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PWInsider reported that not surprisingly, WWE was unhappy that TNA was advertised to their audience. Here's what Mike Johnson posted:

That's what I thought too.

PWInsider is reporting that the clip was produced by Spike and not TNA, which is great because it shows Spike is serious about promoting Impact. Here's what he posted:

I agree. They trial with FSN was 26 weeks. The initial rating has more to do with the promotion of the show than what TNA broadcasts, but growing the ratings from there will depend on both. I hope they have a back-up it doesn't work out. I wonder if the ratings will be reported now. I know they weren't reported as often because it took longer to tabulate the regional viewership (and because TNA didn't with them public).

The tension they've been buidling between him Monty Brown makes me think that. With him remembing Jarrett promised him the title shot and never delivered recently and all. It seems to me that JJ/Brown will be the direction they go after JJ/Raven, so though I definitely don't want to see JJ go over Raven at BFG, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he did. I don't think that'd necessarily be a bad thing, as long as he's just as a transitional champ to get it on Monty. He can't go on another long run though. He's already had 3 of those and it hasn't worked since the first one. BFG will be an interesting match though. I hope they really play up the backstory in the build up, unlike what they did when they virtually ignore Jarrett's history with Styles in the Hard Justice build-up.

Porter, where did you get this from? I haven't seen it anywhere and I was just wondering. You would think it would have been reported more if it was true. Like when they signed with FSN, eveyone said it was a 6 month trial that could renewed. Just checking.

All signs point to him having it when they debut on Spike, because it seems that they are building to the rematch between him and Jarrett to headline they're major PPV (which is a couple of weeks after the debut), but considering the history of Jarrett and them debuting on TV (see the FSN debut), he might not have it long.

credit: TNAWrestling.com Interesting read. Thoughts....

Yeah, he won in June and has held it since. He's only defended it once, defeating Abyss, but he's defending it against Rhino next month.

Both of The Truth's NWA Title wins were completely left field for me. The first time, they had really just started pushing him. When they made the match a week after his killer promo with Ricky Steamboat, I thought he'd given Shamrock a run for his money to make him seem like a contender and then cheat to win a rematch. It was clear that Shamrock's time as champ was running out because people weren't responding to him (which was more the booking) and after that promo with Steamboat, I knew Truth would win it eventually, but I didn't think he'd drop it that soon. The second time was even more shocking. They were a couple of weeks away from debuting on FSN and everyone knew Jarrett was getting the title back before they did, but he wasn't in the match (it was AJ Styles, Chris Harris, Raven and the Truth), so I just assumed that AJ was retaining. Also, Truth had been away from the ME for a year, chasing the tag titles with the 3 Live Kru. The change was shocking because I don't think anyone who regularly followed TNA saw it coming (though everyone knew it wouldn't last more than a week). TNA had hotshotted the tag titles and X Division titles, but other than those, they built up all there world title changes. Others that shocked me: D'Lo over HHH on Raw Kane over Austin at KotR '98 (I thought they'd have Kane lose and then have Bearer find a loophole out of the burning stip) Rock in the Deadly Game tourney (not necessary that he won, but that he won as a heel. Even though he never officially turned, he was so hot as a face that the turn was shocking to me)

World Title: 1) King of the Mountain I - Truth vs Styles vs Raven vs Jarrett vs Harris (I believe): historic value 2) Deadly Draw - Styles vs Truth vs Raven vs Harris (underrated match IMO) 3) Raven vs Jarrett - historic value 4) Jarrett vs Truth - TNA's first big time heavyweight main event 5) Gauntlet for the Gold - historic value X-Division: 1) Styles vs Lynn vs Low-Ki vs Psiscosis - good match with alot of historic value 2) Styles vs Lynn vs Low-Ki (Non-ladder) - Awesome match, first X-D title change 3) Amazing Red and the SAT's vs XXX - Awesome match that kicked off an important storyline (plus Low-Ki and Daniels dickness in taking turns walking across Red's face is a sight to behold) 4) Ultimate X II Michael Shane vs Low-Ki vs Christopher Daniels vs Chris Sabin - everything the first one should have been (only to be eclipsed by Styles/Williams/Sabin in the monthly era) 5) Styles vs Waltman - though they were miscast (Styles as heel, Waltman as face), this was the first good match Waltman ever had in TNA Tag Teams: 1) AMW vs New Church: The surprisingly good match where the New Church went over 2) AMW vs New Church: The No-DQ rematch where AMW regained the titles 3) F'N Amazing vs XXX: Probably Red's best match ever (he benefited from being in there those guys) 4) AJ Styles & D'Lo Brown vs XXX: If I remember correctly, they had a non-title match and a title match, and the non-title one was better. If i'm wrong, the title match was great. Either way, good pairing. 5) AMW vs XXX: the best match in the weekly era (only surpassed by the Turning Point rematch and Ultimate X 3)

1) vs. Bret Hart (WM XIII): Just an awesome match that "made" Austin 2) vs. Michaels (WM XIV): for two limited workers, a great match...defined the main event style for a good while. 3) vs. Dude Love: the high point of the Austin/McMahon feud, IMO 4) vs. Rock (WM XV) though the ending was predictable, this was highlight of the an abysmal WM. A real fun match. 5) w/ HBK vs Owen and the Bulldog: I forgot how much I enjoyed this match, so I rewatched it on the Monday Night Wars DVD....and I got into it all over. This list probably needs a disclaimer saying that I've never seen the Canadian Stampede or Survivor Series 96 matches.

That's the perfect schedule for TNA's annual events IMO. They're spread out, so they each get some build and can have feud culiminate at them. I totally agree with your post Magus. If they're going to do an all-cage PPV, they definitely shouldn't have cage matches at all during the rest of the year and just pimp it as a barbaric night to settle it all. And for D-X, if they want to feature Ultimate X, maybe they could do a 16-man Super X tourney instead of 8 and have the semi-finalists all meet in Utimate X at the PPV. By increase the field, they can have still have 8 matches on TV (the first round) and then do the second round and UX on the PPV, so you have 5 X Division matches on the PPV, which definitely makes it focused on the X-D, but still leaves room for a World Title match or tag title match. As long as they don't try to hang the trophy, they'll be in business.

I'm not completely against keeping LockDown around either. It's got a few things going for it...namely, the title is catchy, it's got a simple logo that it can easily be identified with (think the early WM or SummerSlam logos that were the same every year and became part of the branding) and it's got the hook: "the wrestling world goes on LockDown." They just need to book it better to make sure it's the huge deal they want it to be. It remains to be seen whether or not that happens. It should help that they know they're doing it again since if I remember correctly, the all cage format was a late decision from the Carters. The same way we can also start to see where they are going for BFG, we need to be able to see the path to LD early for it to be successful. The cage itself won't draw, but the cage ending all the feuds going on in the company might.

I would too, but the problem is that TNA has always considered LockDown a success. I dunno what the buyrate was, but maybe it's because everyone thought it'd tank and after it aired it wasn't panned. It wasn't praised, but it wasn't panned. Which is probably because it was direclty after the worst PPV TNA's ever put on, so anything would have been an improvement at the time. Either way, it's clear that they're bringing it back as they think it separates them from WWE (which it does, for good or for bad...lol). Everytime Banks writes in his column that BFG will be annual, he says something like "BFG, which we hope will become an annual event for TNA much like LockDown will be..." which I always thought was stupid because LockDown can't truly be considered an annual event until it happens more than once. Tragically, I know it will happen again though, so hopefully they at least do it right this time. As long as they never (or very, VERY) rarely have a cage match outside of that show and make it feel like a night of blow-offs, it could work I guess. I may be in the majority, but I don't think the Slammiversary name is that bad. It's unique, you automatically get the point of the show from the same and it's definitely not as bad as Hard Justice, IMO. If they were going to roman numeral a show, I'd rather them do Slam than BFG b/c I think Slammiversary V sounds better than Bound for Glory V. LOL.

Good points Red and S_D. I don't quite understand the knee-jerk TNA is unstable when the possibility of someone going there is brought up. This clearly not the same company it was a year ago....or even 6 months ago. They will clearly be closer to turning a profit with out having to burn $30K a week on TV, so that plus the additional revenue stream of the DVDs puts them in MUCH better shape IMO. Anyway, here's a column from the Torch on Jericho. It's all speculation, but it's an interesting read...

I was never really a fan of the Victory Road name anyway. I don't really know why, but it just didn't seem like the title of a major event to me. Anyway, they've pretty much established that Bound for Glory, Slammiversary and LockDown will be annual events. So we've got April, June and October so far as the BIG events, which is good that they are not clustered. It's kinda like the old WWE schedule of January, March/April, June, August and November. And since they know LD will be a regular event, next year they can build up the matches longer so that having them in a cage doesn't seem so anticlimatic (I can hope can't I?!). I have LD on DVD, but I still haven't finished it b/c the opening matches seem so silly being cage matches (I'm gonna get through it though, cuz I wanna see AJ/Abyss since I enjoyed their weekly PPV matches). If they insist on running an all cage PPV, they need to build EVERY match on the card for more than 4 weeks. It'd take some long term booking, but the top angles need to start brewing not too long after BFG, in January at the latest. Like either of the 2 AMW/XXX cages matches would have been good for a PPV like this. Those were building for months. Even the match that ended up closing the show this year, though I hear a good match, was left field. AJ was feuding with Daniels and Abyss was feuding with Hardy. If those had been in a cage, it would have made more sense. But that's Dusty's doing, so I digress... I'm sure they'll be another one added, though I'm not sure which one. I'd recommend running the Super X tourney at Destination X (or at least make it X-D focused), but they shouldn't have the annuals so close together, so having DX in March and LD in April would be no good. It'd work if they had DX in January and kinda say we're starting every year with what separates us from everybody else. Do it like the old KotR's and run the tourney in one show (or at least the semi's and finals to save match quality) and run some other matches on the card too, but make the finals the ME. Then they could run qualifying matches on TV so that you still have the month of great matches like they had before Sacrifice. The only other name I could see continuing was Against All Odds, but I think the 4th PPV should be a 'gimmick' PPV cuz the other ones all have something unique to make them regular. BFG is the "world series" end of the year bash, Slammiversary is the "celebration/KotM", LD is the violent mid-year blow off and then the 4th PPV. I guess they could run a gauntlet for the gold at AAO, but IMO that'd be too much like the Rumble.

TNA is enforcing a contract stipulation that will prohit workers from working certain shows. Here's the PWInsider report: Also, Mike Johnson is reporting that Chris Sabin might miss some ring time. Thoughts? I think the DVD deal makes good business sense. It doesn't stop the guys from working the higher profile, and thus high paying, indys, and it helps make TNA's shelf product more unique. I don't see there being much backlash to this.

The only reason I put this in this folder and not the WWE folder is because I think there's a chance he might return to TNA. With the tag division looking to heat up with the Duds coming in, I think him reuniting with Bentley would be good for all involved. I always thought they could have had a decent run with the belts and feud with AMW, but TNA never really pushed them above the opening match. I don't think the new booking team would make the same mistake though....thoughts?

I could go for that being the tag title match at BFG...it's a compelling match-up that doesn't involve AMW, the Naturals or Team Canada. Definitely works for me.

Here's more detailed results: credit: pwtorch.com

I can see a scenario like this playing out as well. And I don't think TNA can do any better for a feature match on the first Impact then having Joe and Styles go at it for 10 or even 15 minutes (I think 10 is more realistic for the TV show, even if they don't import the time limits).

I pretty much agree with that assessment. 98 is probably my favorite single year of WWE, esp. in the modern era (97 was really hit or miss...the stuff that was good was great, but the stuff that wasn't really stunk). I think WM and SS were the only PPVs that year not totally carried by the ME. The ME was hot all year, but those shows benefited from well developed undercard matches. The storylines were still somewhat in 99, but I remember being quite disappointed in several shows that year (except Backlash and SS).

To me, the most memorable PPVs of the attitude era were the early ones, WM14 and that year's Summerslam. WM was the coming out party of an entire new era of mainstream stars. HHH first prominent title match with Owen, Rock giving Shamrock his most memorable feud, the NAO becoming cool instead of annoying, the first UT/Kane match and of course, Austin being cemented as a superstar and HBK amazingly gutty "last" performance. And that year's Summerslam had incredible build. The Highway to Hell stuff was great. Austin/UT was probably the biggest match WWE could deliver at that point, HHH/Rock culminated a three month feud with one of the best matches in either of their careers and you could sense they were being made watching. Both these shows had the classic long build that the older PPVs had (of course not 18 months like WM3, but pretty damn good considering the monthly PPVs) and to this day, I remember them like the night I watched them. IMO, very few other PPVs from that era will stand the test of time like those.

TNA annouced today that they are doing the same thing for Bound for Glory that they did for Victory Road, making this the first paid gate they will have had since November of 2004. Here's the press release: I think this is great news. This is a good way to try to differentiate BFG from the other PPVs and if I remember correctly they drew a pretty decent draw too. If they hold off Jarrett/Raven II (which should headline the first non comp PPV IMO because it's the biggest one on one draw they have) they should do pretty well. Especially if they follow through on the rumored loser leaves town stip. Should be an interesting few months for TNA!