AS I SEE IT 5/21: WWECW, helping IWA Mid-South, and TNA's new mascot

AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

Well, THAT was three hours of my life I can't get back.

Chris Benoit jobbing in consecutive falls to MVP?

Bait and switch on a WWECW title match?

And a (admittedly necessary) bait and switch of no real HBK match?

I'd even rather watch a TNA PPV than a PPV like that again.

Speaking of WWECW, for anyone who had sort of delusion that WWECW was anything but a glorified Velocity was disabused of those notions, as Vince McMahon released Rob Van Dam and Sabu, along with faux vampire Ariel this week.

Yup. Two of the wrestlers associated with the real ECW that remained in WWECW were released this past week. It's certainly true that neither one was happy, and McMahon decided to release Van Dam (but keep him from wrestling in TNA until his contract actually expires) rather than job him out over the next month until One Night Stand...which had been his scheduled windup date. By the way, for anyone who missed it, One Night Stand isn't even a ECW PPV anymore.

The Major Brothers... Snitsky...Bobby Lashley...yup, they're extreme, all right.

Now, since this column and the PWBTS.com website have always believed in helping indies, I'm asking readers to help out IWA Mid-South Wrestling to resolve a legal situation.

To explain, here's the item sent out to websites last Saturday:

As many of you may know, we had the 2004 KOTDM tournament in Oolitic, Indiana. After that show, we were no longer allowed in that building because they said they had to have the floor re-done due to us ruining the floor. After going to court over this the last couple of years, the decision came down today that we had 30 days to pay the damages for the floor.

You may ask why this took so long to settle. The building tried to get our insurance company to pay to re-do the floor and they wanted proof that we were the ones who had actually damaged it. Or if it was a small spot (thats what they claimed we did) why the whole gym floor had to be refinished. Of course, the building couldn't give them the proof because other people had used the building after us. The insurance company denied the claim twice. After the insurance company denied the claims, the city board of directors chose to sue Ian personally (eventually gaining a judgment against him). Today he had a summons to appear in court under the terms since he hadn't paid the judgment, that they would start to garnish Ian's wages.

Ian tried to set up a payment plan, but was told that this had been on going for too long and he would have to make payment within 30 days, or a garnishment would began. So I thought I would explain to the judge and the attorneys how the wrestling business is a mostly cash business and that would be almost impossible to do. To Ian's surprise, he was told that it would be perfectly legal for them to come in to any shows in the state of Indiana with sheriffs, and take all monies associated with the show.

We are not asking you to give us money, but we do have PLENTY of merchandise around here for sale. So we are going to have a sale on all merchandise we have.

The sale will be on hoodies, T-shirts, and DVDs in hopes of trying to put this issue to rest. Because if Ian can't put this thing to rest, it could really screw up King Of The Death Matches. We now have a 9 disc dvd burner and can be shipping your order to you within 2-3 days.

The dvd sale will be (along with the one we currently have) for the people who don't have $70- $80 to spend on the sale currently going on. Buy 2 --get one free of equal value. And of course if you don't want to pay for shipping you can pick them up at shows. If you order in time, you can pick them up as early as Candido Cup. For those of you who might have the money , you can do the buy 2 --get 1 free up to 5 times. So you would buy 10 DVDs get 5 free (TPIs & KOTDMs count as 2.)

Hoodies we have very limited quantity. We have 9 XL and 9 2XL. The XL will be $25 and the 2X will be $30.

The 2006 TPI shirts will be $8.00 (all sizes) which we have XL, 2X, and 3X. I will be looking to see if we have any other sizes and I will post on here if we do.

For a full listing of tshirts with pictures, go to this link

Thanks for your help with this. Ian knows he will probably take some bashing for this. But right now with everything that is going on, Ian only sees one direction to turn and that is to our great fans.

For those of you that support this sale, Ian says he cannot thank you enough. He hopes to see everybody next weekend at the Candido Cup.

We will accept paypal, checks, and money orders. You may email Patti at rottenwife@aol.com rottenwife@aol.com and let Patti know which you would choose to do.

Also, we will have all merchandise available for this sale at our upcoming events so you can also purchase them there with money or credit card. Thank you again for your on going support.



TNA now has a mascot called Stomper. Depending on reports, it has been described as a kangaroo, a rabbit, or even a rat. With any luck fans will get to see Rob Van Dam stuck in this nonsense. Or will Hector Guerrero have to reprise his Gobbledygooker embarasment?

Speaking of embarassing, several major indies are considering eliminating the use of TNA talent; because TNA (in the word of a staffer from one of these indies) is beginning to put too much on the indies on how these guys have to be used. This will have the effect of taking away even more independent bookings from TNA wrestlers. Explain that one away, TNArollz.

Speaking of them, here's our first letter, from Haseeb Bajwa:

"I think Bob and all wrestling fans need to wake up. TNA and wrestling does not owe us nothing. They give us entertainment and we watch it. If we wanted TNA to follow our rules then what’s entertaining in that. Bob you have to wake up and see things from another point of view, Shark Boy copying Stone cold was awesome, Jay lethal copying Macho Man at the time was very funny."

This IS one of the TNA staff e-mailing me using a sock puppet, right?

"My random wrestling friend said the Sting/Abyss Casket Match was very good. I a fan for 18 years thought that match was very well done for what it had been given and Sting taking a awesome blow to the head brought the match alive. As I say why complain about a wrestler, if people (you) think you can do better get in the ring your self."

This has GOT to be a sock puppet. Go back to last week's column...never mind, I'll say it again for you... I don't need to be an Escoffier Chef to know if food tastes like crap. I don't need to be a line worker at a Saturn plant to know if my car doesn't run. I don't need to be Steven Spielberg to know that The Condemned isn't Godfather II.

"As people have been saying you talk a lot of smack but we never hear about your story line ideas.

Dixie Carter isn't even using the talent within her own promotion. Ever hear of a guy called Jim Cornette? Call me back when they've tried some of his ideas.

"Wake up TNA Sacrifice '07 was bloody awesome compared to WWE Backlash'07. I cant believe you cant see that Impact is so much better then WWE product and that includes RAW which is stale and average most of the time. Also Wrestlers have a brain to go to WWE, TNA, ROH and they choose where they want there food to come from, not you, not your way of manipulating readers by saying don’t watch TNA until Russo is fired. How sad."

Yawn...they AREN'T choosing to remain there. They're kept there by promises that are broken...promises they can work TNA as well as other indies. Then those promises are broken by TNA. It's now getting to the point, as I mentioned above, that some of the remaining indies using TNA talent are re-considering using these workers, because TNA is putting all kinds of conditions on how they can be used, who they can work, and what kind of finishes can take place.

Tell me where the food of TNA wrestlers will come from then, when they lose bookings from major indies.

> From Andrew Larson :

"I love seeing all the emails you get from idiots who A) can't spell check, and B) don't know what they are talking about.

I have never seen an ROH show and just from reading recaps, I can tell they are a better wrestling promotion then others. WWE is just WWE, they won't change, they'll keep the title on Cena until a certain someone comes back, and I'm sick of seeing the same ol' shit come up on there programming.

I preceded your e-mail with one of them, Andrew. As for WWE, it was pretty bad when the RAW two weeks ago featured a sign "Save us, HHH".

"TNA was something refreshing but it has become oversaturated with nonsense weeding out some of those who have been there since day one. (The Naturals, Team Canada, Roderick Strong, suspension of Aries...)"

TNA wouldn't want one of these most talented independent workers anywhere working for them, would they?

> From Jeremy Diaz :

"I'm an old friend of Adam Martin's and have been following Wrestleview close since 2001 and you have been around as long as I can remember. I just wanted to write you in regards to your opinions on TNA and the indy situations and I just wanted to let you know that I fully agree with everything you have been saying. TNA is shooting itself in the foot right now, and at the same time screwing over the talent which could make them that next big company.

They continue to sign WWE cast-offs and try to portray them at these great characters when in reality they are simply over the hill losers. They continue to try and "one up WWE" when they are nowhere near WWE's league. Hell, Ring of Honor is more credible of a contender to WWE than TNA and they don't even have a television deal. But that's another story for another time. The issue here is that TNA relies too much on cast off talent to get them where they are trying to go rather than relying on the guys who have gotten them to where they are."

TNA tries to be WWE when, like him or not, Vince McMahon is the only one who has proven the ability to be that. Yes, he's the McDonald's of wrestling...not very good for you..and craeted to a very general taste. If you want good wrestling, look at Ring of Honor. I guess in my analogy, they'd be the equivalent of a gourmet restaurant.

So much for our dreams. The reality is that in terms of business success, ROH isn't competition to WWE, nor will that happen now or at any time in the foresseable future. Gabe Sapolsky and Cary Silkin will be the first people to tell you that. In terms of QUALITY, that's a different matter. product you prefer.

"AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Senshi, Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal, etc have taken the back seat to Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Christian Cage, and Team 3-D. In my opinion, Team 3-D should have never won the titles, Scott Steiner should have never been signed (as well as Tomko), and Christian Cage shouldn't have gone higher than the X Division. Kurt Angle is the only positive addition to TNA that I see, but we're getting feuds and ppv main events that we've already seen and did not like on Smackdown."

Because they're bound and determined to be WWE Lite, just like WCW did. If they hadn't self-destructed from the self-indulgence, "creative control" and the other crap...they might have continued to present a challenge to WWF/E.

"It's simply frustrating as a fan because TNA needs to succeed in order for wrestling to succeed. They really need to get their act together and turn things around and start putting the focus on the future rather than the past. If they are going to have these rejects, at least use them to put over other talent. Chris Daniels should be feuding with Sting, Angle with Samoa Joe or AJ Styles, Cage with [LowKi] or Jay Lethal and Steiner with Abyss or someone.

Instead we are subjected to one big gaggle f*&k of these losers being pitted against each other! There is just so much to say and so much to argue about and I just wanted to send you an email of support in letting you know that I agree with what you're saying and I hope that someone from TNA reads your messages and smartens up. I pray and hope for the best to come out of what you are saying in each and every column because the changes you have voiced do need to come about.

They read them. They aren't smartening up. Pulling talent from independent promotions like PWG is taking yet another step backwards. Wonder if they know which independent promotions ar considering dropping the use of their talent. I know of at least two whose staff have e-mailed me.

"I also just had to show some support to a fellow Democrat."

Hee hee, thanks. Now hopefully a change or two along the lines of what we hope for in that more important area of life can happen in 2008.

Until next time...

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If you have comments or questions, if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website or for advertising requests, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com. (As always...this column represents the view of this writer and not necessarily of the website on which it appears).
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