By Shane McKinkley, Torch specialist

"No idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun
It's never what you do, but how it's done"

-"No Idea's Original" by Nas

I sat through a Raw where WWE took themselves too seriously in having Orton claim to have IED. Having Super Shane come in to wreak havoc made one want to throw up. ECW saw the departure of Matt Hardy, and what did fans get in return? Jack Swagger losing his belt (oops) and video packages galore (double oops). Plus Boogeyman. Yeah.

It looks like the WWE is going after the casual fans as well as their younger audience. Their main concern is PPV buys for No Way Out and WrestleMania. It's their show and they can show whatever content they want, but a large part about watching wrestling is what they don't show you. Having a magnitude of video packages and thus shortening Punk vs. Jericho rubs me the wrong way.

It's true that the more you show something on your programs (Cena movie, Wrestlemania, etc.), the more people you can reach. But for people who regularly tune into WWE, they can't help but feel that maybe perhaps watching WWE is just a waste of their time.

So with that in mind, I wasn't looking too forward to NWO's MEM's takeover of a show (credit to i230.photobucket.com for pic).

We start off with a MEM video package. "We have provided you with countless hours of stale entertainment." (I exclude Angle matches from the boring tripe MEM usually dish out.) Speaking about Angle, he's running the show. Angle talks about Jarrett: "He's licking his injuries." Can you lick a torn ACL? Or a groin pull? Corny gets upset and tosses his gimmick rolled up paper over the couch. Heavens to Betsy.

We have Chet Lemmon (Nash) and Black Snow (Booker) on announcing duties tonight. Nash: "Pyro man, blow your load!" It's going to be an interesting night.

Whole lot of crotch grabbing on the ODB segment. Shock over substance. But then again, Orton reading from a piece of paper about how he has IED. Zzzzzz. Duly noted.

I kind of warmed up to Scott Steiner tonight. It was pretty funny in how he played up his "stupid jock" character. Hey, TNA announcers actually call the opening match! Insane!

The verdict is undecided on Booker announcing (sounded a bit like Randy Savage, Wolfman Jack, old school announcers from AWA) but I got a kick out of it because Booker actually called the matches. Announcers play a big part in believing the product. Does the soundtrack to a movie matter?

Pretty sloppy ODB vs. Kongtourage.

Back to Jeff's Angle's office. Corny apparently went behind the couch and got his gimmick rolled up papers. Corny gets whiny about Angle running the show. JB joins in the fun. Come on now.

Angle spins his chair: "Muhahahaha!" Angle was great tonight in being egoistical and out of his flippin' mind. Nice comedy interaction between him and JB: "Bros before hos!"

Good comedy bit with refs Rudy and Andrew. Andrew wants no part of the Booker match. "Rudy, are you high?" Rudy wants to beat up Booker. Rudy, who do you think you are? Shane McMahon?

Jeremy Borash has to sell MEM shirts in the crowd. This MEM show was really a nice change of pace. It just looked like a lot of fun to be a part of, and largely that was noticeably absent from the content showing on WWE programming. Nash: "OMG! It's Booker T!" The show didn't take itself too seriously, and frankly it was more enjoyable.

Uh oh. Steiner is announcing. There were some notable lines from tonight. Steiner: "Hand or foot? Hand or foot?" and "Booker has some nice red boots!" Kevin Nash had the burn of the night when he said that "Andy Thomas ... wasn't he once WWE champion?" Some choppy editing in here (when Sewell took Booker in the corner), but I can say that I was interested in what was going to happen next. There were many Impacts when I questioned whether I should bother to watch the rest of the show during the first ten minutes.

MEM got some nice hype tonight. I don't mind the fact that this MEM takeover is very akin to the NWO takeover. There are a lot of young fans who haven't experienced this storyline and perhaps TNA can excel where the NWO largely failed (having way too many members, celebrities as wrestlers, talking to hear themselves talk, etc.). No idea's original. Plus I really don't want to go back to the way things were before this MEM vs. Frontline feud. TNA wants this feud to last as long as possible.

The Joker Sting shows up. Good bit here in hyping up the problem between Sting and Angle.

Your new MEM member? Matt Morgan. "The DNA of TNA!" Hey, that rhymes! A pretty solid promo in hyping up Morgan vs. Abyss at the PPV. Bravo. We're actually getting entertaining bits that are logical and serve a purpose. At least Morgan didn't try to do an "I'm going to yell every word" type of promo.

Nash on Morgan: "Way too much oil." Booker then says "He's a big guy" a hundred times. Like stated before, this fun show was definitely the right medicine from the boring tripe Raw and ECW had this week. You probably didn't care much for it if you want TNA content to be serious. But then again, TNA for weeks had fake Palin ... who didn't really look like Palin.

I don't know why Petey Williams still dresses up like Steiner, but they had a bit where Booker actually explains why Petey dresses up like Steiner (because he "loves" him). There was also a bit later in the show where Ray laid down a confusing promo about how he didn't want to fight Sting. That didn't make a lot of sense because not too long ago Ray wanted a piece of Sting at the PPV. Why did Ray care about the integrity of Sting so much? Black Snow (Booker) talked about how Team 3D looked up to Sting. Whether it was Booker himself or TNA themselves, I appreciated that character's motivations were explained instead of being largely murky.

So in large part I enjoyed listening to Book and Nash. They did the smart things in hyping up the losers - "Petey's got a lot of heart." I also enjoyed Booker beating up on Frontline while announcing. Ha ha ha. Not sure what the idea is in Booker talking about how Team 3D's "ECW title reigns" do not really mean anything. No, you're right. Titles you create by yourself and defend only once mean something (credit to blogs.orlandosentinel.com for pic).

Ray: "Seven or eight weeks ago I got beat up by MEM" A bit sloppy. Crowd was chanting "We want Spike" during Ray's promo.

Because of the announcing style, I could really get myself involved in the matches. What also must be noted is the booking and execution during the "MEM show." During the Team 3D vs. Sting match, I thought that TNA had reverted to their old "bad, predictable finish" ways when Angle hit the low blow on Ray. But instead Ray kicks out and 3D set Sting up for the Doomsday Device. The match ends with Angle involving himself in the match. This plays up the notion that Angle keeps ruining Sting's matches while still keeping Team 3D from becoming chumps.

Your new Frontline members: LAX and Abyss. Smile comes on my face as I think of the possibility of MEM leader Angle vs. Frontline leader Foley.

Nice job with giving Hernandez another title shot. Foley says that the MEM experiment is over. No! Nothing is over! Oddly enough, the "TNA show" will begin with a confusing, random match. (Abyss vs. Steiner in a weapons match, but Steiner can't use weapons.) Wha?

No, it's Tenay and West! No! It's the old TNA! No!

Cornette's big, big, big announcement is Booker vs. Shane Sewell? Wow. People predicted that three weeks ago. Really? Booker vs. Sewell is this big thing? I'm hoping the crowd turns on the character of Sewell.

So starts the "TNA Show." Out comes Abyss with his stupid costume. West: "Let's talk about something that has nothing to do with this match." Oh hell. Back to the same old crap.

There was a point in the Abyss-Steiner match where West said this: "Oh no! Steiner is grabbing the ring bell! That reminds me of the time at Genesis when Kurt Angle picked up a ring bell and smashed Jeff Jarrett with it." West explained why he used that random bit to explain "how devastating the ring bell could be," but in large part it was an example of an announcing style that will rather hype up other things and not actually call the match.

Match ends with Steiner hitting Abyss with a weapon. Suicide shows up because he was feeling lonely. And we're back to randomness and stupidity. But let's be positive. I can sure believe in a wrestler when Tenay tells me "he's the mysterious character from TNA's video game!" Because TNA apparently doesn't know what to do with his character, I pretend that Suicide is Spider-man and he's invaded TNA (credit to blog.pcnews.ro for pic).

Impressive "global" video package. Better effect than "TNA's philosophy" bits or stock wrestler video packages.

Oh wow. Cowboys and a bull. Hyping up some cowboy show I'm not going to watch even if I got a free cupcake for doing so. At least the agony is quick. Maybe one day there will be no more reality shows. And maybe one day Brian Kendrick, C.M. Punk, The Motor City Machine Guns, and MVP won't be portrayed largely as chumps. Here's some more of the Boogeyman!

Angle vs. LAX was very enjoyable. TNA does the "ref did not see the tag." They are still awful in showing who the legal man is during tag team matches. I'm confident that Homicide was not the legal man (Hernandez was) at the end of the match, but Angle got the pin anyway.

Cruddy move in having Impact lap over the two hour mark. I recorded the show on DVR and did not bother to record the show following Impact ("Cowboys Ride Bulls Set To Cheesy Rock Music") because Impacts usually end before the two hour mark. Raw goes over to the show "Burn Notice" and ECW goes over to "Ghost Hunters" or whatever junk they have. Smackdown ends usually three minutes before the two hour mark end. Thus, I missed Joe coming back.

I really enjoyed this show, and I'm hoping that TNA gains something from the "MEM takeover." In large part if you are a TNA fan who wants things to remain serious, your reaction to this show would largely be negative. This show is an example of "being at the right place at the right time." Fans who were subjected to the awful boring tripe Raw and ECW showed were treated to a show that didn't take itself too seriously.

When I look across the board on this show, there were many bits that served a purpose, were entertaining, and were executed well. A lot of people came out looking good in this show (Morgan, Team 3D, Sting, Angle, LAX, Booker, Steiner, and Petey). TNA will revert to the same old drudge next week. For what it is worth, this show was a refreshing change of pace. I won't give it a high grade ("Not Absurd") because the MEM takeover was a hit-or-miss thing with a lot of fans. But for me personally I enjoyed the show a lot from the standard content TNA shows.

"Yep, I'm a cowboy. I ride bulls. This reality show has eight of us cowboys riding bulls to see who can become the best. Along the way there will be some jealousy, some fights, and maybe even some kissing." At least it's not Spike TV's "MANswers."

POSITIVES

-- Booker, Steiner and Nash were fun to listen to on commentary (compared to Tenay & West)
-- Announcing style of MEM show called the actual matches (gasp)
-- MEM show featured good comedy and much better match execution
-- MEM show looked like a lot of fun to be a part of
-- Hernandez regains his title shot
-- Angle vs. LAX was indeed a main event
-- Samoa Joe's return was well done

NEGATIVES

-- Morgan: "I'm going to ride you like a bull like on that reality show! Yeah! Wait..."
-- What's the point of the character Suicide?
-- Booker vs. Sewell is this big announcement?

VERDICT: A Little Absurd

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com.

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