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I started watching TNA again when they started this Live Impact set, and it really has been a great few weeks. What I particularly liked was the lessons they are learning from old Monday Night War tactics. Stuff like the way they keep you filled in if you're new, the pacing and placing of particular segments, and best of all - the art of the mini-payoff. Sell that you are going to do something HUGEOMG!!, don't deliver it but deliver something else anyway and keep your HUGEOMG!!! bit for later on down the line. They've got it down spot on with the AJ fucking Dixie story, and if you're new to Impact this week (as I still am), you'll see why. It's stuff like that across the show, and some decent matches in with the good tales too.

 

Sorry for a bit of a derail, but it just made me think currently how far WWE are from even having a story with a massive payoff, let alone attempting to keep one hot week after week.

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I dont think they are learning new lessons. Its more to do with the fact they have the old WWE team in charge now of the overall set up now. When Russo was in charge, he only thought about the TV. He didn't think next week or last week. Bruce Prichard on the other hand worked for Bill Watts, he worked for the WWF in the mid 80s, WWF in the late 90s and the WWE during the up and down spell over the last 10 years. They don't come more experienced than him. He's worked for and with all the big names over the last 30 years. Then you have Lagana who worked for the WWE for years and then went to ROH and got a flavour of that side of the business and wrote on sitcoms like Friends and stuff. And you have Bischoff who is the man coming up with all these ideas and has a creative team who can bring his ideas to live. The team they have right now are all on the same page and have all the same vision.

 

Which you couldn't say about TNA at anytime in the last 10 years. You seemed to always have a power struggle. Bischoff was always an ideas man. Never a booker. With a good team alongside him, he was great in WCW.

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At the end of last weeks Impact, you had these things to tune in for next week:

 

AJ & Dixie's secret to be revealed

Austin Aries to make his decision on giving up his X Division belt for a shot at the Heavyweight belt

Open Fight Night

Bound For Glory series

Return of Gut Check

More on story of the three masked men who attacked Sting

The ongoing Abyss/Bully Ray/Joseph Parks saga

 

After this week's Raw what have you got to tune in to see next week? Fuck all, that's what.

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Thing is, as much as melina_mma put it across in a bit of a mouth-breathing way, he's right.

 

 

I'm glad Big Show vs Cena seemed to be done and dusted. I can't fathom who Cena is facing next month though, there's just nobody that can be plugged in against him. Daniel Bryan?

 

I'd guess at Chris Jericho as they haven't feuded this time around and he's back next week so...Hell maybe we'll see Jerishow reuniting.

 

As for the show last night, I was in two minds whether to stay up and watch or not. I decided not to and boy am I glad that I did. I watched it on Youtube this morning and overall it was pretty much garbage. Foley's involvement was pointless, We've seen the tag match countless times, Keeping Dolph and Vickie together is an awful move and Del Rio is just ugh. The only thing I really enjoyed was the Heyman and Triple H segment. Lesnar can't come back quick enough. The Cyndi Lauper segment was one of the worst i've seen on Raw in a long time. Think I might start watching Impact Wrestling this week.

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Foleys got the look of a dog you know is going to die soon. He was wasted in the gm role, whether this is because they feel he can't do it,(which they are probably right). He announced he was gm and then was never seen again.

 

Cyndi Lauper, Wendi Richter and your surpise RAw star of the past Roddy Piper rehashing a near 30 year old angle. For me just showed how little effort they put into this we were lucky to get Vader because he had done the PWS show so he was on their radar. Cyndi Lauper had an album out so they had the opportunity to get her and Pipers only a call away. So lazy. Lawler asked "Do you know how many episodes of Raw Roddys been on?" I don't think its that many his Raw career is made up of surprise appearances. Still RAW icons Snuka, Hillbilly Jim, Hacksaw, and Dusty Rhodes to come.

 

Enjoyed the tag match I like the way the Go2sleep only stuns Bryan and he stays on his feet to take the Brogue kick. AJ's skipping makes me cringe.

 

The US tiltle is officailly worthless if Santino stopped bringing it to the ring would anyone notice or care? The lineage should read Ryder-Swagger-Santino-Dustbin.

 

What the fuck can they do with Swagger now? Tune in next week to find out.

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Pretty much everything that needs to be said about Raw last night has already been said but I just thought i'd throw in a few thoughts of my own.

 

The Bryan/Kane Vs Punk/Sheamus match was good but again seemed to only exist to further wherever they're going with AJ.Still tho,the GTS and Brogue kick combo was good.

 

Heyman and Triple H's bit was the highlight of the show,which isn't saying much I know.Heyman is brilliant at what he does.

 

It's a pity that Ziggler is still being saddled with Vickie who really doesn't seem to have any purpose anymore.At least they appear to be getting behind a Ziggler singles push.

 

The whole Lauper segment was indeed a strange one.They gave it a pretty good video package to remind anybody who had forgotten about Lauper's involvement with the product back in the day reason to care about why she was there.But the minute it started they had Cole shit all over it.Perhaps Vince had forgotten about how fat Wendi Richter actually was and decided to just declare the segment dead on arrival.Who knows.Piper was a right yawn.Saying that Heath Slater was beyond brilliant.He needs to be on Raw every week.

 

No Zack Ryder?Not even in Long Island? Strange decision there.

 

I thought John Laurinaitis had his best performance in ages on both the mic and in the ring as far as delivery and facials went.Hopefully Big Johnny will be back at some stage in the year.

 

The return of former GM's means that we'll surely get the return of Mike Adamle.Well if there's any justice in the world we'll get more "Adamle Originals"

 

Still no Alex Riley.

 

Also Eve hasn't been on Raw in ages,anybody know why?

 

Not really a great episode of Raw.I've suffered through far worse so it won't put me off completely but it just seems as if the whole product is moving without any direction or even hint of a direction.Mabye things will get better with Raw 1000.

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At the end of last weeks Impact, you had these things to tune in for next week:

 

AJ & Dixie's secret to be revealed

Austin Aries to make his decision on giving up his X Division belt for a shot at the Heavyweight belt

Open Fight Night

Bound For Glory series

Return of Gut Check

More on story of the three masked men who attacked Sting

The ongoing Abyss/Bully Ray/Joseph Parks saga

 

After this week's Raw what have you got to tune in to see next week? Fuck all, that's what.

 

That's a crackingly concise summary. I'm one of those casual WWE fans, a casual wrestling fan generally, and I usually need a reason to tune in otherwise I just don't watch. I haven't watched WWE since Wrestlemania - there's just nothing interesting sounding going on, and on the odd occasion something good happens, it's usually a 5 minute bit in the whole episode, that I can watch on youtube.

 

On the other hand there's always 3 or 4 things I want to see on the next episode of Impact. A note of caution though - this isn't the first time Impact has had a purple patch, they were producing really interesting tv just after Hogan arrived, for example. The thing that strikes me as different now is that I sort of understand where they're going over the next 6 months; they clearly have long-term plans and are patiently building whilst still being able to respond to unexpected things like Aries being utterly brilliant and over.

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Michael Cole was spot on:

 

This has been an absolutely horrible segment, perhaps one of the worst in the 1000 episodes of Monday Night Raw.

 

That right there sums up one of WWE's massive problems. They're more concerned with on-screen politics, burials and taking the piss making each other laugh than they are putting on a quality product. Why would a company want to purposely put on a terrible segment solely for the reason of having Michael Cole be able to point it out?

 

Shocking.

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Michael Cole was spot on:

 

This has been an absolutely horrible segment, perhaps one of the worst in the 1000 episodes of Monday Night Raw.

 

That right there sums up one of WWE's massive problems. They're more concerned with on-screen politics, burials and taking the piss making each other laugh than they are putting on a quality product. Why would a company want to purposely put on a terrible segment solely for the reason of having Michael Cole be able to point it out?

 

Shocking.

 

Bingo. It just makes them come across as absolute assholes. It's shocking some of the stuff that apparently goes on backstage if rumours are true like what a lot of former writers come out with on a regular basis. But now you see stuff like them mocking JR and then plug the BA Star crap which is tied into their wholesome image they try to put forth. It was entertaining on NXT S3 because no one gave a crap about it, and the stuff was actually genuinely funny but more importantly there was a very small minority who watched it.

 

It's one thing to try and get the announcers to break from the robotic tone that reeks of someone shouting down their headsets and actually sound excited or with feeling; but to make references to stuff that most of your audience won't understand is the stuff of WCW 2000.

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Lack of hook to tune in next week is a big loss. Hate to sound like a bandwagon jumper, but Tna has it spot on. Every story has you wanting next step, comedy wrestlers kept away from main events, every name wrestler wants to be Tna champion and likely could. Heels get to win against the biggest stars. People look cool on it, characters seem real, if you get over yourself you get pushed. Wwe has lost its way. Given its success with mainstream stars through the years, to have two wrestlers re appear who have cracked mainstream and had such little impact with them is criminal in its wastage. No one has gotten over from rock or Lesnars appearances, nor does it feel likely they will.

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