1. TNA gets Jeff Hardy, the second biggest draw in the WWE when he left, and wastes him on a run in after an X-Division match and being all giddy about a contract. This has overtones of Bret Hart in WCW in the worst way possible. It’s amazing how much less star power Hardy had just by walking into the Impact Zone.
2. I’ve seen a lot of high ratings for the main event and may I just say… Why? It was a pretty good back and forth match that just took ages of near-falls at the end. Does everyone just declare anything with a ton of near-falls a MOTYC nowadays? It’s getting ridiculous.
3. Ric Flair did nothing. I know I’m supposed to tune in to see what’s up with him. And Sting. And Jeff Hardy. But really, TNA, if you want me to care, give me something to care about without just relying on what guys have done in the past or their name value to keep me tuned in.
4. Samoa Joe looked great tonight. I really feel bad for the guy at this point. He always gets these pushes that seem legit, starts to really shine and gain that it factor with the crowd again only to be immediately de-pushed.
5. I was worried that Desmond Wolfe would go on to being just another guy as soon as Angle beat him. Lo and behold, here we are. I think the definition for just another guy is losing to The Pope in three minutes. Wolfe has it and needs to be pushed. Pope is killer on the mic though.
6. The Nasty Boys and Orlando Jordan have no real name value or skill at this point. They are negative value every second they’re on television. Val is certainly past his prime and his name value isn’t especially useful anymore, but he’s a good, under-rated hand who’s useful to have around.
7. I couldn’t tell what was happening in the Steel Asylum. The cage was next to impossible to see into and a DQ in a cage match is incredibly bad. Of course, it’s just incredibly bad normally; it’s catastrophic when it’s the first match on a show introducing you to a new audience. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d have turned off TNA right then and never looked back.
8. Jeff Jarrett was put on at the 10PM hour change against Degeneration-X vs. JeriShow. Double J, who’s never drawn a dime, was put against four main eventers and the current second biggest draws in the WWE. You don’t think this would have been the spot for a guy WWE fans actually like, like Jeff Hardy, do you?
9. Bischoff is a slimy bastard and I hate him. In the best way possible.
10. For a show that I really hated every segment for individually, I had a lot of fun watching. It was great to flip between wrestling shows again and see what was better. It was neat to see the old WCW trainwreck come out again, with segments that made no sense and were dropped, like this long announced show was being booked on the fly. It was a horrible mess and TNA came off looking scattered at best, but, still, this was fun. Unfortunately, they now hotshotted every big name around into the company short of Goldberg and The Rock, so they really can’t ever do the big surprises thing and I have no reason to tune in on any given Thursday. Oh well, read my full review
Tuesday, March 16
Live Events
CMLL Lucha Libre
Arena Coliseo
Guadalajara, Mexico – 8:15 pm
Matches include Brazo de Plata/ Brazo de Oro/ Maximo vs. Ultimo Guerrero/ Atlantis/ Asesino Negro and Pegaso/ Rey Cometa vs. Arkangel/Skandalo
WWE Smackdown
Television Taping
Staples Center
Los Angeles, CA – 6:30 pm
Television Broadcasts
WWE NXT
Television Broadcast on Syfy – 10:00 pm eastern
If you would like your promotion to be included on the weekly calendar, please send an email to davidb@insidepulse.com with either your upcoming schedule or a link to your upcoming events on your website.
Monday Night Wars - what are you watching this week?
- RAW (44%, 136 Votes)
- TNA (33%, 102 Votes)
- Recording and watching all (9%, 28 Votes)
- Flipping around (8%, 26 Votes)
- None (3%, 9 Votes)
- ROH (2%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 308
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About your point No. 2…
Scott Keith > Aaron Glazer. Enough said.
I’ll try my best to not recycle anything I said in my live recap, or my comments to mine and Scott Keith’s posts:
1. Hardy’s debut was poorly executed on so many levels. Why did the first match need a crowd-killing non-finish for it to happen? Are they really going to mis-use Hardy in an attempt to infuse some credibility back into the X-Division? And how does a wrestler not under contract and making a surprise, unannounced appearance already have entrance music?
2. Ditto on the main event. Dont get me wrong, it was fun, as AJ-Angle always are, but it wasn’t even their best match. Yet it is being hailed as a potential Free TV Match of the Year. I couldn’t in good conscience go higher than ***1/2 for it.
3. Desmond Wolfe, from a highly competitive feud with Kurt Angle to jobbing to Pope in 3 minutes. And it’s not like the win did anything for Pope, as it came on fluke roll-up in a short match. Why couldn’t they have just decided to feature one of the two guys and let him use those 3 minutes in a showcase victory?
4. This was ADD booking at its finest. TNA just decided to throw as much shit at the wall as possible and see what would stick, and in the end, very little did.
5. COMMERCIALS COMMERCIALS COMMERCIALS!
6. Was last night fun, insofar as having two shows going head-to-head against each other? Tremendously. Meaningful, at least in the short run? Yes. Epic? Eh; had that feel at first, but it went away as iMPACT got worse and worse.
The pacing of the segments and commercials just reeked of Bischoff. I don’t fault them though for trying to prevent the audience from flipping over out of fear of missing something. Fortunately the world has DVRs now – the cure for the Monday Night Wars.
I agree with your #10 Glazer – the night went quickly, which is the first time one could say that on a Monday in a while. It was fun.
Jeff Hardy was previously in TNA, hence his old theme music.
It was missing Tony Schiavone…
I don’t really care for Bishoff. I didn’t like him at WCW or WWE. I can understand his therory of controversy creates cash but he always drags out his storylines way to long. In fact, it almost seems like its more about bashing heros than story lines. The villians always have these great game plans and the heros always just walks into the traps as if he had not clue. Last night look like WCW,,,and history tells us, WCW tanked. All the bad guys last night were running loose with no one to stop them, “does that plot sound familiar”? Disappointing!
I was just happy to see Jeff Hardy back on TV he is definitely the best at what he does and in the whole business
Totally agree with #10.
It was awesome flipping back and forth between wrestling shows again. My memories of WCW during its final days are really hazy; and it’s probably cause they were booked like this episode of Impact. But it was always fun when I found myself asking “what are these guys gonna do to grab viewers?”
It was awesome to see TNA “pull out the big guns,” even if the execution was a bit off and Vince did his best to ignore it.
Oh yeah and #7 was absolutely true as well. The fact that Homicide could get out of the cage didn’t help matters either. Come to think of it, that whole match concept seemed like a giant bad idea. At no point did that cage help generate ANY cool looking offense.
They’ve had pretty good Steel Asylum/Terror Dome matches in the past, this one just had insanely crappy booking. If they wanted to impress new fans with a huge impact, they should have opened with a high-energy Ultimate X match but kept that the only gimmick match of the night. That and at least tripling Pope and Wolfe’s ring time.
Danny B, you hit it. Homicide couldnt get out of the cage and actually fell, which could have been extremely dangerous. I am a pedestrian viewer of TNA and hadnt seen this terror dome thing before. It looked like crap.
As for Hardy – man, they just don’t get it. Not only was the guy hugely popular in the WWE, but he’s been a big name in main stream media for the last few months with his legal issues. Yet The Nasty Boys get more screen time, and Hardy looks like such a twerp coming out to the X-Divison and being thrilled at his TNA contract. They should have done much, much more. I mean, Hardy should have been involved with Hogan’s first address to the crowd when talking about the young talent. Instead, we get to see loaded Waltman and Hall stumble all over the place.
WCW went out of business for a reason, and last night’s show was a scary reminder. I agree with many here…it was cool to have two shows to watch. But mid way through I thought, if they keep it up this way, we’ll have yet another “new” TNA in less than 6 months.
God I’m glad I watched this drunk, and just deleted it from my DVR. But, boy what a pile of 1997 crap I had to endure.
And why bait and switch an Abyss vs Rhyno barbed wire match only to have Abyss fight, uh… whomever for 3 minutes in a standard match because Bischoff “Threw out the script!”? The Nasty Boyz… you’ve got to be kidding me.
Also, getting your own fans to chant “bullshit” during the opening of your biggest night ever…? F’ing priceless.
Storyline-wise, The Rhino fight didn’t happen because Rhino was beaten down backstage by the stupid mystery assailant, not due to the script being thrown out. You were drunk when you watched it so the slip up is understandable, like referring to one of the best years in the history of pro-wrestling, 1997, as crap.
It’s awesome that jeff hardy is back everyone needs to respect him he’s showing everyone that he’s not afraid to go to another less viewing show! The guy has spunk!! Maybe now TNA will get more publicity now that there’s a guy that knows how to give people what they want to see and they’re money’s worth!More power to you Jeff!!! Good to see you back!! Thanks HOGAN!!
you think hardys entrance was poorly set up – just think Tna could of advertised his name pre show and the ratings would have flown – instead they allowed the fans to experiance a good old surprize instead of the 2 month advertisements the wwe would have done – poorly done was Bret Harts return to wwe – he has always been my all time fav and i was left veeery dissapointed – i wanna truce i wanna truce bull and boring.
I was casually watching the first segment when I was pulled in by the actual danger factor with Homicide struggling near the top of the domed cage. I really thought he was going to fall and be badly injured (ala Owen Hart). I was also intrigued by all the known faces that kept showing up. Actually couldn’t switch to WWE. Can’t wait till Flair gets into a story line. He can tell a story and entertain. I was also among those caught up in the Monday night wars again. Meanwhile WWE was so much worse in entertainment value than TNA. It’s on again.