GamingRing takes a look at the first shot in the Monday Night Wars 2010

Welcome to the first edition of “In My Opinion”. Each week I will be covering the Monday Night Wars 2010 Edition with WWE and TNA going head to head on Monday Nights. My name is Randy Cresswell, known on the Forums as RanSting. Let us get right to the skinny of it, shall we?

No doubt in my mind, the wrestling world’s eyes were locked on to TNA at one point and time throughout Monday Night to see exactly what they were up to and while TNA does need a lot of work, they greatly improved on January 4th’s Monday Episode. Replacing the constant commercial breaks were the commentary and quick cuts to different angles throughout the evening, no doubt Bischoff was doing what he did in WCW by making sure the show ran at certain points against WWE, none the less, was much better than 100 commercial breaks. On the other hand, RAW sadly started off like any typical RAW with a long drawn out promo between HBK and the Undertaker in which they already stated what was apparent and out of a 14 minute promo, all we got was No DQ and No Countouts. Criss Angel, I love that dude, but he really served zero purpose throughout the entire program and could have been used better. All I got from RAW was your standard RAW. Let’s compare the openings of the shows as examples.

WWE Monday Night RAW: 14 minute promo between Undertaker and HBK, pretty much the SAME promo we saw two weeks ago. Do not get me wrong, out of ALL of the guys in the locker room of the WWE, you have two of the best standing in the ring and selling that match bigger than the other matches because I will be honest…so far, this match is the biggest match of WrestleMania where either way, either one that wins is a safe bet. But I think they could have come together a lot differently than repeating the angle. And for the fact that WWE, who never announces the beginning of RAW, happens to do this in the middle of the afternoon on WWE.com tells me that Vince may be worried just a little bit about TNA, maybe not much, but a “Safer than sorry” mentality may be setting in.

TNA Impact: Main Event becomes opening match after some mic work from Hogan, only for Sting to arrive, turn, and find out the match will continue later on that evening. I will be honest, it sounds like a bait and switch, but it was hardly that. They made you believe the match was happening, believe Abyss and Hogan got screwed by a supposed friend, and then still gave you the match at the end of the night. They attached a hook into the fans to draw them in; I think they did it perfectly. Only the ratings will tell.

As far as the rest of RAW, it was predictable to even the causal wrestling fan on what was going to happen on the show to be honest. When it comes to Money in the Bank, a very obvious win here for Bourne; I love Regal, but him and ladder would worry me. He is a brawler and mat technician. Hardly known for his high spots off the top rope; the Orton/Legacy angle is good to be honest and makes me wonder how this will fit into WrestleMania and if they are leaning towards a Legend to join Orton against his former protégés. Shemus Vs HHH…I honestly do not care and furthermore, HHH has been around for awhile, but now that he is going against a young guy, to quote Michael Cole, HHH is now the “Legendary” Cerebral Assassin? Not slacking against HHH at all, but a little early for the title of Legend IMO. The gauntlet match was nothing more than a big angle that just fell REAL flat. I was not expecting McMahon toe to toe with Cena by no means, but come on, do it a little better than that. They are trying VERY hard to push Morrison and R-Truth quickly as a team to be reckoned with come Mania and I am sorry, not working. I have said this before to people and I say it now, a lot of WrestleMania this year has been booked like a typical PPV and not like the “Biggest Stage of them All”. I love Morrison and R-Truth, but trying to put them together at last minute to be #1 Contender’s just does not sit well with me. It is hard enough seeing Miz and Big Show become Jericho/Show 2.0, but still…I don’t know. Just does not look right. Lastly, Eve getting a push in WWE where a women’s division will never be taken serious again…sad.

On to TNA; we had A LOT of wrestling and good mix of angles, but lots of plot holes…namely being Samoa Joe. Talk about someone the Hogan/Bischoff era has buried since they arrived. He has been kidnapped for like two weeks now I think. An out of nowhere Beer Money turn and this nowhere not being a good nowhere, just a nowhere. This Jarrett angle has lost steam IMO and I wish it would end quickly. Although, I had to laugh throughout to the night because for some reason Bischoff was not in EVERY segment of the show, guess that happens when you are sitting in the truck trying to beat RAW to coming back from commercials. I think we could have gotten a better showcase of the X-Divison than the three way, not because the talent was bad, let’s be honest, they had TREMDOUS talent in that match, but guys with more history to one of another would have worked a lot better. I don’t like Kazarian being #1 contender, that he earned, getting his shot tonight instead of PPV only to have Moore, who I like, come in and all of sudden without earning it, gets the shot at the PPV, not much sense here. The three way Knockouts Tag Match was better than the Divas match on RAW by far with a predicable ending on the TNA side though. It was also sad to see that you could tell they were being rushed. TNA isn’t use to producing a lot of live events for television other than 12 PPVs and 2 occasional live Impacts, now we are talking 12 PPVs and roughly 26 live Impacts, so they should get their timing down quickly.

The Sting heel turn was awesome, very very awesome. They have tried many times to turn to ultimate babyface Sting heel and have it fall flat, this turn was different. It was him, a baseball bat, and hell no attitude. Him forcing Dixie Carter against a wall and tell her doesn’t need to explain anything was very, very good. I am not a fan of her being on TV and you can tell she doesn’t want to be on TV, but she served a great purpose. Sting Vs RVD is a dream match and TNA not making much of match out of it was smart on their part, they can easily build that as a PPV match and people would watch. I was not a fan of the 7 minute beat down afterwards, but hard to say you got buried when you just pinned Sting and got beat by a ballbat, I’d say RVD has a good road ahead of him in TNA. Should be used well…I hope. Keeping Wolfe Vs Pope together is a great idea, keep doing it. I missed Chelsea though *sad face*.  The Angle/Anderson promo was PERFECT and honestly the hottest feud in TNA right now; it is something that I think is making TNA a show to see. The Jeff Hardy coming in at the end because extremely predictable but damn did we get a good showing out of Hogan and Flair, a much better showing than I thought I would see. Flair and Hogan did what they could; they beat each other to hell on the outside and bleed buckets. Both AJ and Abyss are getting GREAT rubs here and this turned out better than the rumored heel turn.

Oh, almost forgot, Hall and Waltman were there too. Is it just me or am I just sick of this angle. Now we did get a nice EY/Waltman match out of it and whatever they plan on doing, EY better get a good rub out of it, he deserves it. Tremendous talent and looks like a stare. Who would of ever though that the “Don’t Fire Me” EY would turn into the guy we see now? Priceless.

Now compare what I said about WWE Vs TNA? WWE was a small column, TNA took three paragraphs. Your show should be full of moments, not just a few. TNA is a freight train that may or may not come off the wheels; hopefully they get it settled because you don’t want it too hot. But to be honest, I expect a much better RAW next week because everytime Vince knows Austin is coming in, he always makes sure it’s a moment not to miss, now that we have the possibility of Austin being all over the show, should be nice. Also, I cannot remember a bad “Wrestlemania Rewind” RAW as they are always good, so let’s hope this is the same. TNA will film Impact for next week tonight I do believe, so we will see how they follow up this past Monday’s. Also, smart move by TNA airing Epics before Impact, giving you three hours of TNA to push the product. TNA is lucky as hell to have Spike as its partner in this, it may not be the 100% support that WCW was given by Turner, but TNA and Spike are working towards a very good thing here…offering the fans what they have been asking, a choice. Once TNA gets its anchor in play, I just think we may have a real war to look forward to.

Oh…is it just me, but while I cannot stand Bubba the Love Sponge or that name itself, he is actually damn decent on camera? Damn Hogan for being right about more things than he is wrong.

Take Care Readers, I will see you next week.

 

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Tags: hulk hogan, In my opinion, monday night wars, ric flair, shawn michaels, TNA, undertaker, WWE

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Columns, Featured Stories, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.