Truths & Lies: TNA On Friday Nights & NXT TakeOver R Evolution Review

A few quick points before beginning:

1. Outside of a few quick mentions, this will be a CM Punk-free zone going forward. I think the horse has been beat to death by now, and as I finish this column on Friday, there is nothing major to harp on anymore. My babbling is finished with that situation. Thus, minus a couple of sentences later on in the column, no more CM Punk discussion…for now at least…

2. Not to get all sentimental and mushy on everybody, but I do want to thank everybody for their support during 2014. With yet another year coming to a close, I do want to say I appreciate every single reader. No jokes, no sarcasm – I am being 100% serious. Whether it was simply a click, a comment, a tweet, an email, or anything in between, thank you. Thank YOU!

With that out of the way, bring on the wrestling…

TRUTH: The NXT special was worth the $9.99 WWE Network price alone.

Wow. Just a spectacular live two hour event on Thursday night. If you have not seen this, what are you waiting for? Any amount of hyperbole or over the top praise for this show is spot on and well deserved. Unreal how NXT keeps topping itself. I will not get too long winded here, but here is my quick review:

– Corey Graves did well on commentary. Disappointing health news that he has to retire, but happy that WWE doctors caught it before things go worse. Maybe we should ask his opinion of the WWE medical staff instead of the beloved CM Punk? Maybe Jerry Lawler should say something as well about what he thinks of WWE doctors? Or you know, just keep sipping the CM Punk kool-aid. Either or. Just saying…

– Great debut match for Kevin Owens. As most suspect, I have not followed his career before this. Love me or hate me, I am always honest. I HAVE seen some of his past promos/matches and can see why WWE brought him in and immediately gave him vignettes building to this moment. Good touch with the accidental blood. Really made him look even more intimidating. Obviously, the fans loved Kevin Owens right out of the gate. That would not last long, but we will get to that.

– Fine tag team title match. I am not wild about either pair, so I just sat back and enjoyed the bout. Solid work here.

– Another quick win for Baron Corbin. Good! He has a certain mystique about him right now. Reminds me of a Jay Bradley or Finlay. The dude just wants to get in there and throw down. Awesome finisher. Fun gimmick with the crowd counting the seconds of the match, but they gave up just as the match was ending. I wanted to see how long they would continue.

– On that note, I want to give props to the NXT crowd. They prove that you CAN be energetic, loud, and interactive without being annoying smarky smarks. The fans added to the show, instead of took away from the show like you see on WWE RAW/Smackdown sometimes. Keep it that way. Best moment on Thursday night was when fans started chanting for “Kenta” but were quickly booed by other fans and drowned out in a hurry. Perfect. Or when a “CM Punk” chant was started a few months in NXT, thankfully other fans immediately booed in displeasure to shut them up. Again, fans CAN be loud/energetic without ruining the show for viewers at home watching.

– Nice segment with Sami Zayn in the locker room preparing himself for the main event. Anybody paying attention would have noticed Kevin Owens in the background. The two shared a glance. Oh, the foreshadowing…

– Hideo Itami and Finn Balor vs. The Ascension was more about two things than the actual bell to bell action, which was good. First was the body paint on Finn and the memorable entrance. Very cool, brought me back to Jeff Hardy and his unique presentation. Second was to seemingly send The Ascension packing to the main roster, something many have been expecting for months now. Highly entertaining match here where Finn just ooooooozed ‘money maker’ for WWE in the future.

– Quick Roman Reigns interview backstage. No harm, no foul. His vow to become WWE World Champion should excite his fans and scare his detractors with the Royal Rumble right around the corner.

– Charlotte defeating Sasha Banks to retain the NXT Women’s Championship far surpassed my expectations. I went into this one not very enthusiastic because I assumed it was just there to give Charlotte another quality win. Well, color me surprised! Sasha was great here despite losing. At many different points, I seriously thought she was going to win the title, something I thought was impossible when the opening bell rang 10 minutes earlier. Charlotte should dominate the WWE Divas division in 2015, but her work in NXT is not done yet.

– Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship was the main event of the evening, and what can I say? Just phenomenal. The story (and payoff) was more than a year in the making, and as I have stated 474,927 times in the past, predictability is NOT a bad thing. The fans wanted Zayn to win the gold. The fans were ready for Zayn to win the gold. Everybody in the building and watching around the world KNEW this was going to the big moment for Zayn…and it was glorious. Star ratings and all that mumbo jumbo is not my cup of tea, but this was ***** in any sense of the definition. From the video package to the year long build to the work inside the ring here to the finishing sequence allowing Sami Zayn to FINALLY beat Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship! Certainly a top five match of the year candidate along with a strong moment of the year candidate as well…

– …and then we get to the post-match celebration. Kevin Owens and the NXT roster came out to congratulate Zayn. The confetti was flying. Heck, even Adrian Neville gave Zayn a big hug. Fans in the crowd were jumping up and down in near tears. This was what you call a ‘moment’ in wrestling. Then it continued on for a few more minutes. Then a few more minutes. Then a few more. Then we saw the little copyright logo in the corner come up, as the commentators signed off. Wrestling fans knew that meant the end of the show, right? Wrong! Kevin Owens attacked Sami Zayn and delivered a sick powerbomb to leave him laying. Unbelievable. What a feud that will be in 2015. The icing on the cake to a top notch live special.

So much for not getting too long winded. I ended up writing a lot more than initially planned, but NXT is THE best thing going today in wrestling. Credit to whoever put together the final product behind the scenes and on screen. You are doing yourself a disservice as a wrestling fan by not watching. At this point, it is absolutely laughable if anybody says with a straight face that the WWE Network is not worth $9.99 a month. I can not recommend Thursday’s live NXT special enough. Subscribe to the WWE Network now and watch this!

LIE: TNA Impact Wrestling had a good week.

Relax, there were certainly a few bright spots for TNA during the past week.

I liked their new logo. Pretty slick looking design and NO dreadful “TNA” initials to be seen. Very good.

I liked their poster for live special on January 7th, 2015. Again, pretty slick looking. Props there.

Also, I like the idea of a TNA marathon leading up to said live special on January 7th, 2015. Nicely done…

…sadly, that is where the positives end. Now for the negatives…buckle up folks…

– Saturday mornings? Is the the extra programming that was hinted at? If this is the big reveal of more hours per week of TNA, consider it pointless. They might as well a second show at 4am on a Wednesday morning. Nobody is going to watch this on Saturday morning, much less if it is a dressed up ‘unlocked’ edition of the exact same show that aired the night before. Please tell me it will include NEW original content! Oh, who am I kidding? My point stands regardless; nobody will watch this. If people barely watch the main TNA show, any second/recap show stands no chance. This has been proven time and time again.

– Debuting for Destination America on Wednesday night and then promptly changing nights (again!) a week later. Ugh. Do I need to run this down? Saturdays to Thursdays to Mondays back to Thursdays two months later to an hour earlier, then to an hour later, and recently to Wednesdays. Each time, ratings on television either stayed the same or decreased. Shocking, huh? Always something to blame, in this case was the night/time slot over the years. How long until they move again? Any guesses? I look forward to fans blaming the time slot and night for any TNA viewership woes that will come in 2015 and begin clamoring for TUESDAYS! You know, because surely THAT will lead them to ratings success.

– Ultimately, the reason for this discussion is because TNA will be moving to Friday nights in January. Yes, this new pet project and so called flagship show for Destination American is immediately placed on Friday nights. Welcome aboard TNA! If I had told you a month ago TNA should move to Friday nights, you would have laughed at the suggestion and called it stupid. I guarantee you that would have been the reaction a few weeks ago. Well, here we are. Just as a refresher, here is a quote from my column last month:

“YAY! They will be the top priority! MORE programming! A BIG push from social media! AWESOME! Screw you Spike TV, we never liked you anyways! Destination America is the greatest! WOOOOO!!!”

Spike TV was cast as the horrible ex-girlfriend, while Destination America was the ‘perfect’ new love interest. Riiiiiiight.

Folks, the honeymoon phase is over. If you thought ratings were going to be low before, expectations just fell ten fold being placed on Friday nights. What an arrival. I figured 500,000 viewers was a fair guess on the new network. Now? I am not sure. Could be lower than THAT! The news was not reported on any wrestling website I saw, but TNA last Wednesday night drew 746,000 viewers on Spike TV. You could have found that on my Twitter account (@JustinWatry) on Thursday afternoon by the way. Yeah, it was a ‘best of’ show, but TNA will be lucky to ever see that number again. On rare occasions, perhaps someday that viewership will occur again on Destination America. Weekly? Not happening. That number seems low now but will look outstanding come 2015….if it ever happens.

Speaking of my column from last month, another quote:

I am making a 2015 BOLD prediction right now: After a few months of toiling away on Destination America, TNA is going to truly realize how good they had it at Spike TV all these years. Fans too. Laugh now but Spike is going to look like the freakin’ Taj Mahal compared to the Destination America motel.

Yep. I give it a few months. As noted above, the honeymoon phase is over between TNA and Destination America with all the rainbows, sunshine, and fancy worded press releases coming to an end. January is going to arrive, and a cold dose of reality will hit. Hey, at least they have a new cool logo though, right?

Self Promoting Finale

Send email feedback: [email protected]

Read Jay’s Ways on the NoDQ website

In the next week or two, I will be doing another RARE live tweeting session during WWE Raw! For the full three hours, ask me wrestling related questions, interact during the show, joke, praise, whatever! Rare, rare, rare. Be there…

Follow me on Twitter: @JustinWatry

@nodqdotcom Made my #WWE #RAW debut tonight. Cool, huh? pic.twitter.com/DpbZYnUrFD

— Justin Watry (@JustinWatry) October 21, 2014