The Wrestling Thread

[MrMichael]

Angle - AJ for the title as a main event? Bring that on.

Better get lots of time, their last impact match was a tv moty contender.

[MrMichael]

Hulk just trashed Jeff

[MrMichael]

AJ & Angle just produced a real classic. Awesome match.

Crazy ass show, no RVD but almost everyone else in the business was there. Mental night for the business.

[Joe King]

Raw ended with McMahon calling out Hart and saying they should bury the hatchet. Hart agreed and they shook hands and lift their arms aloft and then McMahon kicked Hart in the gonads to end Raw.

[johnly]

Why the cluck has no-one got a download for Impact. GRRRR!

[Joe King]

As of late Monday night, the only wrestling terms in the top 20 were

No. 5 Orlando Jordan

No. 6 Val Venis

giggle

[MrMichael]

Why the cluck has no-one got a download for Impact. GRRRR!

There'll be a WB rip in a day or two if the scene don't do it before that. Impact often has a slow release.

Someone should edit the 3 hrs down into 2, then it would have been a great show. Overall it was plain mental, just crazy, but I think some of the new (old) faces were works and won't be around long.

A team of Jeff and Shannon Moore could be vaguely interesting.

The big nwo promo was pretty interesting, and the crowd were ****ing hot. A lot of the backstage stuff was typical tna crazyness, I doubt casuals will have had much of a clue what was going on.

Most of the actual wrestling was either meh or too short, with a couple of real letdowns (steel asylum), apart from the womens tag which was very good by anyone's standards and will have shocked those used to the divas only. And the main event, Angle v AJ for 25mins with a clean finish ftw!

I saw the end of raw too. Lame. Just lame. I lol'd at the "we want hogan" chants though

[johnly]

There'll be a WB rip in a day or two if the scene don't do it before that. Impact often has a slow release.

Someone should edit the 3 hrs down into 2, then it would have been a great show. Overall it was plain mental, just crazy, but I think some of the new (old) faces were works and won't be around long.

A team of Jeff and Shannon Moore could be vaguely interesting.

The big nwo promo was pretty interesting, and the crowd were ****ing hot. A lot of the backstage stuff was typical tna crazyness, I doubt casuals will have had much of a clue what was going on.

Most of the actual wrestling was either meh or too short, with a couple of real letdowns (steel asylum), apart from the womens tag which was very good by anyone's standards and will have shocked those used to the divas only. And the main event, Angle v AJ for 25mins with a clean finish ftw!

I saw the end of raw too. Lame. Just lame. I lol'd at the "we want hogan" chants though

Nice one, I'm keeping my eye on the usual sites for a DL. Stuck at home cos of this snow, can't do much else to be fair!

I want to see Angle/Styles, apparently it was amazing. Sounded like a wild show, saw little bits online whilst watching Raw. Was great to see Bret back, but want them to really push this on now. Danielson had a dark match against Chavo on Raw, said to be amazing

[Joe King]

Next week is the baddest man on the planet. Oh sweet Jesus, what are we in for next week?

[johnly]

Next week is the baddest man on the planet. Oh sweet Jesus, what are we in for next week?

He's going to bite Hornswoggles ear off in a wacky segment with DX then Michael Cole will scream "VINTAGE MIKE TYSON!"

[Jayesh87]

He's going to bite Hornswoggles ear off in a wacky segment with DX then Michael Cole will scream "VINTAGE MIKE TYSON!"

[MrMichael]

Nice one, I'm keeping my eye on the usual sites for a DL. Stuck at home cos of this snow, can't do much else to be fair!

I want to see Angle/Styles, apparently it was amazing. Sounded like a wild show, saw little bits online whilst watching Raw. Was great to see Bret back, but want them to really push this on now. Danielson had a dark match against Chavo on Raw, said to be amazing

TNA.iMPACT.2010.01.04.HDTV.XViD-KYR - pre'd about an hour ago

[johnly]

TNA.iMPACT.2010.01.04.HDTV.XViD-KYR - pre'd about an hour ago

Nice one fella! On it

[Joe King]

I finally mustered the courage to watch a full edition of Impact this week without the intention of making myself want to slit my wrists at the ridiculous booking the show had previously achieved.

Positives: They managed to showcase nearly everyone they wanted and got as many 'personalities' out there to make themselves recognisable. Heck, if Val 'Mr Towelman' Venis comes on Impact twice, they must be serious about the business.

There were some good matches out there especially the main event. Good match but then why should I buy the PPV? I've already seen the damn match and the match didn't really progress the storyline. Bad move in that sense. I could be critical about the narrative of the match and how they didn't manage the tempo nor did they sell any of the big moves, I was never convinced for large parts after Styles attempt 343 Styles Clash's that Angle would lie for the three. Too many big moves, is what I'm saying.

Wolfe - Dinero was good for the whole THREE MINUTES. What the heck's that about?

Negatives: This was like going in a time machine and ending up in Atalanta in 1997. Seriously, these old haggered faces are one drink driving incident away from pissing off, making it hard to continue with the program. nWo again?! WHY?!!! Scott Hall looks in incredibly bad shape, no one takes Waltman seriously, a lot of people hate Nash. This has to be steered incredibly carefully and the writers need to make sure that it doesn't take over the whole show, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it will after seeing Foley being beaten up.

I don't care about Lashley nor do a lot of people. What a waste of time that was.

Steel Carnage. My god, is that an accident waiting to happen? But a really cool spot with Hardy smacking the chair on Homicide.

The TNA fans. At one point, I seen, what obviously was a paid fan, do a loser sign. WTF?! The ones at the front in front of the camera can't be more irritating then a bunch of ******s at X Factor shows. 'This is wrestling' 'That was awesome' 'Who needs Bret?' and my favourite, 'Thank you Jeff'. I understand TNA fans have this craving of being a cult group but some of those chants are incredibly cringeworthy and annoying to hear.

Conclusion: Hogan and his nWo are obviously going to turn heel. TNA need to ensure that some sort of balance has been maintained. The original idea of the nWo in WCW was they were against the establishment and were looking to take over the company through their anarchic ways. That doesn't work in TNA since Hogan is considered as Dixie Carter's 'partner'. Are the nWo going to be hired goons for Hogan? One things for sure, with the crazy booking of that show with so much to take in, it will be difficult to consistently deliver on a weekly or indeed a monthly basis, one of the fundamental problems with WCW. TNA must not forget it's roots in order to progress. This for me looks nostalgic and has a feeling of de ja vu in it.

[MrMichael]

Told you it was a crazy show.

You've gotta admit it was more interesting than Raw though!

Val's apparently going to be there for a bit, he had a match with Daniels at the tapings tonight.

I know what you mean about the main event... but it was still great. Not as good as Angle - Wolfe or Aj - Daniels from the last ppv, but very little is. Possibly too many false finishes, and perhaps the pace was off a bit, but it was still by a mile the best wrestling on either show last night. I almost think they went for the high speed, multiple big move sort-of bout just to provide a contrast to Orton's endless headlocks on raw. It worked for me anyway, not that I don't think the 2 of them can do better, but given the occasion etc it was pretty good.

As for giving away a PPV bout on free tv, well last night wasn't exactly a normal edition of impact either was it? I think that's probably why both the Wolfe - Pope and Abyss - Joe fights were so short though, especially the former, or the whole last hour would have been ppv quality.

Most importantly though, did you watch the knockouts tag Joe?

As for the NWO nonsense, I really really hope this doesn't go on long. I'm not convinced it will though, I can see Hogan/Bischoff turning on them quite soon or otherwise moving the story away from that. Hall & Waltmann's contracts are apparently very short term. You're totally right, that show was completely unsustainable going forward, they've got an awful lot of straightening out to do to make the show make sense to casual viewers, let alone everyone else, and have to be very careful not to lose what could make the company so good in favour of something that failed a decade ago.

Interestingly, from the tapings tonight, almost all the ring time looks like established tna guys rather than Hogan-inspired randoms. Joe v Wolfe sounds good. Tomko being AJ's attacker and getting a title shot less so. Young Bucks v Guns is a major win (even if "Generation Me" is an attrocious name), and best of all..... Angelina Love's back

Rumours also are that Gregory Helms and Matt Hardy are after their WWE releases to join Jeff and Shannon Moore in TNA.


Oh, and the ratings....

Overall, Impact did 1.5. That's pretty damn good, they usually get 1.0-1.1 on a Thursday with no competition. Raw was about 3.3.

The Hogan - Nwo segment around 9pm apparently rated over 2. Against HBK/Bret that's very strong.