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PARKS'S TAKE
PARKS: Ten biggest moments from Monday's Impact and RAW shows

May 2, 2010 - 1:39:04 PM
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By Greg Parks, PWTorch columnist

WWE's three-hour draft helped cause a huge down-turn in TNA's ratings, to the point that alarm bells have to be going off. Despite the three-hour Raw, TNA has to be disheartened that their ratings were cut in half one week after a show that was universally praised. And it won't get easier for Impact, as Raw's roster was strengthened even more by this year's draft lottery.

1. Batista wins Triple-Threat to become #1 Contender to the WWE Championship. Yes, for those of you hoping Batista's run in WWE was done, or at least, that he'd be out of the title picture: Get ready for one more month of John Cena vs. Batista. It's tough to complain at this point, since they put on two really good matches at the last two PPV's, but it gives more ammunition to those saying the WWE product is stale.

2. Edge gets drafted to Raw. Smackdown has been Edge's playground for a while now, and it was a bit of a surprise he was moved to Raw, rather than Randy Orton being moved to Smackdown. Perhaps they're preparing for life after Batista.

3. Edge turns heel. The full turn happened on Smackdown, but Edge got things started by attacking Orton Monday night. The fans haven't really taken to Edge's face turn, mostly because he never really did turn, so going back heel makes the most sense.

4. Abyss wins Ric Flair's Hall-of-Fame ring. We'll see what happens to it this week. Flair's return to the ring (again) against Abyss was nothing special, and it turned out, fans watching at home felt the same way. There just isn't that connection between the fans and the hall-of-fame rings to make it going out of your way to tune in for.

5. Chris Jericho gets drafted to Raw. A lot of the draft picks could make this list, so I wanted to just keep it to main event guys. Jericho has been on Raw so often, this barely makes the top five this week. It'll be interesting to see the pecking order of heels on Raw, and where guys like Jericho and Sheamus will fit in.

6. Big Show turns babyface. Show knocked out his former tag partner, The Miz, then buddied up to Smackdown GM Teddy Long after being drafted to that brand. Smackdown is short on babyfaces, so that makes sense; he and Kofi Kingston could both be in line for big pushes on Friday nights.

7. Mr. Anderson and The Pope begin what appears to be a feud. Anderson interrupted Pope's promo on Monday and the two had a nice exchange. With Kurt Angle out, Anderson needs something to do. Since losing the title, A.J. Styles will likely feud with the new champion, Rob Van Dam, leaving Pope needing a dance partner as well. This could produce some good TV.

8. The Hart Dynasty win the Unified Tag Team Championship. This one was relatively easy to predict, but they had a good match against ShoMiz, and the crowd was eating it up. Pairing them up with Bret Hart has certainly helped their recent face turn. The group was moved to Raw in the Supplemental Draft on Tuesday.

9. Eric Bischoff introduces Championship ranking system. This would've been higher on the list had he gone a little more in-depth, as opposed to just mentioning fan voting and telling viewers to go to tnawrestling.com for more info. Even so, the rankings are important enough to sneak into the top 10.

10. Samoa Joe takes out the X Division Champion. It would appear that Joe will be feuding with Kazarian now, or at least residing in the X Division. Good move, as it gives the division some credibility and gives Joe something meaningful to do until (and if) they have him go for the World Title at some point in the future.


We suggest these recent related articles...
PARKS BLOG: With ratings down, WWE Summerslam setting up to be a high-stakes event
SHOW RESULTS - 7/18 WWE NXT in Venice, Fla.: PARKS'S in-person report on Finn Balor vs. Tyler Breeze, Eva Marie, Uhaa Nation, more
PARKS'S TAKE: Looking at storyline possibilities for each MITB Ladder Match participant
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