Mad Scientist

I enjoyed the ECW show up until the last match. I couldn't stop watching it...it was like one of those awful train-wreck YouTube videos that you know is ending badly but the horror is so powerful I couldn't change the channel. Lashley destroys Test. Easily. So the PPV match is worth what now? I enjoy watching Burke and Punk in action. Striker was great as well. If Punk's going to get stuck in a midcard feud, these guys could at least work with him to put together some really great matches if the booking isn't all buggered up. That music for "The Alpha Male" screams for some character more like "The Ladies' Man" from SNL. Even Tony Atlas' theme for his Saba Simba character would be better. Or even Sable's old theme. Gawd. Look, I wouldn't mind the armbar submission as an alternate finisher, but they really need to build up the Pounce as his main finisher. They're having everybody sell it like madmen. Why is that not a finisher? I realize they want to differentiate the new Alpha Male from the old, but that armbar would be more worthy of someone who could actually wrestle...I'd expect to see some serious old-schooler use it, not a guy whose character is supposed to be a vicious mauler of a wrestler. Next I expect Test will unveil his new finisher, the spinning toe hold. Yeesh. The moves need to match the character to make some sense. The Alpha Male using an armbar makes as much sense as Bret Hart using the Khali "Brain Chop."

And did anyone else notice that little part where we got to watch Don West and Mike Tenay read their scripts on camera? God, do they have an editor? It's not like they're broadcasting this stuff live...

The vignettes are good, but they're including a lot of their best wrestlers in the vignettes, which usually means they're not wrestling, darn it. That's my main complaint about the PCS and Eric Young vignettes - they take a lot of their best in-ring talent out of the ring for the show. I keep hoping that a 2 hour time slot would change this, but that's probably just my wishful thinking/ Also, I forgot about the Hemme-VKM crapola. I like that they've taken VKM out of the ring, but the angle still stinks to high Heaven.

After watching the show last night (1-24-07), I've gotta say that some of the directions TNA is going are positive ones. As I believe Samoa Joe stated, they're tripping over bad booking in a lot of respects. Styles kicking the crap out of Rhyno while dressed up as Raven was great. I really like his new heel direction. He's smart and smarmy, very much in the Christian Cage mold, which is my favorite kind of heel. I still think jobbing him brutally to Angle was drunken monkey style booking, especially when you see how he performs in other matches. The Eric Young promos continue to amuse me. The only downside was James Storm, the supposedly despicable heel, offering to pay for Young's condoms. Isn't he supposed to be a despicable scumbucket that possibly maimed his former best friend/tag partner and then beat up his former manager Gail Kim? (I know consistency is supposedly the hobgoblin of small minds, but mine is small, so there.) However, I'd like to see Young wrestle a bit more. He's a great performer and he could spice up whatever division he's in. He does need a spicier finisher than a neckbreaker though. The Sting/Abyss stuff is just annoying and stupid. Look, the last thing TNA needs is their chief face to act like a complete jerk and their monster heel to have his privacy invaded and thus become sympathetic. If you want Abyss to turn face, just have Mitchell point him at Christian Cage. And Sting just taking the beating was horribly, incredibly, unspeakably stupid. This angle needs to die a quick ignominious death. The adviser coach angle with CC is great. Angle gets to do his psycho bit (his one other bit besides clueless schmuck), while Joe and Christian both get to pull off their devious mindgame bits, which both are really good at. Christian as chief heel for TNA is darn near perfect. Shuffling Jarrett offstage for a while has done TNA a world of good, storyline wise. CC and Christopher Daniels was an excellent match, even though I think they should have given this a lot more buildup. Daniels has some serious main event potential in the World Heavyweight division if they would actually let him work some matches against their top guys. The TNA management seems content to job the heck out of some of their most impressive original stars in brutal fashion. At least Daniels looked competent against CC and not a third rate jobber (see above comments about AJ Styles-Angle). And again, the X Division, what I consider TNA's biggest asset, is given one quickie match on the broadcast. All the guys in that weird tag team match format deserved a lot more ring time. And again with no Shelley match. At least they put Starr/Aries on for some match time this week. He really needs to drop the Starr gimmick. Wrestling today does not need another Adrian Adonis. It's debatable whether wrestling needed the original Adrian Adonis. Aries is too talented a performer to be saddled with such a crappy gimmick. Of course, that has never stopped Russo before. My two cents.

I'd love to see DDP show up as well, if only to give Angle a Diamond Cutter at the next PPV. Another possibility that could work would be Angle-Christian in a heel-v-heel feud. Those can work if done correctly. Pyscho Heel Angle vs. Smarmy Heel Christian would be great. I agree Angle can't seem to handle the 'tweener role all that well. He has two modes in his promos and performances - psycho and schmuck. He can't mix them up without looking utterly ridiculous (i.e., his last couple of weeks in TNA).

***Obligatory first-post introduction*** Hi, Everybody. ****End Intro*** I liked the show, for the most part. On the upside, Styles' line to Eric Young was great. "Jellyhead." Heh. Styles, to me, seems to have some incredible pompous heel potential. His refusal to get up during his match with Rhyno fit perfectly into that persona, without having him lose any real face, kayfabe-wise - he just didn't care to allow an obsessed Rhyno continue to try and cripple him, so his pompous heeldom remained intact, as did his status as a dangerous contender. I was terribly disappointed in the gawdawful Styles-Angle match. Styles is now a second-rate midcard loser that Angle can toss around like a rag doll until distracted by Tomko's Goatee of Doom? Having said pompous heel/dangerous contender look like a job-squadder does nothing for his image though. How did he go from legit world title/x-division threat to Angle jobber that quickly? Storm as a despicable heel is also looking good. I just wish they'd start showing some more X-division matches instead of the Nash skits. Those are funny, but honestly the X-division is TNA's biggest asset - they should be on every week for at least one match. An Impact taping without a Shelley or Starr/Aries match is a wasted show. Just my 2 cents.