Another Three From the List

Last week WWE released Super Crazy, Paul London, and Chuck Palumbo. I may be mistaken, but I don't think London or Palumbo had been on television since the draft back in June. Super Crazy had been bouncing back and forth between ECW and Smackdown having random matches with no consistent feud or storyline.

Super Crazy was always fun to watch. Without a cruiserweight division on Smackdown he was a little lost. Palumbo was never all that interesting. The biker gimmick never really did anything for me, even though I'll admit I didn't watch too much Smackdown when that version of Palumbo was a regular feature on it. I didn't see much potential in either of them beyond the midcard. I guess both guys fit nicely into the role of "established jobber", someone who is recognizable that a new face in the company can beat on their way to a push. Guys like Tommy Dreamer, Snitsky, and Val Venis.

As for Paul London, here's what I wrote about him in the original list post:

"Something should be done with Paul London. He's too talented and too fun to watch to let him go to waste. He could be placed in the current program with Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. Like Lance Cade, London is a product of Michaels' Texas Wrestling Academy. Chris Jericho & Lance Cade vs. Shawn Michaels & Paul London...I'd pay to see that. A solo London probably wouldn't be much more than a jobber, and I can see a guy as talented as he is asking for his release to head to TNA or back to Ring of Honor."

I wrote that back in July, after which London lost a match to Chris Jericho and hasn't been seen since. I figured he was talented enough to work in at least the upper midcard as a singles competitor if pushed properly. Obviously that didn't happen. I didn't expect it of his former tag team partner Brian Kendrick, who went on to become the phenomenon known as The Brian Kendrick. As I said, I wouldn't be suprised to seel London show up somewhere else very soon. Where ever he ends up, I'm sure he'll land on his feet...or his face.

SvR 2009 Roster Leaked

Fans of IGN's annual Smackdown countdown may have been disappointed this year when it was announced that rather than announcing the whole roster and ticking them off the list, the countdown would proceed without the roster, with no indication as to how many superstars would be in the game. With a new Legends of WrestleMania title to launch early next year, there was speculation as whether Legends would even be in the game, as many seem to be willing to give them up in exchange for a more complete current roster.

Well, as should be a shocker to no one, the rendered images that show up on the match-up screen have leaked onto the Internet, and they seem to reveal the game's 63-man roster. The images match those that have already appeared on IGN's countdown, so the whole thing looks legit, and rather than a denial, THQ issued a statement reminding that nothing's for sure until it is revealed on IGN. So take that as you will.

Anyway, the revealed roster is thus (spoilers, of course):
RAW SUPERSTARS
Batista
Chris Jericho
Chuck Palumbo
CM Punk
Cody Rhodes
Hardcore Holly
JBL
John Cena
JTG
Kane
Kofi Kingston
Lance Cade
Paul London
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Santino Marella
Shad Gaspard
Shawn Michaels
Snitsky
William Regal

SMACKDOWN SUPERSTARS
Big Show
Brian Kendrick
Carlito
Curt Hawkins
Edge
Festus
Jeff Hardy
Jesse
Jimmy Wang Yang
Mr. Kennedy
MVP
Shelton Benjamin
The Great Khali
Triple H
Umaga
Undertaker
Zack Ryder

ECW SUPERSTARS
Boogeyman
Chavo Guerrero
Elijah Burke
Finlay
Hornswoggle
John Morrison
Mark Henry
Matt Hardy
The Miz
Tommy Dreamer

RAW DIVAS
Beth Phoenix
Candice Michelle
Jillian Hall
Kelly Kelly
Layla
Melina
Mickie James

SMACKDOWN DIVAS
Maria
Michelle McCool
Victoria

NON-ACTIVE SUPERSTARS
Tazz
Vince McMahon

NO LONGER EMPLOYED SUPERSTARS
Ashley
Big Daddy V
Ric Flair
Trevor Murdoch

Will there be more? Downloadable, perhaps? THQ's not telling. Next entry, I'll be crunching some numbers with the Smackdown video game series.

TNA hawking for WWE

Did you know that some guys in TNA used to work for the WWE? Well, if you didn't, they'll sure let you know. When DX made its high-profile return, former members BG and Kip James, formerly Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, went ape-shit over the whole thing and changed their tag team name from the James Gang (which fit) to the Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM - Vincent Kennedy McMahon - get it?). Mick Foley made his debut and talked about how awesome the people Kurt Angle used to wrestle against are. It's always WWE this, WWE that.

TNA, after all this time, is still lacking its own identity. I know I can't get through a TNA post without mentioning WCW, but this is why. Once the nWo storyline was milked to death (three times) - WCW has absolutely nothing, so it tried to emulate the WWF. ECW mentioned both companies quite often, but that WAS its identity. It was the one company that didn't want to be like either of the other two.

TNA is not doing that. It's quite obvious that TNA badly wants to be the WWE. They need to focus on refining TNA and worry a whole lot less about whatever they're trying to accomplish here.

What if Smackdown moved back to Thursday? I'm just saying.

Five things about Impact

Despite their claims, TNA is not active competition to the WWE. It's a fact. Are they growing? Slowly, but yes. However, watching an episode of any WWE show (even ECW) then hitting up Impact will immediately showcase an inferior product. I have been watching Impact more regularly lately, and I've gathered five things (in random order) that makes the experience somewhat difficult for me.

1) Crowd reaction
Now I realize this is hardly TNA's fault, but the crowd reaction really does seem to hurt the product. The smallest aerial spot will ignite a 'TNA!' chant, and well-known names will be cheered simply for name recognition. I'm pretty sure that of Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Sting, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner, Tomko, and Samoa Joe, there should be one heel, but you can't tell from the crowd. Everyone gets cheered. Of course, I remember the days in which WCW piped in 'Goldberg' chants, so I guess this may be the lesser of two evils.

2) Inconsistency
The problem with my inconsistent viewership of Impact is that I am constantly wondering who's on which side of what. The Team Angle/Christian Coalition thing had me scratching my head, Tomko's allegiance baffled me, and just what is up with Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe? Sting is supposed to be this holier-than-thou bitter veteran, yet still high fives the fans on his way to and from the ring. Everyone loves the swerve, but you really need to keep some kind of consistency if you're going to make them mean something.

3) Gimmicks
First and foremost, leave Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt out of this category. They have both taken what could be awful gimmicks and have run with them. I'm talking about Shiek Abdul Bashir (Shawn Davari) who is holding the X Division Title as his hostage (yes, Mike Tenay really said that). I'm talking about Christopher Daniels being 'fired' and returning as the masked Curry Man. I'm talking about the imminent arrival of Suicide, a character based on the amnesia-based video game character. There seem to be a million bad gimmicks out there, and TNA is slowly but surely trying to go through them all. At least Matt Morgan isn't stuttering. That's a plus.

4) Don West
As the voice of the product, a commentator's voice is the most-heard noise on a show. You'd think that with responsibility, one would find a set of somewhat pleasant voices to be heard for the product. WWE has its teams of Jim Ross, Tazz, Matt Striker, Todd Grisham, Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, none of whom are hard on the ears. TNA has its longtime team of Mike Tenay and Don West. While Mike Tenay is certainly a capable commentator (as well as a walking encyclopedia of wrestling knowledge), Don West yells. And yells. And yells. I would probably be welcoming on TNA programming if West wasn't screaming at me for both hours. TNA also falls into the old WCW trap of having two play-by-play guys and no color commentators. Surely there's someone who can provide analysis - maybe someone like Scott D'Amore or James Mitchell or even Raven to take the spot. Just please, PLEASE, get rid of West.

5) Crazy-ass matches
If you think about it from a business standpoint, the weekly, free TV shows are there to allow a storyline to unfold and build to a turning point/climactic moment at a PPV, in which the viewer has to pay. It is at these PPVs that the highest quality matches should be on display. This includes gimmick matches, that don't (or shouldn't) appear regularly. Such is not the case with TNA, though. Every episode of Impact usually has at least one crazy stipulation match, be it a object-on-a-pole or a ladder match, or some hard-to-define stipulation that TNA is so renowned for. Most of these matches would likely be heavy PPV draws had the fans not become so used to them from episodes of Impact. WCW did the same thing in its closing days, desperate to get a quick ratings jump. So put on quality matches on Impact, and save the special stuff for the PPVs. If you can even get storylines going consistently, you might get a better fanbase.

So there you go - five things that make watching Impact a chore for me most weeks. There's potential there, which is why I tune in at least every other week. it just needs a lot of fine-tuning to make it.

TNA Impact (the game)

One of the joys of your masked hero hitting a birthday is that some things he wasn't expecting to get end up obtainable. With an increase of cash in the wallet and a trip to Best Buy, I came home the owner of Midway's mildly anticipated TNA Impact for my PS3. As Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 doesn't come out for another two months, I hoped that this game would cover my wrestling game jitters that usually pop up this time of the year.

If you've seen the commercials (and if you ever watch Impact, I can't imagine that you haven't), you know that the game is pretty. But the question is - how is the rest of it? I can say with confidence that it isn't bad. In fact, in the one day that I've owned it, I've had a pretty good time with it.

Before I get into it, let me just say that there are two great systems of wrestling games out there - the Smackdown system and the No Mercy system. Impact is not either of those, and I'm going to try to limit the comparisons to them as best I can. Fortunately, though, Impact is also no WCW Mayhem or Nitro.

The game is the first installment of what could very well be a strong franchise for TNA games. While the game lacks a certain polish and is limited in features, it provides solid groundwork that can be built greatly upon. After all, before there was No Mercy there was WCW vs. the World (go pick that one up for PS1 and enjoy). Impact balances between its strengths and weaknesses, and in the end, I think it leans into the good. So let's take a look at the game's strengths.

As said before, the game is pretty. The characters are beautifully rendered and each move with nice animation. The only animation I found myself questioning was Rhino's charge to the ring, which made him look like he had a stick jammed somewhere uncomfortable. AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal (in his Black Machismo attire) look especially excellent. The moves flow beautifully, and with a system that allows multiple reverses, the animation is near seamless. The Orlando Impact Zone looks exactly as it should and the crowd is fine.

I'm about 20% into the story mode and the voice-over work I've heard is excellent. Of course, besides generic characters, I've only heard James Storm, Kevin Nash and Jay Lethal, but all their lines are well done. The game's tutorial videos are voiced over by Lethal, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, and the only one that was rough to listen to was Styles, but that wasn't because of the voice acting. That's how he actually talks.

The story mode, thus far, has also been enjoyable. Of course, the basic premise is pretty cheesy (involving amnesia of all things) but it's easy to dismiss that aspect and think of it as a guy working his way up the ranks. In fact, why they didn't just take it that direction is beyond me. Anyway, the early stages have your character outside of the company fighting independent wrestlers (created wrestlers, much like in Day of Reckoning) which is a nice touch. Also nice (and frustrating) is that when you finally fight a TNA wrestler, they are substantially tougher than the indie guys. From what I've played, I can say that there have been better story modes (Here Comes the Pain) as well as worse (Wrestlemania XIX).

The game control itself is pretty solid, though does have a bit of a learning curve. Your four face buttons are punch, kick, grapple and action (roll out of the ring, climb turnbuckle), with the two top buttons for strong attacks and reverses, then the triggers being used for running and...uh...I honestly can't remember what the other one does. The strong button is more of a modifier button to be used in combination with the others. With the grapple button, it allows a tie-up, which can be pulled into a submission using the action button. This also will perform the finisher, if the IMPACT meter for your character fills. All finishers (that I have seen thus far) are done from a front grapple. Overall, it's a lot of combinations, but once you get down what you're doing, it's good fun.

The downside to the controls is that it seems that each control has one move associated to it, which severely limits your character's repertoire. My created guy will use tons of neckbreakers and DDTs before I have done enough damage to get the pin. Each character shares certain moves, which limits the individuality, save taunts and finishers. My biggest complaint, though, is the control for kicking out of a pin attempt - as in I can't kick out of pin attempts. If someone tries to pin me, I'm done. Every time. I'm working on it.

Other standard wrestling game features appear, but are limited in their expanse. The create-a-wrestler is quite disappointing, especially since the story mode requires that you use a created character. The only bio information for your character is the name - things like hometown, weight and height are missing. The costume selection is extremely limited and the colors range from bland to ugly. The face customization isn't too bad but the inability to adjust the scale of any of the body is greatly missed. In fact, two of the three available body sizes seem to make your character look out of shape. The 'athletic' build in particular has a bit of a gut and slight love handles. There is no cruiserweight-style body for those lucha-libre fans. The move selection, at my point, is horribly limited as all but the default moves must be unlocked by getting style points in matches. If nothing else, if gives a reason to keep playing exhibition matches after the story's done.

The other thing lacking here is game modes. While TNA prides itself on its ridiculous amount of stipulation matches, the game only has one-on-one, free-for-all (fatal four way), tag match and the Ultimate X Match (with 2 or 3 participants). No Six Sides of Steel, King of the Mountain, or even standard battle royal. Hopefully in future installments the other TNA staples will be added to the mix.

Finally, the roster. Of the characters initially available, most all of TNA is represented. Main eventers like Sting, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Booker T, and AJ Styles are present, as are the X-Divisioners like Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Shark Boy and Jay Lethal. I haven't unlocked them yet, but I know Kevin Nash is in the game and Petey Williams' finisher is unlockable, so I figure he is too. Brother Devon is initially playable, but Brother Ray isn't so I assume he too is unlockable. Even the rank and file is represented with the likes of James Storm, Robert Roode and Scott Steiner. It's really a good representation of TNA's talent. However, the biggest hole in the roster is the lack of the Knockouts. With the division really becoming the shining point of TNA, the lack of the likes of Gail Kim, Awesome Kong and even ODB is damaging.

Overall, I have to say I enjoy the game and even with what it's lacking, there's a lot to be enjoyed. In future installments, I hope to see defendable titles, better move sets, an expanded create-a-wrestler and others, but for what this one is, I'm not disappointed (as my expectations were pretty low to begin with). If nothing else, the bonus features on my PS3 copy gives five matches (two of which are recent exclusives) with past and present TNA talent including Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher (Grand Master Sexay), Scott Hall, Ron Killings (R-Truth), six current X-Divisioners in a six-man free-for-all and the entire Knockouts roster in a gauntlet match.

Not a bad buy, if you have the money to spend. If not, then save it and wait for Smackdown.

If It's On a Wrestling News Site, It Must Be True

There are rumors going around the internets that MVP has a good deal of backstage heat for some reason or another. Given the previous stories we've all heard about backstage heat, especially all those about CM Punk and the track record they've had, my pick to win the WWE Championship scramble at Unforgiven this Sunday is...

An ongoing "thing" is born

I try to be polite when talking about the form of entertainment I oh, so enjoy. Since the mid-90s, these performers have given me countless hours (really, I don't want to count them) of entertainment, and I appreciate that. I really do.

But sometimes as I watch, something so ridiculous, so bone-headed, so just 'WTF' happens that I have to scratch my head and question the thought process that allowed it to happen. Fortunately for me, I have found what will throw up a flag anytime I comment on such a moment:

Shame on you if you don't know who this guy is. If you see him pop up, you know that I've seen something that I think is, for lack of a better term, flipping loopy.