Pro Wrestling Power

Raw was pretty good last night. Impact was great.

On the most important night in the company’s history, TNA came through big time with an exciting show that was similar to their January 4 debut two months ago, but was really better in almost every aspect, minus the Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles classic.

But I’ll start with what I feel was a quality episode of Raw. I missed most of the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker promo, but from what I saw it seemed like their usual good stuff.

I don’t like teasing PPV matches, especially Wrestlemania matches, but the tag team match served its purpose and R-Truth and John Morrison should be very over with the Phoenix crowd when they take on ShowMiz.

After being excited for the past couple months over the Randy Orton/Legacy feud and eventual breakup, it’s really started to fall flat the past few weeks. They need to add something to this to spice it up and make it a memorable match at Wrestlemania. After all, Orton is one of the WWE’s biggest stars, and he should be featured prominently on the show. His face turn, if it indeed is going to happen, should be a big deal and very dramatic. This might be the last time for the next decade that Orton is not in a main event or semi main event match at Wrestlemania. He is the future of the company, as a face or as a heel.

Triple H and Sheamus are doing as much as they can to build up their Wrestlemania match, which had the potential to be really bland and uninteresting without a world title on the line.

How about Evan Bourne winning yet again, and this time gaining entry into the money in the bank match. He is going to help make that match special, and who knows, maybe a push is in store for one of the most athletic performers in the WWE after Wrestlemania.

I think the gauntlet idea for the main event was actually better than just having a normal singles match between John Cena and Vince McMahon. The ending had a lot going on with Kofi Kingston running in to help Cena, Cena almost giving the attitude adjustment to McMahon, and then Batista attacking Cena and standing over him as the show went off the air. As much as anyone can complain about the actual match, the build towards Cena vs. Batista has been very good. Batista is much more effective as a heel.

Also, next week’s show was promoted well and it should be a good one, with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the guest host for the night, and the past Wrestlemania rematches that will take place, which is a pretty good idea just two weeks before the PPV.

Impact had an even more electric feel than Raw, and they managed to capture the energy of the January 4 show with more logical and interesting long term booking. They also finally gave proper hype towards the Destination X PPV, but it’s clear that a lot is going to be riding on Lockdown in April. The only thing missing was a truly great match like Angle vs. Styles, but I think TNA wants to try to reserve matches like that for pay per view if they can help it, and honestly, tonight they didn’t even need a match like that with everything that was going on.

First off, Impact looked more like a big time show than at any other point in their history, with the pyrotechnics, a new and improved song and video intro, and a sleek new backstage set at the Impact Zone.

They plugged the opening of the show for the past few days and they actually delivered. The Hulk Hogan/Abyss vs. Ric Flair/AJ Styles match opened the show, but didn’t go long before Sting made his return and shocked the world with a heel turn, using his bat to take out Hogan and Abyss.

What a fantastic move by TNA! Sting is still one of the most well-known names in wrestling today, and for him to turn heel in the fashion he did not only made it a great moment on the show, but also set up long term interesting feuds between him and the TNA babyfaces that should do very good business on pay per view or on free TV. His interaction with Dixie Carter afterwards was a nice touch, and it was sold very well by Mike Tenay and Taz.

The whole X Division segment was great, from the promo to the match, and it really helped to spur some interest in the March 21 PPV. The Epics program next week before Impact on Monday night should also do a lot to help the buy rate of a show that appeared like it was being looked over in favor of the build towards Lockdown. But now it has a shot of being a quality PPV, and maybe even a financially successful one. Hopefully this is a new beginning for the X Division and it shuts up a lot of the hardcore fans, who have been unhappy with the way the division has been handled since Hogan and Bischoff took over.

That was a good idea to put the women’s tag titles on the Beautiful People, and an even better use of camera work during that segment. This was just another sign that TNA may be actually starting to figure out who their demographic is and what they want from a wrestling show.

Rob Van Dam’s debut as Sting’s surprise opponent was one of the biggest pops I’ve ever heard from such a small crowd. He is going to be a HUGE face in TNA if booked properly, which I think he will be, and his quick victory over Sting was a good start. Sure Sting beat the crap out of him with the bat after the match, but that just did more to solidify the heel turn and took nothing away from RVD, who should be a big help to the company in the ratings, PPV buyrates, attendance and merchandise. Again, the importance of this pickup for TNA cannot be understated, especially over the course of the next few months.

The whole Kevin Nash/Eric Young vs. Scott Hall/Syxx Pac angle might be the least interesting thing among the major TNA storylines right now, and even THAT was pretty over last night. Waltman looked very good for a short spurt with his ring work, and Eric Young finally seems to be gaining the crowd’s attention. Next week’s tag team match will be an interesting point in this feud.

It looks like Beer Money is once again being established as a top tag team. Look for them to win the tag titles from Matt Morgan and Hernandez at Destination X as the result of a Morgan heel turn on Hernandez. TNA has a much more impressive tag team division than the WWE right now, although you have to give them credit as well for effectively building towards the tag team title match at Wrestlemania.

Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley’s respective feuds with Eric Bischoff appear to be bringing them together in their fight against the arrogant boss, which I think is a good move. There will probably be some type of payoff with this angle at Lockdown.

Speaking of a payoff to a feud, Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson are probably going to have a great one. This is a very well booked feud that is building more each week. Plus Angle is capable of getting a very good match out of Anderson, and this might even be a series over the course of the next couple PPV’s.

Finally, the main event was an awesome display of how a match, and ending to a show, can be entertaining and exciting without necessarily having high workrate. It was nice to see Abyss get the pin on Styles after Hogan and Flair surprisingly did a majority of the work, and the post match stuff was chaotic, but in a good way. Desmond Wolfe and the Pope ran out to save the heel team and face team respectively and the crowd was loving it. But not as much as they loved Jeff Hardy running down to tilt the odds in favor of the good guys and cleaning house as Impact went off the air.

This was easily the best TNA show I’ve ever seen, and all indications are that not only did the crowd at the Impact Zone enjoy it, but many fans around the web did as well, even more so than Raw. I already can’t wait to see what they do for next week. I just hope they can keep the momentum going and not lose sight of what the fans really want to see. I know that it’s hard to capture the energy of a big show like this with surprise returns and debuts, but they can definitely continue to put out a quality product with the talent they have, both on the roster and backstage.

I hope it’s not long before they can go live every week, because the taped shows every other week have the potential to fall flat with TV audiences and live audiences, but it once again looks as if TNA is on the right path to eventually challenging the WWE for the title of number one wrestling company in the world.