Justin LaBar gives his thoughts on the recent segments and comments from TNA plus the “old school” RAW.
After watching the segment on the last episode of Impact where Jeff Jarrett is putting on an MMA exhibition, it occured to me that I would love to see him in a sanctioned fight for one of the major MMA organizations. It would be history!
Tons of people including myself would pay some serious money to watch that either on PPV or live in person to see J-E-Double F get him get ass kicked, and for the first time in his career Jarrett would have drawn a dime.
People rip on the WWE for always using the term sports entertainment and for calling the performers sports entertainers rather than wrestlers. Its not something I am crazy about but at least they except that they are a huge brand of theater and show. They are fake fighting. That doesn’t mean they don’t get hurt and are not displaying great athleticism in their shows but its fake fighting. They accept it and they move on and make money.
TNA on the other hand is trying to make us believe they are real. Hogan and Bischoff are saying this stuff is gonna be real not like the fake crap up in New York. It is so embarrassing and funny to see TNA have a segment (and this isn’t the first reference or parallel they’ve tried to draw) where they are trying to cash in on the MMA popularity and legitimacy. Its even funnier when its Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe of all people. I don’t believe them when they are fake fighting much less when they are trying to shoot on each other and give off the impression they spend hours in a Dojo.
Cashing in on the MMA popularity is what the WWE could possibly do with Lesnar if he were to come to WrestleMania for a match. You are acknowledging his real fight background and accolades with UFC while taking his name and brand to your big stage where you get him and the fans caught up in an emotional storyline.
The perfect start to an emotional storyline was the 5 second stare down between Lesnar and The Undertaker. Whether it happens remains to be seen, but if it did, more eyes will be on that WrestleMania press conference than were on that entire segment of Jeff Jarrett/Samoa Joe/6 jobbers.
I don’t feel bad that I was one of the eyes sitting through that. I just tell myself “It’s okay its almost over, this is part of your job to watch the wrestling programming on television.” Thats my excuse, what’s yours?
Sticking with my critique for the guys named Jeff, Hardy recently tweeted his thoughts on the WWE tag titles saying they look like 2 giant pennies. I find this amazingly ironic because that is the same money value of the title he carries around.
One other thought before I jump off the TNA building and move on, TNA has some good wrestlers and interesting characters. They just misuse them quite a bit. If you have an entire show after Impact where its all talking that is furthering the stories and characters, why do you put so much talking in an Impact episode?
The old school RAW was a success. Sadly the ratings were still in the window of what they have been over last few years. The same people are watching RAW, this past week though a lot of them were very satisfied. Hopefully the success of how it came off will encourage the WWE to do that show once a year. I would hope and expect for higher ratings on the next one based on the satisfaction it provides and there are so many people who would turn on the channel to see the old look and stars such as George The Animal Steele that they haven’t seen for so long.
I’ll talk more about the old school RAW among many other things including Survivor Series this week on the Chair Shot Reality. The show will be airing ALL on Sunday as for the first time ever is being filmed in front a live audience Saturday evening in Pittsburgh. You can also tune into that show to hear the debut of Mark Madden on the show as he speaks on everything from The Dudleys to Tom Brady.
Email me at justin.labar@yahoo.com
You can watch the Chair Shot Reality at loc.wrestlezone.com/videos
