Random Thoughts On The Wrestling World - April 8, 2010

I already miss Shawn Michaels. That is a real shocker. LOL. Not only is he my favorite but we lost that guaranteed good match and segment with him every week. Who is going to step up and take over that role of being the guaranteed good on every show? The music video recap of his farewell was fantastic by the way.

I have to say that WWE has been much better here lately. I'm very nervous about Randy Orton though. I love him as a heel and he is a fun heel to cheer for. Now, they've turned him face because the fans forced WWE to do it. I just hope that they keep doing with Orton with what they did on Monday night. He teased hitting Cena with the RKO. Make him an equal opportunity heel where he is just after everyone. Don't turn him into someone that plays to the fans a lot and befriends all of the faces. Make him that tweener kind of character.

Jack Swagger - World Champion. Wow, I didn't see that coming. I really thought that Swagger would be the first guy to cash in and not win the belt. I especially thought that because of the Money In The Bank PPV coming up later this year. So, he cashed in on Jericho last week on Smackdown and won the belt. I'm not sure having him job on Raw was a good start for his title reign but what can you do?

The WWE Draft will be taking place in a few weeks. Definitely need some moves to take place. I've actually quit watching Smackdown again and haven't seen it for weeks. Can Mickie James please be moved back over to Raw? That would be great if that could happen. :)

Batista. Ok, you know how I feel about Batista. It's been no secret. However, I have to give him his due. He has been fantastic in the last month with the Cena feud. He's just this jerk of a heel that is only in it for the money and just rips on the fans. I think he is doing the best performance that he has ever done. His promos are good. His spotlight entrance with the new character is good. Like I said after WrestleMania, I was stunned with how much that I cared about the Cena/Batista match. I was really looking forward to it and that is after I could not have cared less about their first match at SummerSlam. So, I give Batista and WWE credit cause he has been really good for the last month.

The Hart Dynasty. Loved that they turned them face. I was thrilled when they finally got that TV time on Raw last week with Bret. That helps their cause and, come on, isn't it cool to see the next generation of Harts standing there with Bret? I look forward to them continuing their run as a face team and really have enjoyed watching them. Fun team. They will hopefully get a tag title run soon.

TNA has become awful. It is awful. I can't even watch it. The ratings have shown that I am not alone in that opinion. They started up over a 1 when they moved to Monday nights. Last week, they fell to a 0.6 against the Shawn Michaels farewell edition of Raw. This week, they moved to 7-9pm. After doing a 0.8 this week, the time move is now permanent. This is a good idea for them to stay at that timeslot. Get a one hour head start on Raw and try to hook viewers before Raw comes on the air. The first hour of Impact did a 0.9 and they dropped in the second hour. So, that brings their rating up as an average. They are also bringing back the Thursday replay. What was amazing when they first moved to Monday nights was that they were doing a 1.0 on Monday and then still doing their usual 1.0 on Thursday nights. Combine those numbers and it looks better. 0.6 against Raw looks bad. The product doesn't help. It is just bad. I watched 30 minutes of it on Monday night and then watched the premiere of Little People Big World with my mom and dad until Raw came on the air. Problems with TNA? Too much Eric Bischoff on TV. The booking is typical Vince Russo. Go on the air and announce five million stipulations that you can't understand for matches. Orlando Jordan. Enough said there. The reformation of the nWo calling them "the band". Abyss and AJ being turned into mini Hogan and mini Flair is not working and I didn't think that it would. They're ruining both of them. TNA is just bad and it doesn't make sense on how it can be this bad. The roster is so strong but the TV product is so frustrating to watch. All of it is of course not bad. There are things that I like but the bad is so dominating. Changes already need to be made. You know what I want changed and his name ends with Russo.

Christopher Daniels has been released from TNA and has returned to Ring Of Honor. Wow, there has to be a story to this. Really TNA? You let that guy go??!! The Nasty Boys are gone from TNA as well after getting a 90 day tryout.

NXT. Already stopped watching it. It has turned into just another WWE show already. Bummer.

Maryse. Really enjoy that character. The posing that she does and then the reaction from the other divas wanting to hurt her is fun to watch. She's good on the mic.

I'm currently watching the Shawn Michaels My Journey DVD and it is good. The interview stuff is good. It was funny to hear him talk about the Beware Of Dog PPV where the power went out in the building. It was no secret that he had a lot of pressure on him at the time being the new champion and going up against the hot WCW product. Shawn talked about how he had that attitude and talks about yelling at a woman in the front row during the match that was heckling him. LOL. They show the footage too. You could tell at the time that Shawn was fighting the world and it was interesting to hear him reflect back on it. I'm only one disc into it but if you're a Shawn fan, you really need to pick it up. Really good.

Want the chance to meet Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Sting all in the same room in St. Louis? Now is your chance. TNA Lockdown will take place this month in St. Louis but the day before will be the fan interaction event. April 17 will be the fan interaction and that is your chance to meet the superstars of TNA. How far into it that fans want to get is all up to them. There is the regular fan interaction but then there is the main event. Hogan, Flair, and Sting are part of the exclusive VIP "Evening With the Legends" which is the main event of the fan interaction. It carries a steep price tag of $299 to get into it but it has a ton of advantages of it. You might see me as insane but I completely see it as a deal. $299 gets you admission to that exclusive, get your picture taken with all three of them, and a maximum of three items autographed by them. Plus, there are other legends exclusively appearing to that too including Bobby Heenan, Dory Funk Jr., Baron Von Raschke, and Jimmy Hart. Upon entering the event, you get your picture taken with them. You also get to have VIP access to the rest of the fan interaction. That basically means that you wander around the rest of the general admission part and get to go to the front of every autograph line. There should be no reason that you don't get the autograph and get to meet every talent in attendance which includes Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Mr. Anderson, Eric Bischoff, and many more. To me, it seems like you should leave there with 30 autographs at the most guaranteed including Hogan, Flair, and Sting and pictures with everyone. If you stayed for the PPV on Sunday, you get to be escorted to your seat by The Beautiful People. There are other ticket prices to getting into the fan interaction. $55 gets you general admission into the event but you will have to pay for the 8x10's to get signed. The photo package tickets are $100 and includes all the 8x10's to get signed and you can get whoever you want in the regular fan interaction. Yeah, $299 is a lot of money but look at the chance of a lifetime that you get and you get full access to EVERYONE there.

Mickie James album has been pushed back to a late May release due to her recent surgery. In case you didn't know, she had a bad infection in her leg which ended up being MRSA. She commented on Twitter about how she was telling the doctors that she was going to be working WrestleMania before the surgery not realizing the severity of the injury. They told her otherwise and she said she would prove them wrong. She woke up from the surgery and saw a big brace on her leg and laughed about seeing it their way. However, she ended up working WrestleMania after all. Anyway, with the surgery, she wasn't able to promote the album like she wanted to and said that she took it as a sign from God that she needed to slow down a bit. She is getting refreshed and ready for a May album release. I have to say that I really like the first single off of it and it is a country album.

Wishing you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!