The Silver Report: May 13-19

Due to the fact that I am running late on a lot of things, I am going to merge my Over the Limit preview with this week’s edition of the Silver Report and postpone my review of WrestleMania 28 until next weekend.  Also with all the humongous news that was announced earlier this week, there was no way that I would not do a Silver Report to give my two cents about these big news stories in the pro wrestling industry.  Before I get to the huge news, let us run down my predictions for WWE Over the Limit that is live right now.

Kofi Kingston & R-Truth (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger for the WWE Tag Team Championship

Prediction:  Kofi Kingston & R-Truth retain

Layla (c) vs. Beth Phoenix for the Diva’s Championship

Prediction:  Layla retains

Sheamus (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton in a Fatal 4 Way Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Prediction:  Sheamus retains

John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis

Prediction:  John Laurinaitis wins

CM Punk (c) vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship

Prediction:  CM Punk retains in what should easily be Match of the Night

TNA Impact Goes Live This Summer

It has been a long time since I have talked about anything TNA related on this blog due to the fact I stopped watching back last November when I got fed up with the product.  I still follow PPV reports and such so I do have a rough idea what goes on in TNA, but not enough to really talk about anything.  Well I got something to talk about today.  To celebrate this coming summer, TNA is making some more changes to Impact.  Starting May 31^st, TNA Impact is moving to an 8 o’clock start time and going live every single week.  That might sound pretty cool, but there is one catch Impact will be live from the Impact each and every week and also all further PPVs including Bound for Glory will be held in the Impact Zone.  For longtime TNA fans or off-and-on fans such as yours truly, limiting TNA to just the Impact Zone is a horrible decision.  The fans in the Impact Zone are so long past burnt out of TNA’s product that they do not offer the best and most honest crowd response.  If TNA decided to drop some PPVs and go live and in a different location each and every week, I believe that would draw the crowds that would produce an excellent atmosphere for the show.  Remember when TNA got out of the Impact Zone last year to do tapings for TNA Impact?  That was awesome as it felt like a breath of fresh air.  Going live might be the next step for TNA, but they also need to get out of the Impact Zone just as bad.  If they don’t, it will most likely become evident very quick that the fans there are not into TNA’s product, so why should we tune in to watch?

Raw Goes Three Hours Come July 23^rd

We got even bigger news this week as WWE announced Monday Night Raw’s 1000^th show this July 23^rd (one day after my birthday).  It was obvious that for this huge celebration that this Raw would be three hours long, but no one saw the next announcement coming as John Cena tweeted that Raw will be three hours long permanently starting July 23^rd.  For any wrestling fan, Raw going three hours is huge news and is extremely polarizing.  Some are saying it will be a great addition to the show and give more exposure to underutilized wrestlers and more time for matches while others are saying it will cause the complete destruction of professional wrestling.  I can see why people fall into the latter seeing WCW Nitro did that over a decade ago and it was one of the reasons WCW is no longer around today, but I can see why some are hopeful.  I personally fall on the side that thinks that making Raw three hours long is a bad idea.  When Raw is bad or mediocre, the show does drag on even at the regular two hours.  Also the recent three hour Raws have been nothing short of atrocious for the past year.  None of them have delivered since the three hour Raw WWE had back in November 2010 for King of the Ring.  What makes people think WWE can book a three hour show every single week if they cannot do it every once and a while?  We can speculate all we want right now, but we will all have to wait until the three hour Raw takes its’ course to see if it is a success or utter failure.