Thank goodness TNA Wrestling love surprises. The all-important ratings are in for the start of the new weekly Monday Night Wrestling Wars. The pressure was undoubtedly on TNA Wrestling who drew first blood by moving their TNA Impact television show from Thursdays to Mondays to run head-up against WWE RAW. Well after promises of surprises and a “hot first five minutes”, the Impact rating is in and let’s just say the only surprise is a dismal debut for TNA and a lot of bleeding from two legends who are wrestling way past their prime.

TNA Wrestling finished with an overall 0.98 rating for the night. This was way down from the 1.5 rating that TNA Wrestling scored on January 04. TNA Impact did peak with a 1.7 at the fourth and fifth quarter hour segments however the number greatly dropped hitting as low as a 0.76 through the next forty-five minutes. The company came nowhere close to the 1.88 peak it generated on the January 04 show that went head to head with WWE RAW in the first Monday Night War of the year.

I have read and heard the spin from TNA Wrestling fans and quite frankly none of the excuses hold any water. The numbers don’t lie! The easy excuse is, “Well it well take time and the show won’t be a success overnight.” While that may normally true, the fact that TNA has already appeared on Monday nights and garnered much bigger ratings makes this excuse null in my opinion. People were predicting a number like this the first time that TNA moved to a Monday in January. The fact that TNA beat that instantly kills the argument because the 1.5 is a standard they set for themselves back in January.

This brings me to the comments I made following the news of the January 04 rating. I applauded them for the rating and actually declared them victors that night. However, I pointed out that while the rating was impressive it was where they went next that would dictate the success of the night. If two million tune in to see your television show, and half of them don’t ever tune in again, and TNA’s pay-per-view buys don’t see any increases, than how successful of a company are you?

While it may be a little early to call the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff era a disaster, I don’t think we are that far off. After initial interest in seeing the new direction of the company, the ratings have continually dropped for TNA Impact. On Thursdays with no competition, the rating has drastically dropped over the last two weeks to below WWE NXT numbers. It will take a few months for the pay-per-view numbers to be officially released, but I can’t imagine a dramatic turn around when people are tuning out of their free television show. After 90 days all the company has done since turning the keys to the car over to Hogan and Bischoff is a) lose a ton of money on high-priced contracts for guys like Hogan, Ric Flair, RVD, and Jeff Hardy, b) lose its television audience, c) lose core fans that were watching before the transition, c) retract the progress of several stars, and d) decrease the effectiveness that Impact has had in promoting the paid shows. So objectively at this point I can’t see any reason not to call the transition a disaster.

There were some really entertaining moments on Monday nights. At the same time, there were several moments that just made you wonder if anyone in the company of such “brilliant writers” has a clue? For example, let’s start with the surprises. This is something I have been critical of for the last two years from TNA. TNA Wrestling continually to hype surprises on their biggest shows. That is fine when you already have a steady audience, but TNA are in no position to hype surprises. How do you just throw a Sting vs. Rob Van Dam match with no warning and expect anyone to watch? Yes the ratings peaked, but imagine if TNA promoted Sting vs. RVD for the last two weeks or even a week? Jeff Hardy was fine, but if nobody knows he is there, how do you expect them to sit through that horrendous Jeff Jarrett-Beer Money segment? Hey, it’s okay to have surprises every once in a while but when you are making such a monumental move, you need to lay all of your cards on the table and let the fans know about these special appearances and dream matches. TNA has pulled similar stunts on pay-per-views which even make less sense to me. The only surprise here is that a company would be that dumb as to hold all of their cards to their vest and expect fans to be waiting with baited breath for their big surprise.

My other criticism of TNA after watching this week is that I still really don’t understand the main storyline. I have been watching wrestling for 30 years and have worked in wrestling for well over a decade. Surely someone like me should be able to follow a simple storyline. If Dixie owns the company, can’t she just fire Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan? If Bischoff and Hogan are in charge, why is Dixie making matches? Whatever happened to Mick Foley’s ownership in the company? I honestly don’t get it and I really don’t get who is fighting for whom here at the end of the day. I think a little bit of ambiguity is a good thing, but this is just unheard of for a main storyline.

I can sit here and play Tuesday Morning Quarterback and pick apart various angles throughout the show, but that would just be nitpicking. My personal tastes may not equal the audience that TNA is targeting which I completely understand. Yet the audience that they are targeting is tuning out in droves. The bigger problem here is what TNA Wrestling’s next move will be. I can’t imagine their rating getting much better in its current state. Television is a tricky thing and it is not a given that TNA could just slide back to Thursdays with no repercussions. Will Spike TV just sit back and watch TNA slide from a 1.0, to a 0.88, to a 0.80? The irony here is that there was no logical reason for the move to Mondays. Dixie Carter was talked into one of the biggest con jobs in the history of the pro wrestling business.

Unfortunately for her, there may be no turning back.

Eric Gargiulo hosts Pro Wrestling Radio which airs Monday nights live at 7 PM/EST. To listen to the show and join the chat room live on Monday, click here. Check out http://www.prowrestlingradio.com for more details and archived shows.

Eric Gargiulo co-hosts “The Still Real to us show” with Jeff Peck 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.”

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Last Monday night, 3-8-10, the Monday Night wars returned full time as TNA IMPACT took on WWE RAW head to head on live television! Who made their shocking returns/debuts? How did TNA truly make an IMPACT on the professional wrestling industry as we know it? Let’s get to the review and find out!

IMPACT opened up with a brand new video package open and pyro display. great stuff! Crowd was electric! abyss and Hogan came out sporting the red and yellow! They cut a promo claiming that they wanted their match with Flair and Styles right then and there! AJ and Flair came out the the main event was underway! Guess this was why TNA had been heavily hyping the first five minutes of the show!

Hulk Hogan And Abyss VS. AJ Styles (C) And Ric Flair Ended In No Contest

The match began, but before it could pick up any momentum whatsoever, the lights went out and “The Icon” Sting’s theme music filled the IMPACT Zone! The light went back on and there was Stinger in the center of the ring! We all thought he was going to take out AJ and Flair, but shockingly he turned on Hogan and Abyss, taking them both down and out with his patented baseball bat! AJ then grabbed a chair and cracked Abyss over the head with it and then Flair followed with a chair shot of his own onto Hogan. Both men were busted wide open! As Flair and AJ walked away, Hogan got on the mic and announced that they would still be having this match later in the night! Great, great segment here! It not only featured the shocking return and heel turn of Sting, but also opened things up with the main event which would now be restarted later! Very smart ratings-wise!

After a commercial break, Kaz stood in the ring and cut a promo claiming that he had come back to TNA to restore the X Division! Huge, and I mean huge pop from the crowd! He was soon interrupted by Christopher Daniels who claimed that it would not be Kaz who would carry the X Division in the future, it would be him! The two argued back and forth for a few moments until they were both interrupted by the X Division Champion Doug Williams who claimed he was the one who would carry the X Division. At this point, Eric Bischoff came out and acknowledges the fact that Kaz had a title shot at Destination X, but he said he had a better idea. The three men would have a three way match for the title right there and then!

Doug Williams (C) Defeated Kaz and Daniels To Retain His TNA X Division Championship

Vintage X Division action here! Great, great fast paced action throughout! It’s about time! Looks like the X Division may be on its way to restoring itself as the adrenaline, as Eric Bischoff stated, of TNA! again, great work from all three men with Daniels and Williams getting heat from the crowd several time throughout the duration of the match. Crowd loved Kaz, who in my opinion is one of the most underestimated pro wrestlers in TNA history! Picture perfect flip dive to the outside courtesy of Kaz in the early going. This reminded me of the all so competitive X Division matches from TNA’s past. The good old days! Shockingly, this match went nearly ten minutes! Can you believe it? TNA is finally giving more time for not only X Division matches, but matches in general! In the end, Daniels went for the BME, missed, and Williams hit the Chaos Theory for the win. Great match! After the match, Shannon Moore ran out and took out Williams! Eric Bischoff announced that Moore would face Williams for the title at Destination X. Sounds fun, however I was really looking forward to a Kaz push. Maybe Kaz will feud with Daniels though.

The Beautiful People Defeated Tara And Angelina Love And Taylor Wilde And Sarita To Become The New TNA Knockout Tag Team Champions

It was announced that Kong and Hamada had to forfeit the titles for not defending in thirty days. Damn Bubba The Love Sponge! Nice Knockout showcase here, but not given enough time to really pick up much momentum. On the bright side, The Beautiful People do look to be improving though. After about three or four minutes of action, Daffney came out and hit Tara with the title belt behind the ref’s back enabling The Beautiful People to win the titles! Nice way to further the Tara/Daffney feud, however I’m by no means thrilled with The Beautiful People as the new tag champs.

Rob Van Dam Defeated Sting

An angry and confused Dixie Carter ordered this match earlier in the evening. Sting came out and awaited his surprise opponent. before the match, Taz asked Mike Tenay what he was doing at 4:20 that afternoon. TNA just cannot keep a secret! RVD’s theme hit as the IMPACT Zone literally erupted! He came from the crowd, hit Sting with a leaping side kick from the top, hit Rolling Thunder, and got the win if under ten seconds! Explosive way for RVD to debut while not hurting Sting because he was more or less caught off guard. After the bell, Sting went off on RVD, savagely assaulting him with his baseball bat! Soon, Hulk Hogan’s theme hit and he made a beeline toward Sting with vengeance on his mind! Security prevented the two from getting a hold from one another, but Sting broke free, hitting both Hogan and several security guards with the bat. Pretty cool segment which will make for a very intriguing storyline. again, I have no problems with storylines involving veterans, just as long as the young guys are the companies’ major focus.

After another commercial break, Kevin Nash and Eric Young came out to the ring and called out Hall and Waltman. They held a contract which would allow Hall and Waltman to compete for TNA for one time and one time only. Hall and Waltman soon came out to the ring from the crowd, and once again security stood between the four men. A deal was eventually made where at Destination X, if Hall and Waltman win they are signed with TNA, and if they loose they are gone for good! Eric Bischoff then orders that security take Nash and Hall away and leave Eric Young to kick Waltman’s, who slapped Young in the face earlier, ass all over the building!

Eric Young Defeated Sean Waltman

Nice impromptu match here featuring both men fighting in street clothes. Very short match, but both men looked good, including Waltman who looks to be in pretty good ring shape. Young went over in under one minute with a sick piledriver! Can’t believe they put Young over Waltman one on one at all, let alone in under one minute! Very surprising, and in a good way at that! This storyline is decent, but hopefully Hall and Waltman loose at Destination X. I don’t mind Waltman, but Hall isn’t necessary.

We now witnessed about 25 members of the United States Military surround the ring, followed by the entrance of Kurt Angle! Angle cut another promo putting over the troops and putting under Mr. Anderson if you will. He was soon interrupted by Anderson who mocked both Angle and the troops. Anderson then attempt to leave up the ramp but the troops stop him! They force him into the ring where Angle blasts him! Angle precedes in throwing him out of the ring on all four corners of the ring for the troops to get their shots in! Finally, Angle hit the Angle Slam and the troops hoisted him up in the air to end the segment! Great segment here to further the Anderson/Angle trilogy! Hopefully Anderson will get the best of Angle next week though for it’s always more interesting for a heel to go into a PPV match with momentum and the face looking for revenge.

Beer Money Defeated Jeff Jarrett

Looks like Beer Money are heels now. Seems really, really sudden if you ask me! Just last week everything is all good with the fans and they have momentum, and now all of a sudden they’re full fledged heels! I like them better as heels anyhow. They were starting to get a bit stale as faces anyhow. Hopefully they will go and pursue their singles careers too sometime in the near future. Anyway, this match was another plow from Eric Bischoff in his storyline with Jarrett. Foley was also involved here for he was the special ref. Pretty formulaic stuff here going about five minutes or so. Toward the end, Mick Foley actually handed Jarrett a barbed wire baseball bat, but Slick Johnson took it away and Beer Money hit the DUI for the three. Glad Beer Money went over though. Interesting way of bringing another element to the Bischoff and Jarrett and Bischoff and Foley saga by somehow interlinking them into one.

Hulk Hogan And Abyss Defeated AJ Styles And Ric Flair In A No DQ Match

Main event time! Flair and Hogan battled one another for the majority of the beginning section of the match. Soon, both men were busted open, especially Flair. He was a bloody mess! Nice old school brawling here which I haven’t seen for quite a while. Pretty fun to watch again, especially intermixed with the new school wrestling of AJ and Abyss! Also, this main event went more then five minutes! Record main event match length! It actually went about ten to twelve minutes. Very, very solid stuff. great example of what I’d call a clash of generations! Flair looked alright, but I’ll admit Hogan looked pretty stiff and rightfully so. The blood really made things a lot more interesting though, unlike WWE! In the end, Abyss hit AJ with a Black Hole Slam for the pin! Surprised that Abyss got the pin and not Hogan! This is great! Way to go TNA! By the way, I’m actually not being sarcastic this time! After the match, Desmond Wolfe came out and hit Abyss with a chair. “The Pope” who wolve attacked earlier, ran out and evened up the odds. Then, Jeff Hardy ran out and hit hit AJ Styles with a Twist Of fate as IMPACT went off the air! Not sure was Hardy’s involved here, unless TNA just kind of threw him out there to end the show with more momentum. This would have been a better job for RVD in my mind with Hardy doing the Angle where he was beaten by Sting. Looks like things may be staring to form regarding the upcoming Lethal Lockdown matchup in a few months!

Overall, this was an excellent effort by TNA Wrestling! They exceeded my expectations to be honest. very happy with the X Division stuff, both promo/angle and the match itself. More time was also given to matches with is a big fat plus! great intrigue build around Sting as well as hardy and RVD! Again, as long as the veterans don’t take over the show and overshadow the young guys, I’m happy as a lark! With Lockdown coming up it will be easier to distribute this balance because of the multi-man Lethal Lockdown match. great show by TNA and if this is any indication of we should expect from TNA on Monday nights in the future, WWE better watch out! I give this show an A!

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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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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To nobody’s surprise (well maybe the surprise of TNA officials), word has been leaked about TNA’s signing of quite arguably, pro wrestling’s biggest free agent; Rob Van Dam. The addition of the former joint WWE/ECW Champion is sure to give TNA’s live Impact this coming Monday a boost in the ratings against WWE Raw. And while RVD coming back to a televised wrestling program is welcome, to me, it would have made more sense to have him debut in 2 weeks (the night Austin is supposed to host Raw).

The addition of Rob Van Dam to the TNA roster will also provide some fresh, new matches for Monday night wrestling & Pay Per Views that fans either haven’t seen before or have not seen in a long time. Looking at the current TNA roster, these would be my top 5 picks for matches featuring the Whole F’ing Show.

5. RVD vs. Sting - I’m not sure if this has ever been done. Even though Sting is getting up there in age, he knows how to bring his A game for the big matches. A meeting between the two legends is a must at some point on PPV.

4. RVD vs. Nigel McGuinness (Desmond Wolfe) - Smart mark dream match right there. Plus, TNA would probably pull a nice portion of ROH fans in for this one. Definitely a PPV match that should not be given away for free.

3. RVD vs. Elijah Burke (D’Angelo Dinero) - Yes, we’ve seen it on WWE’s ECW. For those who haven’t, Burke was the leader of a faction called The New Breed that was trying to take over ECW & waged war against the ECW Originals. Burke is highly underrated and could have a Hell of a good match with RVD. I’m also predicting this to be a big year for Burke. WWE dropped the ball big time with him. But I digress…

2. RVD vs. AJ Styles - A lot of people would pick this as their #1 money match. I have something else in mind. But a match between RVD & AJ, keep in mind NO outside interference, & a good half hour has the potential to be SICK. This will probably be the most high flying, innovative spot match known to man. And it will be one Hell of an enjoyable ride.

1. Extreme Grudge Match 10 Years in the Making: RVD vs. Rhino - Your storyline goes back to the old ECW when RVD was forced to vacate the Television Championship due to injury. Rhino captured the TV Title & went on to win the ECW Championship at Guilty as Charged 2001. RVD made a surprise return that night & it looked as if we were going to finally see RVD square off against ECW’s rookie monster, but it didn’t happen. Fast forward to ECW One Night Stand 2005; Rhino attacked an injured Van Dam, but no match between the two took place. Here we are 5 years later & TNA has the potential to really do something special here. Throw the rule book out the window. No outside interference. And for one night, give everyone an old ECW style match between the two. TNA, if you’re gonna make any match happen, make it this one. I don’t care if every other match on the card looks terrible; I will buy a PPV for this.

It will be interesting to see what extreme heights TNA gets taken to this coming Monday night.

Order the Best of RVD TV Vol. 1 on DVD by clicking here.

See Rob Van Dam beat John Cena at ECW One Night Stand DVD for the WWE title by clicking here.

Order the WWE – Rob Van Dam – One of a Kind DVD by clicking here.

There has been some talk on different sites about WWE rebranding ECW after WrestleMania this year. Let’s face it; the ECW brand has been the red headed step-child of WWE since it was restarted in 2006 & hasn’t really shined as a legitimate brand. Yes, stars have been spawned from it (CM Punk, John Morrison, & Sheamus come to mind). But beyond that, who or what has the ECW brand really helped?

Some people have asked me what I would do differently regarding ECW. If given a time machine & a WWE writing job, the answer would be a lot. But since I have neither of those things, let’s talk about it here. We begin with Rebooking the ECW One Night Stand 2006 PPV & events which transpired after. There are two key changes to the PPV card I would make:

World Heavyweight Championship Match – Sabu vs. Rey Mysterio (C)

Instead of ending this match in a no contest, I would have put Sabu over Mysterio, thus making Sabu the World Heavyweight Champion on the SmackDown! brand.

WWE Title Match & Ending of PPV – RVD vs. John Cena (C)

I would have put RVD over John Cena without the interference from Edge. The PPV could have then ended with RVD & Sabu both laying claim to be the ECW Champion.

Now, there are 2 ways to go from there.

The first would be to have WWE Champion RVD vs. World Champion Sabu in the first episode of ECW TV to determine an undisputed ECW Champion. That match as the main event would have ensured a strong rating for the debut of ECW on Sci-Fi.

But why settle for a high TV rating when you can milk the angle for a month & get a high PPV buy rate? Let’s pretend RVD & Sabu didn’t get busted for possession & WWE went this route. For a month, you’d have RVD & Sabu laying claim to the vacant ECW Championship. Naturally, both men could get in their rematches with their respective One Night Stand 2006 opponents as well as new challengers to their belts; both would retain their championships leading up to Vengeance & both men would be featured on all 3 brands of WWE programming.

At Vengeance, your main event becomes WWE Champion RVD vs. World Heavyweight Champion Sabu for the ECW Championship (you could also do title for title & for the ECW Championship, but that seems like overkill & takes away from the ECW Title) in an ECW style match. The winner becomes the first ECW Champion under the WWE umbrella & the brand can then be built around them. After the PPV, both men can drop the Raw & SmackDown! Titles and remain on the ECW show.

What does following this path accomplish? This does a few things; attracts more of the old ECW fanbase, legitimizes ECW stars in the minds of WWE fans, & makes the vacant ECW Championship seem like a championship worth fighting for.

As for the winner of the match, I would have had RVD win the ECW Championship at Vengeance against Sabu & have a long run with the belt up until WrestleMania the following year.

If you enjoyed this piece, let me know. I would like to follow it up with a “passing the torch” article. Until next time, stay extreme.

Bloodsport : ECW’s Most Violent Matches.

Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW book.

Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore book.

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