Saturday, January 28 2012 saw TNA return to Wembley Arena for their fourth “Maximum Impact” show… a show that was switched to a TV taping about three weeks beforehand. Two episodes of Impact, which will air in the first two weeks of February on Spike TV in the US and on Challenge TV in the UK. Spoilers – albeit badly-written, done on a phone as the show went on – lie after the break…

There were lot of seats tarped off at the back of the arena. If sold out, crowd will be around 7,000 (and there were empties even after they covered off a lot of seats).

Dixie came out before the show to thank us all. Crowd booed the mention of the TNA German and french TV partners. The show had a very basic stage, which will come across as extremely weird and possibly even low-rent in comparison to the on-the-road Impact tapings they’ve already done in the US. No entrance videos for anyone, as the video screen (in the photo) only showed the Impact Wrestling logo on a loop, and there was no place for the commentators, with neither Tazz or Mike Tenay in the UK.

February 2nd show

Bully Ray and Bobby Roode come out for a show-opening interview. Roode calls out Storm, who is followed by Sting who announces a four way main event for Against All Odds: Roode, Ray, Storm and Hardy for the title. Sting also booked Roode vs Storm and Ray vs Storm tonight (I thought Sting was a babyface GM?)

1. Magnus & Samoa Joe vs Matt Morgan &  Crimson in a  Buckingham Brawl. The rules were that the winners of the coin-toss had a 2-on-1 advantage the whole time, whilst the losers had to tag in and out. Joe and Magnus won the toss (albeit after Borash threw the coin out of the ring in error!)

Magnus and Joe win a decent, if not confusing match, after Magnus hits the knees off the top to Morgan.

2. Austin Aries beat Mark Haskins by submission. Haskins botched a shooting star press Lesnar style (Haskins got a minor concussion after this, which will probably air knowing TNA’s history!). Brainbuster followed by a roll into submission. Haskins was helped to the back after the match.

3. Bobby Roode beat James Storm with a spear after interference from Ray in a very good match. Ray and Roode attacked Storm post match, Sting made the save.

Eric and Garrett Bischoff segment.  They’ll reveal who trained Garrett. My money’s on Hogan. Cornette Face made an appearance here, for those Botchamania fans!

4. Tara beat Gail Kim with Widow’s Peak. Some botched moves, and interference gone wrong from Madison Rayne led to the finish.

5. James Storm beat Bully Ray after a super kick. Storm had taped ribs, Roode and Sting came out during the match to interfere and prevent it… Sting fended off Roode with a black cricket bat to prevent Roode interfering in the finish.

Main event segment: Garrett came out to announce his trainer. Eric and Gunner came out to mock… but in the end Hulk Hogan is revealed as Garrett Bischoff’s trainer. Insert joke here.

February 9th show

1. Daniels beat AJ Styles after hitting him with brass knuckles during an attempted Styles Clash.  Daniels had thrown the knux to Kazarian at ringside, who acted conflicted when it came to throwing the knux back in.

Interview segment with Ray, Roode. Sting comes out and adds himself as enforcer at PPV. Books Ray and Roode vs Storm and Sting for the main event.

2. Alex Shelley beat Doug Williams and Austin Aries in a 3 way, pinning Aries with the Sliced Bread after Aries had kicked Williams low following a Chaos Theory on Shelley.

Magnus and Joe promo. Huge pop for Magnus who did a patriotic speech, ending with a line: “this is England”. They challenge Crimson and Morgan to the titles at the ppv. Champions come out and send them packing.

3. Velvet Sky beat Mickie James. Crowd did not know what to make of this face vs face match. Sky won with an inside cradle.

Segment with Garrett and Hogan. Crowd turned on Garrett after he got the Hulk Hogan seal of approval. Wonder if this will be edited, as nobody seemed to care about Garrett for the entire night, and when they tried to force him down our throats, well… you know the rest! Hogan announced Garrett vs Gunner for Against All Odds. Eric then low blowed Hogan, and Gunner / Eric took out Garrett. Hulk hulked up, and tosses out Garrett. This storyline is not going to go well…

4. Main event: Sting and Storm beat Roode and Ray when Sting made Roode tap to the Scorpion Deathlock. Ray teased interfering but bailed on Roode.

Slow paced match, but the crowd liked it. Everyone seemed really burned out at this point though.

Good show all in. Hogan and Sting got the biggest reaction. The lack of an interval between shows killed the crowd towards the end of show 2. No Angle or Flair for the tapings (Hardy had been announced in the week-long media build as not appearing – likely due to his recent stint in jail), which was surprising. Pretty much two Impacts using what would have been the house show crew, plus a few names.

Kurt Angle did come out after the tapings finished, interrupting after a Sting promo (typical “thank you” to the fans – Sting announced here that he’d “blown out his heel” in the match, and he was visibly limping). Angle, Ray and Roode beat down Storm and Sting, before Hogan came out to make the save and do his posedown routine to send everyone home happy.

More photos available on Facebook via Wrestling-Online.com.

Sometimes, you just can’t win. Even when something happens that, in the bigger picture, is actually for the best, there’s always those who like to nitpick.

After spending the end of 2011 promoting the return to television of Brodus Clay – a character who was last seen in squash matches on WWE Superstars, after being a nondescript bodyguard character – we finally got the payoff. With Clay’s return/debut having been continually pushed back since November, where he was originally meant to debut on an episode of Raw from Liverpool, England, the big event finally happened… but it wasn’t quite the same Brodus.

“Hailing from Planet Funk,” Brodus’ new character would be extremely polarising. “The Funkasaurus” Brodus Clay, an updated version of the Flash Funk gimmick used by the-artist-best-known-as Too Cold Scorpio in the mid 90s, was a refreshing change in a company where every character is either deadly serious, or seriously bad at comedy. Yet somehow, the only criticism of the new character seems to be that “it wasn’t what was promised”. Now, if WWE had still been running the same promos of Brodus in the weeks before, showing him as an unstoppable monster, then I’d understood. However, his name had barely been mentioned on television in recent weeks, so why should we have thought that they were still bringing him back at all? After all, I don’t remember anyone crying and moaning about Hade Vansen…

So, this past Monday, Brodus Clay came out in his red jumpsuit, jacket and fedora, quickly beating Curt Hawkins with the same set of moves he utilised in his squash matches on Superstars. Days later, he repeated the act, beating Tyson Kidd in even less time, showing that the emphasis was on the character, rather than the in-ring work.

Yet, the polarisation of this character is such that fans are either praising WWE for doing something outside of the box – by giving Clay a character that he has to work to play, rather than a by-the-numbers monster heel who would be forgotten as soon as WWE’s resident monster Mark Henry returns from injury. In the meantime, the nay-sayers are screaming from the rooftops, somewhat upset that they didn’t see the Brodus Clay that they (didn’t) see on Superstars, or that Brodus was squashing “the wrong guys”. Somehow, I think these are the views of those who love the sound of their own voice or perhaps have their own agendas, hidden or otherwise.

In short, those who still get a kick out of watching wrestling, regardless of their age, seemed to get a kick out of the Funkasaurus, whilst those who claim to be down on the product, yet still watch (presumably to give them something else to talk about whilst waiting for their next bandwagon – this is not a shot at anyone, trust me). Perhaps this is a sign? In the meantime, I’ll be happily listening out to the music we first heard nearly ten years ago with Ernest Miller, whilst also figuring out another what I should listen to instead, as I’ve hit unsubscribe on that podcast…

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year’s celebrations… for those of you who have sobered up sufficiently at this point, there’s some good news…

Amazon.co.uk have reduced VAT on eBooks (not sure how long for) – which means that Wrestling’s Sinking Ship is now available for £2.63 for purchasers in the UK. Grab it now at this link… or search in your Kindle for it!

Normal, non-shilling service will resume shortly, with news of further releases…

So, we’re nearly at the end of 2011 – hope everyone had a great Christmas/Holidays period (even if you’ve lost a day – Samoa, I’m looking at you), as we get set for 2012, there’s a few things that I wanted to put to paper… okay, keyboard!

Is it me, or is the art of customer service dying? There are still some companies who believe in it, and maybe it’s just bad luck, but a lot of dealings that myself and people I know have had over the Christmas period have been excruciatingly bad. It can go from folks not wanting to the work, to a total hard headed-ness “it’s the policy, I’m afraid” level of excuses.

Some examples: the Post Office’s “check and send” service for passports – because the photograph didn’t have the mouth glued shut, “I’m afraid we can’t accept this photo, it’ll be rejected”. After comparing the new photo to the photo in the current passport, and realising that, if anything, the “new” photo had the mouth open less, we sent the passport off a few days before Christmas. New passport received ten days later (astonishing, considering it was over the Christmas period) – score one against the Post Office who didn’t want to do the paperwork…

Okay, so we’re not getting our passports done every day… how about just buying something in a shop? Understandably, shops have got a lot of temporary Christmas workers in to cope with the increased volumes that they’re expecting over this time of year. Training them shouldn’t be too hard, but in cases where something falls through the cracks, there’ll be someone on hand to point them in the right direction, right? When someone’s got to “go to the back” to replace a dummy case with the real thing, they probably shouldn’t have to ask five colleagues, all of whom shrug their shoulders in confusion.

On a somewhat related point, I won’t virtually scream at an electronics chain who took an order for an Android tablet, then when we called four days later for an update, assured us it was fine, only to send us an e-mail five minutes later to announce that the order had been cancelled. Not too sure that that was breaking news to the point where their systems hadn’t been updated…

Copy Protection – I understand the reasons for it; to stop piracy at the opportunist’s level (to stop some bloke buying a copy of, I don’t know, “The Hangover 2″, ripping it and selling cheap copies down the local). I’ve always been of the belief that penalising legitimate consumers is not the way to scare off those who are pirating on a massive level. Remember back in the days when some CDs were unplayable in your PC? What about the days when some music CDs actually installed malware on your PC, supposedly as a way to let you play them? Remember all of the goodwill that generated? No? There’s a reason why.

As a Christmas present, I purchased “Attack The Block” – the Blu-Ray and DVD double pack, purchased specially as I was aware of copy protection on the DVD that was so over the top, it actually prevented a lot of DVD players from even recognising the disc. Not PC DVD drives, not video game consoles… bog standard DVD players. So, at my parents’ place, we put the DVD in, it loads, and then the player flashes up “the disc is dirty”. Tried it in a laptop, disc was unplayable.

We finally watched the movie via the Blu-Ray version, and it was a pretty good movie (albeit one that probably wouldn’t be understood by people living outside of London, or any major city). It’s just a shame that there’s been bad feeling left behind by the DRM – intended to protect the disc from being copied, but in reality, prevented it from being played.

Ending the year on a good note, Wrestling’s Sinking Ship continues to sell well, despite it being nearly six years old. Not read it yet? You can pick up paperbacks from Amazon (or order from any good bookstore), or if you have pretty much any electronic device, you can purchase it there as well.

On iTunes – for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or just reading in iTunes – search via iTunes or click http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/wrestlings-sinking-ship/id442095132?mt=11

On Kindle – either on Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fire, or the variety of Kindle apps for PC, Android, iOS or Blackberry smartphones. Either search in the Kindle Store, or click here (UK) or click here (US)

On Barnes & Noble Nook (yes, it’s available there) – click here.

Hope you all have a happy and prosperous new year – see you all in 2012!

Apologies for the shameless plug, but if you haven’t gotten your copy of Wrestling’s Sinking Ship yet, now’s the perfect time to grab it!

If you’re leaving it late to get the paperback version (at time of writing, Amazon UK and Amazon.com have stock), you can get the book electronically. Kindle owners should be able to get their copy for under $4, whilst Apple/iOS users (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) can get a copy from iTunes as well.

Psst… pass it on! 2012 should see the release of future books, including the Wrestling Rule Book and some iTunes/Kindle-exclusive content as well.

Just wanted to drop in with two cents on WWE 12… as everyone’s well aware, WWE 12 has had it’s fair share of problems – for instance, in the two weeks since the game’s release, THQ’s online servers have struggled to cope with the demand.Whilst THQ have worked behind the scenes to improve things, it’s pretty much rendered the game an offline-only affair, with the something as basic as the download of user-created content off limits.

So, with that in mind, I’m keeping any full review under wraps until the game is actually playable… and I’ve had a chance to play more than WWE Universe mode. To be fair, the game’s basic simulation mode is pretty deep – creating your own shows and rosters gives you the chance to have your own recreation of WCW vs WWE, or perhaps a WWE vs TNA feud (if you create a bunch of characters and rings!)… or maybe a male and female-only show?

Control-wise, the game has a sharp learning curve that will throw even the most seasoned SmackDown vs. Raw veterans, going beyond a simple swap between analog stick and face buttons for performing moves. Every difficulty has been kicked up a notch – last year’s Normal is now Easy, last year’s Hard is Normal, and this year’s Hard is… insane. Don’t expect to dive into the game and master it immediately!

Fingers crossed, THQ will get the servers working before all of the DLC is out, and I’ll be able to get a full-er review posted up here soon.

Those in the US are a week away from getting their hands on a copy of this year’s wrestling game, WWE 12. With European release following days later, what can people expect out of the rebadged SmackDown vs. Raw series?From all of the information leaked so far, one thing is clear – THQ has stacked the roster for this year’s game.

On top of the usual roster of current stars, including big names like The Rock, John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H and the Undertaker, along with cult favourites like Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder and Tyson Kidd, there’s also a healthy smattering of DLC and legends. Usually a hotch potch of characters you’ve always wanted to play as, and guys you don’t even remember, WWE 12 gives us the Legion of Doom and Demolition so you can re-enact that feud of the originals and the carbon copies!

There’s also the usual suspects – Stone Cold, Eddie Guerrero, the recently-retired Edge and the returning Brock Lesnar all come out of the box, whilst the downloadable content gives us access to guys like Jim Ross, Michael Cole (uhh), Mick Foley, Batista and a bevy of divas.

Elsewhere, the Road to WrestleMania mode consists of an 18-month long storyline which spans two WrestleManias, whilst the Universe mode has been tweaked to allow you to hold title matches when you want them. That’s not the killer feature though – you can now edit the shows you hold.

Do you wish WCW had won the Monday Night Wars? Well, you can ditch Raw and replace it with Monday Nitro. Want to move Superstars to Fridays? Have at it. How about your own show? Well, with the paint tool, you can create your own brand logo and create your own brand, with your own champions (from a roster of stock belts) and… your own arena!

Having played a demo of WWE 12 at September’s Eurogamer Expo, the game isn’t that much different from SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, save for a slight change in controls. That being said, WWE games recently have been all about the creation modes, which is where WWE 12 looks to excel. With any luck, WWE 13 will expand the create an arena mode to allow extra tweaks of the ramp and aisleway, and possibly the return of Create a Belt.

That would make the game complete, but given that THQ would have to sell WWE 14 the following year, perhaps we’ll have to make do with either/or one of those features! Hurry up the 25th!

Do you read TheIanHamilton.com? (of course… you’re reading it now!) Do you have an Android or a Blackberry handset? Why not give our free app a try?Powered by JoeMobi, we’ve now released an app that lets you view this website without having to fire up your browser. If you’re running a Blackberry using OS 5.0 or greater, or an Android mobile phone with Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), or even the brand new Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), then you can give our app a try!

Either click the link above, or scan the QR code below to grab our app. Enjoy!

The show was almost sold out, I’d guess around 17,000 sold (from around 18,000 available). As with all of the other shows, there were a lot of kids present, and the merchandise was selling very well. We got to the arena at around 4pm, and there were already queues for the merchandise – these only grew as the night progressed. Available on the stands were the new John Cena t-shirts (surely “Rise Above 3.0″ should be a new shirt for Raw, given their ratings?), CM Punk’s “Best In The World” and Ice Cream Bar shirts, along with shirts for Zack Ryder, Santino Marella, Alberto Del Rio and Randy Orton (uhh). They also had promotional shirts for WrestleMania 28: Rock vs Cena… The card wasn’t much different from what they’ve done on the rest of the UK tour:

1. Santino Marella beat Drew McIntyre – comedy match with McIntyre taking most of the offence. Santino sold his knee towards the end, before hitting the Cobra for the win.

2. David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty beat Alex Riley & Primo – a nothing match, with very few people in the crowd caring. Not surprising when the babyface team is Alex Riley and a guy who’s hardly been on TV (and when he has, he’s been as a heel). Otunga and McGillicuty worked the usual heel spots, but this was as forgettable as it suggested.

3. Mason Ryan beat Curt Hawkins – Good to see Curt Hawkins has a job here still… and he seems to have found Johnny Polo’s old cane. He didn’t get any reaction, apart from a few “HBK” chants when he propped himself across the top turnbuckle early in the match. A glorified squash match, with Ryan winning with the pumphandle slam.

4. Dolph Ziggler beat John Morrison to retain the US title – a good back-and-forth match here – Ziggler cut a pre-match promo that only exacerbated how stupid him remaining in the midcard is… Morrison actually came close to winning a few times (close enough that you could believe the US title would change hands on a house show in the UK…), but Ziggler got the W in the end. Post match, he returned to the ring to get some afters on JoMo, who eventually took the upper hand and hit the Starship Pain to send Ziggler packing.

** Usual pre-intermission garbage with the Bellas and a dancing contest **

5. Beth Phoenix beat Eve Torres to retain the Divas title – it was what it was. Beth won with whatever they call the Bitch Clamp nowadays. They repeated the post-match stuff from Ziggler/Morrison, except Kelly Kelly ran in to save Eve. Nice to see they flew her over for the whole tour just to do run ins!

6. John Cena, Zack Ryder and Kofi Kingston beat The Miz, R-Truth and Kevin Nash in a six-man – Cena got the pop you’d expect from the crowd, which wasn’t as split as I expected to be (at least in my section). Zack Ryder, whose merchandise was a distant third-best seller on the night behind Cena and Punk, got some reaction, and looked to have recorded something for his YouTube show for next week. Pre-match, Miz and Truth had the crowd eating out of their hands, with some really good material. Again, I fully expect them to be mired in the mid-card by next summer, if not sooner. Cena got the win for his team.

7. CM Punk beat Alberto Del Rio via disqualification; Del Rio retained the WWE title – a LOT of stalling. Larry Zbyzsko would have been proud of this one… Plenty of drawn out spots, such as Del Rio being kicked once by Punk, then leaving the ring for a nine count, only to return to the ring and exit again immediately. Once the action got underway, Del Rio worked on Punk’s arm, with some copious interference from Ricardo Rodriguez. Ricardo got ejected after being caught knocking Punk to the edge of the apron, but he returned following a ref bump, only to get pantsed. Punk hit the GTS on Del Rio, but Ricardo ran in with a chair shot to get the DQ.

Post match, Punk dodged a chair shot from Ricardo, only for several heels (including Dolph Ziggler and some random masked fat guy… an agent, perhaps?) to beat down Punk. Cena, Ryder, Kofi and… Eve (?!) ran in to make the save, as everyone bar Ziggler ran off. That left Ziggler in the middle of the ring, with Punk, Ryder, Kofi and Cena surrounding him, and Eve standing there too. Punk took the mic and announced that it was Ziggler’s birthday, and as a present he’d have four doors to choose from: Zack Ryder (“who goes woo woo woo”), Kofi (“who goes boom!”), John Cena (who does the [stupid hand signal]) and CM Punk (who’ll put you to sleep – not too sure about that proclaimation!).

Cena then grabbed the mic and pointed out Eve was there – of course, Ziggler took that option. Cena said he didn’t want the night to end on violence, so offered to shake Ziggler’s hand… before giving him an Attitude Adjustment. Follow that up with a Rough Ryder, a Boom kick, and a GTS, and the night was nearly over, until Eve hit a top rope moonsault on Ziggler to send everyone home happy as CM Punk damn near watched everyone leave the arena.

Biggest pops: 1. Cena 2. Punk 3. Ryder
Most Heat: 1. Miz/R-Truth 2. Ziggler 3. Del Rio

And for those who aren’t on Twitter, the panoramic shot of the O2, as retweeted by Ricardo: http://yfrog.com/es93542716j

“Another year, another version, not many changes” – that’s the usual mantra surrounding the annual release of sporting video games. Whether it’s the NFL, NBA, wrestling, NHL, or football, the quickest way to cash in on those fans is to release a new game every year, with slightly improved graphics and an up-to-date roster.Of course, people don’t like the idea of paying £40 for the same game with an updated roster – so the games companies make a few changes. Take last year’s Madden release – the kicking game changed from flicking the right stick up and down, back to something resembling what it was in years gone by: a power meter.

FIFA 12′s big change surrounds the tackling mechanic. For years, you could play against a mate whose only idea of defending would be holding down X and O (on the PS3) to harass you into losing possession. Now, things have changed – but of course, long time fans don’t like change, especially when you’re forced into it in order to complete the game. The new FIFA defensive mechanic still lets you harass attackers, but you need to either time a “step in” tackle or a sliding tackle in order to win the ball. Holding X just won’t do any more – and that seems to have upset a lot of people!

Away from the new tackling system, under the hood, FIFA has made some changes to the career mode – with the introduction of a deadline day “mini game” that should give you more of a rush when it comes to completing deadline day sales and signings… and finally, the introduction of a youth academy mode.

Although you don’t get to play reserve team and youth team games, you now have some say in who your youth team is, as the generic additions can be supplemented by youngsters you’ve scouted and signed on. Beware though – as flooding your academy with kids is a good way to kill your transfer and wage budget!

With the release of video games speeding up as we head into Christmas, it’s a little disappointing to see that the majority of the big name titles are all – with due respect – generic shooters and sequels. Perhaps gaming has passed me? Perhaps the challenge I want isn’t how many people I can shoot in an ever realistic setting… perhaps all I want, is a really good simulation of something that is in itself realistic.

Perhaps WWE 12 will be as big an improvement over SmackDown vs Raw 11 as FIFA 12 is over FIFA 11? We shall see!