Yes WWE may have won the ratings battle that night, but from what I read it wasn’t much of an improvement, considering Bret Hart’s return to TV after 12 looooonnng years. What I saw was a wasted opportunity by Vince and WWE creative to create some dramatic must-see TV, to capitalize on the infamous Montreal incident. Bret and Shawn might have made peace for real, but I would not have gone with that storyline. Instead of kicking things off with a love-fest I would have built the tension throughout the show leading to a possibly violent climax between the two. To just wrap up that bit of history in the space of a 15 minute segment was silly, and was clearly booked there to combat Hogan’s debut in the IMPACT zone. What was even more insane, although pretty unsurprisingly, was to build up to a finale between Vince and Bret, making the angle all about him. Whether it is Vince’s ego, or him just not listening to the fans, NOBODY cared about Bret/Vince as much as they did Bret/HBK – that was what they wanted to see! Instead, we get a weak finish (and a clearly restless crowd) from Vince kicking Bret after another love-fest, like we didn’t see that one coming.

Someone really needs to get rid of the dead wood in WWE management. Vince has long outstayed his welcome onscreen in angles, and it looks like it’s all leading to a Mania showdown between Mr Vincent Kennedy McMahon and the Hitman – no doubt because of Vinnie’s limited in-ring capability and age, and Bret’s health and time away from the ring, we are likely to be forced to watch a gimmicky, street-fight of some sort to hide the weaknesses. Vince also needs to step down from the creative side and pass the torch, well I would say to Shane-O and Steph, but that ship has mostly sailed now, for whatever the personal reasons. Vince has a wealth of talent backstage to take the reigns and make WWE fresh again, I’m of course excluding the Hollywood writers on creative who know nothing about the business. No doubt about it, Vince is one clever guy, and has a good sense for business, but he has just lost touch with the modern audience and perhaps, reality. I hope he realizes soon that he needs to take a backseat and more of a Linda McMahon role in the company.

The rest of RAW was pretty sub-par to be honest. For a show that needed to deliver, the WWE came off as arrogant to me delivering the same old format, same old matches and same old faults. The effort level, not to insult the talent at all here, just came across as doing the bare minimum to pad out the two hours. It’s all down to the booking, format of the show, direction and creative. A few 5 minute or less matches dotted throughout the show, featuring the same matches from a handful of competitors, with poor finishes and boring angles – the WWE is looking very, very tired.

Onto IMPACT which too, had its ups and downs. The opening match had the WORST finish I have seen in a long time, ending with poor Homicide spending what seemed like an eternity trying to climb out of the steel dome. Pretty embarrassing stuff, but thankfully people wont remember that as the first surprise of the night arrived in the form of Jeff Hardy! What an entrance it was, despite my suspicions following his Twitter updates, I was still gob-smacked to see him on the show! I hope he gets a full-time contract as he will attract a huge audience over to TNA, younger fans and female fans mainly. His addition to the roster could do wonders for the X-Division, which needs its focus back as something special within TNA. Another plus point about TNA, is they have the WWE 110% beat when it comes to the women’s division. An amazingly talented female roster manages to pull off physical, exciting and well executed matches with some solid wrestling. Kudos girls! Mickie James, you poor thing, you are being insulted by the WWE by their treatment of you – get out quick sweetheart and go where you will be appreciated.
We then of course had the long awaited debut of the Hulkster himself, and for the limited capacity of the IMPACT Zone, the reception and ovation was clearly emotional and full of electricity. Whether you are a Hulk fan or not, you have to acknowledge that he can get a crowd into a frenzy and create an awesome atmosphere! Good segment, but weird with the arrival of Hall, X-Pac and Nash. It was both good and bad, part of me cringed at the old-timers in their matching leather jacket and jeans outfits (the 1990’s called guys and they want their fashion back) trying to be 30 again, but I have to admit, it was fascinating to watch an almost shoot-style segment and I’m intrigued to see where this goes, especially with Hogan clearly sticking by his guns to say their time has passed and they are on the same level as the younger guys now. The addition of Eric Bischoff was well done too, credit to Eric, I liked his ‘I’m the boss and I take no-BS’ attitude almost to the point of being heel, and I’m again really interested how this will play out over time between the (unofficially named) reunited NOW, Hogan, Jarrett, Foley and Dixie. Speaking of double-J, his promo was weird, and I think the Hogan argument came off unintentionally as heel – I can only assume there are going to be a few behind the scenes fireworks in the coming months. I am also excited to see where the Foley angle goes, if its one thing Mick does brilliantly, is pull off an angle and execute it with believable emotion and intensity. P.S. I can’t wait for the next Foley Biography!

Other parts of the show were mixed, the suspected arrival of the Nasty Boys didn’t do anything for me, and setting up an angle with a past-their prime Team 3D does not do anything to excite me. Other ‘meh’ moments included the arrival of Orlando Jordan and Val Venis, although as a guy the strip poker segment with the Beautiful People was pleasing on the eye, and it only made sense to introduce Val that way. The arrival of Ric Flair was an incredible moment, Tenay and Taz’s reactions were fantastic to say the least! The addition of Flair can only do good things to the onscreen shows and morale of the original TNA roster, and I’m intrigued with his involvement with AJ. Which brings me onto the main event, again brilliantly announced as a surprise, with more surprise as the show carried on until a winner emerged. This was brilliantly executed for us TV viewers and I will explain why very shortly as I have to talk about the match itself. If this doesn’t get considered as a match of the year, then it will be a crime, because it was utterly amazing! Everything was perfect, the crowd were rallied into a frenzy from this unpredictable and buzzing show, and the passion they showed from bell-to-bell could only have spurred two of the best wrestlers in the world, prove why they are the best. The intensity, ability and skill they showed was clearly wowing everybody, with Tenay and Taz (a great announce team in my books) enjoying proudly announcing every second of it. This was Wrestlemania Main Event stuff, leaving it all in the ring with a clean finish, the masked man being the only downside, and was not really needed. If new viewers wanted a reason to follow TNA, AJ and Kurt gave them the best one, the best wrestling in the world.

To summarise my thoughts on why TNA delivered, it had the edginess, unpredictability, surprises, talented execution of wrestling, promos and segments that were clearly not scripted – see how well that works Vince when you allow the talent to shine through?! Even the ‘meh’ moments (Nasty Boys etc) were enjoyable to watch, as it was fun, it was entertaining and you weren’t sure what was going to happen next. If this is Hogan and Bischoff’s first attempt, then ‘A’ for effort guys, it was first class! It was more raw than RAW! If they can keep this up and TNA moves to Monday nights, then WWE has A LOT to worry about!