ok, so i watched Both Raw and Impact, i had two t.v's going at the same time, (yes i have no life) but i was hoping. I was praying that TNA would shock the hell out of me and bring something totally new to the table and really make Vince sweat cause Vince always puts on a better show when he has competition. But at the same time there was no way i was missing Bret Hart returning. But to me both shows canceled each other out, they both were miserable aside from a few high points for each. But lets break this all down.
Impact opened with a Steel whatever you want to call it match, should be called the red birdcage of i cant see what your doing in there match. Cause honestly if the camera wasnt in the ring following the action you couldnt tell if someone was being bodyslammed or F-5'ed. But considering the talent in the ring i could look past that, but The Hulkster and Dixie proved within the first hour of this "new era" that they are indeed WCW version 2.0. The match went for maybe 5 minutes at best, before HOmicide gets DQ'ed for used a weapon in a CAGE MATCH!! Now when your in a cage match dosent that mean all the rules are out the window? BUt as if that wasnt the worst part they send Homicide up to the top of the Cage and he has to be hanging on there for about a good 3 to 4 minutes, with nothing going on except for the crowd chanting "This Is Bullshit" (and i will get back to that chant in a moment) but then out of nowhere this Korn sounding music plays and the apperently drunk cameraman takes us to the auidence and there is Jeff Hardy, well half his head and a lot of a fans back, well TNA IS SAVED!!! ahhh no i'm kidding. They totally wrecked what could have been the swerve of the century, maybe even bigger then when Kurt Angle jumped ship. Jeff Hardy was headling PPV's for the WWE, which has a way bigger fanbase then TNA, he was the World Champion, the WWE Champion, he had epic battles with The Undertaker, Triple H and CM Punk, and now he is wrestling with the opening bout talent of TNA? Nothing against the stars of the X-Division but come on, this is Jeff F"N Hardy here. But the whole match to me seemed pointless, if any new viewers tuned in at that moment, they were quick to go to the Football game or re-runs of Home Improvement, cause that was just a horrible segement and match.
Now if your live crowd, the crowd is helping you get over by the way is chanting "This Is Bullshit" within the first 20 minutes of the show...That ushally indicates a problem and that you did something wrong. I think that chant was the 2nd biggest thing i marked out for on the TNA show next to Angle Vs. Styles.
Now as if that wasnt all bad enough what came next still has my mind wondering.....Did TNA set a new record for commerical breaks taken in an hour span? Cause after that Cage match it was all commericals and Hogan coming to the building hype. O i almost forgot there was an Knockouts title match in there too...but i kinda forgot about it considering it was only about 5 minutes long and there was no buildup for it. but that was TNA's first hour, two terrible matches, a ruined surprise return, and about 90 small video clips of a limo on the road.
Now lets get to Raw's first hour, God when Bret's music hit and he came out i dont think i have ever Marked out as much in my life as i did then, it was one of those goosebump moments that you only get once in long time, as soon as i saw him standing there i knew the show was going to be an epic one...Well....sorta...ok not really epic at all. But the first half hour had me thinking so. The confrontation with him and Shawn was Perfect. i was on the edge of my seat the entire time, i didnt know if Bret was gonna spit in Shawn's face or if HBK was gonna superkick Bret into the next world. Hell i am in Maine and i could feel the tension in that ring, cause it is literally the first time they had been in the same ring together since Montreal. But to see them bury the hatchet was great to me, cause i never really bought that HBK was out to sabotage Bret anyway, so i was happy to see the two shake hands, and then HBK just made the moment that much better when he was walking away, he looked like he was gonna superkick the hell out of him, and to be honest i thought he was. But instead he gives the man a hug. It was a great segement and a good way to open. But then...Things took a turn but a slow turn, cause The Miz saved a portion of there first hour. The womens tourney match was forgettable to say the least, The Bellas need to stick with just being Eye Candy. Maryse has potiental (but she is great to look at) But then the Miz came on (with much needed new music might i add) and did some commentary and that man can work a mic or a headset or whatever, he is gifted and i hope he keeps getting a push. But the fatal fourway lacked for me. It could have been great. Swagger, Carlito, Henry, and MVP, four guys that very well could have had the match to steal the show, but instead it was the clusterfuck from hell that did nothing for me. I was more concerned with what the Miz was saying then the actual match. And the finish was sad to say the least. It took MVP about 30 seconds to get his finsiher to work without him falling over. And y did he have to pin Swagger? They are wasting a true talent. A Swagger vs. Miz match sounds way better then a Miz Vs. MVP match but i guess it could be worse.
Meanwhile TNA is working on bringing back the NWO...And dear god lets hope this isnt what lays ahead for TNA fans. X-pac and Hall are no good for anything anymore, lets face it there best days were in the WWE, but then when that ended so did there careers. But apperently Hogan and Dixie see gold with these 2 washups. And i cant beleive Bishoff is going along with this, i thought he might have learned his lesson when Vince bought him out the first time, but apperently we will have to wait and see if he learns when Vince buys him out for a second time. The second hour did have one good match in there and it was the knockout tag team title match. Arguebly the 4 best knockouts on the roster got together and put on a better tag team match then the WWE put on, during that hour. But lets hope Kong and Hamada get a good lengthy run as the champs cause they make a great and interesting tag team.
Now DX is battleing Jerishow at this point, and the match is good but again it is lacking for me, it didnt seem like it had a main event feel to it even tho it was the biggest match on the card. The stipulation was that Jericho is off Raw for good if they lose, and it didnt seem like Jerishow was willing to do anything and everything to win, which is one of Jericho's M/O's. But the match would have been pleasing to me if that damn Midget didnt show his face, the match was just getting interesting and then here comes tiny tons of fun to crash the party....But when Jericho kicked that little basturd in the head it was maybe one of the greatest moments of my life. But in the end DX got the win, big shocker (my eyes are rolling if you couldnt guess that). And that was the last we saw of the Heartbreak Kid for the night. And there was no mention of him and the undertaker expcet for a second in between the segment where Triple H used Hornswoggle as a human dog. And that was it for the WWE in there first hour and some of there second hour lol.
In TNA's final hour of the night, they had Samoa Joe battle Abyss...WHy? Is this gonna continue into something or was this just a "audition" match for Hogan and his team of idiots? It was a decent match but served no prupose. I was pumped for a bloody gore fest with and Rhino but that didnt happen of course. And neither did full metal mayhem cause someone had to go around laying talent out backstage...ooooooooo the intrigue...what a random set of people too to have layed out. RHino, The Machine Guns...Beer Money...what the hell is going on? But this hour did produce one of the best matches ever seen on free live t.v. Aj Styles and Kurt Angle had one of the best matches ever, TNA did something right they gave these two men 25 minutes to go out there and bring the house down. Its about time AJ gets what he deserves and that is to be the flagship of the company, the one everyone else follows. Cause lets face it...he is maybe the best wrestler out there today but that is aregueable. but anytime you put AJ against Kurt its gonna be gold. '
Meanwhile back in WWE land we have Randy Orton against Kofi Kingston. Now this match started to get me going again, thinking that the WWE was going to redeem itself and put the show back on track. Once again Vince McMahon kicks me right in the nuts. The match itself turned out to be ok...not the best but not the worst either, but this was the perfect time to have Ted Dibiase spread his wings and fly away from Legacy. And at the same time gotten Kofi a win over Orton. But no...Instead we get Kofi being RKO'ed and then Legacy sitting outside doing well...nothing. And that was that, nothing else was mentioned about it. And then to end the show we had Bret and Vince..finally a one on one showdown between the two, after Vince kisses bret's ass for what seemed like 10 hours i was convinced that this was gonna be all, a one time showing for Bret, Vince will get locked in the sharpshooter and the show will end. But that was not the case at all....Instead Vince kicks Bret in the gut and simply walks away. Which in turns sets up future appearences by The Hitman and which in turn is going to keep me tuning in every week to see where it all goes.
Now on a side note, did Hogan owe like a million favors to a bunch of WWE Castaways? Cause why else would Val Venis and Orlando Jordan be there? And will someone please tell me why Ric Flair was there? Was he lost? He didnt seem like he belonged there.
Wrestling fans are doomed if this is what a potiental monday night war is gonna be like from week to week.....TNA is a clusterfuck from hell of new and old guys, and WWE is stuck on this PG level crap....To me its whoever fixes themselves first is going to win. If TNA can get there head out of there ass then they will overtake Vince down the road, and if Vince can get away from trying to bring a PG product every week then he will still be the dominant company. But right now both companys are hurting and are not going in the right direction at all...
Hornswoggle as the nWo mascot!
