TNABaddboi

Since it seems pretty clear that Team 3D is winning the tag titles either at Final Resolution, or at Against All Odds (more likely...and hopefully in a cage match), I started thinking about who they are gonna give the rub too. You gotta think TNA is gonna do the James Gang "dream match," but after that, I'd think they'll use Team 3D to get over another a homegrown team. I thinking it's gonna be the Diamonds in the Rough. TNA already put them out there in a pretty high profile situation with the baseball deal, and they've got a great mouthpiece in Simon Diamond to get over. So what do you think will happen with the tag belts are AMW drops them to Team 3D?

By this point, I figure ratings don't warrant their own thread, so I'll stick them here: Credit: PWI Thoughts?

That's kinda my point. In all those situations, they made it clear pretty much immediately that they were shifting gears. Here, they've gone through 2 sets of tapings and they're still pushing Christian as Jarrett's main non "TNA Management" opponent. It could be wishful thinking, because I think Christian needs the win to be their own big star, since Sting will probably be gone when his year is up, but we'll see.

I really don't think Sting is going to be the one to dethrone Jarrett. The entire build since November has been to Christian taking the title from him. They didn't even change that direction after signing Sting (the JJ parody was after Turning Point), unlike how they dropped the Monty build the minute they brought Christian in. If Sting doesn't go heel like suggested here, I think he'll put Monty and then Abyss over...he'll probably be used to elevate heel challengers to Christian, and may get a run before his year is up, but I still think Jarrett's jobbing to the Unprettier either in February or March.

Overall I thought this was an entertaining show. I was out, so I missed it when it aired, but I taped it and I watched it this morning. Here are my thoughts: Though the squash formula is beyond boring at this point, putting 3D out there at the top of the show made sense to keep the crowd hot. Bubba cut a good post-match promo, and this tag title match has probably been one of the best built TNA PPV matches since they started the montly shows. The Nats/LAX match was nothing, but it's good to see Konnan getting over as a heel. You can kinda see TNA's character development efforts working with Konnan and AMW joining Jarrett as the only guys generating legitimate heel heat. I was excited about the Truth/Roode pairing because I like both guys, but what they did makes no sense unless they are building to a 2 out of 3 falls match between or a series a la Benoit/Booker. I'd stay away from the series though if I were them, because it'd look like such a copy. I could see them adding a 2/3 falls to the PPV though, since they've only got 6 matches announced so far. This match did immediately make me think of TNA needing a mid-card belt. I'd love to see Truth and Roode have an extended feud over an IC-like belt, because let's face it, neither guy is going anywhere near the main event anytime soon (which is a damn shame in Truth's case). That 6 man was awesome. I wasn't into in the beginning, but by the end, I was on the edge of my seat. It was great to see that Daniels is getting over a face, and you can tell he's enjoying playing to the crowd, since he's been a heel for 90% of his time in TNA. The only downside of this match to me was that they didn't let the victory, which they set up all show to be a big deal, resonate at all. They raised their hands and cut to a backstage segment. People have said that about Impact since it started on FSN, but this match was the first time I really saw it firsthand. Not letting the heels really celebrate or Tenay and West really talk about the victory, it kinda took the edge off the much-needed effort to elevate those three guys. Also, Joe's promo didn't really do much for me. I think he made all the right points, and the clean towel was a great visual, but something about his delivery didn't strike me as bad ass like you'd expect from a silent assasin like Joe. It was almost like he had a cocky heel vibe, which isn't what he's supposed to be. The Sting was...eh. It wasn't as terrible as the reports made it out to be, but you could tell it was HEAVILY edited. The crowd being all over Jarrett is going to be a continuing problem for TNA though. If the live audience tells you the guy is boring before he opens his mouth, how can he ever connect with the TV audience. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jarrett start doing all his promos backstage if it keeps up. The reactions to Christian haven't died down at all since he's come in, so they are doing a good job of keeping him strong. I'm sure Sting will get a one-on-one PPV match with Jarrett before Christian, but I think CC will be the one to dethrone Jarrett because that's been the entire build since November. They already scraped the build to Monty taking the belt...they wouldn't throw out another one, would they? Also, they've done a good job keeping Rhino strong. Although he did the job at the PPV, he was well protected. It took 5 guys for Jarrett to put him away, and he got the visual of goring Jarrett down the tunnel. They he got a bit of revenge on Team Canada and he stood up to Abyss after Abyss punked out Christian and 3D. I don't know what they'll do at the PPV between Abyss and Rhino, because coming off losses last month, but could use a win, but they made sure Rhino was strong going in. Anyway, they did a good job setting things up for next week and the PPV. Christian and Rhino vs AMW will be a good main event next week and I'm sure we'll see something between the James Gang and LAX set up for the PPV as well.

This sooooo should have been the 98 Rumble main event.

More detailed info, from PWI:

I had just started watching regularly as a young mark around that time (I think my first show was WM6), but I've always wondered why Coach replaced Heenan as Perfect's manager. Was there an angle I missed? I always think of Perfect as a member of the Heenan family and the only reason I even remember Coach is because the Perfect/Bret match is one of my all time favorites. Just wondering if anyone could clear that up for me.

That one of the year's most compelling PPV main events would be HBK/Hogan. That Batista would close the year more over than Cena, who seemed untouchable at one point. That one of the most talked about TV matches of the year would involved Marty Jannety. That TNA would get clearance on a real cable network...and not have to pay for it. That Samoa Joe would become THE man in TNA. That Christian would get over enough to main event, not get the chance and end up main eventing for TNA, all would have seemed crazy at this point last year.

PWI posted this today... I guess they are really serious about branching out this year, as opposed to just talking about it like they always do. I have to say that this sounds like a decent way to test the waters and it benefits both sides. TNA gets to count the shows as house shows and see how they draw while the indy guys get to *ideally* draw bigger houses with more recognizable names. Should be interesting either way....

It wouldn't surprise me if they ended up giving them the hour they gave them for the December special (10-11), which while still not ideal, is still probably better than Saturday at 11 for TNA's (and Spike's) desired audience. And the fact that the BFG buyrate went up to the earlier levels is good because I remember reading that they went down as Dusty's tenure wore on. The fact that Genesis drew about half kinda makes sense, since it wasn't promoted as the BIG show like BFG was, didn't have a particularly strong line-up and had a really short build (3 weeks I think). With the hour format they have now, they should never schedule PPV less than 4 weeks apart, unless they absolutely have to. But yeah, no bad news there. And I dig Waltman coming back too. He had a nice little run there this summer (much better than anything he'd done in TNA since he first appeared when they doing weekly PPVs). Once they figured out that he's one guy people won't pop for just because they know him (unlike everyone else they've brought in) and smartly booked him as a heel, he was pretty damn entertaining. And he's a recognizable name who's willing to put people over for the most part (he put AJ over pretty strongly this summer and in 2002). He's what TNA needs pretty much. I view him like a Sabu. You don't build around the guy, but having him around doesn't hurt either. At least when he's out there, people coming across the program don't go "who the hell is that" and may actually stay long enough to see what he's doing...which is half the battle. Just my two cents though...

I thought they could have done something with him too. They'd even found a way to make sense of Dusty's nonsensical heel turn, until they followed up with a nonsensical "re-turn" of their own. It was almost like when fans first started cheering the Rock, despite him never turning face, and then WWE had to do a heel turn for someone who really never stopped being a heel. That's exactly what Monty's handshake with Jarrett last week seemed like to me. It ran totally contrary to the storyline of Monty stalking Jarrett, which I think was compelling and could have built to a big match between them. Monty's character is perfect to be the hunter, and being hunted should have been what was revealed eventually to be causing Jarrett's paranoia....even if initial he thought it was the newcomers. But anyway, having not seen Genesis, I can't comment on the Hardy match, but I ordered a Turning Point replay over the weekend and I was entertained by his match with Christian. I could be in the majority, but to me, while it was no Joe/Styles, it was a fine PPV match. Even knowing who won, I was very into the match (going in it was the one I was looking forward most I think), so I'm sure I would have been on the edge of my seat if I didn't know Christian was going over.

At the time the match happened, the general consensus was that TNA was blowing a PPV-level ME wad on Impact, so I'd say yes he is (or was).

One of the first DVDs TNA put out, back when they were only sold on their website, was a "Best of the Title Matches" DVD. It was a pretty good release, and it had all the major title matches through AJ's first reign as champ in the summer of 2003, along with the major tag titles matches through the first AMW/XXX cage matches. I'd actually rank that up there with being one of TNA's best "Best of" DVDs.

I didn't see one of these and the show's in a couple of hours, so I figured I'd start it. Here's the official preview: credit: TNAWrestling.com

Just wondering Carnival, but why are biased against Daniels. Having not followed much non-mainstream wrestling (I've really only watched WWE, ECW and TNA regularly), I was no Daniels fan when I first saw him. But his work with XXX and the way he's made the most of his single's push this year made me a fan. So I was just wondering. I didn't vote in the poll though, cuz I can't decide. Can we call it a push?

PWI posted this about Sting today: Well that's the first time I've seen it reported that Spike is paying part of Sting's salary. That certainly makes the deal look a little better on TNA's end, and is a sure sign that Spike is committed to TNA. That's right up there with USA paying part of Raw's production costs when they went to the 2-hour, live every other week format in 1997. Of course, it remains to be seen whether Sting has the effect TNA and Spike TV are banking on, but it's an interesting move nonetheless.

I was going to point this out too. During the internet era, when they doing 4 shows at once, they would film the promos on Monday and then not show them turning the taping to not hold the crowd there for so long they become restless. In just about every taping from the time they went of FSN until the time they got on Spike, there were things in the tapings that went unexplained, leading to people bitching here (for instance, the show after Slammiversary, the spoilers showed no follow-up to Sean Waltman costing AJ Styles the World Title, but when the show aired that week, AJ and Sean had an intense blow-up backstage that step up a match betweeen them at the next PPV). So considering this was an extended taping, I wouldn't be surprised if a similar situation here...especially given who's involved. A good portion of the story has been told through backstage promos.

Well PWI said they did their normal number: .8. Here's what they posted: While I do agree that TNA did not promote this show at all, and the audience will never grow without promotion, I guess it is good that the audience they've clearly got followed them. It'll be interesting to see if they follow them back, because I believe the first show after the last primetime special was the series low so far, IIRC.

I was looking around the net for the ratings for the special and I hadn't seen them anywhere. I know the ratings normally come out on Monday afternoon/Tuesday morning, but I thought I remembered the ratings for the first Thursday being released on Friday. Has anyone heard anything about how last week's show did? Just wondering....

Well TNA got what they wanted....the match was on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays..with "TNA Wrestling," "Turning Point" and the announcer calling AJ P whacking Simon Diamond with the plate. Couldn't have been much better for TNA, I'd say. There was no downgrading of AJ for participating or TNA for being bush leaugue.

I know it's not a 2 hour special, but I still TNA missed the boat by not making a bigger deal out of this. I mean it's still an weeknight primetime show featuring a bankable match (Christian's debut). They might have been able to pop a decent rating had they pushed it a little harder.

91 and 98 jumped out to me immediately. I also remember enjoying '99 with the very good Shane/Test match and Foley's (short-lived) title win and '90 just for the Hart Foundation/Demolition 2 out of 3 falls match and the Texas Tornado IC title win, which was a mark out moment for me during my mark days (I hated Perfect back then). '90 doesn't hold a candle to the first two I mentioned though. Those two are the best built, best executed Summerslam's ever...and prolly some of the best build non-WM WWE PPVs ever IMO.

I think this was Dixie misspeaking a lil' bit, because the TNA website says this in it's splash: That certainly leaves open the extra hour/new timeslot/touring. It should be interesting to see what it ends up being.

I'd say that even the old WCW Saturday Night slot would be a step-up from where they are now, which is infinitely better than where they were at this time last year, so I'm not complaining.