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MCNEILL'S TAKE
McNEILL's "Who's Hot, Who's Not" for Week of 3/10: Rock, Nigel, Booker, Noble Mar 10, 2008 - 5:27:26 PM
The Rock: Dwayne Johnson refused to rise to the bait last week, when he was called out by current WWE main eventer John Cena. Cena was obviously trying to taunt The Great One into a match at WrestleMania 25, but there was no sale. Besides, with Floyd Mayweather getting "twenty million dollars" to work WrestleMania this year, the price of Rock returning to the squared circle just went up. Rock will induct his father and grandfather on March 29th and return to his world of (legitimate) $20 million paydays.
Nigel McGuinness: When Nigel McGuinness has had great matches in the past, the credit has gone to his opponents, guys like Naomichi Marufuji, Bryan Danielson and Doug Williams. With his performance on "Rising Above" against Austin Aries, McGuinness has proven he belongs with the elite wrestlers of North America. The man rejected by WWE's developmental territory and TNA's pre-show has become the cornerstone of ROH. Nice work.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts: He's tan, he's rested, he's getting out of rehab, he's headlining a huge indy show in Orlando the day before WrestleMania, and rumor has it he's on the short list for the WWE Hall of Fame. That's quite a month for "The Snake". As irresponsible as he's been in recent years, Roberts has always been a tremendous promo guy, and he's as worthy of being in the WWE Hall of Fame as the next guy.
Awesome Kong: The head TNA Knockout is the one legitimate star created by the promotion in the past six months. She delivered again on Sunday night with her fine performance at "Destination X". Plus, you can catch the champ on SHIMMER DVD's and Dish Network's "NWA Showcase". Kong has made it cool to watch ladies' wrestling on TV again. (Relatively speaking, anyway).
WHO'S NOT
Jamie Noble: Can anyone explain why the former Ring of Honor champion can put over perennial muscleheaded midcarder Chuck Palumbo, but can't do a clean job for Big Show on Smackdown? Anyone at all? For crying out loud, Paul Wight's the man who's headlining WrestleMania in three weeks. Noble's a road agent. As a road agent, that makes it even more important for Noble to set a good example for the guys working underneath him.
Georgia State Legislature: The Georgia Legislature knew nothing about the businesses they were looking to regulate (pro wrestling and mixed martial arts). After the representatives were called on their mistakes by wrestling and MMA promoters, it became obvious the lawmakers weren't interested in finding out more information. The state of Georgia is now stuck with a series of laws that don't protect wrestlers, and the Peach State now has regulation for the sake of regulation.
Booker T: The Book just celebrated his fourth TNA pay-per-view without winning a fall. Hell, Sharmell even scored a victory on pay-per-view back at Final Resolution. It's not as though TNA has better wrestlers they're pushing ahead of the former multi-time World Champion. Booker is stuck in a never-ending feud with Robert Roode, who's been stuck in TNA midcard hell for at least three years. What a waste.
TNA Management: My friend Jason Powell has gotten on the TNA creative team for their obvious devotion to country music and NASCAR. I'd rather get on the creative team for the fact that they don't know how to book wrestling matches. The entire crew needs to be pink slipped at once for not getting the "Fish Market Street Fight" stipulations straight.
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