IBC

In lieu of lineups, you get my Royal Rumble experience from last night (DISCLAIMER - if you never followed wrestling, lingo below might not make sense):

So after a good 5-7 years (depending on how much watching one would do to be considered "invested in wrestling") I got free suite tickets to the Royal Rumble last night at MSG. Basically, the WWE is at a recognize rate of 75% to me (Jimmy Wang Yang? Gene Shinsky?) at this point.

It was AWESOME. There were no female matches (always a plus), and if the match lacked in quality it made up in good old-fashioned ring know-how (Ric Flair).

When I left, there were very few true superstars left - and now the pops were left and right. Edge was over in a major way - where the hell did that come from? Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, and HHH's were all still huge. Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio were both awesome - and Randy Orton has turned into the true heel we all knew he had the potential to be (TRUE heat from the crowd, and true respect from those that know). This guy named "Santino" was a Jeff Jarrett-esque villain, and cut two fantastic promos (one on tape, one in the ring).

Jericho is my all-time favorite, and is the most underused superstar in the history of the WWE - but his feud with JBL (from what I saw on the package, and what can be seen from the ring) is great. Those two guys are two of the best actors the Fed has going for it, and they brought it all out in their match (you probably couldn't tell from TV, but outside of one missed spot, each took some REALLY large bumps, with JBL selling like I've NEVER seen him sell before).

The revelation of the night was John Cena though. He is "The Rock," with actual wrestling skills. Apparently he wasn't supposed to be back for a few months, but the place went ballistic when his music hit. He was over for all his hot moves until he went face-to-face-to-face w/ Batista and HHH's. At that point he was the heel (Batista as a face? Not their best work), and one of the best spots of the night was HHH's and Cena trading blows while the crowd cheered (HHH) and booed (Cena) on each punch. Finally, the closing spot was awesome, and the place re-exploded for Cena again. It's amazing how much passion the fans carry for him (positive, negative, both). It actually got me excited for a Cena/Orton match at Wrestlemania, which, fuck it all, I'm going to have to watch now.

I went just because I wanted to see what was going on w/ the W's, and now I'm gonna have to watch Raw tonight. It was going to take a great PPV to get me back, even just a little, and boy did that happen in spades.

If you're back into wrestling, check out TNA...the quality of the matches is better from what I've watched. Plus, how can you go wrong with names like "Awesome Kong" and "Black Muchismo"....

One of my roomates was/kinda is still into wrestling and he says TNA > WWE. Heck, they revitalized Kurt Angle, he's lost some of the steroid muscle and can actually move again in the ring. PPV a couple weeks back had Angle v Cristian in the final match and it was amazing...

I used to love TNA, then they brought in Vince Russo, and well, its turned to crap. They had a ready made megastar in Samoa Joe, crazy over badass that has great matches with everyone and they never put the belt on him. Russo came about 14 months ago. He managed to screw up Joe/Kurt Angle, and turn Angle into a comedy character. There are some bright spots with TNA though

Black Machismo Jay Lethal---he's a black cruiserweight that is being Randy Savage. Talking exactly like him, wrestling exactly like him, its fantastic. He'll throw in things from Savages career, talking abotu an upcoming opponent and then say something like "Jake Roberts ruined my wedding!"

Awesome Kong is the most brutal, amazing female wrestler ever. She's a large black woman that's a wrecking machine, so of course, since she's not hot, she'd never have gotten a sniff from the WWF, but in TNA they've made her a killer.

Shark Boy---Yeah, he's a shark, but last week they may have finally done something with him and I find it hilarious. He now acts like Steve Austin, cutting Austinesque promos and finsihing them with "And that's the fishing line, cause Shark Boy said so!" and drinking clam juice.

Cowboy James Storm----yeah wow, who figured I'd love the drunk redneck. He was one half of the greatest tag team in TNA history, and everyone figured when they eventually broke up, Storm would be the Marty Jannetty to Chris Harris' Shawn Michaels, only they forgot that Harris has zero charisma. Storm can make you hate him very easy, busts his ass in the ring and interacts with a live crowd better than about anyone. I saw him at a house show in Louisville back in the spring, and he was doing all these little things with the front row, facial expressions and stuff, it was great.

Tomko---some of you will remember Tomko as being Christian's bodyguard about 4 years ago. He got fired and went to Japan and wrestled for a couple years and then came to TNA. In Japan, he actually learned to wrestle and not only that, he can also cut a good promo. TNA has the chance to make Tomko into a big star and they're starting to do it. He faces Angle this week on Impact and if they don't screw that up, he's got a real shot at becoming world champ in the next year

Appreciate the TNA info, but, as I said, I'm only partially back at this point. If I'm partially back, my allegiance is WWE - at least gonna see where this dalliance w/ wrestling goes...

I know Z, just figured I'd reply to Degan's talk about TNA. If I think about it later, I'll post a couple links to some stuff from TNA