Fans are interested in both company’s efforts and some are predicting solid ratings for both shows, with fans returning to see what’s going on, and word of mouth buzz spreading. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter who turns in that Monday night: it matters who will enjoy the show enough to turn in the Monday after … but only WWE is airing a show on the 11th. TNA is doing the 4th as a special feature, an experiment, and their next new television show is not until a full ten days later, Thursday the 14th.

Even if TNA Impact on the 4th does well and they decide to move to Monday nights regularly [there are rumours that they will do a show on Mondays once a quarter], they won’t be able to promote that on the 4th, which is the exact time when it needs to be promoted. So they’ll be forced to promote the Thursday the 14th show—will the 4th do well enough for people to tune in 10 days later on a different night of the week, or at least enough for them to immediately set their DVR to record it?

No matter how well TNA does on the 4th—there is now way it is beating WWE—the winner of the ratings on the 11th will be RAW.

And that’s the problem with TNA: hot-shotting and one night specials can get attention, but they don’t build a larger viewership in the same way that consistency does. If there’s one thing that TNA has proved, it’s a complete lack of consistency: a show that flip-flops from serious to comedic; quality matches followed by completely lousy ones; pushes and storylines that stop in the middle or are pushed to their conclusion too fast; and ad nauseum, the complaints continue and TNA shows no signs of changing.

Could Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff coming to TNA signal a change in the way they handle things? It’s possible. But even if the 4th is a huge success for TNA, there’s going to be another downwards dip after it while TNA finds their footing and gets up and running under the new regime.

I wrote this originally as a reply on the Figure Four / Wrestling Observer message boards, in a thread that discussed the recent on-camera humiliations of Vickie Guerrero and WWE’s history of humiliating people on air. Some people think that it’s acceptable for WWE to do this as Vince McMahon has been humiliated on air himself, and he’s one of the majority company owners and leaders. Others think that humiliating Vickie based on her weight is acceptable because she’s “fat” — I don’t agree:

Vickie is fat? I don’t know how much she weighs, but if Vickie is fat on your barometer, then I think your barometer needs to be recalculated. Step out of the WWE diva bubble for a minute and go look at real people; Vicki is 41 and when she’s dressed well [hmm, you think WWE manipulates her outfits to get different reactions?] she looks really good. Compared to other WWE women? Yeah, Vickie is “fat.” In the real world, she’s totally normal.

Here’s the differences between how Vince has been humiliated and how he humiliates other people:

• When Vince gets humiliated, it’s as a comeuppance for something his character has done, and it’s the humiliation always directly relates to his character, not stereotypes or not his real life.
• When Vince humiliates someone else, it often has nothing to do with something they as a character have done, and it’s based around bad social stereotypes [a woman Vickie's size being fat and disgusting; gay people all being effeminate; having a neck smaller than Batista's means you're a pussy; not wanting to have sex with your 60-year-old married boss makes you a frigid bitch, etc], or it’s based around something personal in that person’s life that should be better left off television [Ric Flair's road rage incident, Jim Ross' colon surgery]

Do I expect better out of wrestling? No; but I wish I could. And obviously, before Vince and in other promotions, wrestling has been tasteless and stereotyping, but Vince _could_ change WWE’s direction towards that sort of thing if he wanted to, and over time it would make other American wrestling promotions change their tone, too — but he doesn’t want to.

It opens with a naked woman running out of a building, screaming. Cut to the opening credits, which are superimposed over old lucha footage. And then, right into a sleazy guy in a pickup truck explaining what a dirty sanchez is. That pretty much summarizes the tone of the movie, and gives you a good clue at the plot.

Sleazy guy is taking three girls [the starlets], a fat and happy guy [the lucha nerd who owns the camera] and a stoner guy [who owns the van] across Mexico to film a porn flick. Naturally, they get lost, and end up in a ghost town. Gory deaths and some funny bits ensue, as the pornographers have stirred up a maniacal super-wrestler created by the Mexican government in the 1960s.

Wrestlemaniac is a fun bargain movie, although it wavers too much between gorey and poking fun at the genre for my tastes. It’s short — about seventy minutes — and in my eyes that’s a plus, as there isn’t a lot of padding or filler.

Here’s the trailer:

Dragon Gate promotions announced on 4/15 in Japan that they are setting up a U.S. office and will be running six or more shows per year, using former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky as the booker.

the news continues with:

There will be some similar talent brought in on the shows as they can do programs, but they will vary which of the top 16 or so Dragon Gate are brought in for each show. The concept is similar to ROH at the beginning, where they will look at DVD sales as a primary revenue stream. The annual shows with the Dragon Gate wrestlers were always among the best selling DVDs each year for ROH.

Two major problems are hitting small wrestling companies, especially Ring of Honor, lately: lots of piracy, and lack of interest because shows take too long to come out. Here’s some ways to combat that and sell to the fanbase:

• Sell pre-orders of the DVDs along with tickets to the show, and at the show itself. A customer who enjoyed the live show should be able to pay for the DVD on the spot, while it’s fresh in their mind.
• Get the full shows available on the iTunes Store as soon as possible.
• Release compilation videos featuring Dragon Gate stars on iTunes, covering their recent storylines, with English commentary — like a monthly Dragon Gate TV series.
• Release single matches as digital downloads, both from DG USA and the Japanese version, with English commentary.
• Do a subscription model for both DVDs and the digital versions. With only six shows a year at this time, a year’s subscription is affordable and with two months between shows, anything you can do to combat people forgetting about them is a good thing.
• Make the commentary good, and include lots of references to feuds, storylines, and past shows, to get people intrigued in watching more.
• Hire a good photographer to take great photographs of the wrestlers and action before, after, and during the show — from these, you’ll have the resources to make good-looking DVD covers, website graphics, posters, and potentially printed books down the road. Make the product stand out by making it look better.

Bottom line is that along with great wrestling, a new indy promotion [even if it's an offshoot of a bigger overseas promotion] needs to market and present themselves in ways that are not stuck in 2002.

So, these aren’t my predictions. This aren’t what I think WWE should do, but these are what they hope they would do, in an ideal beautiful world made just for me:

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

The Undertaker wins, keeping his streak alive, after another in his series of great WrestleMania matches. Rematch at Backlash in the cell.

CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Mark Henry vs. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Christian vs. Finlay – Money in the Bank ladder match

MVP refuses to do that high-flying shit, and after everyone else has killed themselves to be a three second highlight in next year’s MitB pimping video, MVP outwrestles CM Punk and wins the match.

Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton — WWE Championship

Orton takes the title after Stephanie’s interference backfires … or does it?

Edge (c) vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena –Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Cena hoists Big Show up for the ex-FU, Edge spears Cena, Big Show falls on them both, Cena is pinned and Big Show and Edge go on to fight for the title at Backlash, without Cena’s greeting cards as a backdrop.

25-Diva battle royal

Molly Holly debuts her new finishing move, known only as “kick shitty wrestlers right in the box.” She uses it 24 times in this match en route to victory, and then retires again to not sully herself with an association to the terrible diva’s division.

She still doesn’t return Wade’s calls.

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy Extreme Rules match

I was actually enjoying Jeff getting a push up the card, but this feud with Matt has ruined it. I want Jeff to win so Matt can cry on his blog about not only turning on his brother and losing his family, but still being a loser.

The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) vs. John Morrison and The Miz Lumberjack match to unify the WWE Tag Team Championship and World Tag Team Championship

Miz and Morrison win, and then we get plenty of dirt sheet episodes that involve the Bella twins. Or, at the very least, we get tag team champions that travel all the brands and don’t suck while doing it.

John “Bradshaw” Layfield (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Singles match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

JBL uses the Clothesline from Hell to remove Mysterio’s head from his shoulders, Mysterio goes away for a long time and returns as a heel with a Venom-style bodysuit, and JBL goes back to commentary.

Chris Jericho vs. Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka (with Ric Flair) – Elimination Match

Snuka and Piper get into an argument early and brawl to the back, leaving Steamboat and Jericho to have a good 8 minute match, with Jericho on the verge of winning before Flair gets involved, knocking Jericho out and giving Steamboat the pin.

• Wrestling angles that involve real crimes always break the bounds of realism, as wrestlers rarely get arrested, and if they do the wheels of justice don’t behave at all realistically.
• Revenge in a wrestling ring doesn’t make sense when someone tried to kill you.
• The angle unnecessarily introduced Jeff Hardy’s girlfriend, which may hurt his stature with female fans.
• If this storyline introduces Christian as the culprit, trying to assist Edge, it puts Christian right back into playing second-fiddle to his “older brother.”