I wasn’t at the final Nitro – the one where Vince bought WCW – but the encounter between Shane McMahon and Lex is often recounted. It wasn’t overwrought, no voices were raised – Shane just smirked and said, “Hey, Lex…how ya doin’?” Shane might as well have said, “F*** you.”
TNA is desperately groping for a big get for tonight. There aren’t any.
Rob Van Dam has been off big-time wrestling TV since 2007. Did absence make the heart grow fonder, or was Van Dam forgotten? At any rate, Van Dam isn’t a draw. He’s no true main-eventer.
TNA badly wants Jeff Hardy there, but given his upcoming battle with jurisprudence, is it worth it? How much does Hardy help if he makes a non-wrestling cameo, then disappears again? You want to provide reasons to watch next week. Does Hardy’s mercurial rep provide that?
I’m curious to see what Van Dam’s attitude will be in TNA. He seems to consider TNA an inferior promotion, but the money’s good and the schedule’s right. Will Van Dam be like Booker T before him, or like Bobby Heenan and Gene Okerlund in WCW: Trapped in golden handcuffs, bitching about it, and delivering subpar performances as a result?
TNA is guilty of one basic error: Nitro started at 8 p.m., Raw at 9. The idea was to get wrestling fans to sample WCW. If it was good, they’d stick around, perhaps without even realizing Raw had started. TNA starts at 9, same as Raw. You’re making fans choose without giving them a chance to sample. How could Eric Bischoff make that mistake?
Mark Madden can be reached at [email protected].
