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Updated throughout the day, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and issues from around wrestling.

Updated Wednesday, December 5 (last update: 6:55 p.m.)

The rating for Raw on Monday night came in about as expected with a two-hour average of 3.2 that was a significant drop from the previous week's Raw is Flair. I say "as expected" because the show was virtually lifeless after the first half-hour and they were up against an NFL game that turned into one of the better games of the season (um...so I heard).

The show started with a 3.2, which is OK these days, but it stayed at a 3.2 for the second hour. That's not a good sign. By the time the second hour rolled around, Mr. Kennedy had done his blah shtick with the fake WWF characters and there was no indication Flair would be on the program.

By the way, what else is on Monday nights beside the NFL that could draw the target demo? We always look at the football audience taking away from Raw. Almost out of habit, I picture viewers flipping from ESPN to USA and vice versa while covering Raw with my report. Over the last 15 years, I've never watched anything on TV other than wrestling and sports on Monday nights. So, I have no idea what's on the tube of any substance except for Heroes on NBC.

That digression aside, next week's rating should at least show improvement in the regular two-hour timeslot. There's a weak football game, and WWE has tons of star power lined up. But, I wouldn't be surprised if the overall three-hour rating shows only a slight increase, as people have established routines on Monday nights that includes dinner, work, class, homework, etc. during that hour before Raw usually comes on. Next Monday will be crucial as they head into 2008.

***

2:15 p.m. House shows overseas are always a great place to experiment. If a match bombs and it's not televised, then it never happens. Or, it's always a nice place to experiment with a heel or babyface turn. On the Smackdown/ECW tour of Ireland this week, they're experimenting with a double turn of Chuck Palumbo and Jamie Noble. Palumbo - much needed. Noble - not sure about that one.

Noble has that Santino appeal right now. We're not supposed to laugh at his sayings or crack a smile when he tells a woman she's violated his body, his person. That's the appeal of his character. If he turns babyface and we're supposed to laugh at his sayings, then the appeal is gone.

Like Santino, he's just better in WWE as an undersized heel who provides entertainment value before getting beat up. I would like to think a credible babyface push for Noble is possible, but he's not 6'5" and 250 pounds. And there is only one exception on the Smackdown roster: Rey Mysterio.

Now, as for Chuck Palumbo - the man who does nothing to change Friday nights needs a heel turn. He's got the bike. He's got the babe. He's got the size. Playing the part of the good guy with the hot broad riding on his bike just made zero sense. He lost all credibility a few weeks ago when Michelle said "they're just friends." That's quite a ringing endorsement for the biker dude. Whether Michelle would still be loving life as a heel valet remains to be seen, but Chuck P. needs something different.

I'm reaching for the remote when I hear the bike revving up because that babyface character WWE has tried pushing just doesn't work. And enough from JBL force-feeding the line that Chuck has championship gold in his future. Turn him heel and we'll see if that's true.

***

11:25 a.m. Earlier this year, I thought ROH was in trouble. Not in any serious trouble. Just facing an issue of where the company was heading after TNA made several wrestlers exclusive to their roster, while ROH's attendance wasn't as strong compared to previous years.

Actually, facing a tough dilemma worked in ROH's favor. Instead of depending on Joe, Daniels, Styles, and Homicide, they were faced with the task of developing their own crop of stars with a little help from Japan.

Three excellent PPVs later, a feud of the year candidate established, Morishima signing on for 2008, and a national DVD distribution deal in place for April 2008, ROH is heading on the right track. They took adversity and turned it into an opportunity.

Kevin Steen and El Generico were considered opening card acts when they first came to ROH. Now, they are legitimate stars. The Briscoes finally had their breakthrough year, this coming after I watched Mark Briscoe freefall through the air and nearly kill himself in Detroit. The NRC vs. Resilience feud has allowed Roderick Strong to become a natural lead heel over time. And there's Morishima playing the NWA champion role and elevating wrestlers he's worked with before ultimately losing the ROH Title to Nigel.

It appears ROH has a plan in place to maintain the company's steady expansion. They're still a niche promotion that caters to a specific audience of wrestling fans. The product isn't for casual fans buying a ticket for a WWE house show because their kids heard the circus was in town. No matter how good the PPVs are, buyrates aren't going to skyrocket overnight without national TV exposure or advertising. But, that's OK.

The foundation of the solid one-story house has always been there with the DVD business. Now, they have a good number of wrestlers signed to talent agreements to ensure the core roster is in place. Maybe ROH will tack on a garage or add a second floor as the business expands, but there isn't a monumental rush to reach a certain goal.

ROH faced a major challenge in 2007 and they took that as an opportunity to enter a new phase of the company's growth. 2008 should be another interesting chapter in ROH's progressive expansion.

Updated Tuesday, December 4

4:30 p.m.Yahoo released its most-searched-for list for 2007, and WWE ranks second behind Britney Spears. Gives substance to the theory that everyone stops to look at the car wreck. Also, rather ironic considering the first show of 2007 featured John Cena vs. Kevin Federline.

WWE consistently stayed in the top-searched items throughout the year, while peaking for Chris Benoit news coverage this summer. I'd like to see an all-time list for the most-searched for term in the history of the Internet since Britney and WWE have been right at the top throughout the Internet explosion dating back about 10 years.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to Cindy Margolis - the formerly most downloaded woman on the Internet? Or, was that Sunny?

***

10:50 a.m. If it so pleases the court, The Cube finds WWE and TNA both guilty this morning - guilty of insulting the audience and customers, respectively, the last two nights. On Raw last night, Ric Flair was neither seen nor heard from. He simply disappeared one week after he was the centerpiece of Raw and created a sense of excitement for a journey to keep his career alive.

The crowd last night wasn't into the show after the Mr. Kennedy spoof segment. It seemed to me that at least a strong portion of the audience was waiting for Flair, especially after how much hype he received last week. Once it became quite obvious Flair was MIA, they tuned out. After all, this was Flair country.

A simple explanation would have sufficed. He's resting after a hard-fought match with Orton. He'll be on Smackdown next week. Mr. McMahon sent him to Hogan's house for marital counseling. Anything. Instead, they left the live audience hanging and they disappointed the folks sitting at home who tuned in for Week 2 of Flair's journey. Pretending like the Top Story from last week's show never happened is simply bad business.

On the other side of the coin is TNA. On a PPV where they knew Rhino wouldn't be available for an advertised match and Scott Hall probably would not make the advertised main event, they went one step further and delivered a finish less than a non-finish to the briefcase match. No winners. No losers. Just a monumental waste of 15 minutes. That's inexcusable.

There should never ever be a point on any pay event where a company tells the audience to tune into the free show to find out the result of a match, especially when there actually was something on the line in the form of one wrestler going home without a job.

It's one thing if there's a controversial finish at the end of a PPV with a winner, but no clear finish, which TNA has done before. It's another thing if they just finish a match, everyone heads to the back, and there is no announced decision. That's insulting to the customer.

TNA has produced decent-to-good PPVs during the second-half of 2007, but that goodwill was lost on Sunday. Little things add up. Telling the audience to tune into the free show to find out the result of any match on a $30 show is bad business.

Updated Monday, December 3

6:30 p.m.WWE.com previews tonight's Raw with a note that Chris Jericho will kick off the show. Well, at least he won't have to follow Ric Flair, as they're still in Flair Country tonight. I'm curious to see how the crowd reacts to Jericho. The honeymoon is over, but I would expect that "hey, look, it's a big name!" pop from the audience to start the show. WWE is obviously committed to Jericho for one main event - against Randy Orton at Armageddon PPV - but after that, it's up in the air.

Jeff Hardy has one of those matches scheduled tonight where you expect him to get tossed around the building, as Snitsky is the opponent tonight. A few months ago, I would have predicted a clean loss for Hardy in a non-title match since he's Teflon. I'm not anticipating a clean finish to this, but Hardy isn't losing.

I've been a fan of Mr. Kennedy's recent in-ring work, so I get put to the test when Kennedy runs the gauntlet against former Shawn Michaels opponents. Maybe this will include Scott Hall returning to WWE after getting food poisoning on the road to North Charleston. Who knows.

And, of course, there's the Ric Flair program in Week 2 on the road to Mania. (Cheap plug: check out this week's Question of the Week and drop your thoughts!) WWE.com doesn't show Flair scheduled for a match, but I'm sure there will be more of Flair and McMahon carrying out their disagreement.

Oh, and Santino Marella. 'Nuff said.

***

4:10 p.m. As we collect and report more details on Samoa Joe's promo at the PPV last night and the circumstances surrounding the main event, I have mixed feelings on Joe's promo. To paraphrase Dave Wills, Joe said what needed to be said. TNA is a company that brings in big names, and time and again they get burned. Rikishi was the latest before Hall. You'd think after touching that hot stove so many times, TNA would learn a lesson.

But, was a live PPV the time and the place for Joe to go off on the company signing the paychecks? This is where I'm mixed. For starters, it exposes TNA as a rudderless ship on PPV television - that a wrestler can take a mic and go into business for himself without anyone stopping him. That doesn't help the company at all, especially when said company was already setting up the audience for disappointment by bringing in Eric Young as Hall's replacement. Young is a fine wrestler in his mid-card role, but trying to play the audience for fools was a mistake.

On the other hand, something needed to be said about this company's hiring and promoting policy. Joe is a very emotional and passionate man when it comes to his job and the sport of pro wrestling. He saw the audience being wronged by yet another TNA hire, and he called the company out on it. Some fans might see that as a wrestler actually caring about the audience and having their thoughts in mind. Some fans might see that as a selfish wrestler distracting and taking away from the wrestling to follow in the main event.

We've reported that Joe issued an apology backstage before tonight's TV tapings. The only thing he could possibly apologize for is going into business for himself and potentially hurting the company. He should never have to apologize for what he said, though. Because that's what needed to be said.

***

12:00 p.m. TNA presented a very skippable PPV last night. And if you were expecting anything otherwise, then you weren't paying attention to the TV build up. At one point watching Impact, I stopped and tried to figure out exactly what TNA was trying to do with that show. The only thing they were doing was a basic police procedural-style program with Christian, Angle, and A.J. that built toward a six-man tag match on the TV show that had zero bearing on the PPV.

It would be one thing if the PPV could sell itself, but there was nothing on the line except the Women's Title. And let's settle the following issue about the Women's division. Amazing Kong is the baddest mofo on that roster. Period. End of discussion. Put her on the next PPV against Kurt Angle for the Heavyweight Title and you have a PPV worth ordering.

And why is Kong over like mad after destroying the cute, lovable babyface Gail Kim? Because it's a basic storyline that tugged at the emotions of the audience and got people fired up. Either they're fired up because they saw Kong as the biggest badass on the roster or they're fired up because they saw a vicious heel doing vicious things to Gail, the ref, and the cast of thousands from the Women's division.

Contrast that with the big story that TNA wants you to talk about. They want you to be debating whether Joe's promo was a shoot or a work. How much was a work? How much was a shoot? Was Kevin Nash genuinely upset or just playing a role?

Bottom line is that the crowd didn't react to the promo, Eric Young, or the main event. Why? Well, for starters, it was the end of a lackluster, uneventful, let's-get-this-over-with PPV that was thrown off by Scott Hall's no-show. They couldn't even deliver a finish to the briefcase match, that's how bad this was. But, I digress.

Today's fans simply want to be entertained. You want a good show with believable characters in believable conflicts having good matches. You don't want to revisit the work/shoot b.s. from the dying days of WCW.

Now, if they turn Joe's promo into a storyline that gets the younger stars over with a mass audience, it's one thing. But, it has to be done in an entertaining, believable fashion that doesn't include a bunch of insider jargon and worked shoot promos that no one wants to hear on a TV show or PPV when they just want straight pro wrestling theater.

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