RedJed

When I saw the promo for this match on Raw, I literally yelled at the TV. It's become Vince's pet project (chuck full of Show v. other big men week after week) 110 percent now. UGH

While looking at these ideas, I cant get why anyone wants to see Jarrett v. Joe. We all know what would be the expected result (Joe over Jarrett clean), they already scrapped in that tag match on the ppv a few weeks ago, in which Jarrett there also put Joe over clean, so what is there to really NEED to see with those two again? They've done the standard babyface beats Jarrett clean and wins the NWA title from him now twice in the last 18 months with Styles and Christian and neither idea drew real legitimate interest and sparked a strong surge of a credible title reign for either, and all it led to was Jarrett winning the title back in both occasions. Isnt it time Jarrett is COMPLETELY out of the title picture ASAP? They also need to blow off Sting/Jarrett and no way should Sting be putting him over as well. You guys fucking confuse me, one second everyone cant stand Jarrett on top, and now you all WANT him to be the fallguy to Joe when there are plenty others that will mean so much more in that role? Plus building Jarrett up to Joe in a three month stretch? Do you know how fucking annoying and painstaking that is going to be to watch? Jarrett has almost ALWAYS been the fallguy to transition the belt off to "the man" - isn't it time to take a look back, see that didnt work before, and realize that Joe is that important to treat with more respect with him winning the title than to have him work a shitty match with Jarrett to win the belt? Plus if he beats Jarrett again, I can almost guarantee there will be a reciept there. What needs to happen is Sting over Jarrett, then a Christian heel turn so Christian and Sting can continue to feud for many months. In the interim the big title match w/ Sting v. Joe is built for BFG.

Whatever the case, the formula fucking sucks. There hasnt been any good wrestling on these shows other than a WWE style Angle/RVD match and, for pure entertainment value, a Show/Flair bout last week. Vince trying to write a company he admittedly just knows from the ONS shows and an occasional match here and there from ECW past is absurd. Having Kevin Dunn so heavily associated with this is even more asinine.

This completely went over your head. That however can probably be said for most of WWE's fanbase and they had the same thought you did. Well, as I said, I didnt see the segment.....just goin by what I heard. So what ARE they trying to portay such action as then? It was a Kiss of Death. He kissed him seconds before Test came in and clobbered Dreamer. I will assume you know what the Kiss of Death means. Ahh, makes sense now. Still sounds equally as ridiculous/lame as assumed.

This completely went over your head. That however can probably be said for most of WWE's fanbase and they had the same thought you did. Well, as I said, I didnt see the segment.....just goin by what I heard. So what ARE they trying to portay such action as then?

Wow what a shit-tastic "main event" that was. Flair/Show was ten times better than that stupid crap that was moreless a selljob to GAB. I didnt even see the rest of the show but from the sounds of it, I definately didnt miss much. Heyman's on air character is now a homo to boot? Wow, the humiliation of the product and its characters/oldschool staff continue. Vince must have told Styles and Tazz they weren't "excited" enough on air as they oversold just about EVERY FUCKING MOVE of that main event match and angle. Absolutely horrible from what I've seen, and then heard about the rest of the show. Please just kill the rating so hard, Vince, that you just let Heyman book the last dying weeks of the company so you can say it was his fault when the fact was you killed it and it will be past salvaging if you give him a chance again at the book. But at least the brand can go out with some sort of dignity because its clear anyway you slice it, I dont think the brand will survive much past the next few months.

So they think DeAngeles is annoying and Justin Roberts ISNT? Fuck, why can't they just get Artese (sp?) or something?

Didnt look any better than he did in WWE or back in TNA, not any worse either.

Just for curiousity to see what kind of rating it would/could get, I'd much rather see NBC try moving the next (if there even will be one) SNMEs to its traditional SNL timeslot when SNL is a repeat one week.

Ok well lets break this down here.... Fans chanted "This show sucks" because it was primarily booked by Vince and was not "traditional ECW" in any sense.....1st chance to see the reality of it.... Low ticket sales was because they did the same thing, but less intense, at the ECW Arena and the fans ALSO shitted on that....2nd chance for the company to see the reality of it.... Dropoff in rating from week one to week two because, well, week one, which Vince and Dunn had their fingers ALL OVER SUCKED ASS. What do you fucking expect......3rd chance for the company to see the reality of it.... So the reality that was supposed to be learned by the company was that their attempts to "make ECW theirs in the unique vision they can only produce" FAILED. Logic would dictate that is because the people that are tuning in 1) want a true alternative and NOT what the WWE normally does, 2) current WWE fans who never saw ECW before are looking to see what ECW was all about back in the day (which requires them to treat the tradition of the brand with RESPECT), and thought they might get a taste of it, and 3) the oldschool ECW fans WANTED something close to a similar product than it was before. WWE tried to fight these three points as much as they could, the fans spoke vocally about not liking what they saw by the ratings drop, among other things and yet..... INSTEAD the company is now going MORE towards their "vision" which will only further drop the rating. Its completely and utterly illogical. They had to chance to CLEAR AS DAY see why the experiment wasnt working, which is because THEY ARE TRYING TO RE-ESTABLISH A COMPANY THAT THEY HARDLY EVER WATCHED, MUCH LESS WERE A FAN OF. NOBODY WANTS TO SEE ANOTHER WWE STYLE BRAND - if it was working that well for the other two, the ratings would be skyrocketing. The point is the typical wrestling fan NEEDS a true alternative because nothing right now is drawing. Plus they have the guy ON PAID ROSTER who was the mind of ECW for the most part, and YOU DONT LET HIM WRITE THE PRODUCT THAT PUT HIM ON THE MAP, MUCH LESS REMAIN IN ANY CREATIVE CAPACITY ON??!! I mean he didnt even so much as get a chance other than the first ONS, which drew them tons of $$$, but yet even though it PROVED that the nostalgia DRAWS for ECW, you fight against it immediately? This makes the Alliance fuckup look like an afterthought.

I dunno either. Yeah there was no Umaga-Cena angle at SNME at all that I saw. There has been no build or even hint at a Umaga-Cena match on Raw either, so not sure what Dave is talking about. Since Cena put Edge through a table, we automatically get Umaga in replacement?!

The ppv was a mixed bag of exciting and boring action, smart and mundane booking, and everything else in between. The opener was ok w/ Douglas and that promo to put the team over. Basic match but Naturals looked good in there. Already covered Brown-Rhyno, smart booking there since the match wasnt even built at all on Impact, so its something I preferred to see other than a real match right now with a clean win for one or the other. This feud should have legs if booked properly, which is rare to see in TNA. The LAX tag match was fucking phenominal for a middle of the card bout, didnt expect anything near that level going into it. Senshi-Kazarian was not too bad, but seemed filler material all things considered. Didnt feel like an X title match at all, more like Impact opener. Team Canada segment wasted time, but could see why it was done, but could have just as easily been on Impact. Eric Young has an upside as the cult favorite, sans Mikey Whipwreck of TNA. Raven-Zbysko was a trainwreck of an actual match, match has zero heat and just proved to show this feud was crap from the start, took way too long to get to the blowoff where not a single person really cared. Incredibly boring shit that should have at least seen someone run out during or after the Zbysko shaving and attack Raven for a new program (Jake Roberts and ???). Nash was stoned or something during the interview he had, very bizzare and weird segment there. Match was pretty dull and Nash wasnt selling nearly as well or as much for the faces this time around. Six man next month I guess w/ Lynn running in there. At this point it seems like Nash is trying to escape a job or something. Six man hardcore match was alright, took a while to get going, but when it did, it was resemblant of a typical hc affair with a few cool spots. The fans really bumped Spike off those stairs there, damn. Finish was way flat though with the table not breaking on that Black Hole Slam through the table on Spike. Didnt see what was the point of this match at all other than to try to act like they are competing with ECW (Buh Buh stapled a "ECW fears TNA" sign to Abyss' head during the match). Six man tag title match was ok but just was so boring to sit through, other than seeing what Kim could do in there against the guys. Finish was predictable. The new he-she isnt impressive at all really and added zero to the match. Main event had a decent start but it fell apart when Steiner fucked up what appeared to be a major spot in the match. From there it just went downhill with Joe and Christian trying to save it but failed. The way Sting was treated in the match was something you've seen in wrestling in the match and, again, went the predictable route with the finish. With that said, I like the direction the company appears to be going with the title though. Sting should beat Jarrett next month, Jarrett gets a de-push (feud with Raven maybe?), Christian then turns on Sting after he beats Jarrett, building to Sting/Christian at the ppv before BFG. Meanwhile Joe can beat Steiner next month, Jarrett likely at the ppv before BFG, and then we have Joe/Sting for BFG with the inevitable Joe title win. In between all of this, when Sting/Christian starts at the Sept ppv, it can be a decent match but just be a start to a longterm feud with those two after BFG and after Sting loses the belt. The idea there should be to build up Christian as a decent challenge to Joe months after he gets the title (by Sting putting over essentially both guys), leading to a big match with those two also down the road. Basically Sting's role in all of this is that he'll be champ for a few months (since he is the real name the company needs to focus on to put it on the guy who means something - case in point, Jarrett jobbed clean to Christian and that didnt help Christian's title win and run one single bit) which is enough for him before the fans will likely turn on the idea anyway. At this point in his career, Sting does deserve the belt a few months, but much like Jarrett, only served as a transition of sorts to someone much larger and meaningful.

Crazy hell of a match w/ Dutt/Killings v. LAX, everyone looked fantastic in the match, Hernandez in particular was very impressive.

Well, TNA did the right thing by doing an angle more than a match with Rhyno-Brown just a moment ago on the ppv, great short brawl that really put over their finishers more than anything (the ref took both finishers about 2:00 in), which is exactly how they should start booking what appears to be a long term feud with the both of them. They did a no-contest with a brawl that ended up going into the crowd and continued (apparently) out of the arena.

It's a very unusual rarity that I try to catch a movie around here and its sold out or limited capacity, but tried to go see POTC now twice in the last week and both times have been met with a "sold out" when I get there (which is usually 10 min after it starts so I dont have to sit through mindless product commercials even before the trailers) so they are doin something right here. Hope to finally check it out later in the week.

I'd say Kazarian for sure in the X title match, and either Bentley/Puma. There is no room for a Bentley/Kazarian tag match on this card, plus if it was the plan, you'd imagine TNA would have announced it ahead of time. One thing about this lineup is that it boggles my mind that Rhino-Brown is booked so nonchalantly. Months ago I thought this was such a strong upper level in the card match it wasnt even funny, as both have strong similar finishers that they could have played up against each other. Instead they have this match with ZERO build, not even so much as doing a single angle to build it. How sad is that. With that said, I'm still getting the show tonight but TNA still doesnt have a hold of making these ppv cards seem really exciting on paper at all. The seems like a two hour Clash-type special versus what should be an actual ppv card. Impact has been a-ok lately, but its still not at the expense of building the ppv up properly.

The number doesnt shock me at all. I enjoyed the show last night but the hype for it was non-existant up until about two weeks ago, and even then it was minimal on each show for the most part. WWE just has too many irons in the fire more than ever and that means little focus on each in particularly. I downright forgot about the show last night, thankfully I DVRed it so I didnt miss it but still, that shows how the hype-job was for this one. NBC was worried about how little WWE was doing to promote it weeks ago, so I'm sure they werent surprised by this either.

You know, thats not that bad of an idea, this is assuming Edge goes over Cena at SummerSlam (which I doubt). The key, as many have stated, is that Edge keeps the title for a good while and just doesnt job it back to Cena when that "right time" comes. In fact I will go so far as to say they need Cena-Edge at SummerSlam in a complete blowoff match for the two with some I quit stipulation or something. Edge needs some credibility AS champ and thats only going to come from the guy that discontinued that credibility before in Cena. In the world of "even-ness" in WWE where it seems like guys job to each other only to get the job back in due time, it only makes sense. Plus like others have said, Cena as champ is what draws the negative reaction from the fans, so they need to take their time to even consider putting it back on him, probably at earliest being Mania to be honest, if not even past that. Now we all know Orton is jobbing to Hogan (Observer stated its already in the books as of a few weeks ago) so it just makes sense to go to Hogan/Edge in a short feud at Unforgiven and maybe even Taboo Tuesday isnt out of the question (depends how much Hogan wants to work with WWE post-SummerSlam, I guess) to blow that whole deal off. Hogan/Edge could work, playing off Edge's past w/ Hogan. That is the feud they should really aim to go for, I think. The Unforgiven match can be a screwjob w/ Orton costing Hogan the match, leading to a rematch w/ Hogan and Orton at Survivor Series, while Edge could work a match w/ HHH at Survivor Series. Michaels/Edge.........I dunno, not really feeling it. Michaels is injured and wont be able to work likely as good of a match as these two have had before. PLUS they have feuded before earlier this year on and off......I think the more realistic deal here is that we might see Michaels/Edge in more of a hyped up main event on a loaded Raw in the fall or SNME, leading to HHH/Edge from there (Vince will continue to keep blocking HHH from a title shot by having Orton be his sidekick, post SummerSlam to feud with HHH at Unforgiven and Taboo Tuesday). Carlito has a strong upside but it will take time to get him past IC title status and upward....ironically enough it may not be until a Cena heel turn takes into effect that he can really reach a strong program with a main eventer, as I just can't see Carlito mesh well with other heels like Orton or Edge, really.

Oh I can understand Flair can still go, there is no question. Hell, I will even admit he got one of the largest pops of the entire night last night at the taping. But I still can't buy him as an ECW mainstay, maybe considering the history of ECW and how Flair was treated by such, which I admit I need to get over, but still refuse to. It's like if Sting came into WWE, it just doesnt add up to me. On a side note, I guess I am the only one who thinks Kelly Kelly is worth having on TV. She's sexy as fuck, but I admit is really bad at whatever she is supposed to do. But thats kind of what makes her entertaining. She is hot and has no idea what the fuck she is doing. Its like the ultimate dumb blonde role she is unintentionally playing on air.

Regarding the Styles situation, I will say this much. Joey was very much, live, looking like he did not want to be there. He didnt even so much as shake or slap anyones hands in and out of coming out to announce the matches. He sat there during commercials very apathetic towards everyone involved, and this was including the production people who seemed to be trying to talk to him (for whatever reason). Tazz, likewise, did not seem too into it himself, but not nearly as much as Styles did. He doesnt look happy or even remotely interested in what he is doing, off-camera. I will outright admit I did not expect that rating for the show after the abysmal show last week. But, hey, it was a solid show and as such, it did give justice to the jump in the rating. With that said, I'm definately not on the bandwagon here about having Flair become an ECW regular. While I would like to see Flair-Foley in a hardcore match, its likely that will occur at SummerSlam and left at that, probably rightfully so. If I want to see another Terry Funk, I'd rather see, well, Terry Funk. Flair as an ECW regular is just not something I can see working long term.

A-fuckin-men HTQ, you spelled it out to a tee. Jarrett is NOT the guy to do the lowly job to Joe for him to take the title. Whats so fucking wrong with Joe being a tweener and feuding with Sting? He can go full face AFTER the win. Jarrett needs out of the title scene ASAP, and that means by jobbing to Sting to blow off that program, STAT. Then from there, TNA can run with a few months with Sting on top (which is a good thing if it is short term) and the Joe over Sting will mean MUCH more than Joe over Jarrett, guaranteed.

Considering Jarrett already put Joe over clean a few ppvs ago, I would bet when/if the time comes again, its time for Joe to lose via screwjob to him, Jarrett can brag about ending the streak (this would bring back visions of Goldberg losing to Nash at Starrcade all over again) and then well after its too late to mean anything, Jarrett will put Joe over in a rematch. I hope, instead, we just dont get Jarrett/Joe at all for the belt, and instead Sting is fed to Joe to give him the belt (meaning Sting would beat Jarrett at the Aug ppv leading to Sting/Joe at BFG in October) and Jarrett/Joe just NEVER HAPPENS, PERIOD. It doesnt smell of anything near a money match at all to me.

Even though alot of people around me at the show live and myself wanted more from an ECW show than what we got (and there was ALOT of old ECW fans in the arena, more than I expected) I think with all things considering, that wasnt that bad of a show at all and by the end of it, it worked more than probably any week has for me personally. It was nice to be in the crowd that was a pretty vocal oldschool ECW one too, that surprised me. Test showing up was a groaner, and the Heyman promo was kind of transparent, but otherwise overall it was alright. Test-Dreamer was kind of shit though. Sabu/Credible left people scratching their heads....again WWE trying to make a point on their "new rules for ECW" which just confuses most of the fans more than anything, as they expect every match in an ECW environment to be no DQ, etc. They can insist on doing it the "WWE way" but the casual fans will always question that and/or piss on it. Flair/Show was weird at first as it started REALLY fucked up, like neither was cooperating with each other for about a minute, were talking to each other vocally ALOT between each other and the ref, they seperate for a while and aimlessly circle the ring while communicating with the referee, then Show tells Flair to get out of the ring or else he'll "hurt him", Flair doesnt, and then Show up and leaves for no good reason. Flair then stands in the ring dumbfounded, again talking en masse to the ref, cuts a brief promo on Show to get back out, and then Show appears back again a minute later (this may have been during a commercial, havent seen the tape yet) and they work the match. I was blown away that this match was done as is as both of them took ppv beatings in a sense. But it made for a memorable main event.

I was at the show tonight (got a comp today from the E) and the shit with the diva search (which was indeed pushed hard all night and everyone was sick of hearing about it by the end) hurt the show overall with what was a decent pure wrestling show on SD with a few good angles. Not only was it drawn out, but Miz STILL fucked things up again on the mic, and then we got to see the return of "Mr. Dick Johnson" who is the character name to the fatass WWE writer who does the stripper gimmick, who they bring back to do a run through the boot camp deal before the chicks did. This was some of the most horrendous shit you will ever see on a WWE show, the shit with this guy and Sandman was bad enuogh in ECW, but this was ten times worse, as you can imagine the camera angles they were using when this guy was falling through ropes, over the tiny walls in the obstacle course, etc. Turned off most of the crowd from the start by bringing that guy back and then having to sit through 20 minutes of boot camp contest crap beyond that was just fucked. But decent SD stuff in the ring. Hardy/Kennedy, Regal/Mysterio, London/Noble and Lashley/Finley were all decent TV matches in their own right, but probably nothing above *** for any of them. Batista/Henry did good in their segment, and the opener w/ Booker and Regal jumped from behind by Rey wasnt bad either. Taker showing up was a nice twist, and Khali is ridiculous looking live in person. One other thing to mention, if anything from this show to point out on a side note, is how really together their road crew is with these set transitions from SD to ECW. Its hard to explain but they really get alot of shit done in about 10 minutes time, complete set change with the SD set not seen one bit once ECW hits.

If they could be allowed to quit, they could potentially save their own careers with a run-in on an upcoming TNA show, "shooting" on the situation, and turning TNA or at least part of the TNA roster into a "fuck ECW" deal, with Rhino and the Duds obviously joining in. I have a feeling once Van Dam returns, it's certainly not going to be pushing him back on top immediately again. Van Dam, as well as Sabu will likely continue to do jobs throughout the next few months in the least (or until the company finishes up and closes shop by the end of summer) and be "made examples of" in the company, which will lead to them pushing guys like Show, Test, and other horribly vanilla heels on top of a company that will ultimately be digging it's own ditch - still not getting shitty heels liek them over and in the process killing off any last attempt at a sustaining credible push, especially important for Van Dam right now. If they bury him again like they have in WWE before time and time again, there is really not even any value for him to show up on TNA. Think of it like Matt Hardy before coming back to WWE and Matt Hardy now in terms of his value to another company that's trying (keyword: trying) to compete with Vince in TNA.