Did Impact Defeat ECW In The Ratings?, Kurt Angle Interviewed, New TNA Hire

sources: www.pwtorch.com, Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— Thursday’s edition of Impact topped ECW in the ratings, drawing a 1.1 rating and 1.4 million viewers compared to ECW’s 1.0 (rounded up from 0.95). Although, the number was down from the week before, which drew a 1.16 rating and 1.6 million viewers overall. The most-watched quarter hour of Impact was the sixth quarter hour, which featured Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs. Taylor Wilde & Rhaka Khan, a Kevin Nash promo, and Mike Tenay’s interview with Sheik Abdul Bashir. Both the opening promo and main event segments each drew a 1.1 rating. Impact’s rating slid to a 0.99 rating by the end of the first hour, but bounced back following Mick Foley’s promo at the top of the second hour. This week’s show drew a 0.90 rating among males 18-35, compared to 0.85 the previous week.

— TNA hired Bill Goertel as the new Director of Graphics this past week. Goertel formerly worked for World Wrestling Entertainment, where he ran the company’s graphics department for more than a decade. Goertel left WWE a few months back. According to one person who worked with him in WWE, “TNA grabbed a great talent that will help them with a key weakness they’ve had forever: graphic design.” The AAA promotion out of Mexico was also interested in his services after finding out about his departure from WWE.

— Orlando Quinones sent in the following… Kurt Angle stopped by Sirius XM Radio this week for a one on one interview with Orlando Quinones of “The After Hours Spot Radio Show” on Sirius 40 Hip Hop Nation.

Some the topics covered included:

-His thoughts on Vince McMahon
-Booker T’s contributions to TNA Wrestling
-Reaction to Bret “The Hitman” Harts book
-Dropping the belt to Samoa Joe
-His thoughts on Kimbo Slice losing on national television
Here’s the video of the interview in 2 parts:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6HKyd3nu5E

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1TgdxhJ_k

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