Hulk Hogan headlined his first Monday Night in quite sometime a few nights ago, playing a part in an episode of TNA Impact that was, for the most part, mediocre.
Battered by shoddy directing and a poor flow overall, TNA still has some work to do before it can tread water with the WWE. Sure, the actual in-ring action was excellent, as the X-Division match and Ladies Tag Team Title matches were solid [of course excluding the disastrous, but emotional showing by a bloodied Ric Flair and Hogan], but the transitions and interviews need some serious polishing. Unlike the last show the company did on a Monday night, where things felt unpredictable, this past show lacked the same emotion.
For example, right before Rob Van Dam was set to make his TNA debut, color commentator Tazz gave it away to the hardcore fans by saying something along the lines of “What will you do this year on 420.â€
Not cool.
During the segment between Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Eric Young, things felt lackluster and were developing far too slow for a live show. A snafu in production cut to an unaware Eric Bischoff in the beginning of the segment as well, confusing the audience and making it obvious that things need to be tightened up some more before this show is truly ready for the prime time.
In addition, the return of Shannon Moore was unspectacular and makes little to no sense. Nothing against Moore, but the match between Frankie Kazarian and Doug Williams is a much better bout than any one involving Moore. Perhaps the brass at TNA feel the crazy-looking Moore will put more butts in the seats come pay per view time. Only time will tell on that one though.
Nonetheless, the biggest disaster on the night was when the company cut the show off right before Jeff Hardy was about to land a swanton bomb on Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles.
Definitely not cool.
If TNA is going to step up their game, mistakes like this have to fixed. The card for the upcoming PPV looks solid, but with the production values and big names of the WWE, TNA needs to be as close to perfect as possible. Otherwise, the new Monday night war will be over before it starts.
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