TNA ratings for Nov. 1 episode of Impact Wrestling

The ratings are in for last night's episode of TNA Impact Wrestling, featuring Bobby Roode turning heel and winning the heavyweight title from his former Beer Money tag partner, James Storm.

PWTorch brings the word:

TNA Impact Wrestling on Thursday, November 3 scored a 1.27 rating, up from a 1.14 rating and down from a 1.35 rating two weeks ago after Bound for Glory.

TNA scored its fifth-highest rating of the year and topped the yearly average of a 1.19 rating.

Impact averaged 1.70 million viewers, up from an average of 1.52 million viewers last week. Impact also topped the yearly average of 1.62 million viewers.

Not too shabby. Impact two weeks ago had the disadvantage of going up against game seven of the World Series, which the entire world watched thanks to one of the greatest games in Series history in game six. The rebound, even a small one, was expected.

The bad news coming out of this is when examining the quarter hour ratings by segment. The show opened with a 1.41 for the opening promo by James Storm that set up his title defense against Bobby Roode later in the evening.

But by the time the match came around, the audience had dropped off significantly. The main event, which saw Roode turn heel and win the heavyweight championship, only drew a 1.14, the lowest of the show and down from the 2011 average for that slot.

Major changes in direction take time to grab the audience's attention but one can't help but wonder if the hot shot style booking is hurting them more than helping. Next week's number should be most interesting.

For complete results and a running live blog of TNA Impact from Nov. 3 click here.