BCR is Wrestling #4 - The war is on part 1

[Box Car Rocco]

BCR is Wrestling #3 - The war is on part 1

Happy Easter everyone it's Box Car Racer with the 4th edition of BCR is Wrestling and my 10th column overall. I haven't watched any WWE since an edition of ECW where Christian took on Jack Swagger, i've been trying to slowly motivate myself by watching some WWE DVDs. I don't know what's making me not watch it, hopefully the draft stirs shit up and gives us some fresh feuds which might get me interested again. Today is the start of a two piece series about the respect angle going on in TNA.

"Power concedes nothing without a fight."

"Over 75 years of experience, experience that demands respect." - Kurt Angle

"The single most important thing that separates the men from the boys is respect." - Sting

"This is the greatest assemblance of world champions to ever come together." - Scott Steiner

"Since we've been together we've taken out who we have wanted to, when we have wanted to." - Kevin Nash

"Tonight, your punk ass belongs to mafia." - Booker T

"Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh." - Kurt Angle

Respect. That one word means something different to each and every one of you but there is no doubt in my mind that when the Main Event Mafia formed back in Las Vegas they were after respect. Since that night in Las Vegas where Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T and Kevin Nash formed the Main Event Mafia they have added Scott Steiner as a hit man as well as taking out superstars such as Jeff Jarrett, Aj Styles, Samoa Joe, Brother Devon, Rhino and B.G James while in the process running rampant all over the TNA locker room. While there may have been some dissension between Kurt Angle and Sting lately the mafia have seemed to work that out as they are heading into Lethal Lockdown ready to take on Team Jarrett. That’s not what i’m here to talk about though, what i’m going to talk about is how important each and every member (except Sharmell) has been to the success of the mafia starting with Big Sexy Kevin Nash.

While Nash has been out injured a fair bit recently I have to give him credit, he was one of the main reasons why I originally got into this angle as Nash played a big part in mentoring Samoa Joe. I was not watching TNA weekly at the time of what seemed like Nash’s departure so I was left confused at where he went. The feeling I got when he returned at Bound For Glory to help Sting beat his former protégé Samoa Joe can only be described with these words, “Holy shit, He’s alive! What! That bastard”. Since then I’ve wanted Samoa Joe to get his revenge on Nash but I don’t think that will be coming to Nash get’s fully fit. Another important role Nash just recently played in the Main Event Mafia is the voice of reason. While Scott Steiner had his hands full with Samoa Joe and Booker T having his own problems with Aj Styles Nash was the one doing his best to keep the mafia together as he constantly did his best to keep Sting and Angle from hating each other. While Nash hasn’t been putting on five star matches or cutting Foley like promos his role in the mafia has been extremely important in helping me get into some of the major feuds this whole angle has provided TNA fans with and that’s all I can ask for.

Scott Steiner was the last person to join the mafia but has that hasn’t stopped big poppa pump from being up there with the most entertaining wrestlers today. Scott Steiner first joined the Main Event Mafia as their hit man giving them an extra level of intimidation. Since then he has entertained me week in week out with his usual antics on the microphone such as claiming a group of chicks were over 18 or insulting Booker T’s real name. His major singles feuds as a part of the mafia have been against Petey Williams and Samoa Joe. After defeating Petey Williams quite easily Steiner has faced a much bigger and badder challenge in Samoa Joe and his nation of violence as Steiner got demolished at Destination X so badly that he had to wear a mask like thing on the next Impact! Much like Nash, Steiner hasn’t been putting on five star classics week in week out but with what i’ve been reading about how much pain he goes through just to take a bump I honestly believe he goes out there night after night and puts on the best performance his body lets him and when your as entertaining as Steiner is on the microphone you could go out their and give Don West advice on how to get laid for all I care.

Can you dig it sucker? I just said that Scott Steiner was up there with the most entertaining wrestlers today but this man has to be number one on that list. Week after week after week Booker T is constantly making me laugh whether he is the king of Africa, Ghetto Booker or Booker Huffman. Ever since that night in Las Vegas where Booker T introduced us to his Legends belt to when he lost it to Aj Styles at Destination X Booker T has been a prominent member of the mafia. At Turning Point Booker gave the mafia an extra member in Christian Cage when he defeated him to retain the legends title. Booker had a minor singles feud with Shane Sewell which was utter shit. There was only a few parts of that feud that could be considered entertaining and that was thanks to Booker and his work on the microphone. Thankfully though, a returning Aj Styles was set to feud with Booker as he stole Booker’s legends title on his return. At Destination X Booker had what was probably his best match in TNA against Aj Styles before losing to the Phenomenal one. Even though Booker has lost his “$200000” legends title Booker still continues to entertain with his antics on the microphone.

Kurt Angle has been the main driving force behind the mafia and with good reason. Ever since the mafia formed to Genesis 2009 this man could do no wrong putting spectacular performance after spectacular performance on against stars such as Abyss, Rhino, B.G James and Jeff Jarrett while establishing the mafia as a dominant force. His first feud as a part of the mafia was against Abyss as Kurt Angle had previously attacked his injuries suffered at Bound For Glory. Kurt Angle defeated Abyss at Turning Point but he was not satisfied, he wanted Jarrett. Angle pestered Jarrett into giving him a match against Rhino at Final Resolution with Mick Foley as the special enforcer. In what was a decent match Angle defeated Rhino after Al Snow distracted Foley allowing Angle to get the cheap win. Now this is where Angle really picks up his game, week after week he lit a fire under Jarrett’s ass by doing whatever he could to annoy him whether it was bringing up his children or taking out a close friend in B.G James. Come Genesis both men just wanted to kick each others ass and they did exactly that as well as giving us our current Match Of The Year. Getting the victory was not enough for Kurt though as he shattered Jarrett’s ankle after the match which lead to him taking over Impact! for an hour providing us with quality sports entertainment. After order was restored Angle had a feud with Sting over trust and who was the leader of the mafia. This feud gave us great moments such as the empty arena brawl but it ended with Kurt Angle realizing that Sting had his back in a tag match against Jarrett and Foley. This let Angle focus on Lockdown and becoming team captain to renew his rivalry with Jeff Jarrett who ended up being the opposing captain. Even though Kurt only has a few years left in him his in-ring ability doesn’t look like it will decrease anytime soon and that’s a good thing for wrestling fans.

The current TNA world heavyweight champion Sting much like Kevin Nash helped me get into this feud big time just for the fact that he’s Sting. I never got to see Sting wrestle in WCW so seeing him on what could be his last hoorah is a treat. All that aside Stings title reign hasn’t been to bad, they got a couple of decent matches out of him against Joe, Aj Styles and Angle while the ratings are slowly but surely rising and Sting has been in a fair few of those segments which garner ratings. Sting first title defense was against Aj Styles at Turning Point as Styles was one of those young punks Sting continually talked about and Styles proved him right by slapping Sting on Impact to set up the match. Sting defeated Aj Styles at Turning Point with the help of the Main Event Mafia. Aj got a rematch in the form of an eight man tag team match putting members of the Frontline against members of the Main Event Mafia. Sting retained his title here and it seemed like he had got rid of Aj for now but when a door closes a window opens. Stings next feud would be against Rhino which had no build up what so ever until the actual pay per view where the Main Event Mafia attacked Rhino before the show leading to Sting retaining in what was a short title match. We'll skip two pay per views as i've already covered Stings feud with Kurt Angle and move on to now. Jeff Jarrett had been seemingly planning to take Sting from the Main Event Mafia and bring him to their side by making him lose trust in Kurt Angle. That all changed when Mick Foley waffled Sting with a chair. Over the next few weeks Sting and Foley would exchange words with Sting trying to find a method to Foley's madness but would find himself even more confused then before but the tides would turn this past week on Impact when Sting got his revenge on Foley for hitting Sting with a chair by returning to the favor costing Foley a first blood match. At Lockdown Sting is set to defend his title against the man he hit with a chair on Impact but as he said recently, it could be his last match as Foley can go to the extreme in any match. Sting isn't to far off retirement and TNA are milking him for all he is worth right now, his title reign hasn't been as bad as most people suggest and for those like me who didn't see the Stinger in WCW it's a treat to watch him still going today.



That's all for today's column. Next time, whenever that may be, I'll be discussing the Frontline/originals/Main Event Mafia's opponents or whatever you want to call them. I know it will consist of Mick Foley, Team 3D, Rhino, Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. Until then remember one thing....

The war ain't over

[Stinger]

This had a good number of grammar and spelling problems, which could have been easily remedied through a good proofreading. It also seemed short, and the huge ass pictures helped make it seem so.

The Sting and Angle parts could have easily been broken up into multiple paragraphs, yet instead you stuck with the formula of only one paragraph per member (only writing far more about Sting and Angle in one blob of text).

His name is AJ Styles, not Aj Styles. It's I've, not i've. And commas are your friend, so don't be afraid to use them.

Just seems like a lot could have been done with this, yet it ended up being bland. It was decent at best. Hopefully Part 2 turns out better.

[Captain Awesome]

Stinger already talked about the grammar and spelling, so I won't go into that. The content of this piece was interesting to me, as I am not a TNA viewer so I was intrigued to see what these guys were up to. To a regular TNA viewer though, they might skip over this as it seemed like you were just giving a history of things they had done recently. Not a bad effort though, and I will read you again

[SIMS]

A good review/summary of what's been going down in TNA lately in the show's main feud.

The pictures were overly large, but it was a good idea to break up the text with them. A smaller size would have done the the layout a world of good.

For fans that have missed some of TNA's shenanigans, I think the column would be pretty informative and therefore useful.

I wonder where TNA will go next with this whole thing? Will the stable stick together? The MEM/Frontline feud has been centre stage for a long time now and i'm worried it'l get stale soon if not done properly with some decent swerves thrown into the mix.

Will check out your next part when its up.

SIMS