Backstage News On Brutus Magnus' Push, MEM vs. Frontline

The war between The Main Event Mafia and TNA Frontline (featuring Kurt Angle and Brother Ray) is the cover story of the latest issue of The Wrestler. Visit www.PWI-Online.com to see the cover and/or purchase the magazine.

TNA president Dixie Carter insists on pushing Brutus Magnus as he is a personal project of her's. Carter issued a directive saying he must be pushed, hence his wins over Eric Young and Chris Sabin at the last two TNA pay-per-view events.

As reported earlier, last week's edition of TNA iMPACT! was the highest rated television broadcast in company history, drawing a 1.34 cable rating and 1.8 million viewers. The show featured the free television TNA wrestling debut of Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett's first free television match since 2006. The show did a 1.13 rating in Males 18-34 and 1.29 in Males 35-49, which are the highest ratings the show has ever done in both demos except when the show benefitted from airing after UFC's Ultimate Fighter program. Furthermore, last week's iMPACT! was the highest rated show in Males 18-49 on cable from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and second highest in the demo for the entire evening.

In the segment-by-segment breakdown, the Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley vs. No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) match lost 67,000 viewers. A promo from Mick Foley gained 81,000 viewers. Knockouts action featuring Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed vs. ODB and Taylor Wilde gained 54,000 viewers. The Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Samoa Joe match gained 27,000 viewers. The second Knockouts match of the evening, Madison Rayne vs. The Governor, gained 13,000 viewers. The Sting and Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley match gained 94,000 viewers to score a 1.45 final quarter rating. The quarter tied for the highest quarter hour in the history of TNA iMPACT!.