Of course you did. It was Wrestlemania XXVI Weekend! And here are my reactions to the biggest show of the year…

Pretty spectacular looking set and a great but cheesy opening montage of ‘Wrestlemania Moments’. We open the show with…

Big Show & Miz v R Truth & John Morrison

How long has it been since the Tag Titles featured at Wrestlemania? Although the belts were unified at last years Wrestlemania, the match was on the preshow not the pay-per-view. In fact, you have to go back to 2006 to find the last tag title match at Wrestlemania. So I was pretty surprised to see this match had made the PPV. I had expected it to be cut and added to the preshow. It wasn’t all that bad…until the finish. Morrison springboards, Show punches him from the apron and covers. Rather surprising and a little odd. Still, it was short and unobtrusive.

Ted DiBiase v Cody Rhodes v Randy Orton

This wasn’t as dull as I was expecting (Yes, expect me to say that about a few matches. It’s meant as a compliment, honest!). Orton was pretty inventive in holding off the double teaming in the early going. Soon enough, the Rhodes and DiBiase team started to crumble and Orton capitalised, punting Cody and hitting an RKO on Ted for the win. It was a textbook ‘handicap’ three way. The story came across rather well.

Vickie Guerrero cuts a terrible promo backstage and Santino plugs Slim Jims in an embarrassing segment. I guess it was meant to be funny. The lack of Michael Cole’s forced laughter said it all.

Money in The Bank

I have to say, I think they’re throwing far too many guys in to this match now. It was hard to pick a winner, because clearly the match was filled with every wrestler stuck in midcard hell. Kofi using the broken ladder as a pair of stilts was fun, but this match is so overdone now…maybe they should lay the gimmick to rest for a few years? Jack Swagger wins, taking ages to unhook the bloody case. I wouldn’t be against Swagger winning if they’d done ANYTHING with him in the past few months. I just didn’t see the point.

Triple H v Seamus

I honestly expected a snoozefest here, but actually found the match to be surprisingly entertaining. I can’t remember the last Triple H match that I truly enjoyed – I just find him a little dull and tired (and his opponents don’t help his style!). H and Seamus showed some great chemistry tonight. Triple H gets the Pedigree and the pinfall. I would have like to see Trips put Seamus over at Wrestlemania – especially considering how terribly they’ve promoted Seamus since winning the Title (and losing it). The WWE Champion wrestling in the opening match on Raw was never a good thing. Let’s hope strong performances like Sunday help strengthen his position on the card.

CM Punk v Rey Mysterio

Rey seemed to take a lifetime to come through the curtain. I presume his entrance was botched? He’s also come dressed as one of the aliens from Avatar – it wasn’t all that convincing, prompting Jerry Lawler to explain it to us watching at home. This was a decent match. Pretty much what you’d expect from these two. Rey hits the 619 and gets the victory.

Vince McMahon v Bret Hart

We’ve waited so long for this match. Can it possibly live up to the hype? For months I asked myself if Bret was fit to wrestle. I figured if he was unfit to wrestle, they’d have just put him and Vince in somebody’s corner (a la McMahon/Trump at Wrestlemania 23). But he’s in the match! Surely this’ll be good. Well…no. In fact, if you’d have told me this match would be the one big dud on the card, I’d have called you crazy. It was terrible. It involved the entire Hart family as lumberjacks, some unconvincing crowbar attacks and one elbow drop from Bret. In fact, the match basically consisted of an elbow and the sharpshooter. I guess we should be thankful that a line has been drawn under Montreal. To be honest, I’m just disappointed Bret would choose to end his career in such an awful match.

Chris Jericho v Edge

I was really, really hoping this would be higher up the card than this. I thought the Royal Rumble winner won a Title shot in the Main Event? I guess the Royal Rumble concept is pretty redundant with that terrible Elimination Chamber PPV. Anyways, this match lives up to my expectations. Plenty of fantastic counters and a logical story. Obviously, Edge wants to get the spear and Jericho keeps dodging his attempts to hit it. It made for a superb match. Jericho wins after hitting Edge with the belt, followed by a Codebreaker. This no doubt indicates this feud will continue, which is a good thing. Still, I’d have given this match an extra ten minutes…

Womens Tag Match

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know I don’t do Womens Matches. The fast forward button gets used for the first time in the night…

Batista v John Cena

Undertaker has his winning streak, but Cena has a streak of incredibly cheesy Wrestlemania entrances. This year, there’s a Air Force drill team swinging bayonets. It’s impressive, I suppose. But they’re there for John Cena, which makes them automatically shit. This match was bearable. Again, not as bad as it could have been, but no classic. Unsurprisingly, Cena wins the title. He then poses with a bunch of guys in ‘We Hate Cena’ T Shirts. What a douche.

Undertaker v Shawn Michaels

I was pleasantly surprised to see this in the Main Event slot. No grand entrance for Michaels told me that this match was going to be serious. It certainly lived up to last years match. (While we’re on the subject – for the record, I thought last years match was overrated. Sure, it was great. Best WM match ever? Not by a long shot. There were far too many false finishes for me. There’s only so many times a guy can kick out of a finisher before it seems a bit silly…) I loved the ending, with Taker shouting to HBK to stay down. It really felt as though he was dropping out of character. Then Michaels slaps him and boom! Tombstone and pinfall. Undertaker is 18-0 and Shawn Michaels is retired…for now. I always find it so hard to get emotionally attached to these stipulations when guys are either being forced in to retirement or just blatantly have no intention of staying retired. Look at the emotional Ric Flair farewell. Where is he now? Michaels looked as humbled as I’ve ever seen him as he took his final bow. If this truly is the end of his career, he’s certainly gone out on a much higher note than Bret Hart.

All in all, a decent Wrestlemania. Better than last year. Some matches were surprisingly good, some shockingly bad. My only gripe would be the short match length of the lower to mid card. But I wouldn’t sacrifice a minute of Jericho/Edge or Taker/HBK for any of those matches, so I guess it balances out. Perhaps WWE should stop trying to cram absolutely everyone on the card. That way time can be better allocated to the feuds that people want to see.

Raw results and analysis as soon as I get around to it. Feel free to leave your Wrestlemania reactions. How did you rate the PPV? What were your high points and low points?

That’s right. For the first time in a very long time…I enjoyed Monday Night Raw.

Admittedly, I enjoyed it mainly for Stone Cold’s involvement and a fantastic Hart/McMahon contract signing (which closed the show). But what was proven Monday night is that a show stacked with good wrestling matches (Michaels/Jericho?) good promos and no horrific comedy midget segments was actually worth watching.

The show proved that wrestling programming can work with a PG rating without the need to tone the whole damn show down to infantile levels. The show ended on a high note. No typical heel beatdown here. An old school ‘face gets one over on the heel’ moment.

The irony was that, after my praising its ‘Attitude Era’ style content, TNA Impact was rather bland by comparison. I’m getting really tired of Eric Bischoff manipulating Jarrett and Foley. I’m fed up of their number one contender (Pope D’Angelo Dinero) selling an ankle injury. I grow weary of Hall and Nash beat each other up incredibly slowly…

Only last week, I praised TNA for its exciting content. This week just really fell flat. Obviously, every week can’t be a ‘Once in a lifetime, Not to be missed, Start of an era, Change the face of wrestling’ show, but TNA really needs to look at striking a balance. Here’s a few suggestions that I would like to see;

1. First and foremost, TNA needs to put a cap on their roster. Sure, the weekly surprise entrants have been fun, but now the roster is fit to burst. Now it’s time to build the show around who’s there, not who’s coming. I guess I’ve lost track of all the debuts since January. Why bring RVD in and throw him straight in to a feud with a TNA returnee like Sting? Let them build some heat. Why didn’t he debut in the X Division and liven that part of the roster up? More on that later.

2. Reduce the number of PPVs. This would apply to WWE also. Since January’s ‘new era’ of TNA, we’ve had 3 PPVs (including this Sunday’s Destination X). If they want to sell these damn things, make less and build more feuds. Make each match on the card mean something. Look at this year’s Wrestlemania. I think it’s a pretty solid card, stacked with matches that have each had sufficient screen time. TNA just seems to throw matches on to the sheet to fill some space.

3. Since there is now no 6-sided ring, you need to differentiate TNA’s product with WWE’s product. There’s been plenty of blood in recent weeks, obviously targeting the 18-34 demographic that WWE appears to have abandoned. But what they should really be pushing is the X Division. When the X Division is hot, it’s really hot. I’m sure there are plenty of RVD fans who would love to see him let loose in the X Division. How about Samoa Joe? Homicide? No. Instead, TNA currently uses the X Division as a Mid Card Hell. The promo last week on Impact to promote the X Division Title Three Way was hardly full of charisma, was it? It makes the X Division look (to the casual WWE viewer) like the TNA version of NXT. Which is a real shame.

4. Less reliance on the veterans to promote the matches. I understand Hogan and Flair make good promos, but lets see AJ Styles and Abyss promote their match. They just look like kids who are letting their parents argue it out amongst themselves. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Hogan and Flair as on-air personalities. Hell, I even enjoyed their involvement in last weeks tag match. But at least let the Champion and his Contender speak for themselves. Standing next to them holding their hands just makes it look as though the company has no faith in their drawing power.

I hope TNA can ride out this initial lull in Monday viewing figures. I hope they have the strength to pull a great show out of the bag and become serious competition to the WWE. Not because I have any allegiance either way, but because the competition is good for business. I’d love to think the lack of Hornswaggle and other assorted Raw silliness was an attempt to keep fans from switching to Impact…but the truth is, WWE doesn’t seem to care about TNA just yet.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope this weeks Raw was the first in a series of awesome episodes designed to make Impact look like crap.

Because if that’s the case, we win.

Just like we did during the Monday Night War.

Coming up this weekend, thoughts on the upcoming Wrestlemania weekend, including a look at the latest announced Hall of Fame inductees. Stick around.

This past week, TNA moved Impact to Monday nights permanently. This weeks show was live, but this coming Monday is taped. Strangely, the biggest response to a ratings war has not come from the respective companies, but from the networks themselves. For those who haven’t already seen, Raw did a 3.4, Impact did a 0.98 (rounded up to 1.0). Spike were apparently happy with the 1.0 rating. The final Thursday night Impact did a 1.1, so there was no significant drop in audience. They are rightly regarding this as the first step in a long term strategy. USA couldn’t resist a dig. Ted Linhart (VP of Program Research) posted this on Twitter; “Not much of a Monday Night “War”. RAW trounced TNA by 275% w/ total viewers. Also Impact much lower than the test Monday ep in early Jan.”

As I’ve said before, a head to head ratings war doesn’t work in the modern,  DVR-equipped world. The companies themselves are pretty much proving this, with Jeff Jarrett himself referring to DVR as an element that detracts from the ratings. The New Monday Night War is a network war, not a wrestling war.

But that doesn’t stop us taking a look at either show. Which came out on top? Raw was its usual dull, plodding self. The Cena v McMahon Main Event was a predictable swerve – McMahon throwing wave after wave of wrestlers at Cena before a Batista beatdown. Impact was more entertaining. Hogan/Abyss v Flair/Styles opened the show with a blood soaked brawl the likes of which WWE will no longer present. Sting returned, RVD debuted, Jeff Hardy interfered…Granted, there can’t be all that many twists every week, but the show felt like an alternative to the PG-friendly, bland content currently produced by WWE.

One thing I didn’t like about Impact was the number of in-ring segments and brawls. You had Flair/Hogan, Angle/Anderson, Nash/Hall…every angle seemed to play out an interview and lengthy beatdown that made the show feel a lot longer than it actually was. A little variety wouldn’t have hurt. Like, for example, a few wrestling matches. It is a wrestling show after all. Instead, we had the opening Flair/Hogan/Styles/Abyss/Sting brawl, followed by reactions from each man individually. That’s six segments before any wrestling takes place (I’m not counting the match as an actual match. It was a brawl that started and ended on the mic).

Tonight’s Raw features Steve Austin as Guest Host. He’ll be present at the Hart/McMahon Contract Signing. I’m really hoping this sets him up as the Guest Referee. Austin has a history with both men and I think any involvement from the Texas Rattlesnake will only make things feel much grander come Wrestlemania. Bret has already confirmed his WWE involvement post-Wrestlemania. He is booked on the Germany leg of the Wrestlemania Revenge Tour as Guest Enforcer in a match between Edge and Jericho.

More updates to come later in the week. A few Wrestlemania related articles. Until then…

Inoki will be the first Japanese wrestler inducted in to the Hall of Fame. Hopefully, he will not be the last. There’s dozens of deserving guys from New Japan, All Japan and NOAH that deserve to be honoured. More on one in particular later. First, let’s take a look at our latest Inductee.

Antonio was born Kanji Inoki on February 20, 1943. His family left Yokohama in 1957 and immigrated to Brazil.  Inoki met Rikidozan at the age of 17 whilst working on a coffee plantation. “In those days it was like living as a slave,” Inoki once said. “Now it is good to think I worked on the plantation in 45 degree heat. I struggled to eat, but such a life gave me the spirit to fight.”

Inoki went back to Japan as Rikidozan’s disciple, working for the Japanese Wrestling Association, training with Giant Baba. Baba and Inoki would later form a tag team, winning the NWA International tag titles four times. Inoki was fired from JWA in 1971 after planning a takeover of the promotion. He would found New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972. In the same year, Baba left JWA and founded All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Inoki’s defining moment came in 1976, when he challenged Mohammad Ali to a mixed martial arts contest. Inoki was way ahead of his time when it came to MMA. He had already fought several fights against stars of various disciplines. When Ali’s camp arrived in Japan, they expected a work – or at the very least an exhibition match. But Inoki was serious. At a press conference, Inoki told Ali, “When your fist connects with my chin, take care that your fist is not damaged.” Speaking would say afterwards, “I don’t know how seriously Muhammad Ali is taking the fight, but if he doesn’t take it seriously, he could suffer damage. I’m going in there fighting. I may even break his arm.”

When Ali saw Inoki training, they realised how serious he was. Allegedly, Ali asked Inoki when they would rehearse the fight. Inoki told him there would be no rehearsal. It was a real fight. Budokan Hall was sold out. Vince McMahon Sr had a closed circuit telecast of the fight from Shea Stadium. At the last minute, Ali’s crew demanded the rules of the fight be changed and not advertised until the last minute. The strangest restrictions meant Inoki was not allowed to throw or tackle Ali, and could not land any kicks unless he had one knee in contact with the mat.

The fight went the full 15 rounds. Ali threw six punches. Inoki spent all but thirteen seconds laying on the mat, kicking Ali from the canvas. Inoki did manage a takedown at one point. The match was a draw, although Inoki was technically ahead on points – those extra points were conveniently docked for fouls. The two would later become close friends. Ali was at Inoki’s final match in 1998.

In 1979, Inokoi defeated Bob Backlund for a brief stint as WWF Heavyweight Champion. He would be the first man to win the belt since the company had been renamed the World Wrestling Federation (Backlund won it when it was still the WWWF Championship).

In 1995, Inoki drew 190,000 fans to May Day Stadium for a two day wrestling festival for peace in Pyongyang, North Korea. Inoki fought Ric Flair – their only match. Inoki came out on top.

Inoki left New Japan after selling his controlling 51.5% stock in 2005 to YUKE’s. He began a new promotion in 2007 – Inoki Genome Federation. Setting up his own version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The belt was held by Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle before being unified with New Japan’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship (February 17, 2008 by Shinsuke Nakamura).

WWE announced Inoki’s HoF induction at a Tokyo press conference on February, 9. He will be inducted by Stan Hansen.

The induction of Antonio Inoki should open the floodgates for other Japanese stars to receive recognition by the WWE. One that immediately stands out is Mitsuhara Misawa, who died 2009. The second Tiger Mask, Misawa feuded with Dynamite Kid and was the Wrestling Observer’s Wrestler of the Year on three occasions. For that matter, why not induct the first Tiger Mask – Satoru Sayama – the only man to hold both the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship at the same time.

How about the guys that made these legends – even guys who made Inoki – such as Rikidozan and Giant Baba? And then, if you’ve honoured legends such as Rikidozan and Lou Thesz, why not Santo and Frank Gotch?

In recent years, with the inductions of the Von Erichs, Verne Gagne, Gordon Solie and now Antonio Inoki, WWE have expanded their Hall of Fame outside of the ‘WWE Universe’. How long will this hold up? Will WWE continue to honour wrestling’s greats from beyond their organisation? Let’s hope so. Only by inducting stars that WWE did not create (even stars that WWE are no longer on friendly terms with) can their Hall of Fame truly be recognised as the pinnacle of wrestling’s accomplishments.

Congratulations to Antonio Inoki. A great decision to induct on behalf of WWE.

Ted was trained by Dory Jr and Terry Funk, making his professional wrestling debut for Mid South in 1975. During a short stint with the WWF in 1979, Ted became the first North American Champion, losing it to Pat Patterson. The belt was then renamed the Intercontinental Championship. He would wrestle for Mid South and All Japan until approached by Vince McMahon Jr in 1987. He was promised a gimmick that Vince would give himself if he were to go out and wrestle. The Million Dollar Man was born.

In late 1987, DiBiase recruited Andre The Giant to acquire the Championship for him from Hulk Hogan. Andre beat Hogan after DiBiase replaced referee Dave Hebner with a referee he had paid off (ironically, Earl Hebner). Andre then relinquished the belt to DiBiase, despite the WWF never recognising Ted as Champion. A tournament was then set up to crown a new WWF Champion at Wrestlemania IV. DiBiase was defeated in the finals by Randy Savage.

His first WWF accolade was winning the 1988 King of the Ring tournament (defeating Randy Savage in the final). In 1989, after 2 years attempting to buy a title reign, Ted created the Million Dollar Championship belt – a belt that WWF refused to recognise.

His long time manservant Virgil turned face in 1991, beating DiBiase at Wrestlemania VII. Ted would replace Virgil with Sensational Sherri. A year later, he teamed with Irwin R Schyster, winning the Tag Titles as Money Inc. A major angle involved an assault on Brutus Beefcake on an early episode of Monday Night Raw. Beefcake’s face had undergone surgery following an accident and Money Inc targeted the injury. Hogan came to his friends defence, resulting in a match at Wrestlemania IX. DiBiase would wrestle his final WWF match in the summer of 1993. He became a heel manager, forming the Million Dollar Corporation – consisting of IRS, Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid and Tatanka. He would later introduce the WWF to ‘The Ringmaster’ Steve Austin, giving him the Million Dollar belt.

In 1996, DiBiase left for WCW, becoming the fourth member of the nWo. Although unable to use the Million Dollar Man gimmick, they referred to him as Trillionaire Ted and implied he used his money to fund the nWo. He left the group in August 1997 and after a brief face turn retired from managing altogether. He would be rehired in 2005 by WWE as a creative consultant and road agent for Smackdown.

One of the great things about DiBiase – and I guess, WWE at the time – was his kayfabe of the character. Ted was given cash by WWE to flash around whilst he was on the road during his heyday. He’d overtip in restaurants, buy everyone drinks and pay for small items with a $100 bill. The Million Dollar belt cost $40,000 and Ted had to carry documentation with him through customs whenever he carried the belt, as it was made of real diamonds and gold. How cool is that? “You’re gimmick is going to be that you’re rich. Here’s some money to spend to make it look real!”

So, Mr DiBiase, Dave Harley salutes you and your long overdue induction in to the Hall of Fame. No doubt you bought your way in. I’d hate to think otherwise. After all, everyone has their price!

I’ll admit, Survivor Series has been pretty lame the past few years. The tag team elimination formula was dropped back in 1997 and has been used sparingly since then. I thought I’d start this tribute to our fallen PPV with a recap of some of Survivor Series most significant moments.

For weeks, the WWE was abuzz about a giant egg which had appeared at live events. Who was in the egg? When would it hatch? Of course, the egg hatched at Survivor Series 1990 and out came The Gobbledygooker! This giant turkey danced with Mean Gene whilst Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper tried to sound enthusiastic on commentary. But even in 1990, the fans weren’t going to buy crap like this, booing loudly. The gimmick was quickly dropped.

Survivor Series 1992 featured the WWE’s first ever Casket Match. Even better than that, Bossman and Nailz fought in a Nightstick On A Pole Match. Shortly after this PPV, Nailz attacked McMahon (upset about his pay from Summerslam) and left WWE. He would later testify against McMahon in the steroids trial.

The events of Survivor Series 1997 are still being played out on Raw. If you’re reading this column, then I’ll presume you know about the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart’s departure to WCW and the subsequent creation of the heel Mr McMahon character. 12 years later, it’s the focal point of Raw’s most compelling angle.

My favourite Survivor Series took place in 1998. In a departure from the traditional tag formula, wrestlers competed in a single elimination tournament for the WWE Championship – the first Title Tournament since Wrestlemania IV. This was the height of the Austin/McMahon feud and culminated in The Rock joining The Corporation and gaining the belt. Rock entered the PPV as a face. In the Quarter Finals, he pinned Bossman in four seconds. In the Semi Finals, he defeated Ken Shamrock after intercepting Bossman’s nightstick (allegedly being thrown to Shamrock). The Final saw Rock beat Mankind with a sharpshooter. Vince rang the bell before Mankind could tap, a take on the previous years Montreal debacle.

In 2002, Survivor Series introduced us to the Elimination Chamber. A decent, yet now overused, gimmick cage match which was advertised as a cross between Hell In A Cell and War Games. The match was won by Shawn Michaels.

Things have been pretty slow these past 7 years. Recently, fans were surveyed as to what they would like as a replacement. Surprise, surprise they were mainly all gimmick match specific. A Street Fight PPV, a Money In The Bank PPV, an Entry Draft PPV. I think there is still a lot of mileage in the Survivor Series format if booked correctly. Why not make the stakes higher? A World Title Shot to the survivors? Or how about just reducing the amount of PPVs each year and actually making each show mean something? It’s no surprise the older shows were the best ones. 

One of the intriguing options that WWE have mentioned as a possible replacement is a War Games event.

I never thought WWE would ever even mention War Games, let alone toy with using it. It was an exclusive WCW idea and you know Vince hates admitting WCW had any decent ideas. Actually, the War Games Match was usually a messy clusterfuck affair (especially the last WCW v nWo War Games Match), but fans often look back fondly to the Horsemen War Games Matches.

I would love to see WWE use War Games, but not at the expense of Survivor Series. Why not have it as the Main Event of Survivor Series? The winning two teams battle it out in the dual cage? Perhaps that would make too much sense… 

Let me hear your thoughts and favourite moments from Survivor Series’ rich past.

Dave Harley has followed the wrestling business for over twenty years. He writes for various Trade Union publications and has written and directed several amateur stageplays. He currently resides in Liverpool, England.

It doesn’t take a moron to see what that has done to Wrestlemania’s build-up. Royal Rumble has now become a meaningless event, filled with meaningless Title Matches and a semi-meaningful Number One Contenders ‘Royale’. Let’s look at the past two years as proof;

2008. John Cena wins the Royal Rumble. Edge is World Champion and Orton is WWE Champion. Your Wrestlemania 24 Main Event? Edge vs Undertaker. That was a result of No Way Out, during which Undertaker won a Number One Contenders Elimination Chamber Match. For the record, Cena’s Rumble win got him a match against Orton at No Way Out and a Triple Threat with Orton and Triple H at Wrestlemania.

2009. Randy Orton wins the Royal Rumble. John Cena is World Champion, Edge is WWE Champion. Cena v Orton at Mania? No. At No Way Out, Edge drops the WWE Title to Triple H, but then beats John Cena for the World Title. The Main Event of Wrestlemania 25 sees Orton face a champion who was decided at No Way Out (Triple H).

You see how this screws things up? So we come to this year. Edge wins the Rumble. You have Undertaker and Sheamus as Champion. We’re clearly building to Michaels/Undertaker in the Main Event (and if that’s not the Main Event, it’ll be a crime). So can we assume Michaels will win the Title at the Elimination Chamber, making Undertaker a contender rather than a Champion? And what of Edge? What was the logic in making him the number one contender? Somehow I doubt we’ll see Sheamus v Edge. In fact, the way Sheamus is curtain-jerking on Raw I’ll be very surprised if he’s still WWE Champion by Wrestlemania.

Having two Champions doesn’t help matters. The Unified Champion was a much better idea. It doesn’t mean scrapping McMahon’s precious brand split. The Champion can appear on both shows. It’s been done before and it works. For now, there are too many champions, too many title changes and too many contenders. Which sounds crazy, considering I feel like I’ve watched the same Title Matches twelve million times. WWE’s upper card is stale.

Freshening the show up is a lot simpler than you may think. It involves making a slight alteration to one man. Ready?

Turn Cena heel.

I know, I know. He’s the poster boy. He’s the kids hero. They’ll never do it. But the guy needs a serious dose of personality that only a heel turn can inject. And instead of the sickly catchphrases and merchandise, we get a fresh opponent for the faces. Put him up against a face Edge, or John Morrison, or MVP, or face Cody Rhodes. Wrestling is only as good as its heels. Vince McMahon, Hollywood Hogan, The Rock, Ted DiBiase, Andre The Giant

The way I see it, that’s what makes Smackdown so much more watchable than Raw. You have CM Punk and Jericho. You love to hate them. Orton? Sheamus? Zzzzzzzzz…

Dave Harley has followed the wrestling business for over twenty years. He writes for various Trade Union publications and has written and directed several amateur stageplays. He currently resides in Liverpool, England.

The 6 sided ring was far from an original concept. It had been used by Lucha Libre promotions for a number of years, most notably by AAA. TNA adopted the ring when they moved to Orlando in 2004 for the filming of Impact. Previously, their weekly PPVs from Nashville had used the traditional 4 sided ring.

Their adoption of this Lucha style ring gave the product a unique look when compared to WWE’s programming. It also suited the fast-paced, high flyers of the X Division – around which TNA was basing most of their publicity around at the time. Since then, TNA has built around former WWE guys, who unsurprisingly are much less agile than TNA’s X Division – Foley, Nash, Morgan, Steiner, Tomko (I’ll not count Kurt Angle, as I’d list him with the X Division guys any day).

Was it a surprise that Hogan and Bischoff dislike the 6 sided ring? No. A ring like that isn’t built for the slow, plodding styles of Hogan and his entourage. At Genesis, TNA returned to the 4 sided ring, a move which divided its fans. I feel as though an item that gave TNA a lot of his identity has now been lost. If you combine that with their jumbotron, TNA is just another generic wrestling promotion now. Gone is the novelty of separate entrances at opposing ends of the ‘arena’ – the set was changed a while ago. It’s looking distinctly like 2001 WCW now.

In terms of the in-ring product, I doubt it will make too much difference. In fact, tag matches will probably benefit from reverting back to 4 corners. 6 corners has always seemed a rather odd balance during tag matches. The guys who excel in the ring will look good regardless of ring shape or size. One particular PPV stands out to me as an event which will likely suffer. TNA Lockdown.

Lockdown, TNA’s all cage match PPV, can be a mixed bag. Any half decent booker would tell you to keep a cage for the blowoff of a particularly intense feud. Seeing a cage used for every match, regardless of intensity, can leave you pretty desensitized to the concept come the Main Event – which is the match that really needs the cage. However, TNA hit on a great thing. Not intentionally, but a great thing nonetheless. You see, a 6 sided cage looks pretty damn similar to UFC’s Octagon. And if your product looks more ‘MMA’ then you can catch some cross over fans, right?

Well, in principle that works. Lockdown 2008 featured an amazing Main Event, with Kurt Angle facing Samoa Joe for the World Title. The match was applauded for its MMA style, but rather than take the reviews and run with it, TNA returned to its usual wacky happenings the following night. For one match, TNA came close to revolutionising the wrestling world. With that in mind, I’ll be sorry to lose the ‘Six Sides of Steel’.

But that’s just the way I see it.

Dave Harley has followed the wrestling business for over twenty years. He writes for various Trade Union publications and has written and directed several amateur stageplays. He currently resides in Liverpool, England.

Moving on to this past week’s episodes (Jan 11^th & 14^th), a brief summary of the best and worst;

Raw had guest host Mike Tyson, who’s acting is as good as it was back in 1998. Crap. Cena, Kingston and Orton had a three way match to decide the Number One Contendership, which was dull. Orton wins. The Miz cut a killer promo whilst walking from the back to the ring, which included a perfect JBL imitation. This is what WWE needs – guys who BELIEVE in what they’re saying. He was interrupted by MVP. This segment was Raw’s highlight. A predictable Main Event saw Tyson screw Jericho out of appearing on Raw. No doubt he’ll be back again next week. Such is wrestling, eh?

Impact had very little Hogan involvement, which seemed a strange contrast to the previous week. Wolfe beat Joe in a match that should have had a shitload more screen time. Styles attacker turns out to be Tomko, which nobody cared about. Sting’s in the rafters again. How long will he sulk up there? Ric Flair joins Tenay and Taz for the Main Event and sounds suitably bored. A real disappointment after last week.

On to a roundup of this weeks news. Wrestling’s biggest star returns to Raw on March 15^th. Steve Austin will be the guest host. Would be nice to see Bret on that show too, if they really are building up to a McMahon/Hart Mania Match as expected. Maybe Austin could be the Guest referee? I’d pay for that.

By the time you read this, TNA will have taped four Impact shows to play over the coming weeks. This will cover them during their UK Tour. So a move to Monday Nights is not on the cards any time soon. I wonder if any of the recent signings will be on the tour? Anyone going to see the nWo guys will be disappointed, I’m sure, but I suspect tickets were sold out in advance of their debut.

On Cornette’s now infamous podcast; Jim Ross blogged, “I have not always agreed 100% with some of Jim’s assessments but I have never doubted for one second his passion and love of the business. Ring of Honor is fortunate to have Cornette on their team.” Cornette now has a new podcast up. In it, he responds to Bubba the Love Sponge. It’s hilarious and recommended.

Bret Hart commented on his Raw return on Facebook; “It’s worth mentioning that although I did see Shawn earlier in the afternoon in the cafeteria, our in-ring face-off was unrehearsed and heartfelt on both sides and I can finally say that Shawn and I have finally made peace in what has been a long, draining, and sometimes pointless war of personalities.” He then talks about McMahon ‘in character’, so I’m not sure how to take this. Hopefully they’ve let go of this centuries-old conflict, but their faces in the ring told another story to me. I’d be interested to know what my readers think.

TNA Impact’s 14/1 show drew a 1.26 rating, up from their previous Thursday average of 0.7. I wouldn’t be surprised if that drops next week owing to this weeks lacklustre show.

Dwayne Johnson was supposed to host last weeks Raw, but had commitments in Mexico (promoting his new movie The Tooth Fairy). He hopes to sort a return soon.

TNA is raising money for victims of the Haiti earthquake at house shows and TV tapings. Unfortunately, their new backstage interviewer doesn’t share TNA’s compassion. From Bubba The Love Sponge’s Twitter; “I say f*** hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba” What a nice guy.

That’s all I have for you today. A review of TNA Genesis will follow in the next couple of days. Until then…