It’s All About the Wrestling: The Brothers Steiner, RVD, the Walls of Jericho, TNA Gold and What About a Diet?

At this past Sunday’s TNA pay-per-view, Sacrifice, the dog faced gremlin resurfaced. Rick Steiner came to the defense of his brother Scott and it seems like he might be around for a little while. The pair will have a match against current TNA tag champs, Team 3D, on next week’s Impact and rumors are swirling that they will have another match at the upcoming June pay-per-view, Slammiversary. Bringing Rick in only helps the TNA tag division, which has been struggling over the past few months.

Rick also helps out his brother the Genetic Freak. Scott seems to have a new commitment to wrestling but is still at his best with a partner and he has always worked well with his brother. The Steiner Brothers are a storied wrestling team and while some may see this as TNA trying to recreate the past, I only see good things for the future. It’s about the wrestling and the brothers do that quite well.

Someone else who does wrestling quite well is Rob Van Dam. RVD recently rejected a WWE contract proposal and the WWE has now released him. His no compete clause in his contract prevents him from joining TNA immediately but it is thought that he wants to take off the summer anyway. Could RVD be coming to TNA this fall? It’s very possible, especially considering TNA’s relaxed schedule.

In addition to RVD being released the WWE has also released Sabu. It is thought he will be making his way to TNA. If both men sign on to TNA it is thought that they would begin feuding right away. Their possible additions add a lot of talent and experience to an already loaded roster.

But one guy both TNA and WWE would love to sign is Y2J, Chris Jericho. Jericho is thought to be interested in returning to wrestling but who needs him more? If you asked me that question a year ago I would have said TNA. Today though, I would say WWE. With Triple H still out and injuries keeping The Undertaker and Kennedy on the shelf the WWE could use some additional star power. I can also say that if Jericho were to resign with the WWE, I would tune into watch him, something none of their other stars can get me to do.

If Jericho did sign with TNA though, I am not sure he would get the title shot he is of course going to want. The roster is already flooded with main event talent, adding another legit title contender just pollutes the mix too much. That said I am sure he would like to get his paws on the sweet new title belts that debuted on this past Impact (the NWA titles reverted to them). I like the fact that the title will be up for grabs at Slammiversary as well, I would have preferred an actual title tournament but the King of the Mountain match will have to suffice.

Finally, what the hell has happened to Raven? The guy was one of my favorite wrestlers from ECW and while his ridiculous gimmick over the last few months, with Serotonin, has been odd I was OK with it. That is until he came out to the ring on Impact, looking like a tattooed version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I’m having a terrible vision of a giant sized, shirtless Raven walking through the streets of New York. I mean, I know he was never the most in shape dude in wrestling but what the hell happened to him.

As always you can e-mail me with your questions, comments and flames at pwp.chris@gmail.com. I’ll catch you next week.

More on This Story...

ECW: R.I.P !!

Hello again wrestling fans! And welcome to my newest blog. It seems my last post created some static. And all i have to say to that is good! I like that. As I claimed in my last blog, I say exactly whats on my mind and I refuse to sugarcoat anything. And that brings me to this weeks blog.

ECW is dead!! Plain and simple. And I already know what your saying, ECW has been dead for several years! And you are right. Im not talking about the shell of its onself. You know the old company that claimed they were "outlaws" and did things their own way. Remember the great classic matches between Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko? How about Raven vs Tommy Dreamer? How about Shane Douglas raising hell as the ECW World Champion? Dont recall any of that? I'll tell you why!

It seems the norm with any wrestling organization that trys to make it these days. You start out real small, building yourself up. And eventually you will get some bigger name wrestling stars come work for you. Then the fan base comes. Then next thing you know, your one of the "top three" organizations. And then the inevitable happens......Vince McMahon takes notice of you!! Then he starts applying the pressure and slowly bleeds the life out of you! Which is exactly what he did with the "old ECW". Him, aswell as WCW, started taking talent, and from there it was slowly all but over. But everyone knows the story there.

Lets fast forward now to present day. So now in 2007, Vince "owns" ECW! And what has he done with it? Not a thing! Vince could have easily kept ECW a seperate organization from his WWE. Regardless if he owns it or not! Ecw has and always will have one of the best loyal fan based organizations ever! You cant go wrong with ECW. Or can you? Vince sure has proved that you can. Lets see......First mistake. Lets put ECW on the Sci-Fi channel!! Pro wrestling on the Sci-Fi channel??? Makes alot of sense! Second.....lets not let anything real major happen in ECW. I mean think about it, what has happened since they have emerged.........NOTHING!!! Third, lets take Bobby Lashley and force him down the fans throat. Im sorry, but Lashley is not what ECW is all about. But regardless, they give him the push, put the belt on him, and let him run on a huge push! I mean he has beat everyone they put in front of him. Just a short list of competitors he has beaten........Umaga, Bob Holly, Johnny Nitro, Mr. Kennedy, and the list goes on. Pretty impressive list of wrestlers there. So who can stop this guy? Vincent Kennedy McMahon!!! Thats who!

Are you kidding me? Fans you may not realize this, but all this is, is one great big slap in the face to not only you the fans, but Paul Heyman as well! Heyman has to be shaking his head in disbelief right now. And if hes not, he should be! This is just another classic case of Vince wins! Vince obviously could care less about his own ECW company. Its all a big joke to him. He got us again! What a shame. What about the few wrestlers in ECW who could have taken that very strap that Vince wears so proudly, and let them carry the ball. How about CM Punk?? Elijah Burke? Rob Van Dam? Nah, none of those guys can wrestle, right Vince?

So therefore proves my statement.....ECW is dead!! And its a real shame. A real shame!! More on This Story...

I Like TNA

There, I said it, not that I was holding it in.

Every Thursday night, I park myself in front of the television (sometimes at differing times) to watch my favorite hour and only hour of wrestling programming each week. Go on, ridicule me. Mock mercilessly. I'll take it gladly. Because while Impact may not boast "Total Nonstop Action" (despite its name), this is the best wrestling on TV. You will mock me and say WWE puts on a better show but I shall strike you down like the inglorious bastards you are.

TNA is more Extreme than ECW (a brand that is a disgrace to the original name) and implements better storylines into four hours of monthly programming than the entire WWE does in 20. TNA does all that and puts on a better monthly pay-per-view than WWE does. A McMahon vs. Trump feud? This is what Vince feeds his followers? I'll take a Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle feud any day of the week. I'll even add an extra day to the week, just so I can take it again.

By the way, I'm Chris and I'm one of the new writers here. As you may or may not be able to tell, I am slightly slanted towards TNA. This slant mostly came after a couple years of, outside of Wrestlemania, being away from wrestling all together. News hit me that Sting was about to get a push to win the NWA World Title and I sat down to watch the drama unfold. Yes, I am a big Sting fan and you can hold him directly responsible for my renewed interest in Sports Entertainment. Regardless, I started watching TNA religiously at its ever changing date and time. What caught my eye though was the quality of the matches, and I'm not talking Sting's matches here either (I'm such a mark for him that I would watch him wrestle a ham sandwich and would find it entertaining as long as he put said sandwich in the Scorpion Deathlock). No, instead I was introduced to the likes of AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin and Samoa Joe not to mention a host of other X-Division stars. These guys were doing things that I hadn't seen, well some of it since never.

Not only that but TNA had a host of big names stars in addition to Sting, including Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, The Dudleys (under the guise of Team 3-D), The New Age Outlaws (in the guise of the James Gang, since changed to the ridiculous Voodoo Kin Mafia) and Raven (once again being grossly under-used). This was like a dream fed for me, some of the best from WCW and the Attitude Era WWE, the only thing that was missing was Chris Jericho and I would cream my pants.

But enough about the roster because this is about wrestling and TNA did it better than anything I had seen coming out of WWE. It seems sometime around the end of the Monday Night War Vince forgot that one of the W's in WWE was for wrestling. TNA doesn't even have a W and I was getting more wrestling and better quality out those matches than what Vince was producing up the coast.

Let's not even start on the PPV quality. On second thought let's. What TNA really excels at is their PPVs. Given three hours uninterrupted to play with, they make a real wrestling fan like me smile. Sometimes it even brings a tear to my eyes. I watched Genesis on November 13, 2006 and while it didn't quite live up to the two previous TNA PPVs I had watched (No Surrender and Bound for Glory), when compared, head to head, with WWE's November 26, 2006 Survivor Series TNA takes the cake. Nothing on the WWE card compared to Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle. I know, I was there in the Wachovia Center struggling to stay awake with the rest of the crowd. I myself am more pumped up for TNA's Lockdown PPV, taking place in a little over a week, than I was for last Sunday's Wrestlemania. The more I think about Wrestlemania, the more I am disappointed.

Sure TNA needs improvement but some of the fun is seeing what sticks and what doesn't with them. I mean really Elevation X was a complete joke but something the WWE would most likely not even attempt. At least TNA took a chance, something the WWE seems unwilling to do. Cena, Undertaker, Lashley? WWE these are your champions? Christian Cage has more charisma than those three do in his left finger and is arguably a better wrestler than all three.

As I said improvement is needed, as well as a two hour show, but overall TNA gives more in it's limited time than either RAW, Smackdown or ECW. Oh and before you go on about how ECW has the same amount of time TNA does, please know your role and shut your mouth. ECW has the same amount of time to prepare for, at best, a couple of PPV matches not an entire card, so it's nowhere near the same.

Anyway those are my two cents. I like TNA and I'll obnoxiously tell you about it. More on This Story...