why aren’t you the TNA champ. Little things like this water down name and brand recognition and bring more confusion to new fans, and NEW fans are the key to TNA’s success. There is a reason Vince shoved WWF and then WWE down our throats. He established a brand name bigger than the industry itself. It’s like Kleenex or Jell-O, people don’t go out to buy facial tissue or flavoured gelatin, they buy Kleenex and Jell-O. Fans today aren’t watching pro-wrestling anymore they are watching WWE. TNA has to establish their brand name in order to succeed and are clouding the issue with using both TNA and NWA and for the matter The Impact Zone. This isn’t just about booking wrestling anymore this is about marketing and brand recognition!! I guess I should start looking at the actual product before this commentary turns into a short novel. The product itself is usually quite good, or at least has the potential to be. The X-Division was a great creation and something I think should be focuses on more. Naming it the X-Division rather than a smaller weight division was brilliant. The X-Games are huge and they are pushing a more exciting more X-Treme style of wrestling, without drawing attention to the fact that these guys are smaller. I would hazard to guess even Vince McMahon wishes he’d come up with that name rather than Cruiser Weight Division. The talent roster in TNA is deep enough in both name value and talent to produce a great product, in my opinion, it’s just finding the best way to book and present in on TV in order to sell PPVs. This is the tough part. With only 1-hour of TV each week how do you establish enough characters and get over sufficient angles to sell a PPV? I’m not entirely sure you can. You are left with the decision to put all your eggs in one basket and promote one top feud heavy on TV and just lightly touch on others, or rush several and not really devote sufficient time to either. Hopefully the big announcement Sunday will be a second hour of TV but if not something I would consider doing, and I have no idea if this would even work, would be to go to a post produced show, like ECW used to be. Don’t run your Impact tapings like a TV show, run them like a wrestling event and cover the event on Impact and show portions of matches. TV time limits ruin wrestling, and wrestling action is what TNA is supposed to be selling. No one can build heat or excitement in a 3-minute TV match, so matches, more often than not; end up being pointless high spot fests that burn out the crowd. In ECW we wrestled all our matches with no time limits, we went out there and worked until we had the crowd. We build our matches and always had a hot crowd come the finish. On the TV show Joey would talk about the matches and we would get to see highlight, and those highlights would be of amazing action with super hot crowds. We would see the portions of the matches that best sold the action or the important angles. We told the stories but never gave away the whole product. After watching the TV show, fans wanted to be there live to see the entire match. This led to both live attendance and an interest in buying PPVs. As a fan in order to see these amazingly hot matches in there entirety you had to pay to be there live or order them on PPV, because you only got samples on TV for free. This also gave individual talent a better chance to get over. You were given a chance to get yourself over with a crowd and make your matches mean something. If you could get yourself over with longer matches and your work, this could lead to a better push. With 2-3 minute short TV matches most of the X-Division guys end up being interchangeable. We get very little personality, very little psychology and it ends up being a battle of who can do more shit in 3 minutes. Again this numbs a crowd and makes things meaningless. There is another up side to booking matches this way; it’s different. How many times (on either companies show) do we see a program with wrestler A and wrestler B where they have a promo/run in segment to get the angle started? The next week wrestler A has 3 minute squash match on TV where wrestler B comes out and gets involved in the finish. The next week the reverse happens and there is a pull apart. After that it’s off to the PPV. Fans have seen this formula booking a thousand times and the filler squash matches do not provide enough entertainment for me to bother tuning in. With my approach wrestler A and B could actually work each other with in competitive quality matches an un-decisive, yet interest creating finish. You only air highlights and the angle explaining finish. Fans get to see a glimpse of what seemed like a hot match (the crowd should be hot it’s a main event program match with time to build) and enough of the finish to “tell the story”. When the chance to see the whole match and the one with whatever stipulations is supposed to settle the feud, there should be enough interest to be willing to pay for it. Match quality will also improve because guys will be working better and longer matches with each other building to PPVs. Wasn’t one of the major TNA complaint that Monty Brown wasn’t working enough extra dates to improve his work? If he worked Christian in more legit matches building to the PPV matches he’d have gotten a ton more experience right there. He learns nothing working 1-minute pounce matches and to be honest I get no entertainment value from them. It takes more creative booking to do things this way, but without time restraints on TV matches a lot more options are available to be utilized as well. TNA would likely require an additional TV taping each month with this format, but it would at least make TNA’s TV product look completely different, and might be cheaper than hiring more high priced talent, which doesn’t seem to be producing the numbers they are looking for. I’m not saying this is the solution; I’m just throwing it out there as an option to consider. It worked to a large extend for ECW. It gave it a unique feel and allowed the boys the time and freedom to get themselves over on their own terms. ECW was a hot must see product, that everyone in the industry felt was different. Longer matches are what can establish and get over unknown faces. Even WWE has a hard time getting over new faces that only get 3-minute TV matches, This ended up more negative than I planned it to be. I want to be clear I both like and want this company to succeed and am a big fan of a lot of guys on their talent roster. I’m more pointing out limitations they face with their current 1-hour format and proposing a few things I feel could increase their chances of success. I think the future of this business depends a lot on TNA’s survival; the industry and fans alike need it to be here and need it to succeed. |
| QUOTE (D.A.V.E. @ Oct 9 2006, 04:02 PM) |
| Quick question. What does Konnan's '51 50" stuff mean |
| QUOTE (Mad Dog @ Oct 9 2006, 07:14 PM) |
| Yeah, he's been pitching being a manager for a few months now. |
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| CHRIS JERICHO AND FOZZY TO APPEAR ON "iMPACT!" BEFORE "BOUND FOR GLORY" See the national television debut of "Enemy" from Fozzy By Bill Banks On Thursday, October 19, on TNA "iMPACT!" on SpikeTV at 11pm ET, Chris Jericho and his band "Fozzy" will be featured in a music video for the song "Enemy" from their "All That Remains" album. The national television debut of the video will feature Jericho and Fozzy along with the stars of TNA Wrestling just days before the "Bound For Glory" Pay-Per-View extravaganza on Sunday, October 22 live from Detroit, Michigan. TNA Wrestling directors David Sahadi and Kevin Sullivan, who have worked with Jericho in the past, will be producing the music video for the "iMPACT!" broadcast. "This is simply awesome," Sahadi told TNAwrestling.com "I have always had tremendous admiration for Chris Jericho as a professional and as a person. He's one of the coolest guys I know." Don't forget - TNA Wrestling's "iMPACT!" goes primetime on Thursday, November 16 at 9pm ET! |
| QUOTE (Mad Dog @ Oct 13 2006, 08:59 PM) | ||
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| QUOTE (dynamite kido @ Oct 9 2006, 03:11 PM) | ||
5150 is police code for someone that's insane. |
| QUOTE (whitewahoomcdaniel @ Oct 17 2006, 09:51 AM) |
| Actually Eddie Van Halen's signature amp, made by Peavey, is a model # 5150. That goes back to the times of David Lee Roth. |
| QUOTE (eStragand @ Oct 17 2006, 02:13 PM) | ||
Hmm...did not know that. Off-topic, but I remember when "5150" came out, my Big Brother the Prick said "5150?! They're ripping off 2112!" Back to Fozzy, but that video's been out for awhile. Maybe a year or more. I remember seeing it on some music channel. Jericho and the band are singing on top of a building and some parapeligic dude crawls his wall up the steps. So it sounds like a lot of unnecssary hyperbole. Of course, the bigger story is Jericho being connected with TNA...and I suppose that's their point. |
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| Credit: John Brzys & PWInsider.com The following is a recap of Kurt Angle's appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show today. -Kurt and Bubba started off talking about Daniel Puder, Kurt quickly called Puder a "moron" and a "piece of shit". Soon after Bubba played some clips of the Puder interview from Tuesday's show. After playing the clips Bubba, Kurt and the rest of the guys were all laughing and making fun of Puder. Kurt stated that Puder "needs help." -According to Kurt, Dana White had a private discussion with him regarding a possible Puder fight, Kurt stated that Dana White told him that he knew the fight would only last 40 seconds and that Kurt would knock Puder out in the first round but White still wanted to do it because it would be the biggest buy rate ever. Kurt also said that Dana mentioned how it would be the biggest buy rate ever because of Kurt fighting in the UFC not because of Puder. According to Kurt, Dana White told him that the kid (Puder) is limited and that he doesn't want Kurt to knock him out right away, just toy with him a little. -Kurt admitted that his neck isn't in great shape and that during the Puder match in WWE Kurt couldn't even do five push ups and he still dominated Puder. Kurt mentioned if he fought Puder now he would probably kill him. Kurt also mentioned that while Puder was in WWE he had a match with Shelton Benjamin, afterwards Shelton came to Angle backstage and said, "your right Kurt, this guy (Puder) really sucks". -Kurt again talking about Puder said that he is nothing more than a wanna be shoot fighter. Kurt said that Puder should try and fight someone decent and not just go up against bums and crack heads. Kurt mentioned that Puder can't take a strike. Kurt said that even if he beats him, Puder will still get notoriety for fighting Kurt. Kurt also mentioned that he thinks of himself as being on the same level of Tito Ortiz. -Kurt said that if Dixie Carter would allow it, as a favor to Bubba and to finally shut Puder up he would fight him for free on Bubba's show. Kurt said he has been practicing MMA and that everyone will see how good he is in his upcoming matches in TNA. -Kurt said after he wins he would pull his shorts and rub his balls in Puder's face. Bubba asked to speak to Kurt's wife Karen. When Bubba asked Karen about a possible Puder fight she said that it will never happen because she doesn't want Puder to get any attention. Kurt came back on and then stated that after he knocks Puder out he would let Karen go in the ring to piss and shit on Puder's face. -Closing up, Bubba spoke to Kurt about TNA for a couple minutes. Kurt mentioned how great the Primetime show will be and that his match against Abyss is great and it will be a match of the year candidate. |
| QUOTE (whitewahoomcdaniel @ Nov 10 2006, 10:25 AM) |
| How is that? You gotta be a serious mark to by into that stuff. |
| QUOTE (TNAWrestling.com) |
| THE VOODOO KIN MAFIA TAKE THE MISSION ON THE ROAD Attend WWE live event in Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday night TNAwrestling.com has learned that the Voodoo Kin Mafia have taken their mission on the road once again, this time attending a WWE live event in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday night. The news spread quickly to the internet, and we phoned BG James – on location outside the arena – for his comments. “In order to get Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Michael Hickenbottom and Paul Levesque to cease and desist the ‘dumb to the xtreme’ television skits, we will follow them to the ends of this earth – well, in this case, Knoxville, Tennessee,” James told us. The TNA star told us that he and Kip James were about to attempt to purchase tickets to enter the event, however, the sheer enormity of the prices may put the mission at risk. “We might not be able to get in, but we’ll stay here all night until we get what we want – we’ve got the cease and desist letter, video cameras and even the SpongeBob Squarepants blanket – because it’s damn cold out here!” According to reports, the Voodoo Kin Mafia have been joined at the arena by a large mass of fans carrying posters supporting TNA. “Good thing this isn’t a television taping,” James commented, “otherwise those fans wouldn’t be allowed to bring those signs in!” TNAwrestling.com hopes to have more on this breaking situation on Saturday |
| QUOTE (PWInsider) |
| TNA STARS ENTER RAW HOUSE SHOW DURING HHH'S MATCH, MORE LIVE NOTES FROM KNOXVILLE by Mike Johnson @ 10:22:00 PM on 12/1/2006 TNA stars the Voodoo Kin Mafia entered the Knoxville Civic Center as Triple H made his way to the ring for a singles bout against Randy Orton. There were scattered TNA chants from fans as BG and Kip James came into the venue and watched the match from upper level "nosebleed" seats they had purchased for the show. TNA announcer Jeremy Borash was also in attendance. at the event. There was no acknowledgment from HHH of the TNA personalities on the mic. Rich in Knoxville sent the following....I just received a call and TNA shot footage with my girlfriend outside in Knoxville. She's at the show and I don't have all the details as I didn't get to make it as I'm at work but before her signal went bye she told me that they said Vince Russo would like to use her in a promo. She agreed. In the skit, she asks Kip if he remembers her. He says no and she says they met several years ago in Nashville. She then presented Kip with a surprise, that being "his child." He then runs off as if he's getting the hell out of there. Funny stuff....The venue was mostly full with some scattered seats empty on the floor. |
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| A TNAWRESTLING.COM EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TOMKO Conducted by Bill Banks On Friday evening, TNAwrestling.com’s Bill Banks conducted an exclusive interview over the phone with Tomko concerning the ongoing situation with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Abyss. During the interview, Tomko not only revealed that Abyss was indeed incarcerated in prison, but gave us some insight on the champion’s time there. The below is the complete transcript from the phone conversation… BANKS: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. TOMKO: Cage said you would probably be calling me. A little piece of advice before we begin – don’t cut me off like you did to him in his interview. BANKS: I’m sorry if he is upset about that. TOMKO: Well, I don’t think he’s going to be giving you any more interviews. Listen, I’ve only got a few minutes here so make it quick. BANKS: Let’s start off by talking about the situation with Abyss. How do you know him? TOMKO: You don’t beat around the bush, do you? Why should I tell you anything? This is between me, Cage and Abyss. BANKS: Then why do you keep bringing it up on national television? Don’t the fans have a right to know? TOMKO: The fans? Do I look like I give a crap about what the fans think? BANKS: Let me ask you this then – what was the building we saw on “iMPACT!” this past week – the place Cage called Abyss’ “home”? TOMKO: That was the house. BANKS: The house? TOMKO: The big house, man…as in prison. BANKS: So Mike Tenay was correct on the broadcast? TOMKO: Do I stutter? Next question. BANKS: Ok…well, where is this prison? TOMKO: Next question. BANKS: Care to offer up the name of the prison? TOMKO: Nope. BANKS: Did you bring Christian Cage to the prison to film that video? TOMKO: Yup. BANKS: What about the “room” that Cage mentioned? TOMKO: You’re not too bright, are you? Put two and two together – that cell belonged to Chris. BANKS: By “Chris” you’re talking about Abyss’ real name, right? TOMKO: Ya. That’s how I knew him before he lost it. BANKS: Lost it? TOMKO: His mind. BANKS: Excuse me for asking this, but why were you in the prison? TOMKO: Next question. BANKS: Were you locked up? Did you work there? TOMKO: (silence) BANKS: Hello? TOMKO: I said next question. BANKS: Ok. Well, why was Abyss in prison? What did he do? TOMKO: Like I said before - only three people know why and that’s me, Cage and Abyss. And you’re not going to be the fourth. BANKS: Do you think James Mitchell knows? TOMKO: Maybe – maybe not. But he’ll find out soon enough if Cage doesn’t get what he wants. BANKS: I've noticed you and Abyss share similar looking tattoos. Any connection there? TOMKO Next question. BANKS: How did you get to know Abyss so well? TOMKO: I was around him enough in the beginning – before he cracked. After that hardly anyone got near him. He got real bad after a while. Solitary isn’t a fun place to be, you understand? It changes you. When he couldn’t be around others, they just locked him up by himself. Chris had plenty of time to think about what he did – and I think it finally put him off the deep end. They call it rehabilitation? I think Abyss proves that’s a bunch of B.S. After a while I didn’t see him at all because they just kept him in there all the time. But I’ll say this - I bet Abyss never expected to see me again. BANKS: When was the last time you saw Abyss in prison? TOMKO: When he got tied up on the wall. He’s lucky they didn’t blast him for doing that. BANKS: Blast him? TOMKO: Shoot him. That’s what they do when you try to break for it…when you try to escape. I couldn’t say for sure if he knew what he was doing. After he got out of solitary he just went psycho in the yard and ran for it. I don’t think he knew what was going on anymore. That barbed wire cut him up pretty bad, too. They had to bring out bolt-cutters to get him out of it. Blood was all over the place. That boy spent a good week in the hospital. After that he never went near that wall again. BANKS: That explains why he was terrified of competing in the “Barbed Wire Massacre” match last year. TOMKO: I'd say so too. BANKS: Do you know anything about Abyss’ family? TOMKO: Ya, but you’re not hearing any of it. BANKS: Did his family ever come to visit him? TOMKO: No (laughs) BANKS: Why are you laughing? TOMKO: Next question. BANKS: Did anyone ever come to see Abyss? TOMKO: Time to wrap it up, boss – I got things to do besides talk to an internet geek all day. BANKS: But I’ve got a whole lot more questions. TOMKO: Sorry – talk to Cage. I’ve said all I’m gonna say. BANKS: Well, thanks for the interview time. I’m sorry we couldn’t discuss the situation more. TOMKO: I’m not. But hey, you just might find out his dirty little secret soon enough. Later. |
| QUOTE (dynamite kido @ Dec 23 2006, 09:17 PM) |
| That was fucking horrendous. |
| QUOTE (TheDecembrists@TSM) |
| Final Resolution PPV line up. 1) Angle vs Joe - 30m Iron Man Match 2) Abyss vs Christian vs Sting - NWA Title Match 3) LAX vs Team 3D - NWA Tag Title Match 4) AJ Styles vs Rhine 5) Jerry Lynn vs Christopher Daniels vs Chris Sabin - X Divison Title Match Spike TV has offered TNA a two-hour show. It's as good as good though really but the hold-up is over Spike wanting a multi-year exclusive commitment and TNA wants more money than Spike are offering. Internally TNA are aiming at getting ratings up to 1.4 over the spring and summer inorder to get more cash from Spike. Wrestling always does better in the first half of the year as the networks are showing reruns and wrestling remains first-run shows. Plus no more NFL of Thursday nights should help. Bob Sapp has been in talks with Jeff Jarrett about coming up for a 'shoot' program with Angle. Daniel Puder was their first choice, but after they offered him what was been called an embarrssingly low offer Puder decided he didn't want anything to do with it. Although how on earth they expect to get Sapp who turned down $1,000,000 from Vince and won't come for anything less than ten times than it would have taken to secure Puder is a mystery. Vince Russo is constantly being told backstage that he's writing just too much stuff for a one hour show and they have to edit like crazy to get it all in. His response is just to carry on doing it. Not quite sure how, but Jim Cornette is now working with Russo on the booking committee. Starting with the 12/11 tapings Jarrett and Mantel managed to get Cornette to get involved. Russo and Cornette do actually talk to each other and are being civil for the good of the company. Cornette is helping produce a lot of the interview segments and sits in on the production meetings - although they make sure that Don West and Mike Tenay sit between Russo and Cornette. At the meetings Tenay hands out the lastest Russo script and Cornette then openly challenges any segment that he's involved in that doesn't make any sense. Everyone bites their tongue because Russo is described as taking it but appears to be bottling everything up inside. Andy Douglas appears to be gone. Joe's MCL sprain was a severe second degree sprain based on his second examination on 12/13. He is not expected to under go surgery. Jackie Gayda, who is 25, gave birth to a girl named Kayla on 12/14. Joe was black and blue at TV before he hurt is knee as Angle isn't holding back on anyone. The AJ Pierzynski and David Eckstein was covered by CNN Headline news, ESPN Sports Center, and the Sports Illustrated website. A photo of Pierzynski holding Eckstein made the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and is expected to be mentioned in the 12/23 issue of Sports Illustrated. The plan is to build to Dale Torborg vs Lance Hoyt. Hoyt got the spot thanks to Russo who wants to push him, but had nothing to push him with. TNA has pulled out of its deal with The Wrestling Channel in the UK. They are expected to move to Bravo, the channel that airs UFC in the UK and used to show WCW. It's a major step up in what can be a major wrestling market. Angle filmed his segment for the George Michael Sports Machine this past week. In what is become trademark Angle style he was asked one question and repied with a 30 minute monologue which will have to be heavilly edited for the show. Angle, Joe Rogan and Dana White were at the Video Game awards which aired on 12/13 on Spike but was recorded a few days earlier. Angle ripped off his shirt on stage and went crazy to try and get some more attention. Backstage he was telling people that he was going to be facing either Couture, Ortiz or Liddel at some point in 2007. This is only known about as Mike Swick of UFC was backstage with a camera and filmed it. If this was wrestling that would be a sure fire sign of an angle, but it's not in this case. AJ Styles tried to work heel against Runt at the 12/15 house show but the fans wouldn't boo him. Impact will have to be moved on 1/25 as there's a UFC special 8-10. There is a definate interest in Amy Dumas if she's interested. Russo is booking Angle as if he was Steve Austin in 1997. It's working a whole lot better than when he tried to push Jeff Jarrett in that way, but still shows where Russo's head is at wrestling wise. The LAX vs AMW angle ending with AMW breaking up was a great example of an angle going from A to E and missing out on B, C and D. |
| QUOTE |
| The LAX vs AMW angle ending with AMW breaking up was a great example of an angle going from A to E and missing out on B, C and D. |
| QUOTE (TheDecembrists@TSM) |
The 12/28 Impact drew a 0.94 rating with 1.1 million viewers. The show did a 0.85 in males 18-34 and a 0.65 is 35-49. Although this is lower than recently the good news is that the show did grow throughout, it opened at 0.86. The 3D angle gained 35,000 viwers, Roode vs Hoyt and the Sting/Abyss angle gained 59,000 and the main event angle with Angle attacking Joe's girlfriend gained 103,000 viwers and peaked the rating at 1.06. Several days before the last taping Simon Diamond, Jerry Lynn and Shane Douglas were told they were being suspended as agents for the taping. They story they were given is that they weren't working hard enough with the talent and turned in their agent reports a few days late after the prior taping. The company has been in regular contact with Konnan, particularly the Carters who have called him pretty much every day. Konnan posted on his MySpace that his kidneys were damaged from an infected his immune system didn't recognise. He requested a kidney donation and noted his blood is type O. Meltzer says that having seen Superstar Billy Graham and his liver transplant he'd be very surprised if the doctors agreed to living transplant from someone who isn't a friend or family member. He'll probably return after his hip surgury but he won't be able to do anything physical and will lose a good bit of weight. Fortunatly he's turned out to be such a good manager that shouldn't have too much impact on his role. He's been told he's allowed no alcohol, no drugs, no dairy products, no salt in any good and to keep his protein intake low which is a massive change for a man who for two decades has been eating to be a body builder and wrestler. The proposed Kurt Angle vs Bob Sapp deal is off as TNA have recived the same letter from K-1 as the WWE did, basicaly telling them that they have Sapp under contract till September and if Sapp is used they will have to pay both Sapp and K-1. The new UK TV deal is with Bravo 2, beginning on 1/6. Impact will be airing on Saturday nights, two days after the US airing. PPV's will be shown on the Wednesday after the US airing. That's similar to the UFC in the UK where Bravo show the PPV the night after the event. Bravo certianly did their homework on their new programming, describing it in the TV listings as "TNA Wrestling: All the latest TNA Impact Wrestling action from the USA - the new spin-off from WCW and WWF wrestling, where weapons are permitted and the action is extreme'. The Angle segment on the George Michael Sports Show will air 1/14. |