Hunter's Torn Quad

It would be more accurate to say they have more tracked viewers than in the history of the company. Neilsen have now begun to tracking college students in dorms, which has helped the ratings for Impact, and Raw as well, because their are now viewers being counted that weren't before, so on the surface it like more people are watching when it's simply more people being counted. Of course, none of this takes away from the fact that these TV ratings haven't translated into increased PPV buys.

I personally could give a shit less about ratings or PPV buyrates. You would care if the money marks were unhappy with them and pulled the plug. Since Russo returned, I haven't missed an Impact. Great. Have you bought every PPV?

Better Lance than the buffon they've got in charge now.

Which fans of Russo will use as proof that he's turning things around, all the while ignoring the fact that TNA PPV's are still at the same level they used to be, and might even be lower.

So he's like plaque?

It was supposed to be about Bret. Which it was. They just very very lucky.

I would assume it's still Shane with Khali, and Lashley gets the spot of slamming Khali to get him over as a powerhouse.

In a way, Hogan not being at WM is similar to Hunter being out injured. As with Hunter being out forced them out of their comfort zone and kick things into gear, Hogan being left out as forced them to put Lashley into the mix with Trump and Vince. While Lashley isn't exactly firing up the masses, it's at least a legitimate attempt at trying to get over new talent, that as limited as he is, has the potential to be something good to great. Hogan being left out might be the best thing to happen for the short and long term.

Fans of Russo react to Impact - Warning; You are entering a logic-free zone

The thread might be called Comments which don't warrant a thread, but that doesn't mean you can post pointless shit. If you want to bicker with each other, go to CS.

Meltzer

Getting things back on track, more on the Hogan situation: Meltzer

Think you can explain the rules? Is it the one where judges will bw watching it? A scaffold match sees the wrestlers on a platform high above the ring with the object to throw your opponent off the scaffold. The scaffold is small and you can't do much on it apart from kick, punch and maybe slam someone, and the matches always suck. So, of course it makes perfect sense to put X-Division wrestlers in this kind of match, where it negates their strength of putting on fast paced and athletic matches.

And what did he mean by "getting over in mainstream" wrestling? Did he mean mainstream as in press coverage? If so, somebody should have told him that even American wrestlers almost never get mainstream press coverage. Austin, Rock, Hogan are about it when it comes to serious level coverage apart from the once-a-year Wrestlemania stories. Did he mean mainstream as in getting over to the casual fans? If he does, then he never heard of Great Muta or Jushin Liger or any of the other numerous non-American wrestler that people have gone crazy for. Those statements were insane, and hopefully the rest of the TNA booking team are able to work around his narrow mindset. And before his defenders jump in, I know those statements were made over seven years ago, but Russo has shown no sign that he's moved on from the 1998-9 time period, so I have no faith that he's changed his mind on this one.

F4W So, no Hogan at WM unless Vince changes his mind.

Some stats for last night's Impact:

The latest Observer says the new gimmick match will be called an Elevation X match, which will be a scaffold match involving X-Division wrestlers. That gimmick is stupid on so many levels that even for TNA it leaves you shaking your head that it ever got approved.

You might be able to add Yuji Nagata to the list of great wrestlers that Russo will misuse with his terrible booking. Nagata told the Japanese press he is working the 2/26 tapings.

And Joe is meant to be getting the NWA title very soon, so it really is questionable showing a Joe match where he not only loses but taps out. A better match to show for Joe would have been the second Joe/Daniels/Styles match so you not only get a good X-Division match in there, but one where Joe wins. For Angle, I think it would have been better to just show clips of him looking good, because not only would do a better job of getting Angle over without having to see Joe tap out, but the people tuning are going to have seen Angle anyway, so you can get away with not showing him wrestle yet. It's stuff like this, among many things, that make you wonder what TNA are smoking.

Ted DiBiase turns heel on JYD in Mid-South The birth of The Rat Pack as they force JYD out of Mid-South Ted DiBiase vs. Stager Lee (Who could S Lee be?)

Two minutes in and already one of the three matches is over. The other two matches better get time.

*NWA champion Christian Cage vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Abyss vs. Sting vs. Ron Killings- King of the Mountain (Slammiversary 2006) Yes, show a match with a finish of Earl Hebner screwing the babyface champion out of the title. That won't make TNA look minor league, rehashing Montreal. *NWA Tag Team champions AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. LAX- Six Sides of Steel (Bound for Glory 2006) It's a good match, but I would have gone with their Ultimate X match which had the spectacular finish of Daniels leaping off the top of the rigging, *NWA champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting with Kurt Angle as the official Enforcer (Bound for Glory 2006) It makes sense to show the match where Sting becomes NWA Champion, but it's not a match that will grab viewers attention. It's not very good, and it has some really bad spots that will need to be edited out. Which means we'll get them in all their botched glory. *Two additional matches from PPV (no confirmation on what they are yet). One of them HAS to feature Samoa Joe, and if TNA has any brains it'll be the first Joe/Daniels/Styles match. *A countdown of TNA's "Greatest Moments" And I'll be shocked if even half of them involved an actual wrestling match.

Glad to see the main event got time to breath. I was trying not to get my hopes up for the match after last week's 3 minute main event. We'll see how many of those 10 minutes make air though.... I'll guess five minutes of it make it on air.

Because it's 2007 and not 1982? The product is terrible as a wrestling show, but as TV show it could have legs.

More from F4W on Flair's tirade on Carlito: The office itself scripted the promo, word-for-word, and it was what it appeared to be, a total burial of Carlito. The majority of the speech was derived from road agents reports on Carlito, as he's felt to be lazy on house shows too, with Brian Gewirtz making it a little more inflamatory with the end result being what we saw. People know Carlito can do better, but because he doesn't he got the public burial. Alvarez brought up that we get stuff like this because they're not going to let anyone go to TNA, and they're also worried about WSX as well. At least we'll get some comedy on Raw when it comes to public burials. I wonder who'll be next?