TNA is getting beyond ridiculous. I just watched the PPV from Last Stand 2005. Outstanding PPV. This Hard Justice dreck isn't even going to be close. I couldn't believe it when Raven said it was about a girl. Talk about an ancient story line.

I don't care if Flair needs the money. What an absolute embarassment. Just manage Fortune where you belong.

Beer Money and MCMG was outstanding. Easily best part of the show.

You are right about Lacey. When I was watching, all I was thinking was she has got to be to worst in ring preformer, male or female, ever. And the match overall was an unmitigated disaster area. Just put Boobzilla back with Angelina.

Finally, this whole ECW thing is making a mockery of the true ECW legend, if you will. The star power is just not there. I would bet money that Dixie and Hogan wish they never ventured down this road.

I have to believe that the Jeff Hardy match was originally suppose to be Hardy vs. Joe, but that won't happen since Joe is suspended. Could they be bringing in Helms for this match??

Do the Knockouts Tag Titles even mean anything anymore since there are only 8 knockouts?

I know this is a lot to ask of Jay Lethal, but shouldn't he raise the issue backstage that this isn't the best use of Ric Flair's talents? Maybe he did. I don't know. But it's clear that there's no one in TNA to save Flair from himself.

>>It was announced that TNA Reaction (the documentary-style backstage interview show) will finally debut as a weekly series next Thursday after Impact. I like the concept of the show but that means wrestling will now be on TV from 8 p.m. to midnight every Thursday. Oh well, having a life is overrated anyway.<<

Poor Mrs. Eck never catches a break, does she?

Hey Kevin,

Always enjoy reading your blogs. To be brutally honest, I just don't seem to understand why it's viewed as such a "negative" thing that Sting, Nash, Hogan, Flair, etc are involved on Impact. First of all. I wouldn't ever know Jay Lethal if he walked by me at Wal-Mart had it not been for Hogan and Flair in TNA. I am a 26 year old wrestling fan who used to watch wrestling growing up. Especially when the Monday Night wars were going on. Since WCW shut down I've watched WWE off and on over the years, but never watched one full episode of Impact. AJ Styles was the only TNA original that I was familiar with until Hogan came to the company.

Now that I've started watching TNA I've become a huge fan of Beer Money, Jay Lethal, AJ Styles, Wolfe, the X Division, and more.

After watching RAW on a semi-regular basis before the changes in TNA, I now watch it maybe once a month. To me, I think TNA has a nice blend of young and old. Quite honestly, Ric Flair may be in his 60's... but he's one of the most entertaining characters in wrestling to this day. I'm sorry, but a guy who comes to a street fight in a custom made suit is classic Ric Flair. It's hilarious, it's cool, and I was entertained all the way through the match...mostly by Flair. And, if you watched the crowd... that match got some of the biggest pops of the night. Sure, it's disturbing that Flair was bloody and running around with one shoe on in his underwear. But, only Ric Flair could ever pull off such a match... even at his age now. I thought it was highly entertaining.

The writing isn't as sharp is it could be, I agree. And, at times it seems like there is too much going on on Impact to keep up from one week to the next. But, overall... I'm entertained. It's not as slick of a product as the WWE presents each week on Smackdown and Raw, but it's more entertaining to me. I wasn't even a fan of ECW back in the 90's, but I am familiar with those guys after their time in WCW and WWE over the years. And, I'm educated about the history and significance of ECW. So, from that standpoint I don't mind the ECW angle.

I've rambled on long enough with this post. But, I just get tired of reading reviews of Impact every week and the bloggers complaining about the old guys getting involved. Those guys helped build the sport. They're responsible for why we're watching today. It's like how commercial radio ignores the greats who paved the way. Just because Al Green or Robert Plant or Merle Haggard are older... they can't get airplay on radio anymore? I don't agree with that. We shouldn't just shove these people to the side just because they're old. They can still make a huge contribution. Wrestling is not like basketball. Michael Jordan couldn't go out and entertain anybody in his 60's on a basketball court. Ric Flair can still entertain the fans. Hulk Hogan still gets the biggest pop on every Impact show when all he does is slowly hobble down the ramp and give a promo in the ring. The fans still want to see these guys. They're still talented, entertaining, and no matter how good the Pope or AJ Styles are in the ring... people still tune in and show up to see the legends. And, now because I tune in to see Flair and Hogan I will now be tuned in ten years from now to see Jay Lethal, Beer Money, AJ Styles, the Pope, etc

Just thought I'd throw in my long, rambling opinion.

jh

The MCMG v Beer Money match was match of the year quality. The move on the ring apron by Shelly was unbelievable. The rest of the show was so-so, but that one match made it great. And it was cool to see Sandman return and look good... for him. But I was kinda hoping to see Beulah. Hey, Curt Hennig's kid stole her name. Wait a sec; she couldn't be junior's mo.... Nah.

We get it, you don't like Ric Flair.

For me, I think Flair's feud with Jay Lethal is just the sort of rub Lethal needs to take his career to the next level.

RESPONSE FROM KE: You have missed the point completely. I am a longtime Flair fan and, on a personal level, I have enjoyed interviewing him over the years. I attended his Hall of Fame induction and shed a tear in Orlando after watching his "retirement" match against Shawn Michaels. I think what he is doing now is sad.

You hit the nail on the head, Kev. The one thing no one seems to have learned from the Monday Night Wars (at least no one that's now on the TNA side) is that the WWE won because they made new stars, plain and simple. The Rock, HHH, and Austin were all in the prime of their careers, so you were watching them write their legacies each week. No one wants to see has-beens whose career has long since peaked. You need to make new stars! I think TNA is in for a rude awakening when they see the buyrates for this PPV.

Hi Kev.

I was just wondering if you knew that former TNA star Consequences Creed had signed a developmental contract with WWE??

Also, I know you like to blog about wrestlers when they get released by their companies, but I was wondering if you ever blog about when wrestlers get signed by companies? I cant say I have ever seen you do this.

The MCMGs were a large part of what made TNA's former x division great. Beer Money is a great team as well. It's nice to see tag team wrestling being highlighted. Ironically, there is little actual tagging in many of these matches.

Hogan's punches were an embarrassment. I felt sorry for Nash who had to sell them.

I've commented before that Jay Lethal should be moved to the x-division. I also suggested that Kaz should cost Lethal the title, setting up a fued between them. We shall see.

First off, nice Rocky Horror reference in the title! Kudos for that.

Now, it seems to me that TNA is taking two steps forward (last week's show) and 5 steps backward (this week's show). Why does TNA do this to us? Whatever happened to Hogan and Bischoff taking time off? Those two and Flair need to leave TNA alone (because at least now we know that Dixie will listen to the fans) and do what regular guys their age do...play some dang golf.

Maybe then I would watch TNA on a regular basis.

Naitch did cut a hell of a promo with Christy Hemme being "categorized". Great stuff. Really funny. In-ring beatdown not so much. I cringed when Ric said "ring's off, watch is off".

I wouldn't mind a Lethal-Williams feud over the title, especially if it means Lethal winning it. I don't see him winning the world title just yet, so he needs a secondary title at the moment. Hopefully, they can bring some more credibility to the X-Division title because ever since he won it, the only guy Williams has really feuded with is Brian Kendrick, who hasn't even been on the show much lately. I also wouldn't mind Abyss winning the title next week because he deserves a good run with the title. His winning it will at least try to convince people that Hogan is pushing younger talent. From what I heard, next week's Beer Money-MCMG match is a 2/3 Falls Match. If so, wouldn't this make the series a best of 9?

TNA needs to bring back more Knockout matches. They used to carry the show for a while, and while some of the talent like ODB, Kong, etc are gone, there is still real good talent there.

I expect MCMG to win the series and then have Beer Money go off on some angle with Fortune. What is the point of having a group if they don't come out or fight together.

The crowd wasn't into the Flair/Lethal match. Lethal really carried him. Flair would be better doing color commentary.

I am not sure what TNA sees in Mr. Anderson. He seems average to me. Morgan or the Pope need to go over in that match.

It appears that Dixie, Bischoff, and Jarrett will be aligning. Not sure where Hogan will fall in this. Sting, Nash, and probably another person or two will feud with them.

"The slow-motion slugfest between Hogan and Nash was almost as bad as my RKO on The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show last Saturday. …"

Oh no Kevin,
Your RKO was 10x better than that octogenarian garbage. Hell, even Bischoff looked better than those two! For a moment I thought Scott Hall and his twin brother snuck into the ring.

I almost wanted to cry for Ric Flair, watching him in his underwear and lack of footwear. Shameful, yet amusing. He may be the only man to win a match wearing that combo of clothes. Very sad for the Nature Boy. Taz had the line of the night about Flair; "custom-made suit, K-Mart underwear." Sad. Very sad.

I think TNA has out performed the WWE the past 2 weeks the matches on TNA have been fast past while WWE matches are slow and predictable . I give TNA a B+!

I agree with you on all points Kev! Though I did think it was a decent show. At least Raven wasn't licking anyone's face this week! But they did replace that with Ric showing his A** off (litlerally) However, I gotta say that Orlando, his finger antics and basically raping The Pope on the turnbcukle took the "ewww" and just plain awful factor of the night! (or did you miss that?)

I also don't know if you noticed this, but if they were going to change The Legends title to The Global Tilte to the "World" Television title, one would think they would take the name "Legends" off the belt...or not show it in that tight of a shot for everyone to see the inconsistancy of said belt. I don't know why, but that really annoyed me...

Hopefully after this whole Hardcore Justice thing winds down, maybe, just maybe they will attempt to answer the whole Sting/Jeff/Nash/Hogan/Eric soap opera and find out the mysterious "they" Abyss keeps ranting about! Time to let the cat out the bag... if there's actually a cat in there...

TNA - The Nostalgia Alliance

Kevin, You are way off base with your criticism of the Flair/Lethal match. You're not getting Flair/Steamboat at this stage of his career. I'm 52 years old and have seen thousands of Flair matches, and many times he has been dis-robed during the course of a match (especially against Jimmy Garvin). The ends justify the means as he once again proved to be "the dirtiest player in the game." If the match was such a turnoff try to explain TNA's strong 1.2 rating. I would bet dollars to donuts that the top quarter came in either the Flair match or the MCMG match. It seems to me that TNA s starting to build some momentum.

In Flair's old age I wonder if he misunderstood and thought someone said to him that his match was a "strip fight"

I completely agree with the 26 year old's long response. I am 25 and grew up on WCW I marked out like crazy when I saw Sting in the Wolfpac facepaint. I thought Nash calling out Hogan on backstage politics and Bischoff calling out the Kliq was awesome. It's not like it led off or closed the show. Stop feeling so sorry for Flair he's doing what he loves. I can't stand his profuse bleeding but his Walmart underwear had me laughing out loud. He's a good sport and is the best heel in any company right now.

I thought the show was very unbalanced. It seems like there was some sort of struggle about which show they were going to hype up the most, the ppv or next weeks Impact. Unless it's a work, the power struggle isn't going to last much longer. I think it's a crime to see the way AJ Styles is being booked. The fact that he isn't mentioned in the World Title hunt shows that TNA has given up on AJ being a top player. The Fortune faction looks about as lame as any team that I've seen. They really need a good mouth piece other than Flair, Desmond Wolf comes to mind. I am enjoying the resurgence of the Knockout division. IMO, Velvet Sky will be WWE bound within the next year. She can wrestle, she can talk, and she is smokin hot !!!!! It was great to see Hamada back in action.

Thursday night at 6pm, in a Sports Authority in St. Petersburg, I saw Sean Waltman in a black T-shirt and the trademark black bandana. He looked pretty good, better than I would have expected. I didn't say anything to him because, well, why would I do that? He drove off in a white El Dorado.

Back to TNA Thursday - the MCMG match was THE SHOW and it lasted 10 minutes which I thought was the perfect time, not too long and not too short. I expect Beer Money to win the series especially since they showed all of the highlights of the previous 3 matches and showed that Beer Money stole the first two. Heels as champions always make for better storylines and the fans whining how their favorites always get cheated usualy is a money angle.

Taylor Wilde needs to hit the gym, seriously. Great to see Hamada back on TV.

I can't add anything to the Ric Flair saga that hasn't alrerady been said in the previous comments, pro or con. Regarding the Reunion of ECW, yeah, it should be entertaining but if there is not going to be any follow-up to whatever happens (and I'm not saying there should be), then what is the point?

I think hole they thing could be the return of James Mitchel Abyss former manger it is sad what has happened to Ric Flair . Sting agenda is what happened in WCW with Eric & Hogan . Where is Desmond Wolf !

I thought for a minute, when watching the Flair - Lethal match, that is was a flashback to the WWE's old "Bra and Panties Match."

I thought LVE did some of her best work when she was laid out backstage. That should happen more often. It's the best work that she has done on camera.

Naitch did cut a hell of a promo with Christy Hemme being "categorized". Great stuff. Really funny. In-ring beatdown not so much. I cringed when Ric said "ring's off, watch is off".

I believe Doug Williams was there because if any member of FORTUNE entefered that they would be suspended. So, I am guessing that maybe Williams is now going to be a new member of FORTUNE...maybe not.

I agree. It was SAD to see NAITCH in the ring down to his underwear and one shoe and one sock. And lawdy, please don't get me started on Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash. Totally NOT worth watching these days.

I agree when U say that Bischoff will cost RVD the title. And furthermore, I think that Bischoff, Sting and Nash are *THEY* that Abyss is referring to.

I thought the show was okay. I do have one question though. Is Nash simply no longer able to perform his powerbomb? I realize he is older and everything, but last Thursday was like the 6th consecutive time that I have seen him start to place that move on someone only to be interrupeted by a run in. The beauty of that move is that the victim can push up so Nash just has to be careful to not drop him on his head like he did Big Show 12 years ago.

Anyone have any idea? As much as I like him, he looks meek.

I've loved TNA so much more than WWE for a few years now. It's just more unpredictable, and original. Randy Orton, and Edge are the only 2 respectable heels in WWE right now. And, although it may be ripping of ECW One Night Stand '05. I'm way into this Extreme Reunion. And Sandman returning (although temporarily)? C'mon, WWE could never do that now.

Nothing kills a s story line for me faster than the words "Uncle Scotty". Why didn't he call him Johnny Polo and get it over with?
Hoping Beer Money can take match 5 vs the Guns.

I'm actually looking forward to "The Whole F'n Show" on Thursday, even though the name gives me douchechills, and RVD's sing-along theme is embarrassingly bad.

What a sigh of relief I had when the lights went out just before Hogan and Jarrett could clash against Sting and Nash. When I saw them coming their way to the ring, I dreaded sustaining a repeat of the dull 'slow-motion slugfest' between Hogan and Nash that happened two weeks before.

PS. This is my first post here and I've been following this blog for a few months from north of the border here in Montreal. I don't know if it's done elsewhere but the idea of having a blog in a media that one can deem as 'mainstream' like the Baltimore Sun is quite original. Great blog and keep up the good work!

why dont tna move impact nationwide its killing the show cos threre is no atmosphere if you want a war with wwe please move from the impact zone