Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

the next few months are going to be interesting in TNA. there's some momentum going right now so it's only going to get better. for the upcoming Lockdown PPV, it looks as if Abyss will face Christian for the NWA title. this is good since it means Christian is taking on all the TNA men and going through the run in defending his title. it's best to keep Jeff Jarrett away from the title scene for a while since Christian with anyone else freshens up that scene and validates him as a champion. So in theory it seems that Christian will go over Abyss. Of course, this could lead to more matches down the line with Abyss, but they're doing the big all cage PPV. there could be a nice payoff here in terms of a brutal match so i'd prefer Christian continuing to defend against other challengers. that begs the question, who should be next in line? i think one of the reasons why guys like Bret Hart and Ric Flair are considered valued champions is because of the perception that they would defend their belts on a nightly basis against anyone. Big matches would, indeed, happen at the PPVs. however, you still would want smaller title defenses to occur to make the champion seem more credible and varied. using that theory, the TV shows ought to allow for Christian to defend say every other week. the initial Impact! timeslot change ought to have a title defense. If not then a non-title match up with Christian against someone else. an obvious pick for that situation is someone like an Alex Shelley in a grudge match. Shelley doesn't have to win but it helps in giving some spotlight to Shelley and increasing the win/loss record for someone like Christian. Bobby Roode would be another guy since Christian is feuding against Jarrett's stable. for PPVs after Abyss, i would avoid going with Steiner. i'd say give Christian AT LEAST 6 months worth of title defenses before breaking out Steiner. this gives Christian a chance to build some momentum going in since Steiner is a legit contender. you could bring someone in for a defense, but there aren't many people at the moment that i'd use. i'd prefer going with internal people at the moment. maybe a Jeff Hardy. or even AJ Styles. AJ Styles would be a good one because it'd be a competitive match up. then i'd break out Samoa Joe before Scott Steiner. If AJ Styles and Samoa Joe preceded Steiner, Christian could develop several good matches that would boost people's confidence in him as a champion. So he'd have some momentum going against Steiner. I'd want Christian to get good matches under his belt so people would believe that the match against Steiner would be good (more people would prefer to wonder who'd win on that night which would be the primary drawing factor for that match, but knowing that Christian is upping his game plan would be even more propitious in his favor). I'd also like to him face Christopher Daniels, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Matt Bentley and Petey Williams. The intersection of Samoa Joe and Christian means that Samoa Joe needs the lead up. Currently, he's looking to face Sabu. Match might not be wonderful but i could see Joe beating Sabu to give him more momentum into the heavy weight division. Possible future people Joe could take on are Jeff Hardy, Ron Killings and later Rhyno. Raven is another possibility.