RedJed

Well, you can tell they are planning on giving this match alot of time, considering the pace it's at now.

Surprised to see this on so early in the show. So was this technically going to be the opener before they added that six man elimination match last minute like they did? Hmmmm. Not sure if anyone caught it, but when they panned to Shelley about to come out on the stage, there was some guy right below the stage walking to the side (perhaps a TNA crew worker) doing the most typical white-boy dance/strut as he walked past the camera to the MCMG theme. You had to see it to know how funny that shit was.

This match definately served its' purpose, getting Hernandez strong credibility for the world title shot. That worked. Good response from the crowd, too.

Damn, Hernandez is bumping poor Kiyoshi all over the place.

Hey, as long as he hasn't signed yet with WWE officially, he could do a one time payoff to do a job. It's conceivably possible. If they wouldn't have done the stupid stip with Joe back at Bound for Glory, they could throw him in the spot, but they tied their hands with the previous stipulation. On the ppv, they are playing it up that Rhino is just no-showing, that the company can't get ahold of him, hasn't been heard from in days. Sounds like storyline to me......they wouldn't play it like this if it was legit.

How weird......well I'm happy on the six chick match instead of Taylor v. Kong, but WTF on no Rhino against Sting? I remember that he was harboring some kind of injury, but the word was that he would be able to work through it. In fact I think this was early last month that he was working through it. This ppv has actually just gotten a million times more interesting to me with no opponent for Sting. As long as there is a replacement and the title match is just totally off, that is.

That's a little more acceptable, but again, having him lose the belt to Rhino of all people is pretty counterproductive, then building to a match that has never drawn any interest in Angle/Rhino once again. Then Angle as champ? No thanks. I think that story could be played out with Sting as you suggested, only when Sting is facing a more suitable guy to get the title from him.

Sting could still remain champion and turn face again, there's nothing nonsensical about that. Sting just leaves the MEM on his own terms instead of them "kicking him out." In fact, dare I say shifting the belt from Rhino to Angle and then to, conceivably, Jarrett, tends to be much more ridiculous then just letting Sting keep the belt until a change of champion is really warranted. MEM kicking Sting out of the group gives them far more heat than Sting leaving on his own. The fans still love Sting and having MEM kick him out, for reasons that the are clearly unfair, not only puts heat on MEM but makes Sting a sympathetic babyface. Eh, we'll agree to disagree on that one. Sting needs to get his proverbial "babyface backbone" back again and is slowly building towards doing so with the way this angle is being played out. Having MEM being the ones to tell him he's out of the group doesn't make sense in how Sting is being built here. What makes sense is for him to finally have enough and just leave the group when he decides the MEM are losing perspective on the respect/dignity issue that he always makes a point of. He doesn't need the sympathy heat from a beatdown, really......we're beyond that with a guy like Sting. Let the MEM do that AFTER Sting walks away from them. And having them kick him out because he lost the title to Rhino actually gives the heels some sort of legitimate merit to do so, since it really does make Sting look weak to lose to a guy like Rhino in the first place.

I wonder how long they can hold out on Angle/Foley anyway? Ultimately, Foley's first singles matches should be against Angle, Joe, and Sting seperately. Anything else with him in a singles match is going to be a mistake. Long term maybe a Foley/Jarrett match, but something about that just sounds really horrible to me.

Sting could still remain champion and turn face again, there's nothing nonsensical about that. Sting just leaves the MEM on his own terms instead of them "kicking him out." In fact, dare I say shifting the belt from Rhino to Angle and then to, conceivably, Jarrett, tends to be much more ridiculous then just letting Sting keep the belt until a change of champion is really warranted.

I could see him being the guy who actually comes out during Angle/Jarrett as the guy who costs Jarrett the match to be honest. Joe definately does need to go heel as there is really no option anymore if you ask me. OR As someone mentioned somewhere else in the TNA folder, have MEM take out D-Von during the ppv and before the six man, and Joe then takes D-Vons place and Frontline dominates that match. Nash/Joe then gets booked next month, Joe goes over strong, and then who knows. Rebuilding of Joe as a face is desperately needed, or else a heel turn.

Going back quick to the Samoa Joe stuff..... They did in fact take out an angle from the Impact tapings, for the show that aired last Thursday. Here is what went down from the spoilers posted weeks ago. Jarrett grabbed a mic and cut a promo on Angle after MEM left and Foley did the same about the others. (This was when they ended Impact). This led them all back to the ring where a brawl occurred. Samoa Joe then came to the ring from the crowd (arm in a sling) with a baton and drove the MEM off. Why in the world did they edit this out? I'm guessing for the inevitable Joe run-in tonight to have more meaning?

They almost surely will do KOTM there, though. Having Jarrett in that match, though, makes total sense.

The ppv lineup would have been a million times stronger if they would have just done Foley/Sting and Jarrett/Angle on top and put Rhino in Foley's spot in the six man. Hopefully a double main event such as that will end up happening next month or something. Also, wondering what Samoa Joe's role will be tonight. It almost has to be a lock he does something here tonight. Maybe I am just forgetting something, but I swear there was an angle they filmed at the last Orlando tapings that had him run out and make the save for the Frontline. Was this even ever aired? Then again maybe it never even happened?

Yeah, I can see the Sting/Rhino match just be more building the storyline more with Sting distancing from the MEM more than anything. However, for the sake of trying to keep the Frontline side strong, I do still think he is going to bust his ass pretty hard against Rhino in there, to try to give him a solid rub. That short non-title match they had against each other on Impact back in late November was way better than it had any right to be.

God, Rivers is just completely breaking down here. This is sad.

Wow, yeah that is the epitome of "filler" right there. But it is what it is, I guess.

Considering they had a significantly longer time to tweak and change up the script for this season, I have high hopes it will be an overall much better season than the norm. That was the vibe I got out of the first two hours of this season too......it just seemed more polished and cohesive than most starts of seasons.

Looks like a solid show on paper, fortunately TNA isn't just adding more matches just for the sake of being able to give as much talent a ppv cut, as having seven matches here will give the matches more time, hopefully. *Shane Sewell vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir (The build for this has been tremendous, but it just as much could fizzle out if these two have a shitty match. Have no idea how good or bad Sewell is in the ring, so we will see how it goes. I'm imagining Bashir wins via some screwjob, as they would probably want this program to continue.) *Awesome Kong vs. ? for the Knockouts title in a lumberjack match (It was supposed to be Christy Hemme, but she's out with a bad neck/back or something. Talk is that it will be Taylor taking her spot, which seems obvious that Kong will retain. This would be a good time to really throw a new chick out there and make some sort of waves against Kong, not necessarily beating her, but coming close.) *Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley for vacant X division title (Meltzer said they have been told to "go out there and have a long oldschool style X division match" so this might be really good. Not sure what the fallout will be from this, hopefully it doesn't mean the Machine Guns will break up, but it wouldn't surprise me, since Shelley seems to be the one as the heel more than Sabin is.) *Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed vs. Beer Money vs. Matt Morgan & Abyss for tag titles (This one is a toss-up who will take this. Beer Money works as champs, but Lethal/Creed may be something they should continue with, also. Can't see anything special about Morgan/Abyss as champs......in fact, I could see Morgan maybe doing a turn here in this match on Abyss) *Mick Foley & A.J. Styles & Brother Devon vs. Scott Steiner & Kevin Nash & Booker T (Should be great unintentional comedy to see Nash in there against Foley, might be pretty brutal unless Foley surprises everyone and actually works hard here. But I'm guessing Foley might be a bit green, hence the idea of a six man for his first TNA match. Styles will have to be the anchor and workhorse of this match to make it worthwhile, unless they go ahead and turn this more into a street fight sort of match.) *Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle (Their first match was strong, and expecting this to be even better. Expecting some sort of run-in here to cost Jarrett the match, as the rubber match is inevitable here) *Sting vs. Rhino for TNA title (Probably more of the same MEM interference, and the continued story of Sting not really feeling it. I don't forsee Sting losing the title here, but he will have the match won thanks to the run-ins, but refuse to beat him in that manner. Then will come extremely close to losing the title, but will pull it off at the end. This might be the match alot won't expect to be much, but could turn out being the match of the night possibly. Something tells me these two will click.) And while I don't expect it at all, I'm sure we'll here fans in the arena calling for a Ric Flair appearance tonight throughout the show. It would make perfect sense in terms of the Sting storyline right now, but I just don't see it happening at all.

I'm really torn on the Unborn....it looks good from the previews, but that PG-13 tag just makes me uninterested. And nine out of ten times, these PG-13 horror flicks end up being a huge letdown.

I saw the first two hours last night at a special screening, and WOW, this season was worth the long wait for. Best season premiere in many many many years for 24. I won't spoiler tag anything, but just will say the end of the first two hours is really strong.

For what its worth, I could see TNA definately doing a pay per view in the state of New York somewhere in 09 here. Just seems inevitable. I actually wonder how many pay per views they will turn on the road this year anyway, hopefully they just do every single one on the road this year, that would seem to be the logical idea considering how they keep bumping up their touring like this.

Do what they did from '99-'02...put good wrestlers on those shows. I'm not even going to bother....... Anyone? Bueller.......Bueller???

I'm sure they will head up there in 09. But at least they have and will continue to tour in and around New York in general, though. Shit, the closest they have ever come to around here was Des Moines, IA, which is a 4-5 hour jog from where I'm at (Southern Minnesota). With the Rochester show, that's only an hour or so away from me.

Just because you clearly don't watch the show, and thus are unfamiliar with the names, doesn't mean they should be released. Cutting both ECW and Smackdown brands out completely (and doing what exactly with those timeslots? Don't you get the company actually, ya know, makes money from having more than one brand?) is totally insane. No way to slice it otherwise. Don't even try. And I totally disagree that Truth can't draw at all. Will be ever be a main eventer? Doubtful, but he still will be a guy people enjoy to see and buy merchandise of his from the company.