2.) The premise still makes entirely not one lick of cotton picking sense. They're willing to LIE AND SAY THEY'RE F***ING EACH OTHER to cover for a girl GETTING HELP FOR HER PROBLEMS?
most likely they didn't want to reveal the girl's drug addiction on national television.
or something more specifically, she said she stole from her family so she couldn't go to them for help. maybe they noticed money missing and had no idea she had a problem and they would put two and two together when she came clean? that could fracture a family. aj and dixie could help her get rehabilitated without damaging her relationship with her family or something.
1.) How do you explain AJ and Dixie actually kissing?
like i said i didn't actually see the buildup so i don't know. if it happened on impact, i suspect it was for the same reason they planned to pretend they were having an affair last night. if it was on hidden camera...i have no idea. was it a full on makeout session or a friendly peck?
if they were sneaking into hotel rooms it would be to make sure the chick isn't in there all strung out and ****...or they just kept her there until she could clean up. no idea.
so i just watched the pregnant addict thing and believe it or not i think i can actually make sense of it
keep in mind i haven't seen any of the buildup, but here's what i think they were going for from start to finish
pretext: daniels is jealous of AJ. they have been rivals for years, but AJ has always had the upper hand.
so daniels sees AJ and dixie sneaking around. since he's a heel, he thinks to himself "of course! AJ is sleeping with the boss! that's why he's always gotten the star treatment over me even though i'm better than him, etc"
eventually, while spying on them, he discovers that the reason they're sneaking around is to keep an eye on this girl and they don't want to make her issues public. but since he's a heel, he concocts a plan to videotape them and make it look like they're having an affair, knowing that they can't come forward with the real reason because they're trying to protect the addict girl and her privacy. the endgame is that AJ's credibility is shot and daniels takes his place as the star of the company. he recruits kaz just to further weaken AJ and strengthen his own camp.
because they're desperate to protect this girl, dixie and AJ went out there last night to take the bullet and pretend they're actually having an affair, which is what dixie was talking about and why she was struggling to say it. daniels' plan was about to come to fruition, but at the last second the girl decided, "i can't let them ruin their own lives to protect me, i need to tell people what's really going on". the reason daniels got pissed is because his whole plan unraveled at the last second.
it actually makes sense i think. the only thing that doesn't is kaz sticking with daniels after presumably finding out that AJ and dixie weren't actually having an affair, but maybe daniels brainwashed him into thinking he should have AJ's spot too.
they definitely could have found a better actress in any case. that was horrendous.
From: TimJab | #362 that's my main gripe exactly though That doesn't need to be booked to happen, though. I mean you know more about TNA so maybe they do "buck the trend" too quickly, so maybe they will do that with it next year, but there's no need for it to happen next year. Just because something bad could happen, no need to piss all over it so quickly!
i'm not really worried about the jesse sorenson thing. i even think it makes sense for aries to give up the belt to try other things since he has cleared out the division (although it makes the next champ not as credible IMO). but i don't like the idea of the x-division belt being tossed in the trash every year. there's no pride to holding the belt if that's the case. the only way i like this is if the champ this time next year says "**** that, i'm proud to be the x-division champion" and the idea is never broached again. i think that is actually a pretty good storyline. gets them out of the corner they've booked themselves into with aries (in which he couldn't drop the belt to challenge for the world title without looking weak, although the three way ultimate X could have worked), elevates aries, and eventually elevates the x-division as a whole as well as whoever that champion is next year.
i just think it makes the x-division look kind of cheap
plus why go out there and compete with anderson, storm, roode, crimson etc. night in and night out when you can just wait until july and then beat zema ion once instead
which some non x-division heel (bully ray) is totally gonna do next year (assuming that they don't forget about it completely) because TNA never establishes ideas before they do the storyline that bucks the tradition. i don't really know how to word it...think of it like if wwe chose to have co-winners of the royal rumble in the first one before establishing the event with clean winners in the first few years.
All in all it showed how much the World Title meant to Aries, and now it makes the hunt for the X-Division Title legitimately meaningful, ESPECIALLY come late spring/early summer.
hmm, does it really though? aries is just tossing it to get a world title shot, when there was a time when the x-division title meant as much or even more than the world title, and that was when TNA still had the most prestigious world title in history (technically). it kind of makes the x-division title more like ROH's old #1 contenders trophy. to me, this idea makes more sense with a belt like the intercontinental title, where winning it is supposed to be the last stepping stone to going after the wwe championship (at least it used to be). the x-division is supposed to be it's own thing. i approve of aries getting a world title shot obviously, but i don't think i can agree with you here. i don't like the idea of the the x-division title getting vacated every year and there's a strong possibility that whoever is x-division champ at that arbitrary time every year won't be world title worthy. aries deserves a shot because he has dominated the x-division for a year, what if jesse sorenson wins the x-division title 2 weeks before destination x next year? are you just gonna have a year long reign every year with nobody ever going over the champion?
Last night was an outburst so today let's be positive.
The resolution to the Aries title conundrum was INCREDIBLE and one of the most productively creative things I've seen in recent memory. Two titles both elevated in one fell swoop and so many boundless possibilities for storylines.
details please
-- Also even I have to give the Rangers credit right now. They're better than we are. - ExThaNemesis
From: MartinFF7 | #231 c'mon Jakyl, you're the anti-Russo. Surely you aren't conceding defeat to a storyline?
Here's what I can give you:
6 months ago, Daniels turns AJ Styles's friend Kazarian against AJ with some dark secret.
They feud for months, forever lording this secret over AJ's head.
FINALLY it's revealed. They have photographic evidence of AJ and Dixie Carter having an affair! AJ's status as the golden boy comes out as potentially due to their relationship! Scandal!
They act incredibly guilty for months afterwards, as Daniels reveals more evidence: a scandalous phone call, and a video of them walking hand in hand together into a hotel room.
It even gets so bad that Dixie's husband PUNCHES AJ!
FINALLY tonight they decide to reveal the truth.
THEN they decide not to!
THEN they decide to!
THEN they decide not to!
THEN some pregnant lady who we've never seen before comes out, introduces herself as an addict, and says that AJ and Dixie were not having an affair, they were covering for her rehab!
Daniels FLIPS OUT and attacks and AJ fends him off as Tenay proclaims to the heavens that AJ is redeemed! HALLELUJAH!
hahaha what
that might be my new favorite ridiculous storyline (although it honestly sounded pretty good up until the last thing), but it will be hard to top that feud angle and booker had where angle wanted to have sex with sharmell and cut ridiculously racist and offensive promos. that was awesome (and completely ridiculous because who would want to have sex with sharmell, especially when angle's wife was pretty hot)
it took goldberg so long to get back from that police station across the street from the arena
i actually watched wcw live that night and remember a lot of it (i was around 10 i guess?) but not the butts in seats line for some reason. i mean obviously i've heard of it, but i can't remember it from that night
His birth name is Johan Santana, he changed it before entering the bigs to avoid confusion. He might become the second Johan Santana to throw a no-no this year!
I grew up with Rugrats, Catdog, Wild Thornberries, Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, etc. Even the shows I wasn't too big on (Rocket Power and a few others) provided a little variety. I just feel so bad for the children who get to grow up in this generation of icky live action and animated reruns with NO variety. Sad...
I hate when people talk about this. Maybe it seemed like cartoons were better (besides the rose-colored nostalgia glasses we wear) when we were kids because we were the target audience? Rugrats sucked and Spongebob is hilarious.
On a side note, it's also a little weird to me that they seemingly don't have any system in place for earning title shots yet. Now Dasher Hatfield is getting one!
I actually haven't been following until I have time to catch up on the DVDs, but I'd imagine they're just gonna give arbitrary shots like the Young Lions Cup (without the age limit). It would be kind of overkill to have a points system for a singles title, it would be mayhem.
One knock I have against the separate block thing, and this is only because CHIKARA chose to book it this way, is that Eddie Kingston was mathematically locked into the finals and Block B still had like 10 matches left. I think a lot of that had to do with Brodie getting hurt though.
And I'm actually surprised you didn't like the separate block format. It's pretty much been the only way wrestling has done it since Best of the Super Juniors set the precedent.
4 groups of 4 (Blocks A-D). 2 points for a victory, 1 point for any type of draw (double countout, double DQ, time limit etc), 0 points for loss.
After each guy wrestles his 3 matches (that's a total of 24 matches I believe), you use the point totals to determine seeding in the knockout tournament stage:
I was using him more as an example of somebody that has the talent to go to the majors right away but still chooses to go to college.
And the Yankees signing bonus was only rumored to be $4 million. That's not really enough to set you up for life these days, especially in the hands of an 18 year old.
He actually risked losing a lot of money by going to college.
That's kind of my point. He went to college for a reason other than "he sucks". Now even if he flames out, which is unlikely, he still has a degree and won't end up like Brien Taylor.
From: Jakyl25 | #357 Talent Relations (i.e. Laurinaitis's old(?) job) deals with talent that's already signed as a go-between from them to upper management. more like relationships with the talent m i rite!?