RedJed

The show as a whole seemed like a rip-off from top to bottom. I had hope for the show as most of these thrown together ppvs end up delivering strong (see lst year's Armageddon for an example) but this one just was bland and basic as ever. Nothing was even above ***, seemed like I was watching a multi-brand amped up house show essentially. Left me VERY underwhelmed, especially at the way the main event was booked, and the little time it was given when those guys could have EASILY gone another 10-15 minutes since there was time left before the top of the hour. Its painfully obvious the writers are more concerned with the Vince angle more than anything and pretty much half-assed this effort (or lack thereof). In theory, they should have just taken this off ppv altogether, kept the same lineup and ran it tomorrow night for the three hour show alongside the Vince Memorial gimmick. I wouldnt have felt nearly as bad about the show then.

I figured Killings was out sometime soon - they havent done shit with him in a long while, he was obviously in the doghouse, and the only reason he was on the ppv was to pay some sort of nostalgic respect to those who were from the company from the start. Truth had a clear "I dont give a fuck" look on his face at the Nashville show and I dont blame him really. Konnan, on the other hand --- I'm surprised he is gone. I would assume there is something there to do with AAA, perhaps TNA wanted him to work the company exclusively and leave AAA completely or something. Since he is moreless running the creative in AAA, I dont blame him either, if this is in fact the case. For what its worth, Konnan IS a hell of a talker, but I think Cide can hold his own on the mic so it shouldnt be that much of an issue with the LAX team as a whole, at least I hope. I'd expect a de-push potentially, though.

Overall I thought it was a very strong show - everything but the VKM match was solid to me. KOTM match was a solid **** in my book, and a handful of other matches (opener, X division title match, Abyss-Tomko, etc) were in the above *** range. The Wycheck match even surprised me, as well as Backlund's match, as being at least entertaining. Plus it was a very hot crowd, which made the show stand out pretty well.

Followed by Ron Simmons - "DAMN!"

Oh and I forgot to mention, besides the McMahon "death" being one of the most WTF (in a good way) segments ever in WWE history, in the same night we get what was quite possibly the second most WTF moment (in a bad way) in quite some time with Moolah and Mae Young wearing lingere, barking uncontrollably, damn near downblouse action, and from that, me begging for a far off panned wide shot ala WCW in 95 (when someone would be bleeding) all in one segment. Ashley's attempt at talking coherantly beforehand was equally surreal in itself.

I wonder if the point of agreement that got Bret, who always was thought to never even have an interest or want to cut a promo on Vince be that they were told this was his swansong of the character or something? Whatever the case, it was quite the ending for sure, actually overall a pretty fun show to watch, albeit it felt a little like a goofy acid trip of a show, but all the same it was interesting. My guess is Vince is just going nuts and staged his own death or something, it will be revealed.

I thought the same thing and that could be yet another possible idea behind the ending - Tony was just having some daydream about "how it could be" with him and his family, almost a flashback in his mind to a tradition his family used to do or something, and let his paranoia in the dream itself manifest with the handful of hitmen coming into the fold.

From that above noted article (good read, by the way - certainly suggests a chance of a film down the road) -- Not from Chase, but I feel the need to debunk the e-mail that's making the rounds about all the Holsten's patrons being characters from earlier in the series. The actor playing Member's Only guy had never been on the show, Tony killed at least one, if not both, of his carjackers, and there are about 17 other things wrong with this popular but incorrect theory.

I took this one totally the opposite way. He was excited. The "we" was NJ and Tony winning over Phil and NY. I think he really was on to working terror and was genuinely excited that Tony got to Phil. He quickly straightened up when he realized what he just did... which lead me to believe that he was happy for Tony getting to Phil. That's how I took it too. Plus the ex-fed was kind of turning into a Tony-esque character, cheating on his wife, feeling the pressure of the job, etc, etc. I dont know what to think of those notes from another board on who was who in the diner - if true, would be certainly interesting, but the fact remains, regardless of that, that the closure wasnt here that was expected to be regarding all of that. Did Tony get killed? Did the whole family get killed? Did Meadow even fucking get in the diner or was that someone else walking in? So many questions, no answers. That whole scene reminded me of fucking the hottest chick you've ever seen, you're just about to blow a load, and then all of a sudden your dick falls off or something. Just a major letdown to what was five minutes of intense building up to something there that never happened. With everything said, and from reading a long winded AP piece on the show, it seems there is almost definate plans to make a movie in about 2-3 years, so I can live with this ending as long as its followed up in the movie, dare I say start the film with this EXACT SCENE continued.

I'd be perfectly fine with a multi-man tag match - 5 v. 5 - Wee Man, Knoxville, Bam, Steve, and Pontius v. Umaga, Miz, Masters, Finley, Hornswaggle or something like that. Otherwise, anything else is probably a bad idea.

Hey, for what its worth, he could have really been buried to the max, and at least they gave him a minor rub on the way out last night. Plus I much would have rather seen him put over Orton over a guy like Snitsky too. At least their is POTENTIAL for something out of Orton if he gets his shit in order completely. Snitsky has zero potential and upside to him.

Ironcally speaking of Sabin-Shelley, there was a spot in this weeks Observer that there has been thought given to doing a X division tag title and right now would be the perfect time to have those two be the flagbearers of that title.

Man, that show seemed bland tonight. The RVD selljob (swan song?) to Orton was well done, but otherwise, nothing that stood out that much to me, although I thought the women's wet bikini battle royal was actually fun to check out.

Possible we saw the last Van Dam WWE appearance tonight on Raw?

I am pretty sure the show will air as it was taped in that same order. The old philosophy of when it aired latenight was to have the bigger stuff near the first half of the show and the more mundane material to close out the night, to try to get high viewership while its still plausably "early" in the night. Thoughts on these results are that it sounds pretty dull overall.

That is the first match Raven has had in, shit, many MANY months. Anyone know a reason WHY that is/was the case? Spoilers sound ok on paper, although I was expecting some more substance to building some of the undercard of the next ppv. Harris and Rhyno particularly as a team just seems as random of a pairing up as I have ever seen. A feud with them and LAX does nothing for me and makes no sense other than that Harris was a part of a team that feuded with LAX right as they did his injury angle. Sting, theoretically, should also be in the KOTM match at the next ppv instead of a match v. Daniels. Rhyno/Daniels II would have been perfectly acceptable for Slamiversary and continuing to slow build this Sting/Daniels deal would have been much smarter to me, setting that program up for later in the summertime.

Belts looks pretty good, now that I have a better look at it as well I really think the new world title is one of the better looking world titles in the US currently.

TNA cut away from everything far too soon in a mad rush to cram as much in as possible. After the Texas Death match, which was really good, they focused on Harris for about fifteen seconds before cutting to that botched Sting promo. No replays of the big spots from the match, no post-match deal with Harris getting to his feet and standing over Storm. Nothing. They just rushed into the next segment before any of it could sink in. It's why nothing gets over as well it can. Actually you are wrong - they recapped the highlights from that deathmatch and commented significantly on it AFTER the Sting promo. They certainly put the match over, more than most of the other bouts, with a retrospect on it not immediately after the match, but a few minutes afterwards. I take the Angle deal at the end with them cutting away so quickly was just to make people tune in on Thursday to check the show out, like of like a "WTF just happened, better watch to find out" type idea. For what its worth, this was TNA's best ppv IMO since lord knows when. Pretty much every match except VKM shit was at least *** and a few really were something, such as the Deathmatch, X division title match as well. Wouldn't it have been a good idea to recap the match right after the match, like it's normally done, instead of letting the enthusiasm and momentum fade away? Given TNA's penchant for rushing from one thing to the next as soon as possible, I think it more likely it was the usual attempt to get as much stuff in as they could instead of letting things sink in. I'd agree that it was TNA's strongest PPV in quite some time. If they were just trying to cram shit in and not give time to put over important parts, the retrospective highlights and thoughts on the deathmatch from Tenay and West wouldnt have even happened - period. To me, them doing as they did made much more of an impact then them just recapping the match like any of the other bouts right after the match. They breaked off, did the Sting promo, let the action from that match sink in a bit, and then covered it. WWE has done this many times over as well and it seems to emphasize certain matches or moments better than the norm (right after the match, treating it like any other match/angle).

I could see TNA taking him back in a package deal w/ Van Dam in the summer or something. I dont recall he burnt bridges with TNA all that bad, doing a job to Samoa Joe I believe as his blowoff there, and he was even injured before that match.

Much like Raw last night, not the greatest sounding lead-in to the ppv. But we'll see how it turns out.

TNA cut away from everything far too soon in a mad rush to cram as much in as possible. After the Texas Death match, which was really good, they focused on Harris for about fifteen seconds before cutting to that botched Sting promo. No replays of the big spots from the match, no post-match deal with Harris getting to his feet and standing over Storm. Nothing. They just rushed into the next segment before any of it could sink in. It's why nothing gets over as well it can. Actually you are wrong - they recapped the highlights from that deathmatch and commented significantly on it AFTER the Sting promo. They certainly put the match over, more than most of the other bouts, with a retrospect on it not immediately after the match, but a few minutes afterwards. I take the Angle deal at the end with them cutting away so quickly was just to make people tune in on Thursday to check the show out, like of like a "WTF just happened, better watch to find out" type idea. For what its worth, this was TNA's best ppv IMO since lord knows when. Pretty much every match except VKM shit was at least *** and a few really were something, such as the Deathmatch, X division title match as well.

Ummm thats Kennedy (or I mean the company) clearly kayfabing, folks. Probably an additional layer of story to draw sympathy to a returning babyface Kennedy in late 07/early 08.

Wow, they did it right regarding Edge - I'm shocked. It's amazing or just downright ironic at least that some of the best moves from this company has come from injurys, etc. Case in point, Michaels bailing from Mania 13 to set up Austin/Hart.

What, Matt Hardy? I'm sorry but a match again with those two guys might be fun on a random future Smackdown, but there isn't potential in rehashing that program again when you got Batista, Rey Jr., and others like perhaps Benoit as an example that would make much more suitable challengers for the here and now. I would think Edge goes over Batista at JD thanks to Henry helping Edge out again.

Cant wait for that match at the ppv. Speaking of JD, they need to add some gimmick badly to Lashley v. Shane/Vince/Umaga at the ppv. If that match is anything like Backlash, its gonna be mass suxors.