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Updated throughout the day from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.

Updated Friday, February 29

Every week with TNA Impact, I can see the argument that it's a good show because it can be entertaining and there's always something happening. But, last night was a bad show. Just plain bad, with the majority of matches featuring the TNA three-stop combo of female interference, referee incompetence, and non-finishes. Or, in the case of Storm vs. Young, a non-participant winning the match.

The show was bad for PPV business because they lost sight of their main event for the next PPV, again. Tomko has been cooled off. Samoa Joe's contract situation disappeared. Nash had no promo time. Christian was a complete afterthought. Kurt and A.J. were doing the soap opera with Karen. Oh, by the way, they gave away a first-time-ever match between Angle and Nash on free TV where the focus was on everything except the in-ring action.

Even when the show had something potentially great with Robert Roode's beating on Booker T to build up Roode's vicious mean streak, the announcers were produced to scream and yell and make noise and create loud noises to distract from the angle.

Torch reader DZ emailed me last week about the idea of silence vs. screaming in WWE and TNA. Often times in WWE, the announcers will go silent to allow the performers to tell the story with a promo or a compelling TV angle. There are certainly times when Jim Ross is called upon to give a strong sales pitch at the end of a match or show-closing angle to reinforce the key points of a storyline, but there's always balance. There's purpose between silence and screaming.

In TNA, there is no balance. It's all screaming. It's two hours of constant noise, with one noise rolling into another. The noise in a Curry Man skit is the same as the noise for a main event match that ends with Karen knocked out on the floor. The key, though, is can the wrestlers rise above the constant noise, the over-riding screaming from the announcers, and the ridiculous writing?

A theory I recently heard is that there is a purpose to the poorly written comedy and soap opera drivel. Sure, it could be desperate rationalization, but the theory is that the garbage writing allows TNA to identify who they can build the company around down the line. Of course, they're sacrificing current business by killing the PPV market, but maybe there's a turnaround coming down the line when they have a feel for who the real team players are on the roster.

For example, James Storm was labeled with the drunken gimmick a while ago. Completely stupid gimmick. But, he ran with it and turned it into something halfway-entertaining. OK, so Storm passed that test. Now, can he take this "fear of heights" twist and make it work, with the test being disguised as build-up for the Elevation X match? I thought he passed step one last night with a superb effort during the silly promo with Ms. Jackie.

Team 3D has been booked to be fat, out-of-shape little kids doing harebrained comedy with Earl Hebner the last three weeks. Ray even ended up in his Looney Tunes boxer shorts last night to get a rise out of the tourists in the crowd who already see pro wrestling as a joke. So, he looks like a fool. Can he make it work and rise above the inane writing to effectively build up the weight-cutting program?

There are countless more examples current and in the past. Can Christopher Daniels take the random Curry Man gimmick and get the character over? Could Chris Harris make a pirate eyepatch work? Can Hoyt & Rave take a cheap imitation rocker gimmick and get it over? Could Sabin & Shelley and LAX play their parts effectively in the worst segment of all-time with the NASCAR folks a few weeks ago?

It's come to the point of looking beyond the curtain to rationalize why this TV show is a mess; that hopefully this is just an era in TNA where they are trying to find the team players who will shut their mouths, take their medicine, learn their lines, and act the fool on TV.

Well, at least the Global Impact DVD arrived in the mail yesterday. That's probably going to turn into the Holy Grail of this era in TNA and do significant business. TNA's TV is so bad that people will knock themselves over to see anything that's halfway-decently produced by TNA with the great roster they have. Sounds like the impetus for the current success in the house show business. But that's another theory for another time.

***

Updated Thursday, February 28

There's a movie out right now called "Definitely, Maybe". I haven't seen it. I don't know much about it. But, the title of the movie certainly applies to yesterday's Congressional hearing in D.C. and the prospect of legislation covering drug testing in professional sports.

Rep. Bobby Rush was adamant - very adamant - about Congress getting involved in professional sports (and pro wrestling) to ensure the validity of drug testing procedures. Newsday reported, however, that Rush backpedaled away from his firm stance after yesterday's hearing. Rush was kinda sorta, um, maybe, considering that legislation isn't particularly needed in this case. Maybe.

So, what is it? Legislation? No legislation? Bottom line is that people have grown tired of Congress's involvement in professional sports and pro wrestling because nothing tangible or substantial has even happened.

Ironically, Congress has become a distraction to the very issue they are trying to address. There is no doubt that drug use and abuse is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with. What have the respective sports done to combat drug issues? What has WWE done with its Wellness Policy to reduce drug abuse, detect for HGH and steroid abuse, and check for the physical wellbeing of its wrestlers on a regular basis - especially concussions?

Unfortunately, government representatives have created the perception that they can't get on the same page on whether Congressional involvement is even necessary. They've created their own obstacle course to get something done after a substantial amount of time and money has been spent on hearings and collecting testimony.

Public desire for sports to be cleaned up is clearly waning. The circus has distracted from the issues, and the government can't decide on how involved they should be - oversight, recommendations, or even legislation. Worse is that the lead proponent for drug testing oversight, Rep. Bobby Rush, is wavering like a leaf tossed into the wind.

Related to WWE, Rush didn't hide the fact that he was upset with Vince McMahon for not showing up to yesterday's hearing. The next question, though, is whether Rush and the Committee will soften their stance on gathering information from WWE, just like Rush softened his stance on legislation.

Your guess is as good as mine on whether anything is actually going to arise from yesterday's hearings. There might just be something of substance down the road. Or there might just not be anything.

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Updated Wednesday, February 27

WWE Raw thoughts - I intentionally haven't written a single thing about Monday's Raw episode after-the-fact, as I wanted to see what resonated with me 36 hours later. The first thing that comes to mind is the Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy match. Greg Parks and I discussed this in the Raw post-game show on whether the match was memorable enough to stand out on the show, or whether viewers would simply forget about it a day or two after the match.

It won't stand the test of time, as there was just too much other content on the show before and after the match, but I thought it was better than the main event. WWE's energies are certainly focused on the triple threat match, but they still need to find something for Hardy and Jericho to do each week to keep them relevant during the Mania hype. I'm looking more toward the Backlash PPV when they'll be needed to hold up the second tier in whatever post-Mania feud they become involved in.

- The build-up for Orton-Hunter-Cena wasn't anything special; just basic build-up for a main event on a PPV that practically sells itself. In that regard, WWE effectively advanced the program, even if it was obvious WWE has a month of TV to fill. Just establish the key players, create a little tension between Cena and Hunter, and let the story unfold as it may.

- I should be surprised that it took half-a-year for WWE to start backing out of the storyline with Hornswoggle as Vince's illegitimate son, but they fell into a situation where Hornswoggle become such a hit with the kids that it didn't make sense to pull the plug right away.

Now, though, WWE has several different directions to go with the storyline. There are plenty of loose ends in this storyline, such as "the deal" between Vince and Finlay that hasn't been mentioned in several weeks. I'm intrigued to see where this is going, but the crowd reaction on Monday said some people are groaning at the predictable backpedaling on this storyline.

ECW TV thoughts: - Colin Delaney's greatness returned to Tuesday night television, and all was right with the world, even on a rough day in the Corner Cube when Yao Ming went down with a season-ending injury. The subtle delivery from Delaney on getting his own entrance music was priceless. The subtle in-ring cockiness from Delaney, who suddenly thought he was Rey Mysterio or Jeff Hardy, was a great development. Instant thumbs up for the return of Delaney last night.

- Chavo Guerrero pulled a disappearing act last week to make a cameo on Smackdown, but he topped himself by disappearing on commentary in last night's main event. To be fair to Chavo, WWE will often put a wrestler on commentary for show rather than for the person to say anything of merit. (Batista comes to mind.)

But, I honestly forgot Chavo was even ringside until the post-match stare down between him and Punk. Or, maybe I was so engrossed in trying to figure out the clunky spots in the main event that I simply forgot Chavo was there. Yeah, that's it.

***

Updated Tuesday, February 26

At first blush, the news of WWE signing with MyNetworkTV to be the broadcast home of Smackdown starting in September looks like a step down for WWE. They're going from the fifth broadcast network, CW, which combined the winners of the UPN and WB merger, to MyNetworkTV, which scraped together the networks that were left out in the cold.

It's one step back, but it could mean two steps forward. The opportunity here is for WWE to have a sense of ownership on a network that's looking for signature original content to build advertising deals and create excitement for the network.

CW was concerned about the lack of crossover viewership. Fans tuned in for Smackdown, but didn't tune in at other point during the week for the other programming. MyNet apparently isn't concerned about whether fans tune in for re-runs of "King of Queens" during Tuesday night prime time.

In this very early growth stage, MyNet is looking for a signature TV show they can build the network around. That gives WWE tremendous leverage, when the WWE brand name probably holds more value than the network they'll be airing on.

Based on what WWE executives said in the investor conference call two weeks ago, this move seemed like a foregone conclusion. They wanted to stay on broadcast television, and they probably weren't going to be able to swing a deal with one of the Big Four networks. That left the option of an initial step back to MyNet, but with the opportunity to have the Smackdown brand very closely tied to an upstart broadcast network.

A ratings drop off is a concern, but pro wrestling fans won't have much trouble finding the show. For instance, here in Houston, Smackdown aired on the former UPN affiliate on Channel 4 forever, then moved to Ch. 5 when it became the CW affiliate. Now, it's back to Ch. 4 in September. It won't be difficult for viewers to find the show after a week or so.

We won't be able to evaluate this deal until the fourth quarter of 2007, but the key is that WWE has leverage, and they have a home that wants WWE programming as its flagship show - even with the baggage that WWE brings with their brand of entertainment that's often perceived as low-brow and just plain strange.

***

Updated Monday, February 25

Mayweather press conference thoughts

I've determined I'm never eating at Jack in the Box again after sitting through the same JitB commercial for 30 minutes waiting for WWE to stream the Mayweather press conference on their website. That aside, it's clear that Mayweather is the heel in the program against Big Show unless it's strictly a pro-De La Hoya and anti-Mayweather thing in Los Angeles.

But, Mayweather is a natural heel, so I believe the best dynamic here is to keep Mayweather cocky and arrogant, while keeping Big Show tough and the aggressor. Even with Rey Mysterio by his side, Mayweather created his own heel wrestling persona at this press conference by flashing dollar bills and flaunting that he's got money, mansions, cars, and girls.

Whether or not fans in different markets boo or cheer him isn't a big deal, as long as there is interest. That said, Mayweather probably won't make too many more live appearances between now and Mania. It doesn't make sense to keep giving him away on free TV, which will cut into the mystique of seeing him wrestle in the ring.

Some training videos and video packages working with Rey Mysterio would serve as much better build-up going forward than setting in motion the law of diminishing returns following his No Way Out appearance and appearance on Raw last week.

It will be interesting to see if mainstream interest picks up going forward. This is the biggest star in boxing mixing it up in a wrestling ring. Shane McMahon hyped the match as Mayweather risking big PPV dollars down the road by getting involved with wrestling and accepting a match against the much-larger Big Show. We'll see if WWE blurring the line on the reality of the match is marketable to mainstream audiences. That's the next interesting part of this story to follow.

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