TPIB

Wow. The hits just don't stop coming for TNA, do they? At this point, I will be surprised if they can keep the doors open until the end of the year. I didn't see if it was already posted (I've been known to miss things right in front of me) but TNA has apparently sold some its tape library to Anthem Sports & Entertainment: Credit: Wrestling Observer & Wrestling Online It's also worth noting (and I don't consider this a spoiler) that the Impact that aired this past Thursday had to be hastily edited to remove the entrance themes of Mike Bennett and DJZ due to "licensing issues" over the songs. Credit: Wrestling Online The more I read about TNA's issues, the less I think they will be able to survive until the end of 2016. When the President of your company is suing the company, that's a pretty bad sign for the future on its own. At this point, it seems to me that Dixie is being stubborn and/or is in denial about TNA's financial situation. I don't know why she thinks she can just keep stalling out her employees, investors, etc. but it seems to all be coming back on her now. Things are only going to get worse for TNA and Dixie needs to make a decision on what she wants to do with the company before it gets taken away from her through legal means.

I've been watching Ride Along regularly and have enjoyed the series. That was until the most recent episode with Charlotte & Ric Flair and Cole, JBL, & Byron. The Charlotte/Ric parts of the show were....okay, I suppose but the parts with the commentators was dreadful. Whether Byron is playing a "loser" character or if he is really like that, this episode of Ride Along was hard to watch. All it was was several minutes of JBL & Cole bullying Byron (ringing a cowbell in his ear while he's driving, making fun of his wrestling career, and leaving him at a gas station) so I really hope the whole thing was an act. Either way, this episode was just bad. The best parts of Ride Along are the interesting stories from the road and seeing Superstars in a real life situation.

That's kind of the point I made in reference to Lashley. Lashley splits his time between TNA and Bellator, so if WWE does the buyout, they're going to want to sign people to exclusive contracts. The same goes for the other guys you mentioned. Plus, those same guys didn't get treated all that well by WWE so I imagine they probably want no part of WWE if they do buy TNA. And who could blame them for wanting to stay on the independents?

It's been a long time since TNA has even been considered a competitor to WWE and a lot of TNA's early mistakes are reminiscent of the mistakes made by WCW. Competition is always good in professional wrestling, but at this point, TNA is nowhere near WWE's level so TNA going under might not change much. There's a lot I find interesting about this whole situation and one of the more interesting things to think about if WWE does end up buying TNA is the guys who have recently departed or been released from WWE. Especially Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes, who very recently signed with TNA. Then you got ex-WWE talent like EC3 and Drew Galloway who have made a big name for themselves in TNA after their careers fizzled out in WWE. Now they are potentially going to have to work for Vince again. It's been proven as of late with guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, etc. that WWE's days of not acknowledging the success of their stars in other promotions are a thing of the past. This could potentially bode well for guys like EC3 and Galloway as they became bonafide main eventers while in TNA and their spot in WWE could be much different if this buyout does take place. When comparing this to WWE's buyout of WCW in 2001, you've also got to consider one big difference and that is NXT. NXT has taken on a life of its own and has made a reputation of being a great place for guys from other companies to make a name for themselves again and there's a lot of guys on the current TNA roster who would make a great addition to NXT. Names like Andrew Everett, Eli Drake, Moose, Mike Bennett, and Trevor Lee come to mind as great additions to NXT. Then you have veteran competitors like Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Abyss, and Bobby Lashley who could have a spot in WWE. Jeff has already expressed interest in having his final match in WWE and there have been rumors of WWE trying to sign Matt when his contract expires in the Spring. Granted, Lashley signing a WWE contract might be a bit far-fetched since Lashley also works for Bellator and WWE would likely want to sign Lashley to an exclusive contract. If this buyout does become a reality, then I fully expect to WWE to pick a handful of stars to keep and let the rest out of their contracts or let them sit out the remainder of their contracts. On the top of the list of guys WWE will likely let go without a second thought is Cody Rhodes. Considering Rhodes just left the company, it would be very unlikely he would want to return this soon. The same might be said for guys like Aron Rex, EC3, & Drew Galloway who were all underutilized and ultimately let go from WWE. While it's true that EC3 and Galloway have really shown themselves to be main event caliber competitors, the fact remains that they would be much bigger stars on the independents than they would be in WWE. Now when it comes to Billy Corgan getting full ownership of TNA, I don't see that as a permanent solution by any means. For TNA to air Bound for Glory and have the upcoming TV tapings, Corgan will have to, once again, pay for them out of his own pocket. Sure, Corgan has the money, but you can't run a company solely based on one man's income. For TNA to survive, they need to find a way to become a profitable company. Corgan can keep the company afloat for a while, but at a certain point, TNA is going to become more of a liability than anything if they can't turn a profit. For TNA, their best bet is to let WWE buy the company. I know there's a lot of reasons as to why it could be a bad idea but at least getting bought out by WWE means that the company will get a fair amount of exposure that it hasn't yet achieved via the WWE Network. Oddly enough, TNA may be more popular than it's ever been just for its video library alone. It's been 15 years since WWE bought out WCW and they are still creating new content using the WCW video library. I realize that TNA has only been around since 2002 so their assets won't be worth nearly as much as WCW's was but WWE will still squeeze as much as they can out of it. Let's face it, no matter what happens with TNA in the near future, WWE buying the company is still going to be an inevitability. Even if Corgan pays for the company to stay afloat out of his own pocket, there is going to come a time where he gets tired of funding a company that's just spinning its wheels.

For sure. It sounds like it's a good thing that Billy Corgan bailed them out or they might have tanked. Speaking of problems at TNA, I decided to try and watch IMPACT on Pop for the first time and, wow, something is not right. Anybody who watched the show live will know what I mean, but Pop is airing an endless stream of commercials. They briefly had Lashley come out for a promo and both the video and the audio was distorted. Then they cut the promo off for more of the same commercials. It's pure insanity that is hard to describe.

Lately, I've been playing the Beta of Pokemon Revolution Online. Since it's a Beta, the game is still a little rough around the edges and the servers go down every now and then, but it's still a lot of fun. Plus, it's free so that's always good. I was playing Overwatch every now and then, but it's not just a game I'm dying to play. The next game I'm looking forward to is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I give TNA credit for hanging in there for this long. With this new deal, it appears as though, one way or another, TNA will live on for the near future. When you consider TNA's history, it might not be such a bad thing if this Aroluxe company takes control of TNA.

I haven't been watching much WWE Network stuff in the last week or so (besides WrestleMania, that is), but lately I've been watching every RAW from 1999 on the Network. It's strange. I feel like I've seen everything from the Attitude Era for most of those years except for 1999. I started around the time of the abduction angle (where the Ministry abducted Stephanie) and, most recently, I just finished watching one of the last episodes of RAW before Fully Loaded 1999. During this time frame is when all the Beaver Cleavage stuff happened. What I never knew is that Beaver Cleavage/Charles Warrington was part of an angle where he refused to wrestle Meat. Then he cut a worked shoot promo the next week where he gave credit to the Creative team and everything before declaring himself to just be a "kid from New Jersey", beginning his run as Chaz. I'm also intrigued by how Billy Gunn was booked during this time. They had him win the King of the Ring tournament but then he became embroiled in this strange rivalry where he, Chyna, and, sometimes, Triple H feuded with X-Pac & Road Dogg over the rights to the DX name. Literally the night after Billy Gunn won the KOTR, they started this angle out of the blue and it just came across as very awkward to me. There's also a fair amount of breaking kayfabe during this time. There's a few occasions where the commentators and other wrestlers refer to each other by their real names.

On the subject of things that we never knew until now, I legitimately did not know that Ethan Carter III was Derrick Bateman until I read this thread. Granted, I've never seen one EC3 match or even seen what he looks like. I haven't watched TNA in a few years (and even then it was briefly).

It might be. They've come close to that with WrestleMania, but I'm pretty sure they've never had the Hall of Fame ceremony, WrestleMania, and RAW in the same venue like they're doing with Takeover, SummerSlam, & RAW. Also, Jonathan Coachman will be a part of SummerSlam. He will be covering SummerSlam for ESPN. I can only assume WWE will have him on camera doing some interviews or something. If there was ever a moment for a surprise appearance by The Rock, it would be SummerSlam. I want to see Coachman interview The Rock. It has the potential to be a nice shot of comedic nostalgia. Speaking of comedy, WWE.com has just announced that former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will serve as the Host of SummerSlam. Also, Randy Orton vs. Sheamus has been added to the card.

Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens has been added to the card. If this was on any other card, this match could potentially be a show-stealer.

I couldn't agree more. We all know that Cena will have to drop the title at some point, but it should mean something when he does and the guy to beat Cena should be someone who can benefit from the push. Regardless of if he loses the WWE Title down the line, Rollins winning the U.S. Title at this point in his career would not benefit Rollins at all. Sure, Cena has done wonders for the U.S. Title during his reign, but it's still not considered on par with the WWE Championship (nor should it be for that matter). When you look at the list of names who could potentially take the title from Cena, there's a few who could benefit quite well from winning the title. Cesaro and Kevin Owens are right at the top of the list for me. Not only are Owens and Cesaro already feuding (involving the U.S. Title would certainly ramp up the rivalry), but it works for both Superstars right now. Both Cesaro and Kevin Owens are in a unique position on the card right now where you can't really consider them mid-carders, but you can't consider them main eventers either and that's where the U.S. Title belongs if WWE really wants to keep the title in the good graces of the fans. Not only that, but if they go with Cesaro as the guy to take the title from Cena, then I could easily see Cesaro sticking with the U.S. Open Challenge gimmick.

I fully expect some sort of DQ or count-out finish to the Cena vs. Rollins match. I just can't see it going any other way.

Seth Rollins vs. John Cena with both the WWE World Heavyweight and United States Titles on the line has been confirmed for SummerSlam.

That Undertaker picture still bothers me....Also, I'm uncomfortable with where Bray Wyatt's hand is :eek: WWE has announced that this year's SummerSlam will be a four-hour event and will start an hour earlier as a result.

There's a lot of things out there that are up for discussion on whether something is racist or not, but this tirade by Hogan leaves no doubt in anyone's mind. What Hogan said is beyond inexcusable and, in my opinion, you can't fault WWE from trying to distance themselves from Hogan. Firing Hogan was absolutely the right move (though removing him from WWE.com is hardly going to make people just forget about the biggest money drawer in the '80's and early 90's) and firing him before the tidal wave of media attention was also a smart move (even though Hogan's attorney has claimed that Hulk "resigned" from WWE). Not only is the rant terrible from a racial standpoint, but it's also terrible for him to talk about his own daughter like that. Openly talking about Brooke's sex life like that had to be embarrassing for Brooke (sure, Brooke is probably used to her father's antics, but still). When I read this tirade for the first time, I immediately remembered the Michael Richards incident where Richards went on a similar rant when a heckler interrupted his stand-up comedy show (although the Richards incident was a lot worse considering Richards talked about murdering black people in very offensive ways). The Richards was nine years ago and he still hasn't recovered from it. People's perception of Michael Richards is forever tarnished and it will be interesting to see if Hulk Hogan will be looked at the same way. Ever since the Hogan Knows Best reality show, it seems like, every few years, Hulk Hogan finds a way to put his name in the news for all the wrong reasons. Whether it be his divorce, dating a woman who looks like his daughter, or the Hogan sex tape(s), Hogan has a way of getting himself in trouble. I think this incident may be the worst yet from a publicity standpoint. I can't imagine anyone will want to associate their brand with Hulk Hogan for quite some time and there's a very good chance we may never see Hogan in WWE again.

Looks good. I'll update the thread. Does it bother anyone else that WWE is still using The Undertaker from around 2005/2006 for posters and match previews? Even on that poster; Undertaker hasn't looked like that for at least five years.

The 28th annual WWE SummerSlam will come to you, live on the WWE Network and select pay-per-view providers, on August 23 at a special start time of 7/6c from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. The official theme song for WWE SummerSlam is "Cool for the Summer" by Demi Lovato, which is off of her upcoming album and it is available now on iTunes. Confirmed Matches/Events Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker WWE World Heavyweight Championship & United States Championship: Seth Rollins © vs. John Cena © Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper Stephen Amell & Neville vs. Stardust & King Barrett Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens Divas Three-Team Elimination Tag Match: Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella Randy Orton vs. Sheamus Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev Intercontinental Championship: Triple Threat: Ryback © vs. The Miz vs. Big Show WWE Tag Team Championship: Fatal 4-Way Tag Match: The Prime Time Players © vs. The New Day vs. The Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores Jon Stewart to Serve as the Host of SummerSlam

I just pre-ordered my copy. :thumbup2:

I read rumors about Jeff Jarrett potentially buying out TNA, but those rumors were later reported as being false. If they do go with an invasion angle, it will pretty much write itself, but will it be an intriguing enough angle to save TNA? I doubt it. If a buyout of TNA does become a reality, one has to question if it would be a smart investment for Jeff Jarrett. Why buy a failing company when trying to build one of your own? Credit: Wrestling-Online.com When you look at these three guys, I don't think I'm too far off the mark when I say that Austin Aries is probably the most talented of the three and probably has the most to offer the wrestling business. With that said, I think Aries would probably benefit from signing with WWE or just staying on the independent circuit as opposed to signing with GFW or taking part in this invasion angle. I also think it's worth pointing out that, whether intentional or unintentional, TNA has definitely created interest in the company lately with all of the wrestlers that have left lately as well as pay issues and possibly losing their spot on Destination America. People are talking more about TNA than WWE right now. Sure, it's for all the wrong reasons, but any publicity is good publicity.

Two new matches have been added to the card as Roman Reigns vs. Big Show in a Last Man Standing Match and Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus in a Kiss Me Arse Match will take place at Extreme Rules. When I first read that there would be a Kiss Me Arse Match on Wikipedia, I thought it was a joke, but it's actually going to happen and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Roman Reigns vs. Big Show in a Last Man Standing Match sounds like a bore and a half to me. It's two of the most uninteresting wrestlers in one of the most overused match types in WWE.

John Cena vs. Rusev in a rematch for the U.S. Title has been made official for Extreme Rules. Also, it looks like Rollins vs. Orton for the WWE Title will probably be on the card.

The ninth annual WWE Extreme Rules will come to you, live on the WWE Network and select pay-per-view providers, on April 26 from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, IL. The official theme song for WWE Extreme Rules is "Irresistible" by Fall Out Boy, off of their new album "American Beauty American Psycho", which is available now on iTunes. http://i57.tinypic.com/27wszvb.jpg Confirmed Matches/Events WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Steel Cage Match (with Kane as 'Gatekeeper'): RKO Banned: Seth Rollins © vs. Randy Orton United States Championship: Russian Chain Match: John Cena © vs. Rusev Last Man Standing Match: Roman Reigns vs. Big Show Chicago Street Fight: Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper Kiss Me Arse Match: Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus Divas Championship: Nikki Bella © vs. Naomi WWE Tag Team Championship: Cesaro & Tyson Kidd © vs. Big E & Kofi Kingston Kickoff Exclusive: Neville vs. Bad News Barrett

I think it's pretty safe to assume some of the people who will be involved in the multi-man Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Title. In addition to defending champion Bad News Barrett, I expect we will see R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, & Daniel Bryan in the match. As much as I enjoy multi-man Ladder Matches, I would still rather see Bryan vs. Ziggler at WrestleMania. In any case, I don't expect to see Barrett walk out as the champion. Some people may see the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal as just being a "filler" match or just a spot-fest, but I look at it as an intriguing way to get several guys on the WrestleMania card who would normally be nowhere near it. Case in point, look at Curtis Axel; if it wasn't for this Battle Royal, there is no way that Axel would even be considered for a match at the biggest WWE event of the year. Last year, WWE dropped the ball with Cesaro after he won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but I'm really hoping that they actually do something with this year's winner.

Currently, I only watch the monthly WWE pay-per-views on the WWE Network. I used to watch it a lot more, but now I play more video games and got hooked on the Netflix series, House of Cards. Still, paying $9.99 to watch WWE pay-per-views beats the $54.95 (or whatever it is) I used to pay.