Official Fortune TNA Theme Song

http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com

TNA Xplosion: November 30, 2011

http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com

Kurt Angle Reveals Himself as James Storms Attacker

by Brian Phelps
http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com

On Thursday's edition of TNA Impact Wrestling, Kurt Angle came forward as the man who attacked James Storm the week before and left him in a pool of blood. This storyline has been rather compelling as James Storm had actually called out AJ Styles and accused him of being the attacker. They had me hooked into believing that AJ Styles was just denying it so that he could attack Storm from behind in a bit of lazy story telling. However, much to my surprise it really wasn't AJ Styles, and Kazarian coming out to separate Storm and Styles was a nice touch as it still portrays the remaining members of Fortune as a family fighting to stay together.

James Storm is coming off as paranoid, but it's understandable as the closest friend of his turned on him (Bobby Roode). It makes sense then that he would be traumatized and start pointing fingers at his other friends. This story actually has me intrigued as I now want to find out why Kurt Angle attacked James Storm, and how AJ Styles will respond to being wrongfully accused. Fantastic storytelling on the part of TNA. 

Beer Money is Over! Robert Roode Shatters Beer Bottle in James Storm's Face to Win TNA World Title

by Brian Phelps

This past Thursday on Impact Wrestling, James Storm made good on his word to give his best friend and long time tag team partner Robert Roode the very first shot at his newly won TNA World Heavyweight Title. Robert Roode came out early in the night to tell James Storm that he couldn't have achieved the success he had without James Storm. He credited Storm with coming up with the name Beer Money. They both vowed to tear the roof off of Macon, GA that night.

As the match started, Storm and Roode were very evenly matched. As the match progressed, it was apparent that Robert Roode was starting to get frustrated as Storm continued to kick out of move after move. Bobby Roode ended up at one point outside the ring, and spotted James Storm's signature beer bottle sitting on the ring steps. As the referee appeared to be down, Bobby grabbed the beer bottle and shattered it in James Storm's face thus knocking Storm out. Roode climbed back in the ring and covered Storm for the pin to win the TNA Heavyweight Title.

Now, this is the second title change in 2 weeks as Storm JUST defeated Kurt Angle two weeks before on Impact in a suspiciously short match. I'm sort of baffled as to what TNA's end game is here. What was the point of having Robert Roode lose to Kurt Angle on the grandest stage of them all, only to have Storm win it the following Impact, and Roode win it from Storm two weeks after Storm wins it? It's baffling and makes no sense from a booking stand point. Roode was supposed to win it at Bound For Glory, but Hogan got in the boss's ear and said Roode wasn't ready yet. So, they changed their minds and had Angle beat Roode. So... why put the title on Roode three weeks after that? Why buy pay-per-views if you're going to give away not one, but two title changes on free tv in a three week span? Beer Money is over, Storm loses the title, Roode turns heel and wins title... confusing much? 

Wrestlers Way Podcast - On Hulk Hogan saying Robert Roode isn't the Guy

Why Hulk Hogan is Wrong About Robert Roode Not Being Ready

by Brian Phelps

Just before Bound For Glory, Hulk Hogan made some negative comments about Robert Roode. Hogan claimed that Roode wasn't ready to be "The Guy" in TNA. In the last couple of months, TNA has been building up Robert Roode with good writing, good matches, great video packages and great overall build toward his title match with Kurt Angle which all pointed to Bound For Glory being Roode's "time". Originally, Roode was scheduled to beat Angle for the title. However, at the last minute TNA flipped and decided to have Angle win. Now, word has it that Hogan lobbied heavily against Roode winning the World Title and Hogan may have been the big factor in why TNA changed their minds on putting the belt on Roode.

There are a few things that just don't jive about this to me. Why does Hogan's opinions carry any weight? I mean wasn't it Hulk Hogan who was convinced for his first 6-8 months in TNA that Abyss was just "The Man" and pushed Abyss so hard in what was ultimately an epic fail? He wasted his first match in TNA tagging with Abyss, gave Abyss his Hall of Fame Ring, and even his WCW theme song all in an attempt to push Abyss to the moon because Hogan was convinced that Abyss was "the guy". I don't know anyone who ever thought that Abyss was the guy who would carry the torch for TNA. Where is Abyss now? He's barely on the card at the moment. So, why should we believe Hogan about Roode? Not to mention that Hogan never even explained why he felt Roode wasn't ready yet to be champion. There was no reasoning or substance given to Hogan's opinions about Roode. Hogan said if anyone was next in line to be "the man" in TNA that it would be Jeff Hardy. No offense to Jeff Hardy, but at this time he is unreliable. He ruined a pay-per-view event and has a storied history when it comes to drug use. I'm not saying he can't be the man again, but it's too soon in my opinion and he has not earned the right to be a top guy in the company again. I hate to say it, but he can't be trusted yet because he has to rebuild his trust. So let's look at the facts. Hogan said Roode isn't ready, but this is coming from the same guy who thought Abyss should be the top dog and then stated that Jeff Hardy should be the man mere months after he ruined TNA's Victory Road Pay-Per-View in addition to his already storied history of drug use and unreliable behavior. So, once again I ask... why should we believe Hulk Hogan's opinions on who should be the man in TNA?

Why Fortune is Better than The Nexus

by Brian Phelps (http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com)




A year ago, I said that Fortune was a much better faction than Nexus. Everyone laughed at me as I stated in my last blog post. Back then, the Nexus was a dominant group of rookies taking the WWE by force. Meanwhile, Fortune was comprised of AJ Styles, Kaz, and Beer Money. AJ Styles was #1 in the last PWI 500, and had just come off a 7 month World Title reign as well as a TV Title run. Beer Money are TNA's premier tag team, and the current tag champions. Beer Money also had that amazing best of 5 series of matches against the Motor City Machine Guns. Kaz just came off a X-Division title run. They are the 4 guys who have been with TNA from the beginning and built the company from the ground up before all the "superstars" arrived. Then to make them that much greater, they were led by the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair who founded the group to be the new 4 Horsemen incarnation. Yet somehow, everyone said I was crazy for thinking they were the better faction, but back then it was different. I saw the silver lining. The elephant in the room that no one wanted to see... and that is that WWE can't do factions as I stated in the last blog. Now, Fortune is still going strong while what's left of the Nexus has fizzled down to irrelevancy. AJ Styles is embroiled in a strong feud with top heel Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer. Beer Money is still the tag team champions, and Robert Roode is about to get the push of his life. They are grooming him to become a huge singles star. Kaz is the leader and face of the X-Division. Now, let's examine the Nexus... or what's left of it. The New Nexus is now nothing more than CM Punk and a few mindless guys with no personality. I mean... when is the last time a New Nexus member (besides CM Punk) even cut a promo?? The New Nexus stopped being interesting the moment CM Punk took over because they just became essentially a rehash of the Straight Edge Society with CM Punk preaching for Otunga, Mason Ryan, and McGillicutty to have "faith"... "believe in him"... and throwing up their fists to CM Punk in the same cult-like fashion as SES. The only difference is they don't have their heads shaved lol. None of the Nexus guys have even been in a real story line or feud (other than Punk). They're boring now and have completely lost their identity. To say they are better than Fortune is a bad joke. The Nexus went from new and different to just some generic mindless heels. The only thing the Nexus has ever accomplished is a couple of meaningless tag title reigns that did nothing to build them further or add anything to their characters. Not to mention, the kicked out and changed members a hundred times. Fortune destroys Nexus on star power alone. Fortune actually has personality (you see them in the back dressing up, or drinking together or getting girls together. They actually come off like friends. They don't come off so scripted and rehearsed with the same cookie cutter bad guy persona that WWE tends to use with all their factions.) Not to mention, even Fortunes theme song embodies who they are and has personality. It's not just another main stream WWE rock song. Fortunes song is specifically written about Fortune. I love CM Punk to death, but since he took over the New Nexus are just some mindless drones and that's WWE creatives fault. Just like Rhodes and Dibiase were in Legacy. Just like Slater and Gabriel in The Corre. WWE uses the same formula for all their factions. The same cookie cutter lackey bad guy persona. You know what I'm talking about... the whole leader does all the talking, and all the other members in the group do is just mindlessly run in during the leaders matches and lack any shred or morsel of personality. Fortune is a really well done faction. If you watch both WWE and TNA, or watched the attitude era or NWA in the late '80s... then you already know and understand why and how Fortune is the better faction. It's sad too, because Nexus started out so promising.

What is Vince Russo doing? (Impact Review)

Impact started off great with an interesting confrontation between Sting and Mr. Anderson. Both Sting and Anderson are two guys that know how to tell a story, have great mic skills, and wrestling skills as well. So, when they got face-to-face it got me psyched. Not only that, but it's a match-up that has never been seen before. So, the crowd is buzzing until... you guessed it. Hogan HAD to come out to steal their thunder. He had to come out and put all the attention on himself. Hogan babbled on about crap we don't care about with Bischoff at his side. Anderson claims he was screwed out of his match with RVD. RVD then comes out to respond by telling Anderson he'll face him again. Then, all of a sudden of course Bully Ray, Matt Hardy, and Abyss come out and beat on RVD, Sting, and Anderson for no apparent reason. So, Hogan decides to make a 6-man tag team steel cage match. Ok, last time I checked a steel cage match was meant to settle a feud between either two guys or two tag teams. I didn't know it was to put 3 guys in who aren't feuding with anyone (Hardy, Abyss, Ray). Wouldn't it have made more sense to pit RVD against Anderson in the cage to decide the #1 contender? Well, it gets better because toward the end of the match all hell breaks loose. We get to see Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Robert Roode, James Storm, Kaz, and a returning Christopher Daniels interfere. Only Vince Russo could book this kind of moronic crap. Only Vince Russo would sit there and say "Ok, let's have a 6 man tag match inside a steel cage, and then have 6 other guys run in during it so that we'll have 12 bodies lying around in a match that was designed to keep everyone else out." It's so stupid, and it's not the wrestlers fault. You can tell that the wrestlers are giving it their all. It's just bad booking by Vince Russo. A typical Russo match. When will he learn that not every match has to be a triple threat match, or have 20 guys interfere at the end? It's ok to have two wrestlers duke it out, and have a fair and square ending with no interference. It's this kind of silly booking that is going to continue to hold back TNA from competing with WWE.

Fortune: The Next Evolution of The Four Horsemen

by Brian Phelps
http://wrestlersway.blogspot.com

In the World of Pro Wrestling, factions come and go. Some are less than memorable (Rights to Censor), and some are nothing short of legendary (The Four Horsemen, The nWo, DX). When the "Nature boy" Ric Flair says he's going to form a faction, the wrestling world stops. That's because when it comes to factions, they don't come any bigger or better than a Ric Flair faction. The Four Horsemen are universally recognized as the greatest faction of all-time, and served as the precursor to future factions like the nWo and DX. The Four Horsemen were also the blue print for the most legendary faction of the modern era, Evolution. Evolution consisted of Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair... all of whom will go on to become sure fire future hall of famers, except Ric Flair who is already a hall of famer of course. So, now Ric Flair will create the next evolution of the Four Horsemen... Fortune. Presumably, Fortune will consist of Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Kaz, and Beer Money. Can he turn these four men, into legends as he has so many before him?