Am I imagining it, or did Joe and Kristina break hold in the middle of the tango? I was certain that this was classed as an 'illegal move', but none of the judges mentioned it (maybe they had enough to be mean about). Combined with the illegal lift from Rav, are we going to be seeing choreography that basically doesn't give a shit this series?

I thought joe would be really good and considering his boxing ability have fluid movement on the floor, i think kristina also thought shed hit the jackpot after JS last year. But joe was completely wooden, stiff, no personality, overall awful, he looked terrified, i hope he improves as i want him to do well.

That's how I feel. It isn't fair, really, for the media to whip up such a lot of expectation before the show starts. If we'd known nothing about him we'd have expected nothing. As it was, it was disappointing.

Ali Bastian was wonderful and I had never even given her a thought before the show started.

If you look back at Kristina and John's opening waltz it was full of charm and chemistry. John was a most willing and interested partner, and Kristina in her England debut was the portrait of beauty and grace.

Tonight Joe looked distant in his own world, and most alarmingly I felt Kristina his wouldbe partner was ill at ease and not into the music and dance, her gift and her birthright.

Kristina was enchanting beyond words last year. Many underestimated the contribution from another.

We havent seen his latin uet, but in another thread last week I did say I could see him being Mark Foster MKII - early favourite before they dance turns out to be a bit crap...

However it was the first dance... look at what happened to Matt Dawson/ Darren Gough - too early to realyl tell at this point

What did Alesha mean he was sniffing Kristinas hair.
Did anyone see that - I didnt.
I thought she was a bit nasty to them she surprised me.
I know they weren't good and all the other judges said so
but she struck me as being a bit bitchy did anyone think so
or is it me.

I preferred watching John Sargeant!
Joe's first dance was very disappointing

joe, rav and ricky were my favourites before the show

..being welsh, and liking big sturdy men

i never can pick a winner in these things

And I think he'll get worse, he has no personality at all that's the problem , he's far too serious about everything if it's nothing to do with boxing then I think he's a lost cause

trust me, that boy has personality

didn't really show any tonight, but...

I remembered the same is said of Mark Foster. People here kept thinking: give him a few weeks and he'll improve. Well, he didn't and we got to see some really ungainly dance moves from him.

Thing is, Mark Foster couldn't be faulted in the sense that he really trained very hard. Joe, on the other hand, seemed to be living in his bubble-world, with the clearly besotted Kristina praising him, so he's deluded into thinking he might be good (if the pre-show interviews were anything to go by).

To be fair to him, I think he just froze and had a mind blank. He couldn't put any personality into it because he forgot half the moves and was trying to remember them. His head barely moved throughout the dance, and the Tango is one dance where you really need head movements!

i think he was just stunned by the lovely kristina

If he hasn't got used to her after spending every day with her in training then he really hasn't got a chance.

i couldn't get used to someone who looks like that

Maybe that's why John found it so hard?

EDIT: I could've phrased that better.

It was not stage fright.
Look at his practice footage in private, in the Greytop column. Exactly the same as tonight. Would someone knowledgeable about pro boxing like to comment -- are boxers trained not to let emotion lead the way?

It would truly be a tragedy if Kristina goes out early. Mark was a tremendous hit with the ladies on looks, but it did not save him for long.

I noticed that, maybe the judges let it pass given that the marks were already so low and he had so many other mistakes to point out.

The main difference (so far) between Joe and Mark is that from the start Mark quite clearly loved being on the show and thoroughly enjoyed himself (except maybe for the judging bits). I didn't get a flicker of pleasure from Joe.

You could have a point there - never thought about that.

When the celebs were announced, I thought Joe would be one to watch. Well he was - he looked like Herman Munster let loose on the dance floor.

Mind you, I wouldn't underestimate the female voting public - a lorra ladies like Joe Calzaghe!

Unless Rav and Joe can do much better tonight I would expect them to be in the dance off, but I wouldn't like to say which would go home.

I was quite surprised he was so bad. For some reason I thought he was going to be good! Maybe because I think of boxer's as being light on their feet, doing lots of footwork training so they are co-ordinated etc.

But he was really bad. No timing, leaden, no rhythm. Plus he had a weird staring into the middle distance look on his face the whole dance.

I think people are being very extreme with their comments about Joe and are quite frankly wrong! He is certainly better than Mark Foster or John Sargent. Yes the dance was boring, but he had rythm. I think he could do a Gethin or Rachel who both had no pesronality to begin with. It was just a case of severe fear resulting in him not connecting with Kristina and Kristina not giving him enough to do because she is so used to giving John Sargent so little to do. Mark my words people, he will get better, there is a foundaton to start from. I even think he will build on last night performance today, learning from what he did wrong.

The week Mark was evicted, 3 celebs were clear bottom on an appalling score.

The voters comprising a majority of females loved the Kristina-John charm and chemistry, saving them by a landslide -- a vote for John being always a vote for Kristina-John. The females who allegedly adored Mark the Chest did not save him from the bottom two even after Craig's vicious "stick insect on acid" remark. In the dance-off the judges preferred Andrew the Bottom to Mark the Chest.

This is why, when it comes to the crunch, I have doubts about females preferring chest to charm.

sadly in the early stages the weakest 2 are rarely the ones in the dance off. Its usually a v weak one and an unfortunate middler.....