Sting

Sting recently told the UK Sun (Not the most reliable magazine for news) that he has plans on retiring sometime soon.

"I can not go on much longer." "I don’t want to embarrass myself, embarrass  Spike or embarrass TNA. We all know it’s a wave coming in to shore. I don;t know when exactly it’s going to hit, but it’s gonna hit.

"I thought probably this year. Actually it’s over the last couple of years it seems the thought has been in-and-out, in-and-out, in-and-out these thoughts of retirement and everything else but under the circumstances I think that I want to stick it out for one last – and this is the last – hurrah. I don’t know when it will end for sure, but as long as I stay healthy into 2009. But how far into 2009 I don’t know."

So why have we never seen sting in the WWE? Good question.

There was always something in me that thought that Vince McMahon wanted me more to undermine WCW than he wanted me as a talent. I just always believed that.

I saw a lot of guys from WCW that went to WWE and that happened. Anyone who made it to a higher level within WCW and then tried to jump over – it just didn’t work.

The other thing was that WCW ended up giving me what I wanted in my contract.

Also in this interview, Sting talks about similarities with the Main Event Mafia in TNA and the WCW Millionaires Club and such. It’s a pretty good interview. You can read it here.

Image Used with permission from Newscom.com

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Why Hasn’t Sting Ever Tried Going To WWE

Last Night’s TNA Impact was a night of "Announcements". It took place at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas Nevada in HD.

• The first match of the evening was Christy Hemme Vs. Velvet Sky. Christy Hemme defeated Sky with the splits kick.

Backstage showed Kurt Angle and said he had an announcement bigger than Foley’s. He introduced the "Main Event Mafia" as Kevin Nash, Booker T, Sting and himself, saying that tonight they would no longer as for respect (there’s that damn word again) They would DEMAND it.

Commercial

Mick Foley pulls up in a VW Bug as Lauren waits for him outside. Mick Foley says he’s got a big announcement that will be made later.

Booker T and his Biatch, Sharmell went to the ring and he announced his new self promoted "TNA Legends Championship Title" and pulls out a nifty new Red Belt. Christian Cage comes out and calls Booker T a bad Lil’ John Impersonator and questions the title because Booker just invented it. Booker invited him to join the Main Event Mafia and Christian says no, but he challenged him to the "Legends" title match at the Turning Point PPV. Booker accepted and said if Christian lost then he would have to join the Main Even Mafia. (this main even mafia looks to be another NWO to me).

Lauren Interviews Abyss and Matt Morgan. Morgan tells abyss that he can’t wrestle tonight because of burns to his face and Abyss says after they win tonight they’ll go after Angle. Morgan says he has it handled. (Is it me or is Abyss’ character starting to look more like mankind by the second?) Abyss says he has to do something about angle.

JB Interviews Jeff Jarrett and JJ said after Mick makes his announcement that Angle will get over it and stop trying to get him back in the ring.

• Sheik Abdul Bashir defeats Jay Lethal by way of WMD to retain the X-Division Championship.

AJ Styles and Samoa Joe cut a promo saying something about Joe taking Nash’s career and anyone that tried to help him.

Rhino provokes Bashir backstage. Bashir accepts his open challenge and when Rhino turns his back, Bashir kicks him in the groin and attacks him with a microphone and runs off.

• Beer Money defeats Team 3D in a gauntlet style match. Other participants in the event where LAX,  Morgan & Abyss. In the end is was Team 3D and Beer Money. Beer money win with a beer spit in face and a pin.

Angle comes out to the ring to make his announcement about the Main even Mafia and calls out Jarrett. Jarrett comes to the ring and talks about the TNA Roster. Angle challenged Jarrett and Jarrett says there are plenty of wrestlers in the locker room that would love a piece of Angle. Abyss attacks Angle from behind and Angle fights back but gets blind-sided by a Black Hole Slam.

Promos are shown for Awesome Kong’s match against Taylor wiled where taylor says that Kong would have to end her career to take her title.

• Awesome Kong defeats Taylor Wilde and takes the TNA Knockout title by way of awesome bomb and the pin.
• Sting and Kevin Nash defeat Samoa Joe and AJ Styles when Nash Hits Joe with the belt. After the match Joe tries to choke out Nash but Booker T and Angle comes out and beat on Styles and Samoa Joe leaving the bloodied in the ring.

Foley comes out to make his grand announcement declaring that it was "Major Declaration Time" and that Jarrett offered him a great investment. Angle’s music hits and he comes out with the "Mafia". Apparently Angle didn’t like Foley’s "Take a Kurt and wipe my Angle." reference and approaches Foley alone about it. Angle headbutts Foley and asks him if he still thinks it’s funny.

Foley get’s up smiling and says that it’s funny now because he just Headbutted his new boss because Foley bought in to TNA to become a major stockholder. He acted as if he was going to say "You’re Fired!", but instead said "You’re free" to continue to work for TNA if he wanted to. Foley goes on to say that he believes in his investment and that Kurt and him had been through a history in the WWE and that they could make history in TNA. He ask Kurt If he wants to be a part of history or BE history.

That ended the show. Not too bad even though it was more announcement than matches. Much better than this weeks Raw or ECW, for sure.

Post from: EveryJoe

TNA Impact Results

TNA Bound For Glory Aired live from Sear Center in Chicago Illinois last night. While I didn’t have a chance to watch the Pay-Per-View, here are the results.

The return of the Steel Asylum Match. In case you haven’t caught a Steel Asylum match in the past, they have this huge domed cage and to win you have to climb out of the hole in the top of the dome. Even for someone who is fresh in the ring and not fatigued, this is a tough task. The winner goes on as the number 1 contender for the X Division Championship. The participants were: Sonja Dutt, Johnny Devine, Jay Lethal,  Chris Sabin, Jimmy Rave, Shark Boy, Curry Man, Petey Williams, and Super Eric.

Winner and #1 contender for the X Division Championship: Jay Lethal

Rhino, Rhaka Khan & ODB vs. Beautiful People & Cute Kip was a Knockout Bimbo Brawl with special enforcer Traci Brooks.

Winners: Rhino, Khan and ODB by way of Rhino gore in Cute Kip (You know, WWE and WCW always did pretty good about coming up with some pretty cool names, but TNA has a certain cheese factor with names like "Cute Kip, "Shark Boy" and "Curry Man". Makes me wonder sometimes)

TNA X-Division Championship match: Current Champion Abdul Bashir Vs. Consequences Creed.

Winner: Sheik Abdul Bashir retains the title by roll-up and ring rope leverage cheat.

3 way TNA Knockout Division Championship: Current Champion Taylor Wilde Vs. Awesome Kong Vs. Roxxi.

Winner: Taylor wins and retains her title when Roxxi attempts her finisher, but Taylor counters with a bridge suplex and pins her.

Monsters Ball Tag Team Match For the TNA Tag Team Title: Current Champions Beer Money, Inc. Vs. LAX Vs. Team 3D Vs. Abyss and Matt Morgan with special guest ref. Steve "Mongo" McMichael.

Winners: Team 3D gives LAX’s Hernandez a 3D through a table, Beer Money Inc.’s Roode sneaks in for the pin on Hernandez. Beer Money Inc. Wins and retains titles.

Triple Threat Match: Christian Cage Vs. AJ Styles Vs. Booker T

Winner: Booker T hits Cage with an Ax kick and pins him for the win. (Booker T has gone from a bad-ass black street brawler from Harlem heat to British royalty to African royalty? Who comes up with this stuff? Harlem Heat was an awesome tag team back in the days of WCW)

TNA Grudge Match: Kurt Angle Vs. Jeff Jarrett with Mick Foley as special enforcer.

Winner: Jarrett wins with a guitar shot to Angles head and a 3 count from Foley.

TNA Championship Match: Current Champion Samoa Joe Vs. Sting

Winner: Sting after a surprise appearance by Nash when he hits Samoa Joe with the bat. Sting gets the Scorpion Death Drop and 3 count.

Not a whole lot of Championship exchanges went ton here tonight. Kind of reminded me of some late 90’s WWF pay-per-views. This is why WCW was doing so well in the mid 90’s. WWE PPV’s got boring and people started getting pissed because they didn’t see the matches go the they wanted. Soon after though the WCW started to go downhill fast doing the same thing. Wrestlers started jumping ship and soon after the WCW belonged to Vinny Mac. Still sounded like a fun event though. Wish I could have seen it, but I have to save my PPV money for UFC events, where I feel like I get more of my moneys worth.

On another note, the BFG promo with everyone dressed liked 1930’s gangster, and Kurt Angle saying "Someone messes with me, I’m gonna mess with them" had to be one of the cheesiest promo commercials I have ever seen.

For afull PLay-by-play of this event, check out Wrestlingdotcom

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TNA Bound For Glory Results

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Mick Foley On TNA Impact, Wrestlemania Special Tonight On MyNetwork TV

Jeff Wilen in his JAWbreaker segment at three8six.com, spoke to Kevin Nash on the phone yesterday afternoon. Nash told Wilen that his contract with TNA runs out on October 10th and that he had been in talk with Vince McMahon.

‘I talked to Vince (McMahon)," Nash said. ‘He offered me a contract, but he wanted me to dye my hair.’

Nash reiterated a TNA Wrestling schedule would be easier on him than a WWE schedule.

Nash had told other reporters in the past week that he wasn’t trying to rush any negotiations and that he had more to lose in the stock market right now than in a new contract.

Read the rest of Jeff Wilens reports here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kevin Nash’s Status In TNA

So TNA has delved in some ‘MMA’ style matches. Taking a wrestling angle and trying to make it look more real. They will continue to do this, however there is not a thin line between the differences of MMA and Pro Wrestling. There is a line a mile wide between the two. Everyone knows that. Each has it’s own quality and form of entertainment. Kurt Angle recently said in an interview with SLAM! Sports:

 "In wrestling, there’s a story in every match. In MMA, you cannot tell that story." Elaborating, he told SLAM! Wrestling, "There is not story in a ’shoot’ fight — you either get knocked out, choked out, tapped out, or you make it and the referee decides who wins by decision. It becomes very difficult to tell a story in a worked shoot."

Sure the first half is correct. There is a story in Wrestling. An almost soap opera style story. In MMA there is a story as well but it’s not all drama. It’s some promo cutting trash talk here and there, but in the end it’s two guys pitting their skills against each other. Sometimes it’s a stroke of a lucky punch that catch’s the better fighter on the button and sometimes it’s pure skill that reigns supreme. The interview (not angle in particular) also goes on to say:

For Angle’s money, it’s that kind of unpredictability that makes MMA less appealing than pro wrestling. That, and the fact that pro wrestling’s focus is on engaging and entertaining the crowd.

Sure there is that predictability in Prow Wrestling, but it’s the lack of Predictability that keeps  people on the edge of their seats during an MMA fight. A lot of people would ‘predict’ that Chuck Liddell would go out there and beat Rashad Evans. Nobody predicted’ that chuck would get knocked out. When I watched the Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver fight I was on the edge of my seat the entire 5 rounds. I like both fighters and I was actually hoping that Pulver would win but expected Faber to. In the end was something I never say before. Urijah Faber going 5 rounds without a submission or knock out to win, but a win by decision. That was a first for me and nobody would have predicted that. It’s that unpredictability that keeps MMA interesting and fun to watch. Unless it’s a repeat you really don’t know who might win. With wrestling you see it every week and it can become stale at time. With MMA there is usually a good month between big fights and it builds up your anticipation. Do I think one sport is better than the other? No, but I do enjoy MMA more than wrestling.

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Kurt Angle Says "Wrestling’s Better Than MMA"… I Beg To Differ.

Mick Foley made his first appearance last night on TNA. His contract with the WWE is up and Mick made the decision to try something new. I can’t blame him. Sometimes you have to change things up a bit in the wrestling world in order to stay relevant.

A lot of people wonder what exactly will be Mick’s role in TNA? He can’t play the Mankind character because the WWE owns that but he owns the Cactus Jack persona. Will it be a wrestling role or more of a commentary type roll? We may find out more on Thursday’s broadcast of TNA Wrestling. I can’t say that I have a clue because I’m not totally in to TNA as much as the WWE. I watch it when it comes on every now and then but it’s been tough for me to get used to that crazy ring. I tried watching a little bit of it last night but I’ve had a terrible head cold that has kept me from doing much of anything in the last couple of days. However I’ll be tuning in now more than ever with taking on the writing of Jab And Grapple. I’ll get into the swing of things eventually.

I’ve been a Mick Foley fan for awhile and I’ve always found him quite humorous to watch. He puts on a great show and cuts some pretty crazy promos. Not to mention the things he does (or did) to himself in the ring for the sake of ‘entertainment’. If you have not done so already, check out his books Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks and Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. He has also written other books Tietam Brown, Scooter (both fiction) and The Hardcore Diaries but I have yet to read them. The first two were very hard to put down and were very interesting and funny.

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What Will Be Mick Foley’s Angle In TNA?