AWW Birthday Bash (4/6/10)

AWW Birthday Bash
Friday 4th June 2010

The Asylum
38-43 Hampton Street
Hockley
Birmingham
B19 3LS

Doors Open: 7pm
Tickets: £7

Join us as AWW celebrates it’s birthday in spectacular fashion with a blockbuster of a show that is set to blow the roof off The Asylum on Friday 4th June!! Titles will be decided, grudges will be resolved, and someone’s undefeated streak will come to an end! Read on to find out more…

AWW Championship Match
Tables, Ladders, & Chairs
Dan Ryder vs. MK Mikinan
It all boils down to this. The AWW Title has been declared vacant by AWW Commissioner Desirable Danny D, and finally at the Birthday Bash MK Mikinan and Dan Ryder will meet for one final time to find out who will be the AWW Champion. AWW Management have made the decision to make this a match worthy of headlining our Birthday Bash, and they haven’t disappointed. MK and Ryder meet in a Tables, Ladders, & Chairs Match!

The history between these pair is long and storied, the former mentor and student having clashed on many occasions before, but this match dwarves all that have preceded it. Two men will enter, but only one can leave the Birthday Bash as the AWW Champion. The risks are high…but the stakes are even higher, who will win? Find out LIVE!! On Friday 4th June!!


AWW Tag Title Tournament Final
The Hunter Brothers vs. Carnatio
The Birthday Bash will also see us crown our first ever AWW Tag Team Champions! The road to the final has been long and treacherous, but finally the end is in sight. Regardless of the attempts of FightClubPro and Pretty n Punk to put a spanner in the works, Carnatio will face off against The Hunter Brothers, with the winners making AWW history!!

Both teams made an impressive showing during the tag title tournament, but have found themselves on the receiving end of some rough treatment in recent weeks, ending with a face off between the two teams at our last Asylum show. Both The Hunters and Carnatio have enjoyed phenomenal success thus far in AWW, but which team will be able to take the final step to become the first ever AWW Tag Team Champions?


“The Rockstar” Spud vs. T-Bone
It looks like T-Bone has finally had enough of being Spud’s whipping boy. Bone was cost his gauntlet match against Lucian L. Jones by The Rockstar’s interruption, and saw red at his employer. The Behemoth drilled Spud into the mat, leaving him to also be eliminated by Jones.

Spud has been on the warpath since that night, declaring T-Bone as “ungrateful” for all The Rockstar has done for him. AWW Management has therefore taken the decision that the only way this can be sorted out once and for all is for Spud and his former bodyguard to face off at The Asylum. Can The Rockstar overcome his behemoth former bodyguard, or will T-Bone triumph over his ex-boss?


“The Human Hate Machine” Dave Mastiff vs. “The Sultan of Swagga” Lucian L. Jones
Yet another match born from the fallout of the Gauntlet Match at our last Asylum show, “The King of Bling” Lucian L. Jones goes toe to toe with “The Human Hate Machine” Dave Mastiff! Mastiff picked the bones of Jones after his beating at the hands of T-Bone and Spud earlier in the gauntlet match, The Human Hate Machine showing no respect whatsoever in dispatching the weary Sultan of Swagga.

Just when it looked like Mastiff was about to win the gauntlet, securing himself a shot at the AWW Title in the process, Jones reappeared to distract Mastiff and allow Derice Coffie to pick up the victory. The Human Hate Machine was literally seething, promising to make Jones pay for his impudence and two will now face off at the Birthday Bash. Will The King of Bling be able to overcome possibly the biggest challenge of his career, or will Big, Bad, Dave Mastiff bring the very same career to a horrific end?


Streak vs. Streak
“The Sheriff” JK Royde vs. Nick Knight
After their impromptu clash at The Asylum, the undefeated “Master of the Five Minute Challenge” Nick Knight returns to AWW to face the still undefeated Sheriff JK Royde. Both men are taking lengthy undefeated streaks into this match, but only one will leave with it intact.

Nick Knight left a path of destruction in his wake during his last period in AWW, a path of destruction that no-one had managed to match until the arrival of JK Royde, what will happen when those paths cross? It’s a classic story of the irresistible force against the immovable object…something has to give, but who will lose not only the match, but their undefeated streak?

Find out the answers when AWW holds it’s birthday celebration on Friday 4th June at The Asylum

Vickie Guerrero vs. Guest Hosts for Raw By Shaun Nichols

Within the first thirty seconds it became very clear that the WWE need to use Vickie far more than they are doing presently. She has been wasted on Smackdown as the heel to Teddy Long's babyface, while adding her as a part of Flawless with Michelle & Layla at least meant she got a little bit more TV time. Now I understand that a lot of people either can't stand her or feel that she should be let go.
But seriously how much heat does this woman get? The answer is a ridiculous amount. The opening segment with Randy Orton finally getting round to hitting Meatloaf with the RKO and then Edge making his appearance on the ramp was dull. Randy really needs to accept that he is now a babyface and move on with it, it's so clear that he hates not being a heel but he's still in a main event position and if he finally lets himself go then the fans will respond to him.
Back to the opening of the show, and Edge revealed that WWE Global (is this something different by the way?) agreed with him and Vickie is the new permanent GM of Raw. So out she comes and things move forward, instead of having Edge and Orton going back and forth with the fans barely sure of who to cheer or to hate. Vickie is truly hated and because of this she saved the opening segment, it's not the X-Pac type of heat where people switch over. She's up there with Eric Bischoff in the old days where we have a polished and professional performer who easily gets over and fulfills what the WWE should see a necessary part of the show. The final angle of the show where she screams that she resigns due to her fear of Randy Orton signals that despite the opening segment claiming that she was the permanent GM that it was a one week deal. The question now for the WWE do they acknowledge that Vickie was outstanding and did far more to enhance the show than any guest hosts? Hopefully they will take notice and she will become a permanent addition to Raw, we will soon see.

Blame TNA not Spike TV by Shaun Nichols

On Monday 3rd May TNA broadcasted the final episode of Impact before they will disappear from Mondays and back to the relative safety of Thursdays. I do agree with Stuart that wrestling fans are not concerned with TV ratings but rather the quality of the product that they are watching. Is the show entertaining? The episode a couple of weeks ago where RVD beat both Jeff Hardy and in the main event AJ Styles to become the new champion was a good show, it had more good segments than bad. There as been a reduction in the number of skits which were thrown at the audience, which is a blessing. However in any episode of Impact there are always a number of things which are either plain terrible, don't make any sense or they put things on TV for no reason and with no explanation.

To put things into context you have to go back to the arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff and what TNA and the Carters thought would happen in the months to come. With the imminent arrival of the would be saviours, there was a feeling that this could be end of Vince Russo as chief booker. The realisation for Hogan & Bischoff was that if they insisted on Russo being fired, somebody else would need to write the TV. Worse they might have to do it, they certainly did not have the desire or the inclination to write the show themselves and so Russo survived. The feeling within TNA at that stage was that if they could get TV on Monday nghts, they now had Hogan, Bischoff, Flair then they would increase their TV ratings. Hogan went on TV interviews and stated with a straight face that they would get a 3.0 rating when they went head to head with the WWE on January 4th. All the talk of ratings was coming from TNA, it was TNA that wanted the move to Mondays and claimed that Thursdays were an awful night for Impact to be shown. That's really doubtful as Smackdown ratings are well down since they moved from Thursdays to Fridays and why the WWE have made the decision not to move back to Thursdays when they move to Syfy later this year is one defies logic.

A lot happened on the Impact show on January 4th, infact way too much occured it was like three or four weeks TV in one show. It wasn't a dull or boring show but a lot of it didn't make sense. Vince Russo came out and said that he was incredibly proud of the show and also that it took him three months of hard work to write one episode of Impact. The idea that it takes even a couple of weeks to write a show is completely bizarre nevermind about twelve weeks. Another classic example of why fans get frustrated with TNA was the initial booking of RVD, typically TNA did not promote his debut the week before or even at the start of the show. Instead we had Taz asking Mike Tenay what he was doing at 4:20? Subtlety, it's such a wondeful thing!! When he did finally make his debut he pinned Sting in less than 60 seconds in what came across as a complete fluke. Sting then beat him up with a baseball bat for about 5 minutes as he waited for Hogan to come out at the top of the hour. Why did TNA not want Hogan to come out until the start of the next hour? For ratings, the segment dragged and fans switched off/over. RVD's debut was ruined as he looked like a complete idiot as he didn't even vow revenge later on in the show, infact he wasn't seen until the following week where he apparently drove Hogan to the show.
Other classic examples of TNA making it clear either through the announcers or the wrestlers themselves of them chasing ratings on Impact feature the Knockout division. Typically the womens division as been the highest rated sections especially when Awesome Kong & Gail Kim were the focal of the Knockouts. The first example was the Beautiful People in a mud wrestling match and the second and the most recent example was the ridiculous Lovebox 8 women match which ended with Angelina Love winning the title by opening a box. Now as this concept was being explained by Christie Hemme, they then went to a promo by then champion Tara who complained about the match (and who wouldn't?) and then said the only reason this match was taking place was because TNA were chasing ratings.

We've seen TNA go head to head at 9-11pm with Raw, finally realising they may have a better chance going unopposed in the first hour and go 8-10. Dixie telling her followers on Twitter that they were scrapping the replays on Thursdays so that if the fans wanted to see Impact they had to see the live show. What happened? Spike showed the replay and more fans actually watched the replay. The following week the replay was scrapped and then re-instated the week after that. Why people are blaming Spike for moving TNA back to Thursday is beyond me. TNA have stated all along that if they had Monday nights, Hogan, Flair and Bischoff they would be a bigger success. TV ratings have fallen, PPV buyrates haven't changed significantly and yet TNA have yet to realise that they are not WCW in 1996. They insist on pushing Hogan and Flair above all others and remember that didn't work in WCW back in 1999 and 2000. Hogan only signed a one year contract back in October, I don't see any reason why once the contract has expired that Hogan will not walk off into the sunset. Every reason that Dixie and TNA in general gave to say that they are breaking through as made absolutely no difference. They are failing because they are too stupid and stubborn to bite the bullet to accept why they are going backwards and while they stay on their current course it will end in disaster.

TNA Crumble Under Pressure.

Within two months of TNA initiating the Monday Night Wars Part Deux it has all come to an abrupt end. Of course the decision could of been SPIKE's and not TNA's but still, the reason they have done this is because they just couldn't compete with WWE on a Monday night.

It's has been no secret, I have found the TNA product to be better that that of the WWE's in recent weeks but the ratings just havent reflected this. Many are going on about how stupid TNA's booking ideas are and this was more evident when they had Rob Van Dam win the TNA heavyweight title on IMPACT! with no build-up rather than on a PPV but what people need to realise is, SPIKE TV don't care about TNA's PPV buyrates, all they care about is the TV ratings hence giving away for free, Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy with the winner to wrestle for the world title on the same show.

SPIKE now have realised, no matter what they do, they are not going to take viewers off the WWE and with Monday Night Football on the horizon in the US, the ratings would of probably just got even worse.

I am annoyed really, would of been better to see this 'war' go on but alas, it hasn't I just hope that with the move back to Thursdays SPIKE don't lose all faith in TNA altogether.

20/20 TV Program 'Exposing' Pro Wrestling in the 1980's

Was watching this again today on YouTube and so I just wanted to post the links for thos who haven't seen it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hC3o20LgPs&feature=related (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdqrEcUhWNE&feature=related (Part 2)

Jack Swagger - Booked to Fail? By Shaun Nichols

Jack Swagger - Booked to Fail?

The booking of Jack Swagger in the WWE over the last 6 months as been very strange and difficult to follow if your describing politely. Ever since the decision was made to move him to Raw from the safety of ECW, it as proven to be a rollercoaster of being pushed one week and then made to look like a comedy act the next. Towards the end of 2009, Swagger was booked not only in a three way battle for the US Title with Kofi & Miz but also on a run of losses. Now this is hardly a unique booking strategy for a heel to go on a run of losses and then either turn babyface (ala MVP) or finally snap and go full psycho heel and at least solidify his spot on Raw and maybe even get on PPV.

However this did not really happen, Swagger cut a typically dull and very scripted sounding promo in I believe it was November stating that our 'All American American Hero' would go on a undefeated streak until the end of the year and that 2010 would be his year. His winning run lasted all of about 4 weeks, all against the usual Raw job guys. His stock did not raise at all and then as soon as December arrived he lost, not only that but he lost clean and that was the end of that. The commentators didn't push the fact that Jack had failed on his goal, they simply moved on with the show. In the weeks that followed, Swagger either didn't appear on TV or featured in a 2-3 minute filler match that didn't mean a thing. Reports suggested that his attitude backstage was not what Vince would expect or be happy with, this led to comedic angles in the run-up to the Royal Rumble with Mark Henry and even worse Santino Marella. The result being that Swagger was routinely embarrassed in skits and was become more of a joke with every passing week. Was he being punished for his attitude? It's probably very likely that he was, but if so was he trying to rectify it and try and show a more professional attitude? The jury seemed to be still out.

Into February and shockingly he featured in a TV match which went over ten minutes with John Cena, sure it wasn't the TV main event. But ten minute matches on Raw are very rare, especially when they half way through the show. The match, helped considerably by Cena ensuring that it was competitive and when he finally gets the win that the fans realise he actually achieved something by beating the cocky All American. The next week though the WWE failed to build on this new found push for Swagger, reports suggested that the company was actually becoming high on him but there wasn't neccessarily a lot of of clear cut evidence to support this. Entry into the Money In The Bank match may have meant a nice PPV payday but that was about all. Everyone was tipping Drew McIntyre or at a push Christian as the potential winner. The rest would have the moments, do some crazy dives and in the case of Dolph possibly kill himself as he trys to bump himself into the next life. Fortunately though the WWE chose that this match would be the one where they would swerve the fans and go for someone unexpected as the winner.

With Undetaker, Bret, Cena, Triple H all being obvious winners at Wrestlemania going in, it was the MITB match that got the shock winner. And it was at the biggest stage of the year that Jack Swagger froze, like a rabbit in the headlights. Did he forget the finish waiting for someone to knock him off the ladder? Did he forget that he could climb one more rung and make life so much easier to claim the briefcase? As he stood there struggling to take the briefcase, you can imagine Vince going mental that he chose Swagger to take the opportunity and he blew it. The next night, Swagger teased cashing in his opportunty against John Cena. Most observers are surprised that he didn't lose to the STF in ten seconds. Nobody could have been shocked if Vince chose to punish Swagger by booking him to lose quickly to Cena on Raw. He still looked like a geek on Raw don't get me wrong but he still had the breifcase. And of course the next night at the Smackdown tapings he took advantage of Chris Jericho by following up a Spear from Edge to claim the World Heavyweight Championship.

By being the champion, will not automatically make you a main eventer in the eyes of the fans both those watching live in the arena and also those at home watching on TV. He needs to be protected, he needs a few wins over established talent. What he doesn't need is his weaknesses exposed for all to see, which as constantly happened. Everyone knows he has a lisp and this means that his promos come off as nervous and unsure. So what do the WWE do about this, they have everyone point this out and make fun of it over and over again. Now if Swagger was seen on the level of Cena, Edge, Jericho or Orton then it wouldn't matter, but he isn't and everytime they do it, it makes him come off as someone who doesn't belong on their level. He is not going to be a PPV draw anytime soon. Since he won the gold, he's been beaten by Orton on two episodes of Raw, lost to the Undertaker (who is now going to take off for a few months), who could have certainly took the loss and help to establish Swagger as a main eventer. Swagger did triumph in a three way over Edge and Jericho but established his dominance by stealing the pinfall, please note the irony. Even a win for Swagger at Extreme Rules over Orton will not make a difference at this stage, it's clear with how the title match is positioned on the card that they are not sold on his ability to deliver the goods and after Wrestlemania you can't really blame them. Cena vs. Big Dave is correctly placed as the main event, but Triple H vs. Sheamus, Punk vs. Rey and Edge vs. Jericho are without doubt more important matches than Swagger vs. Orton for the title. If Swagger loses at the PPV it would be difficult to picture how he could keep his position as a top tier talent. Both Sheamus and the Miz are well ahead of where Swagger is at this stage, and the fact that the 'All American American' has a world title doesn't change my view at all.

TNA Thoughts - By Peter Chandler

Ok, here's the next part of How to Fix TNA by someone with no experience whatsoever of the wrestling business. And without doing a Jim Cornette and murdering Vince Russo-tempting tho that is...
I watched the season finale of Wrestlicious this week, and in between the crappy comedy (guest starring an bewildered Greg The Hammer Valentine) and the bikinis, when you look at their roster, they have some of the biggest names in indy women's wrestling on that show. The likes of Daizee Haze et al can produce great Shimmer matches, yet somehow manage to produce garbage in Wrestlicious. The answer lies in the writing of the show. TNA's storylines are all over the place at the moment, so they have got to get a grip on Creative. It seems they have one set of storylines for Live mondays, and another for the taped so the two don't mesh! A lot of that is down to Bischoff thinking changing things last minute is spontaneous, when it's actually just confusing. Planning guys!!!! Otherwise Jim Cornette may get his wish...