[Official] TNA TV Shows Aftermath, Review & Ratings Thread

[Hulkamaniac]

Despite what I thought was a pretty awful show, last night's episode of iMPACT! drew some very good numbers in general. The show pulled a 1.33 Nielsen Rating with the first hour drawing a 1.32 while the second drew a 1.33. I haven't read anything yet that lists the number of viewers but this was probably somewhere in the 1.6 million range.

At one time, this would have been considered average for iMPACT! but it's now considered to be a great night. At any rate, last night's live episode of iMPACT! brought on the highest rating for the show since January 28th, which drew a 1.4.

Before Hogan showed up, 1.3 was the RECORD HIGHEST RATING for TNA, and since then they've only hit the number a few times as well, so when in the history of all of TNA could 1.3 be considered an average night?

Anyway, decent show last night, I enjoyed the first hour far more then the second hour. Second hour was all over the place. I'm willing to give the Shore more of a chance to get over, but last night was bad from them. The Battle Royale was a good idea that was executed poorly, other then the ending, which I liked. The entrances should have been more spread out, like the Royal Rumble, giving announcers time to spotlight specific feuds/matches for BFG. BUt I have to end the mini-recap by saying BIG PROPS to Flair and Foley. I never would have ever expected to enjoy a match in 2010 between Ric Flair and Mick Foley that much. Both guys really worked their asses off and did a great job. One of the matches I've enjoyed most in either mainstream company in the last few months.

 

[Curb]

Yes, it was a bad show. Why? Because it did absolutely nothing to entice impartial viewers to buy the PPV. There was nothing about last night's Impact that said to me, "Are you interested in seeing more? Then plunk down $50 for Bound For Glory." Sure, TNA diehards were going to purchase the PPV anyway. But for anybody who was even remotely on the fence whether to buy the PPV, the go home edition didn't sell it at all.

Who made you the official spokesman for the impartial viewers? Unless you ran some kind of survey, you have no idea what most impartial viewers thought of the show.

 

[MB1025]

I have herd a lot of places that this show did nothing for the average wrestling fan and getting them to buy the PPV. IMO it was the opposite. The average wrestling fan are the people who know Hogan, Angle, Hardy, Sting, Flair, Foley, and Nash. Those where the guys who got the most time on the show. If you are a TNA fan and watch most of the time you have already made up your mind if you are going to order it or not and didn't like the show because you didn't see any big matches. 1.7 million viewers tuned in and stayed through the whole show for the most part. Hell ReAction got a better rating then Superstars by over 200,000 viewers.

 

[Dead-Angel]

the show was medium it had good things and bad things and it manage to pull off good rating for TNA thats good news now i hope that they wont fuck up on sunday with "they" storyline

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Before Hogan showed up, 1.3 was the RECORD HIGHEST RATING for TNA, and since then they've only hit the number a few times as well, so when in the history of all of TNA could 1.3 be considered an average night?

Yeah, I guess you do have a point. I should have said that a 1.3 was a more common number rather than average. In 2009, a 1.3 wasn't quite the same rarity that it's been in 2010 as last Thursday was only the third night in 2010 that iMPACT! drew a 1.3 or better.

 

[Dizzy]

Yes, it was a bad show. Why? Because it did absolutely nothing to entice impartial viewers to buy the PPV. There was nothing about last night's Impact that said to me, "Are you interested in seeing more? Then plunk down $50 for Bound For Glory." Sure, TNA diehards were going to purchase the PPV anyway. But for anybody who was even remotely on the fence whether to buy the PPV, the go home edition didn't sell it at all.

First off, since when you can speak for impartial viewers? Since you don't know a thing on what they are thinking.

What more do you want? They have been teasing "They" for months and weeks. They sold the PPV with the Hardy vs. Angle match which everyone seemed to love. Now, it's up to the viewers to order to see all three men go at it. RVD and Abyss has been hyped to death.

Quite honestly, just because they didn't do endless promos saying the samething doesn't mean they didn't sell the PPV.

You have Hardy marks that are tweeting to order it to see him win the title. You even have idiotic WWE marks expecting Vince to come out and say he's invading. Regardless how people take it, there is general interest.

 

[The Dude]

Who made you the official spokesman for the impartial viewers? Unless you ran some kind of survey, you have no idea what most impartial viewers thought of the show.

First off, since when you can speak for impartial viewers? Since you don't know a thing on what they are thinking.

I'm speaking for myself - an impartial TNA viewer. I don't love TNA, I don't hate TNA. I watch TNA objectively. And watching the go home Impact on Thursday night, my objective opinion is that the episode - standing on its own merit - did absolutely nothing to spark my interest in buying the PPV. Don't get all huffy just because I'm not a TNA mark like some of you are. It's just my opinion on a product that I really don't have too much vested interest in. Would I like TNA to succeed? Yes, if only to give proper competition for WWE.

On the matter of ratings, increased ratings doesn't necessarily mean the product is good. WWE has produced bland, uncreative television for quite some time now, yet RAW still hovers between a 3.0 & 4.0 rating. Does that mean WWE is two to three times as good as TNA? No. American Idol has been one of the most popular shows on TV for the past decade - it doesn't mean it's quality programming.

 

[MisterRob]

Before Hogan showed up, 1.3 was the RECORD HIGHEST RATING for TNA, and since then they've only hit the number a few times as well, so when in the history of all of TNA could 1.3 be considered an average night?

Before Hogan showed up, in previous years, TNA was CONSISTENTLY getting 1.3s. I'm pretty sure that's what the person was referring to by "an average night". 1.3 isn't some groundbreaking number TNA hasn't done many, many times in the past, they just had fallen backwards and are only now BACK to that number.

I've never seen any WWE fans praising and going wild for a rating WWE has already done consistently because they get back to it after dropping ratings for a while. Why? Because it's not something to get excited about.

The PPV Buyrates is all that matters here to determine whether the go home show was good or not. Based off that go home show, I really doubt interest in the ppv is going to be through the roof. But good luck to TNA!

 

[Hulkamaniac]

Before Hogan showed up, in previous years, TNA was CONSISTENTLY getting 1.3s. I'm pretty sure that's what the person was referring to by "an average night". 1.3 isn't some groundbreaking number TNA hasn't done many, many times in the past, they just had fallen backwards and are only now BACK to that number.

http://www.twnpnews.com/information/TNA/tnaimpact.shtml

According to this site, which has the ratings listed up until 8/20/2009, TNA had gotten a 1.3 nine times in about 267 episodes. That's a whopping 3.7% of the time, right up until two months before HOgan's deal with TNA was announced.

Further, there has been one two month period where they were consistently getting 1.3's, getting a 1.3 eight times in nine shows between mid February and mid April of 2009. So I have to wonder if you understand the meaning of the word consistently, or "previous years". Because in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, they hit a 1.3 once COMBINED.

 

[Dogfingers]

Dixie has been kidnapped by Abyss. Dixie's acting is attrocious, she looks like she's about to burst out laughing at any moment

Enter Stung, Nash and Pope. Pope tells Bischoff the walls are gonna fall on him, whatever the hell that means. Bischoff tells Pope he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about...he's right. Eric Bischoff says its bigger than Pope, WHAT ARE THEY ON ABOUT. "Its been ten years says" Sting, it ends at BFG. What ends? This seriously is a big pile of shite. Joe and Jarret come down. Why Joe is playing Hogan's fancy lad is beyond anyones guess. They show footage of Hogan in surgery. They all look on and go awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. This feud is very stupid.

3D are gonna announce something that will change Tag Team Wrestling forever at BFG.....is Devon redecorating his house? Or perhaps installing a bird bath in his garden? I CANT WAIT

Love and Sky take on Rayne and Tara for the right to the beautiful people's music etc. Tara's outfit is terrible, she looks like a latex gimp. The match was way too short but it was ok.

Its announced that Mickie James is special referree. I actually marked out a bit for James, she was the last of a generation of great WWE women wrestlers ... James says she's Bound for Glory Madison screams "You're Bound For Failure" proper funny Madison is. That got a genulol out of me.

It's time for Flair v Foley

Flairs striking offense is terrible, Foleys bleeding within 1 minute. Barbed wire baseball bat comes out, Flairs bleeding, we're what? Three minutes in. TNA do everythign to such an extreme it doesn't mean anything anymore. Why couldn't they have waited ten minutes and hammed it up? Foley takes a nasty looking bump through a table. That look like it hurt. Flair brings the thumbtacks out. Flair goes into the tacks. Jesus. As a spectacle this is actually ok. Foley brings out a table. Flair goes to the top rope and splashes Foley through the table. Flair then falls on the tacks and can't answer the 10 count. What a limp ending. Had that have had 5-10 more minutes a few more false finishes I'd have said that was actually good. God forbid TNA don't manage to screw something up in one way or another.

Flair gets in the ring to kiss Foleys ass, as is the stipulation. The morons in the Impact Zone shout "this is awesome." Fortune do over Foley, EV2 make the save.

Bischoff is back out AGAIN. God forbid they actually have wrestlers cut promos. He calls out Abyss. RVD comes out. RVD maths fail as he's 1010% sure he wants Abyss on Sunday.

Orlando Jordan has nice hair. Eric Young is an idiot again. I think that was supposed to be funny. What happened to London Brawling? They were actually funny.

OJ and EY vs Ink Inc
OJ's sexy antics are actually amusing, its pure Goldust circa 96 but it still raises a smile. Eric Young gets upto some silly stuff and the decision is reversed.

Jersey Shore bloke is here with his woman, I have no idea what that is. He calls everyone "My dude" so this guy has potential to be a complete *****. Everyone genuinely hates him. Ok I'm sold. Is he a good wrestler? I have no idea who he is.

Battle Royal time
Angle and Anderson start...what? Oh I see. This is a Royal Rumble but they've called it a Battle Royal in order not to confuse it with a Battle Royal. Exactly. This is actually alright so far, though the ring is a little too full at the minute. TNA should just rip the rumble off and see what they can do with it at a PPV. Errrm then it just ends...in the middle of the match....are these useless ****ers serious? How is that gonna sell be BFG? I barely know any of the matches and I watch this every week

The show was mainly bad and did an absolutely piss poor job of selling BFG. Where was the promos between the lockdown teams? What the **** is going on with the tag division? Will it ever be revealed what Pope/Nash/Sting and Hogan/Jarret/Joe are fighting over? I reckon Joe stole Pope's chocolate digestives....he loves them.

 

[klunderbunker]

Impact
Date: October 14, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz
Episode Title: THEY Have Arrived!!!

Well this is it. After four days of waiting we can finally get to the explanation from Jeff as to WHY he did what he did. This is something that is very important because you have the entire THEY angle riding on it. The importance of this show can’t be overblown as we begin the next chapter in TNA’s history.

The opening is likely to be about Jeff and THEY as well as set up the fairly obvious RVD vs. Jeff match, although I could see them postponing that one if need be. I’d also be interested in knowing how much actual wrestling we’ll have tonight but we’ll see. Let’s get to it.

We of course open with the recap of the ending of Bound For Glory.

Dixie’s attorney is here and as everyone thought we’re told that Dixie signed the contracts but they weren’t the ones she thought they were.

Hogan (still on crutches) and Bischoff are here to a MASSIVE pyro display. Of course Hogan is acting just like he did as a face. Tenay explains that Hogan and Bischoff now have the majority share of TNA….despite the fact that the attorney never said that.

Naturally Hogan gets a big face reaction with like two signs against him in the whole audience. Oh wait three fat chicks are booing. Well there’s a Hogan sucks chant so there’s something I suppose. Hogan wants Dixie here now. Apparently she promised him everything, much like Ted Turner did in 96. Hogan gets a text or something as he has his phone out and is messing with it.

Here we go: the explanation. It started with Abyss apparently and the Hall of Fame ring. Bischoff and Hogan knew why he randomly turned on Hogan. We bring him out and Hogan declares Abyss his son. THEY’RE HERE! Ok now that my pizzas are here we can get back. What did you think I meant by they?

None of the fans believed Abyss but they are now in control. The fans want RVD. Abyss follows them as Hogan and Bischoff’s soldier now. Hogan declares that Abyss with live forever and is now immortal. I think The Immortals might be the name. Eric brings out Jarrett. Wait was there an actual explanation in there for abyss? If there was I missed it.

Yeah this was no real surprise: he wanted control of his company back. I think that was the easiest of all to understand. And here’s FOURTUNE! Ok this just got good.

Flair talks to Hogan and says that Fourtune runs this company, not Hogan. LOUD Fourtune chant. One of them have to leave apparently. Hogan suggest him vs. Flair and it’s…..not on as they hug. Flair bows down to Hogan and it’s a massive Hogan orgy more or less. The explanation here makes sense though as Fourtune was mad at Dixie for bringing in EV. That actually makes sense. We get a reference to Flair’s five former ex wives and here comes Jeff!

No face paint here either. The fans think Jeff sold out. You can barely see the ropes with so many guys in there with him. He didn’t sell out but sold in. He blames the fans and doesn’t care about popularity. The fans drove him to this because he did everything with all those injuries for what?

And now it’s on to RVD. He’s the whole F’N reason Abyss took RVD out because RVD had to be gone for this to work. They are Immortal. Sting and Nash are watching in the back. Eric and Hogan offer them spots on the team. We go to a break 22 minutes into the show with them coming to the ring.

Security escorts Dixie….somewhere.

Nash and Sting come out and Sting is in street clothes which isn’t something you see that often. Tenay is already annoying. Eric says this is about money and all that jazz. Nash whispers to Sting and says this is perfect for him because it’s always been about money and him in his career. He’s gotten wiser though and quotes the Bible of all things, saying gray hair is a sign of wisdom. He’s passing on the money and if THEY want to run the company into the ground, they can do it without him. I’m surprised.

Sting says this isn’t what he came here for and says he’s here because he loves TNA. He’s shouting the whole time mind you. Sting points to Hogan, Bischoff and Flair (I think) and says this is a no win situation, turning them down. Allegedly both of these guys are leaving TNA with Nash being permanent and Sting possibly being permanent. Bischoff says they can come back anytime. Hogan’s music plays the segment to an end at 9:32.

We cut to the back where Sting and Nash leave but Pope isn’t happy with it. They offer him a place in the car out with them but he’s staying to fight the fight which they’re cool with. Dixie comes up to them and says they can’t leave her. Sting says what everyone thought: if she had listened this wouldn’t be happening. She says he was cryptic. Dixie, he sent crows down at the NWO to demand a title match one night. He’s a weird guy.

Hogan and Bischoff come up to Dixie and she slaps the FUCK out of Bischoff. She tells Hogan to look her in the eye and tell her he didn’t screw her. He says we’ll talk about this in HIS office as we go to another break.

In the office we have MORE talking. Bischoff smokes a cigar and Hogan flat out tells her that he screwed her out of the company. This is a big Hogan ego trip of course. Hogan and Bischoff both say this is their company. Hogan has had enough and so has Dixie. She tells her security guards to get rid of them but they work for Hogan too. Dixie’s husband SURGE gets knocked out and we take ANOTHER break.

Some hot chick in a BMW shows up. And we’re just not going to talk about this at all. Ok then. Ah ok it’s the Jersey Short chick.

Madison comes out with a referee as I’m guessing this is going to be about Tara. She yells about how Tara has HER title. She wants a match RIGHT NOW. Here’s Tara, looking GOOD. Madison says they had a deal and apparently we’re getting a match….at 9:50pm.

Knockouts Title: Tara vs. Madison Rayne

And Tara lays down so Madison can pin her. I kid you not.

Madison celebrates and here’s Mickie to talk some more. She wants a title shot RIGHT NOW but Madison sends Tara after her. Mickie sends her running and stares her down.

J-Woww from Jersey Shore comes in and talks to the Beautiful People. Apparently she’s an honorary BP tonight.

Back from break and they’re still looking for Cookie. This results in Eric Young freaking out about J-Woww. Jordan comes up and nothing of note happens.

And here’s Angle for MORE talking. No music, no intro, nothing like that. He talks about how he’s all banged up but wants to know why Hogan and Bischoff screwed him before he officially retires. Angle says what we all expected him to say: he didn’t win but he didn’t get pinned either. Cue Jarrett’s music and here he is.

Jarrett more or less calls bullshit on what Angle is saying. He takes a jab at Angle being an ex-husband (the real meaning being that Jarrett literally married Angle’s wife and not in kayfabe). Angle says he put TNA on the map. Uh, not quite Kurt. He says Jarrett held down everyone but couldn’t hold Angle down.

Kurt Angle, the man that held the tag titles, X-Division and World titles at the same time is talking about holding others down. Jarrett says taking Angle’s career meant more than destroying his life. Angle goes for him and the security guards take him down and handcuff him. The beatdown is on. Uh, Joe anyone?

TAZ of all people comes out of the broadcast booth and calls off Jarrett and says that he has a fucked up (censored of course) neck. Old school Taz chant takes us to another break.

70 minutes in, 6 seconds of “wrestling.”

Joe talks (shocking isn’t it) about Jarrett on a tape from Monday, still in Daytona. He’s coming for Jarrett of course.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT’S A MATCH! And it’s Abyss. Oh joy.

Abyss vs. Samoa Joe

Yeah they’re officially called Immortal. Well ok then. Joe beats the hell out of him first and beats him into the corner. Chokeslam takes him down and Joe is in trouble. He goes to get a chair but Joe hits a suicide dive into the chair which more or less didn’t hit Abyss’s head at all but he stays down anyway. Sure why not? Bell to the head and we’re done in two minutes. No rating. RVD comes down for the save.

Wait, why didn’t Joe come down and massacre Jeff like 5 minutes ago?

Hey look RVD wants to talk. It’s about Hardy which makes sense. Jeff pops up on the screen and says it was an illusion as he brought RVD as close to him as he could and then destroyed him. Well ok so he told Abyss to destroy him. Hardy says he’s the Anti-Christ of wrestling. WOW.

Bischoff comes out and says if RVD wants Hardy at Turning Point he has to beat Anderson tonight, winner gets the shot.

Back from a break Tessmacher is propositioned by Bischoff for “a meeting later at his place”. He snaps on her and calls her easy. Bischoff knows about Nash and Pope apparently. She’s fired from the Knockouts authority job and can either wrestle or leave. Anderson comes up and declares Bischoff a douchebag and squeezes his hand really hard saying that Bischoff won’t win this war.

D’Angeol Dinero vs. Fourtune

Yep it’s 1 vs. 5 here. Morgan and Flair aren’t in this. Total dominance here of course but it’s better than more talking I suppose. AJ misses the Pele and kicks Kaz which Pope gets two off of. DWI hits him and Kaz gets the pin. Another short match so no grade.

Ad for Turning Point where Angle is named specifically as being there. Nice one guys.

Here’s The Shore to get on my nerves and be booed out of the building. They point out that this is on at the same time as Jersey Shore because that’s how TNA works. Cue up the Beautiful People and J-Woww. Cookie and J-Woww argue as usual and Cookie says go back to the hole you came from. You know, the same one she’s from. Catfight, Shore bails. 15k for a minute long segment and an EY joke.

We recap things to kill time so we can run over into ReAction as always.

Mr. Anderson vs. Rob Van Dam

No mic time for Anderson here as he’s pissed. The bell rings at about 11pm as we just HAD to have a commercial as RVD made his entrance. Make that 11:01. Naturally to see the main event of Impact you have to watch ReAction. So would that mean the winner got the win on Impact or ReAction? Winner gets Hardy at the PPV mind you.

Basic stuff to start as Van Dam hits a moonsault off the apron to kick Anderson in the head, which might have been how he injured his head and Impact is OVER! And now REACTION has started and we didn’t miss a damn thing and it serves no purpose but screw that who cares? If you want to see the Impact main event, don’t watch Impact!

After I have a psychotic episode over the stupidity of some of the things this company does, it’s still a boring match. Rolling Thunder is countered into a fireman’s carry and the split legged moonsault gets two. Five Star eats knees and both guys are down. And here’s Bischoff to screw us over. He tells the referee to come with him and here’s Hardy, holding his ribs with a chair.

Chair to RVD. Chair to Anderson. Pillmanizer on the arm of Anderson. Anderson curses a lot and rolls to the floor. That’s your ending by the way.

Rating: D+. Match was pretty weak due to the crowd knowing the bullshit ending was coming. This match never really got off the ground or anything but it could have been worse. The guys knew the ending was coming and clearly didn’t get going until the very end as they were just going through the motions. Nothing bad really, but nothing particularly good.

Overall Rating: D+. This is a VERY subjective grade to put it mildly. This show can be looked at their get out of jail free card. It was the first show after their biggest show ever and a huge angle. The show as a stand alone show was atrocious. However, this was a show where a lot of talking was actually required.

The explanations that they gave needed to be done. I can understand that and I’m mostly ok with it. However there comes a point where you need some wrestling to get you through a show. Having the show revolve around one angle is fine and makes sense, but you really need some wrestling to go with it. As was said in the LD, even a 4 minute throw away match would have helped tremendously. One or two of those thrown in somewhere and this show goes WAY up.

As for doing what needed to be done tonight, they got a lot out of the way. Jarrett, Dixie, Hogan and Bischoff are all explained. Nash and Sting are written off TV, Pope has a new thing to do, Anderson’s loyalty is pretty clear and RVD and Joe will fight on their own. Hardy was explained but to say it felt rushed is an understatement. Abyss wasn’t explained at all but did we really need to hear about him? All you really get from that is the beginning of the story and we can live without that.

This show did explain some things and kind of got things going for the angle, but at the same time this is showing signs of turning into one massive soap opera much like the NWO angle. The problem with that is back then you had some amazing matches on the side to compliment the drama. You’re not getting that in the first week.

That being said, it’s the first week and I can understand a ton of talking here. However if this is now the status quo, there are REAL problems for this company. This was kind of a disappointment but to say it was horrible isn’t fair. They got through a lot tonight, but what scares me are the weeks to come. There has to be some wrestling out there, and I’m not seeing it here so far. I’m neither thrilled nor optimistic, but I’m also not convinced this is bad. Definitely interested in next week’s offering, but I’ll be less lenient on it to say the least.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

TNA iMPACT! - October 14, 2010

First 30 Minutes - The first half hour of the show was devoted primarily to “They”. I’m assuming now that the group will be called The Immortals. I’ve got mixed feelings about this segment as some of it was good and some of it was eye rollingly bad. It started off with Hogan and Bischoff doing their thing and ultimately gave the promo an old nWo feel to its. Hogan was playing his air guitar with a crutch, Bischoff bowing and doing his thing and all this. Abyss came out and did his thing, you know the whole screaming at the top of his lungs and breathing like he’s on the verge of an orgasm deal. Hogan calling Abyss his son was just kinda corny. When Flair and Fortune came out, I was interested in what was going to happen. Flair and Hogan went back and forth on the mic for a bit but I knew that Flair and Fortune were going to align themselves with Hogan when they were about to “fight”. I thought that kinda sucked because I just simply do not buy into Hogan and Flair being on the same side. Flair’s comments about loving Hogan and Hogan calling Flair the greatest wrestler of all time didn’t feel the least bit authentic to me. If anyone is aware of the genuine history regarding these two, and I mean any of it, then this just felt kinda cheesy. Jeff Hardy eventually came out and talked a bit on the mic. I thought that he did well and that they kept it short. Hardy’s strength isn’t promo work and TNA knows that, so they kept it short but it was pretty sweet. Nash and Sting are eventually invited out there and to hear the line of bullshit coming out of Nash’s mouth almost made me want to change the channel. When he outlined, at the beginning of his turn on the mic, how he’d been throughout most of his career, I liked that because we all know it’s true and authentic. However, we all know the part of Nash changing as he’s gotten older is bullshit and was another very unauthentic moment. Nash & Sting just left instead of getting beaten down and I’m not really sure why. It was a perfect moment for a beat down and it didn’t happen. Overall, I thought it was a mixed bag but I enjoyed more things than I disliked so it was passable. Thumbs Up

Hogan, Bischoff & Dixie - The backstage office confrontation with Dixie Carter came off very well and it was a strong showing from Dixie. She came across as very emotional and legitimately angry about this. I do have to say that her just signing a paper without reading it, which is how Bischoff gained control of the company in a storyline, doesn’t make her look all that smart or competent. This had a much more serious feel to it than the opening stuff in the ring, it didn’t come across like another nWo flashback. Hogan seemed like a legitimate creep in the segment and Bischoff looked completely smug just sitting there and smoking the cigar without saying a word. I enjoyed this much more than the first 30 minutes. Thumbs Up

Madison Rayne vs. Tara - It’s pretty much official now that the TNA Knockout Championship means absolutely nothing after this debacle. I honestly don’t know why they just didn’t have Madison Rayne poke Tara in the chest before going for the pin. Rayne wins the Knockout title in about 20 second. Mickie James comes out post match and talks about how it was a disgrace and all that. Classic Vince Russo booking at its best here. Thumbs Down

The Beautiful People, JWoWW, Eric Young & Orlando Jordan - This was very reminiscent of a very bad Raw Guest Host deal. The Beautiful People acted like dumb bimbos, EY acted stupid and Orlando Jordan tried to be controversial but came across as lame. Honestly, just a real waste of time here. Thumbs Down

Kurt Angle & Jeff Jarrett - I thought this was a pretty good segment between these two. Using the real life issues they’ve had with one another in the past as a spring board in this segment was fun. I do find it ironic that Kurt Angle puts down his ex as a **** given all the stories we’ve heard about the various affairs Angle has had on the road. Jarrett attempted to make it seem like that the Carters screwed him out of his company, though the actual truth is that the company was going under and Jarrett had to sell it to save it. The rest of it was your standard beat down on Kurt Angle after he’d been handcuffed by TNA security. Taz coming from the announce table to get in Jarrett’s face made no sense storyline wise because Jarrett has control of his company again and could just fire him on the spot. As with the opening segment, I was generally mixed on this but the overall exchange between Angle & Jarrett was good. Thumbs Up

Abyss vs. Samoa Joe - Completely and utterly forgettable 2 minute match between these two. Abyss hits Joe with the ring bell, cuts him open and gets disqualified. There’s really nothing to say about this except that the two got in the ring and did some stuff. Thumbs Down

Rob Van Dam & Jeff Hardy - RVD came out and ran Abyss off as he was beating down Joe. RVD gets on the mic and demands an explanation from Jeff Hardy and wanting a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match. I thought RVD went back to his more wooden approach to cutting promos as there just wasn’t any passion or feeling to this. Hardy came on the big screen and talked for a bit, saying that some were calling him the new Anti-Christ of professional wrestling. I just rolled my eyes and laughed out loud at that because Hardy just doesn’t come across yet as being that dark. I think that Hardy needed to establish himself for a while as this dark, evil type of guy instead of just suddenly announcing it tonight and expecting everyone to buy into it. If Jeff Hardy had waited a month or two before saying this, then maybe I’d buy into it if he’d built himself up. If Hardy is trying to channel some of what Kane has been doing the past few months, then he definitely needs work because he doesn’t have the physical presence or heel legitimacy that Kane has. Thumbs Down

Fortune vs. D’Angelo Dinero - If the purpose of this match was to make Fortune look weak, mission accomplished. I’m generally not a fan of handicap matches and this match was 5 against 1 and Fortune still had to cheat in order to get the win here. Watching this match made me think of Pope confronting Sting & Nash as they were leaving and said how he’d fight on his own if he had to. The reason it made me think back to it was I was asking myself as to if Pope thought he was John Cena or somebody. Thumbs Down

The Shore - Just as with their debut last week, The Shore’s segment was pretty damn awful. The crowd was chanting “Who are you” at the beginning of the segment while The Shore was doing their usual mindless banter. Robbie E or whoever the hell he is, was actually saying that Jersey Shore was done because he was in TNA. This angle has bombed and it has bombed big time. I went to take a piss when JWoWW came out and when I came out, I saw her with Cookie on the ground. I don’t know what happened in between but I’m pretty sure it was nothing remotely good. Thumbs Down

Mr. Anderson vs. Rob Van Dam - The match started out well but I just grew less interested in it as it went on. I knew that there was going to be interference in this match, I didn’t know when, but I knew it was going to happen. Hardy came down about the 9 minute mark and used a chair on both of them. The winner of this match was supposed to be #1 contender for the title and get a match with Hardy at Turning Point. The no finish coupled with The Immortals once again felt a lot like the old now. I just simply was not feeling this. Thumbs Down

Overall Show - The opening segment of the show was pretty decent. There were some cheesy and unauthentic moments about what went on but I thought the general delivery of the segment and overall feel was solid. I liked the stuff with Hogan, Bischoff & Dixie backstage a lot more because of the more serious tone and emotion that was shown. The confrontation between Angle & Jarrett came off pretty solid I thought and I liked the usage of real life tension in the segment. Everything else on the show was crap. The show only had about 15 minutes of wrestling content on it tonight and that wouldn’t have been so bad if any of the matches had been worth anything. They did get a lot of stuff out of the way tonight and could have possibly laid the groundwork for several future shows. It wasn’t a great show by any means, but I do think that they managed to get across the general message of The Immortals pretty well.

Grade - C-

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

I thought tonight Was good episode of Impact. I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes of the show with the new group Immortal. The open 30 minutes was very strong to me. The backstage confrontation between Hogan Bischoff and Dixie they all did a pretty good job of making the situation feel real. Dixie did a good job of coming off as angry and emotional. Hogan did a good job to and Bischoff just did a Great Job of being a Smug Asshole smoking a cigar. The Jarrett and Angle segment was really good to job to because they used a real life situation and it came off really well. I thought Jeff Hardy did a really good job as a heel for the first time. My only complaints with this Show were the Lack of Wrestling, I knew we wouldn't get alot of Wrestling but I thought we would have more than what we got, the other really dislike was The Shore stuff.

Rating:B-

 

[MisterRob]

This show was atrocious! I'm sorry, some people will claim that it was all promos and no wrestling because there was so much to explain and for the audience to understand. Sorry, but if you have to devote the whole show to EXPLAINING the complexities of your angles then you've failed in the angle. Not to mention there were so many contradictions and things that made no sense at all:

The whole reason Hogan/Bischoff took the company from Dixie this way is dumb in itself, they basically already had complete influence and control.

Flair not only hates Hogan, but he absolutely HATES Bischoff. That was played out in very extreme detail in WCW, so to contradict wrestling history and have him loving them and embracing it like a school boy is silly. You can only force yourself to forget so much history in wrestling and then it becomes ridiculous.

Wouldn't it have made more sense if AJ Styles had been in Jeff Hardy's role right now? RVD came in and took the title from him, Styles got a rematch and couldn't win, Styles has been pushed aside and out of the main event picture this whole time. It would've also been a far more logical way of combining Fourtune with "They" compared to the way they did it which has so many plot holes and contradictions, ugh. Hardy could've also remained a face and Styles could've been the top heel. When Bischoff was claiming Hardy was the best in the business, the star of wrestling, yadda yadda, I not only rolled my eyes and groaned but I also kept thinking... what the hell happened to Styles? The guy IS the best in the business, he should be the face (or heel in this case) of TNA, and he's being pushed back by guys like Hardy. It makes no sense. Neither does Hardy's involvement in They.

Why didn't Sting just come out and explain things to Dixie if he was that passionate about it and this whole this is THAT bad? You can only suspend disbelief so much.

So Hogan and Bischoff have taken over TNA, they control the company, and they had Dixie thrown out... so why the hell would the Dixie family then continue to financially back the company and give them all the money to exist? You can only suspend disbelief so much.

I'm not going to rant about the lack of matches, that's pretty obvious. But I feel the need to point out how absolutely horrible the camera work was in the backstage segments, the Samoa Joe promo. Is that suppose to be reality television? Is it suppose to be all hip and cool? What it is is horrible camera work and it made the show absolutely unbearable to watch for me. The showed looked and felt lke garbage, I can't believe THIS is the direction TNA is going. After all the months of build up and changes, all the hype and the wait, this is the new TNA and it's so utterly disappointing.

F

 

[Mitch Henessey]

We start off this VERY important episode of Impact with Bischoff. He’s arguing with Dixie’s attorney backstage. The attorney says Bischoff gave Dixie the wrong contract. Wow what a surprise…..Anyway, Bischoff tells him he’s running the show, and here we go!

They Have Arrived

Hogan and Bischoff come out to loud “you sold out!” chants. Hogan plays around with his crutches as he poses for the crowd. I still can’t believe I fell for the “he won’t make it to Bound For Glory” stuff….Apparently, Dixie is out, and all of the power is in the hands of Bischoff and Hogan now. Hogan talks about how Dixie didn’t do things his way. Hmm, I thought Hogan and Dixie were supposed to be a TEAM…..Bischoff calls the “They” plan a work of art. Bischoff brings out Abyss. Abyss says he will be a soldier for Hogan. Hogan tells Abyss he will be immortal. I don’t know why, but for some reason, this really creped me out. Bischoff brings out Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett is pissed because Dixie used “Daddy’s money” to run him out of his office. He says the Carter family got what they deserved at Bound For Glory. Fortune interrupts. Ric Flair talks about how he’s hated Hulk Hogan for twenty five years. Flair seems as if he’s going to go insane for the 10,000th time here, but he hugs Hogan instead. So now Fortune is apart of THEY? Okay then. Hogan and Flair praise each other, and then Flair tells his five ex-wives to kiss his ass. And finally Bischoff brings out the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Jeff Hardy. Hardy seemed to get a mixed reaction here, but that really didn’t surprise me. Jeff gets a bunch of “you sold” chants. He says he didn’t sell out. He blames the fans. He calls RVD a politician and a kiss ass. Really? A politician? Hardy has also joined the immortal club, and he makes sure to tell us he will live forever. Nash and Sting are shown backstage watching. Bischoff calls them to the ring. Oh this should be fun.

Dixie arrives at the Impact Zone. Security and Surge are by her side. She seems to be shaken up by this whole mess.

Sting and Nash finally make their way to the ring. Bischoff invites Nash and Sting to join the new mega stable. Nash talks about how old age has made him wiser. He declines the invitation. Sting talks about he loves TNA. He also declines the invitation. They turn the backs on the super power. Bischoff makes sure to throw plenty of childish insults at them.

Backstage The Pope freaks out over Nash and Bischoff leaving TNA. Pope says he’s going to continue to fight the good fight. Dixie begs Nash and Sting not to leave. Dixie complains about Sting speaking in cryptic language. Wow, they plan on dragging this thing out all night…..

Hogan/Dixie Confrontation

The argument moves to Hogan’s office. Dixie means business, as she starts things off by slapping Bischoff. Dixie wants Hogan to admit he screwed her. Hogan is more than happy to admit this. Dixie and Hogan continue to trade insults, as Bischoff smokes a cigar. Hogan has the security guards turn on Dixie. They take her away. Yeah, I couldn’t see that coming. One of the guards knocked out Surge as he tried to help his wife.

Dixie did a good job here. She showed lots of emotion, and she did seem to be truly upset. I did think that this particular segment was okay. Hogan seemed like a real dick here, and it made you kind of feel for Dixie.

Jwoww arrives at the Impact Zone.

Madison Rayne VS Tara-Knockouts Championship Match

Madison comes out with a referee. She complains about what happened at Bound For Glory. She demands that Tara come to the ring for a Knockouts Championship match. Tara comes down, but we don’t get a real match here. Tara lies down for the three count, and we have a new Knockouts Champion?!?! Ugh, this was almost worse than the lockbox segment not too long ago. Madison prances around like an idiot. She tries to give a victory speech, but Mickie interrupts her. She says she's disgusted at what just went down. Mickie takes Tara out with a kick, and Madison escapes with her new title.

I really didn’t like this at all. Tara just won the belt at TNA’s flagship show this past Sunday, and she lays down to crown a new champion? I know Tara is supposed to be Madison’s foot stool, but the whole thing just seemed very silly to me.

Jwoww interrupts The Beautiful People’s make up session. She asks about the “bitch” known as Cookie. The Beautiful People team up with her for the search. TBP meets the Jersey Shore? This is just too much.

Eric Young is excited to see Jwoww. Orlando Jordan offers her a lollipop, but Jwoww throws it on the ground. Jordan shouts “Jersey Shore sucks!”

Kurt Angle/Jeff Jarrett Confrontation

Angle comes out to talk about retiring. But he wants some answers first. Angle didn’t get pinned on Sunday, so technically what happened at Bound For Glory shouldn’t count as solo loss. Jeff Jarrett comes out. He talks about destroying Angle’s career, and taking his ex-wife. Angle says Jarrett can have that “bitch”. Jarrett tells Angle to stop making excuses. The obvious brawl gets underway. Jarrett gets some help from security. They handcuff Angle, and Jarrett eventually slams Angle’s head into the stage. Taz is concerned about Angle’s neck problems, so he decides to get in the way.

Samoa Joe talks about getting his revenge on Jeff Jarrett.

Abyss VS Samoa Joe

Abyss gets disqualified for using the ring bell. Joe is bleeding. RVD comes down to chase Abyss off. Abyss grabs Janice on the outside. Why did Abyss run away here? Joe was down, RVD is just one man, and he has Janice?

I guess this match was just another way of showing the dominance of the new evil power in TNA.

Jeff Hardy’s Creepy Promo

RVD tried to help Joe here, but he’s still having trust issues, so he decided to walk away from RVD.

RVD calls out Jeff. Hardy decides to speak his mind from some place else. Hardy says he’s the new Antichrist of pro wrestling. He says his words are biblical. Spooky stuff from Jeff here.

Bischoff comes out to interrupt. He says RVD must beat Mr. Anderson to get a shot at Hardy and his new title.

Bischoff Demotes Tessmacher

It seemed as if Bischoff was flirting with Tessmacher, but things got ugly fast. He used just about every degrading word you can call a woman here. Bischoff is pissed about Tessmacher giving inside information to Nash and Pope. He demotes her to a regular wrestler. He says the only way she can make it in TNA is by getting in the ring.

I was kind of looking forward to seeing how Tessmacher might do as head of the Knockouts division. She played the authority role pretty well, and she can have a nasty attitude.

Anderson pops out of no where after all of this over. He calls Bischoff a douche bag.

Fortune VS The Pope

Seriously, who couldn’t predict the outcome of this? Pope lost of course, and he was beat down by Fortune after the match was over. This was just another way of showing how dominant the new evil power can be.

The Shore Showdown

Cookie and Robbie. E talk about the real Jersey Shore being over. Cookie insults Jwoww. She comes out with The Beautiful People. Cookie insults Jwoww. She slaps her, and then we get your standard pro wrestling catfight. Meanwhile, The Beautiful People take out Robbie….and this is the guy who looks like he’s going to be next in line for a X-Division title shot? Anyway, Jwoww wins, and Robbie carries Cookie to the back.

This was terrible. Watching Cookie make fun of Jwoww’s tits made me scratch my head. Cookie and Jwoww are hot, and they were the only reason why anyone would watch this atrocious segment.

Mr. Anderson VS The Pope

This match spilled over on to Reaction. The match was pretty dull, and of course Hardy decided to interfere here. He hit the Twist Of Fate on RVD while Anderson’s arm was caught in a steel chair. TNA’s newest heel posed for the crowd to end the show.

A lot of people say that pro wrestling is nothing more than a male soap opera, and boy did Impact feel that way tonight. At one point in the show, Mike Tenay said “his head was spinning,” this is how I felt as I watched the show tonight. The explanation of “They” was nothing more than a huge celebration. Hogan and Bischoff gloated about how smart they were, and everyone spent so much time kissing each other’s asses. But I will admit I did enjoy Jeff Hardy. The promo he cut on RVD felt so creepy. Jeff’s persona and look can be very dark, and so far, he’s the only thing I like about “They”. Also, I did enjoy the argument between Dixie and Hogan. It was intense, and some of the insults they threw at each other made everything feel so personal. And it seems as if Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett are headed towards another personal feud. I’m not too sure about this. Their feud kind of peaked out a while back. I know they’re supposed to be mortal enemies and all that stuff, but do we really need to go down this road again?


I hope tonight’s show isn’t a trend of how things will be going from now on. Every match was overshadowed by the dominance of “They.” Not one match on tonight’s card ended in a clean decision. I expect to see a lot of matches in end in disqualification, and I’m sure there will be plenty of interference from TNA’s new mega stable. I don’t how long this storyline will continue, but seeing as “They” were just revealed on Sunday, I don’t think this whole story is going to come to an end anytime soon.

As far as the Knockouts division goes, when Cookie VS Jwoww is your main feud, then that just can’t be looked at as a good sign. Sure this feud MIGHT get some attention from the mainstream media, but I just don’t think a lot of people are going to tune into TNA to see a Jeresy Shore based feud. Yeah, I know the Jeresy Shore is a popular show, but pro wrestling is looked at in a negative way when it comes to the mainstream media. Also, the people from the Shore aren’t superstars. They’re just what’s hot right now. None of the people on that show are truly famous.

 

[Dizzy]

This show was atrocious! I'm sorry, some people will claim that it was all promos and no wrestling because there was so much to explain and for the audience to understand. Sorry, but if you have to devote the whole show to EXPLAINING the complexities of your angles then you've failed in the angle.

I'm sorry TNA has angles that hurt your brain. You can go back to watching Nexus/Cena since it's soft and simple for you to process.

Not to mention there were so many contradictions and things that made no sense at all:

The whole reason Hogan/Bischoff took the company from Dixie this way is dumb in itself, they basically already had complete influence and control.

Fail. They did not. It was made very clear they did not have total control of Dixie overruled Bischoff about 4 weeks ago. Dixie was the President. They were her partners that were her right hand men.

Flair not only hates Hogan, but he absolutely HATES Bischoff. That was played out in very extreme detail in WCW, so to contradict wrestling history and have him loving them and embracing it like a school boy is silly. You can only force yourself to forget so much history in wrestling and then it becomes ridiculous.

Do your ears not work? Flair said it's all about business. Personal hate is put to the side for Power.

Wouldn't it have made more sense if AJ Styles had been in Jeff Hardy's role right now?

Is AJ styles an established star with a mega fanbase? No. Your idea is worse than Russo and Ferrera on a joint writing ideas.

So Hogan and Bischoff have taken over TNA, they control the company, and they had Dixie thrown out... so why the hell would the Dixie family then continue to financially back the company and give them all the money to exist? You can only suspend disbelief so much.

Because, TNA also helps Panda Energy's money. It's like leaving your boyfriend but still being forced to have them around you because you have a kid. In this case, it's money and revenue.

 

[Stall_19]

That was hideous! There was hardly any wrestling and the few matched they had, none of them ended cleanly, well the 5 on 1 match ended cleaning but it wasn't any good. I've never cared for Jeff Hardy since the Hardy Boyz broke up. I just don't see anything special in him other than his high spots.

I've tried my best to avoid Jersey Shore so I don't want to see them on my wresting show. It's kind of funny, out of all the supposedly big time heels on the show Madison Rayne got the most heat, mainly because her voice has that screeching sound to it. I watched because of curiosity but this episode was horrible. So no more Impact for me for awhile.

 

[dogmanx23]

Tonight I thought Impact was great.

Everyone was asking Hogan/Bishoff/Jarret/Abyss/Hardy whats to be afraid of? 3 guys who are done and Abyss and Hardy wow so scared... Well add Fortune to that and you got and kick ass group.

I kinda wish all the dixie stuff was done infront of the crowd. The whole place would have gone nuts when she smacked Bishoff. Even her going off on Hogan was cool but again should have been done infront of the crowd. Would have looked awesome on TV imo.

The Angle/Jarrett part of the show was awesome. I like the whole real life stuff being brought into the storyline. "you can have that ****" Love IT! I wonder if they'll actually bring back Karen Angle to further the storyline. I think it'll be interesting to see if they bring in TAZ into it somehow.

The knockouts are getting boring especially when you have no beautiful people involved. The whole J-wow/Cookie thing was eh... J-wow looked hot but that was about it.

This ep was pretty much all about Immortal. Now they need to start focusing on who is going to go up against them. After tonight RVD, Joe, Pope, Anderson all seem to be going up against them alone and not as a group.

I'm enjoying the storylines right now. I think eventually EV2.0 will be getting involved soon. I also wanna see how Dixie gets the company back if she ever does.

 

[Kenny Powers]

The lack of matches is the only thing that really hurt this show. Everything was brought up and explained to an extent. A new stable was formed and Hogan and Bischoff are in charge of the company. Hardy turned because he hated sacrificing his body for nothing and Jarrett turned because he didn't agree with someone like Dixie running the company. RVD vs. Hardy was set up, along with Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle vs. Jarrett. There are 3 feuds right off the bat that can start. Jarret and Angle cut a great realistic promo on each other.

I even thought Hardy did a decent job with the little time he was given on the mic. He didn't come out as over the top or anything. I understand why people may hate this show since it was mostly talk. As far as setting up this new faction and showing Hogan and Bischoff take power away from Dixie I thought it was a great show. As far as wrestling goes, it was bad. We can't kid ourselves though. We have seen shows on Raw that have less matches and more talking because they had to build up Shawn vs. Taker at WrestleMania 26 or Cena joining Nexus. Sometimes you have to take up the majority of the show to cover all the angles. Especially 6 months of angles.

It doesn't help that TNA only has one show and a interview show once a week. I don't agree with not having a main event on Impact and having it on ReAction. The whole J Woww segment was unnecessary and took a lot of time too. TNA has received a lot of attention from TMZ and other websites. I just don't think that half of the show should have been centered around J Woww. I seriously hope they don't put her in the ring.

I'm enjoying how this immortals angle is going, but I am afraid that there may be too many heels and not enough faces to combat them. I also don't want to see 2 minute matches that end in DQ or a no contest. Tonight's episode was to answer a lot of questions regarding Hogan and Bischoff's motive. Some things were illogical like Sting not telling Dixie in plain English months ago that Hogan and Bischoff were taking over. Would she have listened to him though? Mike Tenay screaming that someone should have listened to Sting was hilarious since Tenay was one of the biggest doubters of Sting. Screaming Why Sting Why! all the time.

Basically this whole angle isn't rocket science. Hogan and Bischoff want to take over and ruin another company, and Fortune, Jarret, Abyss, and Jeff Hardy want to join them so they can be treated like superstars. Dixie signed away the company under false pretenses.

I may be singing a different tune in a few weeks if we continue seeing nothing but talking instead of wrestling. I'm just glad everything was left out in the open tonight so we can move on to other things.

 

[Kitten Cutter]

First off, I'll never go so far to say a show is terrible, because I love wrestling in general and I don't like taking sides or throwing out random insults. Tonight's Impact (and Reaction) left me with a bitter taste though.

As a wrestling fan, though, I shouldn't have to wait until 9:50 pm to see a match, and 10:15 pm to see a REAL match. I would have hated waiting around if I were there live. The promos in the beginning trying to explain nearly 8 months of storyline were way too long. I like a good political storyline as much as the next guy, but did we need the over-the-top gloating, and separate intros for EVERYBODY? Did we need the Fourtune alliance tonight? Did we need Sting and Nash to give us their goodbyes tonight? I feel like since we're still stretching it out, one or two more matches could have been thrown in and some stuff could have happened next week and the week after.

I agree that Flair, Hogan and Bischoff shouldn't be working together due to their history, and I see the point that it is business so they should be aligned, but I've been asking all over the forum wondering Flair and Fourtune were part of THEY from the beginning, did they join when Dixie brought in EV2, or did they align that night because Hogan and Bischoff effectively ran Dixie off? It was talked around but never made clear. Yes, they're allies but since they're explaining everything tonight, it would have been nice to know. (In a roundabout way, it'd make sense to distract EV2 from saving RVD and the title, but again, didn't come up.)

I still don't think A.J. Styles should be cool with this. Maybe we'll see it play out over the next few months, but of all people Styles got screwed over pretty bad. From #1 contender for the World Title to Tommy Dreamer?

Jeff Hardy's new heel character looks interesting. The Anti-Christ of Wrestling? WOW. That sounds just wrong (for the right reasons). Just saying it gives me shivers. I only hope Jeff adapts it better in the ring.

The Knockouts division is nearly dead when your best female wrestler lays down to your 2nd worst female wrestler to give her the title, then the other contenders care about meeting a crappy reality star, and one-half of the tag champs is out to injury. Hopefully Mickie James and Tessmacher can save it and soon. Speaking of which, why did they strip Tessmacher of her Knockouts Head Bitch storyline already? It was just developing! She couldn't have stayed in that role and played the tweener boss for at least another month?!

Samoa Joe and Abyss was too soon to happen. I actually wish Abyss would have squashed someone else and Samoa Joe pulled a WCW Sting and randomly attacked people. And why didn't he squash Jarrett when he was out there talking to Angle? Oh, and has Abyss won a match in the past 3 months? The last person I remember him beating was Tommy Dreamer. Maybe it doesn't matter.

I actually saw the point to the 5-on-1 handicap match: make The Pope look tough in defeat, but it really made Fourtune look weak. They needed to cheat to beat one guy? And why 5? Couldn't 3 have gotten the job done?

The Shore. No F<BEEP>ing comment.

I hate it when the show overruns into Reaction because I have to set my DVR 10 minutes over every time, and I just can't get into Reaction. It's like watching a documentary. Anyway, I don't think RVD and Anderson work well, although it was a cool moment when Anderson caught RVD out of the Rolling Thunder into the Green Bay Plunge (pardon me but what else do I call it?!). It was an interesting ending with Bischoff pulling the ref (obviously to prevent a clear winner) and Hardy doing the usual attacks. Here's the thing: I look at Hardy, and I don't think he matches Hogan, Bischoff and Jarrett well. You have three relatively flashy and cocky types in charge, and Hardy is the brooding emo quiet type. If anything, Hardy should be leading Abyss since they seem to have a similar look and style to them. Jeff Hardy should flourish as long as he really taps into that dark soul character. If he's smart he'll review the Raven ECW tapes like everyone has been comparing him to. It's a character that hasn't been around in a while (the dark, tortured soul with a cult-like following).

Oh, and my weird opinion. Jeff shouldn't use a chair. His weapon of choice should be unique like Jarrett's guitar, HHH's sledgehammer or Bossman's nightstick. I think Jeff should use an extending baton. Something he can keep in his pocket and surprise some people. It'd add to the character.

Last thing: it's just not right that Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machineguns (the X-division and Tag Team Champs) were completely ignored tonight. At the very least they should have gotten on the show SOMEWHERE. Even walking around backstage would have been something. (Or at least say some superstars were protesting Dixie's usurping; that would cause sides to be formed) It's not good when you can squeeze Eric Young and Orlando Jordan into the show but not any other champions or contenders.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

After the BFG reveal of "They", which I killed, tonight's Impact was pretty damned good. It was a firm springboard for where the company is aimed at going now that we know HOgan and Bischoff are openly heels. I'm feeling much more confident about where TNA is going in the next few months with this angle then I was after the terrible execution of the BFG "big reveal."

There was a lot of talking and not enough wrestling, and that can be improved, but it's not the end of the world for one show, especially given what this show was essentially responsible for (setting up where we're going to go from now). In the kayfabe storylines of TNA, everything really has changed right now, and it was necessary. Everyone did great on the mic, even the normally terrible Jeff Hardy. It seems like Hardy will be running a Raven type of gimmick. At the very least, I'm more interested in Jeff Hardy right now then I've ever been before this.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this show, I'd give it a solid B. It wasn't exceptional, but it was good and effective at what it needed to do.

 

[the wrestling guru]

Like really like wcw over again is it time for Vince russo to retire like really like tna has great young talent and we have to watch what we did 13 14 years ago like really. I will miss Nash when he's gone I have always been one of nashs biggest fans but it it time for him to retire( alway mad respect for u kev ur were great) but hogan and espically flair really go home it's not 1981 hogan u too. Sting always been a fan but u too hardy is over rated Anderson, pope and aj need the spotlight they deserve. Dixie get new writers u could kick mcmahon ass but we have seen this before let me guess the next pay per view u will join like bishoff did 15 years ago. U have the talent and the people who are masters on the mics us it and Jeff hardy is NOT one of them. If tna keeps doing this they will be under in a year. Like keV said on impact if u want to run this company into the ground u can do it with out me. Year again love u keV. And like sting said he's not going to repeat history again. Hell if were going to repeat history why don't hogan come outand tell us to say our prayers and take vitimans. Tonight wasn't a bad show but my god come on. I like the Kurt angle bit tonight anyone who tells of jarrett off I am a fan. I like tna but I've seen this before. And truly don't again it will pick up ratings for a couple of months and it will fall Vince will buy it out and in two years we will be buying from www videos the rise and fall of TNA. Please don't follow wcw

 

[SpecialFNK]

WCW all over again. hmm seeing that WCW with nWo killed WWE in the ratings, I'll take that. WCW at the time when they were winning the ratings battle with WWE was different than the WCW that went out of business. too bad some can't seem to see that.

I loved this Impact. the show was full of excitement. yes there was not much wrestling. you should have known there was going to be a lot of talking on THIS show, but you should also know that next week they will get back to more wrestling.

I read the spoilers going in so I knew what was going to happen. reading the Knockouts didn't make me happy to see Tara just lay down, but then seeing it made it different. Tara clearly did not want to lay down. Madison told her that she brought her back and basically controlled her future. Tara was not happy to lay down, but felt she had to do it. then even after the pin Madison was all excited and jumped into Tara's arms, but still Tara was not really that happy. IMO this sets up something between the 2 of them down the road. you have to figure that Tara is going to turn on Madison, or vice versa. regardless of who can wrestle better I don't think it needs to be about that. Madison is a huge heel and the crowd will hate her.

people will complain about JWoww and how much she got paid. her part was not just what she did in the ring with Cookie. there were what 2 or 3 other times you saw her. the part with Eric Young I thought was hilarious. I never liked EY before, all serious he was boring. this role of being funny is gold. he called her bow wow. then asked if he was a gorilla and that he could be her chimp. dude is funny!

for those that wanted more actual wrestling. what would you take out?
I agree they could have made wrestling fans happy with 1 or 2 matches.
there were even things you did not see. 3D retiring but wanting one more match. no response from MCMG. EV2.0 beat Fortune, and no EV2.0.

for those who hated what TNA did with this Impact, are you really not going to watch anymore? I doubt it.

 

[Suneeboy]

I have the feeling that TNA is going over a lot of people's heads right now.

TNA iMPACT! for October 14th, was one of the best TELEVISION episodes that I have seen on TELEVISION in a long time. It was a reality show about a WRESTLING promotion. Do you see what TNA is doing? Do you see where they are taking this product?

Listen up....WRESTLING is shit. No one wants to watch wrestling anymore. Look at the ratings for wrestling programs compared to 15 years ago. The fan base is not what it was. People are watching reality television, and sports. Jersey Shore, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Run's House, Flavor of Love, Hogan Knows Best, America's Got Talent, America's Next Top Model....do you understand what the fuck is going on? You need to really take a step back and realize that they are getting ready to do something that has NEVER been done before.

If you didn't like Impact last night, you don't like television. Go watch the WWE, or ROH if you want to see the same fucking wrestling matches, mixed and matched with the same wrestlers, with the same fucking spots, every goddam week, with the same fucking announcers making the same calls and giving the same fucking feedback, and acting surprised over the same shit that happens every single time. I'm sick of that shit. I want something new...I'm an ADULT now. Taz and Tenay had tons of shit to comment on last night, because there were STORIES developing. The Matches were STORIES not fucking competitive matches with "workers".

TNA is going to go over a lot of people's heads with this one, and I think that's a good thing, because that means new people will tune in. They are giving you backstage reality TV for a wrestling promotion. Great idea, and the show was a GREAT episode. Can't WAIT until next week to see what HAPPENS with the STORIES.

It's 2010. Fuck Wrestling Matches. I want a story. Wrestling matches are supposed to be to end stories, not to start them or to give the illusion of "competition". We've been there and done that since wrestling came out. It's over. Time for change. I'll watch a match after the story is built up and delivered on a PPV.

By the way. Great episode of iMPACT! Thoroughly pleased with the production, scripting, promos, and emotion that the characters put in to it. I'm satisfied.

My Grade:A

 

[Zeven_Zion]

So here we are. People said that their booking is shit. People said that their storylines are incoherent. They give you ONE show JUST for storylines and some wrestling, a show that was so exciting, interesting and compelling that even the usual people who shit on TNA are not that opinionated from what I see on the forums. TNA shut your asses up, didn't it? All you can bitch about now is "Uhhh I wanted to see more grapplin' - TNA SUCKS!" , in FULL knowledge that it goes back to normal and even better next week. Well - suck it.

The show was AWESOME. Honestly, I ain't no fan of huge promos about storylines but this episode? I don't think I've enjoyed an iMPACT more than I did this past Thursday and there was barely any wrestling. Few matches which were also great. I thought RVD vs Anderson was PPV quality. The ending was also great.

This just showed that TNA can slug it out with the big boys. The awesomeness of the show didn't match the size of the arena. To quote Rocky : they were like a whale in a tear drop.

Overall, I loved everything.

Big, fat, greasy : A