By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Edge vs. Orton added to Over the Limit
-- WWE News item

The feud between Randy Orton and Edge on Raw has a chance to be one of WWE's freshest, most-intriguing feuds over the summer, similar to the Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio feud on Smackdown this time last year.

When Edge is on his game as a sarcastic, biting heel, it's gold. Meanwhile, WWE has a very intriguing Randy Orton character on their hands that has quietly been gaining momentum for months. Orton hasn't turned face and heel five times over the last ten months. It's been a slow build with the crowd organically buying into Orton's character and getting behind him.

Sometimes a babyface turn can't be explained in words, which was exemplified by Orton using no words during his exchange with Edge on Raw to answer Edge's frantic questions on why the fans have bought into Orton and not him. WWE didn't need an elaborate, convoluted story to explain the audience's change. The crowd reactions to the one-sided verbal "exchange" simply told the story.

We don't know yet if people will pay money to see Orton in this role, though. What will be interesting to find out is whether WWE can recover from the recent TV ratings swoon with Orton's babyface character appealing to adults to go along with John Cena's consistent, classic babyface character appealing to kids and women.

WWE needs Orton's type of edgier babyface working an edgier program, similar to Shawn Michaels's feud with Chris Jericho two years ago. It gives WWE two top babyface characters that appeal to a wide range of demographics, included defiant, male wrestling fans.

NXT Ratings dip again -- Ratings report

NXT's TV viewership took another dip on Tuesday night, reaching a series low that was just over the 1.0 million viewer benchmark. The show isn't in good shape right now with irrelevant challenges, characters who aren't over, and no sense of purpose until next week when the first elimination goes down.

Seriously. Let's think about this. An obstacle course? What does this have to do with anything? It's unexplainable how WWE has decided they would rather make sport of their potential future stars by putting them through ridiculous, non-sensical contests each week rather than try to accentuate the positives of their Rookies.

WWE operates with the belief they can tear down any character and build the character back up (or "future endeavor" the talent and bring someone else in). And that very well could be the case, but why go through 16 weeks of making the Rookies "pay their dues" when they could be ready to make money at the end of the season?

NXT simply isn't a watchable show. It's not a reality show. It's not a wrestling show because there's barely any wrestling. And the live WWE audience is quiet throughout most of each week's show making it a lifeless TV product. NXT simply is not something that people are going out of their way to watch on Tuesday nights.

Why would anyone order a TNA PPV?

We all know Vince Russo prioritizes TV, TV, and TV again before even attempting to build up PPVs with the scripts he draws up for TNA. He operates under the mentality that more people watch the TV show than the PPV, so why save anything for a PPV?

The problem is TNA is getting little-to-no return on their investment spending big money on big-name wrestlers they've brought into the company. And, they're not even drawing TV ratings with this approach. Russo has cost TNA money for over three years and taken money out of wrestler's pockets by essentially telling the audience do not order the PPV.

Two weeks ago, TNA gave away Jeff Hardy vs. RVD, then RVD vs. A.J. Styles in a TNA World Title match. On Monday, they gave away another TNA World Title match with RVD vs. Desmond Wolfe. When they return to Thursday nights next week, they'll be giving away yet another TNA World Title match with three top stars in the company. Oh, and by the way, please spend $34.99 to watch RVD vs. A.J. Styles three days later. What?

It's been 1,322 days since TNA re-hired Vince Russo to the promotion. His writing has cost TNA enough money with backwards booking and a warped sense of what fans want to see on a wrestling show. Yet, TNA president Dixie Carter has remained loyal to Russo through it all. It's a shame when you consider the talent roster TNA has and how much money the company could be drawing right now.

Battle for TNA Fan Vote

Updating the TNA fan vote for who should be next in line for a TNA Title shot, Desmond Wolfe is holding off Matt Morgan with 30 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for Morgan. Mr. Anderson is still pulling up in third, meaning three heels are at the top of the list.

What TNA has done with the poll is inadvertently given their fanbase a voice to critique the product. The voice is also a defiant voice not buying the product and who's being pushed as top stars. It shows that whoever is out there voting wants a fresh star in the title picture - Wolfe, Morgan, or Anderson - and not one of the usual suspects like Jeff Jarrett or Abyss.

Or, we could just throw out all of the analysis and chalk it up to the folks who are voting in TNA's poll simply wanting to mess with TNA. That, in itself, would be another form of defiance. After all, TNA opened the door to that very response by publicizing that a fan vote that will help influence future TNA World Title shots.

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