TNA surprises.

[E.B. Marcus]

So far......I see bad things and good things.

Jeff Hardy (good)
Ric Flair (good)
Scott Hall (bad)
X-Pac (okay, maybe)
Val Venis (strip poker with the Beautiful People, funny.)
Orlando Jordan (possibly good)
Shannon Moore (good for X Division)
The Nasty Boys (bad if it's nothing more than comic relief)


Not so sure yet that Hogan, Hall, Nash, Pac, and Easy E are good for TNA or not. Hogan is kinda' tweener right now.

[Vash]

all i know is there was a lot of angry screaming at the tv in this house tonight. i don't know how i fully feel yet, but i'm pretty worried...

[E.B. Marcus]

No one can deny that AJ/Angle match wasn't better than any match on Raw in the last 5 + years.

The nWo? guys may be the worst story, but then again....let's look at how much better the production looked compared to the past.

Oh, and I really hope they don't put much time into a Nasty Boys/ 3D feud.

[Alexander Rose]

Sorry, but flipping back and forth was crap for me. I'm not a huge TNA fan but the Angle/Styles match was spectacular... but I still missed the finish cause I wasn't missing Hart and McMahon, so I caught their instant replay for it... then Foley came on the screen and that was it for me.

All I have to say is so far, TNA has stepped up to go face to face w/ WWE, and already Hogan, Jeff Hardy, and Ric Flair have stabbed WWE in the back. Hogan I'm not surprised, Flair not really either, but Hardy? That's crap. If McMahon hadn't given him a 92nd chance, that drugged up loser would be living in a cardboard box and wrestling in high school gyms. I for one am not ready for another Monday Night Wars- I was in high school when the Monday Night Wars ended- now I'm a father of two who works from dawn til dusk, then work more from home- I don't have enough hours in the week to follow WWE and TNA. I'm giving TNA a chance for 2 simple reasons- Kurt Angle and the X Division.

That's my thoughts.

[Ben Jacobs]

I will probably comment more later... but TNA was a waste of 3 hours and if that is what we should be expecting from now on... tna has lost a long time fan in myself.

raw was great... and yes, the styles/angle match was great but that should be expected.

more to come later.

[E.B. Marcus]

A few months ago, I'd got so dissapointed with WWE that I decided to stop watching for awhile, and come back with an open mind. So I did. I stopped watching for about 3 months. Came back and it hadn't gotten any better. The only night that I was actually entertained by Raw was the night that Jesse Ventura hosted. It's the same stuff every week. Cena, DX, Orton, and whoever is lucky enough to be feuding with one of them.

I'll admit, WWE is trying to start giving the younger and fresher guys spots in the company, but they can't get the focus off one of the four I mentioned above long enough. I'm far from a big Sheamus fan, but at least it's different. Now, its sad because he's the champ yet he gets almost no airtime since winning the title. So what's the point of it. Still DX, Cena, and Orton in the spotlight every week.

Now, on to TNA. I'm sure you guys know that I've been a TNA fan since before they were even on Spike. Guys like AJ Styles, Daniels, Eric Young, Robert Roode, and back then Sonjay Dutt were something fresh. Jeff Jarrett was always one of my favorites since I was originally a Mid South fan even before I started watching WWF/NWA or any of that. So I was hooked. So with that said, I may be a bit partial towards TNA.

This is my overall feelings on TNA last night.....

The X Division match was terrible and the cameramen and ending made it seem worse. The crowd was screaming "bullcrap" for a reason. That match could have been 100 times what WWE could put on, but they screwed it up.

Then Jeff Hardy comes out and it blows my mind. I didn't get to read any dirtsheet before watching, so I was caught off guard.

Then I see Ric Flair come out and I'm blown away again. I'd figured Flair would show up at some point, but I wasn't expecting that.

The ODB/Tara match was terrible, especially for those two. Not a match that should have been in the first hour.

Then Hogan comes out. I'm set to give it hell, and figure that I'd probably stop watching TNA. The stuff he said, though, if he follows through with it, is overall good for them. Until X-Pac and Scott Hall make it to the ring. Scott Hall looks terrible still and there's no way he was completely sober. That isn't what I wanted to see from TNA. But it was somewhat entertaining, just hope it doesn't last long.

The Beautiful People strip poker was genius. Play on what WWE is lacking with the PG rating. Though, I'd heard rumors and was hoping Angelina Love would have returned. Maybe next week.

Orlando Jordan was a big plus for me. I still believe he was canned from WWE for his sexual preference rather than whatever reason they claim. I could care less whether he like guys or not. I have gay friends. I'm a big enough man to admit that.

Then the second hour matches, which should have been in the first hour came. The Knockout tag team match was great and showed what the knockouts are all about...alot more than the ODB/Tara match did.

Pope and Desmond Wolfe should have went about 5 minutes or so longer. Matt Morgan and Hernandez as well. They are definately the future of TNA and it shows. I was dissapointed that Eric Young wasn't on the show.

Val Venis and Nasty Boys are great comic relief. If they put much more into them than that I won't like it. It's obvious that there will be a Nasty Boys/ 3D match, but then that will probably be the end of Nasty Boys for the most part. Knobbs can't even walk, much less wrestle.

When I saw MMG knocked out in the back, I was hoping it was the Young Bucks that did it, and that they were carrying on a feud that's been going on in the indies. Later seeing Rhyno, and the others I figured out it was the "nWo?".

Then there was the AJ Styles and Kurt Angle match. I put it up there with the Desmond Wolfe/Daniels match a few weeks ago as one of the best matches on cable television to date. The masked man stepping out didn't help the match very much and wasn't needed.

Honestly, the show should have ended after Hogan said that Angle and AJ were the greatest wrestlers in wrestling today. That would have been where I would have ended the show. Proving that he's not going to push his buddies over the "real" talent.

Then it goes to Foley being jumped by Hall and Pac. I wasn't very happy at this, but I knew it was coming.

BUT

Overall, I feel like Hogan is holding off some things for later. He said there's a big star coming to TNA, and Jeff Hardy isn't who he was referring to.

I got a feeling that Kennedy will be showing up soon. I hope to see a Desmond Wolfe/Kennedy feud in the future.

Let's look at the bad things on TNA. Nasty Boys and Scott Hall won't be able to be around much, or at least be in the ring much. Val Venis can still wrestle somewhat, so can X-Pac if he stays clean.

The good side is that production last night was better than it's ever been in TNA.

I'm really excited to see what they have in store. If nothing else, maybe Vince McMahon will see that they're serious and push WWE to be a better product. Either way, the true wrestling fans win.

[Ben Jacobs]

Alright, here are my thoughts concerning tna last night...

before I really get into it, I have been a huge fan of TNA and when I heard hogan was coming, and he would be "running the show"... i got a really bad feeling. Watching impact last night proved why.

- like clint said, the x division match was horrible... the hardy return was poorly done, i thought the production of it sucked and he tripped over the guardrail and the "brawl" w/homicide seemed weak. his new hair and his "painting" and young underage girls rushing to him... STUPID!!!!! i dont care what anyone says, it was dumb as hell. you want hardy to come make an impact, when homicide was struggling to get to the top of the asylum... the lights should have gone out, hardy's old tna theme should have blared, lights come back on and jeff hardy is on the top of the asylum and knocks homicide back down to the ring. THAT would have been awesome.

- shannon moore is not going to be around, and honestly... i'll be surprised if hardy sticks around.

- hall & pac/kid... dumb. they had their time back in wcw, MOVE ON!

- hogan thing was HORRIBLY done... they keep showing his limo, then someone gets out of another limo and gets into his (suppose to be "easy e" i assume, since they never showed the limos arriving. they keep talking about the limos almost being to the arena, then hogan comes out to a horrible mock of the nwo theme music, and he says he has been backstage ALL DAY... WHAT!!!!?? so basically the limo footage with the police escort was just nothing... HORRIBLE!!!

- then hogan talks about how things are about the new guys, blah blah blah... cuts a huge face style promo... bishoff comes out and they rip up the "program format guide" for the show? that is just stupid.

- ya know what... I'm getting mad just thinking about all the BS that took place last night... time for a RANT...

- TNA has AMAZING talent w/guys like: Beer Money, MCMG, most of the X Division, desmond wolfe, angle, joe, styles, daniels, the knock outs, morgan, hernadiz(sp) and The Pope. TNA does NOT need ppl like nasty boys, val venis, x-pac, orlando jordan (one of the biggest jobbers since Virgil!), hall, flair, hardy, moore, (basically everyone that "showed up" last night).

flair did NOTHING! Sting did NOTHING! Hogan went from face to heel in less than an hour! jeff jarrett is the founder and all this crap w/hogan makes NO SENSE and is STUPID as hell!

the ONLY two good things that i saw last night... angle/styles (which is to be expected) and Velvet Sky... that is IT! if things continue to go down the path i think they will be... I'm done with tna until hogan is gone.

if anyone who never saw tna nor every heard of it, turned on the show last night would have thought WCW was back... PATHETIC!!!!

..... ok, I'm done. (can u tell i am really pissed over hogan in tna, lol)

[E.B. Marcus]

But I also believe that alot of the things that happened last night was just Hogan trying to let Vince know that he can come up with some surprises....mostly with Jeff Hardy. I think most of the true talent (not the old timers and no names) has yet to be revealed.

What I'd like to see Hogan actually do....get rid of Hall and Nasty Boys. Val Venis and X Pac I can handle. Orlando Jordan and Shannon Moore can't hurt the show if they do stick around. But what I'd like to see is Hogan bring in Kennedy first. Then later maybe RVD. Then steal a few guys that WWE don't know how to use....Carlito, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Christian, MVP, John Morrison. That would be what would make TNA blow up even more.

But on the topic of TNA gaining casual fans....I did hear 3 or 4 guys today say that they enjoyed the TNA show last night and that they'd be watching it now. These are guys that rarely watch wrestling, maybe enough to know who some of the big names are. So if gaining some casual fans were what they are after, I guess they did succeed.

[Doug Gavelon]

Here's my thoughts on that show...

first, the guys they brought in:

Jeff Hardy - nice to know you can still beat going to rehab by just going to TNA. He'll either be gone when his court case goes sour or when Vince comes calling again.

Ric Flair - I was mildly amused. I'll wait to pass judgment until he actually does something (from the looks of it, something involving AJ).

Shannon Moore - great high-flyer who I hope will stay this time instead of running off to job for more money on McECW.

Orlando Jordan - I'd like to see what he can do when he isn't relegated to being JBL's b*tch. Don't know why but I also liked the hair he was sporting. lol

Val Venis/Sean Morley/Steel (whatever) - a great wrestler who also never got a fair shake north of the border (the US-Mexican border). Will have to see what they have for him but hopefully it's good. So far so good with that poker game.

Nasty Boys - I was laughing during their segments; can't help it; it was funny. Since they destroyed 3-D's locker room, I doubt it'll be all comedy but we'll have to see.

Sting - Doesn't matter anymore that he came back. He's already come back to this company like 50 times the last 3 years anyway.

Hall and Waltman - When they came out, I turned to my dad and said "well the gangs all here." He nodded as we both got WCW flashbacks.

Bubba the Love Sponge - moron. 'nuff said.

Now, they did put over the key, young talent strong in ODB, Tara (to a degree), Kong, Hamada, AJ, Angle (not young but still a key talent), Pope (even at the expense of Desmond), Morgan and Hernandez.

The key to whether this is great, new promotion or another WCW rehash will be in 6 months. If in 6 months we have champions like Hall, Hardy, Waltman and Nash, then they're done. If in that time we still have champions like AJ, Angle, Pope and Eric Young then they'll be fine...for now.

[Davey "The Savior" Boone]

I watched WCW ALL the time back during the Monday Night Wars. The WWE just didn't cut it for me and the nWo storyline was the hottest thing going at that time..plus...GOLD-BERG!

They did screw up the limo thing with Hogan and him saying he's been in the back all day long. They screwed up on the Hogan/Jarrett segment as both guys were trying to get over as baby-faces but both ended up coming off as heels?? Yes, that lost me too writing it! lol

Focus on the talent you have in TNA right now...Angle vs. Styles is probably one of the greatest matches I've ever watched in 10 years. In WCW they did a storyline where they had new guys calling themselves the "New Breed" against the older guys who were the faces. In TNA, you need to do the opposite. Mick Foley the leader of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, and Christopher Daniels along with Beer Money Inc up against the "Clique" of Hogan, X-Pac, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Scott Stiener.

Also....PUSH the X-Division. That's where WCW got all of their success...their cruiserweights were INCREDIBLE! Jeff Hardy is great to push them...and hopefully X-Pac can help them do the same.

I wouldn't be surprised if TNA brings in Buff Bagwell to help them along too. I've been hearing they are signing RVD and Tommy Dreamer...have Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer again? That'd be HARDCORE! I'm really excited about TNA and WWE flatly sucks.

[Alexander Rose]

Well, whether you like it or not, TNA got what they wanted- this is by far our most active OOC topic for the past week or so. So, TNA got people talking- and that's what they wanted.

[AJ Supreme]

Jan 10, 2010 17:34:13 GMT -6 Alexander Rose said:

Well, whether you like it or not, TNA got what they wanted- this is by far our most active OOC topic for the past week or so. So, TNA got people talking- and that's what they wanted.

Agreed!