Christian Cage’s Consultant: The Suspects

This past week on TNA Impact, Christian Cage revealed that he was working with a consultant to prepare himself for Kurt Angle.

The clues:
this person, they think just like you
this person wrestles just like you
this person is intense just like you
this person, like me, and for good reason can’t stand you

Suspects:
Sylvester Terkay – Recently released by WWE. According to Wikipedia, “While attending North Carolina State University, he finished second in the 1992 NCAA Division I Heavyweight tournament, losing to future Olympic gold medalist (and future fellow Pro Wrestling superstar) Kurt Angle by points, 2-1, and later became champion in 1993.”

Samoa Joe – Obvious candidate.

Eric Angle – Kurt Angle’s older brother. Perhaps he doesn’t fit Cage’s description perfectly, but could easily “think just like” his brother, Kurt. Additionally, Eric Angle could be built up to fit Cage’s description. I do not know his current contractual status.

Brock Lesnar – mentioned specifically by Kurt Angle, the WWE and Lesnar worked out a deal April 25, 2006. The terms of the deal aren’t known, but I would bet there is a no-compete clause that probably prohibits participation in TNA or wrestling in the United States.

Chris Benoit – Currently the WWE’s United States Champion, he fits Cage’s description perfectly. Unless Chris Benoit does something completely uncharacteristic like walking out on his WWE contract, Benoit should be staying put.

Goldberg – Another person specifically named by Kurt Angle as a possible consultant. Goldberg doesn’t fit Cage’s description at all. Unless “wrestles just like you” means that this person is a wrestler in the business and not describing Angle’s method of wrestling.

RVD – Also under a WWE contract, see Goldberg comments. No intensity here.

ECW: Monty Brown Arrives

A week after CM Punk lost his win streak, he needed help from Kelly Kelly to beat Matt Stryker? Maybe he ate Vince’s donut or something.

Monty Brown has been sort of repackaged as Maqrquis Cor Von. This kind of feels like back in the 80s when the WWE would never acknowledge an athlete’s past. I remember “the newcomer Harley Race” back when Harley Race came to the then-WWF.

Too bad they saddled Monty with lousy music. I didn’t watch TNA enough to know if he used an armbar finisher – I always thought he used the Pounce as his finisher. Also odd is that when Monty Brown was signed by the WWE, WWE.com had a statement that Monty Brown had been signed. Why publicize the fact you signed Monty Brown then go ahead and rename him?

Lashley promo? Well, he can only get better. His promo included Lashley explaining how a Triple Threat match works – I guess since it SciFi that may be necessary. Lashley needs a manager.

Elijah Burke can cut one hell of a promo. He should be Lashley’s manager.

The Sandman and Burke had a sloppy match and the finish looked weak. Burke needs some more time in the ring.

Lashley retained the championship using a running powerslam? Powerslam? What year is this? Decent match, although Lashley and RVD seemed lost at times. Surprisingly, Test was the star performer of the match. His offense looked solid, his selling was rather well done.

Looks like Test is ECW’s Triple H. I remember back when Raw ended a number of times with Triple H over the fallen champion yelling that he would be champion. Now Test is doing the same.

This show could have been a lot worse. I only watched it since I read that Monty Brown was debuting.

2006: Reviewing the Year of Wrestling: Part 1.

There are plenty of other articles looking over the past year in wrestling. I’ll be writing a couple of articles about the past year. I’ll look at the year in terms of WWE, TNA, their main event scenes, their undercard, tag team situation and miscellaneous. This will be a multi-part posting considering how long this post could be.

WWE Main Event Scene:

Raw’s WWE Championship scene brought in new main eventers this year. Only three men held the WWE Championship this year: John Cena, Edge, and Rob Van Dam.

Edge has now solidified himself as a believable main event-caliber wrestler. He had some fantastic matches with Cena, but the one match that stands out to me is Edge’s title defense against Ric Flair in a ladder match on Raw. The match was excellent with dangerous spots and showed how badly Edge wanted to keep his WWE Championship. Actually, every WWE Championship match Edge performed in showed how badly Edge wanted to be champion. From good promos to excellent matches, Edge should remain a main eventer (assuming Triple H doesn’t crush him in singles competition).

Rob Van Dam looked to be the new/old face of WWECW. WWE took a chance by having the WWE Championship given to the high flyer at an ECW PPV. WWE’s biggest championship belt rested on the shoulder of RVD. RVD then blew his spot by getting caught on drugs. The ECW and WWE championships were taken from RVD quickly and it looks as though Van Dam will never be a champion again. I expect RVD to go to TNA as soon as his contract is over.

John Cena is the champ and has been quite established as the top face of WWE. I think his ring skills have improved and he does what he can with scripted promos. Raw is stacked with other main event level talent such as HBK, Triple H, Randy Orton, Ric Flair (when necessary), Umaga and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Okay, I’m kidding about Duggan – just seeing if you were paying attention.

SmackDown!’s World Heavyweight Championship scene was chaotic. Batista vacated his title, Raw’s Kurt Angle filled in as champion (after HBK refused to go over to SmackDown! according to articles online), Rey Mysterio was terribly booked as champion only to lose to the revitalized King Booker. King Booker kept the title with excellent promos, created a stable of wrestlers, but lost the championship to Batista in November. The best thing for the division this year was King Booker. His size and ability allowed him to feud with wrestlers of all sizes and his personality made the fans root for the babyface. Hopefully, he’s solidified himself as a true main eventer after numerous false starts (such as the WrestleMania XIX debacle against Triple H).

SmackDown! needs to position some more main eventers for its championship scene. Finlay’s feud with Batista, involvement in King Booker’s court and his excellent ring work make him a candidate for rising to the main event. Chris Benoit is a main eventer and does not need the U.S. title. Mr. Kennedy has positioned himself at the upper mid-card/lower main event after his excellent feud with Undertaker. If need be, Kane can become a champion with the right push. Mysterio and Undertaker can float around in whatever scene they would like although Taker has more control over his own destiny.

Next Time: I’ll cover either TNA’s main event scene or WWE’s undercard.

NWA Championship must change

I’m watching TNA Impact right now and after seeing Abyss raise that NWA Championship belt over his head I’ve decided to sound off on that belt. The NWA championship belt design is that of the older pre-WCW days. It appears the same as the one Harley Race lost to Ric Flair.

The NWA Championship belt looks like a trinket.

That being said, the NWA belt looks like a trinket. It does not show the importance of a championship worth fighting for. At least the X division belt looks more modern. Replace that damn chintzy championship belt with a new design. A good example is the IWGP championship belt – I saw it after Brock Lesnar won it and it looked like a real chamipionship belt. See the IWGP Championship below.

Click here for a larger images of the IWGP championship.

Getting tired of the WWE Product

Yes, I haven’t written a post in a while. I’ve just become burnt out on the crap that is the WWE right now.

Where do I start? K-Fed? Cryme Tyme? DX? Angle’s departure? The Miz? The return of the Boogeyman?

I’m not sure where to start. Monday Night Football’s been very good lately. I was heavily interested in the Giants-Cowboys game presented in HD. I kept flipping back to Raw but I just couldn’t care. Two hours of show and generally it’s awful. It has its moments – but as of late, they’ve been few and far between.

So what now? I’m thinking about giving TNA a shot. (If you’re snickering because that sounds like a dirty joke, then you probably love the DX skits.) Impact isn’t that long a show and they’re forced to tell stories in a meaningful way in a short amount of time. Compare that to the bloated 5 hours of television owned by the WWE. They have so much time that they can’t possibly come up with good material for every show.

As much as I enjoy watching Edge heel a crowd or Finley kick someone’s ass – I just don’t think I can watch these shows like I used to. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old. Maybe I just don’t think DX is funny and they’re on TV a lot. Maybe I can’t stand to hear another Randy Orton promo, an Orton Promo (Did you get that? He repeats things a lot. If you haven’t noticed that before, take a listen the next time).

So what will this site be about if it isn’t about the current WWE product? Probably more NWA-TNA wrestling, WWE PPVs (late, since I’ll probably wait for the DVD on Netflix), other DVDs and probably specific matches. I’ll record the shows, and maybe fast-forward to something that may be good.

So the State of Wrestling is not good, kids (at least on the WWE-side of things). Anyone want to try to buy the company from Vince? Get some new writers? I don’t know – maybe have wrestling matches that have storylines and wrestlers who desire to be the champion? Crazy, I know.

I have issues with NWA as well. Many wrestlers are spot-machines who don’t know how to tell a story – so who knows how many spot-fests I can sit through? Their set looks like something out of American Gladiators with the silly lasers. And as much as I think JR has lost a step in announcing, I’d much rather hear him than Don West screaming every second. The guy sounds like a shop at home infomercial host.

Angle to TNA

Holy flurkin’ snit.

Kurt Angle has jumped to TNA. Now I have to start watching Impact again. TNA has a golden opportunity here. Angle is already a huge star. All TNA has to do is ride that. Angle could make TNA a legitimate competitor to the WWE. If he signed over there, what’s to stop other top WWE names?

TNA has to play this carefully. This could be their one chance to get a major superstar in the business and get people to switch to TNA from the WWE. Maybe with Angle’s jump, Chris Jericho isn’t far behind.

I am a bit shocked that Angle would burn his WWE bridge like this. Hopefully, TNA is protective of Angle and will not let him kill himself in the ring. The schedule should be less rigorous and could be advantageous.

There may just be a new wrestling war.