I know the powers that be are gonna hate me, but I got stuff to say. First thing is first, I HAVE to talk about TNA, and the minor league manner in which they distribute their DVDs.
First off, anyone who has read my columns in the past KNOWS what I am about to unleash hell on, and I’m gonna apologize in advance for repeating myself.
I’ve been looking forward to TNA’s release of the Jeff Jarrett DVD. So much so that I honestly thought the DVD was released last week based on information I saw on the TNA website. I was obviously wrong, so I jumped the gun a bit. However, I did try very hard to pick up this title during the day tuesday, the day of its NATIONAL release.
I reside on the western tip of Long Island, about as close to Queens as you can get, and literally the first town out of the general city limits once you exit the New York City outer 5 boroughs. So, I would THINK that my area would be well served with resources.
Pretty much regularly when other DVDs come out, there are some visible pieces in various locations around my area. I’ve seen the PWG release, FIP releases, and other significantly smaller resource laden materials out there and visible for the consumer to pick up.
Meanwhile, TNA, this supposed national company, seems to always keep this place in the dark.
Back when TNA released their first box set, exclusive to WalMart, up to now, it’s always been a hard time for me to find DVDs from this company, and I have a lot of them. I admit that. I’ve bought my fair share from ROHWrestling.com, and I’ve waited patiently more often than not for the others. This particular case is a bit different.
I’m a fan of the founder of the company. I’ve heard from a source I trust implicitly that this DVD is VERY GOOD, and I am axious to check it out. I also figured TNA would go balls out for this release because of who its profiling.
2 Wal Marts, 2 Best Buys, FYE.com, Walmart.com, and Bestbuy.com. All of them checked. ALL OF THEM with zip, nada, nil, bupkiss, zero.
As a matter of fact, BESTBUY.com doesn’t even have the title LISTED ON THE WEBSITE, as of this writing.
I jumped the gun on this and reported this as news to my superiors here at WV, and when the word came back that I was a week late, even my esteemed colleague in the WV administration wondered why I have had so much unpleasant experiences buying these DVDs.
Hell, when I was at the ROH 7 Year Anniversary Show, I bought the TNA Cross the Line Volume 2 box set. Someone by the table chastised me, “It’s in the stores right now!” I didn’t say anything to that. You know something? Since that night, I have not seen that DVD box set in ANY store in my area. Not one.
I don’t know about you, but if TNA is looking to promote their talent, and their product, they oughta do a hell of a lot better distribution of their product when its in DVD format. Because there are people there wanting to buy it, and call me old fashioned, but I’m not patient enough to wait a week for it.
Moving on.
I read a report that ROH sent a statement to PWInsider about the allegiations made by Larry Sweeney and CIMA about poor accounting issues involving the working relationships between them. Two separate incidents, two separate situations, one general consensus here. ROH is already looking bad for what has transpired, whatever the case may be. I have to believe that more people than I are going to side with the talents in these types of cases, and even more so, more people are going to say something to the effect of this.
I don’t care who was wrong, and what happened where. Just fix it, and make my product better.
I can tell you this. That last statement is tatamount to what I feel. ROH will continue without Larry Sweeney and/or Dragon Gate talent on its cards. However, ROH benefits from both of these relationships continuing. Isn’t it the PROFESSIONAL thing to do to try and mend these fences PRIVATELY and avoid making yourselves sound like primadonna baseball players by airing your dirty laundry in public?
And that last question can be portrayed to all the members in these two separate disputes.
Moving on.
The Supplemental Draft. Or, in one reader’s thoughts, the death knell for a good deal of midcard talent. Just ask DH Smith, who has yet to debut on Smackdown since moving there last year.
I have to think that they’ll do one big move, and that move is Edge to Raw. It makes it simple to get the job done for the world title match, and even simpler if, and I got this from another site, but it does work, Edge beats Cena in last man standing, and then Punk, in his hometown, cashes in MitB, wins the belt, and takes it to Smackdown with him. It fits, and it fits all too well, and it sets up a nice little interpromotional feud with Edge & Punk. Heck, now that I see this on paper, Edge could stay on Smackdown for all I know, and still win the title, and haver this scenario play out. It’s anyone’s guess.
Which means its impossible to try and pick this thing, so I’ll do another 180 and just say the big move I suspect will happen with today’s supplemental deathj knell will be Edge moving to Raw to be with his wife. Thank God. Get them off my screen on friday nights. I have become an Edgehead, but as long as he’s affiliated with Vickie, rest in peace, Eddie, but as long as Vickie is on my screen, I will be in the back, vomiting my guts out.
Ok, more.
I have to take a minute and address something here.
I am a fan of ‘comedic’ wrestling. I am a huge fan of Colt Cabana. I am a big fan of Delirious before he went dark. I am a fan of the quinteseential “hide behind anyone you can” wrestler who manages to squirm his way to the top of the mountain.
With that being said, there is one talent that I have begun to truly hate. And not hate like a heel. Hate. As in get the hell of my screen, hate.
Santino Marella.
I think the straw that broke my back with this guy was the degrading performance he pulled off on the so called super bowl stage of sports entertainment known as Wrestlemania 25. Forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, but you cannot tell me all 24 other women in that match knew the finish, and accepted it, without some sort of inner turmoil at how their division is going to be portrayed?
I can live with the unabrow. I can live with the lousy attempt at the italian accent. I can live with the dominant female thing with Beth Phoenix. But when the guy dresses in drag, and it continues to sell, it boggles my mind.
I’m also uber sensitive right now about this, because, and I’ll say it, because of my kids.
My kids have gone ballisitic over wrestling, to the point that I am trying to cut them off. But, its difficult to be able to do that, and I’m not going to go in to why, because its not anybody’s concern but mine. But what that does, knowing that my kids are watching, is it makes me hyper sensitive to the ‘skeptical’ content that WWE is portraying.
I know most of the people out there think this guy is funny. So be it. Personally, I think the guy sucks. I think he’s a disgrace to the business, and a disgrace to the WWE. But, alas, this falls on deaf ears because you and I both know that the Wrestlemania 25 scenario was not Santino Marella’s idea. It was Vince McMahon’s. And that, is the true thing to fear, ladies and gentlemen.
Some small little tidbits from around the spectrum to close out the 3rd chapter of this heavy week.
Didn’t Tommy Dreamer say publicly that if he didn’t win the ECW title by June, he would retire?
It’s getting awfully close. And he keeps seemingly falling short, as he did this past week. I wonder if WWE is going to do something decent for this man, and give him one more run with the brand’s strap. It’d be a nice touch, since he’s been loyal to the brand, and the ECW colors, since day one.
How much do you think Christian is going to be buried if he manages to make it to Backlash to challenge the rookie Swagger, the kid who wasn’t good enough, according to WWE’s brass, to defend the brand’s title on the grandest stage of the year.
And, let’s speculate on this, how badly do you think Christian is regretting coming back to the WWE?
My feeling on that is, a lot.
I said it tuesday during a brief appearance in the ECW chat room at WV, I’ll say it here. I bought the Cyber Sunday 2008 DVD for my son last week for Easter. I watched the Evan Bourne/Matt Hardy ECW title match. Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you do business. Evan Bourne is a star on the rise, and I hope, no, I pray, that he is given the opportunity to shine the way I believe, and anyone else who has followed Matt Sydal from the point he was at, until Evan Bourne was born believes, that he can.
Someone needs to explain to me the logistics WWE has in breaking up tag teams, when their tag team division as a company is one of the weakest in pro wrestling. They had a team in the Miz and John Morrison that could have been one of the best in the world for a long time to come, and they broke them up because the brass felt that they had run their course. I personally beg to differ. As a heel, its very difficult to truly run your course, and in their case, I think they still had more to accomplish. It would have been a hell of a trilogy to have the Colons continue to feud with them over the next few months. With them gone, there’s no real challenger for the Unified WWE tag team championships.
Will we see a new belt for that title? I hope so.
I’m done. Thanks for reading.
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If they’ll have me, I’ll be back tonight/tomorrow with my thoughts on the supplemental death knell, I mean, draft. 🙂