Welcome to the “TNA’s major competition might not be with WWE but instead with their own fans in the Impact Zone” edition of The Wrestling List. What am I talking about? Well, TNA is making changes and the fans in Orlando are not liking a lot of it. TNA’s six sided ring is no more. Hogan and Bischoff have gotten rid of it and the traditional four sided ring was used at last night’s Genesis PPV. The six sided ring has been used for almost six years now by TNA. There were definitely fans in attendance at the PPV that weren’t happy about the ring being changed. Fans chanting “we want six sides” and also fans had signs taken away that were against the ring change. The ramp was also changed for the show which had the ramp elevated and reaching all the way to the ring. It was very ECW and old school early 90’s WCW like. There were more changes and booking decisions that didn’t go over well which I’ll get to in a moment. First, let’s start with Impact from Thursday.
Thursday’s TNA Impact was the second show from the new Hogan/Bischoff regime. Solid show and I really enjoyed it. There was a segment with Kurt Angle and AJ Styles talking about the respect that they had for one another. AJ did tell him that this was his last title shot in 2010 at Genesis and Angle said he only needed one shot. The two shook hands and both left. AJ was then attacked by the masked man again. The mask was taken off and it was revealed to be Tomko. AJ was shown later going to Bischoff wanting a match with Tomko on that night. Bischoff said that he needed a main event and the match was made. The match takes place with AJ taking on Tomko. Ric Flair makes his way to the ring and does commentary on the match saying he is there to observe. Angle watches the match as well and goes to Flair to greet him and show respect. AJ wins the match with the pele kick but then gets attacked by Tomko after the match. Angle jumps in and clears the ring of Tomko. Angle gets the belt and hands it to AJ offering another handshake. AJ takes the belt and walks off as Flair smiled from the announce table. In other happenings, Hogan and Jarrett had a confrontation in the back. Jarrett talked about how this was his company that he built from the ground up while adding that the young guys weren’t worth pushing. Bischoff spoke up saying that he was tired of listening to Jarrett talking about building the company and said that they would have been out of business immediately if Dixie Carter hadn’t put money and time into the company. They tell Jarrett to either get out or put ring gear on like everyone else and compete. Hogan gets up and Jarrett starts backing off. I thought it was a nice exchange. Beer Money went to Bischoff during the show wanting a match with Hall and Nash saying that it was them that laid them out on the live Impact. Bischoff said that he would get back with them on that. Later, Hernandez and Morgan took on Beer Money but The British Invasion interfered. Beer Money was left in the ring and then The Band arrived of Hall, Nash, and Waltman. The numbers added up and The Band got the advantage. Security broke it up and Bischoff arrived. He questioned what he was going to do with them while also announcing that tag match for Genesis with The Band against Beer Money. Mick Foley questions were asked all night with everyone saying they didn’t know where he was. There was a match set with Team 3D taking on Lethal and Creed but Lashley attacked Creed and Lethal on the way to the ring. Kristal then got on the mic again demanding a meeting with Hogan saying that every member of the roster would be laid out one by one until the meeting took place. Team 3D made their way to the ring after not being able to get in their locker room occupied still by The Nasty Boys. Brother Ray talked of how they were asked in Japan about what happened with their locker room and that was how they got the news of the happenings. He talked of how the Nastys had ridden Hogan to TNA now and how they were now going to reclaim their locker room along with the help of an ax. They knock down the door with the ax but then are attacked by the Nastys who leave them laying in the floor. The show opened with a very hot opener with the debut of The Young Bucks who are now going by the name of Generation Me as they took on The Motor City Machineguns. This was a lot of fun!! Lots of Young Bucks chants from the crowd. I was very interested to see how they did in TNA after watching them in Ring Of Honor. Lots of high flying including a ridiculous series of moves from the ring apron. The finish had Generation Me hitting their three move combo to get the win. Desmond Wolfe defeated Samoa Joe with the tower of London. The Pope was on commentary and he and Wolfe talked trash on one another afterwards. Sean Morley arrived on the scene talking about his production plans for TNA. Daniels came out and embraced Morley like they were going to be friends. Daniels then attacked Morley and laid him out with the BME telling him to get out of his company. Morley fought back while the talking was going on and Daniels ended up leaving the ring. The Beautiful People took on Hamada and Kong. On the way to the ring, The Beautiful People saw Angelina Love sitting in the front row and went to welcome her back. Hugs all around except from Lacey who wasn’t excited to see her. The match takes place and Kong pins Madison with the awesome bomb. After the match, Angelina jumps in the ring and takes out Velvet and Lacey but her target was definitely Velvet. The announcers put over how Angelina was mad at Velvet for being replaced. I liked that angle that they did there. Interesting edition of Impact and I thought it was solid. Lots of good action on the show.
TNA Genesis opened last night with Hogan and Bischoff in the ring. The fans immediately started chanting “we want six sides”. Hogan then said that they had six sides and it had only got the company so far and now they were going all out to get the company bigger. Boos kept coming and then Hogan said that they weren’t going to have six, eight, or any playpen side rings saying this was where real men wrestle. Yeah, that drew even more boos. Bischoff added how no one likes change but that the ring was just the beginning. The first match of the night had Amazing Red defending the X-Division title against Brian Kendrick. Red won with the code red to retain the title. Sean Morley defeated Daniels in the second match after hitting the money shot. Fans did not like that finish and several turned their back on the ring. Tara defeated ODB to win back the Knockouts championship in a two out of three falls match. Tara won the first fall with a small package. Tara won the match after hitting the widow’s peak for the win. Matt Morgan and Hernandez defeated The British Invasion to win the TNA tag team titles. Lashley entered Bischoff’s office to see Abyss and Bischoff arguing. Abyss then took out Lashley and knocked him out. Bischoff was annoyed with the match now being messed up while Abyss said he was trying to protect Bischoff. Hogan walked in and told Abyss that he would still have a match tonight but to leave the hardcore antics in the locker room. His opponent would be named later. Desmond Wolfe defeated The Pope by pinfall in what many called the match of the night. Borash was told by Bischoff that he was off of TV after letting Foley in the building a couple of weeks ago. The fans really hated that as well and booed that big. Christy Hemme was named as his replacement as she interviewed Ric Flair. Beer Money ended up facing Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman. Waltman was in for Scott Hall. Hall lost paper, rock, scissors earlier in the night to compete in the match. Hall would make his way to ringside during the match and distract Beery Money. Hall ended up pulling a fan over the rail and beating him up with Waltman going to stop him. Roode ended up pinning Nash. Nash was furious at what had occurred and then Hogan and Bischoff were shown backstage. They both said that they had given up on Hall, Nash, and Waltman after giving them a chance. Hogan said that he would take care of this on Impact. Abyss made his way to the ring and then his opponent was revealed to be the former Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson. Abyss went to use a chair during the match but the ref pulled it away. At that time, Anderson got some brass knucks and nailed Abyss with them and got the win. Several fans turned their back on this finish as well. The main event was AJ Styles defending the TNA title against Kurt Angle and the match went to the ring with a lot of TV time left. The match went just under thirty minutes. Flair did arrive and watch the match later on into it. The finish had AJ in the anklelock. AJ looked about ready to tap and then Flair pulled the ref from the ring. AJ then tapped out but the ref obviously didn’t see it. Angle went after Flair but Angle was clotheslined by AJ. Flair then gave the belt to AJ and told AJ to hit Angle with it. AJ paused thinking about it and then nailed Angle with the belt. Flair grabbed Earl Hebner and threw him in ring. AJ makes the cover and wins the match to retain the TNA title. AJ and Flair then celebrated in the ring as AJ has turned heel and is now paired up with Flair.
Ok, now I’ll move into my thoughts on the show. This is a real mixed bag for me but my major complaint is right at the top of the card. AJ Styles being turned heel. I can’t stand this idea immediately. Maybe they’ll make it work but it’s a frustration for me to watch. I like AJ being the top guy and pushing him as the number one babyface of the company. He’s the homegrown guy and has all the talent in the world. Now, you turn him heel and put him with Ric Flair. I heard a good comment last night on post show audio that I was listening to and that was how are you expecting fans to boo AJ Styles and also Ric Flair? That isn’t going to happen. LOL. My main problem with the heel turn is that this takes a lot of ring work off of the show. What do I mean? I’m talking about the difference between the in ring style of a face AJ vs. a heel AJ. When AJ wrestles as a heel, he has to go at a much different pace being a heel. His last heel run had him barely doing any of the stuff that he is great at and I’m afraid that will happen again. As a face, AJ can go full out and be the incredible athlete that he is. The decision to turn AJ heel is going to have to win me over cause I am not feeling it and it is concerning me. Another complaint of mine is the push of the former WWE guys. The one that really gets my attention is Daniels and Sean Morley. Daniels has been in the main event picture recently again FINALLY and now they have him losing to Morley who just lost to everyone in the world during the last of his WWE run. That really concerns me. When they had that angle set up on Impact, I never really considered that Daniels might lose. Another concern of mine is that there is a difference in growing your company and turning your back completely on the fans that have been with this company for years. The Impact Zone is an audience that is going to tell you what they feel and I love that. That is what I miss about the ECW audience of old and this is as close as we’ve got to that. They voiced their opinion last night about the six sided ring and were basically told that nothing mattered previously leading up to the new regime change. That just made them more angry. They turned their backs twice during the night with one being when Morley beat Daniels and then when Abyss was defeated by Anderson. It should be pointed out that there is talk that officials were telling fans that if they turned their back again, they’d be ejected from the building. Add to that that the anti-six sided ring signs were being taken away from fans as well. TNA has tried this in the past with them trying to get people to do what they want as far as reactions and it sounds like it is getting worse. Jeremy Borash was removed from TV and the crowd reacted big time negative in the building to it. I don’t know if that is permanent or what. Where was Samoa Joe on this show? This was the first PPV in his TNA career that he was not booked on to and that is concerning!! There were good things on the show obviously including the Wolfe/Pope match and other good in ring action. I don’t want it to sound like that I’m ripping on this whole show cause I’m not. The show overall sounded like it was good. There are decisions being made that are already concerning me and I’m just afraid that a lot of these younger homegrown guys are getting pushed to the side. The AJ heel turn is the thing that concerns me the most along with the treatment of the TNA fans. Yes, you need to build the company but include everyone. Don’t say that everything has been garbage up to this point because that is an absolute lie. I think the new regime has a challenge on them to top the best matches and moments in TNA history.
Tonight’s WWE Raw was guest hosted by Don Johnson and Jon Heder. I thought it was a solid show and continued the build to The Royal Rumble. The show opened up with Vince McMahon in the ring talking about Bret Hart and how he wasn’t bringing back Bret cause Bret was like an old horse that needed to be put down. He said that the fans were what caused this cause they are always wanting younger, faster, quicker wrestlers which doesn’t match Bret. The Undertaker arrives and Vince adds that he wasn’t done talking. Undertaker tells Vince that he is one of the few people that was in Montreal and saw the whole thing happen with Bret. Taker tells him that he saw eyes of fear that night and sees it in him tonight too. He calls Vince a coward and how he had now screwed Bret twice. Vince disagreed and then left the ring for Taker. Taker’s main purpose was to be there to answer the challenge from Shawn Michaels. He calls out Shawn saying he will answer it personally. Shawn arrives and Taker says Shawn was closer to ending the streak than anyone else had been but that he was going to save Shawn the bitter disappointment again. Taker said he had nothing to prove and said no to the rematch. Taker called Shawn out for a match tonight to let Shawn prove that he could beat him. Shawn said no to that saying that he was going to beat him on the grandest stage of them all. Shawn’s next plan was that he was going to win the Rumble and then move on to face Undertaker for the World title at WrestleMania. Taker told Shawn that it was the only way that he would get the WrestleMania match with him. Triple H kept trying to talk to Shawn throughout the night but never did get to. Heder and Johnson were the guest hosts as I said and Heder played the heel role. The main event was made by Heder as he made Miz and Big Show a tag team putting them against DX. After Hornswoggle interrupted a locker room discussion between Heder, Show, and Miz, the decision was made to make it a six man tag. Triple H was involved in this discussion as well. Heder would be the partner of ShowMiz. Yep, that is what I’m calling the tag team with a play off of the word showbiz. Heder wasn’t happy about this at all. So, the match takes place. Heder comes out wearing a very Ric Flair like robe and plays up the funny in this match. He and Hornswoggle go at it briefly. Triple H tags in and Heder bails out. Johnson was in DX’s corner and throws Heder back into the ring. Show gets to Triple H before he can do anything but then Show takes a superkick from Shawn. Show lands on Heder. Shawn then nails a kick to Miz on the apron. Hornswoggle nails the tadpole splash on to Show and Heder and then pins Heder to win the match. After the match, Triple H tells Shawn that he has a problem with what Shawn said earlier about the Rumble. Shawn gets annoyed and then Cena arrives. Cena says that he is back in the Rumble this year and then Big Show says the same. Show takes down DX but then Cena knocks Show from the ring. DX throws Cena out and then Triple H throws Shawn over the top. Triple H gets on the mic and says that is his problem adding that he is in the Rumble too and plans on winning it so Shawn won’t be able to face Undertaker. In other happenings, Cena teamed with Kofi against Legacy. The finish had Dibiase saving the pinfall for his team after Cena hit the adjustment on Cody. As they got up, Kofi tagged in. He went for a high crossed body. Dibiase saw him and ducked but Kofi got Cody with it for the pin. After the match, Dibiase helped up Cody who shrugged off Dibiase and walked out mad. Sheamus defeated Evan Bourne following the celtic cross. Randy Orton watched from the ramp and then faced off with Sheamus in the ring after the match. Sheamus held up the belt and left. Later, Orton defeated Chris Masters after hitting a RKO. Sheamus watched the match from the ramp as well. After Orton won, he turned and took a kick from Sheamus leaving him laying. Jack Swagger called for a rematch of the over the top challenge from last week with Santino. Santino arrived dressed like Don Johnson saying he wasn’t going to compete but had a substitute. The replacement was Mark Henry who won by press slamming Swagger to the floor. Gail Kim and Eve defeated Maryse and Alicia Fox when Eve hooked an arm submission on to Alicia for the submission victory.
Other notes from Raw. Always great to see WWE pay tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. I thought Johnson and Heder did fine tonight. Heder was a goofy fun kind of heel in his role. I thought the two of them did better reacting to the live crowd right at the moment more than a lot of the other guest hosts. I will be seeing that movie that they were promoting, When In Rome, because, well, it has my favorite actress in it, Kristen Bell. How many commas can I put in that last sentence? Geez. Was that robe that Heder was wearing and the goofiness of it a shot at Ric Flair? Did you catch Jerry Lawler mess up and call Randy Orton by the name of Randy Savage??!! That was hilarious. I bet Vince was furious. LOL. Looks like we’re starting to maybe see the push of Dibiase being split away on his own. What exactly is the roll that Kofi is on according to Michael Cole? All I’ve seen for the most part lately is Kofi losing so one or two weeks of wins doesn’t count as a roll. I just hope that they can build some momentum on him in the next few weeks including the Rumble. Wow, Evan Bourne isn’t even getting entrances anymore. Did you notice that Swagger’s pyro was gone too? Wow, WWE has messed up everyone that they brought over from ECW. Bourne, Swagger, and Henry had all sorts of good things and momentum happening on ECW and they’ve done nothing on Raw. WWE has pretty much turned them into a joke on Raw which is disappointing. MVP’s cameo for the night was getting knocked out by Big Show. Why is Heder saying that he brought in Big Show to the show as an insurance policy for him when Big Show should already be there since, I don’t know, he is on the roster. LOL.
WWE did a 3.7 rating for the Mike Tyson episode of Raw last week which was up from the 3.6 with Bret Hart. As far as TNA Impact, the show did a 1.3 back in its normal Thursday night time slot. That is up from its normal as well on Thursday. Dixie Carter posted on her Twitter account last week about her and Hogan meeting with Spike executives and how the meeting went very well. She teased an announcement coming soon. I tend to think that we’ll get an announcement of something involving Monday nights before it is over.
Bret Hart has commented on his Facebook page that the segment with he and Shawn Michaels on Raw was unscripted. He said that he did see Shawn earlier in the day but that what they said in the ring was “unrehearsed and heartfelt”.
Some definite drama over the WWE Hall Of Fame tickets going on sale last week. LiveNation was doing the ticket sales and put the tickets on a pre-sale to fans. There was some sort of error about tickets in sections that weren’t to be released to the general public. So, LiveNation cancelled all the ticket sales and put them on sale again later in the day. If you bought tickets earlier in the day and didn’t know about the error, you didn’t get the tickets that you had bought. You may not have had time to know about the ticket error. I would be so annoyed if I bought tickets and had seats that I loved only to have worse seats due to an error out of my own control. I feel bad for the people that bought tickets and then didn’t get tickets at all. There are many that are in that situation as the Hall Of Fame is already sold out.
Stone Cold Steve Austin will guest star on next week’s episode of Chuck on NBC.
WWE is offering a free WrestleMania chair to fans who order all three of the PPV’s including Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania XXVI. You can check out more info at this link: http://www.roadtowrestlemaniaoffer.com
WWE released Eric Escobar in recent days. Not anything surprising there especially after they ended the relationship storyline with Vickie Guerrero so quickly. I mentioned at the time that I didn’t see his future being that bright in WWE after the plug was pulled on that so fast.
WWE is airing the old Best of the WWF Volume One Coliseum Video right now on WWE Classics On Demand. They are saying that Volume Two is going to air next month so maybe they are going to air all of these. I still remember renting these videos as a kid and there were a lot of great matches on this series of videos.
Wishing all of you a great week. Take care and God bless!!
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