BLAH

David writes in with:

"When will you come back and do updates??? I don't like the Shapiros updates, he skips over everything. Who cares about NWA news, he says?? It's the #2 promotion right now and a lot of people who read like myself enjoy hearing about it."

Yeah, you tell it. ALSO this Shapiros fellow makes up lies like that certain people attend certain universities that they do not actually attend! Despicable.

As I haven't done an update for several weeks, here's some thoughts that are fairly outdated and useless. SummerSlam ruled, yes it did. How about that Shawn Michaels? How about that Angle/Rey match? How about the crowd in the main event? How about moving on? Okay.

Hey folks, is it just me or does Smackdown seem to be good all the time while Raw isn't? This is, of course, the type of biting observations you've come to expect from /Tuesday. And wouldn't Smackdown be a lot better without Stephanie McMahon? She just sucks, are you with me?

Actually, I don't much mind her, but something here lately is bothering me about Stephanie, or perhaps I should instead refer to her as Chesty McHooter. What happened to the business type stuff she was wearing? These shirts with no blazer or anything on top do nothing to cover up her ridiculously oversized boobies. Don't get me wrong, I like boobs! I'm not one of those no good booby haters. But she was around for so long without 'em that they kinda scare me. I hope she goes back to dressing more professionally. In fact, didn't she say such a thing to Dawn Marie? What a hypocrite!

Also, the Undertaker. Boy, did some people get their proverbial panties in a twist about him coming to Smackdown. "No! He will singlehandedly ruin the good wrestling!" But I think it's a good move for him, and here's why. He's worthless on Raw. His days as a main event player are behind him... well, in theory, anyway. It doesn't seem like he'll be in some side angle anytime soon, like with a Giant Gonzales or a long lost brother, that will keep him out of the usual hunt. So he should be fighting guys underneath him to help them get established. That doesn't mean jobbing to everyone like his name is Hulk Hogan, but losses should be part of it.

I just don't like the idea of anyone on Raw beating Taker. Maybe Jericho. But I think getting a clean win over Taker, as it doesn't happen often, is something a guy should get once he already has some "cred", if you will. Like Brock Lesnar. Brock beating Taker is good. But look at, for example, Test. Test has no cred. Who has Test beaten? Having Test try to get some cred by beating Undertaker just makes beating Taker less important cause a guy with no cred is doing it.

But who does have cred? Angle! Benoit! Brock I already mentioned. And where are they? On Smackdown. So while Taker would be useless on Raw, over on Smackdown there are guys who would be shot to the top level with a win over him (in a perfect clean world where he cleanly loses clean). The sucky part is that I think as a heel Taker would be really valuable to Raw, cause there's guys like RVD and Booker he could work with in that case. But such is life.

A special farewell to a beloved friend. On Tuesday, September 3rd, I took my sweetie's cat Natasha to be put to sleep. Natasha had an impressive 16 years on this Earth and she lived every moment to it's fullest. Good bye, old chum. ::mumbles in Latin about death like Paul Heyman does::

Let's hit the news!

NEWS ABOUT WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT:


• WWE released their latest quarterly report. It wasn't a good one. Without the PTC settlement the numbers would have been even lower, but they were still making money even in a shitty quarter. PPV revenue declined 24%, 1.1 million domestic buys compared to 1.6 this time last year. Hooray for Hogan and Undertaker! Merchandising went up to $20.3 million from 18.3 million last year, which is good by itself plus it happened during the period that "merchandising juggernaut" Steve Austin left. DVD's went from 18% of home video sales to 50%.
  
  
• EX-PAC. He's gone. He considered himself in a no-win situation after having backstage clashes with the writers for both shows. Combined with family issues that needed his attention, he sought a release. WWE considered him expendable in part due to the nWo falling apart. Pac is expected to work part-time in Japan and probably with TNA, as he's built a strong relationship with Jerry over the years. WWE gave him the rights to use the "Syxx Pac" name, which WWE bought the rights to when they bought WCW, but not "X-Pac" while he's working wherever.
  
  
• Tiger Ali Singh filed a $7 million lawsuit for harassment, claiming among other things that his "sacred turban" was filled with cigarette butts and garbage. He says he suffered a career-ending injury while being asked to wrestle outside during a rain storm, but WWE says the event wasn't a WWE sanctioned show. His dad Tiger Beat Singh also filed a suit saying he wasn't paid money he was owed. There's comments from Jerry McDevitt saying suits like this against WWE are rarely proven to be true. Tiger was really unpopular in the locker room and carried himself as being "above others" because of his privileged background.
  
  
• Rosie of "3 Minutes With Rosie & Jamal" fame was injured while working out in the ring prior to Raw. JR said in the Ross Report that it's a hip flexor injury. They were scheduled to work tag matches at house shows, but they've been changed to singles matches with Jamal.
  
  
• Wrestlers who don't work PPV's get payoffs for the show, even if they don't appear at the building in some cases. Wrestlers who weren't part of Backlash got checks for roughly $2000.
  
  
• Tony Schiavone was backstage at the August 20th Smackdown taping in Fayetteville. Sources say Tony contacts TNA on a regular basis, hoping to find work.
  
  
• Austin has been telling friends that he hasn't spoken with anyone from the WWE office recently. He's keeping in shape but hasn't given an indication as to whether he'd be willing to return. His friends say he seemed to be in good spirits and also seemed oblivious or unconcerned with how he's been portrayed since he left.
  
  
• HBK was in great spirits after his match and considered it a big success. No word on how he felt the next morning, though, once the adrenaline was gone and the bumps and bruises were there.
  
  
• Rock didn't show any signs of being upset with the crowd reaction he got, but colleagues say if he was upset he wouldn't have let on. One guy described him as very image-conscious and that he doesn't like to show weakness.
  
  
• WWE and In Demand weren't able to agree to terms on a new contract for the Fanatix series. In Demand had apparently been expecting for months that the deal wouldn't be renewed and had told TNA that they'd be able to air immediate replays of their shows once the Fanatix deal expires.
  
  
• Scott Steiner did a radio show and said "there is no status" regarding himself and WWE, despite his passing 2 physicals at their request.
  
  
• Metal-Sludge.com did an interview with Breaking Point, and when asked about RVD their response was "good weed".
  
  NEWS ABOUT NWA TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION:
  
  
• There won't be a live show until the 18th. The show on the 4th will focus on the X Division, which should be an attractive purchase for people who haven't seen the shows before, but skippable if you've seen all the shows. They'd always planned on not running a show on September 11th.
  
  Doing the taped shows was primarily a cost-cutting measure, but there were also legit scheduling conflicts with the arena. TNA officials expect that the buyrates for the taped shows will drop, but they can still turn a profit on them since they won't be paying talent for those weeks.
  
  TNA contracts are apparently worded so that wrestlers are paid for actual in-ring appearances, not just for appearing on the PPV. Some guys were said to be disappointed that they won't get a check for a few weeks, but most understood. They should be back running weekly live shows as of the 18th, and by then they should have a strong indication of how the early events drew so they can budget accordingly.
  
  There's no indications that any consideration is being given to quitting anytime soon, since doing so would mean they'd have to forfeit all PPV revenues to date. Even once they hit the magic 13 shows, meaning In Demand doesn't automatically get all the revenues, there's still the clause that says they have to produce a year's worth of shows or take a 13 week penalty. So if they did their 13 shows and quit, they still wouldn't get anything cause of the penalty... meaning they'll surely try to run lots of shows past #13.
  
  
• Don Harris' controversial shirt had the symbol worn by the "SS" unit of the Nazi army. It could be written off as a potentially innocent mistake if the Harris brothers' past admissions of being part of groups that would use the symbol for hateful purposes, not to mention that the symbol used to be tattooed on their arms.
  
  The official word on the shirt is that TNA officials didn't know what it meant. Because Harris is such a good pal with the Jarretts and works hard behind the scenes, many doubt that there will be any obvious ramifications. Other sources say the company decided not to mention the situation on-air because they didn't want to draw attention to it again. "We all feel like idiots," said someone else. "We saw the shirt but it just didn't jump out at us."
  
  
• Scott Hall isn't set for any future dates. TNA is on an extremely tight budget and Hall probably won't be back until they can afford to spend a little more. If they get X-Pac that might coax Hall into coming back, but he's trying to spend time with his kids and keep his personal life in order.
  
  
• Cable industry sources estimate the average show as doing between 20,000 and 25,000 buys. Analysts think they can survive on that number given the cutbacks that have been made, but they need to maintain the numbers or increase them or else they risk becoming unprofitable.
  
  
• TNA announced a few weeks ago that they'd reached a deal with a satellite group that would air the shows in sports bars. But that agreement was in violation of TNA's deal with In Demand, which has the rights to make all second party PPV deals, and mention of this has been removed from TNA's website.
  
  
• Jerry Lynn has told people that he suggested the idea of Bruce becoming Miss TNA to Russo.
  
  
• Ed Ferrara is history. A source said a number of factors likely contributed to his leaving the company, like that "12 people are doing the job of 29", meaning that most of the office staff is putting in long hours despite no guarantee that they'll be rewarded financially.
  
  
• Most observers think the New Church will have a scaled back role. Jim Mitchell wasn't flown in for a few straight weeks, despite signing a new short-term contract the week before his last appearance. Mitchell has been complimentary of Russo in recent radio appearances, but sources say he hasn't been shy about questioning some of Russo's storyline ideas for his character.
  
  Malice's push has also been scaled back and the other week he wasn't flown in for the first time ever. People think his push was hurt by Shamrock's situation, as the company wanted to build up strong monster heels for Ken to fight, but not so much for The Truth. Slash AKA Wolfie D lives in the area and may still be used, but he's considered more of a sidekick to Malice.
  
  
• Shamrock still has dates left on his contract. The company may attempt to buy him out. Shamrock has admitted to friends that he was worried about being injured while wrestling for TNA with his big money UFC fight coming up in November.
  
  
• A source deep inside the TNA production meetings says that Jerry Jarrett came up with the idea for the Dupp Cup. After hearing the idea Russo said "you know everyone is going to blame me for this".
  
  
• Brian Christopher was irate about not being able to pull the chair away from the fan at the August 14th show. Most people have described the fan as a guy, but it was actually a girl. More than one person in TNA was thanking their lucky stars that Brian didn't lash out at the fan, which is apparently what he is apt to do in those situations.
  
  Remember the person who was gonna call out Jeremy Borash for something he said on a radio show? That was Christopher. He ended up not being booked for the next show, which had nothing to do with Borash, but when Brian came back the next week he never said anything about it. People say Brian also shot his mouth off about wanting to fight Bob Ryder over something that was described as a trivial matter.
  
  
• Ricky Steamboat hasn't been used to save on travel. Buyrate numbers will determine whether they bring him back or not.
  
  
• Jerry still sets the parameters of the show. He lists the matches and the finishes, then Russo writes the actual show. Russo submits a first draft of the show for editing, which people say jerry edits heavily resulting in Russo doing 3 or 4 drafts by the time the production meetings happen on Wednesday. At the meetings the production staff offers their opinions, which results in more final tweaking on the day of the show.
  
  Russo has gained a rep for turning over the in-ring stuff to Jeff Jarrett, who continues double-duty as a wrestler and an agent. Jerry is known for being very specific when it comes to how Jeff will be booked. Word going around is that people in the production meetings are scared to offer their opinions unless they know there's someone there who will agree with them.
  
  
• The general opinion of the office is that TNA's breakout stars have been The Truth, Low Ki, AJ Styles, the SAT's, and Jerry Lynn. More than one office guy agrees that Lynn has been the company's MVP from his solid work to the job he does as the X Division agent.
  
  
• Stan Dupp is on tour in Japan with Zero One, so that's why the Dupps weren't around. He'll be mainly teaming with Steve Corino. Borash did his column on the TNA website and threw in a line about "old school" making a return, so people suspect Corino will be back with TNA. Corino is under contract to Zero One and needs their permission to appear, but a TNA official says they gave Corino their blessing.
  
  
• At the August 21st show the company made a conscious decision to cut back on the comedy stuff. Jerry told the production meeting that the company needs to focus on pleasing it's audience, which they think consists mainly of hardcore wrestling fans who heard about the shows from the internet. Jerry thinks those fans will be the most likely to reject the comedy nonsense.
  
  
• Steve Armstrong has been the guy under the Bullet mask. Most wrestlers think the angle is a set up for Road Dogg's debut.
  
  
• Kobain is former WWE development guy Flash Flannigan. His no-compete clause ended earlier than the other workers who were cut, as was previously mentioned right here in the Torch.

• Ken Shamrock will fight Tito Ortiz in the main event of UFC 40 in November. It's Shamrock's first UFC fight in several years.
  
  
• Bret made his first public appearance since his stroke at a Jacques Rougeau show in Montreal. He cut a brief in-ring promo before breaking down.
  
  
• Goldberg returned to wrestling this past weekend in All Japan.
  
  
• Joanie Laurer will be wrestling in New Japan in September. In one match she'll be in a 6-man tag against Jushin Liger, Tanaka, and Masa Chono.
  
  
• The XWF TV show did an 8.6 rating for it's first airing in Puerto Rico and an 8.8 for it's second. They're airing shows to set up an invasion angle with Carlos Colon's promotion.
  
  
• A source reports that a major name backed out of upcoming XPW appearances due to the rumor that Rob Black had something to do with the attack on Messiah. The Truth, Shane Douglas, and Terry Funk are among the major names still scheduled to appear at XPW's debut at ECW arena.

Bye bye.

BLAH