WWE countered this with the return of who they call the almost mythical Bret "the Hitman" Hart.
As far as wrestling lore goes, aside from the Undertaker and Kane, the Bret Hart controversy was one of my favorite stories. As I tried to defend the reality of Montreal to my friends last night, none of them (especially my brother) seemed to buy it. I'll take part of the blame, as it's not something I believe can be described in a few sentences.
The point of the Hart "myth," if you will, is that in the 12 years since it happened, it has become a legend.
But that's besides the point of this post.
Last night, most wrestling fans, writers, and even TNA, had decided the privately owned wanted to wage a war against publicly traded WWE. Former ECW owner Paul Heyman thought differently.
He essentially said it boiled down to a war between SpikeTV and USA, not TNA and WWE.
"Slowly but surely, Raw's core audience is getting older and older, and the indescribably-important 'youth audience' is not being replenished. Despite World Wrestling Entertainment's Push-to-PG, the Goliath of Monday Night Cable Programming's product is stale, and the terms 'hip,' 'happening,' 'socially relevant' or 'pop culture phenomenon' don't apply to Vince McMahon's flagship cablecast anymore.
Raw, however, remains a powerhouse. Even the much-maligned 'low 3 ratings' are still way better than anything SpikeTV is pushing, and keep in mind Spike is the television home of the Ultimate Fight juggernaut. A decade past its heyday, Monday Night Raw is the driving force behind USA Network's 4th consecutive sweep of the annual Cable Ratings Wars."
Having read Heyman's thoughts before yesterday, I completely agreed with his thoughts on AJ Styles as compared to Sheamus.
"Seriously, how anyone in TNA can look at themselves in the mirror and accept the fact AJ, the promotion's World Champion and one of the most consistent performers in the industry for over half a decade, is not nearly as well known as Sheamus is simply a crime," Heyman said.
"But for Sheamus to be so much better known to the general public at this point in his career than AJ Styles is not only a sign of WWE's marketing success, but TNA's most glaring failure."
For months TNA has failed to make AJ Styles stand out. Having noticed since AJ reclaimed the belt that he hasn't been pushed nearly as hard as some of the other guys on the roster, I thought it was a bit peculiar that TNA's homegrown champion was getting a second-rate treatment for being the company's most reliable, popular, and arguably most exciting wrestler. And Heyman's right - more people know Sheamus now after a few months than know AJ after being with TNA since 2002.
If anybody, AJ Styles needed to be showcased last night. He was in the main event, but I wish they would've done more with him. I also wish they would've shown more of what TNA was about through video packages, as I'm not sure the matches cut it for people who weren't typically wrestling fans (ie, most of my friends who came over last night).
That said, here are my thoughts on TNA and WWE's shows...
-We were glued to Impact for the first hour since it ran unopposed. I thought the Steel Asylum would have a lot more action, and completely agree with the Impact Zone's chants of "This is bullshit!" when Homicide came in with whatever he had. LAME. But we saw the TNA return of Jeff Hardy. It didn't really make since, but apparently Hardy is coming back into TNA and is looking at the X-Division.
-I would like to have seen this be more of a showcase of the X-Division. These are the most fun guys on the planet to watch do their thing, and within about 10 minutes this match was over.
-How much 5-hour energy does the TNA roster drink? That stuff was everywhere.
-With that motorcade it was almost like Barack Obama was coming to Impact.
-Security wasn't doing that great of a job at Impact. Sure, keep out Mick Foley, but let whoever run rampant in the back attacking people. WAT?
-As I predicted, Hogan came on at 8 in the hopes to run against Bret Hart. Honestly, we only watched the entrances of both, not really getting too much of what they said. We finally settled on the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels lovefest. No Sharpshooter? Oh well, he'll be back out at the end of the night to do one. Wait, no? Vince McMahon kicks him in the nuts and that's IT?!
-Barbed Wire Massacre and Full Metal Mayhem was on tap for Impact? Sweet! I can't wait! Hang on...you mean while I was watching Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels HUG, Hulk Hogan ripped up the format for the rest of the show? Damn you, Hulk! But I guess he had to after Rhino got hurt. Abyss being in a match by himself doesn't sound all that thrilling.
-But Abyss did show up to wrestle Samoa Joe. I thought it was an okay match - nothing special. My friends were crapping all over Samoa Joe for not being in peak physical condition. I guess if you don't know what Joe is capable of, you'll come to that conclusion.
-So Bobby Lashley finally turns heel. Maybe that guy will finally get a personality in wrestling. Seriously, I can respect that these people try to make a living, but he doesn't sincerely want to wrestle if he's still making contacts to MMA. I can't get behind Bobby Lashley.
-Val Venis was a legitimate surprise, a free agent who is often overlooked. I thought he was great to interact with the Beautiful People. A hell of a lot better than Kip James anyway.
-The last bit of JeriShow vs. DX was pretty sweet. Lots of nearfalls and false finishes. Jericho can't wrestle on RAW again (till he gets drafted at least), so we'll see how he tries weaseling his way back again. Also, was Jericho silently mocking Hogan with those cups to the ear?
-While I enjoyed cameo appearances to make the night have a big-show feel, I hope TNA doesn't have only but a small handful of these guys actually show up again next week. Brian Knobbs can't even walk.
-I loved Angle/AJ but my friends crapped all over it, too. Lots of nearfalls. I can kind of see what they were seeing, as most of the reversals ended up looking the same. I guess we can be thankful for there not being outside interference (minus Flair's glare), but seeing the same counter multiple times got kind of drab.
-We didn't get to see nearly any of Kofi/Orton. I wanted to see this match since the feud has been getting good reviews, but I thought we'd invested too much time into AJ/Angle to switch.
Overall, I thought the night was intriguing for both companies. TNA didn't hit it out of the park with wrestling, but I think made up for that with interest for what is happening between AJ/Flair, who attacked half a dozen wrestlers backstage and what Hogan and Bischoff have in store for the company.
WWE scored a major coup with the Hitman, and even moreso since he'll be around through WrestleMania, apparently. I'm stoked to see Stu Hart get into the WWE Hall of Fame and it will be fun to see where the Hart/McMahon saga goes from here.
If last night was any indication, 2010 is going to be an exciting year for professional wrestling fans.
