WWE King of the Ring speculation, Samoa Joe making the media rounds

Thursday, APRIL 17 - 12:33 P.M.

-It will be interesting to see what direction WWE takes with the King of the Ring tournament on Monday. One can only hope that the goal of the tournament is to elevate a mid-card performer or to create a new star. WWE has done well in that regard in the past and I'm guess that's the mindset heading into Monday's tournament.

Granted, it would be fun if WWE put eight of their top wrestlers in a one-night tournament, but they'd clearly get more long-term value out of using the tournament to elevate a mid- or even undercard performer into a bigger role.

WWE hypes the fact that Edge, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Steve Austin, and Bret Hart are past winners. However, the company has also picked their share of clunker winners in the past. Who could forget the year Mael won the match? I know he wants to challenge for a World Title now, but I don't think the followup to Billy Gunn's win went exactly as planned.

There are a few guys who stand out in my mind as potential winners. Mr. Kennedy needs a spark. Lance Cade is ready to get a big singles push. Paul Burchill needs a new direction if WWE is truly finished with the incest angle. I'd love to see King Santino, but he appears to be slotted as a tag team wrestler for now. King Festus as a heel?

Oddly enough, none of the babyface wrestlers really jump out as potential winners. Sure, you could make a case for a few of the fan favorites, but I really like the young group of heels that are currently working their way up the WWE ladder. By the way, I'll predict a winner when/if WWE chooses to reveal the names of the entrants before the show on Monday.

-Kudos to the TNA media relations department for making Samoa Joe available for so many interviews following his TNA Title win at the Lockdown pay-per-view. Actually, I don't know if it's the media relations team or Joe himself setting up these interviews, but it's good for the company either way.

This is just another example of the company doing some of the little things that will pay off over the long haul. The autograph sessions at the house shows, Dixie Carter attending the ROH show in Boston, and the Joe interviews create goodwill with the fans and the media, not to mention the publicity they get from Joe making the rounds.

-I'm looking forward to TNA Impact more than usual tonight. It will be interesting to see which direction the company takes following Joe's title win. I'd really like to see them reduce the comedy and focus on delivering a product that focuses on the in-ring action more than the goofy characters. There's definitely a need for characters in wrestling, but TNA takes it too far with some of their out there comedy acts.

-In case you missed it in Dot Net Daily this morning, I will be reviewing the TNA Impact show late tonight because I'm attending the Wild vs. Avalanche playoff game. I will have a full review on the site late night tonight, assuming the Wild and Avs don't have one of those overtime marathon games.

Wednesday, APRIL 16 - 12:35 P.M.

-A few weeks ago, I praised WWE for delivering one of the most memorable moments in television history via the Ric Flair retirement tribute. Last night, I watched the company make television history again by showcasing what will be remembered by many as the worst broadcasting performance in pro wrestling history.

I'm sure there have been some awful announcing performances at the indy level, but WWE just doesn't make these mistakes. This is a company that takes tremendous pride in its production work. I'm stunned that they are paying Adamle a reported $300,000 annual salary, and even more stunned that they put him on the air even though he clearly wasn't ready for the job.

Why does this company continue to hire so many people who possess no knowledge of their product? The creative department is famous for making those hires but obviously the issue is not exclusive to that area of the company.

Just imagine what the reaction would be if CBS or FOX hired a play-by-play man who had no football knowledge. Can you imagine how the mainstream sports media would be all over the network if they used a commentator who didn't now the names of the players, mispronounced the name of the league, and didn't know an out pattern from a fly pattern?

That's exactly what WWE did with Mike Adamle. He didn't know the names of the wrestlers, let alone the basic moves or holds they were using, and he mispronounced the name of the company. I can live with the last one because the show was recorded live to tape and people do make mistakes, but his total lack of knowledge regarding the names of the wrestlers and the moves they were performing is inexcusable.

Assuming this wasn't all a big joke, then the people who made the decision to put him on the air deserve to be reprimanded. I have some sympathy toward the guy because this was his first time calling matches and I'm assuming he's never worked with a producer who screams in his headsets like Vince McMahon does. However, he clearly wasn't prepared for his assignment.

Professional broadcasters are sometimes assigned to sports they don't follow closely. The ESPN announcers are not familiar with every college football team they cover from week to week. They sit down and prepare themselves by learning about the teams and the coaches. I've heard some bad announcers over the years, but I've never heard anyone perform as poorly as Adamle did on Tuesday night.

Again, assuming this wasn't done intentionally to get people talking (mission accomplished if that's the case), then I consider Adamle's lack of preparation horrendous performance grounds for termination.

Tuesday, APRIL 15 - 12:17 P.M.

-Damn overtime hockey games. Don't get me wrong, I'll take a Minnesota Wild playoff victory any way I can get one, but these overtime games have done a number on my sleep schedule and it showed here on the site a while ago when I included Lance Cade's name in the WWE Raw Hitlist title and then forgot to write about him. False advertising? No, more like butt dragging on less than five hours of sleep.

I meant to mention in the Hitlist that it looks like Cade is about to become a singles wrestler. Nothing is official until it happens (as WWE proved with the aborted Brian Kendrick turn), but that's certainly the impression I got while watching Raw last night. Cade could be in for a big singles push. There has been some buzz for a while over his singles potential, and he has some powerful people on his side.

-Good to see Paul Burchill and Katie Lea back on Raw last night. I'm not a fan of the incest gimmick that was teased with these two, but Burchill has a ton of talent and deserves a break after that silly ass pirate character he was saddled with. Speaking of pirates, does anyone know what the point of that equally lame pirate character was in Dodgeball?

-There's plenty of frustration over WWE's (cough, John Laurinaitis, cough) decision to place all the developmental wrestlers under one roof in Florida. One of the many knocks against this move is that the wrestlers don't get to experience working in different areas or with different trainers. It's not going to be easy for all these wrestlers to work in front of the fans. Did you see the long list of wrestlers in Dot Net Daily who are scheduled to appear on tonight's event New Port Richey? I haven't seen that many wrestlers on one show since, well, TNA overloaded that Lockdown pay-per-view with 48 wrestlers.

-You can't blame TNA for not including everyone at the Impact tapings (see Monday's Dot Net Exclusive story). It sucks for the wrestlers who expected to appear on the show, but there's just no need for 48 wrestlers at the tapings. Plus, I'm all for featuring a more serious product if that was one of the goals behind the moves.

-I was disappointed to hear that Consequences Creed is one of the wrestlers who is no longer scheduled to appear at the tapings. He was just reintroduced with those vignettes over the last month, so it seems odd that TNA is keeping him off the next two weeks of television. Then again, it also seemed odd that they had him lose in his second match back.

-I'm still scratching my head over TNA's decision to have Super Eric win that silly handcuff match on Sunday. Isn't Scott Steiner, who was the first person eliminated in the handcuff match, challenging Samoa Joe for the TNA Title at the next pay-per-view?

-After battling back problems in recent years, I finally gave in and started a yoga workout yesterday. No, Dallas Page is not my DVD instructor. I don't know who the guy is, but I think he's been taking those two words DX always has for us literally because that seemed to be the goal of some of the stretches he had me performing. I'm tired, I'm sore, and I've bitched enough for one blog.