Pleased or Displeased: July 2010

[It's Damn Real!]

As if you didn't know I like to post things in a series by now...

So here's the run-down:

Each month I'll post a new "Pleased or Displeased" thread regarding the overall state of TNA at the culmination of each months' PPV.

I'll give you a general consensus of the on-going feuds at the time, what are still going and what have ended, as well as any other important aspects of the on-goings that may have happened that month including releases, acquisitions, debuts, etc.

Please note, while this may appear by design to be an aftermath thread, I assure you it is not – I'm not asking you to post your own thoughts on the aftermath and what they mean to you personally. There's already a thread for that elsewhere. What I am asking you for is your thoughts on the direction of the company, it's future, it's past, and it's potential.

That said, here's the opener:

--

TNA Wrestling as of July 13th, 2010​

------------------------------------------------------------
TNA World Heavyweight Championship
------------------------------------------------------------

Still TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Rob Van Dam retained his title against Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy and "The Monster" Abyss at Victory Road when he hit a five-star frogsplash on all three-men in the ring. Abyss, obviously upset and deranged, then proceeded to attack Van Dam after the match, potentially setting up a feud for the two of them to meet for the title again at Hard Justice.

The four-way was set up by Hogan weeks prior on iMPACT!.

RVD has held the TNA WHC since April 19th, 2010 when he beat then champion AJ Styles for it the day after their match at Lockdown.


------------------------------------------------------------
TNA X Division Championship
------------------------------------------------------------

Still TNA X Division Champion, Doug(las) Williams retained his title against Brian Kendrick at Victory Road where it looked as though following a botched spot off the Ultimate X ropes, Kendrick legitimately KO'd himself, as he needed smelling salts to be brought back to reality. No new number one contender has been named.

Kendrick had worked for weeks with Williams to set this feud up and would repeatedly attack him and put him in the Cobra Clutch, so much so to the point that the match was eventually allowed submissions as a viable alternative to win, as opposed to simply pulling the belt down by shimmying across the ropes.

Williams has now held the TNA XDC since May 16th at Sacrifice when he beat the former champion Kazarian for it.


------------------------------------------------------------
TNA Global Championship
------------------------------------------------------------

Still TNA Global Champion, Rob Terry did compete at Victory Road, but did not compete for the title. Instead, he was used as one half of Ric Flair's mystery tag team (the other half being Samoa Joe) to compete against AJ Styles & Kazarian – a throw-together team who were the underdogs to win coming in because of their difficulties getting alone, which of course was the very reason Flair demanded they do so (if they want to join Fortune). The Global Championship hasn't actually been defended on national television or PPV for some time now, though Terry is involved in a feud with former British Invasion brethren Brutus Magnus on Xplosion. Unlike the WHC, no contenders system is in place for the championship, so there is no foreseeable future for the belt, either. Rob Terry has held the title since January 27th, 2010 when he beat then champion Eric Young for it overseas.


------------------------------------------------------------
TNA World Tag Team Championships
------------------------------------------------------------

New TNA World Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machineguns defeated the former three-time World Tag Team Champions Beer Money, Inc. at Victory Road to win their first ever (believe it) gold as a tag-team in TNA since their inception over three years ago.

Beer Money, Inc. won the right to challenge the Motor City Machineguns – who won a #1 contenders match to face then champions The Band, who were subsequently stripped of their titles when Hall was released from his contract with TNA – by defeating a number of tag-teams in a tournament series held on iMPACT! over three weeks, including Ink Inc.

The Motor City Machineguns have now held the titles since July 11th, 2010.


------------------------------------------------------------
TNA Knockouts Championship
------------------------------------------------------------

Still TNA Knockouts Champion, Madison Rayne lost her title against Angelina Love in a career v. title match at Victory Road. The stipulations stated that if Lacey Von Erich or Velvet Sky interfered in the match, Rayne would be disqualified and subsequently lose her title, where as if Love lost, she would be forced into early retirement, just as Rayne was successful in forcing with Roxxi and Tara previously, however a masked assailant attacked Love during the match – one that was deemed to be one of Von Erich or Sky, though reports have been swirling that the attacker was none other than Tara.

Angelina Love has now held the title since July 11th, 2010.


------------------------------------------------------------
TNA Knockout Tag Team Championships
------------------------------------------------------------

In a match at Lockdown, The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich) defeated incumbent Knockouts Champion Angelina Love and Tara in a tag-team cage match in which all three titles were on the line. No current feud is going on for the titles which are little more than props to accompany the already illustrious eye candy in the Beautiful People as it is. No #1 contenders have been named, and The Beautiful People have held the titles since March 8th, 2010.


------------------------------------------------------------
Midcard & Ancillary Feuds
------------------------------------------------------------

Kurt Angle v. the TNA Top-10

When Angle returned from a month-long hiatus following his victory over Mr. Anderson at Lockdown, he removed himself from the then established TNA Top-10 Contenders ranking in which he ranked at #2 stating that he was going to reinvent himself by taking on each and every one of the contenders (who all moved up a rank as a result of Angle's decline to accept his spot) on his way to the TNA WHC.

Angle defeated the #8 seeded "Pope" D'Angelo Dinero at Victory Road when he pinned him following an Angle Slam. Still in Angle's target sight are Rob Terry, Abyss, Samoa Joe, Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles and technically Sting.

--

Brother Ray v. Jesse Neal & Ink Inc.

In a feud that's built over weeks of what Brother Ray felt was disrespect on the part of Jesse Neal, these two came together for their first one-on-one confrontation in TNA at Slammiversary. Neal ended up picking up the victory after the interference play run by a debuting Tommy Dreamer who came down through the crowd and into the pit staring mercilessly at Ray who was propped on the 2nd rope at the time, enabling Neal to eventually hit his spear finisher to gain the pin-fall victory.

Fast-forward to Victory Road and the match is a three-way bout between Brother Ray, Brother Devon and Jesse Neal again – a match in which Devon was shown to have been locked in his locker room prior to the match start, likely by Brother Ray. The ECW Originals again came down to interfere in the match, and in the process, Neal inadvertently hit Devon with his spear, and was then victim to the Bubba Bomb and covered for the pinfall victory by Brother Ray.

--

Hernandez v. Matt Morgan

Following up on their match at Slammiversary, a steel cage stipulation was added to the rematch at Victory Road where Hernandez came out on top after diving head-first through the cage door (after breaking out of handcuffs Morgan had placed him in prior) to beat Morgan to the floor before he could scale the structure himself.

Morgan originally attacked Hernandez months ago when he (kayfabe) injured him and put him on the shelf for some time before Hernandez made his return.

--

Ric Flair v. Jay Lethal

Upset with Lethal for what he felt was disrespect on Lethals part for impersonating Flair to begin with, Flair and Lethal locked horns at Victory Road, with Lethal coming out on top after Flair tapped out to his own finisher – the figure four leg lock. The feud started to get personal as Flair began to verbally degrade Lethals family, especially his sick mother, cursing the day Lethal was born in the process, and really came to fruition when Jay Lethal's brother, Mohammed, was attacked by Styles and Flair back-stage after coming to the iMPACT! Zone to visit Lethal on iMPACT! prior to the PPV.


------------------------------------------------------------
Other News of Note
------------------------------------------------------------

• Dixie Carter at the forefront of controversy after tweeting a series of messages proclaiming major changes coming to TNA – changes we've yet to see.

• Jeff Jarrett also at the forefront of controversy after tweeting a series of cryptic messages about another big change coming to TNA.

• Rumors swirling of an ECW-invasion style angle on the horizon have really heightened since the additional debuts and re-debuts of Rhino, Raven and Stevie Richards in addition to Tommy Dreamer.

• Rumors of TNA's interest in ROH star Delirious are swirling.

• No members of Fortune have been named, yet.


------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Polls
------------------------------------------------------------

• June 2010 – 44.90% Displeased, 30.61% Pleased, 24.49% In-Between

 

[LegendKiller716]

first off, if i'm not mistaken you pasted this twice. You might wanna edit that.

As for being pleased or displeased, i am displeased overall.

So far RVD's Title run hasn't been good at all, but most first runs aren't. He needs to loose the title and then gain some momentum as a challenger before winning it again. Also I don't like the top ten rankings. At first I thought it was a creative idea, but its impossible for the champ to carry a feud longer than a month because he'll have a new challenger, guaranteed.

The Global championship needs to get more attention. I completely forgot about the belt until i visited TNA's roster page.

I have enjoyed the Williams/Kendrick feud. I think it has been quite good so far. I was really hoping Kendrick would take the title though. I love Kendrick.

I'm also enjoying the tag title division. I think between MCMG, Beer Money, Ink Inc, and 3D, they have good division here.

The KO tag titles are pointless, they only have 1 team in the division.

I hated the ending to the KO championship match. I thought Rayne would retain by DQ, but the ending that happened sucked, and confused me.

I hate Kurt Angle going after every one in the top ten. It annoys me that he is tearing through every one like they are nothing. He's putting on great matches in the process, but i would rather have him in a feud.

There isn't too much to like about TNA right now.



*EDIT* Almost forgot, I love the Flair/Lethal feud. It's hilarious and they put on one hell of a match. Don't be surprised to see lethal in fortune.

 

[goodlay]

Regardless of Victory Road overall being a let-down, im still pleased with the current TNA product. iMPACT has been great for about a month now, and I can't wait to see the fall-out of the PPV and what is going to happen next. Even with inconsistent and illogical booking at times, the in-ring work is what separates TNA from WWE in my mind. Look at MCMG/Beer Money from VR this past Sunday. You can't and won't get that in WWE. Hell, look at Pope/Angle, even that is better than the majority of stuff we see in WWE programming week in and week out.

I understand the complaints about Dixie crying wolf over these "industry changing' announcements and surprises, and her recent meeting with TNA talent telling them to "step their game up", and hell im kind of pissed at Dixie in this point in time. But I think the announcement that JJ is hyping on his Twitter account is legitimate. I think it has something to do with changing the location of the iMPACT zone, or doing iMPACT from different places.

Currently, im enjoying all the storylines/feuds except for the Knockouts, which I think needs to be completely revitalized, and the Bubba/Devon/Neal fiasco. In the case of the Knockouts, at least Tara is back which will help the division significantly, but I don't think she will single handedly make the division what it once was. And as for Bubba/Neal/Devon, let's just pray to god it ends soon.

So im excited for JJ's announcement, the possibility of Heyman coming to TNA, what's going to happen with all the ECW guys, possible Joe/Wolfe feud, Fortune, Angle's chase for the gold, Anderson/Hardy and what's gonna happen there, the MCMG as the leaders of the great tag division in TNA, and a RVD/Abyss program which will probably get started on iMPACT this week.

Im sure a shit ton of people will bombard this thread with anti-TNA posts, but I don't care, because im enjoying TNA right now, and I only see it getting better. The Hogan/Bischoff era started off a little shaky, but it's slowly progressing into a better product.

 

[Schizophrenic]

I'm somewhere in between. The matches we have been given have been very good and the promos by most of the talent are very intirguing and keep my attention. Some of the stories seem to be going on a bit too long with no new imformation to them or are becoming almost dull if not flat out boring. I continue to support TNA more than I do WWE (although I do in fact watch every show from each) but they need to start showing these aparant "big changes" if they are going to tout them so much.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

As much as I want to vote pleased, because I have been relatively pleased over the last month and a half (sans the Victory Road PPV), it's still relative, which means I'm still moderately disappointed, which means I have to vote somewhere in-between.

While I appreciate a lot of what TNA is doing right now, there are a number of things that are just lacking too much for me to vote this a total success.

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

I have been very pleased with the product Tna has given us in the last 4 weeks of Impact and even though the PPV wasn't but it was not awful and I think that it was Much Better then the Slammiversary PPV. Their are many things I have liked during this month Impact has definitely improved and that is clear with the recent ratings that have come out for the recent Impact they have improved the ratings over the last few weeks and total viewership has gone up so that must mean they are doing something right.
I have enjoyed most of the feuds and the Angle storyline Im every happy that the MCMG are new tag team champs and the potential of Beer Money and Guns could be awesome. The only things I have disliked are the Knockouts and the Bubba D-Von and Neal feud. Overall I'm very Pleased with the current prouduct

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I think July 2010 for TNA has been pretty "meh". Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, "The Pope", and Anderson have really been the primary guys to watch, but everything else has just been...blah... RVD isn't even close to my choice for TNA World Champion. He's not entertaining in my opinion, in or out of the ring. Besides Anderson, every single person in the main event is boring. And Anderson is just...well...an asshole.

I like the TNA product, and I think it's been pretty solid over the course of 2010, but July hasn't been interesting at all. I don't think RVD losing the belt will change everything, but it's a definite start. But hey, MCMG are the champions, Team 3D is about to implode, and the ECW Invasion starts this week...so I guess things are looking up.

 

[Bobby B]

This month has pretty much been my first full month watching TNA. So I wouldn't say I'm displeased, but I'm not pleased either.

There's been some very good stuff for me being new to TNA:

Lethal vs Flair -they built this feud very well. The segment with Flair in the ring about 3 weeks ago with Wolfe, Kaz, Styles and Beer Money with Lethal atop the ramp was pure gold. And the feud was booked well.

Tag Team Wrestling - growing up in the past few years on a diet of TNA, it's nice to see two good branded tag teams going at it.

Fortune - another thing that watching WWE starves you of, a decent stable. Ok it hasn't been formed yet, but it can only be good long term for the wrestlers within it. I only hope that Flair is member number 5 (ie. Manager/Mouthpiece) rather than number 4 as a wrestler.

Onto some things that I haven't liked as much:

Booking of RVD - he's your World Champion, your big star, and in the 4 weeks building up to victory road he was booked as a bit part. If I remember correctly in the 4 shows he missed 1, had a backstage interview in one, was special guest referee in another, and had a random match with Samoa Joe last week.

Air time for old men - why do TNA persist with giving time to guys who having nothing to offer the business anymore. I think Flair is an exeption (although don't want to see him in the ring). But Nash, The Dudleys, Hogan - I don't want to watch these guys on my TV anymore. Now were seeing Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards etc... Sure they did well in ECW, but that ended 9/10 years ago. TNA needs to bring through younger stars.

Twitter - "You'll never guys who I met with today" - WE KNOW DIXIE. It's Paul Heyman, either put up or shut up. Stop tweeting us all these surprises and then not delivering. Now Jarrett's joined in the act too. It's boring, especially when you don't deliever.