TNABaddboi

More ratings stuff, from the Torch:

Well, I was saying I was on the fence about ordering this show and by about 10 o'clock I was regretting it. I'm definitely a TNA fan, but this was one of the worse undercards they had ever put together. I'm a huge Styles and Christan fan, but I dosed off twice during the match. It almost seemed like nothing that happened before 9:30 mattered at all. Then, we got to the matches that I at least cared about. LAX and AMW was very short, which I can forgive if they're going to do a long feud. Cornette stripping LAX of the titles was stupid, and TNA should understand their crowd enough since they work in front of them all the time to know that they wouldn't side with Cornette there. Unless the goal is transform LAX into the new heelish faces, this was stupid. Abyss and Sting worked a decent brawl, and perked me up. I was shocked Sting took the tack bump, but I knew he wasn't taking the barbed wire bump to. I was surprised they did the title change, but not angry like some people. The match told a story and as a long time TNA viewer, I understood that the title changing on DQ rule wasn't new. They probably need to have Cornette or somebody explain the origin of that rule on Impact for new fans, since they haven't done one in awhile (and IIRC, only with the tag titles). But the match left an option for a rematch next month, or maybe even a big TV main if they want Sting and Christian next month. As for Joe and Angle, the match was well on its way to living up to the hype. I didn't agree with the decision to have Joe tap, but I don't think it'll kill his character the way it killed Goldberg's, because Joe's been booked in more competitive matches and shown some vulnerability, but the fans still think he's bad ass. That won't change. My major complaint was the match the though. They booked this to be a one match show, which reminded me a lot of the attitude-era WWE shows where Austin and Foley had to save many PPVs. The undercard was so atypically underwhelming for TNA that I got the feeling they told everyone to hold back so at not to upstage the main event. Then they go out and are well on their way, and TNA cuts their balls off by giving them 15 minutes. I understand not wanting to give a way the whole store, because we are clearly on the way to a series of Joe/Angle matches, but to book the PPV around the one match, and end the show 15 minutes early is unacceptable. At least five of those minutes should have gone to the match, maybe even 10. Next time they book Angle/Joe, they are going to lose some buys from this time because people will think they won't give them enough time to do anything special. So yeah, going in I was underwhelmed by the line-up and it's fair to say I was underwhelmed by the show. I don't buy every TNA PPV (this was probably my 6th or 7th), but normally I'm entertained when I do. Tonight, I kept thinking about how I would have rather paid for the special than this show.

I thought it was just me.

I think Keller awhile back said that they place the commercials in the matches intentional to A) run "longer" matches than they did in the FSN days and B) to subletly say that you have to buy the PPV to see uninterrupted matches. If that's true, it's umm, interesting. Don't know how effective it is, but it was just something I came across around BFG.

Anyone know how many of TNA's buys normally come from Dish? I know they are hoping to do big numbers for this show, but I wonder how big a chunk this will take out of the number.

That's a good point. IIRC, Meltz said they did between 40K-50K for Bound for Glory, which would make it their highest buyrate ever. If they can do that for Sting and Jarrett, you gotta think they'll be able to top it for Angle/Joe. And if they do, they can rightfully claim at least a little momentum. I know they wanted to pop a big rating to impress Spike enough to get 2 hours permenantely, but Spike keeps all the ad money, so PPV buyrates are more important to TNA's bottom line. While they need to continue working to increase viewership, they also need to convince more of the million or so viewers they get every week no matter where they air to buy the PPVs.

I agree with that. But if they go with the Joe being DQ'ed for "going too far" finish, it almost has to involving him trying to make Angle bleed after the way they've played that up the whole time, right? The choke doesn't do, but I can't really think of what would, because they just did the crazy chair shots finish last month with Rhino and Christian.

I don't think I've ever been as on the fence about ordering a PPV as I am for this show. I think the top matches will all be strong, but the undercard is so thrown together that I don't know if I want to sit through it to get there. Maybe if I watch last night's Impact angle, the Angle-Joe hype will be enough to get me, but it hasn't yet. I know the match will be great, but something just seems to be missing. Steiner/Joe over the summer felt like a bigger to me, honestly.

Judging my the amount of advertising they did, and the traffic in this thread, I'm thinking they'll at least top 1.0. They might not top it by much, but I really think they'll at least do that. Mind now, that's nothing for them to brag about. They really shouldn't be excited until they get to the 1.5 level. BTW, I forgot to mention how priceless Eric Young yelling "Sniper!" when LAX's music hit was. I literally laughed out loud.

Man, this show showed how much TNA could benefit from an extra hour of TV time. I think this was even better than the primetime special last year (maybe we'll have a November tradition starting of a PPV quality special on Spike). There was so much going on, but none of it felt rushed. They had time to tell stories, as opposed to running vignettes and then never going back to them, like Rhino saying he was coming for Christian last week. They finally resisted the temption to put the names out first, like the normally do whenever they think they have a new audience (the first primetime special started with Jeff Hardy in a six-man). The first faces on the show were Eric Young, LAX and Samoa Joe. Guys who are nothing like anything you'd see on anyone else's show. The matches were all good, too, especially the cage match and Angle/Abyss, both of which I'd put up there with Joe/Daniels from the first Thursday show and that X division six man in January as the best matches TNA has put on TV ever. Just fantastic work by those guys and the crowd made all four look like a million bucks. The Orlando crowd gets a lot of deserved shit, and TNA has clearly worn the market out, but they acted like they were seeing TNA for the first time ever. When you think about the fact that they had sat through an hour of tapings for last week's show already (on their hands, no less), it's even more impressive. I was really worried about TNA not setting up the taping schedule to start a taping with the special, but I think the crowd was hotter than the Detroit crowd at BFG. The only problem, IMO, with this show was that it seemed like such an event, it might take away from Genesis. I am personally still not decided on whether or not I want to buy this show. I like the pairings and I know Joe/Angle will tear the house down, but TNA really sold us three matches. I don't know if that's enough for me to part with $30 instead of waiting for the DVD. But anyway, was a really good showing by TNA. I'd even say it was better than some of their really good two-hour PPVs from Nashville. Here's hoping they pop a decent rating...

Yeah, the last time they were in this spot, they got a 0.8, and that was considered a major disappointment. But this time, they're more established on the network, have a better line-up and the show has gotten better promotion. Should be interesting...

IIRC, TNA's highest rating ever was 1.2 for first Impact appearance. Anyone think they'll beat that tonight? I think with promotion they've done (imagine that!), Angle's debut and the earlier timeslot, they stand a good shot. If they don't, will it be considered a disappointment?

Preview: Discuss:

TNA moved the location of the CT show tomorrow because of "ticket demand." Here's their press release: Anyone know the capacity of the old facility?

Well I thought this was one of the better in-ring shows they've done in awhile. The three-ways were decent and any time Abyss and AJ hook-up, good things happen. I liked the strong LAX push...I think them promising to burn the flag on primetime TV could be a good angle to hook people with, especially if they promote it. And they should replay Storm taking the Border Toss into the wall every week. That was just a SICK bump. The Naturals heel turn seems sudden, but I think they'll be better off for it in the long run and they were effect in their beatdown of the Duds. Also, it seems too early to for tension between Traci and Roode. His push has definitely been effected the most by the booking change, but I just hope we don't end up with another month of interview segments out of it. Overall, I think it was a decent show. It was definitely more about setting up next week as a big deal (it's almost got a clash of the champions feel to it) than Genesis. In the future, hopefully the specials will be further about from the PPV. But to Russo's credit, he slowed down this week. Still not enough to let things sink-in, but at least this week angles weren't happening on top of each other. I'm interested to see what they deliver next week.

Anybody going to the Philly show tonight?

I did...I was typing fast.

They haven't really established either. Joe was positioned as a face for the past two months, and Angle did attack him unprovoked. But Angle's viewed as a superstar by TNA's fans, so he gets the biggest pop of whatever show he's on. By the same token though, Angle was cutting his promo after BFG and the fans chanted Joe's Gonna Kill You at him. In short, no one knows. I don't even think TNA knows. This is probably going to be the most fasinating fan reaction match since Goldberg/Lesnar, though obviously for totally different reasons.

I agree that this is TNA's biggest money-match. With that in mind though, part of me wishes they let this main event BFGIII or at least a non-Orlando PPV. It'll pop a decent buyrate I think, but I think they are blowing an opportunity to draw a nice gate too. Imagine this headlining a PPV in Pittsburgh? That said, I think the build up has been OK so far. I agree that they did a much better job making a match that we had no right being interested in (Steiner/Joe) at least as interesting as this. I think the interest in this has much more to do with what the guys can do than anything TNA has done. The first angle was fantastic, but by repeating three times, they kind of dimished its effect. I actually don't know if I'm going to get this PPV. I wanna see the match no doubt (and AMW vs LAX), but right now, they haven't convinced me that I wanna pay $30 for it now instead of $20 for it on DVD. If they turned their DVDs around faster, I think it'd be leaning that way. We'll see if they can sell me tonight and next week...

From Mike Johnson:

I just came across this on the WO site. It's from before BFG, but Jarrett's got some comments in here that I thought would definitely generate some discussion, so I'm posting it anyway. Here it is:

From Meltz:

Abyss isn't wrestling two times on any show. He's the one with the bye to the finals. The winner of the three-way is wrestling two-times on this Thursday's show.

Meltz said these are some of the matches they're planning on: