I realize that as I write this there is probably thousands of blogs floating around the World Wide Web regarding their own personal thoughts on last night’s first official shot to the restart of the Monday Night Wars in the world of wrestling. For what it’s worth it really wasn’t anything extremely special unless you don’t read any internet reports or even camelclutchblog.com as Rob Van Dam showed up on TNA Impact. Besides that it was very little bang in both shows that made us go “the Monday Night Wars are back!”

Taking a look first at TNA Impact where I have been pretty critical on the product lately in my blogs and on “The Still Real to us show.” I’ve been pretty critical of the product lately because of the things Hogan & Bischoff have done with the organization since they took over as it continues to look like a Hulk & friends expo more then anything. The main event they had setup for their first official Monday night show wasn’t all that appealing either.

TNA heavily promoted the “first five minutes” of their show were a “must see.” They didn’t tell us why they just told us to be there. Well if you went to TNA first you got the main event match in the first 5 minutes. You saw the return of Flair and Hogan in the ring. The match itself was dreadful and both legends are showing their age in the ring. The return of Sting was cool but a heel turn never works for Sting because no matter what he does the fans love him. I find it strange that in recent months Hogan & Bischoff have buried/re-packaged guys like Jarrett, Sting and Foley, three guys that were focal points for the organization in the last year.

For some reason TNA creative thought they would pull on the ol’ heart strings if Brooke Hogan cried and pleaded with her father not to wrestle. It did nothing for me. If they want to make me feel sad for Brooke Hogan make me listen to her album from front to back then I will feel a drop of sadness for Brooke Hogan.

Unsurprisingly Rob Van Dam closes his open door relationship with WWE to sign with TNA as was reported all last week within all the smart marks of wrestling. How do they debut Rob Van Dam? They give us a dream match in less then thirty seconds with Sting vs. RVD. When you heard RVD’s music come on as Sting awaited his opponent fans were popping in the living rooms as they finally got a match that they have waited to see on free TV.

Then the amazing booking of Vince Russo kicked in and we got a kick to the head, a rolling thunder and a three count. I was more pissed then anything else because it was a waste of time and a throw away match for two legendary wrestlers people want to see actually wrestle. The beat down of RVD left me scratching my head as there was no mention of RVD’s beat down for the rest of the show. Nice to see RVD was a pawn in a Hogan angle.

One of the only good things I saw out of Impact was the way they made Eric Young look last night. The fire and fight they made him have when he took on Sean Waltman was pretty awesome. Despite not being on the show for a whole lot of time I would give Eric Young the MVP, along with the X-Division match for last nights show as he showed the fire the TNA locker room once had.

One random thought from last night’s show was how many commercial breaks and promos they had. I understand ad revenue but damn it was pretty boring and hard to watch. The Nash/Young stuff with Waltman/Hall was dragging for too long. By the way who see Nash turning on Young or even vice versa to give Waltman & Hall contracts? Props to the TNA Impact zone fans for chanting “Hall is wasted.” Chant of the night.

Then to finish the show we get the Main Event again with Earl Hebner as referee for no reason what’s as ever as they brought him back after another “screw job” from a few weeks ago. Also don’t make me feel bad for the Hulkster when he’s taking to Bubba the Love Sponge. The guy doesn’t belong in wrestling and it’s sad that TNA sided with him after the years of service Awesome Kong gave the company.

Flair and Hogan showed their age yet again in this match. They look much slower then they did in their recent WWE runs and it was sad to see. But what do you expect out of a 60 year old and a man in his late 50s. Abyss/Hogan win and Abyss gets a title shot. Ok.

On the other side of the wrestling spectrum, the WWE and Raw has been fun to watch in recent weeks as they have really done a good job building toward Wrestlemania 26. Last night’s show may have been one of their least entertaining shows in weeks but still got a lot done to further expand their storylines which TNA did not do a good job of. Like Doug Williams vs. Shannon Moore for the X-Division Championship, ok why? Because Jeff Hardy signed that is Shannon Moore’s bonus?

The Undertaker/HBK stuff has been great in recent weeks with little physical confrontation to set up this match. They made sure the match at Wrestlemania 26 will not end in Disqualification and someone actually has to win the match. I have my suspicious on how it will end but either way Undertaker/HBK at Wrestlemania 26 is huge and the booking has made it feel that way.

I don’t like when the WWE gives away PPV matches on free TV, I don’t like it even more when it’s a Wrestlemania 26 match. The tag team match did nothing for me. I understand that they need to start building this match and it was nice to see they added it on Raw instead of just focusing it on Smackdown but the match itself did nothing for me.

As we have talked about a lot of “The Still Real to us show,” Eric Gargiulo and I have no idea where the Randy Orton/Legacy thing is going as we get closer to Wrestlemania 26. Is Orton a face? Is he a tweener character now? I have no idea and I feel that way even more from watching Raw. The fans cheered for him so the face ball is in his court. I’m hoping creative will have a good ending to this confusing build towards Wrestlemania.

Sheamus vs. Triple H is official for Wrestlemania 26 and I’m actually looking forward to this match. I think this will give Sheamus the opportunity to move in the step forward of being taken seriously as a main eventer in the fans eyes. I was also happy with Evan Bourne being the final participant for the “Money in the Bank” ladder match as Eric Gargiulo was right on the money (no pun intended) with his prediction for the last spot in the match.

As for the Main Event match it was “eh.” McMahon being in the main event was funny as it was definitely counter programming to TNA’s main event with the battle of the senior citizens. I didn’t really expect anything out of this match; the stuff with the gauntlet was interesting and made sense for wrestlers face or heel to do it because Vince McMahon is the boss. I hope something comes out of this for Mark Henry or Kofi Kingston as they were the only two to stand up to Vince McMahon.

This was probably the lowest of all the great stuff Cena & Batista have been doing lately in their build for the main event match for Wrestlemania 26. Batista lays out Cena again and continues to make Cena look like the guy that won’t “give up.” I have a feeling things will change next week with Steve Austin in charge of Raw.

With that being said next week’s Raw looks great with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the guest host. I love the “Wrestlemania rewind” stuff that WWE has done the past couple of years on Raw and this coming Monday should be fun to watch. Already three huge matches have been announced as Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (possibly for the last time ever), Triple H vs. Randy Orton and John Cena vs. Big Show. Add the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon contract signing with Steve Austin overseeing it and we have a jammed packed show for next week’s Raw.

As for TNA they will be taped as they will be taping their next Monday show on Tuesday March 9th. That will take away from the rating for the show as some fans will read the spoilers and rather watch the action packed live Raw for next week. That will hurt the numbers at least for the second week of the Monday Night Wars.

As for both shows overall I really didn’t feel like there was a winner or a loser. Both shows were just kind of “eh.” I lean more to the WWE side because I don’t like what Hogan & Bischoff have done with TNA already as I have stated on past blogs and during “The Still Real to us show.” The ratings will obviously raise the hand of one winner but I don’t think the TNA rating for this past Monday will match or be better then the one from January 4th. TNA still clearly has some work to do before they reach the same level as WWE.

If you have any questions or comments for Eric Gargiulo and I for this week’s “The Still Real to us Show” please e-mail us at thestillrealtousshow@gmail.com

Jeff Peck is the producer for the “Wheelhouse Radio” program that airs every Sunday – Thursday @ 8pm ET/5pm PT at www.blogtalkradio.com/thewheelhouse and at www.errorfm.com @ 2am ET/11pm PT

Jeff also co-hosts “The Still Real to us show” with Eric Gargiulo which can be available at www.wheelhouseradio.com and can be downloaded in the “Real Guy Radio” section of the site. There you can also download many different shows including “The Wheelhouse”, “24 on 24″ and “Lost: Smoke Monsters and You.”

If you would like to subscribe to “The Wheelhouse” on iTunes simply subscribe for free at iTunes by typing in “Wheelhouse Radio!”

You can follow “The Champ” Jeff Peck on twitter by going to www.twitter.com/therealjeffpeck or you can follow Wheelhouse Radio! on Twitter by visiting their page @ www.twitter.com/thewheelhouse. You can also e-mail them @ wheelhouseradio@gmail.com

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I watched TNA Impact this past Thursday night to prepare myself for “The Still Real to us Show” as we will preview the Monday Night Wars II to kick start this Monday night. I could not believe how a promotion that is going to be toe-to-toe with the WWE had such a lackluster to show to close the books on Thursday nights and step into the Monday night squared circle. For their flagship show to be called “Impact” is a joke after what I saw this past Monday.

Everyone criticizes the WWE for how many promos they will do for a show but for crying out loud if you watched TNA this past Thursday you were begging for anything besides a promo. Hell I was happy to see vignettes with Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley. By the way if anyone told me I’d be writing those words five years ago, I would never believe them.

Sure we got the hype for this coming Monday’s show but its no where near the hype TNA gave their first Monday night outing.

They are building this coming Monday’s show around the return of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in the ring. As a wrestling fan I am sad to see how Ric Flair’s career has taken a turn for the worse the past two years and sad to see that Flair is yet again returning to the ring after the send off he received two years ago from the wrestling world. That being said I don’t really care to see either one of these guys wrestle this Monday.

The fact that TNA has built this true debut Monday Night wars show around Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair tells you the viewer something. It’s almost as if they should change the name to Monday Nitro and just have cruiserweights wrestle for most of the show then Hogan or Flair can tear the house down! It’s horrible to see what TNA has done after that huge 3-hour show in recent weeks.

To me I feel like TNA has actually lost steam. I believe the last eight weeks we have truly seen where this Hogan/Bischoff regime is going to take TNA. No where.

It’s more of an egotistical battle to try and take down Vince McMahon again. They most definitely don’t have the money backing this time around to go after the WWE. This time it’s going to actually take talent and not name value.

Obviously they don’t believe in that theory yet because Flair & Hogan are the big time stars they are pushing for this show. I get it because they are trying to grab the casual wrestling fan rather then the big-time wrestling fan. But for all of those that still follow it and watch it religiously they have got to feel disappointed.

Sure TNA is putting two of the original stars that they have built since they started in Nashville with AJ Styles & Abyss being the two team mates of the legends in this tag match. But it still does nothing for me.

As for surprises there are no rumored surprises for this show with the exception of Rob Van Dam signing with TNA. I guess we should assume some sort of Jeff Hardy appearance but really who else could they bring in to shock us? My best guess would be Tommy Dreamer who I don’t believe is done with his 90-day no compete or Paul Heyman. Those two would be decent surprises.

The only other surprises that would make me be shocked would be if The Ultimate Warrior or the “Macho Man” Randy Savage showed up. While it would be cool to see the two in the ring again it would only be worth an appearance rather than a full-time employment. These guys days as stars in the Wrestling business have since long past them and they are only worth the occasional appearance or Hall-of-Fame induction speech (I can’t believe I’m writing that in regards to The Ultimate Warrior).

I expected more out of TNA going into this past Thursday’s show. I get that many TNA faithful feel that I’m writing off TNA lately and may have been writing them off during the show but when you watch a company build itself around making new stars change their philosophy when Hogan & Bischoff came into the picture is just sad to see. This has literally become a sink or swim mentality for TNA right now.

This past Thursday’s show was certainty not an “impact” which isn’t the way you want to head into the Monday Night war. I expected more out of TNA and got way less then I thought I could. To see TNA become a playground for old-timers, legends and Hulk Hogan’s friends to receive a paycheck is just a sad sight to see as we head into the Monday Night Wars II.

If you have any questions or comments for Eric Gargiulo and I for this week’s “The Still Real to us Show” please e-mail us at thestillrealtousshow@gmail.com

Jeff Peck is the producer for the “Wheelhouse Radio” program that airs every Sunday – Thursday @ 8pm ET/5pm PT at www.blogtalkradio.com/thewheelhouse and at www.errorfm.com @ 2am ET/11pm PT

Jeff also co-hosts “The Still Real to us show” with Eric Gargiulo which can be available at www.wheelhouseradio.com and can be downloaded in the “Real Guy Radio” section of the site. There you can also download many different shows including “The Wheelhouse”, “24 on 24″ and “Lost: Smoke Monsters and You.”

If you would like to subscribe to “The Wheelhouse” on iTunes simply subscribe for free at iTunes by typing in “Wheelhouse Radio!”

You can follow “The Champ” Jeff Peck on twitter by going to www.twitter.com/therealjeffpeck or you can follow Wheelhouse Radio! on Twitter by visiting their page @ www.twitter.com/thewheelhouse. You can also e-mail them @ wheelhouseradio@gmail.com

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This past Thursday night, 3-4-10, TNA Wrestling presented their final episode of Thursday night IMPACT before the permanent switch to Monday nights starting this upcoming week! What went down leading into the return of the Monday Night Wars??? Let’s get to the review and find out!

TNA IMPACT this week opened up with the world champ AJ Styles and Ric Flair making there way to the ring. They cut a promo claiming that they wanted to apologize to Hogan for what happened last week. Hogan and abyss came out and stood face to face with them in the ring. Flair offered Hogan some of his ladies but nothing for Abyss and Hogan responded in a pretty hilarious way. He said, “You know something, Flair, I’m not here to bum a cigarette off of you, I don’t want you to buy me a drink, and I don’t want ya’ to loan me one of your hits of Viagara, brother!” I got a kick out of that! Hogan preceded in cutting a passionate promo on how he will prove that he can still go this Monday night! AJ cut into the conversation but was interrupted by Eric Bischoff who booked the main event for this very night which would feature “The Pope” vs. Desmond Wolfe vs. Abyss vs. AJ for the world title! Looked like a great main event! Just was kind of random that the title was thrown in there considering “Pope” already has a shot at AJ for the belt at Lockdown. Overall, the segment between AJ/Flair and Abyss/Hogan did a good job of setting up the big tag match Monday, however I feel there wasn’t enough focus on Abyss and AJ. Too much focus on Flair and Hogan.

Beer Money Defeated Matt Morgan and Hernandez, Generation Me, and The Motor City machine Guns In A Four Way Tag Match

A lot of great, great talent involved here. Great faced paced action on the part of Generation Me and MCMG and well as quality wrestling by the other four men. Most of the match highlighted Beer Money, who will challenge Morgan and Hernandez at Destination X for the tag belts. Friction was made obvious between Hernandez and Morgan. mark my words, this is going to end up just like the Morgan/Abyss feud. Abyss kept costing his team matches much like what is happening with Hernandez. Morgan will go heel and feud with Hernandez like he did with Abyss. Very unoriginal. In the end of the match, Morgan was jaw jacking a bit with Hernandez and got surprised with a superkick courtesy of james Storm for the win. Nice way to put over (in my mind) the new tag champs come Destination X, Beer Money.

Sean Morley Defeated Jeff Jarrett In A No Disqualification Falls Count Anywhere Match

As a way to further the storyline between Jarrett and Bischoff, Bischoff forced Jarrett to assume the responsibilities of the TNA janitor for the evening. He then had Sean Morley attack him in the restroom resulting in this matchup, if you could call it that. Morley basically beat the crap out of Jarrett, predominantly working over Jarrett’s shoulder and then rammed it into the bathroom door for the pin. More of a segment here than a match, much like the “backlot fight” last week between Nash, Young, Hall, and Waltman. Watching this segment brought back some memories of the WWE Hardcore Championship era. In my opinion, TNA should bring in a TNA Hardcore Championship and have hardcore matches like WWE used to have during the attitude era. This would be something to put them ahead of WWE in the Monday Night Wars.

Big Rob Terry (C) Defeated Doug Williams In A Non-Title Match

The X Division Champion vs. The Legends Champion here in a non-title bout. As I’ve stated before, I’m not at all interested in this feud and this match expressed just why. Rob Terry look better than usual here, but he’s nothing out of the ordinary besides his physique. This was nothing but a basic squash with Terry pinning former British Invasion partner Doug Williams with a modified spinebuster. Way to squash the X Division Champion weeks before Destination X TNA! After the match, Brutus Magnus attacked Terry and he and Williams beat him down. They left with their heads held high. We’ll probably see Terry vs. Magnus at Destination X. Ugh!

Up next, Mr. Anderson made his way out to the ring dressed like Kurt Angle. He mocked him in the ring but Kurt soon showed himself and stormed to the ring with purpose! The two engaged into a fist fight but Anderson put himself into the driver’s seat after throwing a soft drink into Angle’s eyes. He gave Angle the Angle Slam, mocked him some more, and left him laying in the center of the ring. Really impressive segment here which was very creative in furthering along what is looking to become a blood feud between these two. Look forward t seeing a classic at Lockdown if they aren’t booked at Destination X first. Wouldn’t mind seeing both to be honest, but waiting until Lockdown would be more of a rare, anticipated pay off!

Earlier in the evening, we saw the Beautiful People attack Angelina love and whip her senseless with a leather belt. Now Angelina came out to the ring and furiously called them out! They soon came out and Angelina beat them all down with a leather belt of her own! The numbers game soon caught up with her and she was once again brutally beaten with the belt. The beating was predominantly dished out by velvet Sky. Expect these two to face at Destination X, Lockdown, or possibly both. Nice feud, but isn’t going to result in the best matches in TNA Knockout’s history either.

Jeff Jarrett Defeated Tomko

Another match made by Bischoff here to further along the Jarrett/Bischoff feud. Pretty short match here, only going about 5 minutes. Very formulaic matchup with Jarrett selling his injured shoulder. Jarrett soon got the win with a surprise sunset flip. Bischoff was shown in frustration in his office. Fair way to further along this storyline. Eventually there will be some sort of matchup where Jarrett is wrestling for his power within the company. Hopefully we don’t see Jarrett and Bischoff wrestle one another though. God forbid!

TNA World Heavyweight Championship: AJ Styles (C) Defeated “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, Abyss, And Desmond Wolfe

Four great athletes here should have put on a great main event, however this was not the case! Don’t get me wrong, the action was great, but the freaking match ended in five minutes tops! TNA seriously needs to have a lot longer matches come the Monday Night Wars! Especially when it come to main events, not to mention world title matches! Most of the match featured AJ working on The Pope’s injured leg. AJ hooked in the Figure Four and the ref called for the bell for the sake of Pope’s well being. Crappy finish to say the very least! After the match, Wolfe, Flair, and Styles attacked Abyss. Hulk Hogan then came out with a baseball wire bat and cleared the ring of everyone other than Flair. He hit Flair with the baseball bat. Flair bled from the forehead pretty profusely! Great way to take a shot at WWE’s PG rating! Security entered the ring and Hogan beat them up too. Abyss also beat up security. Hogan stood in the ring and told Flair that that’s just an example of what’s going to happen on Monday. Great way to promote for Monday, however once again not enough focus on Abyss and AJ.

Overall, this was a pretty lack luster episode of IMPACT. Way to much talk and not nearly enough wrestling! Hopefully this changes Monday. A few nice segments though including the segment between Anderson and Angle as well as the ending segment between Hogan and Abyss and Flair and AJ. TNA’s major problem now if not enough wrestling on the show. Also, too much focus on the veterans once again. This needs to soon change, and it all needs to start come this Monday night when the Monday Night Wars return!

Todd Frizzell is from Columbus Ohio, and has been a huge professional wrestling fanatic for the last ten years. Todd is very interested in all aspects of pro wrestling, including what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. Todd is very excited to write about his passion, and will try his best to entertain and provoke the wrestling fans.

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This past Thursday night, 2-25-10, TNA Wrestling presented one of their final episodes of Thursday night IMPACT before the full time switch to Monday nights in just a few short weeks! Also, what went down this week as both Destination X and Lockdown are in the horizon? What happened to further the Jeff Jarrett/Eric Bischoff/Mick Foley saga? What next for the blood feud between The Band and Kevin Nash and Eric Young? How about what went down last week with Hulk Hogan giving his Hall of Fame ring to Abyss? What in store for the TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles and Ric Flair? Lets gt to the review and find out!

To start off the evening, The TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles as well as “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair made their way to the ring, and preceded in calling out “The Monster” Abyss, who soon joined them in the center of the squared circle. Flair and AJ verbally berated Abyss, telling him that he didn’t deserve Hulk’s ring. The demanded that he take the ring off but he refused. Then, Hulk Hogan himself came down to the ring, and ran down AJ and Flair. Things soon got heated, the all four men got into position for a fight! When we all though the battle was on, AJ and Flair, being the crafty heels that they truly are, slid out of the ring to the dismay of Abyss and Hogan as well as the fans in attendance at the IMPACT Zone. Nice segment here. Looks like we may see AJ vs. Abyss for the title at Destination X which is fine by me, for these two have had some very good matches in the past, especially their match from Lockdown back in 2005. I really like the push for Abyss, I just wish he’d completely resort back to being a monster rather than a special needs case.

Team 3D Defeated The Nasty Boys In A Tables Match

Nothing remarkable here, although I’ll readily admit that this was much more watchable than their match at Against All Odds. More action outside the ring, which is a huge plus when the Nasty Boys are involved, especially when you consider their age and the shape they’re in. Match went for about 5 minutes. In the end, Jimmy Hart attempted to use the helmet as a weapon, but out came Jesse Neal who grabbed it, threw it to Team 3D who used it and then hit Sags with the 3D through a table for the win. Should have done this at Against All Odds.

ODB Defeated Daffney

Half the match, Tara was shown on a split screen cutting a promo vowing revenge on Daffney. I hate when they interrupt a match with a split screen! Very short match here with Daffney getting disqualified after going berserk on ODB, hitting her in the knee with a broom handle repeatedly. Match was just done for storyline purposes here, furthering the unpredictable character that defines Daffney. Again, her and Tara could potentially have a very entertaining hardcore type of matchup come Destination X and maybe even further their feud into Lockdown.

Up next, Beer Money came out to the ring and cut a promo, putting themselves over as the top tag team in all of professional wrestling. I was hoping this was going to be a separation speech if you will, with both men pursuing their singles careers. This was not so. Hernandez, one half of the TNA World Tag Team Champions, came out and granted Beer Money a title shot for Destination X. Should be a fun match. Later in the evening in a backstage segment, Matt Morgan approached Hernandez and questioned him for giving away the title shot so openly. Friction is starting to build among these two so expect a feud between them come Lockdown. I can almost guarantee Beer Money will win the titles at Destination X because of Hernandez’s fault. Morgan will progressively get more and more frustrated and eventually turn on him. Carbon copy of the Abyss/Morgan feud. Real original!

After this promo, Eric Bischoff made his way to the ring for another. Two in ring promos in a row? Not a smart decision. Anyway, earlier in the evening, Jarrett stormed into Bischoff’s office and was no to happy about what happened last week when Bischoff sent out his goons to beat him down. Bischoff apologized and told Jarrett to meet him in the ring. Jarrett was not very hot on the idea and rightfully so. Jarrett met Bischoff in the ring, theme music and all, and Bischoff took a few moments to put him over, but soon changed his tone when he told Jarrett he was never to disobey his orders, which he did last week when he refused to take out Abyss with the barbed wire baseball bat. Bischoff handed Jarrett a spatula and a hair net, and told him he’d be flipping burgers in catering if he wanted to jeep his job. A little corny, but it worked. Nice way to further along the storyline between these two in the struggle of power in the company Jarrett founded 7 and a half years ago. Can’t wait until Jarrett gets his hands on Bischoff! It’s evident that it’s going to happen in the near future.

Kazarian Defeated Brian Kendrick To Become The Number One Contender For The X Division Championship

Very fun match here, but as one would expect, wasn’t given much more than the standard 5 minutes. TNA needs to seriously consider extending their match lengths for IMPACT. Both men looked good here, with the spotlight placed on Kaz, and rightfully so. It’s about time he comes back as himself and at least gets somewhat of a push! Kaz gets the win with an awesome Flux Capacitor from the very top rope! It’s been way to long since I’ve seen that sucker! Should be a really good match between Doug Williams and Kaz at Destination X for the title. I call Kaz as the new X Champion!

Big Rob Terry (C) Defeated Mr. Anderson To Retain His TNA Global Championship

Before I go any further, I’d just like to express my extreme displeasure with how TNA has marketed the Global Championship. Let’s say Mr. Anderson won the Global Championship. Anderson is from the United States of America! What’s global about that? TNA really dropped the ball with what could have been a great opportunity to bring in international stars and legends like Jushin Thunder Liger, Alex Kozlov, Kenta, Kota Ibushi, The Great Muta, and others. Needless to say, TNA has royally screwed up! Anyway, before this match officially began, Anderson stood on the ramp and further ran down Kurt Angle, bragging about what he did to him last week. In the middle of his rant, Angle arose from the stage behind him, and patiently waited for Anderson to finish his promo with a steel chair in hand! Eventually, Angle could take no more, and cracked the chair over his back! Big Rob threw him into the ring, hit a powerslam, and got the pin to retain his title. Nice segment here to further what promises to be a very intriguing Anderson/Angle feud! On the other hand, Big Rob still does nothing for me.

Up next, Eric Young and Kevin Nash were in the parking lot in pursuit of “The Band”. After meeting up, Young and Pac attack each other. Hall then nailed Nash with a led pipe. Scott Hall then assisted Syxx Pac in the beat-down of Eric Young and took him out with clubbing blows. Hall says it’s nothing personal, just family business, before Syxx Pac kicks Young and they spray paint “4 LIFE” on Eric Young’s back. Real surprise here, eh? Nothing intrigues me about this feud. On the bright side, at least it wasn’t used as the final segment of the night!

“The Monster Abyss” Defeated Desmond Wolfe

Apparently Abyss is coming out to Hulk Hogans old theme music now. A little corny??? Abyss was sporting Hogan’s Hall of Fame ring here, which supposively gives him “super human” strength. Is this professional wrestling or the Superman series??? Abyss basically squashed Wolfe in a few minutes, pinning him with a Black Hole Slam. Last week we see Daniels squashed and this weeks it’s Wolfe??? Come on!!!!! After the match, Flair and Styles ran into the ring. They tried to take Abyss down but nothing worked until Wolfe attacked Abyss with a steel chair shot. Abyss tries to “hulk up” but the numbers game picked up with him when Flair and Styles attacked him from behind. Flair preceded in delivering a low blow and Styles stomps Abyss in the side repeatedly. Flair and Styles beat Abyss in the corner and Wolfe then handcuffed Abyss to the ropes. Predictably, Hulk Hogan ran down to the ring, and cleans house! Soon the numbers game catches up with him as well. Wolfe held him down and Styles throws his own Flair like chops. Styles then knocked Hogan out by driving the World Title into Hogan’s face. Abyss tried to stop them but he was cuffed to the ropes. Flair continued to wait on Hogan’s forehead until he was busted wide open! Abyss stared down at the Hall of Fame ring, and then busted through the cuffs. The heels bailed as Abyss circled the ring. Interesting stuff going on here, however the superhero like gimmick with Abyss is pretty corny. We want “The Monster” back!

After a brief commercial break, Hogan grabbed a mic and says on March 8th, Flair is coming out of retirement. Hogan announced that he is booking him in a match! Hogan proclaimed that Styles is in their and it’s a tag match. That team is going to fight Abyss and his tag team partner. That man is him, Hulk Hogan! Shows ends here. Should be an interesting match. Nice way to put Flair and Hogan in the same ring together while still incorporating the young guys in AJ Styles and Abyss (as corny as his gimmick may be).

Overall, this was a decent episode of IMPACT. There wasn’t nearly, and I mean nearly, enough in ring action on this night, however there were some great segments, including the opening segment, the Angle/Anderson segment, the Jarrett/Bischoff segment was alright, and the final segment was intriguing and a fair way to end the show for once. If only there was quite a bit more actual wrestling on the show. It’s understandable though with the big move to Monday nights coming up in 2 weeks. Hopefully after that things will settle in and TNA will find their niche. Overall, I give this show a letter grade of a B.

Todd Frizzell is from Columbus Ohio, and has been a huge professional wrestling fanatic for the last ten years. Todd is very interested in all aspects of pro wrestling, including what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. Todd is very excited to write about his passion, and will try his best to entertain and provoke the wrestling fans.

Order TNA: Kurt Angle: Champion on DVD by clicking here.

Order the WWE Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series DVD collection by clicking here.

Order Hulk Hogan’s autobiography, My Life Outside the Ring by clicking here.

Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair will be going for a brisk walk inside of the TNA Impact Zone on the next Monday Night War. Hogan will team with Abyss and Flair will team with TNA champion A.J. Styles in the scheduled TNA Monday night main-event against WWE RAW. This will be Hogan’s first match on U.S. soil since 2007 and Flair’s since his “retirement” at WWE WrestleMania 24 in 2008.

It is really hard to tell at this point whether this will be a good or a bad thing for TNA Wrestling. The interest in Hogan was definitely there when TNA went head to head back on January 4. But, it will have been three months of Hogan in TNA by the time this match comes around. Many TNA fans are already complaining about too much Hogan on the broadcasts. This is the kind of a match that could just easily blow up in the faces of TNA as it could win them the quarter hour in the ratings.

Much to Ric Flair’s “dismay”, he will be  returning to the ring in the United States for the first-time since his WrestleMania 24 loss to Shawn Michaels. I say dismay, because Flair recently used the same word when asked about coming back to the ring for TNA Wrestling. I found the quote both hilarious and sad at the same time. Unless Eric Bischoff and Dixie Carter are holding a gun to Flair’s head, I don’t see what is so begrudging about the match. Especially since Flair has been talking about his desire to come back and wrestle almost immediately after losing to Michaels.

Even in his late fifties, the WWE Universe always seemed to get a thrill out of seeing Flair wrestle. He was able to pull it off well up until his final WWE run. It was there that he really showed his age in my opinion and the quickness and reflexes just weren’t there. It was really the first time that I ever watched Flair where it just didn’t look right. It didn’t look right for anyone other than a WWE Diva to be selling for Flair inside of the ring. For the first-time in his career, Flair made the younger stars looked badly for having to sell moves for a guy that was old enough to be their grandpa.

Hogan and Flair gave this a test run last year with an Australian tour. The two wrestled a series of matches in Australia that were received as well as you’d expect. Most fans reported that they were thrilled to see the two stars live and in person. However, most reports indicated that their matches were not very good, with some reporting that Hogan barely bumped at all. Due to various surgeries and injuries, Hogan reportedly cannot even do his signature leg drop anymore. In my opinion, this is a match better left for an international tour than one of the most important nights in company history.

Just as much as the potential is there for Hogan and Flair to steal some WWE fans and pop a big rating, there is just as much potential for this to be a major embarrassment. Beyond the match quality, this has serious potential to be a ratings nightmare. Depending upon what the WWE counters with during that quarter hour, the TNA Impact rating could take a major hit. There would be nothing more disappointing and humiliating in my opinion than seeing the TNA rating take a major drop during the match. TNA can recover from a bad quarter hour, but it will take a while to shake that kind of hit from the legacies of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.

At this point, you have to give the match the benefit of the doubt. I hate judging a match before I have even seen it. Yet I have seen their Australian match and if this one is anything like it, most fans are going to be disappointed. The WWE could really show these guys up by putting on a fast-paced, athletic match at the same time this match airs on TNA.  I also think there is something sad about seeing these two guys, especially Flair who had such an elaborate retirement match and ceremony. I can’t imagine that Flair’s idea of returning to the ring was coming back to wrestle in front of 1,300 fans. Unless these guys can do the impossible and tear the house down, I’d like to see them leave the spotlight to the guys like A.J. Styles, Kurt Angle, Daniels, and Samoa Joe who can go and give the WWE stars a run for their money in the ring. If TNA Wrestling is going to go down, at least go down with your guns blazing, and not your legends limping.

Order the WWE: Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series DVD by clicking here.

Order WWE: Nature Boy Ric Flair – The Definitive Collection on DVD by clicking here.

From the ring to your wall – WWE REAL.BIG Wall Graphics on sale now at Fat Head!

This past Thursday Night, 1-28-10, TNA Wrestling presented another addition of IMPACT! Last week, we witnessed the Kurt Angle screwjob resulting with Kurt Angle spitting in Hulk Hogan’s face and quitting on TNA, as well as Eric Bischoff coming out to the ring covered with blood, firing Mick Foley. Are Kurt Angle and Mick Foley truly through with TNA? Let’s get to the results and find out!

IMPACT opened up with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff coming down to the ring. Hogan called out Mick Foley. Foley claimed that he didn’t attack Bischoff, that Bischoff was faking it. Hogan, although he didn’t say it directly, implied that Foley was not fired after all. He said that Foley and Bischoff had to work things out, which concluded this opening segment. I am none too keen of this whole Eric Bischoff/Mick Foley feud. I just don’t see a pay off, unless we end up seeing Bischoff vs. Foley in a match with one another, which would honestly result in me blasting my television into a million little pieces with a shotgun! Am I kidding you ask? I wish I was, I really wish I was.

Desmond Wolfe Defeated Sean Morley In An Eight Card Stud Qualifying Match

At TNA’s next PPV, Against All Odds, we will witness an 8 man tournament to determine the number one contender for AJ’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship. I love tournaments. If you love tournaments as well, I highly recommend purchasing Against All Odds. While showing several promotional shots of the individuals involved, there was a casino theme, with the wrestlers being revealed with the flip of a card. TNA has been lacking decisive themes to their PPVs, and I’m glad to see this theme relating to casinos/gambling. In a casino, you gamble and the “Odds” of winning are generally “Against”. Get it? Against All Odds? The PPV name? Clever, I know. Anyway, on to this matchup. As always, the fans were anti-Morley, although I’ll admit he didn’t look quite as methodical here as he did at Genesis. I really like Wolfe’s new valet, Chelsea. This really adds to his character/gimmick. This was a decent match, only because of Wolfe’s involvement, with Wolfe picking up the win in about 3 or 4 minutes with the Tower Of London. Thank God Wolfe got the win, or else the IMPACT Zone would have surely rioted. Not sure how long Morley’s going to last in TNA, for if Hogan doesn’t get rid of him, I swear someone in the crowd is going to kill him! Hey Morley, pack you bags and head up North!

Hernandez Defeated Daniels In Another Eight Card Stud Qualifying Match

Glad to see these two originals one on one here. This was a basic 5 minute contest, featuring what you’d expect from these two great talents. Both men looked good with Hernandez showing off his impressive power maneuvers, while Daniels used his quickness to his advantage. In the end, Hernandez hit his new finisher, which is a variation of the Denominator, for the win. Not sure why Hernandez was booked to win here and enter the tournament at Against All Odds, considering he’s one half of the TNA World Tag Team Champions. Not a smart way to push the tag division. Daniels should have defiantly gone over here.

Up next, Mike Tenay stood in the center of the ring, and introduced The Nasty Boys. Team 3D soon followed, but were forced to remain at ringside due to security. The two teams cut an excellent promo over which team was the greatest team of all time and which team had accomplished more. As always, Team 3D was great on the mic here, but to my surprise, so were The Nasty Boys. These two will meat at Against All Odds, in what should be a fun plunder match between two of the most notoriously hardcore stars in the dated history of main stream professional wrestling.

Last week, Bobby Lashley announced that he and his wife were wrong, and he truly wanted to be with TNA. This weeks, we saw Lashley with Bischoff in Bischoff’s office, where Bischoff surprisingly fires Lashley, having security escort him from the building. All I can say, Na Na Na Na Na…I mean, good luck to Mr. Lashley with his future endeavors.

The Beautiful People Defeated Awesome Kong and Hamada (C) And Tara (C) In A 6 Knockout Tag Team Match

Another more than fair showing for the TNA Knockouts here, given plenty of time. 5 of the 6 participants looked at least fairy good here, not counting Lacey Von Erich who was probably physically in the ring for no more than 10 seconds throughout the entire match, which is probably a good thing! There was also a mild chant regarding Kong punching out Bubba The Love Sponge, although I couldn’t exactly make out what was being said. TNA didn’t even bother to edit this out. Shows how much TNA feels for Bubba. I love it! Toward the end of the duration, Hamada hit some very notable, stiff kicks and enziguris taking out all three members of the Beautiful People! In the end, Lacey Von Erich hit Hamada in the head with the Ugly Stick behind the referee’s back to pick up the win for the Beautiful People. Good way to create cheap heat for the Beautiful People, but seems kind of strange considering that not only are Kong and Hamada the tag champs and Tara the singles champ, but Hamada ad Kong also essentially squashed the Beautiful People a few weeks ago. Go figure. After the bell, The Beautiful People continued the beat down, until Angelina Love ran out to make the save. I can understand her wanting more revenge with the Beautiful People, but is this the same woman who feuded with Kong for only God knows how long and cut her braids off? Why would she safe her? Anyway, I don’t see a very intriguing pay off with this Angelina Love/Beautiful People feud here, considering the fact that they probably wouldn’t have very good matches together. It would be more of a Diva quality matchup, where looks take predominance over talent or ability.

Back in Hogan’s office, Hogan is meeting with Earl Hebner, the man who screwed Kurt Angle out of the world title last week calling for the bell before Kurt actually tapped out. After briefly denying his faults, Hebner eventually admitted that he did because of a pay off from Flair. Hogan suspended him until further notice. Seriously? This makes sense, but just came off as plain stupidity, although it was kind off comical!

Next, Kurt Angle makes his way to the ring. Didn’t he quit last week??? He cut a promo vowing that he would end up winning the Eight Card Stud tournament and go on to face AJ to win back his world title. Hogan apparently gave him a buy into the tournament considering what went on last week. But didn’t he spit in Hogan’s face??? Hulk Hogan then came out to the ring, and told Kurt what he did last week was unacceptable. Kurt apologized, and as Hogan walked away, Kurt was jumped and beaten down by Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Why exactly are these two guys attacking Kurt? Security escorts them from the building, but they guarantee to be back next week. Oh, boy!

Brian Kendrick And The Motor City Machine Guns Defeated The Amazing Red (C) And Generation Me

Considering Kendrick and Red had a pretty good match at Genesis and MCMG had a really sweet match with Generation Me a few weeks ago, I was really looking forward to this match. This was a fun match, but far too short for my taste. Great double team maneuvers from my favorite tag team Generation Me, as well as MCMG. Red looked good as well, as did the aggressive Kendrick, who is now pretty much a full fledged heel and rightfully so. One things I have noticed though, is that I haven’t seen may dives to the outside since the new ramp has been implemented. These high fliers need to find away to accommodate that, but either diving in another direction or actually diving off of the ramp itself. In the end, MCMG hit a double team finisher, but Kendrick made the blind tag and hit a punt kick to Red’s temple for the win. It was perceived that MCMG were none too happy with Kendrick stealing the pin. Nice way to put Kendrick over as a heel. This is a guy who will most certainly bee the X Division Champion in the near future, considering he has a great gimmick, a great look, great verbal skills, and is a great talent. This guys really does have endless potential, and I guarantee that he will get opportunities here in TNA that he never would have received in the WWE.

Doug Williams Defeated The Amazing Red (C) To Win The TNA X Division Championship

Almost right away, Williams won the X Division Championship from Red with an awesome Chaos Theory rolling German Suplex. I guess this explains what’s next for the British Invasion, at least for Doug Williams. Hopefully Red will get his rematch at Against All Odds, in what would most certainly be a really fun matchup. We also saw more friction between the Brits and Rob Terry because of the fact that Williams demanded that Terry give him his X Division briefcase. Will Terry turn face? Who cares! The guy’s nothing but a muscle bound stiff, who has very little wrestling ability. Trust me, I’ve seen him several times wrestling on the independent circuit in Florida. It also seems that he won the TNA Global Championship from Eric Young at a TNA house show in the UK this week. Great, just great!

Mr. Anderson Defeated Jeff Jarrett

Earlier in the evening, Mr. Anderson through out an open challenge, claiming that he hoped it were Abyss. Later on, Jeff Jarrett went into Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s office, apologizing for the way he had been acting as of late. He said he was going to do just what Hogan said, and that is start on the bottom and climb up the ladder. Bischoff booked him against Anderson in the main event. I have to admit, Anderson looked much better here than he did at Genesis, for he meshed a lot better with Jarrett than he did with Abyss. Jarrett also looked decent here, considering he hasn’t actually wrestled a match on IMPACT for quite some time. A fair amount of action was featured in this match, which did a good job telling a story. It was given plenty of time, lasting about 15 minutes or so. In the end, Anderson hit a low blow behind the referee’s back, and then gave Jarrett a small package for the cheap victory. If nothing else, this was a fair way of awarding Anderson with more heel ammunition, as well as serving as the first step in Jeff Jarrett’s struggle for his job. After the match officially ended, Anderson continued the beat down, hitting the Mic Check on him in the center of the ring. Bischoff was shown backstage, and he commented that it would be a long, hard mountain for Jarrett to climb to the top.

Overall, this episode of IMPACT was all over the place, which is no surprise considering what has gone down lately. One of the biggest problems I see in TNA now, is their lack of focus, similar to WCW on its last leg. I mean, Come on. AJ and Flair are feuding with Angle, Hall and Waltman just attacked Angle, Bischoff is in a personal feud with Mick Foley, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are both involved with an ongoing story line involving Jeff Jarrett, and there’s a huge tournament set to decide the number one contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, all at the same time!!! For crying out loud, this is just ridiculous. It’s not that all of these individual feuds aren’t legitimate, it’s that there seems to be far too much going on at the same time, all of which seem to be considered main/major story lines which should involve far more focus. WWE generally is very good with this.

For example, on RAW they’re currently doing their major feuds between Randy Orton and Sheamus over the WWE Championship, as well as the Mr. McMahon/Bret Hart saga. Those are only two major story lines going on, and they have been fairly focused all the way through. TNA flat has too much going on to make meaning out of anything. Plus, I just can’t seem to think of a payoff for many of them. The major feud needs to be over the world title, not guys like Foley, Jarrett, Hogan, and Bischoff who don’t even step into the ring anymore. The TNA Champ, AJ Styles and Ric Flair were only shown celebrating backstage, and were later approached by Bischoff who told them they wouldn’t be slacking off and to be ready at all times. As I’ve said countless times before, it’s too early to make any major judgments, so let’s just hope Hulk Hogan and TNA work out these kinks, and result in an ideal product somewhere down the line. If not, we may be seeing a commercial for the new Rise And Fall Of TNA DVD! Anyway, the in ring action itself was fair tonight, but not quite enough. Overall I would give this week’s addition of TNA IMPACT another B.

Todd Frizzell is from Columbus Ohio, and has been a huge professional wrestling fanatic for the last ten years. Todd is very interested in all aspects of pro wrestling, including what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. Todd is very excited to write about his passion, and will try his best to entertain and provoke the wrestling fans.

Order TNA: Kurt Angle: Champion on DVD by clicking here.

Order the WWE Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series DVD collection by clicking here.

Order Hulk Hogan’s autobiography, My Life Outside the Ring by clicking here.