Monday's WWE vs TNA Showdown: Late Reactions

I have been a bit under the weather lately so I was late in getting around to this, but here it is two days later.

This past Monday we saw TNA square of with WWE in what is the first of many Monday night showdowns between the two wrestling promotions.

I'll start with TNA first since they are the newcomers.

The first match of the night saw the return of TNA's mystery man, Sting.  He returned and surprised many people by turning heel, or at least it seems that way for now.  He helped Styles and Flair take Hogan and Abyss out with his signature baseball bat.

Backstage, Sting pushed Dixie Carter and said he owes her nothing.  She responded by putting him in a match later in the evening against the debuting RVD.  RVD got a huge round of applause when his music hit the ring and he got the win early by surprising Sting from behind.

After the pin, Sting beat down RVD with the bat until Hogan tried to step in, only to get beaten himself.

I for one am excited to see RVD in TNA.  I hope they don't screw it up. 

The night also saw a great X-Division title match between Kaz, Daniels and the champion Doug Williams.  The champ retained his belt but was also attacked by his next challenger, Shannon Moore.

Moore got a good ovation when he came out, but nothing like what would be heard at the end of the night.

The main event was a restart to the opening contest of Hogan/Abyss vs Flair/Styles. 

Jeff Hardy made an appearance and cleaned house to a huge ovation.  He is making a big splash in TNA without even being in a match yet, which is good to see since he may not appear again til his court case is up.

The rest of the night was pretty run of the mill.  Jarrett's handicap match was decent but too contrived and predictable for a night full of surprises.

Now for the giant, WWE.

HBK and Taker had a ten minute conversation about Wrestlemania.  I thought this was unnecessary at this point as we all know why both men want the match.

We saw SuperCena take the finishers of just about everyone in the heel department of Raw before finally being laid out by Batista.  His match with McMahon never really got under way, as Vinnie stacked the deck against the modern day superhero.

Truth and Morrison basically jumped ShowMiz and got DQ'd on purpose to prove a point, that they can work together just fine.  I thought that while this was a short segment, it showed the strength of Morrison and Truth without really downplaying the champions.

We also saw some divas appear, and Bourne beat Regak to get into the MITB match at Mania.  Bourne is looking good in the ring these days and I think WWE will come around and begin pushing him soon.

The night's ratings clearly went to WWE, but who had the better show?