This Is Alarming

A few months ago, I was appalled to read an article that depicted TNA's treatment of their Knockouts. For a company who is overseen by a woman, it's pretty bad to hear that some of their women are paid so low that they can't afford to make the house shows, or that they have to find second jobs to support themselves, a la former Knockout Taylor Wilde.

At one point, it was safe to say that TNA's Knockouts Division was way better than the WWE Divas division. They outdrew the men in the ratings department. They weren't the typical cookie cutter Divas that the WWE Universe has steadily been rejecting since their golden era of Divas all left and retired.

Then they all left in droves. Awesome Kong, Alissa Flash, ODB, Tara for a short period, Traci Brooks -- for a while, Roxxi. Now we're left with three former WWE Divas in Winter (Katie Lea), Tara (Victoria), Mickie James, Madison, Rosita and Sarita and The Beautiful People.

Several months ago, Shannon Spruill -- known as Daffney -- revealed on her Twitter account that she was no longer a TNA Knockout, and it may have something to do with the fact that she had filed a worker's compensation claim against them over the multiple, severe injuries she had suffered during her time in TNA, including a crushed sternum from overweight wrestler Rosie Lottalove, who wound up getting fired after everything. You can read her story at this link:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/4/21/2125160/the-sad-story-of-shannon-daffney-spruill

If this is true, as a woman, Dixie Carter should be ashamed of herself. She has not tweeted since her Twitter account was reactivated. She's been laying low, amidst rumors of lawsuits and troubled waters approaching. Ratings have been falling; their core demographic are leaving in droves. And at the core of it all are lawsuits filed by all the employees who have been treated sub-par by the company.

At one point, I wanted these guys to succeed. They have great talent in guys like Abyss, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle. The thing that even sets them apart from WCW is their ability to build their homegrown talent -- all WCW had really was Goldberg.

Unfortunately, since the influx of former WWE guys and Hogan and Bischoff, this company has gotten so horrible that I just don't care at this point. And if they are going to treat their employees like this, then maybe they should just close their doors. This is sub-human treatment. At one point, Daffney was taking these bumps to a point where wrestling reporters were calling it gratuitous and it was.

Several years back, Konnan filed a lawsuit against TNA, claiming that they were racist. Not only that, but he claimed TNA only took care of their top card talent that were more than likely getting their money from Dixie's father's company Panda Energy. He cited them paying for Scott Steiner's surgery at the time, but refusing to pay for Ron Killings' (R-Truth). Some of the people on the roster are barely making enough to survive, according to reports, let alone pay for surgeries that they would need to get healthy again.

I say good on Daffney for filing a complaint. TNA shouldn't be able to pick and choose what employees to take care of. We keep hearing how Dixie isn't a tyrannical billionaire, that she's just a mother of two from Texas. How TNA is a family. Well, then, why isn't she treating her employees like that?

It Wasn't Me!

This isn't really the biggest news, but it's definitely an interesting topic that I would like to touch down on a little bit.

For those who don't know, last night a series of tweets coming from Kurt Angle's Twitter account (which you can follow at AngleFoods1) depicted Kurt angered by Randy Orton and Jack Swagger using the Angle Slam and the Ankle Lock respectively. Randy Orton (who you can follow at RandyOrton) took to his Twitter to fire back in his defense. This morning, Kurt Angle claimed that his Twitter account was hacked and that he did not feel that way.

CM Punk (who you can follow at CMPunk), the opinionated, outspoken Superstar that he is, recently tweeted "'My Twitter account was hacked' is the new 'I'm a drunk sloppy douche'". Obviously he doesn't buy this either.

A lot of fans are thinking Kurt was drunk tweeting last night thanks in large part to his recent DUI arrest. I think that Kurt was a little bit out of line to complain about the moves being used, as the Angle Slam was only used as a transitional move, and Ken Shamrock was the first WWE guy to use the Ankle Lock. Whether or not he was still wrestling at the time is not the issue; the fact is it's not Kurt's move.

CM Punk makes a very, very fair assessment here, albeit with acerbic humor. Whenever something seems to happen, when somebody tweets something that makes them look bad, it wasn't them. They were hacked. This happened a few months ago with TNA personality Jeremy Borash. A private message was sent to a TNA fan from Borash's account telling him that he hoped his whole family died. Borash claimed that he was hacked, although that was the only message that was sent. His mainstream tweets were uncompromised, it was just this one message.

The point is, if somebody is going to air their grievances on Twitter, stand behind it. Don't point the finger and cry "Hacker". After a while, people just quit believing it.

What To Do With Michael Cole...

Hot on the heels of Michael Cole's major Twitter faux pas, more and more details are emerging about Cole's behavior in recent months, and quite frankly, it isn't pretty.

On March 17, WWE announced that they were pairing up with GLAAD, the gay rights organization, in light of recent concerns GLAAD had been airing regarding some of the comments John Cena has made in recent memory. Considering they are heavily into building their program for children, WWE did the right thing here.

It only took this past weekend -- less than ten days -- for somebody to shoot the entire union in the foot, and surprisingly, it had to be WWE heel commentator Michael Cole. I wouldn't have expected this out of him. Let's take the word out of the equation here; scratch that out. The point is, Michael Cole is a WWE employee and has been for over a decade now. He should know better. Forget the word he used on Josh Mathews; when you are on social media, you are still representing the company you work for.

It didn't take fans long to pan his apology, calling it "weak". But it was good enough for GLAAD, who announced that Michael Cole would be a part of their training seminar. ProWrestling.Net thinks that maybe he was sending a direct message and it backfired, considering Cole is new to Twitter. So what? At the end of the day, he is still a company representative, and sending stuff like that to your colleagues doesn't paint you in a great light.

I'm indifferent to Michael Cole as a broadcaster, though I hate him as this new heel persona he has going. PWTorch and other sites are claiming that he has become what you see on TV behind the scenes. Hopefully with this Twitter-Gate scandal on the WWE's hands, maybe Vince will cool off on Cole for a little while.

Again, forget about the entire political correctness thing; it's a hateful word, and it's a hurtful word to a lot of people, so there is no blame to anyone who gets offended. However, this I think is more about representing your company. Michael Cole shot his company in the foot on a subject that has seen a lot of press and campaigns in recent years. It doesn't just make Michael Cole look bad; it makes everyone associated with him look bad, and that's something that Vince can't have.

TNA: Nobody To Blame But Themselves

Word coming out now is that prior to his debacle of a match against Sting at Victory Road, Jeff Hardy was found backstage passed out in a bathroom. From there, he had to be assisted to the Gorilla Position where he could stumble through his entrance to an 88 second main event that has set the wrestling world ablaze.

TNA has nobody to blame but themselves for the precarious position they've put themselves in with Jeff Hardy, who was once arguably the most popular star in the World Wrestling Entertainment. Fast forward just over a year in TNA, where Jeff is nothing more than a shell of his former self.

Never mind Jeff, for one second. Let's take him out of the equation. This could have been anybody else and they more than likely would have been ordered to rehab or fired. TNA put a lot of eggs into the Hardy basket, including that gaudy purple belt he was running around with. They risked everything to turn him heel, and to an extent, Jeff hasn't been too bad in his role.

But this is a blemish that TNA does not need in their already spotted record. Criticism of them is high right now, always has been a favorite thing of the wrestling community, but right now even their staunchest supporters are disillusioned with them. And six months free access to their online video library is not going to help matters. If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem, and all the problems need to get out of TNA if it's ever going to survive.

Legally, this was so dangerous. Even for all of TNA's shortcomings, I expected them to at least understand that. When I heard rumors that Jeff was in no shape to compete in December, but they had him out there anyway, I didn't think anything of it. I assumed he couldn't have been in that bad of shape if he was still allowed to compete. Fast forward three months, and oh, how wrong I was.

Legally, this was an enormous liability. If they did have a regular match, Sting could have been seriously injured, as could Hardy. What if Jeff hadn't gotten up from Scorpion Death Drop? There's a million what ifs out there, but what it's important to realize that these what ifs alone should have been enough to stop TNA officials from sending him out there.

Oh, but what to do? Sending him out to the ring when they found him passed out was careless. Very careless. Very dangerous as well. Calling an audible once they realized he was in no shape to perform was stupid. Really; did it take them seeing him stumble up the ring steps to realize that he was in no shape to compete? If the rumors are true and Jeff was found passed out in the back, then TNA deserves all of the fire and brimstone fans are reigning down on them for sending him out knowing full well he couldn't give the fans their money's worth. An idea? Don't send him out. Tell the fans the truth. Have someone attack Jeff before the main event, like AJ Styles and Fortune or something and replace it with the two guys from the match before that ended in no contest. Better yet, if Hardy just has to be out there, send the two guys out there for a Fatal Four Way and take away Jeff having to do a lot of the work. Something, anything would have been better than what the fans got.

Time For Damage Control

TNA fans everywhere are still infuriated over what happened last night at Victory Road. According to wrestlezone, the TNA locker room is in an uproar that they ignored the fact that Jeff Hardy was in no condition to perform and still had him compete.

All the blame cannot fall on Jeff Hardy here. It has to fall on this woman to my right, and her executives as well. It was their decision to keep Jeff in the main event and not make it a triple threat or anything. Yes, fans regarded Sting and Jeff Hardy as a dream match-up, but the taste in their mouth is so sour right now that they may a) never watch or support TNA again or b) not care enough the next time that Sting and Hardy are in the ring together.

TNA has long been accused of ignoring the problems of their wrestlers. When Booker T was suspended for sixty days following the Signature Pharmacy scandal that rocked WWE, he left. He felt WWE had thrown him under the bus and tried to make an example out of him, when all they had done was what they could to try and alleviate the pressure that was being put on them. He and his wife Sharmell went to TNA. And for that, a long with the signing of Kurt Angle, who had been granted his WWE release under the guise that he would be off fighting his demons, TNA earned some legitimate criticism that this was the company people would go to escape from drug testing.

In a shoot interview, Dixie claimed that she drug tests herself. Calls it a waste of $350, but she does it. Here's an idea: drug test your guys. Punish them if they fail. They could hurt somebody, for crying out loud. If Jeff Hardy was in no condition to perform last night, an audible should have been called and the main event should have been changed. Do a kayfabe attack backstage. Are the fans going to be upset? Sure, but those who are really in the know about Jeff Hardy and his personal demons are going to understand.

We fans are not monsters. And we fans who truly understand the wrestling business understand how important it is for companies like ROH and TNA to succeed. It makes every product better, it employs more people who want to live out their dreams, and it gives the fans some variety. But to succeed, it has to be good, and TNA has not been that for a long time.

Hogan and Bischoff are not fully to blame here, either. Right now, TNA has apparently sent Jeff Hardy home, and they now how to try and figure out some way to make the fans happy. Hardy has put them in a horrible position where they stand to lose a lot of money. Tapings are set to begin tonight; if they are really serious about curbing the damage they inflicted last night, they will either stick to their guns and let Jeff sit and simmer at home, or they will have him come back to Impact and apologize for the match that he had last night. Because we know it's not Sting's fault; Sting wrestled just fine on Thursday. All the buzz going around, again, is about Jeff, whose issues with demons have not been a secret for years.

It's time for TNA to start drawing a hard line with their employees. What happened last night was a travesty and it was an insult to every fan who bought the pay-per-view, who defends the product against its haters, and who supports the product, buying merchandise and attending house shows. For a while now, people have been comparing this company to WCW, and some are just waiting for it to go under. I'm not one of them, but this entire situation is ridiculous. I see a lot of parallels with the Hardy situation to WCW's treatment of Scott Hall, and it's not pretty. Jeff is only 33 years old, a father, and now a husband. It's time for him to start getting things under control as well, before no wrestling promotion wants to touch him.

If You're Not Serious, Pull The Plug!

Could you imagine a WWE pay-per-view main event that goes for all of 90 seconds? The answer is no, right? You know why? Because Vince McMahon understands that the fans would freaking riot!

Dixie Carter, this woman here to my left, and the "brain-trust" she has helping her helm this godforsaken company, gave us exactly that tonight when Sting defeated Jeff Hardy in 90 seconds to retain the TNA Championship. 90 seconds!

People can tell me that Sting was injured, or that Hardy was in no condition to compete, but seriously? When is enough enough? When do we start drawing a line at what we will allow this company to do to us while we are wasting our time on them?

I 'm sure Dixie Carter-Salinas is a nice woman. She seems that way. TNA commentators tell us she's no tyrant; she's just a mother of two from Texas. I want to like Dixie Carter. The feminist in me is enthralled to see a female running a wrestling corporation. But, let's be honest -- among the words floating around about Miss Carter, the words "mark", "airhead" and "idiot" keep coming back into the vernacular by those in the wrestling community.

I started watching TNA in 2004. AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe captured my imagination and my curiosity as they were doing things I was not seeing on WWE television at the time. The first time I saw the Styles Clash, I just about died. Fast forward seven years later, and we have the same guys behind the failure of WCW at the helm of this company that once seemed so promising. Now it's like that trainwreck you never want to avert your eyes from.

Tonight was insulting. Lamely booked finishes, double countouts, spray blood and a 90 second main event. Does anybody want to venture a guess as to why TNA can't crack a 2 in the ratings? Why people consider them so second rate that they will never be on tier with WWE? It's because of stupid stuff like this! It's because of their stupid storylines where we see guys running around with nailed two by fours and magical rings. It's because we see children thrown into a storyline that have no place being in the storyline. It's because since we've seen Hogan and Bischoff enter, it feels like the in-ring product and everything has just suffered. I don't want to blame Hogan and Bischoff for all of TNA's problems, but for the most part, their reputation speaks for itself.

Dixie Carter, if you are not serious about making this the great product that I know it can be, pull the plug and walk away. Sure, it may be the hardest decision ever to be made, but seriously? Either the company's going to lose enough money to make the people at Panda Energy look at the books (TNA is a privately traded company, therefore their losses and gains are not public knowledge), or the fan base is going to get sick of being insulted on a weekly basis and just stop tuning in. One or the other. The growing pains excuse is not going to work anymore; TNA has been in business for nine years now. It's time to pull Hogan and Eric into a room and start asking them to show you the results they promised you they would give you. It's time to make them deliver on the exposure they promised they would give you.

The "brain-trust" at TNA can claim to have a huge appreciation for the fans, but quite frankly, if horrible storylines, lousy Impacts and godawful pay-per-views are what you're showing us for our viewership, then stop. Just cut all the losses and walk. Because this is not fair to the fans that pay their money for your pay-per-views. This is not fair to the fans that pay their money to come see the shows (like my boyfriend), and it's certainly not fair to the wrestling journalists out there who have to cover this garbage. Shape up!

Sources report that when fans realized that there would be no restart to the main event, they began to chant "This is bullshit". According to reports at WrestleZone.com, Sting was at the top of the ramp, mouthing, "I agree." Claims are coming out that Jeff Hardy was in no shape to perform. Jeff Hardy's problems are no secret to the wrestling community, most of whom are stunned that Dixie -- yes the woman pictured up there -- put the title on Jeff not once, but twice knowing full well that he is facing a potential jail term from a drug bust in September 2009. If Sting is not well, and Jeff is no shape to perform, then they should have never been in the main event in the first place! For crying out loud, I get promising what has been advertised, but there should be a limit if all that's going to happen is that the fans are going to get insulted in the end.

Time to do some real serious thinking, Dixie. Because I'm going to bet that the pay-per-view buyrates for next month are going to be real low unless you start pulling rabbits out of your hat. And do us a favor, as your devoted fans...make it good.

What Are You Thinking!?

I don't know if this is a permanent thing, but this past Thursday, as part of TNA Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne's open challenges, former TNA Knockout Roxxi made her return to take on Madison, being defeated by her yet again.

When Roxxi stepped into the Impact Zone, I just about spit water all over the place a la Triple H. "Roxxi, what are you thinking?" I shouted at the television set. I know money talks, but really?

Roxxi is a phenomenal talent. I've seen some of her work in Shimmer and I've seen what she's done for the Knockouts division in TNA. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Roxxi, who has come a long way since debuting as the Voodoo woman and the "Hardcore" Knockout. For crying out loud, this woman has had her head shaved! There is no doubting her loyalty to the company.

Unfortunately, TNA has not been very loyal to her. First, in 2009, Roxxi was released following a 60-day suspension that resulted from a backstage altercation with Kurt Angle's ex-girlfriend Rhaka Khan (real name Trenesha Biggers). Roxxi was classy enough to wish them well in their future endeavors and came out pretty well in the long run, going back to Shimmer.

Fast forward to last year, when she arrived at a pay-per-view to find out that her match against Madison Rayne had been changed into a retirement match, and she was being fired. Backstage reports said that she had spent the rest of the day in tears, as she had only returned a few weeks before in a bigger capacity. Wrestling fans everywhere were infuriated, including Jim Cornette, at what was a complete and utter show of disrespect to a woman who had bled, sweat, cried and had her head shaved for a company that was tossing her away like a disposable player.

Roxxi had made no appearance in TNA until Thursday night. Maybe this is a one night deal. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Roxxi even agreed to do it, considering how they've treated her. I could only imagine how upset she was to put all of her loyalty into this company just to be tossed aside at a moment's notice. Roxxi is currently working in Shimmer, which is a terrific female-based promotion. Anyone who has not checked out Shimmer, I recommend it. It has boasted and boasts such amazing talent as Beth Phoenix, Sara Del Ray and Shantelle Taylor, who was known in TNA as Taylor Wilde.

Rant: TNA's Newest Knockout

TNA has had a love affair recently with MTV's breakout hit reality show The Jersey Shore. Now, I'll be the first to confess; I've never watched it. My home is typically a Jersey-free house. Snooki and the rest of the gang would more than likely make my brain implode. It's just for safety precautions.

Maybe Dixie Carter is a huge fan of the show. Perhaps Vince Russo is. I don't know; I don't care, but what I do know is that TNA debuted a set of characters by the name of Robbie E and Cookie (who wears her hair in a Snooki bump -- get it? She's not Snooki, she's Cookie. Sigh).

TNA has been scoring a lot of TMZ publicity by having Jersey Shore cast members appear on the show, starting off with JWoww, who had a slap-fest and beat down with Cookie. I was stunned to find out that JWoww was making 15k for her appearance, when some of the Knockouts are making only hundreds to do more, but I digress.

Not content enough to have just JWoww on their program, the brain-trust at TNA decided to sign season one drop out and failed rap artist (anybody who's heard her song "I'm Hot" and has a working brain and a love for music has to agree with me here) Angelina Pivernack to a short-term TNA deal.

I will say that what I saw on Impact this Thursday was the worst garbage I have ever seen, and The Beautiful People, Rosita and Sarita and Winter all deserved better than what they were thrown into. But I won't put the entire fault of this match on Miss Angelina, as it was clunky, was sloppy and got cluttered at the end. Her involvement was pretty minimal compared to the others, so I'm willing to give her a little bit of slack. TNA viewers didn't, however, as her segment with the Beautiful People and Winter happened to be the lowest rated segment, much like the JWoww appearance had been in the ratings when she appeared.

Angelina has stated she is set to go into wrestling school, that she has found her passion and her calling pro wrestling. Go for it. It's the big reason why I refuse to pass judgment on her right now. For someone with no wrestling experience, she's bound to be just horrendous. However, I don't think announcing that she downed a cocktail and took a pill before her first match is great press for TNA, who has long been accused of turning a blind eye to drug use in wrestling. Maybe tact is something they teach in wrestling school, who knows? Also, isn't it going to get confusing having two Angelinas on the program? WWE at least makes one change their name, even if it is so they can retain copyrights when they leave.

I won't pass judgment on her unless she a) drops out of wrestling school before she graduates or b) Graduates and legitimately does suck in the ring. After all, there are people with no wrestling experience prior to their signing who have gone on to do quite well for themselves, including Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, Maryse and Candice Michelle. Three of these four women are champions, and with the way Kelly Kelly is being pushed, I would be surprised if she didn't hold it. Angelina could be a solid wrestler, we may just not know it. But I hope she doesn't have her heart set on big fees, because she'll be learning a tough lesson if she does.