Storm Blasts TNA, J.R On 'Net Gossip/JBL, Finlay, & Lots More
>> Lance Storm has posted yet another rant after watching iMPACT!. He kept tabs on the actual amount of wrestling on the show. Storm wrote:
"Am I the only one that noticed that TNA iMPACT! this week had less than 18 minutes of actual wrestling on the program. Official match times totaled, I believe, 17 minutes and 55 second. ECW has had more wrestling minutes than that on their show and ECW is but half the length. If we break down the entire 120 minutes of the program we have 18 minutes of wrestling (I rounded up), 32 minutes of commercials, and 70 minutes of skits, promos, and general stupidity. Keep in mind the name of this company is Total Nonstop Action, yet only 15% of this show was action. This leaves 27% of the show for commercials, and 58% of the show skits, comedy, and talking. There was even one stretch where they went 37 minutes with out a wrestling match. Can this even be called a wrestling show anymore?"
He then criticizes TNA for devoting more television time to the Christy Hemme vs. Sojourner Bolt match than the Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley match. Storm pokes fun at Sojourner Bolt's heel turn similar to how Tony Schiavone poked fun at Mick Foley winning the WWF Championship in 1999 by sarcastically saying that it will draw big ratings and that he's on the edge of his seat. Although, Bolt's match with Hemme drew a 1.28 cable rating, the highest rated portion of the show, if not one of the highest segments of the year. Storm wrote: "Why would any sane person book Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley and Christy Hemme vs. Sejourner Bolt on the same show and decide to give the latter match more than twice the time as the former? We had the opportunity to see Jay Lethal and Alex Shelly wrestling in TNA (Total Nonstop Action) and they were given less than 2 minutes for their match. What a wasted opportunity to entertain fans! I guess the thought process must be that the big Sejourner Bolt heel turn will draw ratings and PPV buys. I know I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to find out where that angle goes. Are there not already more heels than faces in the Knockouts division?" You can read his latest rant at StormWrestling.com.
>> Jim Ross has another blog entry up on his website, here are some of highlights:
On Ric Flair: I guess there was a small controversy about Ric Flair attending an autograph session Saturday in Jersey. Ric is now making the appearance as previously committed as I understand it. I heard that Ric's agent was not pleased Ric would be asked to sign several requests from fans who could not be there but instead paid the fees and send items for signing. I say what the hell. Sign the items, earn the payday and call it a day. Agents can over think things and many of them do on a regular basis. Ric is very amenable to his fans and I can virtually assure you this "issue" was not of Ric's doing. Fortunately, all's well that ends well Saturday in New Jersey.
On JBL: JBL has been in the eye of the storm this week as far as 'rasslin gossip is concerned which sort of goes with the turf these days. Nonetheless I am impressed with how much weight John has lost over the past several months and I do know that his Mamajuana Energy Drink has been an important aspect of his weight loss which is getting close to a whopping 100 pounds. Obviously the product works and John has told me that taking it has helped him maintain his workouts, which are a must to go along with common sense eating.
The Chris Adams Documentary: The pending Chris Adams' documentary could really be interesting. Adams had great talent, a superb look, unique verbal skills but also had a pronounced dark side. Drugs and alcohol abuse did Adams no favors nor did him working in World Class Wrestling when it was the wild west and talents had little discipline and it was party like a rock star virtually every night. Adams seemed to have a propensity of beating women and that is never cool. Chris' temper got him some prison time as I recall for assaulting a flight attendant and he died of a gun shot wound.
On Jushin Liger's 20th Anniversary: I see where Jushin Liger is having a match to celebrate his 20th anniversary of being in the business. I vividly remember meeting Liger for the first time while I was in WCW. He was and I am sure still is a class act. Liger was the Rey Mysterio of Japan for those of you that may not be familiar with the talented, high flier. Liger's matches with Brian Pillman are some of my best memories of that period of my career. Their aerial moves were on the money and not over done and all had meaning. Flying for the hell of it reeks of a lack of knowledge of the art of wrestling and both "Thunder" and "Flying Brian" fully understood the true meaning of wrestling and entertaining the fans.
>> The hyped Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Mark Henry & Tony Atlas main event match on this past week's edition of ECW resulted in a 16.6 percent audience drop from the 12/2 show, which drew an audience of 1.77 million viewers. Last Tuesday's show pulled in a lackluster 1.2 cable rating and was seen by an average audience of 1.52 million viewers.