Oh wait, there’s wrestling on tonight? Really?

I swear, TNA gets the worst nights for shows: Christmas, New Year’s, and now, head-to-head with the National Championship game. They might as well move Impact! to Sundays so they can go head-to-head with the Super Bowl.

But seriously, for those of you who aren’t into college football, here’s tonight’s Impact! preview courtesy of TNAWrestling.com:

On Thursday night, TNA Wrestling returns to SpikeTV with two hours of Total Nonstop Action, just days before the “Genesis” Pay-Per-View epic event!

TNAwrestling.com has learned that more matches for “Gensis” will be announced on the broadcast!

In addition, the following matches are scheduled to take place:

- Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle will face Jeff Jarett’s longtime ally, BG James

- Speaking of Angle, the Main Event Mafia plan to speak out about “Genesis” and Mick Foley’s announcement that he is returning to the ring at the Pay-Per-View event! Both Mick Foley and TNA Founder Jeff Jarrett will be in attendance on Thursday night, so who knows what chaos could potentially erupt on the broadcast!

- The X Division Championship Tournament continues with another semifinal featuring Alex Shelley taking on Eric Young. The finals to crown a new champion will take place at “Genesis” on January 11.

- One-half of the TNA World Tag Team Champions, Robert Roode of Beer Money, will battle “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan

- TNA Women’s Champion Awesome Kong will be in action

All this and much more on Thursday’s new iMPACT! broadcast on SpikeTV starting at 9pm ET

Kurt Angle v. BG James? REALLY? Did they just figure their ratings would fall tonight anyway because of the BCS so they might as well figure out the crappiest opponent possible for Kurt Angle? 

Sure, it makes sense in the storyline-wise, but BG is about as “you can’t wrestle” chant-worthy as anybody I can think of on the TNA roster. Whatever.

Discuss Impact! here.

That’s right–TNAWrestling.com has pulled Christian Cage off their roster page. He’s got to be officially gone from the company.

For more on Christian’s future, please read on.

**POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING!!!** (more…)

Rep. Henry Waxman is the man behind  the report on steroids in pro-wrestling that Lex posted earlier this week. He has spent the better part of the last four years investigating steroids in professional sports and was the one who called those now infamous baseball hearings. As you can see, he is well informed on the issue of performance enhancing drugs:

That clip was from the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” which was directed by Christopher Bell, the brother of Mike “Mad Dog” Bel. He’s the most recent wrestler to pass away, most likely due to his abuse of performance enhancing drugs. I post this to say if whoever takes over for Henry Waxman (who is moving on to another government job) is anywhere near as uninformed as he was I don’t think anything will come of these government probes into WWE and TNA.

By the way, I really recomend “Bigger, Stronger, Faster.” It will change your entire outlook on performance enhancing drugs. It is avaiable on Netflix watch instantly if any of you have that service.

 -sideshowRaheem

Throughout the years theat I have been on the PWB blog, I have read a variety of opinions from many smart wrestling fans. Whether its Mollie, SideShow, DK, Jeyrod, Arron, Kanadian, Da Tru, or even Kitty Limits, they have been a lot of insightful looks into the wrestling business. What I dont know about you (except for Lex and Kanadian) is who are your favorite wrestlers of all-time. This positive post will make up for yesterday’s negative VOTD post.

My FAV 5:

1) Shawn Michaels

Ever since I was a 4 year old watching WWF in St Martin, Shawn Michaels has been one of my favorites. As a young lad my favorites included Bob Holly, the Smoking Gunns, Takanka, British Bulldog, Warrior, and Steamboat. I see why kids like Cena. They will grow out of it, trust me. HBK’s matches with Razor, Diesel, Undertaker, Bret, Mankind, and Vader (along with his”Heart-break Hotel” segment) made me a lifetime fan.

2) Christian (his TNA heel run was very good)

Christian and Edge are complete equals in my opinion. As heels they are both top notch and there in work wrestling is very good. Edge may be better than Christian in the ring, but not by much. Christian’s TNA run, right from his shocking PPV debut was good. It wasn’t until Kurt Angle came in that it went sour. The “Angle’s Alliance” ruined Christian because it turned him face. Christian was undefeated for 2 years in TNA.

3) Santino

What can you say about this guy? Matt has Jeff, JR has Austin, and Santino has Microphones. Santino is gold on the mic, comic gold. At first I wasn’t against him because as a face all he would do is win by flukes. He consistantly won via roll up. When they turnd him heel when facing Umaga, little did I know that Santino would become a star. He doesnt need to have wrestling skills to be a star. I predict that Santino will be in the Hall of Fame some day, right next to Heenan. Noone has been this good on the mic since The Rock.

4) Scott Hall/ Razor Ramon

5) Ricky Steamboat and Rob Van Damn (a tie)

Here’s tonight’s Impact! preview from TNAWrestling.com:

On Thursday night, TNA Wrestling returns to SpikeTV at 9PM ET for a very special New Year’s Day broadcast, featuring the “Best Of TNA” from 2008!

The FIRST WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH OF 2009 will take place on “iMPACT!”, as TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money, Inc. will step into the six-sided ring on New Years to defend the gold against former champions The Latin American Xchange!

Plus, the broadcast will feature some of the very best matches from our epic Pay-Per-View events from 2008, airing free for the first time on SpikeTV! Don’t miss your chance to witness the following showcase matches from 2008:

TURNING POINT 2008: WORLD TITLE MATCH
Sting vs. “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles

BOUND FOR GLORY 2008: GRUDGE MATCH
Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle w/ Mick Foley as special enforcer

LOCKDOWN 2008: WORLD TITLE MATCH
Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle

TNA KNOCKOUTS CHAMPIONSHIP
Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim

Plus, exclusive comments on each match from your favorite TNA Wrestling superstars! Don’t miss this very special edition of “iMPACT!”, airing January 1 (New Years) on SpikeTV at 9pm ET!

This looks like a worthwhile show for those who don’t spend a lot of money on TNA PPV.

Discuss Impact! here.

In response to the “Heyman weights in on TNA” I have done what Lex said someone should do. Start the “Hire Paul Heyman” campaign. Why? I am the one who said it last year. How TNA needed Paul Heyman to make WWE stand up and say AND I QUOTE “These guys are a Threat”. To how he can make Styles, Joe, The Machine Guns, Lethal and Kaz. Big if  not BIGGER than they are now. So if you want to make TNA a better promotion. If you want to get TNA up there wil WWE. Sign this. NOW!!!!!!!!!!

1. Scotland’s MVP

2. Jade

The newest edition of the “Heyman Hustle” in the Sun newspaper features Paul Heyman’s “Paulie Awards.” The award that stood out to me was his “Industry Snapshot Paulie Award,” where he declared that TNA is an “asterisk.”

Here’s Heyman’s unadulterated take on TNA:

A tremendous talent roster that anyone would salivate to develop, a network that actually wants to help, and a vast audience of former WWE fans who are simply looking for an alternative.

And the best TNA can continuously come up with is…”WWE Lite.”

It’s a shame when a promotion spends big money for Kurt Angle and Sting and Mick Foley and Booker T and stops itself from recouping that investment.

The most marketable idea for Petey Williams is to be Little Poppa Pump? How many knockoffs can one promotion do (Jay Lethal as Randy Savage, SoCalVal as Elizabeth, Shark Boy as Stone Cold)?

Team 3D lose every night, which they understand how to do and stay on top, and yet no wrestling fan walks around saying “Wow, The Motor City Machine Guns muist be the best tag team in the world.”

Here’s a really easy question for you: Why not? Why don’t wrestling fans walk around saying it? Because TNA doesn’t take the time to capitalise on their own storytelling to persuade the audience that’s the case!

TNA is so hell bent on trying to present a WWE-style product that it loses its own audience, which just aches to be given a reason to brag “we’re better,” or “we’re cooler,” or simply “we’re different.”

Until Dixie Carter and TNA management wake up and play to the potential audience that’s out there, their big claim to fame will be “we’re number two.”

Ain’t that the truth. Sure, the current stable war in TNA is fun to watch, but it’s still not resulting in ratings, as we’ve discussed several times recently.

It’s intriguing that Heyman takes TNA to task here–notice how he says TNA has a “tremendous talent roster that anyone to salivate to develop”? Perhaps Paul himself is the one salivating–as many of you have pointed out, hiring Paul Heyman would be the best move TNA could make right now.

Somebody needs to start a “Hire Heyman” campaign and bomard TNA’s offices with petitions.