I, too, use power chords.

NWA - Total Non-Stop Action - made the jump from weekly pay per view programs to a weekly show broadcast free each Friday afternoon on Fox Sports Net last week. This is the first step towards making an impact on a national scene and competing with the behemoth that is the World Wrestling Entertainment. Perhaps to underscore the importance of this step, the weekly show is called Impact!

NWA - TNA made its debut on PPV over two years ago and has since offered a PPV every Wednesday night at a reasonable price of $9.99. Since the company has had almost two years to get their ducks in a row, I expected Impact! to really knock my socks off.

Team International vs. Team Canada

Two things impressed me right from the start. First, no wrestler had an entrance longer than 30 seconds from the time their music began to the entrance of the next wrestler. That is a huge plus in my book, as it is a huge pet peeve of mine when watching Raw and Smackdown. I've seen Triple H walk to the ring before and I don't need to see him do it each week. I REALLY don't need to see it each week when he takes two minutes of my precious TV time.

Next, Team Canada is your basic heel faction based on geography, which is really something of a cliché in the wrestling business these days (see Hart Foundation, La Resistance, FBI, Lance Storm, etc…). Despite that, Team Canada broke tradition and had heavy metal entrance music rather than O Canada. It's a minor detail, but Lance Storm and La Resistance are boring enough as is, that they could use a few power chords to keep the crowd's interest.

Another touch worth noting is that the wrestlers wrestle in a six sided ring. The announcers are quick to point out that six is better than four. I'll take their word for it and so should you.

The opening six man match was exactly the type of thing you would want on a debut show. The wrestlers were all talented and youthful, giving off a good, energetic vibe. No one really displayed any personality and no one wrestler stood out from the crowd, but it set the tone of "Total Non-Stop Action."

Next up was a highlight package that brought new viewers up to speed on what happened at the PPV last Wednesday. Jeff Jarrett apparently became the 3 time world champ after beating four other guys in a King of the Mountain Ladder match.

I noticed that a lot of the wrestlers were either on their third title reign or working their way to it. Reading between the lines, that tells me that the NWA roster isn't very deep and they've been depending on a handful of guys to carry the load.

Another highlight package introduced the X-Division to viewers. Apparently it has the athleticism of a cruiserweight division without the weight restriction.

...but his mother loves him anyway...

Shark Boy vs. The Monster Abyss

Second match on the card and it lasted 94 seconds. The Abyss squashed Shark Boy without breaking a sweat. Interesting booking choice as I wouldn't have put a squash match on a debut show at all, even if the goal is to establish Abyss as a Kane type monster.

I've read about Shark Boy and his following for years now but he failed to make an Impact! on me.

Tag Team Champions Kid Kash & Dallas vs. America's Most Wanted

Three guys that look like Kid Rock and one guy that wrestles like Kevin Nash pretty much sums this match up. The wrestling was fair but nothing that you haven't seen before. AMW won the tag titles which was completely meaningless to new viewers. Maybe they wanted to give newbies a fresh start.

Here is where the show starts to lose me…

In-Ring Interview with Dusty Rhodes

Dusty, looking about 100 pounds heavier than the last time I saw him, does an interview with Mike Tenay, only to be interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. NWA is really trying to appeal to the southern redneck wrestling fan with this stuff and I haven't even mentioned the highlight package of Jeff Jarrett's apparent feud with country singer Toby Keith.

Jarrett is the only active wrestler that gets any microphone time during the hour long show (figures, since he owns part of the company). If you've seen any of Jarrett's interviews over the years, you've seen this one. It's a shame none of the other wrestlers, whose faces we don't instantly associate with sucking, got a chance to show off their mic skills.

Jarrett's skirmish is broken up by Ron "The Truth" Killings or as he was known in the WWE, K-Kwick. Ron always struck me as a guy with a good look that was saddled with a lame "gangsta rap" gimmick in the WWE. I'm curious to see how well he is doing as a world title contender in the NWA.

Ron is joined by his team members Konnan (from WCW) and B.G. James (Road Dogg from WWE) and together they form a faction called 3-Live Crew. That name reeks of minor leagues to me.

My name is Kid...aw, fuggedaboudit.

Shane Douglas interviews "Director of Authority" Vince Russo

The longer this show went on, the more it struck me as a place where guys that used to be popular were still trying to make a go of it. Case in point, Vince Russo and Shane Douglas did an interview in which Russo promised a surprise participant in the X-Division match later on.

Going into the last match of the show, none of Russo's signature sex symbols made an appearance. I know TNA has a few attractive women on the roster but they were absent from the show. Either Fox Sports put the kibosh on them or Russo has lost his affinity for boobs. If so, I've finally lost total interest in anything he has to contribute.

Michael Shane vs. Chris Sabin vs. Primetime vs. AJ Styles for an X-Division title shot

AJ Styles turned out to be the big surprise Vince Russo was hyping, which of course was no surprise to me at all. Styles has been X-champ three times and is making his return to the X-division but he was a complete stranger to me as a first time viewer.

While Styles was good in the ring, clearly better than any of the others, the hype of a surprise was wasted on him. Impact! needed an Impact if it really wanted to hook new viewers for a few more weeks. There are plenty of WWE cast offs that could have been brought in to give the show some juice, but the moment passed quietly.

The X-Division match was fun to watch as clearly all the participants wanted to show off their biggest moves. Ring psychology was replaced by flashy moves that are impressive, but fans can become desensitized to that after long periods of time (see Jeff Hardy).

The show ended with a lot of hype for next week's PPV event on Wednesday but little build up for next week's free show on Friday. I'd count this as another tactical mistake, as I don't think any new viewer watching this show would be convinced to shell out 10 bucks for a PPV, but might be convinced to tune in next week.

All in all, the show held my interest for an hour but never really made the, as advertised, Impact! on me. The WWE audience has dwindled over the last few years. There is the opportunity for a second wrestling company to swoop in for a piece of the pie, but first impressions are lasting ones. Even with two years of preparation, the show was just average.

I'm not sure how solid the NWA/Fox Sports deal is or how interested FSN is in pushing the new show but I did notice that the WWE is in far better shape now than they were a few years ago when WCW rose to power, but they should make note that NWA is out there as an alternative product. It's time for them to tighten up their own production and storylines, before NWA can capitalize.

Michael Goodson