The Rock and Coach are together again, and Coach gets The Rock on Sports Center.

Brock gives the entire story of what his issues were late last year and calls his recover, “a miracle”.

You’ve heard the stories, well WE’VE got the video folks. This is TNA Director of Set Production Steve Small telling the Impact Zone fans that they are “cast members” and to “watch their language”. This is from the January 18th TNA Impact Tapings that concluded a few hours ago. He tells them to know their role… seriously.

Yeah buddy… it’s true.

If you curse, you will be MOVED off TV.

The first TNA PPV of the Hulk Hogan era is in the books and is getting all sorts of mixed reviews all throughout the interwebs. GG and I were the only ones who got to see it from FGB, so here are our thoughts:

GG
Thumbs in the middle
Best match – Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles
Worst match – Tara vs. ODB

I don’t mind sacrificing great wrestling to push angles if you deem them important first off. But none of the stuff they pushed as huge was really all that big. Ken Anderson was a huge let down. There were only two matches that were really good. I liked Desmond and Pope because it was something different. It was long and had some boring spots, but it was easy to follow and they told a good story. Angle and AJ was good, but not great. I don’t like AJ as a heel or as a Ric Flair like character. It looks like something that’s doomed to fail.

Also, Daniels losing to Morley was terrible. That kind of stuff is a what makes people change the channel and what doomed WCW. I give them a bit of a mulligan because they don’t have their stuff together, but also can’t give this anymore than a thumbs in the middle.

Big D
Thumbs in the Middle
Best match – The Pope vs. Desmond Wolfe
Worst Match – Tara vs. ODB

We saw a bunch of changes, including a new set, ramp, and now FOUR-Sided ring. But these are NOT necessarily the changes I hoped for with Hogan and Bischoff in control. The “WWE jobbers” as I call it were put over way too often, with Ken Anderson flopping in his victory over Abyss and the former Val Venis botching in HIS win over Chris Daniels, who by the way was MAIN EVENTING the last two TNA PPVs and having classic matches in both. Some good stuff though was the main event and the awesome Pope vs. Wolfe match, which I think stole the show. At first I was lukewarm to the idea of AJ Styles as a heel, then I realized he’s too short and not believable as a bad guy. I’m a wrestling fan and I’m supposed to BOO AJ Styles and Ric Flair? Huh? Big mistake. There were a LOT of mistakes made on this show, and some small improvements… so it’s gotta be in the middle.

Yep, I decided to get this show. It might be four years since I’ve seen an actual TNA PPV live, but hey, I’m caught up in the buzz too. I’m intrigued, but I know that more than likely, I’ll be disappointed in the end. But at least we’re going to get a good main event.

Big D will chime in with his thoughts from time to time.

Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are in the ring to do a promo. There’s now a ramp and there’s no more 6-sided ring. Of course, on queue, the fans start chanting that they want six sides. Hogan says in a 4-sided ring is where professional wrestling is done. He said it’s where they shed their blood, sets, and tears. I think me meant sweat.

He called out Vince McMahon with his “Whatcha gonna do!” line and then called him “brother! or sister” at the end.

1. Amazing Red vs. Brian Kendrick

Kendrick’s the mystery guy, but we told you that last night on FGB Radio. Kendrick looks like he’s in his heel “The Brian Kendrick” character. No Don West with Red.

There’s a very large woman in a purple dress sitting ringside who looks like Brooke Hogan.

It was a pretty good back and forth match. Kendrick is much larger than Red and the story was almost like the champ was the underdog. I think most expected Kendrick to take the title. Kendrick slowed the match down as he and Red were off with the timing a bit. Red finished him with the Code Red, which is a cool little move. Very solid opener.

From Big D:

Hot opener. Surprised Red won, but Kendrick looked good. They must like Red. Bisch likes young guys.

Winner: Amazing Red

Sean Waltman beat Scott Hall in rock, paper, scissors to be Nash’s tag team partner after Bischoff and Hogan told them that they don’t have a contract and have to prove themselves. Why Hall would agree since he’s in the same boat as Waltman, the world will never know.

2. Sean Morley vs. Christopher Daniels
Continue Reading »

We got the band back together. Ok, we’re technically just a two-some. But we’re back with another edition of FGB Radio. We have a heavy wrestling show since there’s not a whole lot of stuff going on in MMA or boxing (since our big fight isn’t happening), but there’s a whole lot of stuff going on in wrestling.

We open the show with my live thoughts on WEC and Urijah Faber in particular. I have some sound from the crowd response and it’s pretty amazing. We then segue into TNA talk and go over the Genesis PPV and just the booking in general. And then we go into WWE Raw specifically and Big D goes into a rant about how you have main eventers and then jobbers and no in between. We end the show shortly talking about video games.

It’s a longer show than we usually do, clocking in at just under two hours.

Listen below.

Right click to download.