The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
My Weekly TNA Notebook

The Kingfish Arnie Katz provides insight and analysis based on the 3/4 episode of iMPACT.

The biggest shoot promotional war since WWE put WCW in the cold, cold ground starts in earnest on Monday, March 8th. That’s when iMPACT moves into head-to-head competition with RAW.

The March 4th iMPACT certainly reflected the importance of the 3/8 episode. Apart from a few perfunctory matches, it was nonstop talking heads, hyping Hulk Hogan and the first Monday night iMPACT

The episode has to be viewed in that light or it makes absolutely no sense. It may not have made all that much sense in any case, but you can’t blame Hogan and Bischoff for shaping the two-hour program into a commercial for the pivotal first Monday iMPACT.

Let’s look at some of what was said and done and see how it will affect TNA going forward.

Hulk Hogan Returns to the Ring!
Was there any fan, anywhere, who didn’t know that Hulk Hogan would put himself back in the ring? That tag team match may not be pretty, even with AJ Styles and Abyss doing most of the work, but it’s guaranteed to pull in the casual and curious for at least that one episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if iMPACT got its all-time highest rating. (Frankly, if it doesn’t set a record or at least come close, the war may be over more quickly than anyone anticipated.)

What happens the second week? Ahhhh…. that will be even more telling. Yet the first step to raising TNA to the next level is getting the biggest possible audience to sample the product. Hogan & Abyss versus Ric Flair & SJ Styles should go a long way toward achieving that goal.

The Lunk of the Ring
Using a Hall of Fame ring as the focus of an angle is not such a bad idea, even this soon after the Foley poster gimmick, but Hulkster’s references to its mystical power are just too silly. It would be enough for Abyss to venerate the ring without giving it super powers – and a lot more creditable.

And how much better would this angle be if it was, somehow, Ric Flair’s ring that Abyss acquired?

The show’s opening, all-talk segment ran far too long. Hogan and Flair kept talking about the coming tag match as if it wasn’t already set in stone. Trying to turn something that everyone knows into a mystery is a task doomed to failure. There’s just no tension.

Kudos to Desmond Wolfe for his great wrestling history reference when he compared the Flair-Styles connection to the one between Strangler Lewis and Lou Thesz.

The Coming Split
Signs all point to a break-up of the Hernandez-Morgan team. The obvious friction, both during matches and in the duo’s dealings with Beer Money, indicate that the split could come as soon as the pay per view.

At this point, it looks like Sean Hernandez will be the babyface. That’s the right choice. Matt Morgan may have face potential, but he seems much more comfortable as a heel at this juncture in his career. The fans obviously prefer Hernandez and can be expected to support him when the partnership dissolves.

That’s all for today, but I’ll be back on Wednesday with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll come back then and, please, tell your friends about the column, too.

– Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
Crossfire4@cox.net
(3/8/10)