Hunter's Torn Quad

I'd imagine it being something like Undertaker having an earpiece telling him what Vince's decision is, so it comes like: "At Wrestlemania, I will be challenging Joh...Ba...Bo....", and then Undertaker snapping and yelling at Vince to make his mind up.

I'll agree that WCW was sinking even when Russo came on board the first time, but they were still doing half-decent numbers in the 3.5 range for Nitro and had the nucleus for what could have been a solid product. The only thing was that making something of that involved bringing in someone who had a respect for the audience and what they wanted, neither quality Russo possessed. Bischoff and company might have done more damage overall than Russo, but Russo was the one who did the crucial damage at a time when WCW couldn't afford it.

Wrestlemag

And what a great job he did in WCW. I can understand that Russo's big fans want to defend the guy, but mentioning his runs in WCW is not the way to do it, because they are shining examples of everything that is wrong with Russo and show what a waste it was to bring him in.

Meltzer's latest update says Undertaker wil appear at the start of Raw to announce the main event of Wrestlemania, one would presume by announcing which title he's going after.

I know it's not always easy to make weight, but for Lutter to not make weight with all the build up he got is astounding.

Vince proposed it to Bret as part of the series of matches presented to Bret supposedly to try to get him to stay but obviously designed to get him to leave. The series was Bret losing three straight to Shawn, beating Shawn for the belt and then dropping it to Steve.

Mr Magician vs Naoshi Sano YOSSHIKO (a blow-up doll) turns heel

A chance like this, and Lutter might blow it?

Apparently, it's down to Joe getting the NWA title soon, and TNA don't want Joe in angles and storylines they don't control.

It's a completely valid point, but I'm not surprised you don't get it. Everything that happens on Impact, or any wrestling show, is 'real' within the context of the show. In the Impact world, if someone like Mike Tenay is given a tape of LAX beating up Brother Ray's uncle, who has nothing to do with anyone else on the show, it makes no sense for Tenay not to turn this tape over to the police to see that justice gets done. It also makes no sense for the response of Team 3D to this attack to simply issue a challenge to LAX. Logically, and I know that's a dirty word for Vince Russo and a concept that some are unable to grasp, it made no sense for Tenay not to report the attack to the police, given that it was on a non-wrestling individual who had nothing to do with wrestling, and it made no sense for the Team 3D response to just be D-Von issuing a challenge for a match. Logically, Mike Tenay should have handed the tape over to the police, and even if you explain that away by saying that Team 3D could have wanted to keep the police out of it and settle things with LAX themselves, what sense does it make for them to just issue a challenge when a more logical response, the kind of response that just about anyone else in the universe would have, is to vow revenge on LAX. Whether it's 'not real' or not is not the point. The point is that it made no sense within the context of the show. THIS JUST IN; 0.99

Well, someone was not a fan of Impact:

I highly doubt Gabe would bring in Ki, more over principal than anything. When Ki tried to hold ROH up for money last year, Gabe said Ki was now in the same category as Teddy Hart in that he'd only ever use him again if it was a life or death situation. This isn't life or death. As for who Joe faces on his last night, given that it's England, I would have said Nigel, but that's happening the night before, so I'd say some other English guy if at all possible. If not, then maybe Colt Cabana, because he's popular in the UK from working there whenever he can. It could even be set up from something the night before.

They can and they will. I wouldn't be surprised if they assume fans tuning into USA and not seeing Raw will tune into Spike, simply because they used to have wrestling and want to see if they still have it. TNA haven't exactly done their best when it comes to getting the word out about anything they do.

Another note from F4W, is that it was Kevin Dunn who made the call for Michael Cole to call the Rumble instead of Jim Ross. Dunn considers Cole the "heir apparent" and wanted to make sure that fact was clear.

To follow on:

I think either Cena loses to Undertaker or Batista loses to Michaels, with the winner challenging the champion he pinned and the other two not involved in the finish gettingt put together in the other WM title match I think the match was put together to set up whatever the WM main events were going to be at the time. Whether they'll end up like that or not remains to be seen, but I think that was the logic behind putting the match together. If that's accurate, then I'm picking Undertaker to pin Cena.

There isn't really a whole lot left for Joe to do in ROH. He can go for being the first guy to have held all the titles in ROH, but that's it. Let him go, he'll stick to TNA and any other places for a while, maybe a year or so, and then come back for one-off major matches.

A match that ends clean with no semblance of a run-in, ref bump or swerve with one guy actually winning decisively?

It's never a good idea for an ongoing tease to end up not making sense, even if you can lamely explain it away by hiding behind the idea that a heel lies so it doesn't matter. Things like this add up when it comes to people not trusting the promotion or not buying into future teases, and that ends up rendering future teases pointless because people have been educated into not buying into them. If it had been Christian making the tease one week and then revealing it the next, it would have still been bad but at least it wouldn't have seen them spending so much time teasing something, thus building up trust and/or expectations, and then the whole thing winding up making no sense and letting people down.

Pictures of the taping: Impact pictures And here's a newsbit from Bryan Alvarez:

But surely, now people know its Steiner, they'll buy the PPV to see what part he plays in the match? People already knew what part the advisor was going to play in the match. He's going to be at ringside and interfere. They just didn't know, for sure, who it was going to be. By holding off revealing who it was until the PPV, they would have made people have to PAY to see who the mystery man was. By concluding the tease on FREE TV, people don't have to pay to see who the mystery man is. The lure in PAYING to see the PPV was never in what the advisor was going to do, but in who the advisor was, but that's now out the window. And TNA need these sorts of surprises on Imapct to bring the ratings in, I know that ratings dont bring the money in, but when you think about it, highter ratings = people know about the product = people will buy the PPV's. A surprise is nice, but the idea behind teasing one on free tv is to get people to PAY to see the payoff. The people are already drawn in by the ongoing tease of what the surprise is. Good business says to make money off of that tease by making people PAY to see the payoff, and not give it away for free. If TNA keeps giving away the surprises and payoffs on free TV, it might raise ratings .1 or .2, but what incentive does it give people to buy the PPV when all the teases are concluded for free?

If they had held off revealing Steiner until the PPV, anyone who bought the PPV to see the surprise would have not been disappointed, because Steiner is a big enough name that he still means something. That alone would have gone a little way towards creating some goodwill, because it would have been a teased payoff that was worth paying for, and it might have made those people more willing to pay money the next time a big surprise is teased for a PPV.

You mean we won't get more of the classic Lashley/Test feud? It's far too soon for Edge and Orton to face off.