Fantasy Booking Friday: The rise and fall of the Meta Powers

The Meta Powers haven't been seen on tv in a while and I think it's time for a change! This week's Fantasy Booking looks at the story-line that could be: The rise and fall of the Meta Powers.

Professional wrestling fans around the world know the story of the Hulkster and Macho Man. Macho Man was in a bad position, and Miss Elizabeth ran to the back. No one knew why, but in a few short moments, everyone learned; She brought out Hulk Hogan and the Hulkster helped saved Savage from the beating he was taking at the hands of The Hart Foundation and Honky Tonk Man.

Fast forward several months later, and several more times of Miss Elizabeth running to the back, only to bring out Hulk Hogan to help Savage defend himself against the likes of Million Dollar Man, Andre The Giant, and others. The Mega Powers were this team-up of sorts, between the two top baby-faces in the company. But after dissension grew, the Mega Powers exploded and fought over the world title at WrestleMania 5.

So here we are, nearly 17 years later and Curtis Axel has gotten his #Axelmania gimmick somewhat over. Damien Sandow went from dressing up as Magneto and Vince McMandow, to becoming Damien Mizdow. Once that wore off, he's suddenly become Macho Mandow and we got this...


So they've got the gimmicks. But what they need is something to officially come together over and then break up over. What I'm thinking is Emma. She can be Miss Emmabeth. Okay, maybe the name's not great, but here's the booking:

Macho Mandow and Miss Emmabeth are out for Mandow's match. He's taking on a member of the New Day, when he's about to get the best of them. The other two members of New Day slide in the ring and break it up. Now, all three members are taking it to Macho Mandow. Oh no! Miss Emmabeth runs to the back and we have no idea what's going to happen.

Then, out comes Miss Emmabeth and with her is Axelmania! Axelmania runs into the ring and together with Emmabeth and Mandow, they fight off the New Day, and take over the ring! Yay! All is right in the world.

What ensues is the rise of the Meta Powers. Along with Miss Emmabeth, they bombard through the tag team ranks, and even get a shot at the tag team champions!

It's going great. Axelmania hits the leg drop. He goes to tag in Macho Mandow, but as he does, he gets tossed through the ropes and collides into Miss Emmabeth. Oh no!

Macho Mandow gets the tag in, and while he's in the match, Axelmania takes Emmabeth to the back. Mandow is left in the ring with the tag champions, and they are able to take care of him, leaving the Meta Powers to lose the match.

In the back, Mandow gets there as the doctors are attending to Emmabeth. Mandow breaks in and the infamous Axelmania/Macho Mandow argument takes place!

"You betrayed me, oh yeah!" Screams Mandow!

"What are you talking about dude? Are you crazy brother!?" Axlemania retorts.

From hear the Meta Powers are no more, and are at odds. Axelmania, whose being escorted to the ring now by Miss Emmabeth, is distracted multiple times by Macho Mandow, and loses his matches. This all culminates with the Meta Powers Explosion, where they have to face each other and the winner of the match gets Miss Emmabeth as their managers. Very 80's and kinda sexists in today's climate right? Well here's the finish!

The match would take place at a PPV and the the two go back and fourth. Finally it looks like Macho Mandow, the heel, is gonna come out on top. But wait! Emmabeth get's up on the ring apron and distracts him. Axelmania takes advantage and hits the leg drop for the win. Axelmania invites Emmabeth into the ring to celebrate, but instead of celebrating, heel Emma returns, low blows Axelmania and gets on the mic, proclaiming: "I'm my own woman." And leaves the ring, with both Axelmania and Macho Mandow looking at each other.

And there you go, this weeks' Fantasy Booking.

Slammiverary: The PPV with no consequences

Impact Live just aired and it was actually a pretty good show. The past few weeks, the shows been working pretty well. Bram (who I'm a big fan of) has been calling out past TNA wrestlers, the Doll House, led by Taryn Terrell, has been putting together some good stuff, and the Wolves versus the Dirty Heels have been really entertaining in the Best of Five series. And then there's Ethan Carter, who is really building up momentum, as he's getting ready to face Kurt Angle. Plus, James Storm and Magnus has put together a story line that's become really personal. All of these angles could and should lead up to some great payoffs for the Slammiversary pay-per-view. But most of them won't.

It's weird. Why have a PPV where some of the biggest matches you could have, won't happen until the next week on TV? The first thought that comes to mind is the WCW fiasco where all they cared about was ratings, and instead of building up the Goldberg/Hulk Hogan match for the world championship at the Georgia Dome to something huge, they pack the stadium full for a big rating, not taking advantage of the pay-per-view possibilities.

The only Slammiversary match of any consequence is the Magnus/James Storm match. It could be so much bigger than they've promoted it also, but it's kind of just left on the back burner for TNA. It's a shame too, because it has gotten very personal, and could be a very emotional match. It kinda reminds me of the Stone Cold/Brian Pillman feud in the 90's.

But what about the X-Division championship? The title was just won this week on the live Impact show (a match in which Grado lost in a three-way with Low Ki and Tigre Uno. I thought TNA could have capitalized on the Grado following that's been going on, but that's a topic for another post). No type of X-Division match on the card, let alone the champion defending the title.

What about the World Title match? The number one contender, Ethan Carter is in a tag match with Tyrus versus Mr. Anderson and Lashley. Um, okay. So on TNA's first pay-per-view in eight months, they don't even have the world championship up for grabs? Kurt Angle isn't even booked on the card, unless they pull a fast one and have him in the King of the Mountain match.

And speaking of King of the Mountain match, they get Jeff Jarrett to make a surprise appearance on Impact which got everyone on the internet talking. He comes out, and half the time talks about Global Force Wrestling. Good on him, because it's his new promotion, but that can't be good for the TNA brand. But Jarrett comes out and announces he will be in the King of the Mountain match. That's kind of cool, but who else is in it? I don't know.

And what could be a great Knockouts Championship triple-threat match of Awesome Kong, Brooke and Taryn Terrell, is going to be on network television while at Slammiversary, it's Kong and Broke versus Terrell, Jade, and Marti Bell. It could be a good match, but why not defend the Knockouts title? Again, I don't know.

There are no championship matches on the line. The tag titles, knockouts title and the world championship are all going to be fought over three days AFTER the pay-per-view on television. Why? It doesn't make sense.

The only thing I can think of is that, TNA wants ratings. Again, it reminds me of WCW. Look, ratings are good for any show, wrestling or otherwise. But as far as I know, wrestling shows are different than normal tv shows. Wrestling shows build up to a big pay-off show, where the storylines come to a boil. It's what so many of us wrestling fans want! At this point, I don't have any real reason to buy the pay-per-view myself, other than to watch the King of the Mountain match. That alone is not enough for me to shell out extra money for a wrestling show. I may just wait to watch Impact Wrestling three days later on tv and get what should be a pay-per-view quality type show for free.

Money In The Bank Predictions

Tomorrow is WWE's Money In The Bank pay-per-view. For future pay-per-views and special events I'm going to try and do extra comic strips with the blog post. Anyways, let's get to it shall we?

Kick-Off Show
King Barret VS R Truth
There's not a whole lot to say on this one. It's a kick-off show match, with really no build up (but is there ever really any build up for kick-off show matches?), and Barrett is going against R Truth. I'd say it could easily be a toss up as to who wins, but if R Truth goes over on Barrett, then what really was the point of making him King of the Ring? Winner: Barrett.


Intercontinental Title Match
Ryback(c) VS Big Show
If this match wasn't for the I.C. title, this could easily be a kick-off show match. Big Show hasn't really had a good story line since Survivor Series last year, when he flip-flopped YET AGAIN, and turned heel. Winner: Ryback.

Divas Title Match
Nikki Bella VS Paige
Speaking of flip-flopping.

Flip-Flop Magic

Paige really should be champion. Well, nix that. Naomi is deserving of that title actually, but since that story line seems to have gone kaput, Paige is the next logical choice. I'll agree with some podcasters out there, Nikki has gotten really good in the ring, but MY GOD, is she ever horrible on the mic. But we're not talking about mic skills are we? No, we're talking about the Diva's Championship. I wanna say Paige is going to win here, and maybe I should predict that, but I have a feeling WWE brass wants the Bella's associated with the Diva's title and is looking to make Nikki the longest reigning Diva's champion in history. To do so, she'd have to hold the title until September 16th, which means she'd retain through Summer Slam. With the Bella becoming heels AGAIN, I guess they could stretch out a story line to make it happen. Just please keep Brie around to speak for them. Every time Nikki cuts a promo I think she's auditioning for a bad Syfy movie. Winner: Nikki Bella

Tag Team Titles match
Prim Time Players VS New Day
This is a tough one. A New Day has gotten incredibly over as heels. Is there anyone more annoying then Xavier Woods? But Prime Time Players are starting to really come around again. I want to say that Titus O'Neil and Darren Young are going to win, but I think it's going to be A New Day somehow weaseling out another victory. Winners: A New Day


John Cena VS Kevin Owens

The Sandow Effect

Now this is an interesting match. On one hand you've got Kevin Owens, NXT Champion, and the man who came in and beat John Cena in his first WWE main roster match. How much over can you put a guy than that? With that being said though, he JUST went over John Cena. Do they really put him over again? Does Vince have that much faith in Triple H and his choice of Kevin Owens going over on Vince's golden Super-Cena two times in a row. I don't know. Sam Roberts had this awesome idea, that he should go over, and then he would have two wins over Cena. After the Japan show on July 4th, Roberts hypothesized Owens could drop the title to Balor there, and then come back and challenge John Cena again, only this time, he wants the U.S. Title. It's a very intriguing idea, if it were to happen. But I just don't see them putting Owens over Cena two times in a row. I think Samoa Joe makes an appearance, distracts Owens, and Cena gets the win. Winner: John Cena.



MONEY IN THE BANK MATCH
Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Neville, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, and Kane.
Yikes. I mean, story line-wise you've got what? Kane really. Kane could win, and then he's at odd's with Seth Rollins. Still. That's been going on for months. Sheamus? I don't know... why? He's getting some good response as a heel, but I don't seem him winning. Neville and Kofi? Again, why? That leaves Orton, Ziggler, and Reigns. Ziggler and Orton have both won it already. Winning Money In The Bank twice isn't unprecedented (John Cena and CM Punk both won it twice), but I don't see them doing it. Winner: Roman Reigns.


WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins VS Dean Ambrose
So here's the the thing about this match. I don't really see Ambrose as the World Champion, but at the same time I don't see Rollins continuing on as champion either. There's been some rumors on the dirt sheets, that they could been setting up for a Rollins/Triple H match, which could be pretty awesome for Summer Slam. So for the finish of this match match I've got to go into story-teller mode. Rollins has pretty much alienated everyone in The Authority. And when he accepted this match he even got in Triple H's face for a second, telling everyone he could do it all by himself.

Then we have Dean Ambrose. The crazy wildcard, the "lunatic fringe". Every time I see him with the championship, I think of Heath Ledger's line as the Joker; "Do I look like a guy with a plan? I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do with it if I caught it. I just... do things." That's Dean Ambrose. He's just out there, causing chaos, living it up. And it's good. It's fun. But I don't see him as the champion.

So, then what? Well, Ambrose and Rollins fight out out, and out of the blue Ambose somehow wins. Triple H is furious at Rollins, and the next night berates him on Raw. Dean Ambrose comes out the next night on Raw, to a huge pop, he's just living the dream, and then Brock Lesnar's music hits. Out walks Paul Heyman and tells Dean, his client, "BROCK LESSSSNARRRR" wants his title back.

What do you think? I think it sounds like a plan. Either that, or there's a run-in and Rollins retains. I really hope it's not that. Winner: Dean Ambrose!

You got any predictions for Money In The Bank?