great insight from Cornette on WCCW and the Von Erich's.

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what an amazingly talented man.

He was imo one of the greatest workers ever. He definitely in the least should be on everyone's list for greatest talents of the 90's.

Mitsuharu Misawa was a wrestling god.
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Just read a pretty well written article about the real reason why TNA could not compete with WWE. It's about 8 months old apparently but I think it puts everything into words perfectly.

http://www.denofgeek.us/other/wrestl...nt-catching-on

It's pretty long so I'll quote the main paragraphs...

"Though TNA may have had the right idea, the WWF did something very smart. Regardless of how anyone feels about the infamous "Invasion" storyline (Who better than Kanyon?), the WWF made sure it was clear that WCW and ECW were now part of their organization. Moving into the WWE era, the company began to acknowledge the histories of these and other organizations and marketed videos from the acquired catalogs. In short, the WWE decided that it was the culmination of all wrestling past and the fans, for the most part, acquiesced. TNA found themselves in a bad position. Though many of the staff and talent had legitimate claims to historic events in wrestling history, TNA couldn't show it. It was a new company with no real history. As badly as TNA may have wanted to be, they simply were not WCW. They couldn't act like something had been stolen from them, and in all honesty, couldn't hold their version of the NWA World Title in the same light as the WWF World Title. After awhile, they had to move on.

In 2007, TNA parted ways with the NWA and proclaimed then champion Kurt Angle as TNA World Heavyweight champion. This is a good place to pause and look again. I alluded to this earlier, but it is around this era that it becomes most important. One of the defining characteristics and tools of professional wrestling is the ability to tell stories over long periods of time and develop talent into something greater. To do this, you need a preexisting infrastructure of talent to work from. Basically, you need the history to make the present more important. Knowing that John Cena held the same belt as Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage enriches the story immediately. This principle was not in place in the early days of the sport but became an essential part of competition as time moved on. By the time it became indispensable, it was really only the (real) NWA, AWA and WWF who remained anyway. In 2007, only the WWE remained. This posed a big problem for TNA.

Without an impressive title lineage, TNA had to place WWF/E's former stars on their roster to create an infrastructure. Yes, TNA had developed some talent to a main event level, but they did not have the drawing power of the more familiar talent. This seems to be a sound logic, it worked for WCW in the late 90s and even led to their most successful angles. However, there is one major distinction that made all of the difference. When wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage jumped from WWF to WCW, it was already long established. They weren't competing for some new title, but a title lineage that (arguably) stretched decades and maintained its relevance. Throughout their competition, there was always an argument about whether it was WCW or WWF that possessed the true world champion. When WWE talent jumped to TNA, they looked like big fish in a small pond. Worse than this, public perception was that these talents were the WWE's refuse, and who weren't fit for the big leagues anymore. After all, why would they be working towards a title that meant so much less than the one they had already had? It is this stigma that hurts TNA to this day."

He also goes into some ways TNA could (have) compete(d)...

"TNA must find a way to truly innovate, until then they will be stuck playing by someone else's rules. If they want to be competition, they have to figure out what the next evolution of professional wrestling is and not rely so heavily on the last one. ECW did this to an extent, but cannot act as an example. I believe through what they've shown over the years that TNA wishes to be true competition for WWE. They've snapped up major stars and even went head to head with Raw for a time. ECW was a promotion that relied heavily on being the underdog and insulting the two major promotions it ran alongside. I went into this in a bit more detail in a previous column, but in short, ECW had its glory because it was not real competition and didn't try to be. Plus, copying ECW isn't innovation either. Innovation in this case may be breaking a rule, taking wrestling out of its comfort zone. Yes, this is a risk. Moving away from what has traditionally worked always is, but fortune favors the bold. WWE has mastered a formula to an extent where they acquired the rights to nearly everyone who was ever great at it. Changing part of the formula may be the only way to gain an upper hand. I won't claim to have a comprehensive solution (unless you want to hire me to find one, I'm sure I can come up with something), but I think I know where to start.

As I pointed out earlier, one of the most damaging problems TNA has in a traditional Wrestling environment is its lack of title lineage. They have the talent and, in turn, some of the matches, but they don't have the belt. Perhaps the solution is taking the focus off the belt and putting it on the talent itself. Maybe, you don't need a belt. Maybe in this promotion, wrestlers are ranked by the prestige of who they have beaten and seek out the fights that they have yet to win. This allows the veterans to keep their importance while giving the newer talent cite-able accomplishments. It's a little "Street Fighter," but we're talking about starting a new era, something like that might work. By doing this, you would change the infrastructure of the promotion without losing every aspect of traditional wrestling. Matches would be pretty much the same, as would the storytelling but the ultimate goal would be something unprecedented. Or maybe build a year long tournament, where there is a champion, but the belt is contended for in a style more like the NFL or MLB, leaving you with a champion who simply cannot rest on his laurels while the other wrestlers compete for a title shot. Or maybe you contract wrestlers for short periods, constantly rotating your roster, then build for the return of a favorite. The point is that there are real options and real ways to play with the structure of traditional professional wrestling. If TNA starts doing something drastic, even if it doesn't work it would be no worse than the slow fade they seem to be going through. The WWE knows how to play The Game (sorry) and that won't change."

Great read. TNA has managed to garner hot-spots of interest over the years, but they have managed to piss them away. Kurt Angle unfortunately walked into the company around the same time as Vince Russo, and focus changed from it being a professional wrestling alternative to a sports entertainment rival.

Undertaker dragging Hulk Hogan on his bike

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Dirtsheets:

Same day as when the WWE is expected to reveal the updated numbers for the Network.

Was invited as part of the recent partnership between NJPW and GFW.

Wait so Vince is a Jaeger?

Mind = BLOWN~

lol at that 20 minute "preview". Feel like I've seen the whole thing.

TI think the bigger problem was the idea that they would be able to compete with WWE in an unrealistically short period of time by going all in on short term strategies that somehow would be an "instant" game changer. Hell, WWE didn't have the same success as WWE overnight. If you look at the period of time TNA has been a thing, and align that from when Vince (Jr.) enacted his plans, you would just now be coming to where the real money began to come in. TNA always seemed to want to jump straight to the success of the Attitude Era without infrastructure.

As much as the writer downplayed ECW as "not being real competition", it was actually more successful *because* it wasn't. While WWE and WCW were playing tug of war over more or less the same audience, ECW was over on the swingset with its own fans who may or may not have also been fans of the other two.

Anytime TNA had something that started to work... when the X Div was on fire, when the Knockouts reigned supreme, when the Tag Team scene was hotter than shit WWE was doing at the time, as Noid said, they'd "piss it away" in favor of some nonsensical jackassery designed to chase Vince instead of walk their own road- bringing WWE guys and hotshotting them to the top of the card, the publicity stunt that was Hogan, reforming the nWo without being able to call them the nWo, flip flopping faces and heels when they start getting over one way or the other, moving to Monday, etc.

So while I think that trying to be WCW 2: the sequel was a detriment for the reasons given, the lack of title lineage wasn't as heavy a weight as it is made out to be here. Hell, look at WWE's Hardcore Title. It was a joke from a throwaway backstage segment, and evolved into an actual defendable and legit championship for awhile (until they went a bit overboard with 24/7 rule). TNA constantly shot themselves in the foot using WWE as the measuring stick and trying to fill WCW's shoes.

It is sad now that they seem as poised as they ever were to establish their own identity, but only after they fucked around and wasted so much time and money trying to be everything they're not instead of embracing what they currently have. Just have to wait and see if it isn't too little, too late.

He doesn't downplay ECW. He specifically says ECW worked because it wasn't real competition and didn't try to be.

I think the point he was trying to make with the title lineage issue was just the main example of a bigger issue. It wasn't just the titles specifically. It was all wrestling history being part of WWE now. Everything in WCW and ECW that lead to the wrestling boom now all leads to WWE. That's what gives WWE such an insurmountable advantage. It just... is wrestling.

The ideas of TNA taking wrestling out of it's comfort zone and just saying "fuck WWE and it's tradition" and doing something so out of the ordinary while still keeping key elements of pro wrestling may have just been the way to go. It's what ECW did to an extent. For example, maybe instead of titles, treating it more like a legit sport where you spend all year working toward a tournament where one champion is crowned at the end (and maybe doing the same for a tag division and a women's division) is the way to go. Through all that you can still work in storylines and stuff but it would be innovative and you wouldn't be trying to compete with WWE and all their history. You'd be making your own.

I would definitely watch a promotion like that assuming it was written and structured well.

An all year tournament would too closely resemble the BFG Series, no thanks.

That's why I said "written and structured well".

If they'd actually played up their strengths, a women's division that was so strong and a ratings boost there was talk of giving it it's own show / a solid and diverse tag team division/ an amazing cruiserweight division / a talent sharing agreement with multiple international promotions, instead of trying to be WWE on the cheap and expecting it to be on par in a few months and letting Russo book like he's a drunk driver, because all he knows how to do is swerve when the biggest swerve he could actually do now is book an angle logically.

I was ecstatic when Hardcore Bob Holly replied to one of my tweets.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>@FacePalmMonkey <a href="https://twitter.com/BreakingKayfabe">@BreakingKayfabe</a> I appreciate it but have zero desire to go back.. Enjoying too much freedom.. lol!!</p>&mdash; Bob Holly (@TheBobHolly) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBobHolly/statuses/291541416482586625">January 16, 2013</a></blockquote>
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If twitter existed during the third season of Tough Enough, I can imagine Holly tweeting out

"Beat up a kid on #ToughEnough ...lol! I hope he gets brain cancer...jk, jk!"

That's pretty cool, Dave. Kinda glad he doesn't wanna come back, though

Match between Ambrose and Del Rio on Main Event last night was very good. I feel like I've never seen a bad Del Rio match, though.

Especially when he fought Sin Cara. He would beat the holy hell out of him with more passion than any other match. Really hated the guy.

His character bores the shit out of me though.

I miss when he would drive the cars to the stage and flaunt his wealth.

Damn network cutbacks!

Ricardo heel turn.

Yea, it gave his character more "depth" (not sure if that is the right word), if that makes sense? Feel like he should come down in a suit and have some rasslin gear underneath or something. He needs to look like an aristocrat.

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Recession, man.

Yeah he definitely should look down on commoners/brag about having money/"live the gimmick"

Mexican man, they aren't in recession, they are in a drug induced economic BOOM. You just can't tell by looking and what not.


Really though, he needs some tools to be a complete snobbish dickhead to the crowd. Not sure what they could do right now with budget cuts and what not, but something.

Alberto Del Rio reminds me of the Mexican drug lord from Weeds

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6...593e3b7970c-pi

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7924209408/h231F2C39/

or

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6762332672/h98BFE06D/

Totally the Reyes dude.

From what I gather everyone looks like everyone to everyone.

As long as they're foreign.

lol I kinda want to buy this.

https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/...03468483_n.jpg

Tanahashi > Cena

http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/photo_la...014MM_0180.jpg

Rest of the Lana Crush Wednesday shoot.
http://www.wwe.com/inside/wwe-divas/...ay-lana-photos

Ricardo :'(

Dirtsheets:

Current rumors of the numbers are barely reaching 700,000 to as high as in the 760,000s for subs. Still expected to drop once the original 6 months period ends after SummerSlam.