Russo ain't booking the house shows. And that be the difference.

seen the first 40mins of this weeks impact and the x division has never been so interesting

ironic that vince russo the antichrist of pro wrestling is saving the smarks beloved division lol

The problem is that the X-division could carry itself if left alone; enough of the performers there have got loads of experience from the Indy circuit and just know what makes crowds go.

The big problem still remains in 'the main event' where you're not quite sure what it is they're trying to do.

Personally, I wouldn't be too upset if they scrapped everything apart from the X-Division and had more high speed action. I'd take spotfests over bland 'heavyweight' matches that have no psychology or story any day!

are you for real? you really think flip flop wrestling matches will carry the division?, btw you want to talk about no psychology and then pick the x division over any other form??????

indy circuit if full of obbsessed fans, no one on a national scale would care for the normal x division

While I agree that a whole promotion can't be carried solely on the X-Division, you can't deny that they were a large reason - if not the reason - why TNA grew so quickly and gained so much attention in the early part of the decade.

They need to strike a balance between the X-Division guys - whose athleticism is unparallelled and who do attract viewers, regardless of what you say whedon247 - and the heavy-weights, legends and storylines. I hope the X-Division PPV isn't just an ECW ONS-style one-off, and that it does lead to the rebirth of the division. Not holding my breath for that though.

On another note, TNA have confirmed that tomorrow's UK announcement is tour dates. To be revealed tomorrow night on iMPACT! Hope they come to Northern Ireland, but I doubt they will somehow.

Former TNA X Division Champion Jay Lethal wrote the following tribute to the late Randy Savage. Lethal received Savage's blessings a few years back to perform as "Black Machismo" in TNA.

"You inspired me more than this world will ever know. Enjoy.

You were a tower of power that was too sweet to be sour,

You were funky like a monkey every minute of every hour.

For you, space was the place and time distortion had to be,

And your fans here on earth wanted the madness for eternity.

You met every challenge with fists clinched and face to face,

You even fought and defeats dragons and snakes.

Flying off the ropes with an elbow drop,

There was no way you could ever be stopped.

Identifiable by your voice alone,

Even being Dubbed the macho king while you sat on your throne.

We hung on your words with interviews memorable and classic,

And we knew it was serious when you took off your glasses.

I promise not to lose you in the sands of time,

For you will always be that all time hero of mine."

I seem to remember Vince McMahon saying the same thing about the WCW cruiserweights on Nitro, and that didn't turn out to be strictly correct.

The cruiserweight division became the midcard on Nitro and is one of the chief reasons why it overtook Raw. Not many Americans had seen the Japanese and Mexican style of high paced wrestling and turned up in their droves to see it. I think the X division could potentially do the same if treated properly. I agree that it couldn't carry the company on its own though, you need a heavyweight/main event scene as well with strong believable storylines, but you can't focus on just that. Thats pretty much what WWE are doing (focussing entire PPV's around Cena for instance) and its not working for them, so TNA have to do something different to attract new fans which the X division is.

Excuse me? Yes I am.

There have been more standout matches from the X-Division than any heavyweight storyline has ever produced. Look back at the TNA classics and it's principally X-Division matches or X-Division wrestlers who consistently top the ratings.

From Mick Foley's Twitter.
@realMickFoley: Maybe so, but 2 days later, I trapped @TheRock under a pallet of beer kegs to win the WWE strap in an Empty Arena Match aka TNA house show.

Why would he say that when he's quite happy to take their money for the little work he does for them.

First time i watched TNA on Saturday and i liked what i saw so i'll certainly be watching next week.

Seems as though you were one of 124,000 who watched on Saturday - in addition to the 193,000 who watched it on Tuesday

http://tnauk.wordpress.com/2011/05/2...15th-may-2011/

Those are great viewing figures. NB: Those are the figures for the episode 'The Network is Coming', which was one week before the Chyna and network reveals. Very intrigued to see what sort of figures that got, I expect it may break the 200,000 barrier.

Well they may have dropped from 244,000 viewers on a Tuesday night but they certainly picked them back up on the Saturday! I think the episode with all the reveals will no doubt have broken the 200,000 barrier again. Am i right in thinking that this is the first time that the Saturday showing has ranked in the top 10? And if it is why so many watching on Saturday because if this is a regular thing it surely would have made the top 10 previously. Maybe something else on that Tuesday night so people decided to tune in on Saturday or just a case of more fans finding TNA? WWE Raw and Smackdown also did good ratings that week.


What do you think the big news will be tomorrow night? It can't be the fan party in Manchester since it has already been talked about on Twitter. It must be something big if their waiting to do it during Impact and it's being done with Hulk Hogan! I'd love for them to tape Impact here and for Hogan to come over.

It's just UK Tour Dates, TNA said it on their Twitter. No tapings or PPV unfortunately

And it's the second time the Saturday show has rated highly, it did several weeks earlier as well. Part of the reason is undoubtedly that Challenge are doing a very bad job of making clear which night the new episode is on, and which night is the repeat.

Meltzer said on a recent Wrestling Observer radio that early reports was that the ppv buyrate was horrible.

Must be 100% fact then.

Is it for this year or next January?

Some people listen to these 'in the know' people and believe every little reported detail. Meltzer is as much 'in the know' as Bryan Alvarez, and he is as 'in the know' as every Internet wrestling fan out there. Its just their opinion. I understand if people listen to F4W for Alvarez as he is whimsical and funny with his rants.

But Meltzer, 20 years ago yes, he may have had information that many others didn't have. But now, in 2011, the Internet has so many different sources and news that he is no longer relevant and the only source for wrestling news. He's just an opinionated fan now.

Why can't people just enjoy it, and not take it so seriously? Its Wrestling, its showbiz, take it as a bit of fun.

Meltzer has had Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, Mick Foley among others on his podcast recently, (and he's got Brock Lesnar on next week apparently), I'm guessing he still has contacts some where.

Of course he is now a legit sports journalist, covering MMA for Yahoo!, so rasslin' may be less important to him now than back in the day.

Well exactly. But then I do tend to think some people nowadays have elevated Meltzer to some kind of god-like status and it's a bit daft.

I was a fan of wrestling before the whole concept of the so-called "smart mark" was even thought of and it was much more fun to watch back then.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of it now but as you say, it's all taken far too seriously with never ending discussions on buyrates and ratings.

If TNA ever went out of business i'm sure people would just move on to over analysing everything ROH ever did ..

I don't know if he's a god like figure as such to smart fans(maybe to an extent) but more to do with him being the respected insider who has been doing it the longest (writing professionally since 87). He's surely made a lot of contacts in and out of pro wrestling circles, so his PPV buyrate estimations must have some credibility. If they were too far out I feel TNA legal reps would have confronted the observer.

Probably more guess work than the 80's and most of the 90's concerning future storylines. I guess that's because things have changed so much -- WWE's monopoly and secretive writing team, the modern format of TV and plans changing so quickly due to internet leaks.

Pro wrestling fans are strange in their attitude to Dave Meltzer, they seem to either love him and hang on his every word or dismiss his writing out of hand, convinced he has some sort of agenda.

I don't see that sort of love/hate in journalists for any other industry, apart from politics. Some music writers split opinion but not to the extent Meltzer does.

nWO helped wcw nitro beat raw,the cruiserweights were used well because they were opening the shows and it was a new style of wrestling to US fans

i remember reading an article in PWI in 1998 that talked of cruiserweight matches losing ratings segments more so than any other(including tv title lower midcard stuff etc)....

as for standout matches...who cares? you really think anyone in their right mind would pick an x division spot fest over a big show/kahli fight for e.g,nope only the wade keller wannabes would

wrestling doesnt draw anymore-entertainment does, x might draw well for tna but thats cos their market is still smarks,they need to make casual fans watch their show,putting on wrasslin isnt gonna help with that

this weeks impact made the x division entertaining,and it wasnt down to any 720 sunset flip corkscew planchas lmao

Well considering how badly TNA usually does on PPV, it's not that out of step with it's usual buyrate patterns?

Most wrestling news sites take info from the PWTorch, PWInsider and WrestlingObserver/F4W. If you don't think guys like Meltzer don't have connectings, then more fool you. He clearly does have connections with many within the industry, which is why so many people within the industry itself reads the Observer.


Knowing about buyrates to the average punter doesn't matter, I can understand that, however to me knowing about things that potentially affect the future existence of the company does.


There's a lot of people who are very fanboyish in their views. Mobile Phones, Computer consoles etc. Wrestling is no different. Guys like Meltzer you come along and say that the company they like and want to succeed, are making the same mistakes of companies who went bust made annoys them. Some people want to do the 3 monkeys routine and pretend everything is great. Personally, I think it's good to have people asking questions and challenging those in power to make sure their company is growing and getting better.

If TNA moved towards a purely entertainment based show they would be going directly into competition with WWE, which in my opinion is a losing battle. WWE have been doing it for years on a much bigger budget and i don't think there is anything TNA could do to topple them, or even come close to compete if they went down that route. And to be honest pure entertainment isn't really doing that well for WWE anyway, the product is dated, repetetive and boring to be frank.

TNA should be offering an alternative, something a bit different that tempts away the bored WWE fans who are sick of seeing 20 minute John Cena Promos and stale storylines about warring commentators. And i think putting some more emphasis on the X division would be a good start in doing that.