Hey there folks and welcome to this weeks edition of the “JKE” with me, your host, that uh...Scottish dude who likes to say “Hey there” and shout “TAKE IT HOME!” all the time like he's a bad Jim Ross rip-off. Initially, this column was intended for another subject entirely which would take up the entire length of the article. I had actually written the majority of it out but there were a few subjects which jumped out at me today in the wacky world of wrestling news which I felt just had to be touched upon. Therefore, my beautiful, half-penned diatribe shall have to wait to rear it's sexy head upon the world of WWI readership. Perhaps next week! What such subjects could I be talking about? Read on and we'll find out fine gentlemen and fair maidens..

·          TNA Begins Online Streaming Drive

In markets outside where Total Non-Stop Action wrestling Pay-Per-Views are already available on the standard format of television, it appears the company are beginning a campaign to make their shows accessible online in a streaming mode – starting with the “Against All Odds” supershow. Of course, this will not be open to viewers in the United States, Canada, Mexico etc and could quite possibly only really reach out to the fans based in Europe. For anyone interested, the show can be viewed via PPV on the promotion's “Video Vault” service on the official website.

Normally, this kind of thing wouldn't exactly be too news worthy but..could this be a sign of TNA “savvying” up their business practices? Surely one of the main aims for the company is converting the amount of viewers they have in places such as the United Kingdom into actual paying customers. It's no secret that they draw money over this end of the pond each and every time they visit here to put on shows so it only makes sense to try and capitalise on the potential for Pay-Per-View dollars. It makes perfect logical sense then that they are trying to build a paying audience which will (in theory) keep the product afloat via buying into it.

It may seem odd but it's really not something TNA have ever really managed to have worldwide, certainly not anywhere near to the extent World Wrestling Entertainment do anyway. It shocks me that even in 2010, 8 years after the promotion came into existence and 6 years after they moved their shows to Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida (the iMPACT zone) that they still make no money from ticketing. I'm led to believe the promotion have an agreement with the studios that they will not charge money for entrance of fans, who have already paid to get into the main parks. Of course, the company has used these restraints to expand their shows out into other arenas where they can charge an entrance fee to fans and actually draw in a hot crowd who want to be there to see the wrestling shows. It is kinda odd that more often than not, non-wrestling fans will be in attendance for TNA's weekly show and even its Pay-Per-Views.

Until very recently, over here in Britain, TNA broadcast their weekly show and PPV's on the “Bravo” network each and every Saturday evening. “Bravo” is a regular cable TV channel which is part of many premium television packages such as “SKY” or “Virgin Media” in this country but it is not a “Pay-Per-View” or “On Demand” network. Therefore, Pay-Per-View events by TNA wrestling were always broadcast free of charge in this country. This appears to be changing, with the aforementioned online streaming idea coming into effect as of “Against All Odds”.

I really hope this will lead to TNA building up some decent numbers and it'll certainly be extremely interesting to see exactly how well this next big show does. It would make sense that many people will not be falling over one another to pay for the show, judging by how well the events do in the US and worldwide markets but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled, awaiting with great interest how well this feature does. One thing is for sure, TNA really need to begin having fans pay money to watch their main shows and also to attend them. It's a shocking thought to think that a house show ticket costs £50/$78 yet entrance to a bulk of their main PPV events is completely free. That is one thing which needs addressing, otherwise – how can they really expect to make any money?

·          WWE announce it's time to take things to the NXT level

If anyone was tuning into World Wrestling Entertainment's weekly ECW show on Tuesday night, they would have viewed one Vincent Kennedy McMahon making a very rare appearance on the 'C' show. His announcement was that, as of February 23 2010, the “Extreme Championship Wrestling” brand would no longer exist and in its place we would have a new show named “WWE NXT”. The basic premise of this new episodic spectacular is to introduce fans to some of the new developmental talent the company are banking on to become new stars in the future, while also giving the younger members of the roster a platform to hone their raw talents in front of a live crowd and TV audience each and every week.

It's no secret that this is actually something the federation has been doing with the ECW show for a number of months now, perhaps even years. In essence, this is a mercy killing for the brand – which has become so far removed from the original, actual functioning company, of “Extreme Championship Wrestling” that it's barely even the same product.  The only similarity really being that they are both loosely described as pro wrestling shows. This writer has never really been one who is bitter towards the show being named after one of his favourite promotions growing up but it strikes me as a good move to step away from this little experiment. The Tuesday night slice of WWE action has been falling in ratings virtually since it started, barring a pretty hot run stirred up by initial interest at the very beginning. The company have been using this 1 precious hour of TV time to showcase some of their younger starlets and also give a home to those veterans who don't really have any story lines or feuds to run with on “RAW” or “Smackdown”. Between ECW and “WWE Superstars”, the fledgling performers in the promotion are given valuable time on-screen and an identity within the WWE weekly audience collective minds.

This can surely only lead to positive outcomes for WWE. If the show doesn't do so well, it doesn't do so well. If it does, you know some of the characters are 'clicking' with the fans and may well be better utilised on one of the main shows where they can only grow further and (hopefully) become genuine players within the industry, leading to lots and lots of extra cash being generated by their appearances. This is the goal it seems and why not? I know I'll be excited by the prospect of seeing young and talented wrestlers given room to breathe on a show with their peers, all striving to show that they deserve a shot on the 'A' shows.

Much like the TNA story, it'll be very interesting to see how this all pans out. I'm just intrigued to see what will become of the ECW World Title, which will surely either be re-named or abandoned altogether. Being of the thought process that the company already maybe has too many titles for the fans to truly get behind the respective champions, I wouldn't exactly be upset if the belt was placed into the history books. This would have the added advantage of Christian being shot upwards to either Monday of Friday evenings, where many fans are begging for him to be. Let's all keep an eye on this.

That about does it for this week. Hopefully, barring some sensational story which I simply have to write about occurring in the next 7 days, I can assault your eyeballs and brain with my nearly-finished column next time out. Until then however, have a fantastic weekend everybody and TAKE IT HOME! (Oh brother..)

You can get in touch with me regarding this weeks column or indeed ANYTHING relating to the professional wrestling business that you'd like to talk about. I'll respond to each and every email as I really appreciate any messages and simply love talking to people about this wonderful industry which has given me countless hours of entertainment. I can be reached at jamiekennedy@live.com ! Thanks to everybody who has already emailed me and all I can say is..email again!