Pro Wrestling Power

Well it’s kind of a delayed reaction really, but I was very busy this week…give me a break. Anyway, here we go…

With Steve Austin being the guest host, I thought Raw had a much more electric feel to it this week and was a much better show than last week. It also was more entertaining than Impact, and that was really reflected in the ratings, with Raw doing a 3.7 and Impact drawing a disappointing 0.8. On the bright side, the Thursday night replay also drew a 0.8, but it’s going to be a few months at the very least before they can even think of getting upwards of a 1.5 on a consistent basis.

It doesn’t help them that the WWE is on a roll right now and in the midst of hyping the best looking card on paper for a Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania 19. It also doesn’t help that Stone Cold was a refreshing change to the B-list celebrities of the past few weeks and that Impact was a taped show this week. They’re eventually going to have to go live every week if they seriously want to contend in the new Monday night wars.

The three Wrestlemania rematches were all solid matches, especially Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, which was one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time when they fought at WM 19. It could have went much longer but it was good while it lasted and definitely above average for a TV match.

This show was built around the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon contract signing, and along with Austin overseeing the whole thing, it was definitely the most electric moment on Raw in a while. I believe the overrun drew a 4.2. I thought Austin would announce himself as special guest referee for the match but there’s still time for that to happen. I think they have the attention of a lot of casual fans and as long as they can put together one more exciting Raw tomorrow night that builds up Mania properly, they are going to do one heck of a buy rate.

Honestly, I didn’t see nearly as much of Impact, but from what I did see, it was just an average show, and the fact that it wasn’t live did seem to take away a little of their momentum. The rating is a minor disappointment, but at this time, in March, and at this early stage in the game, it’s really not that bad, especially when you consider the replay on Thursday nights the past two weeks has matched the rating on the Monday show itself.

This leads me to believe that most TNA fans are also WWE fans who don’t want to miss Raw but still want to check out Impact when it replays. For this reason alone, they should keep the Thursday replay around for a while longer, especially if it keeps producing in the ratings like it has so far. They need to pull in more casual fans, old time fans who quit watching wrestling years ago, and newer, younger fans who’ve never watched wrestling before if they want to start consistently eclipsing the 1.0 barrier.

The promotion of the Destination X pay per view was much better this week and it might save the show from doing a horrible buy rate, but like I’ve been saying all along, Lockdown will really be the early litmus test for the new regime, to see if things are indeed headed in the right direction.

I think the Hogan/Bischoff interplay in the coming weeks and months is going to be very interesting, and it should be a focal point of the show, just not too much. Hulk is so far gone physically that I really believe he has only one match left in him at this point, and it’s probably going to be against Sting, either at Lockdown or during the summer, and he couldn’t ask for a better last opponent to make the match watchable and maybe even memorable for his send off.

The Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D feud and Hall/Syxx Pac vs. Nash/Eric Young feud are ok for TV and possibly attracting some casual fans to watch Impact for a few minutes here and there, but I won’t argue that neither of them will do anything to sell a PPV. I don’t even think the Nasty Boys are going to be on tonight’s PPV, and they shouldn’t be. They need to wrap up that feud and direct some more time towards others who are being left off the show by no later than the end of April.

I think Desmond Wolfe is on the brink of becoming a star heel in the company, and the Pope D’Angelo Dinero is about to get a major push leading up to his TNA title shot at Lockdown, and that build up should start in full force tomorrow night on Impact. And the Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle feud is probably the hottest thing going in TNA right now and will almost certainly help sell some PPV’s, along with the Ultimate X match and maybe the TNA title match between Styles and Abyss.

Speaking of that match, I know that most of the IWC is down on it, and to be honest I am too, but I still think there’s a possibility we’re in for a major swerve on the Abyss character. Either way, as long as Styles retains tonight and sets up the big showdown between him and Pope at Lockdown, the booking is still headed in the right direction.

Beer Money really might be the best tag team in the business today and it looks like TNA is trying to make their tag division mean more than any tag division has meant in the past 7 or 8 years at least. Also, if you listen to Bischoff and a recent interview with Christopher Daniels, the X division should be getting much more of the focus on TV and PPV, even after tonight’s Destination X show. Along with the Knockouts division, these are areas in which TNA can really differentiate themselves from the WWE and steal some viewers in the coming months.

The Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles main event match was good and I like that Hardy went over. The aftermath was even better though. Abyss chokeslamming Ric Flair through the entrance ramp was an awesome moment and actually made you fear for Flair’s health. It also adds a little bit of the monster dimension back to Abyss’ character and did a nice job of promoting the title match between him and AJ tonight, with Styles clutching his title as the show went off the air. The production of this show seemed to be a little better than last week’s as well, maybe because it was taped, but they can afford to sacrifice that by going live each week. They did a good job of making their overrun go past Raw’s by about an extra 30 seconds or so, so fans who switched over at least got to see the conclusion of the show.

In short, TNA needs to just hang on and stay on course until Wrestlemania is over with, and the WWE just needs this week’s Raw and Smackdown to add the finishing touches on what has been a very well built card and well hyped show so far. Tomorrow night should be another very exciting one for wrestling fans, with it being the last Raw before Wrestlemania going up against a live version of Impact. Hopefully I can get out my reaction to the shows on Tuesday or Wednesday and then expect a preview later in the week of the biggest wrestling show of the year, Wrestlemania 26!

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