Was Sting really breaking character? If you're going to compare it to the Joker character in Batman, that character has his serious moments too. Jack Nicholson wasn't yuck yuck yucking it up all throughout Batman 1.

I'm going to go on record and say that I am a Hogan/Eric Bischoff fan... but I was VERY elated to see that they weren't on the program this week cutting a 15+ minute promo.

I am probably giving Russo too much credit, cause heaven knows he isn't very consistent in continuity... but it ALMOST makes sense for Sting to tone down for his promo.. Like you said, Sting is mentally unbalanced. So he could be sane moment and snap the next. I think embedding that layer of unpredictably to his new character would be pretty awesome. As far as the Angelina/Winter thing... there's NO explaining that.

On a note about the Title match on Sunday: They actually booked the belt itself so bad that I'm starting to lose interest in who has it being that's it's changed hands numerous times in the past few months. Keep it on one person for awhile for cryin' out loud. But get it off of Sting first, please

I was sort of interested in a Bully Ray/Mr. Anderson feud, but man it's just going to come and go without any build up.. it might have actually been good if they let it stew a bit. I still have hopes for Anderson if they would just book him right.

I love Joe and I still want to see him come back to the badass he was... I feel like that's what creative is going for this go around, but I just know they're gonna screw it up once again.

Styles/Daniels? No thank you.

You didn't get the memo, Eck? Instead of seeing who can say B***h the most, they now have to see who spit the biggest loogie on each other. The memo also stated we're supposed to forget that Steiner mentored Crimson.

I still don't get the scoring on the tag team matches. I think the partner that scores the pinfall should get 7 and the other one get at least 3 or 4.

Is it me or did Devon shed some pounds?

I really enjoyed Matt Morgan on commentary.. (even though he looked and sounded genuinely heart broken) Though the one slip up he made was when giving Pope a compliment he said, "I hope he's not hearing this right now..." Though I'm not entirely sure if they are trying to give Impact a feeling of being live or not... In any case I hope they have a story tailor made for him when he recovers.. You got about 5 weeks Russo. Make it happen.

While I mostly agree with you in general, I have to strongly disagree with you about Sting's character. I don't see Joker-Sting as Sting gone insane, I see him as Sting acting insane (and having fun doing it) to freak out Immortal. Who would believe Sting's gone whacko? The point is that Sting is toying with Immortal, not that we should believe he is crazy. Angle and Fortune wouldn't help him if we were supposed to think Sting is completely crazy, that would make even less sense. I expect Sting to be crazy-Joker-Sting again once he's back battling Immortal and taking back TNA for Dixie.

This episode wasnt as good as some other recent shows in my opinion. I mean, how can you have a show without Velvet -- unless I ffwd through her appearance ? Anyway, I agree with everything that you said Kevin except the following. I think Joe can be relavent again if they would team him with another big guy like Abyss and have them war with Beer Money. Over time Joe's character can be rehabbed and maybe his treatment lately is just the thing that would make him "snap" and go on some kind of rampage with Abyss who is also in need of a fresh start. I mean why is he even in the ring with X division guys except for the comic relief. Right now he is not a very scary "monster".
The other thing is regarding Sting. He has slipped in and out of character several times since he began the insane Sting run. Remember when he shook Angles hand at the end of a recent show and asked Angle if he has gone too far or not far enough? It isnt like he is sitting in the corner rocking and talking to himself. He has referenced Dixie a few times and is showing that there is method to his madness not just him having gone nuts. I think that it is being done very well.
On the other hand AJ Styles is floundering again. Why they cant figure out how to get him back to the forefront is beyond me. He gets the biggest pop when he comes out -- along with Angle and Sting, yet he isnt involved with anything memorable week after week. One week he is running around with a clown mask, then he is setting up an x division three way, then he is losing to Devon with distraction from Daniels. I think they are booking him by pulling ideas out of a hat -- or someplace else.
Oh and the last thing is that I didnt like Morgan on commentary. His voice is hard to listen to. I think he should stay away until he is healthy and have him explode back onto the scene in some suprising way once he has been gone and forgotten for awhile.
But then again what do I know?

That sounds like it was really painful. I am sorry that your duties as a journalist forced you to have to watch. Again, I find little in your reports to bring me back.
Just a quick question---what in the hell does the world of wrestling have against Ken Anderson? Was the guy a Thugee cult member in a previous life and is now paying karma?---Is he an intolerable jackass backstage? Is there a secret wrestling conspiracy against people from Wisconson? I have not seen such talent and potential consistently and purposefully stymied and stultified since the early 90's treatment of Cactus Jack by WCW---except this poor bastard has gotten it from every company he's worked for. He and Joe are losing the prime years of their careers to stupidity.

Sorry for leaving two comments--but a thought--I have an idea for a list---who are the top ten most misused wrestlers today? I'd just enjoy your analysis applied to that and it's sure to generate lots of friendly arguments and comments. (WWE I think has enough--Jack Swagger comes to mind---that it wouldn't be a completely TNA list either).

When RVD hit the frog splash, Steiner seemed to put his fist up and it looked like he'd legitimately hurt RVD when he was pinning him. Either that or RVD sold the fist a little.

But if he did hurt him for real, will be interesting to see what happens the next time these two perform that move!

I thought this was actually a pretty good episode of Impact. It almost made me want to see the Sting/Angle match, but then I remembered that it will probably only be 8 minutes.

After a terrible RAW I wrote that I couldn't wait for Thursday night where "Wrestling Matters." You didn't mention the Austin Aries match which was very good. I think that having Joe going with a Zero was fine booking because then he could get a surprise push but the -10 now makes that a stupid idea. I never figured out why in a tag team match only the guy who gets the pin gets the points.Team matches shouldn't be in the BFG series but if they had to be then logic would have said that the team should split the points. Did I say "logic"? Sorry, my bad!
No Bischoff again was fabulous. I thought it was a good go home show for the PPV, not great .

As an aside to your TOP TEN article there is Johnny Valentine and then there is nobody! Actually I loved Dusty Rhodes when he was a heel early in his career. If you were a Southeastern US NWA fan of heels then you had to love The Great Malenko (Dean's and Joe's father).

Eck, do you run your blogs by the editors before posting? Cause it's chock full of errors. Otherwise great job. I always look forward to your analysis!

RESONSE FROM KE: I think I caught some of the typos you eluded to. Thanks for drawing my attention to them. Not usually that sloppy but I have a lot going on right now.

Sting is doing the "insane" deal in order to "get into the head's" of Bishoff and Hogan, as the TNA announcers are so fond of saying.

C'mon, Kev, you didn't think he is really insane now , did you?

A was pointed out, even insane characters are capable of acting normal when called for.

Must we keep explaining all this complicated wrestling stuff to you?

Loosen up. THere is little room for reasoning in pro wrestling.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I guess my point is that if Sting is trying to convince Hogan and Bischoff that he's crazy, doesn't his promo at the end of this show prove that it's all been an act?

Those garbage lids are pretty flimsy.

Bully Ray's apology was so well delivered that I actually fell for it. I didn't expect the retraction just then. Irl it would've been an effective apology, so I disagree with your assessment, Eck.

What's so bad about Devon beating Styles?

There was good wrestling on this show. What I like about tna is that the style of the wrestlers is more apparent. Wwe is too formulaic for my tates. The ppvs are ok, but the tv is garbage for wwe. It feels like the whole show is a commercial. Cm Punk was best as a straight without the society.

I digress. Tna rocked this week. Wwe sucked like normal. Eck has bad taste. Ernest Miller and Eric Young would be the best tag team ever. Long live Sting and Angle.

The Sting-Angle segment was well done imo.

Austin Aries will be a major star. A great athlete and has a good deal of charisma.

I'd have to agree with DumbSmark,,, I would be very interested in seeing a list of most underused/misused talents. Either current or all time.

I didn't have any problem with the serious of Sting's promo. I've enjoyed the insane schtick, but I enjoyed this approach, too. Makes sense, given the big match upcoming.

The Roode-Hernandez street fight ended with one of the worse pins I have ever seen. Hernandez had absolutely no leverage on Roode, so Roode basically had to lay there like an idiot while the ref counted to three. Kevin, very rarely do we see such a bad pin.

One last thing... Miss Tessmacher? More, please.

Great job addressing the "no ramifications" story telling. And yeah, they totally neglected to say anything about how Steiner was training Crimson, and have still yet to bring up that Steiner was brought back to crush Immortal. And while the handling of Angelina's character has turned atrocious, I want to believe the explanation behind Sting's vacillating character is due to his psychotic nature (in that, he's so brilliant, he can turn it off at any moment), but you never know with the TNA crew in charge.

So what should they have done with Sting, Kev??? If they had made him stay insane during that promo he would have looked rediculous and you would have complained how silly it looked. TNA is damned if they do and damned if they don't with you, sheesh!

So what should they have done with Sting then, Eck??? If he had stayed insane it would have looked rediculous after Angle's promo and you would have talked about how silly it looked. Tna is damed if they do and damned if they don't with you, sheesh!