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While a 4.0 in the Nielsens is no big whoop for most network shows, it packs the equivalent whallop of an ECA stack for Monday Night Raw, which has been riding the low 3.0 range for the past few months during the writer’s strike.

Now that the strike is over, people seem to be coming back to TV again, and that includes wrestling. While WWE Raw is by no means riding high with a 4.0, considering they were drawing almost three times that number at their peak about a decade ago, it’s still an impressive number.

Of course, this is pre-WrestleMania season and interest in the Fed always seems to take a leap up at this time of year, no matter what else is going on. Let’s hope the new viewers like what they are seeing and tell a few friends just how good Cena, Orton and Hardy can be, when they set their minds to it.

Boy, take some time off and the wrestling landscape sure can change.

For the past 10 days or so, my entries have been few and far between because my PC died, I had to buy another one, and then had to get the new PC up to speed. Long story short, I was not at my usual keyboard when No Way Out aired.

In retrospect, it was a bit of a ho-hum, paint-by-numbers PPV. Having Chavo Guerrero defeat CM Punk as the openinig match was further evidence that WWE doesn’t know what to do with ECW now that Heyman’s long gone and his influence is no longer anywhere to be seen.

The introduction of the Big Show-Floyd Merriweather tilt at WrestleMania was strong enough to get some real-world sports media buzz outside of traditional wrestling circles, though the match promises to be tough on both men’s posture correction. And Raw’s ratings are back up in the 4.0 range last week, a good sign for the biz.

I thought the Cena-Orton nonfinish was ho-hum, while the Elimination Chamber all-too-predictably put Triple H over the top. With all the new blood in the Raw picture, going with the “safe” WrestleMania booking of Triple H - Orton or Triple H - Cena, or a triple threat between all three is just too predictable and boring. But, like McCain vs. Obama, it now seems inevitable.

But the best news remains this: I’m not sitting behind a 3GB RAM, 4400+ Intel Core2 Duo, 500GB HD, Acer Aspire; I’m ready for the next big thing, and I don’t mean Brock Lesnar.