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Post by MetalBlade on Apr 24, 2010 22:05:35 GMT -1
A massive shock this.
After the X Division champion Doug Williams was unfairly stripped of his title and awarded to Kaz after his triple threat victory at Lockdown, and Angelina Love lost her Knockout title to Madison Rayne on the same show, a third TNA belt has changed hands within 24 hours.
This time, it's AJ Styles who has come up short after some of the best work by the creative team to date.
At the top of the Impact show, Hogan booked Jeff Hardy to face Rob Van Dam with the winner to face AJ for the title in the main event that evening.
Well, RVD lived up to his "Mr. Monday Night" gimmick, by beating first Jeff, then shockingly AJ to become the most popular champion of the year so far in pro wrestling.
I'm seriously stoked that Rob has won big so early on in his TNA career, and after such a long absence from the game.
TNA is offering so much higher quality viewing lately, that it makes me wonder how the company can afford to stay in business whilst playing to such small crowds.
With the depth of talent they have, coupled with the big jump in production values since the new year, it is high time the promotion began whoring it's wares to a bigger audience or risk going bust.
That would be such a shame, as TNA truly offers a viable - and better - alternative to WWE's bog standard PG-safe programming.
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Post by Steala on Apr 24, 2010 22:24:06 GMT -1
I actually caught both matches this week and was impressed by both. TNA has a history of doing this though. They sign a former WWE-er, give him the title a few months later -- likely promised before he signed -- then put him in exile in no-man's-land (e.g. Rhino, Raven). We'll see if RVD remains a Heavyweight lynchpin or a one-off champion.
I'd rather have seen AJ retain, but it could've been worse.
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Post by Woo on Apr 24, 2010 23:32:53 GMT -1
It was a very good show, but I'm not as excited as you Metal.
As Steala said they did this for Rhino and then robbed him of the belt weeks later. Raven's chase for the title was one of the best things TNA has ever done and his reign was fantastic...till they had him lose it on a house show just to make sure JJ would be the face of the company when they went to Spike. Raven was treated like utter shit ever since. Christian, Foley and Angle were both given the title fairly soon too.
I can't help thinking that after giving in to TNA's offers after turning them down all these years RVD signed with that at last, but only if he won the belt. Still though RVD is hugely over and with Raw being crippled by the volcano stranding its entire roster this was a good idea. However they have given away two huge PPV matches in one night.
As for them going bust there isn't much threat of that. TNA is not making billions but it is turning a profit (or at least it was till the Hogans, Flairs, Jeffs and RVD's joined) and has not only done that with small crowds....but with the crowds not paying a single dollar to watch it! Since they don't pay anyway it doesn't matter about the crowd. They make money on the house shows, PPV's (from the crowd moreso that the buyrates) and their tour of the UK must have made an absolute mint....which makes their potential decision to not go back very stupid.
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Post by MetalBlade on Apr 24, 2010 23:43:03 GMT -1
Don't get me wrong guys, I am under no illusion that RVD will keep the title very long.
I too am aware of TNA's history of gifting titles to big name stars.
What I am pleased with is the fact that RVD is champion, for however long that may be.
Having marked for him for over a dozen years now, I'm just glad to see him back in the ring, as close to his best as he can be these days, and having the crowd popping like mad.
If he loses the title next week, I'll be gutted for sure, but having the same old names swapping the title like a fucking hot potato is just so old.
I would kinda like to see a feud develop between RVD and Hardy, as their "get a room" backslapping antics backstage at Impact is bound to begin grating on Hardy until he wins the title.
From a kayfabe POV of course.
That's the only saving grace of WWE having that prick Swagger as their champion.
Least they are beginning to put new faces up there.
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Post by Woo on Apr 25, 2010 0:52:49 GMT -1
The RVD/Jeff thing was odd, but has to be leading somewhere.
My theory is that they are making it obvious now how good mates they are so that when Jeff Hardy is due in court (and perhaps prison) they will have someone like AJ attack him to write him out which would set up a perfect feud againt RVD. Or RVD himself will be the attacker.
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Post by Kevin Borg on Apr 25, 2010 1:27:43 GMT -1
man was it me or did RVD look slow and rusty in that match? There were a few botches (the "trip" and the kick that "Grazes" AJ) and everything he did just seemed sluggish (the rolling thunder looked like he just rolled ontop of AJ).
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Post by MetalBlade on Apr 25, 2010 1:59:07 GMT -1
I dunno, I thought RVD was pretty sharp.
I especially liked the split-legged moonsault which looked amazing.
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Post by Steala on Apr 25, 2010 2:06:13 GMT -1
Other than the trip (which they recovered from easily enough), I thought RVD was pretty good as well. Certainly better than anything I've seen from WWE recently (admittedly not much).
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Post by Knoxville on Apr 25, 2010 9:15:18 GMT -1
I'd prefer it if the World Champ didn't bend over quite a few times in a match to catch his breath.
But still this keeps up TNA's tradition of New Big Name Wrestler = New World Champ.
In all honesty I was waiting for this to happen. I knew the minute RVD debuted he was going to be world champion within at least two months. I glad TNA proved me right.
I dont get why they do it though. AJ was awesome as champ, there was no reason to take the strap off of him. I'm guessing as metal said, they probably promised RVD the belt as a signing booster.
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