That first hour of Impact

..... was amazing! I know this is late, but it was the most entertaining wrestling TV I've seen in forever. We need Black Snow doing play-by-play every week.

Are you kidding me, I almost threw up a little. I personally found it highly unfunny and pathetic. Almost as bad as some of WCW's bad days. They totally buried everyone in a bad way. I heard Booker wanted to do announcing in WWE. I'm glad he didn't get the job, he sounds like an auctioneer on crack. It was like those awful ICP dubbed hardcore tapes where they just took the piss the whole time.

The concept itself I guess makes sense in the MEM context, but it should have only gone on for one match.

I reiterate though, my opinion obviously. We cant all have the same sense of humor I guess.

I'm with Sakakida. It was hilarious. I had a big smile on my face all the way through it. I don't know if that one hour did anything for TNA business-wise but man, it was damn entertaining while it lasted. Steiner, Lemon & Snow were great. Just so many great lines from them. Sure, things weren't perfect and I didn't like some stuff but overall I ended up being highly entertained by the MEM takeover.

The babyfaces were killed though. They came to make the big save and didn't. What's up with that? They just look weak. Now's the time for the story to flip around and have the young guys dominate. It may have been funny on is own, but in the grand scheme the show hurt TNA. Yet I fear the 1.1 regular TNA fans have no clue so maybe it doesn't. It certainly doesn't draw more fans.

Actually, believe it or not, that one hour where MEM ran the show was the highest rated hour of television TNA's ever done, including a quarter that did 1.27 - the second highest quarter in TNA history, second only to Mick Foley's big announcement in Las Vegas which did 1.31 and had a lot of on-screen and off-screen promotion behind it. TNA has never managed to retain the rating at about 1.2 for more than a couple of consecutive quarters and that show was averaging between 1.17 and 1.27 for hour and a half. It terms of tv ratings the MEM portion was pretty successful for TNA's standards. While obviously nothing all that major in the grand scheme of things, the show did draw one of the best overall ratings in TNA's history along with TNA's highest rated hour of television ever and some pretty strong quarters for TNA standards. It's small a ratings success but a success nonetheless.

However, I get what you're saying about the babyfaces and it's true. But here's my thing: why should I care how the babyfaces looked? I'm a tv viewer who wants to be entertained and the show entertained me. To me it's as simple as that. On the other side of the coin though, like I said, I get what you're saying and it sure makes sense from a business/booking standpoint. It's just that I'm not that big of a fan of commenting on a show from that standpoint since I feel that once you get caught up in always trying to find holes in the booking a big part of your enjoyment of what you're watching goes away. That is why I've chosen to just watch the shows and enjoy them for what they are and not really worry about booking and stuff unless something really pisses me off and I'm usually not the type of a guy to be pissed off easily.

Now from a booking perspective the babyfaces being killed is not necessarily a bad thing, IMO. It's all about how the story progresses in the future and how the comeback will be booked. I mean it's like with the nWo. The nWo were kicking WCW's ass for well over a year and WCW would only get a win here and there but overall WCW was getting killed. Then along came Sting and since the nWo was so dominant for so long Sting kicking nWo's asses was a big deal and made Sting (and later on Goldberg) a big star. If the nWo had gotten their asses kicked 4-5 months into the storyline I don't think the effect would have been the same. I'm not saying MEM need to dominate that long but Lockdown in April would be a good time for MEM's first really major defeats, IMO. Then again, I could see why somebody would want The Frontline to already turn the corner but I personally feel it's too soon. There's no right or wrong time here, IMO. It's all about how they will execute the storyline, especially the part where MEM finally get their asses really handed to them. The thing that worries me is that, unlike WCW, TNA has no Sting or a Goldberg. You see, this type of a storyline is tailor-made for creating a breakout star. Here's this dominant stable of established stars that has kicked everybody's ass and all hope seems lost for the babyfaces. But then along comes this brand new guy (Goldberg) or completely a repacked guy with a unique and fresh character (Sting) who does what an entire promotion of babyfaces couldn't - kicks the ass of the dominant stable. Boom. There's your breakout star. It's not a hard concept to execute. The problem is finding the right guy for the spot. Unfortunately, I don't think TNA has that type of a guy. Personally, that's my biggest concern with the angle. I see nobody truly breaking out from the pack because of it. I mean, sure, Joe, AJ and probably another one or two guys would eventually end up defeating MEM but in the grand scheme of things a bunch of guys defeating the top heel stable is not all that impressive and does not really make a breakout star. Sure, it might elevate several guys a bit but it won't really make them make them, you know. It would be just another storyline that went on for a while and then things went back to normal. Anyway, that's just my take on the issue.

TNA thinks they have Sting, but he's called Suicide! Which as a gimmick concept and a name is terrible on so many levels. "Look mummy I'm doing suicide, watch me suicide."

I know what you mean about picking faults, but it's not as though I'm calling Kevin Nash an old fart and Steiner a roided up freak. As far as the ratings go, I'm aware the show drew well, and sure TNA can throw stuff out there and see what sticks, but I'm sure if Velvet Sky has hot lesbian action with Angelina Love that it would spike a rating. That is not developing characters, laying the foundations and building up a show for the future and getting PPV buys. It's just car crash TV and isn't a formula for growth. Joe vs Angle last year was their best PPV buy. Why? Because it had the best build. We cared about the story and the characters.



You shouldn't. The point is that they aren't making you buy in to them as babyfaces. And in the context of the storyline, they're failing (case in point, the episode drew less when Foley came for the save). Why do I care if the Frontline got pummeled for the 10000th time, why should I get behind them? That's the flaw, we don't want to get behind them. In the Sopranos Chris's babyface wife was killed. If they hadn't developed her character as the supportive backbone in the relationship, shown her vulnerability and the fact that she wanted to help her and her husband out of the mob, then nobody would have cared when she got murdered by Tony. They may have popped a rating because of the blood and guts, but we wouldn't have been left with that emotional high that made us want to fucking pay to see Tony get his ass beat.

You can look at it out the box and go meh it was a pretty funny show. But as the TV fan I know you are, did you leave that episode feeling compelled to watch next week?

To me it was funny, but goofy. Like if my sister walked in I'd be slightly ashamed. It's the same humor derived from the dieing days of WCW, like when a fan went to a show with a bag on his head reading "I'm at a WCW show?" I laughed, but I was more laughing at it than with it.

In my eyes it's too late to build a Goldberg or a Sting, and I don't want to wait another few months because I'm bored already.

PS this is why you must post more!

One thing is for sure, they certainly crossed the line on Impact. (Oh come on I just had to...)

I too enjoyed Black Snow's announcing and found most of the stuff entertaining but will I watch Impact next week, probably not because the show really didn't accomplish anything else but making Booker T look silly.

I stopped watching TNA regularly after Lockdown 2008 and I'm glad I did

I actually like Suicide. What I mean by that is that I like his look, entrance and music and am sort of intrigued to see where the character would go but you are right though - the name should've been something else. Plus, the execution so far hasn't been good outside of the debut. After that Kaz botched the finisher and got injured while Daniels looked pretty bad last week on iMPACT.



That's true and I agree but I guess this comes down to mindsets. Generally speaking TNA has always been a heel-driven company. It's a Jarrett/Mantel thing. They're from the southern school of pro-wrestling so they book strong heel characters and a bunch of babyfaces around them. The heels have always been the focal point of TNA whether the top heel would be Jarrett, Christian, Angle or whoever. Every now and again they would build up the next babyface in line for the title but ultimately the focus always comes back on the heels and the babyfaces get screwed by the heels. That's just TNA's deal. That's how they operate. It's all about total heel domination until that final stretch when the babyface makes the big comeback and beats the heel. Generally speaking the WWE mindset, for example, is that people pay to see the babyface kick the heel's ass as opposed to TNA's people pay to see the heel get his ass kicked by the babyface mindset. Personally, I think it works both ways but the fact is that's just how TNA operates, for the most part. It all comes down to what you prefer as a viewer. I myself have always been more of a heel guy when it comes to U.S. mainstream wrestling so I don't have much of a problem accepting the way TNA does things (i.e. heels who constantly screw the babyfaces until the final stretch where the face wins...only to be screwed by the heels soon after ). I can certainly see your point though and can't fault you for it. You are right. TNA should make more of an effort to make people buy into the babyfaces but that's just not their thing. They care way more about their heels than their babyfaces.



First, let me just clarify that I'm not a good guy to be asking this question since I've only missed, I think, one episode in the history of the show. I'm one of those people who fall in the "hardcore TNA fan" category so I always look forward to iMPACT. Did the last edition of iMPACT make me look more forward to the next one? I can't really say that it did outside of the Joe return promo at the end but I'm still very much looking forward to the next iMPACT. What I can say for certain is that for the most part I enjoyed what I saw on iMPACT which I guess means that since I've gotten so much enjoyment out of the show I'm very likely to tune in next week again to see if I'll be entertained as much again, or not. The moment I stop being entertained by iMPACT is the moment when I would start to worry. My whole deal is just switching off the inner-smark in me who knows that certain stuff could and should be done better and trying to enjoy the show as much as possible for what it is. I find that this helps me to enjoy the show a lot more.

- I agree the Suicide character has potential and I can see they are tapping in to that comic book, superhero thread that is present in popular culture, and also there is actually a Crow Sting comparison (flying down, saving the day etc), but yeah so far the execution and the actual name isn't the best thing they could have gone for. I also don't dig the video game to wrestler thing. They at least need the commentators to maybe question out loud "what is making this guy dress up like our video game character" so there is some logic to it. I don't want to believe this is an actual superhero that magically game from a video game.

- There are obviously lots of ways to book a show, but let me clarify, I'm not saying weak babyface's are a direct result of being the underdogs and getting beatdown. TNA just aren't developing them as likeable guys we actually want to route for after being beatdown. There's no emotional connection. I love a good strong heel. Give me an Edge over a John Cena any day. Spike was always my favorite charcter in Buffy! (that's for another topic). My problem comes from them getting beatdown constantly without much followup or charcter development. Plus Brother Ray is not an underdog like character. Why was he the guy that was destroyed in the main spot?

- I get your point. I watch Impact every week, hell it's basically my job. Maybe I'm just not as much of a fan as you, but I don't get the same "I wanna see the next episode feel" that I do with say The Shield or any other drama I watch. I'm just not hooked on their underlying "arc" of the MEM vs Frontline.

@ Booker T on commentary. I watched a bit of an episode a week or two ago and I kept asking the Mrs., "Who is that talking?" I totally didn't recognize Booker's voice. He sounded like B-Real from Cypress Hill going through puberty.

Is he talking with a gimmick voice now or something?

I dunno but did anyone see his big fat this week?

Nah. That was just a one-time thing. Basically Booker just goofing off while commentating. I'm not sure if that was the case but I heard a rumor that Booker was trying to immitate Scott Ferrall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ferrall) with that voice.



I did and marked out for it. It looked cool.

Thanks for the info! I heard him and thought, "Oh no. Booker's doing some really dumb gimmick voice."