Borash radio recap, NWA-TNA preview, and more

Borash radio recap, NWA-TNA preview, and more
Submitted by William Martinez on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 at 5:12 PM EST

ESPN.com Page 2 article:
Sex, Lies, and Headlocks

Credit: 1wrestling.com

NWA-TNA sent in the following:

NWA TNA Preview for Wednesday July 31st!

How many more victims will there have to be? Jeff Jarrett knocked NWA Vice President Bill Behrens out cold with a steel chair as a protest for not receiving a title shot at champion Ken Shamrock. This week, the NWA has decided to fight back. NWA officials are flying in Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat to oversee that the broadcast does not get out of hand!

Steamboat will be representing the NWA and has granted a request by Scott Hall that the 60 day suspension that was placed on Jeff Jarrett be lifted so Hall can get his revenge the old fashioned way....in the ring. It will be Scott Hall vs. Jeff Jarrett this Wednesday night!

K Krush is no more. Holding true to his convictions, K Krush has changed his name to the two words he feels best identify his persona. He will now be known simply as "The Truth." Last week, in the midst of his outcry, he was met face to face with former NFL-er Monty Brown. The two battled in the ring, but have far from settled their differences. This week, Monty Brown will be at the show. What will happen when the Truth returns to further his cause?

They are two of the best of the X-Division, and will meet one on one this Wednesday night. Top contenders Jerry Lynn and Low Ki will battle to climb another notch in the X-Division rankings.

He showed up unannounced this last Wednesday night, and bragged of his tremendous accomplishments in this business. The Disco Inferno will premiere his new talk show Jive Talkin' on the next edition of NWA TNA!

He has been very impressive since joining NWA TNA, and this week he will get his first shot at the X-Division title. Elix Skipper challenges X-Division Champion AJ Styles on this week's TNA!

Since walking out of the TNA arena with Ken Shamrock's world title belt, Malice and Father James Mitchell's Disciples of the New Church have been on a rampage. This week, Jim Mitchell has said Malice is the uncrowned world champion, and will show exactly why as he attempts to stop the winning streak of the undefeated Apolo this Wednesday.

All this plus the TNA Girls!

Check out the action this Wednesday night at 8pm Eastern time live from the TNA Arena exclusively on pay-per-view!

Devin Cutting sent in the following:

NWA-TNA's Jeremy Borash was the guest on the July 29th edition of the Koco Sports radio program. Below are excerpts from his interview.

JB on NWA-TNA's lawsuit againt Jay Hassman:

"We are in the midst of some serious litigation and basically, from our point of view, the situation as it is now is we hired a pay-per-view marketing guy, a very well connected guy in the business, and we basically uncovered some things that were provided to us and basically, left us out to dry, kind of, so we're in a tough spot right now, nothing we can't recover from, but Jerry Jarrett basically spoke up today and did interviews and basically, you're going to see a statement out in the next 24 to 48 hours, basically giving our side of the lawsuit and why it's being filed."

JB on the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA):

"I was basically behind the WWA, that was my baby, and basically, Andrew McManus, the promoter in Australia, had never done wrestling before and with a very, very, very limited budget, we made chicken soup or chicken salad out of chicken something else. Now while it wasn't a good pay-per-view, a couple of pay-per-views actually, we really did something with very little."

JB on the future of wrestling:

"Unless (NWA-TNA) succeeds, and unless (NWA-TNA's) concept and the next evolution in television, you're probably not going to see wrestling, or at least a competitor or anything resembling a competitor, for quite a long time, so from our stand point, I guess we're looking at ourselves and if it doesn't work for us, it probably won't work for too many other folks. We've got a very good business plan and we feel that some of the best available people in the industry to try and make this thing work, and you know what? The product is there, the fans are there and obviously the one part that did hurt us was the marketing of the pay-per-views. Unfortunately, you can have the best show in the world, but if nobody's around to hear about it or see it, it's not going to matter at all, so basically, when we get regrouped with our marketing plan and let people know that we're out there, the best thing we can do is provide everybody with a good product."

JB on whether or not a rival promotion is behind NWA-TNA's legal problems:

"I guess that's what is going to be discussed and that's what's going to be looked into. Right now, our main focus is undoing the wrong-doing and from there, I guess our lawyers, we've got a very, very good competent legal staff, that's going to look into different things and who knows what they are going to uncover. I can't imagine why it all happened the way it did. What motives did this guy have to really screw us over and then screw us over to the tune of lots and lots and lots of money, our pay-per-view revenue, our spendings, our budget itself? We were under the impression that our numbers were a lot higher than they were and so we went forward with the type of show that we put out the first 4 or 5 episodes. It's all going to be uncovered hopefully and hopefully we'll find out what the motives were behind it."

JB on Buff Bagwell:

"I would say that you'll probably see Buff back. Basically, the storyline was he wanted to get rid of Buff and the last thing he said was 'I'm done, I'm going home.' We're going to see where that storyline picks up when it's the right time. He's a talented guy and he's got a lot of charisma. He, obviously, has a reputation and we kind of built the angle off that reputation. Buff Bagwell got fired (from WWE). He messed up a few times and, I won't fault anybody, this life and the life he has and the lifestyle of a professional wrestler can get the best of you sometimes, and it's not an easy life, it sounds glamorous and, indeed, it is, but there are a lot of things that can affect you. Obviously, it got the best of him and he's recovered and I consider him a good friend, he's got a very bad rap, some of it deserved, some not."

JB on NWA-TNA's television deal:

"The rumor making the rounds right now, and this is basically the premise of our business plan is to remain on pay-per-view, and the way that we can kind of do a TV deal and remain on pay-per-view is to do a show like we're doing right now in Nashville, we do a Saturday morning show on UPN, it's more of a magazine-type show, kind of behind the scenes. If we were to do anything, I'm betting it wouldn't necessarily be on a network and it definitely could be something that we could see syndicated. There are a lot of stations out there that would put it on, like weekend-type programming options, so that's kind of what we're looking at right now and we got some stations, New York has called, and we've got some other ones very, very interested as well as a lot of overseas clearance right now. It should really help get exposure of our program, which is what we need right now."

JB on IPW promoter Ron Niemi claiming that NWA-TNA used the Shane Twins incorrectly:

"I never knew who Ron Niemi was and I'd never heard of the Shane Twins. I know they're extra special in Florida. We've probably received close to 2,000 to 3,000 video tapes of people that want to be stars, that want to get that chance and get that spotlight shined on them. To me, when you're coming up to a level, the national exposure...the first time I got called up to work in WCW, I didn't care what gimmick, they could have put me in a dress and called me 'The Cheerleader', I don't care...you're getting the call to the big time and you're getting national exposure and to me, you should just be happy that you're being used. Used right, used properly, used well, used horribly...I guess leave that to the veterans because they're the ones who probably have more of a say than the new guys starting out, but to me personally, if I'm working the independents for $50 a night and I get a call to get on worldwide television, I don't give a crap what you're going to do to me, put me on. I moved to Atlanta for free to come work for WCW just because I wanted to be around there and be in that environment. I was working indies as a ring announcer for $20 a night for 4 years. It's all about opportunity. That's what this business is. That's all that we can offer people and if you don't like the gimmick, you don't like the role you're given, then please, get the hell out of our way because we don't have time for it. It's a simple reason. Anybody who doesn't want to be on our program or doesn't feel that they are being used properly, please step aside and go back to your high school gym in front of 30 people. I don't know (the Shane Twins) personally, I don't know (Ron Niemi) personally, but as far as we're concerned, we're in the fight for our life right now and we are trying desperately to keep the ship going in the right direction. We just don't have time to deal with that kind of stuff."

JB on NWA-TNA's coverage:

"The only thing we're missing is one of the biggest, Cablevision in New York and Dish Network, and that's all part of the litigation that we're involved in right now. I can't really speak much morely than that. We've got pretty much 100% clearance."

JB on Florida:

"Mile for mile, Florida has the greatest wrestling talent of any state in the country. There are more wrestlers down there and more great talent, more history. There's a lot of great talent in Florida and a lot of talent that we're looking at. I know Barry Horowitz is one. He's still down there. He's one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever to not get a major push."

JB on NWA-TNA's future:

"I can't look into a crystal ball and it's a promotion that I'm heavily, heavily involved, literally everybody here is working 12 to 15 hours a day to get this thing done. The facts are this...the very last promotion that went out of business in the territory days, and some feel Vince McMahon ran out every one of them, the very last man standing was Jerry Jarrett and to me, other than Vince McMahon, who Jerry will admit is the greatest wrestling promoter to ever walk the face of the earth, within the industry, it is well known that number 2 is Jerry Jarrett. For me personally, I gave up working for the WWA and made a great salary there. I really did it, and as much of a failure as a lot of people say that was, I believe in the vision and we've got a great captain steering our ship, and I wouldn't want anybody else steering that ship because he's been there before, he knows the wrestling business, he's a self-made millionaire in an industry outside of the wrestling business, he brings that business sense, he made a lot of money with Memphis, made a lot of money with construction as well, he's a very smart business man, so when you have somebody like that and we have a team that we've assembled, I can't see how it's not going to work and the fact of the matter is this...if it's not going to work, it's not going to be because of the product, it's not going to be because of the business decisions, it's going to be because of the marketing and the way that the program is cleared on a national level. There were many programs that we finished, not this past week's because I wasn't impressed with our show this past week, but the first 5 shows, I would have loved to have been up against (WWE) on Monday nights. (Would NWA-TNA be able to hold it's own against WWE?) Not at first, but we would have to build. I'd still like to be up against them on Monday nights."

JB on Vince Russo:

"A lot of people think that Vince Russo came in, took the booking and started driving the car all over the race track. That's not really the case. If you look at Jerry Jarrett's history as a booker, long before the hardcore (style) was named in the business, Jerry Jarrett was putting the Moondogs out there with tables and chairs and boards and just about anything else that they could get their hands on. The old Memphis stuff was as radical and as wild as any promotion and Jerry Jarrett was kind of the outlaw of the NWA at the time. (Jerry's & Vince's) philosophies on booking are not that far off. They need to find the happy medium and Vince Russo is picking up a lot of the workload that Jerry wasn't able to handle because of all these other business matters that are going on right now, major business matters, so for us, we're just trying to find that perfect mix and I'm not going to say that everything Vince has done in the past or will do in the future is great or fantastic or the best, but I would have to say Vince Russo is one of the most misunderstood people in the wrestling business. I have never met a man that has worked harder or believes more in the cause of what he's behind than Vince Russo and to have that kind of work ethic on the team, thankfully Jerry is around to make sure that the ship keeps going in the right direction, and everyone says that Vince Russo was the most successful when he had an editor, well he has that now, they're working out their philosophies together, they're going to make sure that the product is the best it can be."

JB on July 31st's NWA-TNA pay-per-view:

"This next Wednesday night will be headlined, it's going to be a stretcher match, Scott Hall verses Jeff Jarrett in the main event. Low Ki, who is absolutely unbelievable, if you've never seen him before, he's phenomenal...Low Ki is going to be going one-on-one with Jerry Lynn. We're going to give that match time. We're going to give them 20 minutes to tell their story. You don't see that too much anymore because you got to take commercial breaks and what not on television these days, but those guys are going to be given the proper time that they need to tell a story and have a great match. AJ Styles against Elix Skipper, which is going to be another X division match. That's going to be off the charts, so we've got some great wrestling. Our champion, Ken Shamrock. We've got some guys that are really just phenomenal talents. K-Krush is phenomenal and really has impressed a lot of people since coming on board. So for us, it's a lot of fun and this Wednesday night's show, I've seen it already and seen what we're going to be trying to do, it's going to be phenomenal."

Visit www.KocoSports.com for more information about the Koco Sports radio show.

WV: News, Rumors, Columns, and more!

*NEW GALLERY* Must See! Torrie Wilson Out PARTYING HARD in the Clubs!

Quick Links -
[Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]