Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0): Best: Angle running storyline; main event Worst: my head is spinning from Too (much) Nonstop Action. The good about being two hours: the matches got a good amount of time, and all were at least decent; the crowd was absolutely hot, even for the less than stellar material; the build for Bound For Glory was well done. The 3D-Pacman tag match worked a lot better considering Jones's contractual limitations than the match at No Surrender. Jones, though, could have least looked like he wanted to be there. The Kurt Angle-Sting running storyline was nicely done as Angle feels delusionally justified to go after someone Sting cares about, turning his heelness up a few notches. Sting's aggression turned up with it, which needed to happen. To an extent, I do agree that Sting needed to up something while still being able to uphold his personal beliefs. Tomko is heading toward a face turn with what looked like relief on his face, and something he can rub Christian's nose with (title belt). Somewhere in this I see a potential wake-up moment for Styles, as Christian took him away from a trip with Tomko he wanted to be a part of, and then coming out to Christian's music and not his own. Christian is getting paranoid and insecure, that kind of insecurity where he covets what little he cherishes to the point of smothering. The bad about being two hours: this show reminds me of the classic TV show "Moonlighting," which had a major reputation for having super-sized scripts to accommodate the multiple scenes where Maddie and David would either wander off on dual verbal tangents in each other's presence or tee off on fast-paced verbal sparring matches. There was still just too much happening: too much interference, too many cuts to other things, etc. Hopefully this is a one-shot deal to expose everyone in the opening show before settling into a more relaxed pacing that can still fit enough in to entertain. But I probably shouldn't hold my breath while waiting for TNA to get off the burn throttle.
Joe Mikolai of Columbia, S.C. (1.0): Best Match: None that I saw, but the few seconds of the women's match in the video package that they show in the end of every show actually looked pretty entertaining. Worst: Everything, and I mean, everything, else. Two times the same crap, I guess. I got annoyed with Don West's overselling of "What's in Black Reign's black box?" If they don't advance this storyline, i.e. answering that question soon, or telling us why Dustin Rhodes has a split personality, why should we care? Ten-man battle royal main event - these chaos-filled events happen far too often in anything-goes TNA. What was once a special concept usually exclusively reserved for must see PPVs now occurs oh, about once a month or so in TNA and, worse, WWE. Angle, no one cares you are feuding with Sting. Didn't we see this whole "stalker" thing with Sara Callaway-DDP in the WWE, and Alex Shelley-Sting in TNA? This "I am going to attack your family" crap is lame. As for the main event, why again are these men paired up? Are they feuding? What does Styles have against Fatu, for example? How is XXX involved in all this? TNA has too many of these six, eight, and ten man matches that it takes away from the intent of the simple one-on-one match. Too much chaos is going on for there to be any storyline. Just a mess much like this show.
Sgt. Jeremy Cooper of Ft. Campbell, Ky. (8.5): Very good show! Actually, I was surprised TNA came off so well. TNA scored a big hit with their first two hour show on Spike. Some things were great and as with everything, some things were so-so. It was solid and showcased a lot to their talent which usually gets overlooked which is what they should do on their debut show. That is one reason TNA needed two hours. The main event was one of the best main events I have seen in quite some time. Was it just me or did Kurt looked a little woozy in there last night? Pacman Jones while I can see that he gave TNA some much needed exposure back in the summer... he needs to go away. FOREVER. I absolutely loved the women's match and I'm glad to read that TNA is starting a move to concentrate on their female talent exclusively which to me is one of their smarter moves. I'm predicting Gail Kim to win the KnockOut Battle Royal at Bound for Glory. The Robert Roode/Ms. Brooks storyline is continuing and holds some intrigue for me. Roode is the perfect asshole who everybody loves to hate. Tonight's Impact for me was a good example of TNA using all their tools to showcase their good points. I enjoyed the show. Since WWE more or less turned me off all of television wrestling with their crap on Raw and ECW, TNA at least is holding my attention pretty well. Keep it up, TNA.
Matthew McCormick of Charleston, W.Va. (9.0): Best: Gauntlet. Worst: Team 3D vs Team Pacman. I thought for a first two hour show it was okay. The Sting-Angle part was a waste of time, the women's division is really good (Gail Kim is the best), Black Reign/Dustin Rhodes just needs to be Dustin Rhodes, not an evil Goldust. Why is Pacman Jones even there if he can't wrestle due to the agreement with the Titians and he's not rock'in the mic? Get him out of there. The main event was good. It's really too early to judge the shows progress until four or five shows are done, then I can give a fair opioin.
Want your voice to be heard inside of WWE headquarters tomorrow morning? Or in TNA headquarters? This is the independent site many people in both groups read to gauge fan feedback. We still welcome your 1-10 score and comments. To contribute your thoughts on Raw, click here. Please keep your thoughts to around 10-15 lines if possible to increase your odds of being published.
PWTORCH FORMAT CONVENTIONS
For the sake of clarity to our readers (and to save us time editing these same things over and over), please follow these simple conventions when writing Torch Reax:
-Wrestlers teaming together should be connected with "&" symbol (e.g. Hunter & Michaels, Devon & Ray) or with a "/" (e.g. Animal/Hawk, Harris/Storm), but not dashes and not the word "and."
-To designate wrestlers who are fighting, feuding, or wrestling each other, put a dash (-) between them (e.g. Michaels-McMahon, Jarrett-Sting, Hogan-Andre) or use "vs."
-The word versus should always be abbreviated this way: "vs." with a period afterward (not "v." or "v/s" or "VS" or "VS." or any other way).
-Plus, it's just our policy, but we don't indulge wrestling promotions' strange spelling fetishes where they spell Raw, Smackdown, Heat, Impact, etc. with the haphazard capitalization of various leTTeRz. It seems very "junior high," so no Raw (it's Raw), no iMPACT (it's Impact), etc.
-Please try to avoid overuse of dot-dot-dots. If you have a thought that's "trailing off," you can use for effect, but otherwise, just use periods, commas, and our personal favorite, semicolons if you dare. We have always had a policy of only one exclamation point and no ALL CAPS. Let your words convey the meaning of your point. There's many to choose from out there.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
