Joe and Foley interviews, Tajiri returning to WWE?, Sting's UK experiences chronicled, Questions on the Kliq, Rhino, Matt Hardy returning, and traveling luchadores, JBL interview, Z! TLIS #52, Raw and Smackdown pictures, face turn for Raw performer?, Impact Wrestling rating, and Tough Enough's Jeremiah talks wrestling/MMA

Samoa Joe had a nearly hour-long interview ahead of Against All Odds. I agree that TNA needs to move out of the Impact Zone more if they want to grow. Eventually the audience will get burned out since they've seen just about everything some of the talents can do and the only things that get them to react are the big high-flying and hardcore spots. That's dangerous, as you can only take those things so far before you're doing a lot more in the way of showing what you can do and how much pain you can take instead of telling a story between characters in the more traditional sense.

Mick Foley also had an interview. He has the right idea about the feeling at the end of the match being more important that the cheers within the match itself. That's important for making wrestling something beyond a brief distraction that people enjoy while it's on instead of a story they can't wait to see the next installment of. Not that people should wrestle intentionally bad matches or anything, but there's a difference between a "fireworks reaction" of being impressed by high-flying offense and a long, sustained pop from fans being taken on a journey. There's a reason Booker T. got such a great reaction after his Smackdown match with Cody Rhodes last month. I also agree about things like chair shots being somewhat cheap. Good read.

SMASH, a promotion in Japan run by former WWE/(original) ECW star Tajiri will be shutting down after its scheduled March events. WWE is said to be looking for some of their past Cruiserweight talents to work for their planned WWE Network series. I always really enjoyed him as a competitor, with some very lethal kicks and (of course) the mist. I'd love to see him back if he's "still got it". He could work very well as a veteran on that show.

Update: Apparently the promotion has had financial troubles for a while now. It might just be a hiatus until they can build up funds to start again. Tajiri could very well just split off and form a new promotion. Ah well, it was fun to hold hope for a while.

After the break, I go into the rest of the day's news and PWInsider.com's questions. Next up is a video of Sting's experiences in the UK working with TNA.

Yep, this is a video all right.

As for PWInsider.com's Friday questions:
1. Wow. That's a really good question with good reasons for everyone. For positive, a lot of it's going to depend on what HHH does an executive in the years to come. He certainly has the opportunity to leave the biggest impression overall with being an increasingly important part of things behind-the-scenes. That, to me, will determine his overall legacy. Shawn Michaels did have a phenomenal in-ring career, but if HHH can do great things on a bigger scale than ring-work (changing the company overall), he'll probably have him beat. For negative, it's also pretty dependent on the future. With Hall and Waltman having problems outside of the ring, that's going to be a real wildcard. I don't know how much of a chance they realistically have of turning those things around and completely leaving them behind after years of trouble. It took Michaels a decent amount of time post-Montreal to do close to a 180 with really good performances and being a changed man behind-the-scenes. Hall's fall from grace was/is a lot bigger than Waltman's, so that dubious honor probably goes to him for now. While Nash is... well, Nash, at "least" what he's done to ruin the business hasn't hurt the reputation for wrestlers as a whole to the outside world. No big TMZ stories or "E:60" features on him that I'm aware of.

2. He actually had an angle in ROH not too awful long ago. I miss WWF/E-era Rhino, especially with  Heyman's commentary. He made that move sound like it would rip someone in half. Commentary today's not this good sadly.

3. Concurring, if he's not working through injuries and pain and/or just doing it because he needs the money, I think it could be good for him to get back into it. Getting his ducks in a row outside of the ring should be his top priority, though. So far, so good and I'm glad I haven't had to write about something disappointing going on with him. I hope things keep going in a positive direction for him.

Nothing to add to 4, but for 5, they go unmasked. I don't think very many fans would recognize them with the masks off (as long as they don't start off wearing them). I look at it that they're "not traveling as Rey Mysterio or Sin Cara" but as themselves out-of-character if that makes sense.

John Layfield discussed a number of topics regarding his WWE career. Talk about range: he convincingly played a hardcore redneck, then went on to succeeding as playing pretty much the complete opposite of that. I don't know how many performers these days can do something that impressive. Pretty good read and I like his stance about rehearsal. He should write an autobiography.

Here's the 52nd episode of Z! True Long Island Story. I don't think Ryder "sold out" by moving the show to the WWE channel. Heck, I'm glad the company's giving him that platform. Enjoyable as it usually is, especially the Lucasfilm tour. Hawkins is growing on me.

And here are some photos from the NXT/Smackdown and Raw tapings this week, with DiBiase Posse Party pictures to boot. Very awesome to see things from such great seats. The guy facing Brodus is FCW's Damien Sandow.

Michael McGillicutty has worked as a face during WWE's tour of the UAE, using some of his father's signature moves and mannerisms after the 9-year anniversary of his passing. I'm all for him going face and emulating his dad if it gets him out of the rut he's in and gets crowds into what he's doing.

Impact Wrestling did a 1.05 on Thursday night. Ouch. That's a notable drop from the weeks previous. Not 100% sure what to make of that, though I'm sure some of it can be explained by the lack of Jeff Hardy. Maybe the angle with Bischoff and Hogan is bombing with the audience at large in addition to internet fans? It's a fair question.

Finally, Jeremiah Riggs of Tough Enough fame talked about being "blackballed" from wrestling after all the heat he got for his FCW try-out. It's really saying something when even TNA won't put up with your BS.

That's it for Friday's news. More to come later. Thanks for reading!