By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010

3:00 p.m.

-- I'll be on today's PWTorch Livecast with Wade Keller previewing Raw and taking your calls today at 5:30 p.m. EST, so be sure to tune at the PWTorch Livecast on blogtalkradio.

-- Jim Ross has a new blog on jrsbarbq.com today talking about Mike Tyson's WWE fandom, a rumor of Dr. Death Steve Williams being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and his opinion there really isn't a "war" between WWE and TNA since TNA has only been on Monday night cable TV once.

Ross also weighs in on the wrestler deaths over the weekend of Ludvig Borga and Jim White, who was Jerry Lawler's original tag partner. "White was a great mentor to Jerry, who credits Jim White with helping get the King started correctly in the biz," Ross said.

-- Weekend Highlights: If you missed some of the top stories from over the weekend, here's a rundown of what's required reading to get caught up. (1) Bret Hart interview on the major WWE subjects. (2) Ric Flair on why he joined TNA. (3) 1990s WWF wrestler Ludvig Borga found dead. (4) Vince Russo on TNA news items. (5) Bobby Lashley booked for CBS fight card.

***

1:00 p.m.

-- Titan Publishing is stirring up buzz for the new WWE Heroes comic book that launches right before WrestleMania 26 in March. Titan emailed out a sample of the first page of the new comic book, which can be seen on the right. (Click for a larger size.) More details on the comic book are on wwecomics.com.

-- A story we'll be tracking this week is former WWE champion Brock Lesnar's health. UFC is expected to update Brock Lesnar's short-term and long-term health as it relates to his MMA fight career sometime this week.

-- TNA taped this Thursday's Impact last Tuesday and a preview for the show is below. Spike TV is focusing on the big names and faces who appeared on the live Impact one week ago. The two top matches TNA is advertising for Impact are Samoa Joe vs. Desmond Wolfe and Beer Money vs. Matt Morgan & Hernandez. Video preview below.



-- TNA has announced the house show schedule for next weekend's Pennsylvania tour. Jeff Jarrett will be back in his "special referee" role for the main event of A.J. Styles vs. Daniels. Also scheduled is British Invasion vs. Beer Money, Abyss vs. Dr. Stevie, Mick Foley live, and TNA Knockouts tag champs Awesome Kong & Hamada vs. The Beautiful People.

***

12:00 p.m.

-- There just isn't that much buzz today about Mike Tyson appearing on Raw tonight. I can think of several reasons. Top Five - (1) It's tough to follow Bret Hart's first live WWE TV appearance in 12 years. (2) There isn't as much excitement for wrestling today after last week's Monday Night Wars battle. (3) Mike Tyson isn't as relevant as he was 12 years ago when he was involved with DX and Steve Austin. (4) There is no storyline tie-in for Tyson's appearance. (5) Pro wrestling's available mainstream popularity peaked last week. In a 24-hour news cycle, it's time to move along.

-- This will apparently be a regular feature responding to Vince Russo's fan answers on his new Facebook page. Russo is spreading a lot of misinformation and he won't accept any criticism of his style of writing TV, so let's look at a few items.

Reader: "TNA Impact regularly gets a lot of stick from wrestling critics all over the internet. Do you think that this is because they actually dislike TNA/You/Hogan etc or because they strive so much for somebody to rival the WWE that anything that isn't a hit right off the bat gets a higher then usual amount of criticism?"

Russo: It's because they hate me and hate Hogan--and it's also because they want TNA to be a 2 hour wrestling show--with TWO HOURS of wrestling--that ain't gonna happen, so the haters will continue to hate."

Caldwell Responds: First, Russo needs to specify which criticism or whose criticism he is actually addressing here or not say anything at all. It's a classic example of a polarizing wrestling figure painting over every wrestling journalist, blogger, or hardcore wrestling fan with a wide brush stroke. It's a lazy, uneducated response.

Second, I don't want to see two hours of wrestling on a two-hour show. I want to understand the motivations for the wrestlers competing in a wrestling match. I want to see storylines that intelligently feed into the matches. Wrestling should always be the centerpiece, but a wrestling show can offer 25 minutes of actual wrestling and 60 minutes of storyline-driven content as long as it feeds into giving fans a pay-off short-term and long-term inside the ring.

Reader: I'm an avid fan of wrestling and love to watch TNA. The thing that I noticed is that it seems that the storylines seem to get mixed up a bit. E.G. the mysterious attacker of A.J. Styles. Is this something that is out of your control or is just too little time for so many wrestlers?

Russo: I like to play things out--you're not going to get your answers in a week. I've been waiting 5 years to get the answers to "Lost." That's just my style -always has been. If you don't pay attention, you'll claim it doesn't make sense. Everything I write "makes sense" - you just have to pay attention to get it. A.J.'s attacker - by the way - gets paid off next week on Impact.

Caldwell Responds: This is a really cocky response from someone who is at the helm of TNA storylines that more often than not do not make sense to the average viewer sitting at home who shouldn't have to have a PhD to understand current storylines. The storylines are mind-numbingly fast-paced without a consistent pay-off, characters such as Mick Foley change from heel to face seemingly every month, and TNA hasn't established motivations for half the roster. Why does Amazing Red even show up for Impact?

If Russo isn't willing to change because it's "always been his style," then it's time for TNA to re-evaluate the writing team if they're ever going to grow a consistent audience since they can't depend on surprise appearances or first-time-evers every week. Pro wrestling isn't "24" or "Lost." It's a very simple, formula art that is at its best when every member of the audience can invest emotionally in the storylines without having to go out of their way to look up "Jeff Jarrett's personal problems" on the Internet without feeling completely lost watching Impact.

-- Jeff Jarrett randomly started posting on Twitter this weekend after not posting anything from June 2009 to Sunday afternoon. One noteworthy post was on the new Jakks toy deal. "The team at Jakks are the very best at what they do. They make the best action figures. Their numbers prove it. I can't wait 'til TNA launches!"

-- NWA Main Event has a TV taping in Nashville, Tenn. on January 14 featuring former WWE referee Mike Posey. More information can be found on NWA Main Event's website.

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