1. TNA gets Jeff Hardy, the second biggest draw in the WWE when he left, and wastes him on a run in after an X-Division match and being all giddy about a contract. This has overtones of Bret Hart in WCW in the worst way possible. It’s amazing how much less star power Hardy had just by walking into the Impact Zone.
2. I’ve seen a lot of high ratings for the main event and may I just say… Why? It was a pretty good back and forth match that just took ages of near-falls at the end. Does everyone just declare anything with a ton of near-falls a MOTYC nowadays? It’s getting ridiculous.
3. Ric Flair did nothing. I know I’m supposed to tune in to see what’s up with him. And Sting. And Jeff Hardy. But really, TNA, if you want me to care, give me something to care about without just relying on what guys have done in the past or their name value to keep me tuned in.
4. Samoa Joe looked great tonight. I really feel bad for the guy at this point. He always gets these pushes that seem legit, starts to really shine and gain that it factor with the crowd again only to be immediately de-pushed.
5. I was worried that Desmond Wolfe would go on to being just another guy as soon as Angle beat him. Lo and behold, here we are. I think the definition for just another guy is losing to The Pope in three minutes. Wolfe has it and needs to be pushed. Pope is killer on the mic though.
6. The Nasty Boys and Orlando Jordan have no real name value or skill at this point. They are negative value every second they’re on television. Val is certainly past his prime and his name value isn’t especially useful anymore, but he’s a good, under-rated hand who’s useful to have around.
7. I couldn’t tell what was happening in the Steel Asylum. The cage was next to impossible to see into and a DQ in a cage match is incredibly bad. Of course, it’s just incredibly bad normally; it’s catastrophic when it’s the first match on a show introducing you to a new audience. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d have turned off TNA right then and never looked back.
8. Jeff Jarrett was put on at the 10PM hour change against Degeneration-X vs. JeriShow. Double J, who’s never drawn a dime, was put against four main eventers and the current second biggest draws in the WWE. You don’t think this would have been the spot for a guy WWE fans actually like, like Jeff Hardy, do you?
9. Bischoff is a slimy bastard and I hate him. In the best way possible.
10. For a show that I really hated every segment for individually, I had a lot of fun watching. It was great to flip between wrestling shows again and see what was better. It was neat to see the old WCW trainwreck come out again, with segments that made no sense and were dropped, like this long announced show was being booked on the fly. It was a horrible mess and TNA came off looking scattered at best, but, still, this was fun. Unfortunately, they now hotshotted every big name around into the company short of Goldberg and The Rock, so they really can’t ever do the big surprises thing and I have no reason to tune in on any given Thursday. Oh well, read my full review
