Ray's UK Rating's Report: Week Ending August 28th 2011

Courtesy of the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (BARB) here are the UK TV ratings for wrestling programming that ranked in the top 10's for their respective channels on the week ending August 28th 2011:

1	TNA PRESENTS IMPACT WRESTLING (Tue, Challenge , 2200)	209,000
2	TNA PRESENTS IMPACT WRESTLING (Sun, Challenge , 2100)	194,000
3	WWE LATE NIGHT RAW – LIVE (Mon, Sky Sports 3, 2600)	101,000
4	WWE LATE NIGHT SMACKDOWN (Fri, Sky Sports 2, 2100)	97,000
5	TNA XPLOSION (Wed, Challenge, 2200)	Under 160,000
6	WWE AFTERBURN (Wed, Sky Sports 4, 1800)	19,000

Despite a drop from last week, it's another impressive showing from IMPACT Wrestling on Challenge as it not only remains the most watched wrestling show in the UK and Ireland but garners more viewers this week than WWE RAW and Smackdown combined! The show garnered 209,000 viewers (down 9,000 viewers from last week) for the Tuesday August 23rd episode (Originally aired Thursday Aug 18th on Spike in the USA) headlined by Mexican America's World Tag-Team title victory over Beer Money.

IMPACT Wrestling also debuted in it's new Sunday night at 9pm slot with the Sunday August 28th episode (Originally aired Thursday Aug 25th on Spike in the USA) headlined by a hotly anticipated Crimson vs. Kurt Angle main event. The show garnered 197,000 viewers on the night, which despite being down is a very impressive showing given the move to a new timeslot which naturally usually sees a slight drop in viewership initially.

WWE RAW drew 101,000 viewers (down a whopping 35,000 viewers from last week) for it's Monday August 22nd episode which featured John Cena defeating CM Punk to become Number 1 contender in the main event.

WWE's other flagship show, Smackdown, garnered 97,000 viewers (down 23,000 viewers from last week) for the Friday August 26th edition which saw Bret Hart as GM for the night and Sheamus defeat Mark Henry in the main event.

Here's how the total's look for the year to date since IMPACT's return to UK Television on Challenge:

Weekly Ratings Wins so far (2011)*:
IMPACT Wrestling – 25
WWE RAW – 2
WWE Smackdown – 2

*Based on first showing viewing figures, not inclusive of +1 or replay figures.

Thoughts on TNA Hardcore Justice 2011

Photo Courtesy of ImpactWrestling.com

Now that the much-anticipated Kurt Angle-Sting match at TNA's Hardcore Justice pay-per-view is history, there are more questions than answers regarding Kurt Angle, but at least one thing is certain - On Sunday night, Kurt Angle became "the man" once again in TNA Wrestling.

Here's a match by match look at the show:

Kurt Angle defeated Sting to become World Heavyweight Champion
I doubt there were many that saw this ending coming. Sure, we all figured on Hogan's potential involvement in the bout given it's importance to his position of power, but boy we didn't bank on Angle using a chair to gain the title, especially after his insistence on beating Sting cleanly.

Given the staredown at the show's close, it certainly didn't appear that Kurt Angle has joined the ranks of Immortal. Was this simply Kurt's "win at all costs" mentality? Or are there ulterior motives at play? I guess we'll have to wait until this weeks edition of IMPACT Wrestling to find out.

[Spoilers] IMPACT Wrestling Television Taping Results - 8th, 9th & 10th August 2011

IMPACT Wrestling taped the next three episodes of IMPACT Wrestling and Xplosion on the 8th, 9th and 10th August 2011 at the IMPACT Wrestling Zone in Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. These are the post-Hardcore Justice episodes set to air on Thursday 11th, 18th & 25th August on Spike in the United States and Tuesday 16th, 23rd and 30th August on Challenge TV in the UK and Ireland. The Xplosion episodes taped are set to air on Wednesday 17th, 24th and 31st August on Challenge.

Should you not wish to spoil any upcoming surprises then I recommend you give this article a miss, otherwise if you just can't wait to see what's about to happen then click "Read More" to proceed.

What happened @TNA Xplosion - July 27th 2011

The following article was originally published at 1Wrestling.com, you can view the original piece here.

Ray Mullan reporting for 1Wrestling.com. This week on TNA Xplosion, the Xplosion Championship Challenge heats up as we reach the halfway point of the Quarter Finals. One half of the British Invasion, Magnus, goes face to face with Ink Inc's "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore for a place in the Semi final, find out what went down and much more...

TNA Victory Road 2010 Preview and Predictions

Photo: TNA Wrestling

We’ll guys this Friday sees the annual Victory Road Pay-Per View, well at least for those of us in the UK like myself who haven’t bothered to watch it on the net. Through a suggestion on twitter (thanks Si!) I decided to run a predictions thread for Victory Road and get some of your predictions aswell.