Wrestling Obscurity: Linda M. Miles and Jackie Gayda

The new season of tough enough is nearly here. So it's time to look at 2 former winners of tough enough. I'll get to Jackie in awhile, but first. Linda M. Miles aka Shaniqua. Yes, Shaniqua. Miles appeared on the June 8, 2002 episode of WWE Velocity and faced her trainer, Ivory, with Jackie Gayda in her corner. Miles lost to Ivory after Jackie Gayda quickly established herself as a villain by pushing her off the top turnbuckle, costing her the match.

On the June 13 episode of SmackDown, Miles teamed with WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus to defeat Gayda and Ivory. The two divas were then placed on the Raw brand. On the June 24 edition of Raw, Miles teamed with Trish Stratus to defeat Gayda and Molly Holly. Due to Gayda's highly botched mixed tag match on the July 8 edition of Raw, Miles and Gayda were sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling for further training and development.

Miles began a relationship with Shelton Benjamin and began to manage him. It did not last long, however, as Benjamin formed Team Angle with Kurt Angle and Charlie Haas. Miles then disappeared from WWE television. It was rumored that she didn't get along with anyone back stage, male or female and she wanted more money.

Miles returned to WWE television under the name Shaniqua in June 2003 as the dominatrix manager of the Basham Brothers. She often interfered in matches, including a match where she surprisingly had to interfere to insure the Bashams' victory over two jobbers. In the late summer of 2003, Shaniqua began to establish her dominance over the weaker divas. Shaniqua interfered in several bikini contests, attacking all of the divas except for Sable. She briefly feuded with fellow SmackDown! divas Torrie Wilson, Dawn Marie (even though she remained a heel), and Nidia. Shaniqua defeated Wilson and Nidia in a handicap match. The following week, Dawn Marie challenged Shaniqua to a singles match in which Shaniqua won by disqualification after interferences from Wilson and Nidia.

In early 2004, Shaniqua and The Basham Brothers sparked a feud with the then WWE Tag Team Champions Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi. Shaniqua joined her team in a handicap WWE Tag Team championship match against Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty at No Way Out. Shaniqua's team lost when she was pinned following a Banzai Drop from Rikishi. After that she was released from her WWE contract. Possibly because of the reasons stated earlier.
As of 2007, Linda resides in Cincinnati, OH as a school teacher.

Jackie Gayda:
Some stuff was already touched on here is a look at the rest.
In early 2004, Gayda teamed up with Stacy Keibler, with the duo proclaiming themselves to be the WWE's hottest divas and thought they deserved to grace the cover of Playboy magazine. This provoked a feud with SmackDown divas and the Playboy co-cover girls Sable and Torrie Wilson. At WrestleMania XX, Gayda and Keibler were defeated by Sable and Wilson in an Playboy evening gown match.

In the second WWE Draft, Gayda and Rico were traded to SmackDown brand, where they eventually teamed up with Charlie Haas. In September 2004, Haas and Gayda were engaged, and their relationship was eventually incorporated into their on-screen characters. Dawn Marie announced the engagement of Gayda and Haas on the September 30 episode of SmackDown, implying in the process that she and Haas were "more than just friends." This led to a catfight between Gayda and Dawn, which in turn led to an intergender tag match at No Mercy pitting Gayda, Haas, and Rico against Dawn and The Dudley Boyz. Gayda's team won the bout, yet Dawn Marie predicted that the relationship would not last very long. From that moment onwards, Dawn Marie tried her hardest to split the couple up. On the October 7 episode of SmackDown, Gayda found herself on the receiving end of Billy Kidman's BK Bomb. She sold her injuries through the October tour of Europe by wearing a neckbrace, only returning to action on the October 28 episode of SmackDown in Omaha, Nebraska, which saw Gayda hit the ring during a Halloween costume contest between Dawn and Torrie Wilson, spearing Dawn and tearing the clothes from her body. A vengeful Dawn then screamed to Gayda that it was not over. Dawn gained her revenge during an arm wrestling contest on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, headbutting Gayda and catfighting with her until Haas made the save. Dawn's ally Heidenreich then decimated Haas, dismissing Gayda's attempts to protect Haas by shoving her to the mat. On November 25 Gayda tried to gain revenge in a "pilgrim versus Indian" match, but both women were disqualified for ignoring the referee's instructions. The two divas fought once again on December 2, this time while wearing Christmas outfits. General Manager Theodore Long finally announced a final encounter at Armageddon, appointing Haas as referee. Gayda lost the match, and her fianceé, as the relationship was broken when Haas revealed he had an affair with Dawn Marie. He then rejected Marie afterwards, saying he did not want either woman.

Gayda began wrestling as a singles performer. She appeared in numerous vignettes with the other divas until she and Haas were released from WWE on July 5, 2005.

On the November 26, 2005 edition of Impact, Gayda made her debut lashing out at Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett was shocked and frightened by Gayda's unexpected appearance and soon ordered her backstage. He was heard saying, "It's not what you think." After being pushed by Jarrett, Gayda slapped him and then went after his valet, Gail Kim. The following week, Gayda came out again to confront Jarrett. After pushing and slapping, the two had to be pulled apart by officials. At Turning Point, the same thing happened in the main event match, but Gayda was restrained by officials. On the December 31 show, Don West tracked down Gayda for an interview. She said her being there had nothing to do with a love affair, but rather that Jarrett had promised her a spot on the TNA Roster, but while she was stuck at home, she turned on the television to see Kim in her place. She said she had a big secret about Jarrett that TNA Management would love to hear, but did not reveal what it was.

Gayda won TNA's Knockout of the Year 2005 on the January 14, 2006 edition of Impact. At Final Resolution, she ran into Raven after he lost his match. She told him that they had something in common, they were both being screwed by TNA Management. On the January 28 edition of Impact, Gayda came down to ringside during a Jarrett versus Jay Lethal match, to hand an audio tape to Kim. She then left, with a confused Kim soon following.

Jarrett then hired Alex Shelley to video tape Gayda at her home, for blackmail. Shelley complied, returning a week later with a videotape. On the February 18, 2006 edition of Impact!, she told Jarrett that he had won and that she would leave. Jarrett refused to comply and used the tape Shelley compiled of Gayda as blackmail to get her to join his stable. Jackie became the manager of Planet Jarrett. She feuded with Gail Kim in mid-2006. At Sacrifice Jackie announced that she was pregnant, so Kim kayfabe fired her. She has not appeared with TNA since and her photos have been removed from the Knockouts portion of the website. Shortly before her pictures were removed from the TNA website it was confirmed that Gayda parted ways with TNA.

Gayda and Charlie Haas are married and have 3 children.

Tommaso Ciampa ROH tv debut

I apologize for not knowing a lot about Tommaso. In fact Ive never heard of him until last night. Watching the match, he seemed to be an average powerful wrestler, not bad, but not great either. And then, he went for his finisher, which starts off looking like a run of the mile powerbomb. So he got Mike Sydal(opponent) up on his shoulder in the powerbomb position, goes to "slam" him and somehow he got underneath Sydal, while he was in mid-air. Put both his knees up and Sydal lands on Tommaso knees back first.
I hope I explained it well, cause it was SO awesome, the most innovative finisher I have seen in along time. If it is ever on the internet, I'll post it.
Tommaso! You have my attention.

Top 15 Worst WWE finishers

Criteria for list: No moves older than 5 years, male superstars only(sorry ladies), and no current NXT rookies.

15. Moonlight Drive by John Morrison
14. Samoan Spike by Umaga
13. Brain Chop by Great Khali
12. World Strongest Slam by Mark Henery
11. The Book of Ezekiel by Ezekiel Jackson
10. STFU by John Cena
9. Master Lock by Chris Masters
8. Zig Zag by Dolph Ziggler
7. Wasteland by Wade Barrett
6. McGillicutter by Mike McGillicutty
5. Zack Attack by Zack Ryder
4. Sleeper-hold by Dolph Ziggler
3. The Cobra by Santino Marella
2. Tadpole Splash by Hornswoggle
1. The Lie-detector by R-Truth

ROH 9th Anniversary

I'm a couple of days late on the recap/review of ROH's latest iPPV
1. Colt vs. Davey Richards: Started with Colt wrestling like...well Colt. Not being serious and goofing around. Davey is alot more serious wrestler and soon he got control by working the left arm of Colt. Colt was able to retaliate and eventually hit a second rope moonsault. And Colt tried to end the match with a tope rope moonsault but only got a 2 count. Afterwards Davey attempted the cross arm breaker but Colt countered it into the Billy Goat's curse. But Davey countered that and was able to rally back and ending with tornado DDT combine with falcon arrow into a cross arm breaker; Winner Davey Richards

2.Mike Bennett vs. Steve Corino vs. Kyle O'Reily vs. Grizzly Redwood: Lots of back and forth action as it should be in a 4-way match. High flying from O'Reily and Redwood mixed with the smash mouth style of Corino and Bennett, but in the end. Bennett got the victory pin over Corino with....? I don't know what his finisher is called. It looks like a sit down rock bottom.

3. El Generico vs. Micheal Elgin: Definetly a power vs. speed match. Power slams and bombs against kicks and high flying. The highlights of the match would be Elgrin (running)power slamming Generico into the guard rail/baracade. The Truth tried to interfere. He got on the top rop while Elgin held Generico. The Truth jumped off the rope, missed Generico and landed on Elgin shoulders. And with Truth on his shoulders Elgin was able to powerslam to El Generico. But that wasn't enough to put Generico down. El Generico was able to get a small package roll up; Winner El Generico

4.Rodrick Strong vs. Homicide in a no DQ Barrio Street Fight:
Being a streetfight, this match didn't start in the ring. It started out in the crowd and then eventually made it back in the ring. Homicide was in control for most of the start of the match but Strong was able to gain control and while in control he set up 4 chairs in each corner. However Homicide regained control and sent Strong going head first into all 4 of the chairs. That didn't keep Strong down he was able to Tornado ddt into a table in the corner. Interference by Mike Elgin and the Truth, Elgin was tossed out of the ring and the Truth received an Ace Crusher for his trouble. Then Strong hit the Sick Kick followed by a suplex backbreaker.

5. Sara Del Ray vs. MsChef: A match with back and forth action. Neither wrestler had control for more than 2 min. Hard hitting and techinical match. It was a quick match ending with Sara hitting her finisher, the Sara Del Razor(aka Angle Slam). After the match Sara spit in MsChef's face and in turn MsChef spit the "Green Myst" in Sara's face.

6. KOW(Kings of Wrestling) vs. ANX (All Night Express): ANX controlled the match early on with frequent tags and double team moves. KOW was able to single out Rett Titus and were him down. Until Rett could get the hot tag to Kenny King and the ANX took control of the match. Now the action starts to pick up with both teams hitting some impresive moves, making quick tags and double team or combination moves. But both teams only able to get the 2 count. Even Kenny King pulled off a shooting star press.(Awesome). Chris Hero was able to get his "Golden Elbow pad" from the KOW manager and hit Kenny King in the face with the spinning elbow for the 1-2-3. Winners; KOW

7. Eddie Edwards vs. Christopher Daniels TV title Championship 2 of 3 falls match
This match has a 30min and the first pinfall wasn't until the 25th minute. So for 25 min it was a real chess match. Control went back and forth, one guy trying to top the other. Edwards sending Daniels into the crowd and then climbing the top rope and diving into the crowd onto Daniels. And of course they had to "steal" one another submission moves, but the first pinfall was a roll-up with Daniels up by 1. 2 Minutes go by, and Edwards is able to get his first fall using the Achilles lock. The match goes for 30min to a time limit draw. It probably would've gone longer but Christopher Daniels was unable to continue due to a possible concussion.

8. Briscoe Brothers vs. Hass and Benjamin (WBTT)
The surprise main event. A dream match for a lot of fans. A consistent pace match, not a lot of jaw dropping moves or spots, but that doesn't mean it was bad. Both teams showed great skill. With the Briscoes controlling early in the match and then Benjamin rallying back for his team. Some high flying by both Briscoes and Benjamin and Hass with techinical and grappling. Ending with a tag team move by WBTT for the win. Winners; WBTT