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Before we get to Raw, I need to give the final rant about last night's TNA Victory Road PPV, specifically, Jeff Hardy and TNA management. I'm not even going to bother with the PPV as a whole. I'm lucky to have missed about half the show, but from what I read, the entire thing was a train wreck, start to finish. From what I did see, AJ Styles beat Matt Hardy in an acceptable match. It was by far the best match of the show, but that's not saying much. Rob Van Dam and Mr. Anderson then fought to a double countout in a match that was excruciatingly bad, and it wasn't the double count out finish that made it suck. RVD has completely checked out of TNA, and Anderson was his usual bumbling self. Plus, the finish of this match was booked specifically to set up a rematch for Impact on Thursday. So once again, TNA uses their PPV to set up a TV angle. But then we got to the main event of Sting defending his TNA World Championship against Jeff Hardy. From the time Hardy walked to the ring, you could see something was wrong with him. He stumbled getting into the ring, and then we saw the ref give the 'X' sign and call for a ringside agent. Sting made his way to the ring, and after the ref told him what was going on, he immediately became disgusted. Bischoff came out to stall for time, basically spending 5 minutes to tell Sting it was now a No Disqualification match. Finally, the match started. Well, not really. Hardy spent more time taunting the fans by pretending to throw his shirt into the crowd than the match actually lasted. Finally, Sting hit a punch, kick, and chop before immediately hitting the Scorpion Deathdrop and getting the cover. It looked as though Hardy tried to kick out, but Sting no sold it and the ref counted three. The official time of the match was 1:29, but there was only about 20 seconds of action. Jeff looked to throw a mini fit in the ring as Sting took the belt and looked on in disgust. Sting left the ring, and as the crowd yelled their disapproval, Sting audibly yelled back "Yeah, I agree". They cut to a video recap package of the entire show, but the PPV still went off the air nearly 15 minutes early. This will go down as one of the worst PPVs in TNA history, and easily the front runner for worst PPV of 2011. It's a shame because historically, regardless of how bad the TNA product was on TV, you could always count on them for a strong PPV. That is certainly no longer the case as they have appeared to switch to the mentality of giving the few remaining fans that actually buy their PPVs a giant middle finger.
The bigger issue than the awful PPV is the state of Jeff Hardy, both personally and his spot in TNA. We have long known that Jeff Hardy has problems relating to drug abuse. At times he seems fine, but other times he is clearly out of his mind (ie: his drug fueled Youtube rant against CM Punk). Just two months ago, TNA was in almost this identical situation. Hardy was reportedly in no shape to wrestle backstage before the main event of the Genesis. However, they decided to go through with the match and have Hardy retain the title over Kennedy. Jeff ended up blaming his situation on exhaustion as he just returned from an overseas tour, but I'm not sure how many actually bought his excuse. In addition to his actual condition, there has been Jeff's ongoing court trial related to him allegedly being in possession of a large number of drugs with possible intent to distribute. That trial has been going on for months with a continuance seeming to happen every single month. At any given time, Jeff could be found guilty and sent to prison. Despite this, TNA has chose to not only keep Jeff on television, but also for much of the time have him as their world champion. Jeff once again returns to court this week, and we will see what happens next. At this point, anything other than a continuance would be a shock.
However, last night may have been the breaking point for TNA. If TNA management, specifically Dixie Carter, does not take strict and immediate action against Jeff Hardy, she has to be considered one of the most incompitent company presidents ever. Dixie may have made some awful business decisions in the past and used television as a way to put herself over, but all history aside, this is the point where she has to take a stand. I don't care how loyal you are to your employees or how much money they make you. It's time to remind everyone in TNA that you are still in charge and send a clear message to the roster. Jeff Hardy needs to be removed from television permanently. Whether he is fired or just sent home, that is their business decision. But you can no longer have a person who is clearly constantly under the influence involved in your promotion. He's a threat to himself and others. Early reports are that Hardy will not be at tonight or tomorrow's Impact tapings. We'll see if this is a two day punishment, or if Dixie actually puts her foot down. If she does, hopefully it is the first step in a total revamp of TNA because I don't care if their ratings have increased slightly over the past few months. They are a sinking ship and will be out of business sooner rather than later.
That is more than I ever hoped to write about TNA. Let's get to WWE.
It wasn't a very good week for WWE either. One very entertaining Michael Cole, JBL, and Steve Austin segment could not save an otherwise horrid Raw highlighted by one of the worst promos ever given by John Cena, and that's saying a lot.
The Undertaker started the show cutting a promo basically mirroring what HHH has said in earlier promos. He said their match at Mania will be No Countouts and No Disqualifications. We're quickly approaching WrestleMania, and I really feel like juice is lacking from this match. I generally say that keeping guys apart before a big match is a good thing, but in this case, I feel like they are keeping HHH and Taker a little too far apart. I know there is still time to build the match up, but it just doesn't have that marquee feel you would expect. Maybe it's the premise of the match being that these are the two greats in WWE, they have no challenges left, and now they must face each other. To me, that just doesn't do it. A much better build would have been HHH coming out and saying, "Taker, you beat me 10 years ago, but over those 10 years, I've become the best in the game, and now it's time for my revenge and to end your streak." That's all you need. A perfect set storyline, but instead, WWE has chose to completely ignore it, so far to the fact that Vince has banned any mention of HHH and Taker's match at WrestleMania 17. That makes absolutely no sense to me.
The remaining members of The Nexus beat up Randy Orton backstage. They brought him to the ring where Orton recovered and defeated David Otunga, thus eliminating Otunga from WrestleMania. Mason Ryan stumbled to the ring to attack but for the first time since debuting was laid out and made to look like just another jobber. Perhaps WWE has already soured on him, but in this case, I can't blame them. Well, I can because they brought him to the main roster way too early, but I just don't see anything in him. Orton went on to punt Otunga, and boy did he really kick him hard in the head, thus effectively ending Otunga's run on the main WWE roster. The story of Orton eliminating each member of The Nexus one by one before he eventually gets to Punk works, but as always seems to be the case with Orton, I never get too excited about anything he does. We'll see if Ryan gets the punt back to FCW tonight.
We had a pointless Divas match that's only purpose was for Michael Cole to be able to troll them. This lead to Michael Cole announcing his hand picked guest referee for his match against Jerry Lawler. Cole did a great job taunting the fans, making them believe he would pick Steve Austin, but instead he brought out JBL. JBL was great, saying how he's a man of integrity and how he hates bullies. He said he was about to sign the contract when the glass shattered and Stone Cold Steve Austin hit the ring. JBL got in Austin's face before Austin hit him with the Stunner. Austin then did his usual beer drinking routine which is great when you only see it once in a while. He went on and on and eventually dumped beer all over Michael Cole as Cole freaked out. Austin then got back in the ring and made a truce with JBL, offering him a beer. As JBL began to drink it, of course Austin hit him with another Stunner. It was a simple segment that was great fun. It wasn't overbooked. It just worked, and I wish WWE would have more segments like these. Of course, look at the talent involved compared to who is actually on their roster.
Daniel Bryan beat Sheamus via count out when it looked like Sheamus legitimately rolled his ankle outside of the ring. Sheamus got on the mic and acknowledged his losing streak. He then said that if he didn't win the US Title this week, he would quit. So after being buried for multiple months, Sheamus is now qualified to receive a title shot. And do we really need another firing/quitting angle? Not even the biggest mark believes these stipulations anymore. So of course, I expect Sheamus to win the title tonight.
Speaking of firings, Dolph Ziggler was signed to Raw after being fired from Smackdown! Amazing. He beat John Morrison clean. Vickie did commentary during the match where it was announced that Snooki would be the special guest host of Raw this week. Vickie buried Snooki, so you would assume they'll have some type of confrontation this week. WWE presumably will want Snooki to receive a face reaction, and I think the only possible way to do this is to put her against Vickie. Even though, Snooki may get booed out of the arena. Snooki being on Raw has disaster written all over it.
I also find it really funny how WWE constantly pimps in their Do You Knows how Raw and Smackdown are the top rated shows on cable (which are blatant lies). However, on WWE.com right now promoting Snooki, it says "Nicole “Snooki
