Random Ramblings Fifth Edition
Written by: Bob Colling
Dixie Carter’s recent interview, WrestleMania 29 plans, plus much more!
Rambling #1: While this may become a surprise to no one, Dixie Carter doesn’t know how to run her company. She can’t see when there has been a failure in her company. Apparently, she recently did an interview discussing what TNA needs to do in order to do well moving forward. It took her only ten years to realize that you have to push younger talent. It seems that a lot of fans seem to not realize that TNA has been doing that. They are always comparing TNA to WCW, but that’s not the case anymore. Back in 2009 I would agree that statement, but today when you have guys like Roode and Storm in the main event and other fairly young guys in the mix, it just doesn’t apply. The only real older guy to be wrestling is Kurt Angle, and he can still produce in the ring. Carter noted that it would take $500,000 to have the show on the road. Which, she can’t afford to do if it doesn’t work out for the company. This has me scratching my head. She hired guys like Hogan, Bischoff, and Flair and they have done nothing to help the company. That’s a fact. The ratings have not improved. I don’t know their salaries, but I would have to believe it’s close to the amount it would take to have Impact on the road. You can even include Sting in the mix as well. Those four men are really just on-air characters who talk a bunch. Impact is such a better looking show when it’s on the road, it’s not even close. It means you have to cut Hogan, Flair, Bischoff and maybe even Sting, why not just do that? Really emphasize the young guys and the money would be freed up to probably bring in even young wrestlers that could bring you depth. She has to wake up eventually, right?
Rambling #2: According to a few wrestling news outlets, the plan for WrestleMania 29 is have the main event be either Rock vs. Lesnar or Rock vs. Cena. I don’t know if any of these two matches have my interest. I wouldn’t want to Rock vs. Cena on the biggest pay per view of the year because, well, it’s already been done. Then, Rock and Lesnar have wrestled before but that was ten years ago. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t had a rematch or anything. Rock has never beaten Lesnar. Considering Rock is probably going to play the face role, having him look for redemption after ten years could be an interesting story. The idea of a Rock/Cena match at Mania just is boring and I wouldn’t expect the numbers to increase compared to Mania 28. Rock/Lesnar, though, could do some big numbers. UFC fans who may not be wrestling fans know both of these men. Rock would get mainstream attention since he is an actor. As I said before, it has been over ten years. I’m supporting Lesnar vs. Rock for Mania 29, now.
Rambling #3: Matt Morgan has been hinting at the possibility of returning to WWE when his TNA contract expires in October of this year. I use to be a fan of Morgan, but he failed in WWE and his much hyped run, at least in the beginning, quickly fizzled out. It is possible that he is a victim of poor booking in TNA, but for a big man he doesn’t impress me and I feel that he wouldn’t make all that big of an impact if he were to return to the WWE. Then again, who would have thought that Ron Killings (R-Truth) would become so popular after years of being booked badly in TNA? Morgan just doesn’t have the charisma or ability that Truth has, though. I think it would be better of Morgan to just stay in TNA for the time being.
Rambling #4: I’ve been noticing that the top babyfaces in both WWE and TNA have been jobbing quite a bit. I’m mostly talking about John Cena and Jeff Hardy. Cena obviously lost to Rock at Mania and then on RAW this Monday he lost to Lord Tensai, which is big for that character. Jeff Hardy on the other hand has been losing a lot more often, though he won at Lockdown. His luck stopped at the recent Impact tapings when he couldn’t get the number one contenders spot. The losing is going to hurt Cena a lot more than it will Hardy. What made Hogan so popular? He won all the time, he would beat the evil guys on a regular basis. He went years without losing. If Cena continues to struggle for a long period of time, that young fan base may look to cheer for someone who won’t let them down. If Cena wasn’t the modern day version of Hulk Hogan. Hardy could get the sympathy factor and when he eventually gets a title run, people could be heavily supportive of that. I just found it interesting to see the heels in both companies getting the better of the top faces in the promotions.
Rambling #5: Claudio Castagnoli will be making his debut on Smackdown tomorrow night. His name will be Antonio Cesaro and apparently his character is a European rugby player. I’m hoping it’s not too silly of a character because Cesaro is a fabulous worker. I think Cesaro is a good fit for the WWE and his size will allow him to work with a lot of the top guys in the WWE. I’m really interested in Cesaro and actually Smackdown in general now as it looks like they are getting the FCW guys.
Rambling #6: ROH had a rough time with their last iPPV during the WrestleMania weekend, but they will be returning to iPPV on May 12th with probably the best lineup to be announced in recent memory for them. It’s a seriously stacked card with only five matches announced. Richards vs. Steen, Strong vs. Finlay, Lance Storm vs. Mike Bennett, WGTT vs. Briscoes Fight Without Honor and Edwards vs. Rhino. That just looks like a must buy event. I’m not a fan of iPPV’s, personally, but if I had to buy one of their shows, this would be a tough one to pass up. Whatever other matches they announce will be icing on the cake at this point.
Those are my ramblings this time around. Feel free to leave your ramblings in the comment section if you wish!
Thanks for reading.