Report Card: TNA wrestling

Okay, so the mid-card this week is not a wrestler but an entire brand. It's about halfway point for TNA since they made major changes at the top of the year. The biggest change was the inclusion of the legendary Hulk Hogan into the top of TNA's brass. He brought along some of his buddies from his WCW days to play in Florida with. Some were big names that suprised us but for the most part his compadres are washed up shadows of themselves. Since bringing over Hogan, The Nasty Boys, The Band (formerly NWO) and Ric Flair, it seems alot of the young up-coming wrestling stars like Samoa Joe, Kaz, AJ styles, Daniels (who departed recently) and Abyss were pushed aside taking backseat roles to the older contention.

At the top of the year the brand tried it's hand at going head to head with WWE programming live on Monday nights, similar to the Monday night Wars era. It didn't quite work this time around, as TNA ratings had not had the dramatic increase they hoped for. Maybe seeing Hogan and his gang running around like goons, the replacement of TNA's signature 6-sided ring for the usual squared circle or sporadic storytelling might have turned potential new fans off.

However what TNA lacks in clarity they make up in spunk. The past month, things have gone back to business as usual and TNA wants to make sure they give their loyal fans their moneys worth. In May, they brought over fan-favorites Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy, quickly making Van Dam world champ. Hogan is not competing regularly but remains an on screen persona, the tag team division is getting strong once again. Though their Knockouts division was considered far superior to WWE's Divas late last year and earlier this year, numerous injuries and firings to the top women athlete's like Awesome Kong, Hamada & Roxxi made the division as weak if not weaker than WWE's with only The Beautiful People (Madison, Velvet Sky & Lacey Von Erich) running the show. But with the rumoured return of Tara, things might just balance out once again.

Turning our attention to this weeks taping of TNA Impact, the show featured a spectacular ultimate X tag team match between Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money,INC. A beat down to Hogan and Eric Biscoff, a decent but short main event with RVD, Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Abyss. It ended with a brawl between Abyss & Raven taking down the former ECW wrestlers, with the Sandman making a surprise save for team ECW. The most ridiculous thing of the night though, was a street fight match between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal.

The Nature Boy started with a slightly racist but funny promo, and ended with a bloodied half naked Flair pinning Lethal for the win (with help from) Doug Williams). Also the bizarre Orlando Jordan is keeping the bisexual gimmick alive and makes me believe if TNA was more popular they'd get sued...by somebody. With that, TNA might not ever break ratings records, but with the ECW Hardcore Justice ppv this Sunday and the All wrestling no talk Impact episode coming up next Thursday, they are definitely going to keep the loyal marks happy and coming back for more.
Mid-Card grade: B+

Report Card II

TNA wrestling star AJ Styles (Allen Jones)

He's kinda having a weird year to be considered one of the cornerstones for the TNA brand. He wins (and well deserved) the World title for only the second time in his career earlier this year, but with the help of wrestling Hall of famer Ric Flair. He lost it over two months ago to the just recently signed Rob Van Dam. He remains linked to Flair, even taking on some of the Nature Boy's signature traits from the cheating tactics to the entrance robe. All of it comes across as silly for Styles who was being promoted as the all-around face during his career (except when he aligned with Christian circa 2005/06)plus he's too nice of a family man to portray a shady character.
Now that Flair is starting a new stable called Fortune (a play off his former stable the Four Horsemen)he has instated Styles and Kazarian to be the leaders, of course until they add the other 2 members. This past Thursday on Impact, Styles won the TNA Global championship from "the Freak" Rob Terry, of course with help from Kazarian.
If he can get back to putting on classic matches while maintaining a heel persona, while having an impressive Global championship run, the "Phenomenal one" can be the superstar Hulk Hogan once vowed the young man to be.
Grade: B

Report Card-Kane

Report Card for the week-Kane (Glenn Jacobs)

For pretty much the past 2 years Kane has kinda floated around from roster to roster with no strong storylines to keep fans invested in the big red machine. He was the ECW champion in 2008 but was soon sent to Smackdown about 2 months later. Since then he went to Raw then back to Smackdown during the summer of 2009. He was in a few rivalries with the Great Khali & Dolph Ziggler, but nothing major. During that span, he's participated in 3 Money in the Bank matches at Wrestlemania 21, 25 & 26 coming up short each time.

The big man fortune's have changed. At the newly created (dont really know why) Money in the Bank pay-per-view last weekend, Kane participated and won the Smackdown brand's MITB match and a contract for the World title. He cashed it in that same night on the weary champion, Rey Mysterio after he beat previous MITB winner Jack Swagger. The title win was well over due for Kane, an almost 20 year mat veteran whose been pretty consistent, hasnt missed any major time from the ring (except for in 2002, and has kept the same gimmick, with a few changes, for 12 years now. Only Undertaker (fictional brother) has currently wrestled with the same gimmick that long.
Hopefully Kane's title reign will be much more dominant than his past wins. He's already beat his dreaded 24 hr title reign from 1999, maybe he can keep it over the weekend.
Grade: A-

Mid Card Report

The Miz (Mike Mizanan) RAW

Known as the dweeb from the Real World season 9-New York, The Miz is beginning to win over the WWE Universe. He possess charisma that seems to be lacking with the current generation of WWE superstars, has great chemistry with whom ever they put him in a program with (especially ex-mate, John Morrison) and it seems like Vince and the bookers like him. His wrestling abilities may still be a little green, as far as being to know when certain spots are coming or believably dish out punishment to opponents. However since changing his ring attire to actual wrestling attire and showing more dedication, Miz has been awarded the United States Championship, a win over the better in-ring talent Morrison at Bragging Rights last
month and a chance to lead his own team at Survivor Series in two weeks. B+

Mid Card Report: November 1-7 2009

Drew McIntyre (Drew Galloway)Smackdown

In his second call up, McIntyre character has been retooled to be less Scottish stereotype, to being an agressive, egotistical psuedo-Orton character. He within the past 2-3 months have had big victories over vetrans like R-Truth and Finlay. He also has squashed or just plain attacked opponents before his matches. The future isn't looking so bright for the young man, however. He hasn't really had a match in the past month since his re-debut and he was replaced on the Braggin Rights Smackdown team (along with 3 other superstars)last month. Something tells me he's either going to get traded soon or buried, a la Mike Knox. So far, C-