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+
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