The Impact Crater 10.11.07

Posted by Ryan Byers on 10.12.2007

Sting vs. Angle continues to be booked by a lobotomized pig, but everything else on this show was quite good!

Welcome back to the Impact Crater, as we're here with week number two of the two hour Impact. For those of you wondering how the first two hour show did, the final rating was a 1.1. Some people think this number is great, and some people are laughing as though it's hilariously disastrous. If you'd like to know my feelings, you need to look no further than my Sunday news report, in which I break down exactly what the rating means.

With that cheap plug out of the way, let's move on to TNA's most recent effort to entertain us.



Quick & Dirty Results

Segment #1: Jay Lethal def. Johnny Devine
Segment #2: Sting/Karen Angle/Kurt Angle Interview Segment
Segment #3: Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man def. Low Ki & Elix Skipper
Segment #4: Steiner Brothers/Dudley Boys Interviews
Segment #5: The Amazing Kong def. Gail Kim
Segment #6: Christian/Samoa Joe Interview Segment
Segment #7: Bobby Roode def. Petey Williams
Segment #8: Raven & Chocolate Reign def. Rhino & Abyss in a no DQ match
Segment #9: Kurt Angle & The Dudley Boys def. The Puerto-moan Connection of Rikishi & LAX

The Full Show

Angle Numero Uno: One Sting, Two Sting, Old Sting, New Sting

This entire episode of Impact was built around what Sting would do as a result of Kurt Angle attacking the Stinger's son last week. As has been par for the course in this storyline, I walked away unimpressed.

First of all, there continues to be some major logical inconsistencies in this angle. Kurt Angle talked a good deal on this show about wanting to face the "old Sting" at Bound for Glory. He said it was because he didn't want there to be any excuses when he beat the former WCW star. He said that he wanted Sting to be at his best for the PPV. In most circumstances, that would be great. However, we're still dealing with the fact that, just two weeks ago when he was first informed about the "old Sting" by Kevin Nash, Angle took actions to make sure that the darker persona of his opponent would go away. He sent his wife out to apologize to Sting, hoping that this would get Mr. Borden to revert back to his more docile, Christian state. Yet, with no explanation ever provided by TNA, Angle now wants the old Sting to come out and play. I had one reader write in to me and claim that the change in attitude by Angle was due to the fact that Sting had his wife arrested on a recent edition of Impact. Well, it's certainly great that said reader made up that rationale for TNA, but it's not something that the company has gotten across clearly, assuming that they've mentioned it at all. I understand that this is a professional wrestling angle, and, as a result, I'm not asking for perfection. I'm not asking for Salinger-level writing. All I ask is that, once the promotion picks a direction, they stick with it instead of haphazardly changing gears.

This episode also saw the return of the Angle family bickering that I'm sure we all missed. Kurt's wife Karen was yelling at him much like she did leading up to a recent match with Samoa Joe, this time because she thought that her husband went too far in going after Sting's kid. Please stop this, TNA. Just stop it. For once, can you have a team or a stable or a group of individuals who ACTUALLY GETS ALONG?! Seriously, the "feuding allies" bit has become so cliche that I was going to compare it to beating a dead horse, but the dead horse protested, saying that he didn't want to be associated with something so hackneyed. The worst part is that everybody sees exactly where this is heading, which is straight to Karen helping out Kurt at the pay per view, with Don West being the only person in attendance stupid enough to believe that there was ever actually tension between the Angles. Hell, even Sting alluded to the fact that he didn't trust Karen, and this guy has been suckered in to so many heel beatdowns that after a while bad guys stopped being creative and just started saying, "Hey, look over there!" before punching him in the face. It also came out during this spat that apparently Kurt had been putting Karen up to claiming that she was slapped all along, which makes even less sense than Kurt believing that she was slapped despite there being clear video evidence to the contrary. Apparently this was a plan concocted by Kurt so that he could cost himself the Tag Team Titles and goad Sting in to a match at Bound for Glory. If those were the goals, why the hell would he even need the phantom slap in the first place? Why wouldn't he just beat Sting up as soon as the bell rang in the Tag Title match? For that matter, why would he even show up for the Tag Title match? Why wouldn't he just refuse to wrestle, have the titles vacated, and challenge Sting to a PPV match? This company confounds me sometimes. Okay, most of the time.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the whole thing was the payoff. Again, we've been told for weeks just how dangerous the "old Sting" is. We've been told that he's sadistic, that he destroys people. We're also told that he's as mad as he's ever been thanks to what happened to his son, and we're told that he's seeking revenge tonight. So what is his grand revenge on Kurt Angle? First of all, he tricks him in to attacking a dummy. DEVIOUS! (It should also be noted that Don West was the only person to not realize that this was a dummy.) Then, at the end of the show, Sting sneaks up on Angle wearing a clever disguise, and what does he do? HE PUTS HIM IN A PRO WRESTLING HOLD! Yes, that animal, that monster, that sadistic Sting uses the Scorpion Deathlock! I'm sure that being in the Deahtlock isn't the most comfortable position in the world, but the way that "Sting's revenge" was hyped up, I'm sure that most folks were expecting Angle to be seriously hurt by the end of the night. Instead, he was put in to a hold that he'll probably reverse no fewer than three times in their PPV match on Sunday.

There were a couple of minor positives to come out of the angle this evening, and I may as well hit those. First of all, we did have Angle tapping to the Deathlock to end the show, which is a good, old school way to send the message to fans that your number one contender is capable of winning the title at the PPV. Again, it wasn't the greatest idea when a huge revenge story was hyped up, but otherwise it would have been fine. Also, Kevin Nash continues to be the best damn actor on Impact. He's been phenomenal when it comes to establishing how vicious the "old Sting" can be, even though the promotion ultimately winds up undoing all of his good work. Also, I quite enjoyed the skit this evening in which Sting and Nash interacted, as it provided some subtle foreshadowing of what will most likely be Big Daddy Cool's in-ring return. Granted, the matches held during that return probably won't be worth a damn, but they're laying the foundation for a good story.

Oh, and one more thing: If Kurt Angle really was wearing Sting's son's football jersey, that is one jacked high school student.

Angle Numero Dos: Samoan Superfly?

Elsewhere on the show, Christian interviewed his PPV opponent Samoa Joe in the latest knockoff of Piper's Pit. I had no problem with this segment. The mic work from both men was solid, and they did a good job of establishing the fact that Joe has never managed to beat Christian in two previous encounters, which should help the crowd reaction when the Samoan finally manages to get the victory at the PPV. I was a little bit annoyed that the entire thing culminated in Joe being laid out yet again by Christian, because Joe has been absolutely pummeled by Kurt Angle in recent feuds and could still use some help looking like the badass that fans used to know him as. However, I wasn't as bothered by this as I have been in the past, simply because I've come to the realization that TNA just doesn't want Joe to be that guy anymore. I find that to be a stupid move since it's the role in which he is the most effective, but after a certain point you have to stop analyzing the guy in terms of how you want him to be booked and instead look at how the company is doing in terms of booking him in the role they want him to hold. With that being the standard, this segment was fine.

It was also nice to see Matt Morgan get involved a little bit. It wasn't so much that the segment turned in to a cluster, but it was just enough to get over the fact that, if he needs to be involved in the PPV match, he will be able to make an impact. The same was true of his involvement in the main event on this show.

Angle Numero Tres: Sad to See 'Em Go

I've said it every week for months, and I'm going to say it for perhaps the last time. The Steiner Brothers and the Dudley Boys are having the TNA feud of the year. The promos that the two teams cut on each other tonight were great, and they teased a physical confrontation but did not deliver on it. This means that, if the fans want to see the Steiners get their big revenge for being put out of action, they have to . . . wait for it . . . buy the pay per view! This entire rivalry has been put together in a very simple, old school manner. It's the kind of thing that several people dismiss as being outdated, despite the fact that financial records of both WWE and UFC will prove that it's still effective. It's also great that, for once, there is a reason behind a gimmick match being used in TNA as opposed to a gimmick being thrown out there for the hell of it. The Dudleys and the Steiners are going to be wrestling in a tables match because, believe it or not, the Dudleys injured the Steiners using tables! Compare this to the Monster's Ball on the pay per view, which is a Monster's Ball match because it's the first stipulation that Abyss could think of, and you'll see the difference in booking philosophies. The Steiner/Dudley rivalry is proof positive that at least one person in this company has a clue, and I don't understand why this one person isn't allowed to have more influence over the product. Whoever he or she is, I'd pay good money to see him/her book the company's PPV main events for all of 2008.

As an aside, is it just me, or did D-Von Dudley's head look particularly scarred up tonight? I can't recall him doing too many horrendous bladejobs during his career, but he looked like the black Dusty Rhodes during Bubba's promo.

And the Rest . . .

~ Hey, Jay Lethal finally hit an elbow drop that didn't look more like a Superfly Splash! Way to go, Jay!

~ This is a small point, but it's something that's always bugged me in wrestling. The match between Jay Lethal and Johnny Devine tonight was announced as being non-title, even though Lethal won clean. Why? If you've got a champion and he's winning in the end anyway, why not bill it as a title match? It helps get babyface titleholders over as fighting champions.

~ Maybe it's just me, but Pac-Man Jones "making it rain" in a TNA ring was a bit disturbing. Yeah, let's make light of a situation that lead to an individual being shot and permanently paralyzed. Great idea.

~ Normally I don't laugh at TNA's comedy. However, the outfit that they put Don West in for his interview with Sonjay Dutt was the funniest thing in the history of the show. I will be eternally grateful to the first person to send me screen captures of this fine event.

~ Angel Williams needs to lose her bizarre, off center lip stud. It looks like a cold sore.

~ It was good to see Jay Lethal beating Johnny Devine, Amazing Kong beating Gail Kim, and Bobby Roode beating Petey Williams in short matches with clean finishes. One of the things that has annoyed me about TNA in the past is that fans would be TOLD which wrestlers were top-level talent, though there was never any evidence given to back up those claims. Now it appears that TNA is looking to establish a clear pecking order in which some men are in fact portrayed as being better wrestlers than others. I give this sort of booking a thumbs up.

~ After the no DQ tag match on tonight's show, why would I want to see the Monster's Ball match on PPV? They basically gave it away for free.

Overall

I know that I was very hard on the Sting/Angle segments in the first half of the column, but, despite the problems there, I do think that this was one of the best episodes of Impact that has aired in 2007. As I've been requesting for quite some time, major happenings on the show were reserved for the top two matches on the pay per view, with all of the other PPV matches being announced but receiving less attention. This is a far better approach than TNA's old method of treating everything as equally important, because, when all of your matches are hyped up like they're something special, nothing actually stands out as being special. From this episode of Impact, its' clear that Christian/Joe and Sting/Angle are the matches to see on Bound for Glory, with everything else being a nice bonus. Also, it's good to see the company taking time to actually build up wrestlers, both in terms of establishing their characters and in terms of making them in to credible in-ring threats. Contrary to popular belief, they could have done this on their one hour show, but some folks didn't think it was possible without the two hour format. Now that they do have the two hour format, they're actually doing a fairly good job of it. There were tons of shorter backstage interview segments tonight with a variety of members of the roster, which provided viewers at home with an opportunity to figure out what makes these guys tick. Understanding the characters is the first thing that allows fans to care about storylines, so we're certainly developing a solid base here. Also, as was alluded to earlier, we got a lot of decisive finishes which established certain wrestlers on the roster as being better competitors than other wrestlers on the roster. In the past, TNA was seemingly afraid to put wrestlers over other wrestlers, because they had a mistaken notion that everybody needed to be kept strong. Yet, as is the case with matches, when all of your wrestlers are treated like they're special, none of them wind up being special. Though it was not without its flaws, this edition of Impact still receives a strong thumbs up from yours truly.

Reader Feedback

In my time writing for 411, I've learned that there's no better way to get a lot of e-mail about something you've written than to make a mistake in it. I got several e-mails on the following topic, and we'll give Travis H. the privilege of pointing it out here in this column:

When I was watching it Angle said that sting did send the cops out but since he wasn't doing anything illegal he just signed autographs and sent them away.

Of course, what Travis is referring to is the angle in which Kurt Angle stalked Sting's son at a high school football game. I did in fact miss the fact that Sting called the police, so thanks to Travis for the correction. Of course, there were still much larger problems with the whole angle, as were detailed elsewhere in last week's column. In fact, it's problematic that Sting called the police and that Angle got them to leave so easily because it means that either:

1.) Sting did a very bad job of explaining the threat that Angle posed to his son, which makes Sting look like an idiot.
2.) Nobody involved in the police force is aware that Sting and Angle are bitter rivals, meaning that in TNA storylines nobody watches TNA programming. (An odd message for a company to send indeed.)
3.) TNA is portraying cops as being woefully inept.

All of those possibilities are a little bit troubling, although they are better than not addressing the police issue at all. So, if we're ranking the angle's stupidity on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being Albert Einstein and 10 being Jessica Simpson after a lobotomy, it moves down from roughly a 9 to a 7.5.

Now let's move on to Ben R., who wants to address the same issue but decided to do it in a much more terse manner:

You again post a column complaining about what TNA should do and yet they actually DID what you asked. Sting did call the police on Angle, it was mentioned, Angle explained why he wasn't arrested and again you failed to catch it. Your anti-TNA column is amusing because it's rare that I read it, but anytime I do you always have at least ONE dunderheaded mistake like this.

It's a shame because you do occasionally have some decent points, but they are so few and far between mixed with criticisms of things that should have happened (And usually did during the exact same broadcast) that your whole act is exposed for exactly what it is.

I know I've emailed you at least 6 times about something similar to this. Where you've complained about something and it actually be on the show you were supposedly "reviewing". Your such a terrible writer and a horrible person to do a recap because you consistently MISS what's going on. Hell I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you just read Larry's report and then try to write one of your own off of what he wrote, because you can't ever see the forest for the trees. Of course you always blame it on TNA, but your the only person who misses these things. Ya fucking dope.

Keep up the shoddy work.

Now this is what I call a fine piece of e-mail.

First of all, let me address the claim that I'm the "only person who misses this sort of thing." The fact of the matter is that, despite what Ben may think, I am an individual who watches Impact specifically for the purpose of writing a review of it. I'm sitting in front of the television with a pen and a pad of paper, taking notes and making sure that I don't even leave during commercial breaks for fear that I might not make it back in time and miss something that would be worth commenting on. I haven't done any sort of market research, but I'm willing to bet that there are very few people who watch Impact in this manner. In fact, I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount of money on the proposition that the majority of Impact viewers are in fact doing things other than watching television when they have Impact on, whether it's screwing around on the internet, eating, doing household chores, or any number of other things. Several others are recording it on their DVR's and only watching bits and pieces of the show. That's true of virtually every program on television these days, not just TNA. If I'm missing details like this, you can rest assured that other individuals who are not paying nearly as much attention are also missing them, and any program needs to make sure that their content is crystal clear so that the audience is aware of what's going on.

Also, it's interesting to note that, in his e-mail Ben is willing to take me to task for one small error but is not willing to address the numerous other arguments that I made in last week's column. If somebody read Ben's e-mail without reading what I had written, it would appear that my entire reason for being critical of last week's Impact was the issue of Sting calling or not calling the police. However, that was a relatively minor point in my overall critique of the show, and Ben does nothing to address what I thought were much larger deficiencies in the program's booking. If anything, that makes his e-mail look far more like an "act" than anything that I have written for this website.

With more criticism of my criticism, let's go to a man who only identified himself as Calgary Harts:

If everyone slates TNA, the sh*t will stick and the company will fold ! Is that what you want ? No credible alternative to WWE again ?? I sure as hell don't but it seems that everyone who writes for 411 has an axe to grind regarding TNA ! Could we do better jobs ourselves at running a wrestling company ? I doubt it !?

The fact of the matter is that I don't want an alternative just for the sake of having an alternative. What I want is an alternative that produces a good professional wrestling product. More often than not, TNA does not do that. Until such a time that they do, I wouldn't care whether they remained in business if not for the fact that they provide so many wrestlers with better paydays than they could get elsewhere.

And, no, I don't have an axe to grind with TNA. I give them credit when they do something good, and I knock when they do something bad. If you want an example of that, you need to go back no further than last week's column, in which I said that the second hour of the show was awesome pro wrestling programming.

Now let's throw it over to Jeremy T.. Jeremy covers several topics, so I'm going to break this one up. His thoughts are in italics, while my response is in normal typeface:

You said it yourself that TNA could have used the content that was in Raven, Jim Mitchell, and Black Regin joining forces for a whole month of Impact. But then later on you said the reason why this is happening is because Judas Mesias was injured. If you already know that then why act like this is all coming out of nowhere.

It wasn't necessary for the entire group to be formed in order to get somebody to face Abyss in Mesias' stead on the PPV. It would have been just as effective to have Mitchell announce the formation of his stable on last week's show and then bring out its first member, who is then announced as wrestling Abyss at Bound for Glory. There was no reason for the entire group to come out at one time, there was no reason for the announcers to explain why the stable was being formed as opposed to Mitchell doing it himself, and there was DEFINITELY no reason for the announcers to talk about the stable's formation before the angle actually happened.

Plus it shouldn't count for nothing that they said Black Reign was "influenced by Mitchell", however you may ask yourself why Raven was part of the attack. Kayfabe wise the character has always been the one influencing others not the other way around. Well that was explained later with the classic Raven promo. He attacked for different reasons as Borash said, "throwing his hat back into the mix."

Yes, Raven did say that he wanted to get "back in to the mix." However, that doesn't explain why he would try to get "back in to the mix" by aligning himself with Mitchell or why he would try to get "back in to the mix" by attacking Abyss. If he actually wanted to get "back in to the mix", wouldn't he go after somebody even higher up the card than Abyss? Why wouldn't he go after Sting? Why wouldn't he go after Kurt Angle? Granted, I don't think that those things actually should happen, but getting "back in to the mix" is accomplished much more efficiently by going after a main eventer than it is by going after a midcard guy.

Abyss then said that if Raven wanted to fight then they would fight in Monster's Ball match and then said, "go ahead and bring Black Reign. Witch means it will be a Monster's Ball match featuring Raven, Abyss, Rhino, and Black Reign. The line "go ahead and bring insert name here" has been used for decades in pro wrestling, movies, cartoons, and video games as a way for someone to be a badass. So if you didn't know what Abyss meant by that I don't know what to tell you.

Actually, I made it pretty clear that I realized the match would involve Abyss, Rhino, Raven, and Rhodes. What I don't know is HOW they will be involved. Is it a tag team match? Is it a four corners match? Is it a triple threat match with Rhodes in Raven's corner? That's what TNA failed to make clear.

I also thought that the gauntlet match was super fun and that the main event was a great match. I really like the interactions between Christian and Homicide. I also enjoyed Joe's domination at the end, it was nice to see. Everybody in the match performed well and they kept Rikishi to what he does well, rub his butt on people's faces.

I agree with all of this.

Oh and if you have a problem with the Sting/Kurt Angle bits because Sting didn't call the police. Have the same problem with Eddie Guerrero and Dominic taking a walk while Rey Mysterio watched, HHH bashing in William Regal's head while Chris Benoit and Eugene watched at RAW, and the infamous Steve Austin invades Brian Pillman's house.

Trust me, if I were writing a review of those shows when they aired, I probably would have had the same problem.

(And, memo to Ben, here's at least one other guy who didn't pick up the fact that the police were mentioned.)

I really enjoyed the soap opera that Sting and Kurt Angle brought to this show, yes the restraining order bit sucked but it makes since that Kurt would go from being frightened to angry because when Kurt sent his wife to apologize Sting had here carted off which would usually make someone angry and also as Kurt said when he was adressing Sting, "You tried to have me arrested" that would also provocate someone. I thught the stuff that they did with Sting and Angle tonight was entertaining TV that was performed well and each segment didn't go to long like it would have if WWE ran the same angle. Puls it was a welcome change after watching the straight forward usually successful booking of ECW turn into a complete snoozefest this week.

Okay, so you've invented a reason for Kurt's change of attitude. However, TNA NEVER once bothered to address why Angle was first cowering from the "old Sting" and was then all of a sudden trying to draw the "old Sting" out of the current version. The rationale doesn't count if it's only in your head. It needs to be explained by the promotion to Impact's viewers. Otherwise, the angle makes little to no sense.

It was cool to see a good women's match that didn't have eight botched worked punches, and Rhino basically carried Black Reign to a non botchfest, Rhino is the shit like that. Good edition to the show with Raven's return to prominence, The Guantlet, and Christian Cage, XXX, and AJ Styles versus Samoa Joe, LAX, and Bootykishi being the highlights of the night.

You're definitely right in that the in-ring action on the show was all at least decent and at most very good. I've never disputed that. However, I just felt that the booking left a good deal to be desired.

Jesus, I've really been taking a beating in this edition of the Reader Feedback section. Do we have anybody who actually agreed with me on something?

Fortunately we do, and his name is Al. He starts off by quoting something that I wrote in last week's column:

"The ad featuring the Sting/Angle match says something to the effect of "A champion returns to the city in which he won gold, and a superstar returns to the place that made him in to an icon," referring to the ties that Sting and Angle have with Atlanta. If they just had the two guys cut promos on each other based around that basic theme and did one or two physical confrontations, I guarantee that they would sell just as many – if not more – pay per views than they're doing with this convoluted, family-focused angle."

That's what I'm talking about! And that's only one paragraph .... but that's the main event storyline! Damn, I get more pissed off watching this show then any other show, but wrestling's supposed to be my favorite show. Why do they keep fucking over Lethal? He's a champ or something right? Such wasted talent everywhere and so many dudes in my face who I don't like. It's good to see a familiar take on things. Keep it up.

Thanks for restoring my confidence in my readers, Al.

Elsewhere, Brian T. has a bone to pick with the Raven/Mitchell alliance that I didn't bother to cover last week:

I enjoy your columns at 411mania. But you know the most glaring omission to all the ragging, which leaves this angle making less sense? You know, the whole fact that Raven had a huge blood-feud with James Mitchell (clearly outlined on the TNA provided Nevermore: The Best of Raven DVD they've issued). And that the whole feud also had the essential scalping of Raven at the hands of James Mitchell and his former stable of ne'er-do-wells. Which begs the question: Why would a self-proclaimed mastermind/genius who has managed/lead more than his fair share of wrestler/stables (Adam Bomb, The Quebecers, Raven's Nest. The Flock, The Gathering, Seratonin) via brutal leadership... why would be play second-banana to James Mitchell, a man he's physically beaten the tar out of? I don't think I'm looking at Raven through rose-tinted glasses or anything... but c'mon. That's a record of human domination/manipulation spreading almost two decades! And even if they do have a Mitchell/Raven power struggle for control of DOD2K, it's just a re-hash of something they've marketed before.

That is a very fair point, and hopefully they get Raven back behind the microphone to offer up some kind of rationale. Even if it winds up being horribly convoluted, the effort would be appreciated. I personally didn't address because, with certain angles in TNA, my column would be roughly fifteen pages long if I pointed out every inconsistency that I could think of. Generally I just try to hit the high points and move on.

And, since he's been around for so long, let's allow John R. to wrap up the feedback on the first two hour edition of Impact:

I waited and waited (and waited) to finally see what TNA could do with a two hour time slot, the cure to all of their booking ills. Some things were good (the main event, women's matchup, fight for your right gauntlet match) some were bad (Team 3D/Team Pacman, Mitchell's new stable) and other were downright atrocious (the "catfight" between the blondes, Sting/Angle). This episode of Impact was the ultimate rollercoaster ride, and in that regards I will have to give it a thumbs up for one simple reason: The main event.

Critics of TNA (including yours truly) always stated that their biggest problem was being unable to establish new stars. Well they did do a great job in that regard. It's obvious going into BFG that the big matchup is Joe-Christian, and it made me happy to see that they dedicated the main event to that angle. It's simple, effective, and no overbooking needed (it didn't hurt that there was great wrestling along the way). What made it stand out to me was that the competitors (XXX, LAX, AJ Styles and Joe) finally get the chance to show off what they can do in the main event setting. Watching these guys get that slot means a lot in helping the crowd at home to understand these were the stars of the present and future in TNA. Also, kudos for having Eric Young win the gauntlet match which could lead to a funny feud with James Storm, another TNA homegrown product. I do think TNA will definitely need a secondary title for all of those midcard wrestlers, but that's another rant for another day. The women's match was good, and to me that overshadowed all of the other mess that occurred. Although many people were concerned as to why they'd lead off their 2-hour episode with Rhino-Black Rat, my major concern was the main event. Glad to see that TNA let their young stars get the spotlight.

There are still a lot of question marks after this first episode, but at least it's fresh to see a wrestling promotion that at the very least is willing to attempt establish depth instead of putting all their eggs in one basket.

And, fortunately for TNA, the main event was one of the higher rated segments on the show. My fear was that, after such a terrible first hour of programming, that viewers would tune out and not catch the main event, which was awesome for all of the reasons that John listed above. However, with the quarter-hours recently released, it looks like there was a dropoff for some segments of hour number one but that things picked up again for the second hour. If TNA can consistently deliver that quality of main event at the end of their new two hour show, I don't see why they couldn't have audience growth through the program, which is ideally what you want to see in a show structured like this.

With that, we wrap up another week of the Crater. Be sure to keep that feedback coming, and check me out on Sunday, when I'll be back on 411 with the Custom Made News Report.