By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

James Caldwell reports on various news from around wrestling during the weekend. He's currently pleased with his fantasy football management skills after a Week 6 trade for Terrell Owens.

Updated Sunday, November 18

10:05 p.m. I'm giving Survivor Series a slight thumbs up. Do I think it's replay worthy? No. There's a thumbs up PPV that's replay-worthy and there's a thumbs up PPV that's just a collection of average-to-good matches without a stand-out performance. That was this PPV.

Shawn Michaels had an average match. Randy Orton had a typical Randy Orton match. Undertaker vs. Batista was a disappointing conclusion to their streak of four-star matches. The finish was more fitting for a TV gimmick match than the main event of a cornerstone WWE PPV. The bright spot was the Survivor Series match, which wasn't great by any means, but the formula of stacking the deck against the babyfaces worked. The surprise of the night was the ECW Title match, which was quite good as an opener with only eight minutes allotted.

A closing thought: at least Edge is back.

***

There are many types of silences. There's the bad silence during a lackluster match or boring, drawn out promo. Then, there's the audience-shocking silence that draws eyeballs and attention. If there's such a thing as a money silence, it was on display on a very strong edition of Smackdown.

The silence came during the end of a "friendship" between Matt Hardy and MVP. It was that babyface-getting-pounded silence. Fans were crying. There were random screams to break the silence. There were looks of complete shock written on the fan's faces. It was the reaction that writers can only dream of when a great pro wrestling angle takes shape once a heel finally shows his true colors.

The Hardy & MVP show has been a staple of Friday nights for several months now. You can pencil them in for 20 minutes of great TV every week. And following Hardy's loss of the tag belts, then subsequent loss of the instant re-match, MVP went off on his former partner and #1 Contender to the U.S. Title, effectively ending their "friendship". Of course, this was one segment after Hardy said he would never be MVP's friend.

The overall story was told so well. Jeff Hardy having left the building after his opening match. MVP with the brutal attack as Hardy cried out in pain. The announcers filling in all the blanks with MVP faking an injury, then trying to take out his competition once the bond that kept them together - the tag belts - was broken.

Most importantly, MVP cleared up any ambiguity of whether he was supposed to be cheered. He became a full-fledged heel after WWE effectively manipulated his character during the course of the program before the big turn. We know where his character stands after months of keeping his enemy close. And the end of this chapter to set up the next chapter in the story was met with silence. A shocking silence. A desirable silence for a great angle.

On Sunday afternoon, Torch specialist Mike Roe and myself will preview Survivor Series, and talk Smackdown and Impact in our weekend C&R audio update. Check back before the PPV in the Torch VIP Audio section.

Updated Saturday, November 17

TNA Impact from Thursday night averaged a 1.1 rating. Shocking news, I know. It seems that no matter whether the show is completely illogical or showing signs of promise, the audience remains the same. That's one of the problems. There is no consistency to the show. It either needs to be consistently a parody of a bad wrestling show or they need to decide to reduce the silliness and present a good wrestling show.

This week was a strong show in the final half hour. Next week, although it's a forgivable holiday-themed episode, looks on paper to be more silliness. Viewers don't know what they're getting from week to week. Am I tuning in for the episode with 120 minutes of the Kurt Angle show, or am I tuning in for two or three very good wrestling matches?

As we saw during the Monday Night Wars, it took Raw nearly a year of solid to very good wrestling shows before they finally ended Nitro's ratings victory streak. TNA can't even put together back-to-back strong episodes. It will take a very long stretch - not just six weeks of good TV - to get that audience up to a basic 1.5 target.

***

Mike Mooneyham has a lengthy and detailed piece on Fabulous Moolah's career. Plenty of colorful stories from the early days of big time women's wrestling.

***

The Baltimore Sun has a report that Congress will hold more hearings on baseball, but also include pro wrestling in the discussion, when Congress returns from winter break in 2008. Representative Bobby Rush, of Illinois, told the Sun that they plan to hold the hearings on steroids in sports following the Barry Bonds indictment earlier this week. Mr. Rush continued: "Given recent developments - the impending Mitchell report and reports of widespread abuse in professional wrestling - I believe it's time we get a formal update on what progress is being made to eradicate steroids from all sports and sports entertainment."

With major representatives from MLB in the room, the hearings will give Vince McMahon - if he testifies - an opportunity to pony up that WWE's drug testing policy is more complete than in other professional sports. McMahon often dodges the question of whether WWE is drug-free by pointing out that other sports have issues themselves. During the CNN documentary, McMahon was asked point blank if WWE is steroid-free and drug-free. McMahon responded, "I don't think that there is any organization in the world, be it entertainment or be it sport, that can tell you that they are totally drug free." That's true, but it wasn't an answer to the question being asked.

Depending on how much face time WWE receives at the hearings, they will have to provide answers to direct questions. Has WWE improved its stance on drugs and steroids in wrestling in the past two years? Yes. Are there major flaws with the Wellness policy? Yes, especially in the acquisition of a "legitimate" prescription for drugs from a "legitimate" doctor. Have they done more than TNA to clean up drugs in its company? Without a doubt. Is there more that can be done? Until the trend of wrestlers dying too young is reversed, there's always room for improvement.

I certainly hope this doesn't turn into a finger-pointing between wrestling and baseball, like a cheap televised political debate. (Hillary vs. Obama, anyone?) Lives are at a stake in cleaning up professional sports where professional athletes are motivated to find an edge over the next guy, with little regard for the means to acquiring that end.

***

- Smackdown from last night averaged a 2.7 rating off a first hour 2.6 and second hour 2.8. The show finished fourth on the night, ahead of FOX, but finished last in the second hour. The show had a slight decline from last week's highest number in quite some time, 2.9.

- Shawn Michaels touches on several topics about the WWE locker room in an interview with the Miami Herald to preview Survivor Series. Interesting comment about DX that Triple H decided to move away from it so they don't keep going back to the past. "I think we need to start to build other folks and stars for tomorrow," Michaels said. "The more we go back to the past, the more difficult it is to move forward.'' They could have used that wisdom last year when they feuded with Spirit Squad for a year, yet only Kenny is still on WWE TV, and in a completely meaningless role. Michaels also talked about younger wrestlers needing to focus on making a career in the business rather than trying to make friends.

- Jim Ross has a new blog entry on jrsbarbq.com discussing his contract status, Chris Masters's release, and college football. Regarding the contract, Ross said, "Someone pointed out to me that an internet site reported that my contract with the WWE had expired a few weeks ago and that I was working without an agreement with the company. That is not true."

- Ed Leslie (Brutus Beefcake) had an interview with the Winnipeg Sun on the current state of WWE. Leslie, whose relevance is debatable, said the WWE has changed from the basics of good vs. evil to a "striptease show". Regarding the scripted nature of the product compared to his era, Leslie said, "There weren't rehearsals before the show. We just went out and wrestled. We didn't have writers telling us what to say, we had our own characters. Some of (today's wrestlers) are robots." Valid point. Leslie also talks about Hulk Hogan saving his life following a sailing accident nearly a decade ago. He has two wrestling appearances coming up at the end of the month in Calgary and Edmonton.

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