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-- 10/18 TNA Bound for Glory PPV Reax

David Hayter of London, England (4.5): Best Match: A.J. Styles vs. Sting. Worst Match: Mick Foley vs. Abyss. This certainly wasn't the worst show I've ever seen in my life, and the wrestling wasn't particularly bad, but this show was killed dead in many completely avoidable ways. The pacing on this show was horrible. I don't know if they over-ran drastically, but everything felt rushed and as a result the whole show fell flat. Nothing had time to sink in and nothing seemed like it mattered. This was characterized by Kurt Angle rushing over to shake Matt Morgan's hand before they quickly cut away, the playing of Sting's music the second after he finished his retirement speech, then wrapping up instantly, and the lack of emphasis on the after-effects of the Monster's Ball match. I know this is a fairly regular complaint about TNA, but this was supposed to be their WrestleMania. Due to horrid pacing and a lack of care, nothing felt epic, nothing felt important, and nothing felt memorable. This was as skippable as any other TNA PPV. Now as much as I felt the pacing killed the show for me, it was not the worst of TNA's sins; that dubious honor of being the worst of the worst is instead awarded to Keith Mitchell and the camera crew. They missed all the key shots, sometimes they left up shots of the referees back obscuring the view of the action, sometimes they missed entire incidents or big spots, and they never played any replays of anything no matter how important. So instead of seeing Abyss crash through the stage again and again while Tenay and Taz told us how insane and cool that spot supposedly was, we instead were treated to five minutes of Mick Foley's fat arse climbing limply down from the top of the stage. It was so frustrating, and it's not like they were just missing moves, and being surprised by all the sudden movements of the wrestlers, they literally ruined everything. From having a close-up of Mick Foley's plastic barbed wire, to having all the wrong shots of A.J.'s entrance, it looked horrible and amateurish. They must have filmed A.J.'s entrance a thousand times. How can they not have figured it out? I know these seem like minor points, but the combination of horrible pacing and terrible production killed the show, even the good matches. It's like Russo and Mitchell are the anti-Paul Heyman. They somehow find ways to emphasize and expose their wrestlers weaknesses. Now, I should end on a positive and I do have to say I liked the video package before the Angle-Morgan match. It actually convinced me it would be a good, important match. The match actually turned into the one example of a good build combined with good pacing. There, I said something nice.

-- 10/16 WWE Smackdown Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Rey vs. Batista. Worst: Escobar vs. Hardy. I almost can't believe I'm saying this, but TNA actually had the best TV show this week.  A month ago, I wouldn't even have given the possibility a thought.  Smackdown had its qualifying matches for the Smackdown vs. Raw tag match after  Kane declared himself co-captain to get on the team.  Wonder if any mention of Kane vs. Show '06 will come up during the tag match.  When all was said and done, Raw's team has four faces (Shawn, Kofi, Henry, Triple H and three heels (Swagger, Show, Rhodes). Smackdown's team has two faces (Cryme Tyme) and five heels (Jericho, Kane, Ziggler, Escobar, McIntyre).  Without knowing what kind of match this will be (standard or elimination), the advantage seems to be for Raw on star-power alone.  The matches making up the teams were okay--nothing to write home about.  For a brief moment, there was a flash of possibility a woman could be on the team.  Didn't think the trigger would be pulled, but it was nice of WWE to at least try going there.  Nice that it was, I'm not thrilled with the diva trade.  If improvements happen to those who need it, then I'll take back my words, but I'm not holding my breath.  Maybe an injury angle is coming to give Michelle time off for her knee.  At the expense of seeing Raw on Smackdown, I'll accept it.  I can't see Smackdown repeating the mistakes of Breaking Point, with confessions being made since then.  But I can't expect to see Punk tapping clean, either.  So how will WWE dirty the finish to get through a submission match this time?  Rey vs. Batista was booked with their characters seeming to remember the last time they were one-on-one opponents. I'm guessing the story of Batista worrying about hurting Rey last time became him toying with Rey a bit this time.  Rey going over this time made sense as Punk attacked the seemingly weakest opponent of the four-way.  Smackdown didn't have nearly the flaws TNA had, but Smackdown was much less the show it used to be about a month or so ago.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on these shows for a "PPV/TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the TNA PPV and Smackdown, click here.

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