And now for something completely different.....What is up wrestling fans, I am the WrestlingNerd bringing you the first edition of the Wrestle Ramble. I will be discussing various news/headlines going on in professional wrestling. Now, I am well aware most people want me to talk about the Jeff Hardy situation, but I will save that for the end since there is a lot of headlines that are showing up for that part. I will make a warning and say there is POSSIBLE SPOILERS that might show up on the Wrestle Ramble, so that is a warning in advance, but I will try to keep this to a minimum.This is the first edition, so there will be some mistakes here and there so all I can say is be patient and hopefully I can find a rhythm with this. Without further or do, let's start the ramble.
Micro John Cena?
So, did anyone wonder who the kid was in the Rock segment that was impersonating John Cena? Well, I did some research and I found out the name of the kid is MattyBraps. Apparently, he is a Youtube star who does a lot of rapping. Personally, I have never heard of him, but then again I mainly use youtube to check out some LPers like Chuggaaconroy and NintendoCapriSun or other such music and abridged series, plus I can't stand rap music so it would make sense that I have never heard of him. I actually went out of the way to listen to some of his tracks, and for being only 8 years old, he isn't half bad. Still, I probably wouldn't be listening to him in the near future. I will be fair and say he is already a better rapper than Cena, but I don't think that is saying much. Hey, I have a rap coming through my head at this moment. It's the Legend of Zelda it's really rad, those creatures from Ganon are pretty bad............I apologize for that in advance. Oh God, how can something as great as Zelda be subjected to this? Oh Nintendo, you and your silly marketing ideas (Hey, it was either the Zelda rap or the Donkey Kong rap.). Anyway, if you want to find out more about this kid, just find him on youtube. I just figured that some people would have been curious as to who that kid was, and now the mystery has been solved. Thank you Scooby and the gang.
TNA releases......but yet Jeff Hardy still has a job?
Apparently, there are some people in TNA that got the axe this week. Daffney, Miss Tessmacher, and Kiyoshi have been released from TNA. What I find hilarious is they fired these people and yet Jeff Hardy still has a job with this company. I know Eric Bischoff likes to run under the light of controversey creates cash, but I don't think even with Hardy that is the type of controversey you want to create. Anyway, it is a shame that Daffney is gone becaue I actually liked her. She had a good look with the hot zombie chick deal, and yet as soon as Hogan and crew show up, they tossed her aside because.......she wasn't blonde or she didn't fit their image of a female superstar. I know it is harsh to think that, but look at the KOs they showcased in the last year. Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich. All four of these women are blondes (Rayne did dye her hair, but was originally blonde on this show), Yeah, TNA isn't shallow at all. Now, I will be fair since Vince McMahon is guilty of doing the same thing with the diva division. I know it is true that women's wrestling isn't a draw and it isn't what people pay to watch, but you can at least put something out there that is a little bit decent. It almost feels like these guys are saying "It's women's wrestling, which means we don't have to try". People obviously care about Trish Stratus and Lita, and I think it was their talent (......ok, their looks also help out but they did have skill) and in ring performance that helped. Tessmacher isn't a hugh lose and neither is Kiyoshi. In fact, I am not even sure who Kiyoshi is, which obviously means TNA wasn't using him. For the most part, neither of these talents were being used, so it makes sense to give them their walking papers. Although, given the Hardy situation, I wouldn't be surprised to see other talents lining up to get out of TNA as soon as possible.
I have an update with this particular posting. Yes, I am aware that Tessmacher still has her job and for the most part, this was false reporting by the websites during this time. As far as I know, the other two releases are legit while the other is false. I do apologize for the false reporting and I have been working on making things right.
The six sided ring and my thoughts on it
This has been on my mind for a while, and it is an argument that I never really understood. It has been a year since TNA switched from the Looney Toons six sided ring to the more traditional four sided ring. It seems no matter where I go, I keep hearing people scream "Bring back the six sided ring". Honestly....why? I always hated that stupid six sided ring. I felt the thing looked like it belonged in a circus and not in a professional wrestling ring. It was so embarassing to see guys like Christian and Kurt Angle wrestle in that overly gimmick ring as opposed to the traditional one. I honestly felt that I couldn't take TNA seriously with that ring.......but of course let's not go into details on creative staff or storylines and other things that make us not take TNA seriously, let's just focus on the ring. Now, I know the common counter argument that the six sided ring folks said was it made TNA stand out. How did it make TNA stand out? Are you really convinced that a six sided ring will bring you guaranteed ratings? Well, if that was the case, why didn't it work when you had that ring in the first place? The ratings aren't going to be effected if a ring was 4 sided, 6 sided, 10 sided, or lined up to look like Sonic the Hedgehog's hair. At the end of the day, what will get people talking about TNA will be the in ring action and the storylines, so why make such a big deal out of the six sided ring? I guess I am a bit of an old school guy and I just perfer the basic 4 sided ring. Don't get me wrong, I am all for change or updating anything out there, but I don't think the six sided ring is a hugh lose and I think TNA is better off without it. There is already a ton of things wrong with this company and fans of TNA should be concerned with those and not worrying about some silly gimmick based ring. You have the Charlie Sheen of pro wrestling in Jeff Hardy.....yeah I think you have more than enough problems to be dealing with than some ring that looks like it belongs in a zoo.
This is in response to more stuff I had to say about the six sided ring and why I personally wasn't a fan of it. I am only doing this since I obviously touched a nerve with a few people.
I wanted to add this little ramble to the WR like 10 minutes after I posted but was busy for the rest of the day so I didn't get a chance to add this. In fact, this review you are reading right now was written up until Friday morning. If you are here for the review, you can skip this part but I want to address this to anyone who read WR. In general, the six sided ring really benefited the X-Division stars. The ring works pretty well if your a small guy, but to the larger guys there isn't a whole lot of room in the ring. I often felt the ring was too small and was difficult to be mobile in there if you were 6 ft 4 inches and weight around 250 pounds. Since TNA mainly has bigger stars and doesn't focus on the X-Divison as much, it makes sense to have a ring that the bigger guys can feel more comfortable in. As for those other promotions that have a ring with more than four sides on them, most of them have small guys as well so it works to their strengths. Somebody brought up AAA and yes the action over there works well for them. Then again, most of the stars are pretty small and more on the lines of a cruiserweight wrestler, or built up like Styles or CM Punk in terms of body type. What may work for one wrestler doesn't mean it is going to work for everyone. I imagine it was difficult for a guy like Morgan to move around in the ring. If you liked the six sided ring, that's fine but I personally didn't care for it. Still, don't know why people took my rant about the six sided ring so seriously and being very defensive about it? It is my opinion and I am entitled to it. Plus, when I became the WrestlingNerd, I was doing this for fun and because I enjoyed laying out my thoughts on pro wrestling. I still enjoy doing this, even if there are some people that don't agree with me, but not everyone is going to agree on everything, which is what makes these rants a little fun, to see what the other side of the argument has to say about it. I thought we were here to talk wrestling and have some fun doing it and hopefully I entertained you in the process, I didn't realize I had to be so serious all the time? I guess people felt like I touched a nerve when I mentioned the six sided ring. Then again, I knew the IWC was pretty high on the six sided ring so I was very well aware that I was going to get some backlash for that post, but I stand by my thoughts and feelings on the ring. Oh and to the guy with the rap comment, I didn't realize I am required to like rap? I guess Congress just passed a law that stats every person in the states must love rap? Sorry dude, but I am a rock music fan and if you don't like that, well quite frankly I don't care. If you like rap, that is fine but I personally don't care for rap. And the comparison to Cena was a joke for the most part, so I guess you didn't find it funny. Again, people taking things too seriously. I am just trying to have a little fun here. Heck, I thought that is why most people watch reviews or read blogs, to have fun and get a source of entertainment.
Is there too many PPVs in professional wrestling today?
I think a recall a few weeks back in a twitter or facebook post by Bischoff (or an interview, I can't quite remember) that he feels there should be less PPVs in a year for a wrestling promotion. For once, I agree with Bischoff on something. There is simply way too many PPVs on these days. WWE puts on at least 14 PPVs in a year and TNA has another 12. Also with these PPVs, there is usually one month to build up certain storylines. Not only do you have one month to put a card together, but most of the feuds in pro wrestling these days go past a month. Meaning that there will be at least three PPVs that will feature the same two guys, but will be altered since a gimmick match or two will be added. Wouldn't be it simpler to have a two month gap in PPVs? This would give you lots of extra time to build up storylines and even put together some lower card storylines. It would give people like Evan Bourne or Yoshi Tatsu a chance to be given a bone every now and then. Now, am I saying should lower card guys get put in the midcard level or fight a guy like Triple H? No, but what I am saying is it would give them a chance to do something once in a while other than just be the poster child for WWE Superstars. Since there is only a month in between PPVs, you mainly have to focus on the main event and midcard stars and storylines, meaning some lower card guys don't really get a chance to do much. Again, I am not calling for these guys to get a world title match, but have them put in a lower end mini storyline would be nice, that way you are using them since there is a lot of talents on both WWE and TNA that are just there and don't do anything. Over the past few years, the number of PPVs buys has been going down for both companys, so maybe it is time to be doing 6-8 PPVs in a year as opposed to 12 or more. In TNA's case where they have done a poor job in hyping up their last few PPVs (Both AAO and VR cards were slapped together at the last Impact taping, some good buildup huh?), this is where TNA can maybe give themselves a little extra breathing room and maybe play out the storylines as well as they can with extra time? Now, I know that TNA would probably screw this up, but let's try to be optismistic here. The reason I am all for lowering the number of PPVs is the cost. There are a lot of people who simply can't afford to pay for one or two PPVs in a month, and most of the cards aren't that great. If your a person who is low on money and is only going to invest in the PPVs that seem worthy, chances are your going to hold out for WrestleMania or Lockdown and not care so much about filler/less steller PPVs like Over the Limit or Victory Road. Either that or your going to pay for the PPV that has the best looking card and had a lot of good buildup. There are some PPVs that almost have no buildup and almost don't mean anything. Isn't watching wrestling on PPV supposted to be special? Yes, it should but since there is so many of them these days, only a few PPVs stick out and the rest are either average or below average, which is lame and a waste of money because you get average or below average with Raw, Smackdown, and Impact. Let's try to make PPVs special again. Let's cut down the number of PPVs and lets put some extra time and effort into all the storylines that would be on those potentional cards. Chances are this idea will never happen, but if there was an outcry for less PPVs, than I am all for it. Like I said in the last ramble, change can sometimes be a good thing and I would be all for this.
Maybe the Price is wrong, Bobby?
Apparently, TNA star (or possible future endeavors if he is on here) Brian Kendrick appeared on the Price is Right last week. Gosh, the jokes are just too easy here. Kendrick must be desperate for money when he has to appear on a game show. Is TNA really not paying you enough? Well, it is TNA so I shouldn't be surprised at this point. It was strange to say the least because Kendrick's current character on TNA is a Yoda type character where he tries to be all wise and preachy, and yet he acted like a normal human being on TPIR so I thought it was a break from his silly character that is on TNA. Most people would say that it is pretty embarassing on TNA's part for having one of their superstars having to appear on a game show to win some money, but given the Hardy debacle, I think Kendrick appearing on here is the least of their problems. You know what else is sad? If TNA knew about this, why didn't they use this as an opportunity to advertise TNA wrestling? This would have been a golden opportunity, consider there is a decent about of people who watch this show. One of TNA's biggest issues (but not the main overall problem) is advertising. Simply put, this show never gets advertised that well. Spike TV doesn't do a decent enough of a job to spread the word about TNA. I have many friends and family around here that honestly have never heard of TNA but have definitely heard of WWE. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if 60% of the WWE audience or more has never heard about TNA. Freaking advertise your own product. Put a damn commercial on another network, sell some things, promote OUTSIDE of Spike TV. Yeah, I am betting dollars to donuts that WWE is clearly advertising their product while TNA really needs to improve on this. If you watch tv throughout the week, how many TNA commercials do you see? Now, how many WWE commercials do you see? This is also why I think it is time for TNA to leave the Impact Zone more often. There are ton of small venues across the US and I am sure taking the product on the road will help out. . As far as how Kendrick did on the Price is Right, he didn't really win anything except for a popcorn machine. This popcorn machine costed around $3000, heck I wouldn't be shocked if Kendrick made more money with that damn popcorn machine than a year's worth of working for TNA. Kendrick was wearing a Seattle Sounders shirt as well, which is always great to see a little love for the Pacific Northwest (Where I live), so it is just great to get noticed once in a while. Still, couldn't Kendrick get a Seahawks shirt? Just sad........really sad. Oh, and to make this whole thing even more hilarious, the guy standing next to Kendrick on contestant's row had the hair style of Carlito. Irony!!!!
NXT Redemption or NXT Rejects?
The latest season of NXT is called NXT Redemption. This is a season in which they showcase losers from all the past seasons of NXT (except for 3 because it was only divas and it was a trainwreck). In case you haven't found out who is on the show, we have Bryan Saxton, Conor O'Brien, Darren Young, Jacob Novak, Titus O'Neil, and.........Lucky Cannon (This guys still has a development contract with WWE?). But wait.......oh there is so much more. Look at the "pros" (We have to put this term loosly because......well you know) that are on this show. The pros are Chavo Guerrero (Who is arguably the best pro for this season), JTG, Vladimar Kozlov, Yoshi Tatsu, Tyson Kidd, and.......Hornswoggle..........HORNSWOGGLE. The f***ing little person who thinks he is a leprachaun is now fit enough to be giving advice to the NXT stars? Oh, gosh is this not going to look pretty at the end of the day. To add insult to injury, the winner doesn't win a title match like the past winners, instead they win a ticket to be on NXT Season 6 and chose their own pro (Striker "You can chose any WWE pro...except Cena, Orton, Triple H, Punk, or any of the major talents because they are too busy to deal with this crappy show). What.....that's a prize? So, you mean to tell me the show that makes rookie superstars juggle balls, hit pinatas, cut promos about mustaches, and sell programs, is going to have all six guys go through it again and if you win you...... have to do it for a third time? You have got to be kidding me. Not only that, but you couldn't have picked a much blander group of rookies for this season. Conor's gimmick was that he acts like a rat......sounds like something that would happen on TNA. He has dumped that for this season, but now he is boring. Darren was really boring on NXT and he really was the weakest from all of the rookies from NXT season 1. I will be fair since Young looks like he is improving with this edition of NXT. I don't know a lot about Novak or Saxton, but I see things from Saxton that work but don't work. Saxton kinda reminds me a lot of David Otunga, to where he has things that work to be a star, but is still green and needs more work. I am kinda glad Titus is being given a second chance, because I think he kinda got a raw deal on NXT season 2. I thought he would have a chance to shine.....until I found out that his pro is Hornswoggle. Somehow, having Zach Ryder as a pro is not sounding like such a bad idea, is it? And there there is Lucky Cannon......the mear fact this guy still has a job is already a miracle on its own. I remember him from season 2, and he was unbelievably boring. This guy literally has no personality, no charisma, no speech skills (He is still flubbing up promos now) and his in ring ability is nothing to wow over. He is now a heel on this show and he looks worse now than when he was playing face. Yes, he is getting more boos but that is because he looks like he just robbed Elton John with his ridiculous ring attire and he is not drawing the type of heat as say someone like Cole or Punk would recieve. The kind of heat he gets is similiar to the Shore gimmick that is on TNA, and I am not sure if that is the type of heat you should be shooting for. Why couldn't we put guys like Percy Watson or Derrick Bateman on this show? Yes, I have heard of Bateman and this guy is a character and a riot. He looks like Andy Samberg if he went to the gym five times a week. Those guys are funny, instead why did we get stuck with the combined personality traits of the cast of Yu Gi Oh? In fact, the characters of Yu Gi Oh already have more personality than these guys. It is also pretty bad when the only pros that speaks the best english is the Mexican American and the Canadian. Does anyone understand what the hell JTG is saying half the time? Ok......well when it comes to things like this, I try to find some things that are a positive, and there is a few positives. William Regal is on commentary with Todd Grisham for this paticular season, and I watched parts of this and I thought he was enjoyable. Maryse is also a co host with Matt Striker. I can't stand Striker as the host sometimes, so at least Maryse can be there to make it easier on the eyes. Then again, maybe I am judging this too soon? Maybe this could be one of those shows that is so bad that it is just awesome to watch, or awesomebad if you will? I will definitely be checking out this show ever now and then. I still don't think I will review it, but maybe I can leave some feedback here and there on the Wrestle Ramble once in a while.
Main Headline of the Week: Jeff Hardy
Now it is time to talk about the Jeff Hardy situation. I know there is a lot of TNA topics today, but TNA really made a lot of headlines.....and most of them for the wrong reasons (During a Impact taping, Hogan made a reference to a tsunami during one of his promos......I shouldn't have to go into detail into how disrespectful this is. He did apologize for it.......but come on Hogan, you should know better than that at this stage of your career). Now, there have been a ton of headlines that have been pouring the last couple of days with this matter, so I will try to break it down as best as I can. First of all, how the hell could TNA go forward with this match? Based on the thought that Hardy was on something prior to the match, why would you run the risk of even sending him out there.....even if it was only for a match that was under two minutes? Think about this for a second TNA creative? Hardy was swaying back and forth going to the ring, he almost tripped up the steel steps, and he was playing with his shirt and probably had no idea what he was doing. Think of all of things that could go wrong in this situation? Hardy is on something, so he could have jumped into the live audience and started attacking people. He could have injured Sting, and even himself. Yes, it is Hardy's fault for wanting to start the party early, but it is the creative staff that is at more of a fault for going through with this match. Are Russo, Bischoff and Hogan this stupid? Anyone who gave Hardy the green light to go and compete in this match should either be fired or resign from their position, because this is unacceptable. I don't even care what TNA's excuse is for sending Hardy out there, cuz quite frankly any excuse TNA would give you wouldn't be good enough. I guarentee if the WWE was in this situation, they would have pulled Hardy and made another match at the last moment. It makes no sense that they would go through with this match since they already had it planned out for RVD and Anderson to go to a double countout. Here is the simple solution TNA. After the RVD/Anderson match, have Bischoff show up and say Hardy isn't here and make it a triple threat match for the world title between Sting/RVD/Anderson. Heck, maybe they had Abyss or Kurt Angle backstage with nothing to do? Of course, maybe they weren't available but is this creative staff really not that bright? Answer me this Dixie Carter, how do you make it up to people who support your company or watched the event? I am not even sure what the answer to that question is. Now, time to talk about the other Hardy. Matt Hardy was starting to do something useful in TNA with his match against AJ Styles at VR, but his social networking comments quickly remind me that Matt is just as big of a screwup as Jeff is. Matt wrote that Jeff is fine and that he is sorry for losing to Styles at the PPV. WTF is wrong with? Your brother obviously needs a ton of help and your passing it off as if your ignoring the giant elephant in the room? Hate to say this, but Matt Hardy is nothing but a bulls***er. If you had a brother that had a drug problem, wouldn't you try to help him out? Well, apparently Matt is doing the exact opposite here. There was a ton of wrestlers that were pissed off backstage after this match. Not sure how true or untrue these things are, but since it was really embarassing that TNA went through with this idea, I imagine that the locker room is pretty upset about the whole thing. Sting was clearly upset if you saw this part. He clearly didn't want to do through with this match, but it was either that or risk something even worse happening so he was up against a wall here. If you watched the match, he intentially put all of his weight down on Hardy during the pinfall just in case Hardy was stupid enough to try and kick out before the three count. It is sad because Hardy did try to kick out of it. The ref didn't even check Hardy's shoulders, he just made the count and looked down the whole time, as if he was embarassed by the whole thing, and why wouldn't he be? So, now the question comes what does TNA do with Hardy? I would say that Hardy has screwed up so many times that he has eaten up a third or fourth chance by this point (Really, it is more than that if you count is WWE days as well), so they really should just cut him loose. You can either fire him now and get it over with.....or you can suspend him and force him to go to rehab and get the help that he needs. Chances are TNA is going to keep Hardy away from tv for a while and really do nothing, meaning it won't solve the problem. It really seems like Hardy is going to end up like Eddie Guerrero, in which we find out that he is dead in some hotel room. I know nobody wants to think like that, but it is pretty clear that Hardy doesn't want to clean himself up, and chances are he goes into a long sleep that he never wakes up from. Unlike Hardy, Eddie did clean himself up and it was all the prior drug use that caught up with his heart (the performance enhancing drugs had a hand in this as well, but that is a different discussion on a different day), which is why it is still sad to think about Eddie. I miss Eddie to this very day and was taken from us way too soon. Eddie will always be #1 in my book. Anyway, Hardy doesn't want want to clean up and we might feel sad for a while if this happens, but he will also be known as the guy who pissed away his entire career and couldn't keep himself clean. This guy had it made in the WWE when he got semi-clean. He became WWE Champion and was the main guy on SD, but he threw it all away just so he could go back to his old habits. To the Hardy marks that are out there, how can you honestly keep defending this guy? I remember hearing the Hardy marks be behind him when he got the drug charge.....which was weeks after leaving the WWE. The Hardy makes stood by him when he made the CM Punk shoot. The Hardy marks stood by him when TNA had to shorten up another PPV main event because Hardy was "tired". I really would like to hear anyone out there still defend this guy? Face it, he is a screwup and he will always be a screwup. It is sad because I will admit this guy has talent, but he is flushing his career and life down the toilet. Oh and to anyone that actually purchased VR, TNA tries to make it up to you in a way. If you send your purchase info for the PPV, TNA will give you six months of free TNA On Demand. Normally I would say six months to watch MORE TNA is just pure punishment, but it is mainly just wrestling matches so at least they are giving you something. This is a smart move since they basically admitted that VR sucked and are giving you six months of free programming, but TNA should also make sure this never happens again and do the right thing. I don't think it was the best thing TNA could have offered, but acknowledging that Hardy screw up is somewhat of a positive. Plus, I think this PROVES that this wasn't a work and Hardy was under some illegal substance. Why would TNA offer some sort of a package after the PPV if that wasn't the case? I think this is proof enough. Still, this might save money in your wallet, but seeing Hardy fired live on Impact....priceless. If you looking for your free subscription for this if you purchased the PPV, go to TNA's website to find out all the details.
That is going to do it for the first edition of the Wrestle Ramble. I eventually want to have a spot on here in which I will answer questions from YOU that involve wrestling. If you have a good question, chances are it will appear on the show later on down the road, but bare with me if I can't get to it right away. I won't be doing this fanmail or Q & A part of the show for at least a few weeks so I can gather up a decent amount of questions and try my best to get through most of them. You don't even have to ask a question. If there is a topic in pro wrestling that you want me to dig into, I can talk about that as well so feel free to bring it up. I am going to try to update the Wrestle Ramble every week or every two weeks, depending on the headlines/news/questions/theories that are out there. Wrestle Ramble will generally show up on Wednesdays or Thursdays, unless something insane happens and I have to update asap. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Wrestle Ramble, tell me what you thought about it and ask any questions and it might appear on the show at somepoint. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.
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