I've gotten that impression as well. Kurt Angle is the best wrestler the WWE has... no one compares to him. Everything he does in the ring looks amazing and he has great mic skills to boot. I'm glad he is champ...as for Edge I'm not really a fan of his but like Blade said it's way to early to judge him he will probably make a decent heel champ. He barely has to open his mouth to get people pissed off. He gets a lot of heat just for having Lita stand beside him lol.

I do agree people aren't giving Edge a chance here. The day after he wins the title, guess what? RAW has it's highest rating in nearly a year. That means seeing Edge as the champion was more interesting that anything Cena has ever done. That should say something about the quality of Edge, plus he's a pretty good in ring performer. Much better than Cena (the character) and at least just as good, but probably better overall than Cena himself.

As for Angle, how could anyone not be happy? Kurt deserves the title after being forced to job to Cena constantly. Seriously, he should have won the WWE Championship back at Survivor Series. He's great in the ring and one of the best on the mic. If you want to be character serious... as Kurt would say... "I deserve your damn respect!".


News:

WWE have signed Tommy Suede and Chris Rombola. They will be sent to Deep South Wrestling for developmental training.

The thing is, with the current champions we can actually see matches that we believe can go either way; we couldn't quite do that with Batista and Cena.

Batista in my opinion was a lot better than Cena but he was overpowered. Except for the later angles with Big Show / Kane / Mark Henry, which probably only happened to help sell his real-life injury, he just beat everyone down cleanly which pretty much didn't make it very believable that anyone in the SmackDown roster could take him out.

Cena was the opposite. Besides not being entertaining, it didn't quite seem realistic that he could beat Kurt Angle, HBK, hell even Chris Masters would probably wipe the floor with him in a real life situation.

With Angle and Edge as champions, specially Angle, we can pretty much have matches that "look" like they could go either way if that was a real fight situation and I kind of miss that since I restarted watching wrestling again when Brock Lesnar was feuding with Angle for the title and those matches really looked as though they were hard to call if that was a real fight.

With all due respect to everybody who has mentioned RAW's rating for this week, I personally believe you're all giving far too much credit to "Edge as champ" as the reason for the rise. I know the ratings went up from a 3.7 to a 4.3, but the main factor here is the "Live Sex" angle. Yeah, Edge was involved in that angle, but lets be honest. Put ANY guy with any girl (or hell, a girl with another girl) and keep promising that they'll have "live sex" later on, people will tune in.

Think about the first night Raw won the ratings war against Nitro after 80+ weeks of losing. Why did they win that night? Because of what they were constantly promising throughout the show to deliver at the end of the night: Austin versus McMahon (and just like back then, they didn't fully deliver with this week's angle).

I am sure that some people tuned in simply because they knew Cena was no longer champ. Others tuned in to see what RAW was like with Edge as champ. There were many factors involved with the big ratings RAW got, but Edge as new champ being the sole/main reason? No way.

I'm sure Litas nipple slip had nothing to do with the ratings either. Considering you could see all of litas boob and the world loves seeing anyone remotely famous without clothes.

Not on USA, though

I dunno if anybody wants to hear a brief Sting interview (or read the transcript) from a telephone conference yesterday (with two pictures of his current day look,) but you can find it here

He just talks a little bit about TNA (mostly the same stuff all the other TNA guys have been saying about it,) but what's interesting is that he actually acknowledge's that Blade...I mean, a lot of fans don't want him to come back.

(and lal @ the fat Samoan kid who jumped the barrier and stole his jacket from ringside in 03 - I was one of the people who crucified that guy with questions and accusations until he had to take the auction down)

If the Christian Cage one tomorrow is anything decent i'll link anybody to it, though it'll probably just be the same sort of stuff he says in every other interview.

That's a good read ;;;, I don't like Sting but found myself reading the whole interview.

I never knew Russo was 'saved'.
















Stacy is KILLING on Dancing With The Stars. :) :) :) :)

Bingo. It's all about sex and a random ending to a PPV. Edge shouldn't get this much credit. Though, I will wait until he has a little time with the title to bitch and moan about him carrying the strap. I realy haven't liked edge since the tag days, so meh.

Yes, it was sarcasm. But I can't tell the difference between Angle and JJ. So how would I know? Anyway, if anyone can tell me where a TNA webcast is, it would be very grateful.

Angle for Undisputed Champ!

My only problem with Edge with the strap is the fact that he has a knack for being injury prone. Granted the heat he gets isn't because he's a good worker or even a good heel but because of what went done between him Matt and Lita. As long as the belt is of off of Cena though I'm happy.

My one request though is to ditch the spinner belt ASAP.

Also, you many have seen this link to on other sites but in case you havent, here's a look into a WWE booking contract.

Very interesting. Also very dodgey. While you work for WWE, they actually own your full legal name, what the fuck? Also while wrestling for WWE, you're not an employee, you're an "independant contractor," meaning that essentially, you can work anywhere outside of WWE any time you want, but then WWE go and cross this up by saying you're not allowed to. So you're not really an independant contractor at all, and you're not an employee either. Which is why WWE doesn't have to cover anything for you in terms of travel expenses and the like, why you have absolutely zero job security there, and why, if WWE books you in a dangerous match (say a HIAC where you're booked to get thrown off the top of the cage) and you get injured, they can wash their hands of you and say "Too bad, go away, we don't want you anymore" without having to pay you a dime. Of course, if you didn't take the cage bump, you'd be fired anyway, because the contract states that WWE can fire you if you refuse to agree to the finish of any match.
Being an independant contractor should also (and does) nullify the 90 day no compete clause. But it still somehow exists.

How is WWE being allowed to get away with this? I don't think it legally makes sense. And having WWE legally own your name is just dangerous.

Yeah, they edited it. I wish I was still in Pittsburgh.

I've known about the "independent contractor" thing for several, SEVERAL years now, but are you 100% sure about WWE owning their FULL LEGAL NAME??

P.S. No, I haven't been able to actually check out the link. Computer's been acting up lately

An excerpt:

“3.1 The parties agree that as of the date of this Agreement, all service marks, trademarks and any and all other distinctive and identifying indicia under which TALENT claims any rights, including but not limited to TALENT’s legal name, nickname, ring name, likeness, personality, character, caricatures, voice, signature, costumes, props, gimmicks, gestures, routines and themes, which are owned by TALENT or in which TALENT has any rights anywhere in the world (collectively, the “Original Intellectual Propertyâ€?) are described and identified on Schedule A attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference. During the Term of the Agreement, TALENT hereby assigns in good faith to COMPANY and COMPANY hereby accepts all worldwide right, title and interest in and to TALENT’s Original Intellectual Property, including, but not limited to, the rights to license, reproduce, manipulate, promote, expose, exploit and otherwise use the Original Intellectual Property anywhere in the world in any commercial manner, media, art form, method or device now known or hereinafter discovered. “

Well it appears my memory isn't that great - not FULL legal name, but legal name. Which is sort of the same thing anyway, though not quite. But anyway, signing over your legal name (and voice, for that matter) so that WWE may "reproduce, manipulate, promote, expose, exploit and otherwise use" it "anywhere in the world in any commercial manner, media, art form, method or device now known or hereinafter discovered" doesn't sound very safe/wise to me.

Although, recently it was ruled that WWE couldn't prevent Devon "Dudley" from using "Devon" in TNA because it's his real name, so I don't know. Maybe the contract is still just full of false shit like that anyway, regardless of whether or not WWE can actually have any legal rights over such things.

But I guess that begs the question; is it legal or fair for a contract to state that a company will have certain rights (such as being able to exploit somebody's name) when they legally can't do it?

Who knows. In any case, I would be pretty damn cautious about signing such a thing.

^^^
Damn, that's messed up.

Ok guys, get this shit. I ran across an interview, just now, between Vince Russo and Steve Borden - Sting. Get this though, it's on TBN!!! WTF?! A christian broadcasting station? They're talking about a promotion called "Ring of Glory." Apparently, they put on shows at churches and stuff, then ask people to come forward and accept Christ.

Vince Russo!!!! THE Vince Russo. Again, wtf? I'm sitting here, right now, watching this, talking about how he's born again and all that. Now, I'm all about the faith, despite my brash language and weakness for asians . Is this promotion for real though? I ask because, well, firstly I ALWAYS second guess and question EVERYTHING coming from a christian/faith based media outlet. A lot of bigotry, hypocracy and perversion of the intended word comes from these media sources.

Also, they were showing TNA footage? Again, wtf?! Again, ring of glory sound awfully close to "Road to Glory" TNA PPV. I went to ROG and it looks like a bunch of TNA peeps, and old ones at that. ????

I'm seriously confused. I've never heard of this org, which was presented on a farily biased media outlet, using TNA footage while not mentioning the org itself - they showed montey brown, styles, daniels. Which I find odd, Alpha male could be related to "the Alpha and Omega" then "the fallen angel" of course. Oddly, alpha and daniels are not even on the website. Again, wtf?

Basicly, is this a crock or for real? If it's a ploy, I'm gong to be increadibly pissed and a few letters are going to be sent and I'm gong to raise some hell over this.

Edit: Holy shit, it is real? They have a bunch of indie dudes working it - Disco inferno, Spike Dudley. Abyss and Styles wrestled a week or so ago. Man, that's weird, lol. Sorry for wasting some peeps time, but I'm seriously caught off guard by this. Vince Russo, ahaha, funny.

I've heard of Ring of Glory. I'm fairly sure it's a real promotion, as by following wrestling news sites I occasionally see Russo updates and that is commonly mentioned.

I've never looked into it, though.

Ok, so after watching Smackdown last night, I have to change my opinion on Kurt Angle, some of you might think I fell on my head! What an impressive match, even after getting press-slammed by that fat idiot Mark Henry, he comes back and puts on s steller performance, that stole the show! And man was the crowd into Angle! I ain't seen that kind if reaction, since Benoit won the title 2 years ago! Even I was cheering Angle, cause I didn't want Henry to win, cause come on, like he deserves the title? So, I still don't like Edge as champ, never will, too soon to give him the strap, but Angle as World Champ is ok!

Should be interesting to see what happens Monday, HBK vs. Angle, for the World title??

no, I think Chris Benoit (or another Smackdown superstar) will invade Raw and take back the World Title. or another Smackdown vs. Raw thing will happen.

He's been in the WWE longer then Angle how long does he have to wait?

It has nothing to do with how long you are in the business, it's about showing your talent, your skills and Edge has lack of that.
Kurt is a great champ and Edge is maybe the baddest champ I've ever seen........

Ya, I never knew Russo was 'saved' either, (see my post up there when I ask that question^^). HBK was on the show with Sting and Russo the other night, on TBN.


I've seen it once, Million Dollar Man was in the ring talking about Christ then Sting showed up in the rafters and quoted scripture. And no, I am not kidding.

Edge has the charisma and talent to be world champ. Remember all those great ladder matches he's had, one that stands out was the one between him and Eddie Guerrero on Smackdown about 2-3 years ago. And he's been in the WWF since about '97. I think he's paid his dues. Besides he's only been champ for a week now so we'll see how it goes and how long he'll keep it

Whoa, you'll NEVER like Edge as champ? Don't you think that's just very close minded?
I don't like the heart throbs, and Cade & Murdoch, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, Masters, and Rob Conway aren't world title material yet, but I believe they can become rightful champs some day.

Took the words right out of my mouth...