WWE could have gone 3 hours if they wanted. One phone call to the USA network saying they are going to go on from 8-11 would have been easy. WWE didn’t do that, which was a gift to TNA.
TNA wasted the first hour that was uncontested by the WWE.
Holding Hogan’s big entrance into the sound stage, I mean the Impact Zone, until the start of the second hour when RAW goes on the air was dumb in my opinion. How much could Hogan really say?
We have seen him over the last 10 years between the reality shows, Pro Wrestling, etc etc.
We haven’t hardly seen Bret Hart at all in the last decade except for his DVD and the HOF. But Hogan felt he was a big enough deal to draw people over to him and not watch Bret Hart make his entrance.
In the first hour we got Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair, Hall and Waltman, all of these “surprises” showing up. I think it looked so Micky Mouse. It looked so cheap.
Scott Hall drunk slurs his words for 5 seconds with Waltman while the Security guards are 5 feet from them, and then got turned away.
Flair comes out of the limo and walks into a door that was filmed poorly because we were suppose to see that it was A.J.’s dressing room but we didn’t clearly see that on the door as they faded to commercial.
Have the show start and show the huge Hogan circus coming down the road, then cut to Hall and Waltman coming through Universal or somewhere near the Impact Zone. Show everyone that they are walking through the parking lot and are a few minutes away. Then show another limo pull up. Oh my, who is this that has beat Hogan to the arena in a limo? Flair walks out and goes inside. Then go to the X-division match and you get Jeff Hardy making his surprise.
It would have been more believable having all of these surprise faces heading towards the arena rather than randomly showing these weak staged segments such as Hall and Waltmand outside the door….
“Yeah man the band is back together.”
*Take 3 steps towards the door*
“Hey guys you can’t come in.”
We see the delay/censor button get hit and got to cutaway shot when Tara’s ass crack begins to slip out when she gets pinned. We hardly saw anything there and got censored, but yet I am suppose to believe that I am going to see the 3 girls at the poker table do something interesting with the guy we can’t call Val Venis?
So TNA disappointed me in the first hour. I feel like they wasted time to get to the point to where they were directly up against RAW.
On RAW, I was expecting to see some nerves out of Bret Hart. He went out there and sounded great. Everyone wanted to see HBK and Bret in the same ring. WWE gave it right to them. We got it and then we got the reason to stick around as we knew that they drama and confrontation of McMahon and Bret was still to come. How the WWE advances McMahon kicking Bret should be fun to see.
Over on TNA, I find out that A.J. Styles will fight Kurt Angle. Great match except for the fact that they tell us at the start of the final hour. I taped both shows and was just amazed at the timing of TNA’s segments throughout the whole show.
A few fun notes….
I will say I enjoyed the promo and match of D’Angelo Dinero.
I also love how Mick Foley couldn’t even get in the building but they keep running promos on him hosting this new TNA show.
I got great enjoyment out of a couple hundred people screaming Bull S**t in the audience, so on television you couldn’t hear Hogan talking because they had to keep cutting the audio.
What do you call Val Venis? The big double V?
In the end, all I got from TNA is a that according to Eric Bischoff, who must have said it 40 times, I have to go lace up my boots and get in line because everyone has to earn their spot.
The Chair Shot Reality video series returns this Thursday on Wrestlezone.com, and we want your emails on what you thought of the RAW and Impact episodes. Did you watch Hogan talk or Bret talk? Did you like how TNA was produced?
You can email me for the show and/or this column at justin.labar@yahoo.com
