Archive for September, 2012
Spoiler Free Match Lineup:
Note: This quick review is done through Hulu Plus, so commercial breaks between matches might be shorter and match times might be off.
WWE announced today that Kelly Kelly has been released from the company. Kelly, real name Barbara Blank, joined the company in 2006 and debuted for the ECW brand as an exhibitionist who was always at odds with her “boyfriend” Mike Knox. After that she bounced around from feud to feud, winning the Divas Championship on one occasion and becoming one of the most popular Divas on the WWE roster.
Kelly returned to the WWE last month after taking the summer off, but outside of a TV match and an appearance at Summerslam she was all but a ghost in the company. Ultimately it won’t be a big loss for the WWE but part of me is disappointed; although I wasn’t a huge fan of her, she was a hard worker and had consistently gotten better in the ring over the years. Plus it always sucks when the Divas division loses another wrestler; they’re running with a skeleton crew as it is.
Will you miss Kelly Kelly?
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This week on IMPACT Wrestling: A new TV Champion is crowned, the latest Gut Check contestant faces the judges, more matches are announced for Bound For Glory, and Hulk Hogan and Sting head to the Aces and 8’s clubhouse…through awkward circumstances.
Last night on IMPACT Wrestling, TNA announced three more matches for its flagship event Bound For Glory. Here is the updated card, with new matches marked with an asterisk (*).
Main Event: Austin Aries (c) Vs. Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Title
*Miss Tessmacher (c) Vs. Tara for the TNA Knockouts Title*
Christopher Daniels/Frankie Kazarian (c) Vs. AJ Styles/Kurt Angle Vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Hernandez for the TNA World Tag Team Titles
*”The Cowboy” James Storm Vs. Bobby Roode in a Street Fight (Special Enforcer: King Mo)*
*Two TNA Wrestlers (TBD) Vs. Two Aces and 8’s Members (TBD) – if Aces and 8’s win, they get full legal access to the Impact Zone*
It’s refreshing to see TNA having Bound For Glory this mapped out 3 weeks in advance; in this day and age, most PPV’s are put together on the fly but they know that this is their Wrestlemania and need to pull out all the stops. And frankly this is already one nice looking card. Can’t wait to see what they add next.
TNA Bound For Glory 2012 takes place live from Phoenix, AZ on October 14, 2012.
Here’s what to expect on tonight’s edition of IMPACT Wrestling, according to the official preview on TNA’s website.
All of this and much more will happen tonight on IMPACT Wrestling at 8PM/7PM Central on SpikeTV.
Current Lineup for TNA Bound For Glory 2012:
Austin Aries (c) Vs. Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Title
Christopher Daniels/Frankie Kazarian (c) Vs. AJ Styles/Kurt Angle Vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Hernandez for the TNA World Tag Team Titles
Umm…I think they spelled “Television” wrong…
Last week on IMPACT Wrestling, TNA announced that the TV Title situation would be settled on “Championship Thursday”. Although many speculated that Devon, who didn’t renew his contract and left the company, would return to lose the TV Title to someone, others figured that meant the belt was vacated and a new champion would be crowned. Well those who thought the latter can pat themselves on the back because in TNA’s new IMPACT Wrestling preview for Thursday’s show they officially addressed the situation and formerly vacated the belt.
TNA also announced that for “Championship Thursday”, four competitors will plead their case as to why they deserve the TV Title to GM Hulk Hogan. Hogan will then decide which two will square off to decide the new champion. The four “contestants” are as follows: Samoa Joe, Magnus, Garett Bischoff, and Mr. Anderson.
Although the belt has been wasted again and again, I still believe in the potential of the TV Title division and now they’ve got a chance to start anew with a strong champion. I’m hoping for either Joe or Magnus to get the belt so that can be added as another cog to their feud going into Bound For Glory but I’d just as easily accept Mr. Anderson becoming the champ. Anyone but Bischoff really; he’s getting better but he still has a long way to go before he’s ready for that sort of run (assuming TNA doesn’t drop the ball again with it).
Either way, let’s at least hope they actually change the name on the physical belt this time around. No more of the “champ holds his hand over the “Legends” plate in pictures” thing, please. That’s bush league.
Do you see any potential in a TNA TV Title division or am I just being (as the kids like to say) “cray”?
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Raw in Brief:The first match is the best match, a legend returns to yell at CM Punk, WWE kicks the NFL while they’re down, the misfit Tag Team Champions get a horrible name thanks to the WWE Universe, and John Cena introduces the world to his latest protege: an inanimate carbon rod.
Raw Preview:
All this and much more on the latest 3 hour edition of Raw.
Interesting development today in the world of distribution for World Wrestling Entertainment. The company announced a multi-year agreement with Hulu Plus to exclusively stream their television shows. The service, which costs 7.99 a month (a marked difference from the original Hulu’s price point of “free”), is available on a variety of platforms from video game consoles to smartphones to Roku boxes. Through this deal, WWE flagship shows Raw and Smackdown will be available for viewing the next day in their entirety, as will the upcoming Ion show Main Event and even NXT (although according to NXT Champion Seth Rollins, the Full Sail version of NXT isn’t available quite yet). Also if you’re a TV nerd, Hulu Plus also has a whole bunch of current TV available to watch with new episodes going up the day after they air on TV. So that’s nice.
So does this mean that the WWE Network is now a Hulu Plus channel? Absolutely not. The WWE Investor Relations Department tweeted that the new deal with Hulu Plus has absolutely no bearing on the plans to create a WWE Network. It’s just merely another digital distribution avenue for the company.
Although I don’t subscribe to Hulu Plus, this new announcement is making me consider sucking it up and paying the 7.99 a month for the service. WWE putting up their shows online is nothing new, Smackdown is already put up online legally the next day, but having all of the WWE TV content available in one place plus (hopefully times infinity) NXT is very very enticing. I’ll be keeping an eye on the channel to see just what they put up and make my decision from there.
Last night, IMPACT Wrestling not only continued the build to Bound For Glory (adding a title match to the upcoming PPV), but it also had the benefit/detraction of Open Fight Night and the latest TNA Gut Check. How did this show fare after a really good show last week? Click “read more” to find out!
The Pro Wrestling Nerd 