Round 1, Day 8, Detroit, MI

[Shocky]

#4 Rob Van Dam vs. #61 Steve Blackman​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Shocky]

#29 Mitsuhara Misawa vs. #36 Nikita Koloff​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Shocky]

#4 John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. #52 Lance Cade​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I liked Blackman. I loved it when he got the rub of Shane McMahon. Y'know Vince's son who doesn't take shit off anyone. Blackman deserved better. I'd have to say I prefered Blackman to Shamrock. But I have to vote for RVD. People say he's overrated. He's not. You just have to use him right. As WWE does with other competitors.

 

[Shocky]

#20 Chris Sabin vs. #45 Paul Orndorff​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Rob Van Dam is a good worker. He seems to do an awful lot, but doesn't get that push that would just take him to the top, and I don't know why. I remember his feud with Eddie over the Frog Splash, and I think they had some really good matches. RVD deserves more credit then he gets IMO.

Steve Blackman was good at what he did, in the Hardcore matches especially, but I think against RVD their would be very little real competition due to RVD's in ring ability and technical wrestling skills. He's also a high flyer which works really well for him.

 

[Shocky]

#5 The Rock vs. #60 Joey Mercury​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I mark for Koloff I really do. Loved him. His muscles, his Goldberg/Warlord esque face. Awesome. Actually I can't explain why I like him. I just do. Misawa on the other hand is probably one if not the best Japanese wrestler of all tiem. If you want to watch some of his current stuff I beg you to stay away from his NOAH shit. He's crap now, find some earlier stuff.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Cade has potential. But other than a brief feud with the Hardys that's all he's offered. JBL on the other hand was in the entertaining when they ain't wrestling tag team the APA. He was the the best WWE champ of all time when he wasn't wrestling, and probably the best commentator since Tenay in the 90's.

 

[Shocky]

#Charlie Haas vs. #37 Tiger Mask #1​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Shocky]

#12 Scott Hall vs. #53 Mike Mizanin​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Shocky]

#21 Rick Martel vs. #45 Taka Michinoku​

1. Not a popularity contest.
2. Will rules of a region come into play (Remember, this is a TNA match, all matches are in a six sided ring)
3. Will crowd be a factor. All matches take place in Detroit, MI.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

What it comes down to is one waht was given the time and oppertunity to showcase his abilities, the other probably wont be able too. At least not in front of a mass audience. I vote for Tiger Mask (Numero 1) because about 8 years ago I ordered some AJPW DVD's and there was a Tiger Mak/Dynamite DVD in there as well (which I didn't order). So I probably wouldn't be a huge Billington fan if it wasn't for that little Japanese bloke in the tiger err, mask.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The Rock did his thing and he did it well. Mercury though is a far more intresting wrestler. Everyone knows that mid carders are better. People like The Rock, Hogan etc can get away with doing the same thing every match. But mid carders have to switch it up. I also hated The Rock's promos. Entertaining the first time, 10000000 time, not so much.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Orndorff wasn't the usual wrestler that was fed to Hogan. He could actually work. Problem being that was pretty much it for him after that. Solid worker but Hogan finished him. Sabin has too much upside to not put through.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Promo wise, the Rock is great. Hell I was a huge fan. He never failed to entertain me. He was just like Jericho. Hell some of Jericho's best promos were against the Rock.

However in a straight match between the 2, I'd have to say Joey Mecury. He's interesting at the very least, and depending of the path chose for him, he could have been up there right now with Kennedy and MVP, just waiting for his chance to become one of the proper main eventers.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Martel is another guy that never get's his dues. He's just as talented as Henning, Owen etc. But because the guy is still alive he's pretty much been forgotten about. Taka is cool, but he's no model.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Scott Hall only impressed me as Razor. Nothing he did in WCW impressed me. I was mildly amused by his alcoholic angle, but I'm a bastard when it comes to illnesses. But he's against The Miz, who is apparenty a WWE title holer. Not that you would know.

 

[Slim Pickns]

Had the WWF/E not brought in the Light Heavyweight title Taka would be a relative unknown. The Model however, was one of the best heels of the 90's. His WWF run was very memorable, but his stint in WCW was also impressive. He got to wear the TV Title to sort of make up for his lack of gold in WWF. I think he defeats Taka pretty easily here with the Boston Crab.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I though Hall was awesome as Razor Ramon. Im still holding out hope that someday they will put Razor and diesel in a video game as legends.z the Miz on the other hand, is, well, the Miz. Razor, was one of the best IC champs ever, help revolotionize wrestling with Shawn Micheals and the ladder match at WM 10, and was a main part of the most successfull wrestling angle of all time, the invasion of the outsiders, and the NWO.

 

[Capt. Charisma]

haha cmmon mecury would be trampled by the rock. I disagree with people who criticise Rock in ring, sure he wasnt the most technically gifted wrestler, but because of the sheer amount of great matches he had he has to be considered one of the most entertaining performers both in, and out of ring.

There are very few Rock matches which I find boring, and maybe thats because I enjoyed and marked the Rock charchter but the guy's in-ring work I feel is a bit underated, and overly scrutinised by the IWC. The guy sold moves well, didnt botch, entertained the fans, and unlike hogan despite his gimmicky moves the matches at least seemed real. The Rock was always in good shape unlike Stone Cold, and HBK. Seriously was the Rock really a worse wrestler than post '95 HBK, or post '97 Stone Cold?

I have even heard HBK been considered a favourite for this tournement, I would consider HBK's in-ring work to be massively overated. People will point to HBK vs Bret Hart, the ladder match, and even angle at mania. But one of these matches was a gimmick match, the other two were against two of the best technical wrestlers of the modern era. I am not dismissing HBK's in-ring work but it is nothing special, and the Rock was certainly notlight years away from him. I could point to numerous matches against Angle, benoit, or Jericho, that the Rock has consistantly good matches with. True they are all good in-ring workers but so were HBK's best matches. I myself struggle to think off the top of my head any terrible matches the Rock had, whereas with Hogan I can think of about a dozen. I just feel there is a bit of bias going on because the Rock was soo blown out of proportion by fans.

I agree actualy that Rock's face promos are overated, definatly some were ok but they were sometimes a bit reptitive. Rock in my opinion had farrr better heel promos. He could draw heat, be funny, interact with a live audience, and still deliver great promos all at the same time. So overall he still is the best mic man in modern wrestling for my money.

Mercury, seriously the guy only wrestled a handful of singles matches and none of them bar maybe one was anything special. Sure the guy had some ok tag matches too, but seriously Mercury beating one of the most iconic and probably the 3rd most famous wrestler ever. Cmmon you kno the Rock could win on overwhelaming fan support alone.

Don't be a smark and vote for Mercury, The Rock honestly wasn't that bad a wrestler, mark out for the Rock!

 

[Capt. Charisma]

JBL is another guys whos in-ring work is overly scrutinised. He managed to have semi-decent matches with Batista for christs sake, thats an achivement in itself. Also great feud with Eddie Gurrero, which arguely was the best feud of Eddie's career. The guy is an imense heat magnet, and mic worker. Simply brilliant out of the ring. He has had some reals stinkers in the ring, but has well documented back problems and so deserves the benefit of the doubt. And besides some of his matches as WWE champ werent too bad. As long as he was in a gimmick match, or against a decent worker he was fine!

Lance Cade potential yes, but not sure if he can make it all the way.

 

[Capt. Charisma]

Taka was underated, I quite liked him. Pity they turned him into a comedy character, bnecause he had loads of potential. Some of his Japan stuff is imense. However I am going with Martel because he is even more underated, and a solid technical wrestler who rarely put a foot wrong.

 

[Capt. Charisma]

This would be a quality match, Blackman was very underated, pity they ended up limiting almost exclusively to the hardcore/jobber division. They guy could have been as good as, well RVD.

RVD is not overated, back when he first started in WWE everone loved him, WWE after putting him in arguely his best match against the Undertaker buried him for some unkown reason and he has never recovered. His ECW stuff werent bad either.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Results are Here

How can you honestly vote for anyone but Misawa in this match up. He has had so many good matches that it is impossible to not vote for him. Misawa Will just kill Koloff with the Emerald Frosion. He would do well if people do research and foolow Jakes advice.