Stiva

I've watched everything available from TNA from the beginning up to the end of 2007 so far. While it has been painless enough from mid 2004 to current, getting through the 110 weekly PPV's should only be attempted by the most stubborn and determined of people. El-P I think you can make it since you've held steady on Death of WCW. Dip your toes into the WWA PPVs too since I like to think of them spiritually related to one another. The Luger/Sting match is funny in hindsight but it basically sums the whole affair up.

Did anyone watch Impact and see the Rampage debut and "confrontation" with Angle? Also, Mike Tenay may be in contention for worst announcer in history; Bully Ray is screaming in the guy's face and he's looking at him as if he's deciphering a Magic Eye picture, just so awful.

That's crazy; Loudspeaker/Donst was really well worked and as someone that hasn't seen any Chikara for 3/4 years, I felt immediately caught up with the angle and Donst's entourage. The Sarcophagus match was a meandering, boring mess. I read your review (good stuff btw!) but disagree about Hatfield on commentary. For some reason, him speaking through the mask and wondering if Jigsaw was really Dynamite Kid cracked me up and I thought he really added to the tag. As for the ending, man, I love when pro wrestling gets into crazy high-concept shit like this. Like the time Regal was Raw GM and he cut the broadcast off in the middle of Cena/HHH. Just awesome stuff that gets people talking and inappropriately riled up and the fallout is always great.

Everytime Cena heels it up in this match, it's supremely entertaining.

Holy christ, that would not end. Heyman gave it his all on the outside but man, the kimura lock sequence accomplished fucking nothing but I was convinced HHH was gonna book himself to beat the UFC guy with "his" move. The only crowd noise there was the pop when it was over.

That's incredible. HHH is so fucking shitty, goddamn. Michaels is selling concern for his friend like he's watching an eBay auction get too expensive too quickly.

Enjoyed that much more than the two Taker/HHH matches and Punk being King Dick of the universe helped a lot. Heyman on the outside was incredible, Punk's facials as he couldn't keep Taker down were awesome, as well as his shit-eating grin after hitting old-school. Crazy fun match and it's great seeing Taker's opponents come up with ways to make the near falls believable year after year. Punk got way closer than HHH IMO, especially with the urn shot. Crowd seemed to genuinely believe it was finished for a second.

Holy shit, Paul Heyman is fucking incredible out there

Can't say I enjoyed Fandango on offense a bunch but Jericho breaking out dives and big spots was fun. Fandango's entrance was great too. That ad where Miz bursts through the giant box at that kid's party is my current highlight of the night.

Really dug the tag and really dug the near-fall at the start. Would really like to see Ziggler as a babyface at some point but this team with Langston could have legs.

Man, Mark Henry is awesome. "That's what I do!" after dumping Ryback to the outside was great. The finish was great but the post-match stuff seemed dumb to me. As said, seemed like Ryback shouldn't have been able to hit his finish but hey, whatever, the finishing stretch was fun.

Is it the accepted inevitability of this show that Cena is turning? I've not been keeping up with WWE and that's totally the vibe I'm getting from that Rock/Cena video package.

Michael Cole is a goddamn machine at hitting the WWE bullet points. Really dug the camera angle when Black dropkicked Orton off the apron.

Quite the debut. I'm looking forward to seeing what Year of Punk celebrations we get tomorrow.

I enjoyed the match but it seemed like Even Stevens Booking: Survivor Series Edition.

Show/Sheamus is a super fun match-up. The electric chair spot was great, the two of them throwing bombs on their knees was great and Show swearing up a storm like a pissed off 7 foot crazy man would was great. I hope they run this up to the Rumble.

WWE comedy is still god damn excruciating. They should totally give Otunga more "Law Offices of David Otunga" skits to work with every week though.

Pretty fun opener. Michael Cole's ability to speak entirely in "WWE-Speak" is the most impressive thing on show right now.

Lesnar's debut on 18th March Raw where he interferes in a hardcore match with Snow and Maven and just fucking DESTROYS dudes. Puts Al Snow through a bin and then triple powerbombs Spike Dudley with Heyman screaming "AGAIN!" on the outside. It's awesome and definitely worth including for the genesis of Lesnar IMO

Ah, glad to hear he's retired into a decent business. I'm going to try and find the entirety of that mini-feud he had with Jamie Noble a few years back to satisfy my appetite.

Where is Chuck Palumbo these days? Is there recent vids of that dude punching guys in the face a lot?

This is the first time I've watched since the Punk/Cena stuff last year and there is a marked difference in the presentation. It really is, like you say, an incredibly polished marketing machine set to the backdrop of the pro wrestling. The only thing that has struck me as really poor was the Brock/HHH segment; the wedding was kinda terribly executed but going with AJ as GM could be fun. What was the deal with Bryan and the dudes in white shirts though?

Man, Lawler and Cole's forced laughter is always terrible. In fact, most of their interaction is super shitty.

Nope. He was virtually invisible aside from a few garbage matches after he and Julio turned on Raven. I'd only include his stuff if you were doing a TNA yearbook similar to the 90's sets here. Yeah, I checked OWW and that seemed to be the case. Lot of unremarkable looking tags with not-very-good guys. Might seek out his match with Shane Douglas out of curiousity.

Awesome, thanks for the responses. Is there anything worth seeing in Punk's run?