iggymcfly

Great show. The biggest problem TNA's had the last year or so has been lack of really over main event faces, but with the final full face turn for Sting leaving the Mafia, he's hugely over right now. They really have everything together. I'm starting to really believe that TNA could pass the WWE as the #1 wrestling program in America in a few years if they keep this up. Also, liked that for once we got a clean finish to a big main event. Angle really looked like a force making Jarrett pass out due to the pain there. The undercard's been good too. I was trying to find some garbage segments to fast-forward through because I had things to do after and I just couldn't. The only boring-looking match was Holliday/Lethal and then they didn't even have a match there as it was just a vehicle for the Abyss/Stevie feud which is also really hot right now.

Yeah, I liked this Impact a lot too. The shows going into Slammiversary left me kinda cold, but I think the turn for Joe is really good as the psycho character wasn't working very well and with the MEM basically ditching Sting for him, he seems like a real main event player for the first time in recent memory. The timing on Sting being ousted from the Mafia was perfect too as he's far enough removed from his heel title reign that it's not really a distraction and by teasing the turn so long and then backing off it, it actually seemed like kind of a shock and a really big deal to finally pull the trigger. Great storyline development all around. My one major complaint would be that we never seem to get the wrestlers that are feuding actually wrestle on PPV. (AJ Styles has to defend his title against Nash instead of facing Joe, Foley's likely getting a rematch against Angle instead of facing Jarrett, and Angle's defending against Foley instead of facing Sting.) Still, Russo writes turns about 15x better than the hacks that work for WWE and I'm really buying into all the characters in the main event right now.

Just wanted to be one of the cool kids. And by cool kids, I mean creepy stalker internet nerds.

BTW, even though he's been completely forgotten I assume Lashley will take the last spot in the KOTM match. Kinda retarded they've waited so long to use him, but he's a way more logical choice than Steiner, Nash, or Booker.

Yeah, this was definitely a sloppy show. Daniels/Suicide was really dull, the "throwing in the towel" finish for an "I quit" match was terrible, and the way the main event played out made no sense at all. They at least kind of explained why Angle and Sting got pissed off at each other, but it still doesn't make sense for them to turn on each other when they have nothing to gain, and Jarrett trying to pin Sting twice just completely defied all logic. Jarrett and Sting don't even have a beef, why would he want to end his career?' It was actually pretty pathetic the way the announcers were trying to sell the leadership of the MEM changing as some major event. If they wanted to go with that finish, they should have done more to sell the friction throughout the match and then sold it as a mistake made in anger. If Angle and Sting worked together for most of the match and then fought over who would pin Foley, leading Angle to give Sting a chair shot and Sting to retaliate later and take the pin, at least I could buy that. The way it went down was just retarded though.

The last two weeks haven't been quite as good as some of the previous shows, but it's still a very solid show that's consistently worth watching. I actually thought the contract signing for the women's match was great as I absolutely loved Angelina Love's promo. She's such a cocky bitch that even when she's scared, she still just can't help herself from being completely patronizing and taunting Kong even more. I actually liked the Rocky angle too, the part where Mick was actually taking punches from the cutout while the guy hides behind Rocky like he doesn't want us to see him there was pretty funny. I mean, you can't expect too much new storyline development once the whole card's already set, but I still thought tonight's show was more entertaining than not.

Only the person taking the pin loses the thing they're "sacrificing". I don't even think the title's on the line if someone other than Foley is pinned. Could make for an interesting dynamic in the match as Jarrett who's been hell-bent on destroying the MEM might find it worthwhile to pin Angle and win the match that way, whereas say Sting wouldn't get much out of "leadership of the MEM" and would probably fight to try to pin Foley.

Nah, Daniels definitely belongs in the main event. He's pretty much the only young face they have that has enough charisma to be able to really get over with the crowd. He just needs to cut off that stupid mustache.

Loving what they're doing with Foley's character right now. When he's got some actual material to work with, he really is tremendous on the mic. I honestly forgot how good he could be. I really consistently enjoy Impact nowadays in a way that I haven't enjoyed pro wrestling since probably the "Smackdown Six" days at the end of 2002. They build strongly to the main event segment every week, and it's always something that feels meaningful and worth watching. Almost every undercard segment is interesting too, as the Kong/Love feud's the best feud I've seen in the Knockouts division, and the tourney's a neat idea to provide the tag division with some much-needed structure. Another A+ effort from Impact. If they keep this up, I think they can actually catch the WWE within 3 or 4 years.

I actually think West has done a really good job lately, much better than Tenay. He doesn't blindly support every heel. He supports the Main Event Mafia because he's a cranky old-timer just like them and he supports the Beautiful People because (at least in storyline), they're super hot and attractive. If anything, I'd say that West supports the heels less ardently than Tenay supports the faces and most of the time when he really goes off, it's just to point out Tenay's hypocrisy who he still has a well-established reason to hate.

Yeah, tremendous, tremendous Impact. Foley's Cactus Jack interview was the best promo I've seen in years and the main event was absolutely awesome. They built the PPV perfectly too. I've never ordered a TNA PPV before but I'm leaning strongly toward doing so this Sunday. The whole ECW atmosphere they've been building sounds like it could make for a tremendously fun show and if Foley can still bring it 1/4 as well in the ring as he did on the mic, the main event could surprise a lot of people.

Wow, what happened to the traffic here? Anyway, I like the Mavs in 6, the Nuggets in 7, and the home team in 6 or less in every other series. Looks to not be that competitive of a first round really.

Seems like the #1 problem for TNA right now is lack of credible faces/lack of ability to build credible faces. The Sting/Foley thing's been a fun program but Foley looks so old and out of shape that it can only last about 1 month tops without getting ridiculous. And the other two top faces at the moment, Jarrett and Sting are both way too old to carry things very long. They really need to give a focused build to someone as the top face of the future really soon. The question is who? They seem to be trying to push Joe somewhat, but his promo skills are lacking and his physical shape's pretty bad, even ignoring all the problems with the new gimmick. I mean how can you not laugh at a guy when his fake tattoo rubs off in the middle of the ring? And Styles has been buried so long that I can't see him becoming a credible #1 face any time in the near future. One thing I kinda wonder is why they haven't gone after RVD. He's got a monster fanbase and he is at least still in his 30s in decent shape to work for a while. If they had him go through the MEM and then take the title, I think he'd be massively, massively over. He'd be a great fit for TNA too because he can get over on his ring work even when he's written poorly. Especially with TNA's profile raising lately, I don't see why he wouldn't be willing to work there. If they are looking in-house, the only person I can really see rising to that role right now is Christopher Daniels. He's got the crediblity as a "TNA original" that would fit the current storylines perfectly and he always gets super over no matter what gimmick they stick him with. I think they could make a pretty good storyline about him leveraging the X division title to get back into TNA if they unmasked him as Suicide and then eventually let him rise the ladder among the MEM before eventually taking the title. Thoughts? I think the important thing is just that they do something. If they keep trying to ride it out with Sting as he turns 50 and his body breaks down, I think it's going to really inhibit their growth. Someone else needs to be pushed as a top star and it needs to be done fairly quickly.

Thought this was another really good episode of Impact and for I think the first time I ever, I didn't fast-forward through one segment the entire program. Also FWIW, I think there's a pretty decent chance I'll order Lockdown and I couldn't have told you one match on the Wrestlemania card before opening this thread so Foley's promo wasn't really that far out there. He didn't even say that Lockdown was bigger than Wrestlemania, just that it's what people are talking about right now as the Foley/Sting feud's fresh. Also, the character he's playing right now is supposed to be at least a little delusional anyway which makes it even less of a stretch.

Anybody else watch this? It was on Showtime tonight, and it's really, really interesting. There already setting up a plotline with a main villian that's a rival killer, and it seems like what the storyline with the killer would have been on Nip/Tuck last year if they actually had a plan for the storyline when they started it, and didn't derail the whole thing with mundane subplots all the time. Honestly, this looks like the most promising new series I've seen in quite a long time.

Come on this company bleeps Steiner every time he makes even a remotely sexual reference whether it uses any swear words or not. You really think they're going to have a "vibrator on a pole" match?

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying Impact right now. I've found the WWE consistently unwatchable for years, and while I've been watching TNA sporadically for a while, it wasn't until this Sting/Angle/Foley stuff that I've started recording Impact every week and watching every single episode. I know Sting and Foley aren't in the best shape right now, and it may not make for a **** PPV match at Lockdown, but from the POV of having an entertaining television program week in and week out, TNA is top-notch right now. It seems like every week, there's a storyline that builds throughout the program and leads to something significant happening. Even during the typically throwaway pre-PPV show, Angle pushing Jarrett over the line ended up leading to him naming himself and Foley as the guest referee/enforcer which ended up costing Angle his shot at the title. Foley's end of show promo was fantastic, and has me legitimately pumped for the Foley/Sting feud when I wouldn't have cared much otherwise. Also, I really like how they're letting this Sting/Angle conflict within the stable storyline run for a while. If this were the WWE, it would have been 3 weeks tops before the MEM turned on Sting to make sure the heel/face lines were demarcated as clearly as possible. The fact that Nash and the other heels seem to be siding more with Sting than Angle is a refreshing dose of realism into the old face turn within a heel stable. I thought luke-o's point about Russo trying to book wrestlers to act as realistic as possible instead of trying to fit them into the heel/face box was very well taken, and it made this show very entertaining. I also agree with most of what has been said about Joe. Some of the execution of this new character has been a little off as the tribal blade looks really fake, and some of the things he's doing are a little bit cartoonish, but it's still a massive improvement from the "fat MMA guy" character he had before. His new look is fantastic, and when he came out and destroyed Bashir in about 30 seconds in the ring before taking him backstage, he looked pretty fucking badass. I still fast-forward through a few things every show like just about every match with the Beautiful People, and some of the vanilla low-card wrestlers, but even that was better this week as the Guns had a really fun match with No Limit, and I like the tag storylines they're running right now. Overall, I think TNA's definitely going in the right direction.

Seriously. I just had the most fun I've had watching a sporting event in months watching Dokic hold on for the win with a bad ankle in the longest match of the Aussie Open thus far, and I come here and the Aussie open doesn't even have a thread. WTF! This place used to be a tennis hotbed. Really great to see her come back in front of her home fans like that anyway. I think she's going to get by Safina somehow and end up making it to the final.

The age thing isn't quite the same with Nadal/Federer as it is with LeBron and Kobe since Nadal's running style is going to wreak havoc on his knees and give him a significantly shorter career than Federer. Still though, I agree that he's clearly taken the mantle of "best player in the world" at this point in time, and I do agree that he has the chance to be greater than Federer when it's all said and done. People really haven't realized just how great Nadal is since Federer's taken so much of the spotlight, but if I were going to rank the best tennis players of all time, I'd go: 1. Roger Federer 2. Bjorn Borg 3. Pete Sampras 4. Rod Laver 5. Rafael Nadal Even at this early stage of his career, Nadal already has as many Grand Slam titles as Boris Becker and is only one short of John McEnroe.

Don't know if anyone else watched Dokic this morning (guessing not), but she played another ridiculously tight match against Safina in the semis. It was pretty ugly early on, but the quality of the tennis improved a lot in the 3rd set and Jelena gave Safina everything she could handle before ultimately falling 4-6, 6-4, 4-6.

Only 2 hours until Jelena time!

She pretty much wasn't any more. She had to qualify for the Aussie open as a wildcard, and when they interviewed her after her last match, she said that her goal for the tournament had been "to play well in the 1st round". That's the whole reason she was a story going into the R16 last night. Then, in the 3rd set, she rolled over on her ankle big-time to the point that it was gross looking, and she just kept playing on for the 7-5 5-7 8-6 win.

Aaaand the AP rankings are officially out. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankings?pol...seasonYear=2008 Florida's the undisputed champion, but about as solid of a showing as could be expected for Utah with them strongly holding the #2 spot and getting enough first place votes to show that there's legitimate debate as to who the national champion is. Way more 1st-place votes than Auburn had in 2004 and about the same number that LSU had in the AP poll in 2003.

Here's my final Top 25 FWIW. 1. Utah 13-0 (never would have thought I'd have them this high earlier in the season) 2. Florida 13-1 3. USC 12-1 4. Texas 12-1 5. Oklahoma 12-2 6. Penn State 11-2 7. Alabama 12-2 8. TCU 11-2 9. Texas Tech 11-2 10. Ohio State 10-3 11. Boise State 12-1 12. Oregon 10-3 13. Oklahoma State 9-4 14. Georgia 10-3 15. Mississippi 9-4 16. Oregon State 9-4 17. Virginia Tech 10-4 18. Iowa 9-4 19. California 9-4 20. Missouri 10-4 21. Florida State 9-4 22. LSU 8-5 23. Michigan State 9-4 24. Arizona 8-5 25. Nebraska 9-4

Maybe the interviewer missed the last 30 seconds of the game and thought he was giving a congratulatory interview to an Ohio State player. Or maybe he just got the talking points backwards on which angle they were supposed to run with which team.