RedJed

It's really sad the whole situation got messed up as it seems w/ Team Mexico especially. TNA needs to really book this stuff well ahead in advance and solidify agreements better, as evident here. And they really should reconsider bringing back Team UK - that lineup sounded stronger than any of the rest of the teams to be honest.

So do I. Joe winning the X title back is nothing more than a downgrade to him anyway you slice it. Plus what the fuck do you do with Daniels now?!!

Good news to hear since the show was pretty solid if you ask me. The Thurs rating will be interesting to see how different that is compared to the Sat one. Still not convinced 10pm C/11pm ET on a Thursday night is strong, but with TUF there right before it, it might work.

Shocked to hear Joe winning the title back, but makes sense since the Daniels/Liger thing went to shit. Problem now is, though, how to get the belt off him and again, if they want to really move him "up" they cant just job him out of nowhere. And he shouldnt really have the belt for a huge amount of time again IMO either. TNA might have a problem there with what they hotshotted there (or assumed to b/c of the Liger issue)

The first stuff with Edge and Foley is ok, worth checking out. But a really long spell of BAD occurs w/ Carlito/Kane and Show/Masters nonsense - then a HHH/HBK match that was one of the more just "there" matches I've seen on Raw in weeks - so substandard and boring I could have turned the channel easily if I wasn't so lazy. Spirit Squad v. Venis/Vis/Eugene must also be avoided. The MITB build was minimal but Flair got the mic and did some good selling for his cause in the match. The main event stuff is more just weird to watch in that it came off to me as such a trainwreck and further making Cena look weak (Vince should NOT be doing tieups and strength tests w/ Cena, just bad on all levels) that either Cena has to go over at Mania or he's really just getting buried right before our eyes. Vince parading around and trying to work some semblance of an 80s WWF main event style is just damn unentertaining TV, and really should not have any right being the final sendoff to Mania for the night. All in all just a wrong way to finish the Raw side Mania build, as nothing seemed to be accomplished here other than they are really trying hard not to cheer for HHH and jeer Cena. But its so transparent and the other layer is the reality of the situation in that they are creating those boos for Cena now by just making him look like a joke. To their discredit, neither Cena or Michaels did any sort of half decent blade job either which made the segment even fall flatter than it was. Other than Foley/Edge, I have no desire in any other Raw matches other than the women's title. The tag title match is about as stale as you can get for a Mania bout in years.

Saw it in the IMAX last night and highly recommended, especially in that format. The sound in that place is second to fucking none. Quite a decent story for the most part that went in a bunch of different turns. Quality flick for sure, will gladly throw down for a DVD purchase.

I will say this much, that sounds like a pretty decent Impact card, and much less that its being announced before they even tape this makes me at least hope it will be a decent show. They made what could be a good move with pumping Impact up a bit here, hopefully this keeps up because they needed to do something, hell - ANYTHING. At here at least you get what are on paper two potentially interesting matches. Might not even check out the spoilers this week if I already know a lineup like this.

They've been doing MNM v. Mexis v. London/Kendrick v. Kash/Noble on the house show circuit - very possible that match is put on the card somewhere to even out the SD/Raw sides a bit with close an even amount of matches per each brand. Or at very worst possibly on the ppv preshow or something.

Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet, but go back and watch Foleys first WWE title win over Rock in Jan 99 on Raw - when Austin comes out to do his run-in (and IIRC he was on the shelf for about a month before that) the crowd just went APESHIT. The glass broke and I swear everyone in that arena stood up, no - jumped up in unison.

I was, previously, the same train of thought that the problem was just that "oh, well they dont have enough time to give the product justice" - but like you two said, its a case of too little too late in a sense. They are stuck with one hour and will continue to be for awhile, so with that said, they need to change up the shit and work within their limits. Plus to be perfect honest, if they really wanted to do it, they could make Xplosion a complete "B show" - eliminating alot of the BS from Impact and putting it on there, and from there, making Impact MUCH more better. But they dont and continue to stay shallow in mediocrity. And its just sad because I really do think the company has so much more potential than this.

I will say this much, Edge is right fucking on with his sentiments if you ask me. I just got back from a house show in Rochester, MN and Cena and Edge were respectively both the biggest face and heels on the show. They tore the house down in a street fight that was extremely effective in so many ways I dont know where to start. I dont know how to explain it other than saying a match like this should have been on TV or built towards to Mania in some degree. Way better match than I've seen them have before. It may have needed a few more significant spots to deem it Mania worthy, but overall, this was just a great match that blew me away as both Cena and Edge were just ON. If Edge would have been keeping the title until current time and they would have had the match they had at this house show tonight at Mania, the Cena experiment would have been still very much strong. And Edge as well would have benefitted from it as he came off as a real big time player tonight as well. Why this program got cut off at its legs on TV just flat out pisses me off when I saw the potential it had tonight live.

To follow up on the War Games match, apparently the going plan is to have various weapons sent down from the rafters and then they would be up for grabs to whoever whenever. This was reported in the Observer this week. I dont know how they anticipate for the workers to get the weapons, meaning it could be something like a War Games ladder match kind of thing. Still not very excited about it, like most here, I agree AMW needs to be in a match v. Duds and then move Young and Shelley into War Games. It just makes sense. Also, I would like to think Goldberg might be the mystery man, although Observer stated that it will likely just be Styles. IMO Styles should not be in the War Games match at all. Also, apparently the running word is Duds v. Team Canada cage rematch. Yay.

Good to see the number went back up - they really need to get somewhere other than between .7 and .9 though each and every week. I dont know what it would take to get over a 1.0, but they really should try their hardest to do so for the Thurs 3/30 show.

Damn I really dont understand the dynamic of this board right now. Once again, much like SNME, I thought Raw was perfectly acceptable fare, or at least it wasnt fucking horrible and god awful like some are proclaiming. The main event was pretty lame but there was some damn interesting stuff here and there, some that scares me in looking towards the future, but it was still newsworthy. The main thing of the show that kind of caught me was the unspoken "family" thing with HHH and the McMahons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didnt even Vince go as far as to call HHH "my son" during that handicap match? I would assume this leads to them joining back up in some sort of faction to try to generate heat for HHH and pops for Cena. It seemed to work alright last night but WWE continues to cut off Cena's legs in just about every show. But to their credit they got people ending the show really going nuts for Cena (and HBK) so something worked there. The ending security brawl wasnt too bad and at least showed the two babyfaces werent completely inept. The Trish/Mickie angle was fantastic. They hit a jackpot with the busted nose, as that made it just that more well done and the Mickie character should in theory get some decent heat against Trish at this point. People seemed legitimately stunned in a way with the way that whole angle went down. The three way IC match was just fine - what the hell is everyone so up in arms about that for? I've seen a million fuckin worse matches than that. That is a match that stands out above the standard Raw fare. The last 5 minutes or so was good stuff and the hardway blood made the interaction with Flair and Van Dam seem a little more intruiging to watch, since both were basically working on each others cuts surprisingly. Thought the finish was creative as well. Now as far as the Kane/Carlito and Show/Masters matches, they definately were horrible and just not interesting to watch. They are trying with coming up with some heat between Masters and Carlito (and trying to get Masters over) but its just not working. Foley/Edge segment was ok, Foley did a promo that got me a little more interested in his character more than he's been for awhile now (just the typical Foley who always gets his ass kicked and really just puts up with it) so between this segment and SNME, they are at least drawing some interest into that match more than it was prior. Cant really recall anything else on the show that I hated or liked so the rest was just kind of there. The opening segment went WAY too long though.

I tend to agree the same w/ Carlito. UNLESS the writers are trying to shift up that world tag title match and replace Masters and Carlito w. MNM and make that an interpromotional tag title unification match (which would be JUST fine). Which then would move Carlito to MITB and Masters off the card completely. I certainly wouldnt mind that scenario. Again it makes Smackdown look inferior though, but whatever. Lashley/Finley has to keep going through Mania, they got a long distance they can go with that program - probably til at least mid summer I would think.

Thats how it came across to me. I felt like there was too much down time in this episode, overly dramatic but I understand the situation warrants it. The whole Finnerty thing is just Tony dreaming in and out of conciousness with alot of symbolism to the current time. The whole scene in the hospital during the dream I think is just symbolism on being confused/lost and when his head clears and he finds Finnerty, I would imagine that will be when he gets out of the coma. Either that or is there a slim chance that is a flashback of sorts to the first time he cheated or had thoughts of and/or some significant events in his life that turned him into the Tony we all know? I cant remember what Tony did before he got "in" with the family. Maybe what he was going to this conference for, was it.

Yeah I'll be watching it live, from the arena that is.

Hmmm, sounds like there might be a chance for a possible "way to prove themselves" here with this 3/30 date - which, if they would get good ratings from it, may be something more substantial with that Thurs timeslot in the months ahead. Honestly, they are clearly at the point where they shouldnt even bother competing with WWE until they really get back on track, so this just makes sense. Please TNA, do Daniels/Styles/Joe one more time in an Ultimate X rematch since things got so messed up last time. Also TNA, PLEASE take out about some spots on various media outlets and ADVERTISE it. Christian-Jarrett here and Daniels/Styles/Joe in an Ultimate X match would be well enough to call that a really strong Impact show that deserves to be on a Thurs primetime slot. I wonder if the April 1 timeslot will be a replay of the Thurs show or something entirely different?

For once the feud had some intensity and the usage of the table on fire, thumbtack spot, and the conceirto (sp?) reciept for Edge actually made me feel like Foley was there more than just to constantly be commonplace beaten down by Edge. It was a different angle - incorporating spots I would have assumed would have been saved for their match, but yet it draws more interest in that match itself because of it. Bottom line is that it gives me hope for that match as I would imagine there is going to be some significant stuff planned for it if they are using what they did on SNME as a prelude to it. As far as Booker/Boogeyman, all of the Boogeyman nonsense you have to take with a grain of salt. Its not rated as any typical fare but as far as a storyline to build to their Mania match, I thought there could have been alot worse ideas they could have went with.

Only think ironic about it is that back in the day, this was typical on SNME - to do one of the more hyped up matches first to try to catch viewers immediately and ideally hook them. So if anything is was a homage to the old formula that SNME was.

Highly doubtful since he's alraedy in the tag match against Show and Kane. Plus it would just flat out make no sense since Smackdown gets three spots and Raw gets three spots. I must have missed that Carlito/Long stuff on SNME completely as I saw neither man there at all on TV. 99 percent chance says Lashley, as there is really no other suitable spot he could be put on in the Mania card to justify him as one of their guys they are really pushing and focusing on. The only other option I could see was if Smackdown guys who already are in other matches could be put in the battle royal, that I would give Benoit a strong chance of getting the spot and essentially pulling double duty at Mania then. But thats also highly unlikely.

Seems like the general consensus here was that SNME was a dissapointment/letdown. Guess I have to disagree as I saw two pretty decent matches in the first and last ones of the night and a handful of angles that meant something in the build to Mania, and those angles were well done and thought out to mean something substantial. The handicap tag could have been better but yet there was some good intertaction with the SD v. RAW guys in there. I didnt care too much for the HHH show near the end there (pretty much coming out of the match above each and every guy in there except that Angle got to throw him out of the ring) but the finish was well done, as I didnt expect Cena to get up and actually pin Orton there. The boos for Cena were bad enough that WWE has to explore the thought extremely hard about a double turn at Mania. The street fight match was well done sans the finish. With that said though, pulling a finish like that was extremely old to the times and really was a negative on a mostly positive night from my standpoint, but one has to think either they are still trying to bait Bret by this, or else have already made a deal for him to show up in the match at Mania. Otherwise they seem to be digging that whole deeper on trying to get Bret to appear by a move like that. Suplex spot was NUTS, all there is to say about that. The angles done here were good, I thought. Not groundbreaking, but stuff like this on either show would be highlights and standout for sure. The Foley-Edge stuff - well they got me interested in that match FINALLY. Boogeyman/Booker - goofy shit but it worked. Taker/Henry - explanation as to why Davairi likely wont be involved in the casket match. Benoit/JBL has some heat from the Austin/JBL segment, which actually was pretty entertaining by my standards. What was up with Bradshaws nose, it started swelling up and bleeding as he was laying there. That in itself was quite a weird sight to see - a guy's nose swelling up on camera. I guess my expectations were about as high as I would have for a normal Raw or Smackdown show, so with that said, perhaps thats the reason why I enjoyed this more than some. I didnt expect some ppv streamlined action packed show and nothing more because we all have to consider the main point here is BUILDING MANIA. And it appeared they did that pretty well here, at least better than the weekly shows have been putting out. Having Jim Ross back was a breath of fresh air and professionalism in that it seemed like a big show with Ross announcing. Honestly wouldnt mind this same three man team heading up and announcing Mania entirely. It seemed to work. And I cant get over how someone is bitching about that Big Show wasnt on the card. Wow.

I'm sorry but even coming from a TNA fan here, SNME blew Impact out of the water with two matches that were definately watchable (opener and ending) as well as a few strong and noteworthy angles to build to Mania. Now on the flipside, what did Impact have? Well a decent X division three way, a Steiner/Jarrett segment that really didnt accomplish anything, a thrown together pointless main event, a ridiculous squash match w/ Abyss (squashes should ONLY be done now w/ TNA when a new guy comes in and even then its a stretch), and Machete gets beat down by Konnan and Homicide. The buildup for Lockdown via the backstage segments didnt really come across as newsworthy to me either. I really think Joe needs another rematch w/ Styles and Daniels to establish his ferocity more than now, as if he would not win back the X title in another match with them (a match that would see Daniels pin Styles to estabish Daniels as the real deal champ - as of right now, he comes across as a paper champ to be honest) he would really be pissed and THEN move him up in a feud with Sabu. TNA can still accomplish this by delaying the Sabu return, or at best have him return and have Joe immediately (as in minutes after he returns) just kick the living shit out of him, laying him out until the May ppv, and/or when he could cost Joe the match v. Daniels/Styles at Lockdown. Good to know they have 6 weeks to build the Lockdown ppv - with that said, maybe some significant changes will be put into effect with the card, as something has got to give here, as TNA is just not impressing me at all right now.

Yeah but how big was the arena? That might explain alot of empty seats if it held, say 6-7k Results sounded ok, they should consider a DVD release of this as it kind of might hold some value if in fact they ever start doing house shows. Still just so, I dunno, underwhelmed I guess would be the word, with the TNA product as a whole right now and this is another example of such. Its pretty sad when the ICP match sounds like the clear highlight of the show.

Have you seen it? Technically, Smackdown *is* broadcast in widescreen, but with black bars on the left and right sides of the screen. Ummm nope Smackdown isnt broadcast in widescreen, then you wouldnt have those black bars there. Widescreen would be either with NO BARS ANYWHERE or else some stations, even though they dont do HD, may do the show in widescreen anyway which would basically be black bars or some space on every side of the screen. For what its worth I'd like to see it in HD just to see how clear it can be and how much different it would also look in widescreen as well. Its not a big deal really but if its on a HD channel and they have the technology, why not? And for what its worth some sporting events like football, for some reason I cant even explain, are better in HD but more particular in 5.1. But the guy before me is right, it wont be in HD. See the schedule here for confirmation. http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/TV_Schedule/