TNABaddboi

Here's a clip of the closing minutes of the title change, for those of you who missed the PPV (like me ): Christian's Big Win

Mike Johnson posted this about where TNA is going from here: I like the Christian/Brown pairing....I bet we see that stretched to LockDown too. I'm sure Jarrett will probably team with AMW against 3D and the Truth next month, which is a good way to keep him away from the main event. And I have a feeling that Jarrett/Sting will be a double or triple main event deal, like last year's LockDown show, with Christian vs Brown or Abyss and the inevitable AMW/3D match up also up there.

Well Meltz is reporting that right now it looks like Christian/Brown will headline D-X, which I wouldn't have a problem with because I enjoyed their feud and their match at Turning Point. TNA taped an angle with Monty demanding the title shot from Larry after the show and put it online. Here's the link: http://www.tnawrestling.com/fullnews.php?home=474 I still wouldn't be surprised to see Jarrett added to that match though, unless Raven's coming back and he can face Jarrett.

I think people who reach to compare this to Rhino (or even AJ's) title wins are failing to realize that neither had much build, while this had 3 months worth. Rhino was a last minute sub...they put the belt on him to pop the crowd into not noticing they weren't delivering the advertised main event and then they hit the reset button the first chance they got. And while AJ's title win had a video package setting it up, AJ and Jarrett were not having a pro-long feud. AJ just kinda took a break from feuding with Daniels to stop the crowd's groaning at Jarrett's long run, because they fucked up the one person they'd built up a title change for (Monty). This does not appear comparable at all.

Well, it's Saturday, and for two more months, that means Impact, so here's the OAO thread. Here's the preview, per TNA's site: Coming off last week's show, which I thought was pretty good despite the low number it received, coming again with a decent looking line-up. The tag final figured to be good, if it gets as much time as the first round match-up between Aries/Strong and the Naturals got. The pre-PPV main event tag is always fun, though I'm not sure how Monty and the Truth figure into this one, since neither guy is booked for the PPV yet. I like both guys though, so I won't complain too much. 3D and the DitR did not mesh well the last time they faced each other on Impact, so here's hoping they work better together this week. And Joe's going to kill two bitches....that is all. And of course, the most important questions are what is going to turn up on the ShellyCam and who's going to use the "Sting's not really gone" hammer this week. Anyway, here's the line-up, so discuss you're before, during and after thoughts here, of course keeping it ~SPOILER FREE~ until showtime.

Here's a Dixie interview, if you're so inclined:

It's purely speculation, but I'd guess that .2 of that difference is the UFC fans (because those are the ones who showed up on Monday) and .2 are the Sting fans (because both the original and the replay this week were down .2 with no promise of Sting).

Meltz added this about the ratings this week:

Neither am I. The Saturday showing had been averaging a .9 and the Monday showing had been averaging a .5, so it looks like those who missed Saturday (possible because of the UFC PPV) went out of their way to catch Monday. I think since being on Spike, TNA's developed a very loyal audience of about 1 million viewers that will find it when it's on. Even when they bounced around the few times, they didn't do badly. But that audience needs to be the starting point. It's almost like the 2.5-3.0 that the WWE knows they'll get every week, no matter how bad the product gets. Because they know that, they get exciting when they get over a 4.0. Obviously TNA's scale is different, but the principle is the same. They're establishing the base, now with the better slot, they can hopefully grow it. Sting showed that there are ways to do that (he can basically be credited for .2 on each show last week), so keeping him and maybe adding that 2nd "draw" that they've been rumored to be talking too will help....and hopefully the move to primetime will be accompanied by an ad blitz, which would help too. But I'd say Spike got exactly the news it wanted this weekend...that TNA and UFC's audience have a good crossover. I wouldn't expect to see them separated on the schedule for awhile.

More ratings info from PWI:

And that Spike's smart to keep them together on Thursdays, though they probably got the order backwards.

I haven't watched the replay once either....Even if I'm out and don't catch the show on Saturday, I record it and watch it on Sunday morning.

Well it's almost show time and I didn't see one of these, so here ya go.... Thoughts?

Saw this in Rick Scalia's Online Onslaught site and thought it'd be good to post here: Everyone's been crediting the 1.1...hadn't seen much talk about the big replay rating leading to this, but I'd kinda assume both played large roles. Any thoughts?

I thought sprucing up Xplosion kinda went without saying...I remember they put some energy into the show right before Victory Road, but then stopped once they started taping the shows bi-weekly (I think at times they did three shows a taping in December of 04). But yeah, I'd much rather see another hour of television then a replay.

Well they won't have the Monday slot once the move is complete, according to Meltz. It'll just be Thursdays at 9 and Saturdays at 11. But I'd be all for Xplosion running on Saturdays.

Todd Martin over at the WO wrote an interesting article about TNA's move to primetime. Here it is: Thoughts?

This is especially true of the TNA crowd. The most over face champion in the 3 1/2 years it's been around is Jarrett, believe it or not. At the start of the SEX angle, Jarrett was the leader of the tradition side as NWA Champion and the crowd's were behind him as Russo tried to unseat him. They turned on him about 3 months into the reign, because became cooler to cheer the heel Raven. That's probably why we haven't seen many face runs since in TNA, except for Raven's run this year (well that and Jarrett's death grip on the belt, but's that's a story for another show). They TNA crowd has always enjoyed rebelling. They're turning on AJ now and he doesn't even have the belt, probably because AJ's been the poster boy super face since September of 2003.

I gotta agree with you there, Dangerous A. While I think ultimately Christian will draw more money for TNA as a heel, I think his first run at the top should be as a face...and I think he'll do fine. The question is do they do it here or do they stretch this thing with Jarrett out to LockDown, which they're building as one of their major shows and is supposedly going to be feature all the blowoffs. I fully expect to see AMW/3D stretched that long, with the Duds winning the belts in AMW's speciality match, but what about Jarrett/Christian? Does it have the legs to make it until April, and even if it does, should it?

I posted this in the other thread, but if the discussion is moving here, I figured I'd put it here too: I guess the next question is do they try to load up the primetime debut like they did the first Spike show? The first show will be a few weeks before LockDown, which they're planning a big blowoff show apparently, so they can't hotshot too much. But maybe that's the night Sting returns or this 2nd major star they've been talking too debuts? Thoughts?

I hate to get involved in this obviously stupid arguement, but I felt the need to point out that TNA has featured Monty Brown pretty prominently for the past year and a half. They haven't put the title on him yet, but he main evented the last ppv....I mean, c'mon.

Here's a recap of Dixie's conference call with the workers: credit: PWI

IMO, that's a good trade-off for TNA because of the nature of their deal with Spike. If they can translate those Saturday viewers into Sunday buyers, that's better for their bottom line than the extra .1 or .2 they'd get because of the Monday spillover. Now if the Monday replay was somehow pimping the PPV the night before, it'd be a different story, but the nature of their taping schedule doesn't allow that. So yeah, it's good for TNA all around. The first run show airs before a significantly high audience and the replay gets the hard sell in before the PPV airs.

Spike officially announced the move today.....The press release doesn't say whether the show will be 60 or 90 minutes, but it does say that the replay will air in the current slot, so I guess TNA is out of the Monday business althogether now. Here's the release: I guess the next question is do they try to load up the primetime debut like they did the first Spike show? The first show will be a few weeks before LockDown, which they're planning a big blowoff show apparently, so they can't hotshot too much. But maybe that's the night Sting returns or this 2nd major star they've been talking too debuts? Thoughts?

Meltz said the show will be 60 minutes for sure, but PWI says the fate of the 10 o'clock hour has yet to be determined, so maybe there's still hope for an extended timeslot after all. Here's what Mike Johnson posted about it: