Monthly Archives: November 2012

Coming soon: Impact Wrestling branded lottery tickets

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Image courtesy ImpactWrestling.com

Impact Wrestling has announced a partnership with MDI Entertainment to offer Impact Wrestling branded lottery games. Aside from basic scratch and win cash games, TNA will also work with MDI to create second chance offerings in which players can win merchandise and trips to TNA tapings and pay-per-views.

MDI Entertainment, LLC, a subsidiary of Scientific Games Corporation (Nasdaq: SGMS), has signed an agreement with TNA Entertainment, LLC, dba IMPACT WRESTLING, to offer lotteries branded instant games featuring some of the biggest names and most recognizable imagery in professional wrestling today. The agreement makes the names and likenesses of more than a dozen wrestling superstars, as well as the logos, marks and artwork of IMPACT WRESTLING, available to lotteries worldwide. Stars like Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Matt Morgan and Bobby Roode are included, and can be used on instant tickets and promotional materials, as well as in television and radio commercials. They also are available for personal appearances and public service announcements to promote the good causes lottery games support.

The deal is a smart one for TNA, whatever your feelings on lotto games may be. It will increase the visibility of the Impact Wrestling product and its stars, and presumably is a profitable agreement for TNA.

Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns – “The Shield” – speak on Raw

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Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns finally broke their silence on last night’s Raw, during a pre-taped interview with Michael Cole. The group explained their recent attacks and answered the question of whether or not they are aligned with CM Punk.

A lot of internet types are praising this segment as epic and amazing, but it didn’t do much for me. Obviously I’m withholding my judgment of the group until I see more out of them, but Dean Ambrose is an internet darling and will be praised no matter what. I thought, though, that he came off like he was trying to be Heath Ledger’s Joker with his speech and mannerisms. It was a nice touch by Ambrose, however, to mention that they weren’t the Nexus or the nWo, since those comparisons have been obvious and apparent over the last few weeks.

The “reveal” of “The Shield” as the group’s moniker came off a little clunky as well. I understand that they were going for a, “We just came up with this on the spot” thing but it felt weird.

We’ll see where this whole thing goes. As I’ve tweeted in the past, I’m nervous about it because WWE has botched so many angles like this one, most recently and notably with the aforementioned Nexus storyline. It has people talking and that’s good for business. Now WWE just has to deliver something good along with the hype.

WWE: The Attitude Era Blu-ray and DVD match listing, full details

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WWE: The Attitude Era

Image courtesy Amazon.com

WWE’s newest nostalgic DVD/Blu-ray set, WWE: The Attitude Era, is available now, on the heels of a very good nWo collection. As with that nWo set, there will be no blurring of the WWF “scratch” logo and no muting of the WWF name when spoken.

Some of the “moments” showcased on the Attitude Era set include Steve Austin tossing the Intercontinental Title off a bridge, Vince McMahon presenting Mankind with the Hardcore Title, Mae Young and the APA, Triple H “training” Trish Stratus, Mike Tyson joining DX, DX’s legendary parody of the Nation of Domination, Stone Cold giving the Corporation a beer bath, Chris Jericho’s debut, and the wedding of Stephanie McMahon and Test.

The matches that will be featured on the discs, according to Amazon.com, are:

Sable vs. “Marvelous” Marc Mero – Raw May 11, 1998

Bart Gunn vs. “Dr Death” Steve Williams – Brawl for All Match – Raw July 27, 1998

The Undertaker & Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kane & Mankind vs. The New Age Outlaws vs. The Rock & Owen Hart – Four Corners Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship

Ken Shamrock vs. Owen Hart – Lions Den Match – SummerSlam 1998

The Rock vs. Mankind – Finals of WWE Championship Tournament – Survivor Series 1998

The Rock & The Undertaker vs. Mankind & Stone Cold Steve Austin – Raw Dec 7, 1998

The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin – Raw June 28, 1999

DLo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett – European & Intercontinental Championship Match – SummerSlam 1999

The Rock & Mankind vs. The Undertaker & Big Show – Buried Alive Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship – SmackDown! Sept 9, 1999

Stone Cold & Jim Ross vs. Triple H & Chyna – Raw Oct 11, 1999

The Godfather & DLo Brown vs. Too Cool – SmackDown Jan 27, 2000

Hardcore Holly vs. Crash Holly – WWE Hardcore Championship Match – Raw March 27, 2000

Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Guerrero – WWE Championship Match – Raw April 3, 2000

Rikishi vs. Val Venis – Steel Cage Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship – Fully Loaded 2000

Edge & Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz – Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match for the World Tag Team Championship – SummerSlam 2000

Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock vs. Undertaker vs. Triple H vs. Rikishi – Hell in A Cell Match for the WWE Championship – Armageddon 2000

Blu-ray exclusive matches include:

King of Kings Match: Ken Shamrock vs. Triple H vs. Owen Hart Raw – June 29, 1998

The Oddities w/ Insane Clown Posse vs. The Headbangers Raw – Sept 28, 1998

The Rock vs. Val Venis SmackDown – Oct 7, 1999

Survivor Series Elimination Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Kane & Shane McMahon vs. Triple H, X-Pac & The New Age Outlaws SmackDown – Nov 4, 1999

WWE Hardcore Championship Match: Al Snow vs. Crash Holly SmackDown – June 29, 2000

The Hardy Boyz & Lita vs. Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko SmackDown – Nov 30, 2000

Chris Jericho & The Dudley Boyz vs. Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian Raw – Dec 25, 2000

“Best Buy Exclusives” include:

GTV – Al Snow & Head; Mae Young Gives Birth – Raw Feb 28, 2000

Lita vs. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley – WWE Womens Championship Match – Raw June 12, 2000

The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz – Raw July 17, 2000

Quick thoughts on WWE Survivor Series 2012

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Survivor Series came and went, with all champions retaining and Dolph Ziggler emerging as the sole survivor in the Team Ziggler v. Team Foley match. Here are some quick thoughts on the pay-per-view.

- Unlike a lot of the “IWC,” I haven’t been clamoring for the big league debut of Dean Ambrose so when he, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns attacked Ryback, it wasn’t as much of an epic occasion for me. Sure, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes; Are the three NXT men aligned with CM Punk? Are they part of an alliance with Brad Maddox seeking payback for Ryback’s beatdown on Monday? Parts of this scream Nexus to me and we all remember how poorly WWE botched that whole thing, which is why I won’t get too far ahead of myself with this angle.

- Dolph Ziggler looked like a million bucks once again (as he usually does) and became the sole survivor of the Team Ziggler v. Team Foley match when he pinned Randy Orton. Orton went for his patented punt to the head, while Ziggler played possum and nailed RKO with a superkick for the victory. It’s hard to read too much into a pretty much meaningless elimination match but Ziggler looked great, and it felt like we might be getting some seeds planted for a Randy Orton heel turn during the PPV.

- It was nice of WWE to give us an unannounced elimination match at the beginning of the show but I continue to be mystified that they don’t announce these matches before the show. Sure, a matchup of Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd and Brodus Clay v. The Prime Time Players, Primo, Epico and Tensai isn’t going to sell a ton of additional pay-per-views. But perhaps people who were on the fence about ordering a show with five announced matches would order it because there were six? The match itself was very good and Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd came out of it looking more important than ever.

- Am I the only one that thinks Tensai is intentionally botching moves, or “dead weighting” guys on purpose? A few weeks back he did it to Ryback and last night he didn’t do Brodus Clay any favors. Either that, or Tensai just sucks so badly that he can’t time his jumps properly.

- I was impressed they gave Kaitlyn and Eve as much time as they were given. The match wasn’t great, but not terrible, and time is what the Divas need to improve. WWE also seemed to set up a feud between AJ and Tamina as an offshoot of the AJ-Vickie feud, which would be nice since both of those women can wrestle.

- The Sheamus v. Big Show match was another good one. Big Show has gotten much better in the later stages of his career and Sheamus always puts on a decent match. The post-match beatdown didn’t make a lot of sense, since Sheamus is supposed to be a babyface after all, but it was either the blow off to the feud or a tease for Dolph Ziggler cashing in the briefcase. Or, more likely, to set up a Chairs Match at TLC. Ugh.

- CM Punk now has held the WWE title for 365 days and I’m interested to see what happens next with the NXT guys and CM Punk. It seems like we’ll be getting another Punk v. Cena match at TLC in December, though.