I'm guessing that unlike most years when he has just said it, Sting really is considering retiring this year, and wants to go out on top form. Because of his religion there are certain things he won't do, but this character twist is interesting, and I'm liking the slightly different face paint -

only problem is, his jacket doesnt fit the new persona! Maybe time for a slight wardrobe change.

I agree. His match vs RVD at Sacrifice was terrible, as bad as I've ever seen it, and that was with a worker as good as RVD. His match with Anderson at Slammiversary was much better, actually looked as though he was able to hold his own.

He seems to be enjoying his new role and that seems to have rubbed off on his matches.

dont need to explain really, it happened whilst talking to hogan in his office,his obsession with ridding the cancer that is EB from HH caused him to snap.

This past Thursday's TNA Impact Wrestling on Spike TV scored a 1.27 cable rating with 1.8 million viewers.

Not bad. Ever so close to 1.3 lol.

The match at Sacrifice was poor because of the booking of it - it was a cheap brawl-through-the-arena match that didn't involve much actual wrestling. What's even worse is that they'd already done that earlier in the show with Styles and Dreamer.

And on your second point, RVD isn't a great worker in the same way that a Bret Hart or an Kurt Angle is. He doesn't carry people to good matches.

Means nowt. No ads= higher rating.

Terrible compared to what? It wasn't the best, but hell, I think "terrible" is a bit of a stretch, given they're both still capable of putting on a decent showing.

I'd say if anything, Sting's involvement in the Lockdown Main Event was terrible.

Against Abyss last week, this new energy came out of him. Whether it's forced or it's because he's actually enjoying the gimmick, it will improve his in-ring work.

It was terrible because Sting hit one offensive move in the whole match (excluding punches), and still managed to botch it. It made both of them look like idiots.

I'm a huge mark for RVD btw, I think he's one of the most entertaining in-ring performers of the last decade...but that was probably the worst match I've ever seen him in.

TNA once again at the top of the UK ratings. Quite a big gap between TNA and the rest of the shows Challenge present. Number 2 getting 124,000 viewers. Seems quite a lot of people are ONLY tuning into Challenge just to watch TNA.

Challenge
w/e 26 Jun 2011
000's
1 TNA PRESENTS IMPACT WRESTLING (TUE 2200) 193
7 TNA XPLOSION (TUE 2400) 111

Was just about to post the ratings. Good to see Xplosion get in the top 10 and interesting the show's official name has changed to include "Impact Wrestling".

Guess that shows last week's rating drop was just a blip, they seem to be keeping quite steady near the 200,000 mark in general. I may be wrong but I think that's the first time Xplosion has been in the Top 10 as well.

Could be wrong, but this is the first time we've seen Xplosion get a rating? Great news for TNA, and great news for the programme. The format change has worked for Kevin Sullivan and Jeremy Borash.

TNA has always hovered around the 0.9-1.4 mark pretty much since going back to Thursdays. Nothing major.

I've never bothered to watch X-Plosion. Is there anything meaningful on the show, or is it just recaps from Impact with just a couple of original matches on it like Metal used to be in the attitude era?

Just catching up with my recording of tonights show.

The opening - that's the best 20 minutes of TNA for over a year.

I absolutely love this new realisation of Sting.

Really? I think it's a bit of a rip off. "inspired by" is one thing, but the blatant rip off is lame. If I wanted Heath Ledger's joker, I'd watch the Dark Knight. Make it your own dude.

Also... hogan took a super weak tap to the knee, and a soft shot to the side, and he acts like he's dying. The sad thing is, watching him crawl around with that back brace on, he probably was.

Bully Ray is awesome on the mic. Loving his push.

Will someone please give Angelina some food?

That's the problem; no matter how good Sting is, Hogan's back is held together with screws and he has no business being anywhere near a ring; he can't take any bumps, and that's the match they're building to.

there not building to a match,building to turning hogan face,stop thinking in black and white

also joker sting rules,no matter how blatant a rip off it is

I'm pretty sure Heath Ledger's The Joker was a criminal mastermind who toyed with his victims. Sure, Sting has ripped off his facepaint and some of his mannerisms, but it's a little bit of a stretch to call him a complete copy. And like whedon says, it's given him a new lease of life and actually made Sting interesting again, so who cares how much of a rip-off it is?

I also think they're testing the waters for a Sting/Hogan match, to see what Hogan can and can't do. Judging by last night, I'm leaning towards there being no match, although you never know...

Anyways, Impact last night was fantastic again. They're on a roll at the moment, and next week looks like it's going to have a couple of superb matches.

one good thing about DX being X division only is that its gonna lead to a blockbuster addition of impact with ppv matches which will hopefully give impact a bump above 1.3 going into the touring shows in august

Yeah, with Sting vs Anderson and possibly the next big twist in the Angelina/Winter story (it's becoming obvious Winter just wants the title and doesnt care about Angelina), along with the fallout of DX, it should be a good show.

My only gripe with DX so far is that Joe should be in the main event, instead he's facing Kaz. Unless he kills Kaz, then attacks both guys during the AJ/Daniels match.

By the way... dont know why, but the way he wears a shirt and tie really doesnt suit Daniels.

The Bound for Glory series doesn't make any sense. I thought it was going to be like a league system where everyone has a match against each other once, yet AJ Styles and Gunner have faced each other 3 times in the first couple of weeks.

i would have liked to see triple thread 3,as the first 2 were so good(and im not a fan of flippy floppy matches,but these 3 mix and mash different styles)

but i guess kaz needs something to do

id like to see kaz and win and joe fall to the bottom of the BFG rankings and have commentators and website etc publically talk about his losing streak and the fact hes no longer a force. Then joe puts together a vicious unbeaton streak like his debut and soars up the rankings,wether he finishes top or not doesnt really matter, TNA will have main event joe back.

Another enjoyable Impact! They are on a roll. Not as good as the last two weeks but still a lot of stuff I am enjoying. The new Sting is fantastic and the most interested I've been in him since about 2007.

And I agree with the above poster that while I love the idea of a BFG Series, the way they are doing it is a bit puzzling. Gunner v AJ three times?