Hunter's Torn Quad

Though there is a market for that sort of thing. IWA-MS usually run there.

Like Ian actually paid them. 75 people at, maybe, ten dollars a ticket is only $750. That show had to have lost even more money than Ian's shows usuallly do. It's amazing that IWA-MS is still around.

What was your first clue?

What a piece of shit.

I would prefer this finish or, failing that, Joe losing by DQ when he snaps and refuses to let go of the choke. Joe losing cleanly would further establish the idea that TNA wrestlers are inferior to WWE wrestlers, even if it is a top name like Angle. Joe winning, even if it is a close call, at least establishes right off the bat that TNA's top wrestler is better than one of WWE's top wrestlers. Angle doesn't need to win right away, but Joe does and TNA needs Joe to win right away. Angle is established to the mainstream already. Joe isn't and neither is TNA, and Joe winning would be a big boost. If Joe loses by DQ for not letting go of the choke, they still push the idea that Joe choked out Kurt Angle. They could also push Joe as this monster who endangered the life of the guy TNA are hoping to help take them to the next level. This could get Joe over big as a heel and further cement Angle as a babyface, which can the play into their rematch down the line with Angle going for revenge against the man who tried to end his career.

It's actually just Doug Basham who is part of the masked security force. Danny Basham had knee surgery a couple of months ago. The other masked guy is, or at least was, Derrick Neikirk. He got put into the role both due to the injury to Danny and because his tag team partner at the time, Ryan O'Reilly, was suspended for failing a drugs test. As for what was planned for The Bashams, nothing was ever planned beyond them being the masked security guys and making up the numbers on ECW house shows.

Rating was a 1.5, which I think is slightly down from last week, but still in the same range it usually gets. Guess WWE fans still don't know it's a WWE brand.

Rating was a 3.7. Which is the usual range for Raw now.

On LAW on Sunday, Meltzer said he thinks that they want to hold off the Batista title win until Wrestlemania. It's not like a DQ in their match is the most unlikely of finishes in any event.

Looks like Randleman has been up to no good.

And how about that Bobby Roode push? In a top match one week, and the next he's not even on Impact and does a job to Eric Young on Xplosion.

I still wonder why they never did this when Angle first signed, but at least they are making some effort to get their name out there.

The people who brought Russo in do deserve a lot of the blame for giving him a platform to show his 'genius'. Doesn't mean he gets a free ride on the criticism he does deserve.

Abyss tapped out clean. The number one contender to the NWA Title tapped out. Clean. In a match to be shown just days before his title match. I defy anyone to credibly defend that. I cannot believe some people still insist we 'wait and see'. We don't need to wait, and we've already seen. That was aimed at luke-o, obviously, and not APW.

Who is acting like it was Russo who made TNA sucks? TNA have been sucking creatively for a long time. Everyone acknowledges that. Well, almost everyone.

Nash knows his own corner of the business very well, I'll say that much.

And what sense does it make anyway? Seriously. It just makes TNA look even more second rate.

That was one horrible Raw. The final segment was a new level of terrible. Every moment that fat fuck was clowning around with DX made DX seem less and less cool, if that's even possible. It was like Howard Finkel doing the crotch chop at Summerslam in 1998 only a million times less cool.

Two things are now clear, more than ever. First, TNA is run by idiots. While Russo is part of the problem, he wouldn't be if Dixie, Jeff and the rest of the crackpots had realized that Russo is a one-trick pony, and had thought outside the box for someone to bring on board. Second, Vince Russo will forever think it's 1998. He had is only success back then, and he keeps trying to recreate it time after time. He's been around for barely a month and it's clear that he hasn't changed one bit. He's still trying to replicate what worked in 1998 and isn't the least bit interested or able to adapt and move with the times.

WWE weren't on a nostalgia kick then, plus they didn't really acknowledge what people did outside their own promotion in 1996. It also didn't help that Gordy was a complete mess and it probably would have been embarrassing for all concerned.

I think TNA are on this mad quest to make sure that as few people know about them as possible. If they have any kind of brains, then they'll make sure that every wrestling fan in the world knows about this show and that Kurt Angle is making his in-ring return. That said, I don't see this going much higher than a 1.2, and that's being optimistic.

You've got to be shitting me. I shit you not.

And if you're not sick of DX already, then enjoy watching them until past Wrestlemania. Five more months, at least, of a one-trick pony.

Hopefully, this abomination flies under the radar.