James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (1.0)

This was an awful effort, but this show will be quickly forgotten on March 8. The only thing worth remembering will be the set-up for March 8 with Hogan & Abyss vs. Flair & Styles. And we finally saw the materialization of Hogan's pre-January 4 "aw shucks" routine. "If the fans cheer loud enough, I just have to give them Hogan in the ring again." Well, what did TNA do tonight? Get the sympathy on Hogan with the beat down, the juice, the old, faded eyes, and the set up with the audience to where they cheered and cheered and chanted until Hogan got that old twinkle in his eye and booked the tag match with him and Flair back in the ring. The match is essentially TNA's answer to Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart.

The WWE references on this show were all over the place and further built up TNA's inferiority complex. The entire show was focused on Hogan's WWE Hall of Fame ring. It's so odd that the #2 promotion is using the #1 promotion as a measuring stick and trying to get heat using something the #1 promotion has built up over time. Add in Eric Bischoff's backstage bit where he was "on the phone" saying the celebrity guest host is stupid was another example of TNA being too cute trying to get in as many WWE references trying to seem relevant. Just bad TV that distracts from what TNA is doing.

You just know it's a bad show when Ric Flair is bad on the mic. Flair pulling a Mike Adamle with the "The Abyss" reference and losing his train of thought mid-way through a promo was not good. A.J. Styles was also shoved to the background and The Pope was nowhere to be found. The show really could have used The Pope to help alleviate some of the bad TV on the show.

Speaking of bad TV, Team 3D vs. Nastys was an embarrassment to the professional wrestling industry. Sags can barely move. Knobbs can barely move. Team 3D has become a cartoon version of their previous gimmicks. They're simply going through the motions. The match was best captured by a younger member of the audience facing the hard camera looking down at the phone texting during the entire match.

The wrestling on this show was non-existent or deemed irrelevant. We don't know why Kazarian and Brian Kendrick were in a #1 contender match, as there was no criteria given for how they became #1 contenders. TNA simply threw a match out there with no backstory because that's how Vince Russo views his wrestling - a necessary evil that has to be on the show as breaks in-between the twists and turns and other non-sense. Rob Terry vs. Mr. Anderson went two seconds and Terry's look is everything that is wrong with the wrestling business. The only redeeming quality was Kurt Angle. TNA should just build the entire show around Angle. Have him call the matches, interview the wrestlers, wrestle, be the authority figure. Just build the show around Angle.

I see where they're going with Jeff Jarrett, as he'll eventually do the Shawn Michaels bit of going from "flipping burgers" back to being built up as a top star. But, it's just bad TV. No one wants to see Jarrett standing around with a hairnet over his head surrounded by assorted flavors and spices. Meanwhile, Mick Foley seems to be on the Road to WrestleWaste. His program with Eric Bischoff doesn't seem to be going anywhere and I really have no interest in their regular backstage exchanges.

The backstage fight between The Band and Eric Young and Kevin Nash might have been the worst thing I've ever seen on TNA TV. There has been some bad stuff on TNA TV, but that took the cake. It was just laughable, especially after the earlier camera shot where Hall and Nash looked like two bums rummaging through a garbage unit looking for a meal. As for the fight, Kevin Nash was suddenly on the ground clutching his knee, Young tried to use an inflatable recycling container as a weapon, and Scott Hall just doesn't add anything. It was a cartoon version of an NWO-style beat down.

Overall, TNA just needs to forget this show ever happened. It felt like that show two episodes before the January 4 move that was so awful that I have no idea how anyone could have conceived this ever existing. I still have confidence in TNA's direction starting March 8 when they can't have a bad week and they're forced to step up their game every week. This show was just an ill-conceived disaster that exposed everything that has historically been wrong with TNA - the inferiority complex, going-nowhere storylines, legends in horrible wrestling matches, today's stars with horrible build-up, and more authority figure power struggles for the sake of authority figure power struggles.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (5.5)

I understand building feuds and angles through TV and having the matches that people will pay money for at the PPV; I get that. But it just felt like there was NO wrestling of substance whatsoever on this show. And what's with giving away Team 3D vs. The Nasty Boys, a match that people had to pay to see last month, with little-to-no hype on this show? Daffney being treated as a serious contender for the Knockouts Title is a good sign.

Also a good sign: Beer Money getting back on TV and into something worthwhile. Their promo was very good. Speaking of promos, I like the chemistry that Mr. Anderson and Christy Hemme have backstage during their segments together. I didn't like the main event for a few reasons: While Desmond Wolfe didn't get squashed and got some offense in, and was also part of the post-match beat-down, I really think a match like that would've been better served for Abyss to squash someone in his first time out with Hogan's ring. Kazarian just returned and Brian Kendrick has had like three matches: What makes them worthy of a #1 Contender X Division Title match?

I don't really know what to make of Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley's feuds with Bischoff since, they're so similar. One would think that in the end, both wrestler would get their hands on Bischoff and teach him a lesson. Bischoff is putting both men in their place in different ways, so I hope that somehow, they change things up leading to the end of the feud. Ric Flair's promo at the beginning was classic Flair, aside from "The Abyss" references. And even Styles seemed more Flair-like and confident on the mic than he has been since he started with Naitch.

Daniel Wilkenfeld, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

First, this episode gets immediate bonus points — despite the fact that there were four plot-critical chair shots, they appeared to all be shots to the back. I very much enjoyed the main event announcement. Even though I was never a Hulkamaniac as a kid (though I'm too embarrassed to say which of his opponents I favored), and even though it was obvious what Hogan was going to say as soon as the last segment started (or at least after he said the words "March 8th"), I still marked out a little. Such is the artistry of Hulk Hogan.

Sadly, that was one of only a few high points. By my math this show had only 13 minutes of wrestling, of which almost half was taken up by the Nasty Boys. This would have been fine if the backstage promos had been interesting enough to make up the difference, but outside of the first segment, the last segment, and Anderson's promo, nothing stood out as memorable. Also, who looks at Kendrick vs. Kazarian for a shot at the X Division Championship and thinks "three minutes seems about right"? For that matter, who thinks "Desmond Wolfe would be a really good jobber for Abyss"? Buoyed almost entirely by the excitement generated by the main event this gets up to a 6.5.

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