TNAthreshold

Against All Odds 2012, Russo gone & iMPACT WRESTLING 2/16/12

2012-02-19T16:02:00.000-05:00

TNAsylum Spin Cycle 2/14/12

2012-02-14T17:09:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Valentine's Day edition of TNAsylum's resident roundtable column, the Spin Cycle. On this month's episode, TNAsylum Writers JSO, FK9, Will Cross and Garrett Kidney discuss Ring Ka King, Against All Odds and more.

1) With the first few episodes of Ring Ka King in the books, what are your early thoughts on the show?

JSO- I've been impressed. It's definitely a fun, organized show and I like how it's presented as a wrestling-based reality program. Thus far, we got a good glimpse into the makeup of a lot of these characters from their matches and nice little promos/segments, so things should be interesting as the season progresses into the big feuds and such. I kinda wish that they didn't show clips and previews before commercial breaks and at the end of the show because sometimes they give away a bit more than they probably should.

Will Cross- Before I answer, I should note that I have only seen the first episode and part of the second episode but that should be more than enough to allow me to answer the question. I think that Ring Ka King is a throwback show to when wrestling was 100% kayfabe and the fans thought it was real. That helped the show immensely. It was also a very simplistic show as it was basic wrestling booking 101. It doesn’t need 50 high spots in a match to entertain the crowd, it doesn’t need gratuitous weapon shots to pull the crowd in and it didn’t need overly complicated characters. Ring Ka King has surpassed my expectations because quite frankly I didn’t expect it to get as much critical acclaim as it has gotten and I didn’t expect Ring Ka King to be this huge money making business venture that it has become. I even have wrestling buddies of mine online telling me that they’d rather watch Ring Ka King over TNA.

Garrett Kidney- It's a nice, easy to watch show. A very talented roster and simple 101 booking makes it a good solid show, and despite it being mostly in Hindi there's little to no language barrier as everything is very easy to follow and there's enough English in there to keep up. Mahabeli Veera is an over and credible guy with a good look to eventually (once he has a little more time to develop) build the company around without having to over rely on the Americans. And then of course there's Scott Steiner. Any TV show centered around Steiner is good in my book, the man is just so entertaining and so far has been the star of the show (and I can't wait until the episode where he causes half the audience to flee in terror). Overall, a big thumbs up and I recommend anybody with some spare time on the weekend to give it a watch.

FK9- I like it. It's a nostalgic throwback to the old school booking of an era that was a little less complicated and took itself a little less seriously (or more seriously, depending on how you look at it), and there's something oddly refreshing about that. I doubt a show like this would fly here in the states at this point, but the beauty of Ring Ka King is that it doesn't have to. It's a show produced for a specific audience, and in that capacity, I think you have to consider this a big success. Clearly they've put a lot of effort into making sure it works on a cultural level. It's not just another American pro wrestling import; it's something made by and for the Indian people, and it looks like they nailed it.

I think TNA are really on to something here, tapping into a market like this. It might be a bit of a niche audience, but that doesn't mean it can't make them money. A lot of these fans have never experienced pro wrestling before and are getting it for the first time with this show -- no wonder the crowds have been so great.

The show might not interest a lot of American fans, but it wasn't intended to. Considering how the Indian audience has embraced it, Ring Ka King gets a big thumbs up.

2) What is one element/concept/wrestler you would like to see added from Ring Ka King to the IMPACT Wrestling Product?

FK9- Allisa Flash a.k.a. the woman who should have inherited Awesome Kong's spot as the top Knockout heel when Kong left the company. But they weren't smart enough to hold on to her, elevated Madison Rayne instead and the results were underwhelming to say to the least. This company has been missing the boat with Alissa Flash for years. She got over effortlessly in her previous run despite being booked as enhancement talent most of the time, she's a terrific worker and has a unique look that sets her apart from all the other women. She could have done big things in the Knockout division if they'd given her half a chance and she still could. Clearly someone in the company is a fan of hers if they brought her back for Ring Ka King, and with the Knockout division in need of a bit of a shakeup, Alissa could be just the woman for the job.

Will Cross- There are a number of things that Ring Ka King has that I want TNA to have but since the question is name one (I will be happy to say more of them if someone asks me in the comment section) I will say: I want Ring Ka King’s atmosphere added to the TNA Impact show. What I mean is when you watch Ring Ka King, it comes across the screen (TV or Computer) that this show is a huge deal. You have celebrities on the show, you have beautiful female dancers just there to hype the crowd, you have the crowd who is incredibly into the show and you have the announcers being emotionally invested into the show. Put all that together and it creates a show that becomes MUST-SEE to the viewers at home which is something TNA doesn’t have at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the TNA product at the moment as it’s has been quality shows for months now but it not OH MY GOD I MUST SEE THIS SHOW kind of stuff. A lot of Atmosphere I’m talking about can easily be met by TNA if they go in front of real wrestling fans on the road and you replace TNA with someone who can commentate a show with emotion.

JSO- I would like to see Ring Ka King's emphasis on tag team wrestling translate over to IMPACT Wrestling. TNA is sort of getting back on that path right now with their main product but I like how Ring Ka King went right out of the box with the old-school tag teams built around a name/gimmick (Sheiks, Mumbai Cats, Bollywood Boys, etc). TNA doesn't necessarily have to bring in any of the particular teams currently in Ring Ka King but I do want to see more bonafide teams like that in the division as opposed to makeshift teams that may or may not last long-term.

Garrett Kidney- Their tag division (or at least import elements of it). Rave and Ion, The Sheiks, Chavo and DH Smith, Hollywood and Broadway (Joey Ryan and Nunzio) and even the local Indian guys make for a good, strong tag division who'd mesh well with Joe and Magnus and The Guns (and it's been clear for a while that TNA need depth in the tag division). Maybe not bring them all at once but bringing in a couple of them would be a big help to the division as a whole.

3) It's Valentine's Day; what Knockout or Wrestler would you like to show your love for?

FK9- Sarita. The most criminally mishandled and underutilized woman on the roster. Speaking of missing the boat... look at Sarita in Mexico and look at her in TNA. I just don't understand how they could have gotten this so wrong. Booked properly, this woman is unbelievable in the ring. She can do things I've never seen any woman do before and they've completely wasted her.

Plus... come on, just look at her. Damn. I mean, daaaaaaamn. Screw Velvet Sky and her giant fake boobs -- sexiest woman in wrestling, my butt! Sarita... now that's a real woman.

Garrett Kidney- Ms. Brooke Tessmacher. Aside from the fact that she's improved drastically in the ring, and the fact that Asstastic is one of the greatest moves in the history of wrestling, there is the blatantly obvious reason why anybody would like Ms. Tessmacher.

Will Cross- Probably the easiest question of the 6 as the answer for me is Winter aka Katie Lea Burchill aka Katarina Waters. I have loved this female wrestler ever since I first saw her on WWE TV back in 2008. There is a reason why I never criticize her and it’s because I just can’t bring myself to say anything negative about this goddess. Winter, will you be my Valentine?

JSO- Gail Kim. Just as many expected, she has helped bring some life back to the stagnant Knockouts division. Anytime someone does a fine job in whatever activity they're involved in, they deserve their just praise and success, and Gail continues to do that not just for TNA again but for women's wrestling overall. It's also a bonus that she's one of the sexiest women in the business.

4) Many critics say that the Television and Knockout's Tag Team Titles are a waste of space. Creatively, how would you respond to these criticisms?

Garrett Kidney- I've always thought of them as unnecessary. Even if they were booked well and made credible titles, I still don't think there's sufficient room for them. Four belts (one for each division) is the right amount of titles for a two hour weekly TV show with a monthly PPV. Anything else is just clutter, they should just phase them out and focus on the titles people still actually take seriously and build them up further instead.

JSO- It's remarkable how this topic never seems to go away. The solution to the TV Title is obvious - it has to be treated as a legit midcard belt, a prize for those not quite ready to jump into the main event territory or former world champs looking to restore their glory with some gold if they're not able to remain at their previous level. I think the best case scenario might be for Robbie E to piss off Sting in some way so the GM puts him in a match where a true upper/mid card talent beats him and starts bringing some real prestige to the title.
As for the Knockouts Tag Team Titles, I initially proposed a unification of the singles and tag belts in one of my columns more than a year ago. To this day, I still believe that should be the case. Hell, that's already sort of the case with Gail holding both belts right now, so why not just make it official with one undisputed title? TNA had every opportunity to do something worthwhile with the tag belts but of course they didn't, and it's pretty safe to assume that they never will even if they happen to bring in a solid tag team from the indies.

FK9- I would respond to these criticisms by saying that they are absolutely right. The Knockout tag titles mean virtually nothing and the Television title means less than nothing. The only thing that makes one championship slightly more relevant than the other at the moment is the fact that at least the Knockout tag team champions Gail Kim & Madison Rayne are presented seriously (more so in Gail's case), whereas the current Television champion Robbie E is an untalented, unfunny comic relief jobber masquerading as a midcarder and the writers haven't even tried to hide it.

The kicker is that the TV title situation is so ridiculously easy to fix, it's almost laughable. Get the belt off that loser Robbie E, for God's sake keep it away from Eric Young while you're at it, put it on a serious up-and-comer who actually has potential to be groomed as a future main eventer (Magnus, Crimson, Aries, etc), then give them a storyline with someone worthwhile to feud with. DONE. EASY.

Making the Knockout tag titles relevant takes more legwork. The problem here is that those championships -- while a good idea in principle -- were created for the wrong reasons. They weren't created because the company had lots of great female tag teams with no titles to fight over; they were created because the writers had a ton of female singles wrestlers on their hands, many of whom had nothing to do. As a result, the Knockout tag team division never really got off the ground since there's only ever really been one or two viable teams in it at any given time. When there's not enough good teams to keep the title picture interesting, the titles end up not being focused on, and as a result, the whole Knockout tag team division (not just the titles) really doesn't mean anything.

It's obvious management's heart hasn't been in this. There's never been a ton of effort on their part in this area, especially when you compare it to how they've been trying to rebuild the men's tag team division recently. It's not as if they don't care about tag team wrestling; they've proven that they do. So why all the apparent disinterest?

A tag team division needs teams to make it work. Not just random singles wrestlers thrown together, but teams, meaning people who are packaged together, not separately. Sure, they can start out in singles -- plenty of great teams have started that way -- but once they come together, if you're not marketing/packaging them as a duo, then there isn't much validity there.

TnT is a good example of this. The pairing of Brooke/Tara didn't seem to make any sense at first, but there was an obvious chemistry between them, they made an effort to package themselves like a team and the fans seem to enjoy them together. Sarita/Rosita is the only other genuine female tag team the company has at the moment. I liken them to the British Invasion, in that Sarita brings the wrestling, Rosita brings the personality, and when you put them together, they help bring these qualities out in each other.

So that gives them two good teams to work with. Unfortunately, two teams won't keep a division interesting forever. There's also the little problem of neither team vying for the tag titles right now! Hell, no one is! Sarita/Rosita are off TV, Brooke isn't doing anything and Tara is feuding for the singles title. What's more, the tag team belts don't have any current challengers at all, so what's the point really? Is it any wonder why people think the Knockout tag titles are a waste of time?

First of all, they need more teams to work with. Unfortunately, all the other female duos they have at the moment I don't consider tag teams in the traditional sense. The Winter/Angelina pairing has flatlined since day one due to an obvious lack of chemistry and an asinine gimmick (plus the fact that Time Traveling Lesbian Vampires is a stupid name for a team). What's more, the current champions were clearly thrown together more for the purpose of pushing Gail Kim than anything else -- the pairing was just a way to facilitate Gail holding two championships at once, so the titles were just a means to an end in that case. At this point I doubt even reforming the Beautiful People would be a real option since management obviously sees more money in pushing Velvet Sky as a singles wrestler these days.

[SIDENOTE: The first person who suggests ODB & Eric Young as an option gets a kick in the balls.]

And that's pretty much it. Despite the female roster being pretty loaded, it doesn't seem to lend itself to a tag team format. That said, this isn't terribly difficult to fix. First, create a feud for the tag titles comprised of people who all want them. While this is going on, I think the best choice would be to sign some new talent, women who have experience working together and could come across believably as a team. The most readily available would probably be the Blossom twins from OVW. There are arguably better teams out there, but hell, TNA could package and market them without even trying. Also, them being TNA's answer to the Bella twins might have some appeal for a lot of people.

Then, once you have enough teams for an interesting division, FOCUS on it. The Knockouts get enough screen time these days that you could pull this off. You might have to alternate focus between the tag and singles championship periodically, but done properly, that might be a good thing as it could prevent each title picture from becoming stale.

TNA need to really dedicate themselves to this if they ever want it to work. So I guess, the question they should ask themselves is, "DO we really want this to work?" If the answer is yes, then start putting the same effort into it that you put into the men's tag team division. If the answer is no, then just get rid of the titles altogether, because as it is, there's essentially no reason for them to exist.

Will Cross- Creatively speaking I would have to figure out a way to disprove that notion because at the moment both titles really are a waste of space. The TV champion was last used as an enhancement talent for the tag team champions. The Knockout tag team titles were last defended in November and neither Knockout tag champion even acknowledge that they are a tag champion. It depresses me that the TV Title is so misused. When EY was champion TNA missed a golden opportunity to create a new stud heel at the expense of EY. What I mean is with EY being all fun and games and a pretty over babyface, he was ripe for the picking for a heel to debut/stamp their heel status by just killing EY in the ring. Decimating such a lovable (unless you’re FK9) babyface, would get you over in a heartbeat even in the Impact Zone. The TV title would be in the hands of a monster heel and you could book him like Benoit’s Intercontinental Title run in 2000 where he defended his title every show and won clean. He would spend a month or two of Impact broadcasts defending his title against lower card guys as a way to build the TV Champion up before he starts defending the title in the midcard/upper midcard. (The guy I would use is Gunner) That is how you can bring the TV Title back.

As for the Knockouts Tag Belts unless you get more Knockout talent (at least 6 of them) and an additional TV show, the belts will forever be a waste of space until it is scrapped. As the Knockout division is currently set up, there is just no way to make the Knockout Tag Titles relevant.

5) What is one concept/wrestler/idea that TNA has had in the past that you would like to see return to honor their 10-Year Anniversary?

JSO- I would like to see the old Rough Cut segments return leading up to Slammiversary. It was a unique concept that TNA utilized effectively to build up the wrestlers and/or feuds and I remember it was a lot more personal than the Reaction or Before the Bell pieces. I always enjoyed that aspect of the TV shows, so it would be nice to see TNA do those again as sort of the 24/7 boxing specials for the two guys that will compete for the World Title in the main event at Slammiversary.

Will Cross- I will say this every time I am asked: For the 10 year anniversary TNA must celebrate their history and their history alone. To do that, it must start with the first ever TNA/NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ken Shamrock. TNA must do everything in their power to get him to appear at Slammivarsary which is when TNA will probably throw a huge 10 year anniversary party/broadcast. I want to see TNA’s first ever World Heavyweight champion again on TNA TV/PPV.

FK9- King of the Mountain with simplified rules this time. I agree that the concept was too gimmicky and needlessly complicated, but it was a tradition, and it was a fun match that I looked forward to every year at Slammiversary. What's more, it helped give that PPV an identity that separated it from all the others -- something that's sorely lacking in TNA's PPV right now.

To this day, I don't know why they got rid of it when a few simple tweaks could have fixed all the problems. Get rid of the stupid 'hang the belt' stipulation, maybe the penalty cage too and you're nearly there. Maybe just make it a big multi-man ladder match. It's not as hard as they're making it out to be. There's no reason to kill the match altogether, especially when it's one of the few gimmicks that Vince Russo hadn't run into the ground before Prichard took over. Plus, maybe it's just me, but Slammiversary without KOTM just doesn't feel like Slammiversary.

Garrett Kidney- While there are a lot of things (like the six sided ring, Petey Williams, Don West and Cody Deaner (that one's a joke folks)) I've always been a big fan of the King of the Mountain match. It was one of TNA's exclusive gimmick matches and usually created an exciting and dynamic match (even if people gave out about the rules being complicated which I never really saw myself). I'd like to see it at Slammiversary every year but hopefully at least this year.

6) What is your favorite Against All Odds moment from history and why?

Will Cross- Christian winning his first World title at Against All Odds 2006. I was always a huge Christian mark and I hated the fact that WWE never elevated him to the top of the card in his time (his first run) with the company. He jumped to TNA and as the PPV’s name says “Christian became a World Heavyweight champion of a wrestling company Against All Odds put in front of him.” Christian’s win was easily my favorite Against All Odds moment ever.

Garrett Kidney- It's really only a choice of two things, and while the captain of the Christian Coalition's first title win was a huge, memorable moment, it has to be the Styles/Daniels 30 minute Iron Man match. Both men were just on fire in '05 and this was by far the best match these two ever had against each other in TNA. Frenetic pace, great near falls, tremendous counter wrestling, a fantastic visual with AJ, bleeding, refusing to give up in the Koji clutch and a crowd that was with them every step of the way. Without doubt one of the best matches in the ten year history of TNA, and definitely the best thing ever to happen at Against All Odds.

FK9- Traditionally, this hasn't been one of my favorite PPVs, but there are some pretty fond memories I have of it. Christian Cage winning the world title from Jeff Jarrett at AAO '06 was pretty sweet, if for no other reason than to see the belt FINALLY taken off Jarrett, and also because it was awesome to see Christian finally win the big one. Me being the huge Chris Sabin mark that I am, I loved seeing him defeat Jerry Lynn to retain the X-division title at AAO '07. But I think my favorite would have to be the Motor City Machine Guns & Jay Lethal saving the X-division from Team 3D & Johnny Devine at AAO '08. Sure, the feud had been badly booked and Jay Lethal had been made to look like the worst champion ever, but seeing those guys finally go over and gain that victory for the X-division (not to mention putting an end to a feud that had probably done more harm than good) was awfully cathartic.

JSO- I would have to say Christian Cage winning the NWA World Title from Jeff Jarrett at Against All Odds 2006 is my favorite. The buildup to the match was fantastic with the press conference and the promos touting it as a 'win or go to the midcard' situation for Cage. At that time Jarrett dominated the main event scene as the champion, so there was also that extra desire to see him lose the belt to someone who had never held a major World Title before. It was magical to hear Mike Tenay say that Cage added his name to the honor roll of champions in pro wrestling, and even more so when the fans got in the ring and celebrated with him.

Source: TNAsylum.com

iMPACT WRESTLING 2/09/12

2012-02-12T06:45:00.002-05:00

Logo by FreaXTVChannelE

Before & After: Garett Bischoff

2012-02-11T18:49:00.003-05:00

BEFORE

AFTER

Notice a difference? Just saying...

Random Odds and Ends

2012-02-07T13:30:00.003-05:00

Enough already, Eric Young
From this moment on, every time Eric Young tries to lock up with the referee during his matches, I am going to drive to the animal shelter, adopt a whole bunch of cute, adorable puppies, put those puppies in a big box, drive to the nearest freeway and hurl the box into oncoming traffic.

iMPACT WRESTLING is a better show without the Jarretts
There, I said it. I'm not discounting Jeff's role in starting the company in the first place and I'm not denying that Karen gets a lot of heat, but that doesn't change anything about this. IMO, the product had reached a point where Jeff's continued presence was beginning to hold it back. He constantly seemed to get more TV time than he needed, he often seemed very reluctant to help build or put over new stars, and for me, he had become a living reminder of a creative era in TNA that I was trying really hard to forget. Look at all the up-and-coming young talents that have been getting more opportunity to flourish on the show since Jeff was "fired" by Sting. Do you think that's a coincidence? Partially, sure, but make no mistake, the extra screen time freed up by Jeff being gone is one of the big reasons why this is happening.

And Karen? Please. Do I even need to elaborate? When the writers create a new on-air role for this woman that does nothing but drag the entire Knockout division down just for the sake of giving her more screen time, that's when you know something is horribly wrong. Karen as the Knockouts VP was a noose around that division's neck. It constantly ruined matches due to Karen's unnecessary involvement, it didn't generate any interesting storylines -- certainly none intended to put over anyone not named Karen Jarrett -- and the only thing that resulted from it was Karen getting pushed ahead of every Knockout on the show put together. That is hardly what I wanted to see when Gail Kim returned to the company a few months ago. Since Karen has been gone, the Knockout division has gone back to focusing on the Knockouts, as it should.

All due respect to both of them, but Jeff, Karen, please stay backstage from now on. No offense, but this show requires your absence to move forward, not your presence. Focus on Ring Ka King, Jeff; from what we've seen, it looks like a slam dunk. You can be a vital component of Ring Ka King; iMPACT WRESTLING has outgrown you. You're still under the TNA umbrella, Jeff. Just go with it.

Alex Shelley should be the man to win the X-division title from Austin Aries
If their promo segment the night Shelley returned to TV didn't convince you of this, then I don't know what I can say that will. With all the other X-division stalwarts either still injured or doing other things now, the options are Shelley and a bunch of new talents who haven't really proven themselves yet. Also Kid Kash, but he's better utilized in putting over people like Jesse Sorensen than in leading the division.

Ordinarily, you might see the writers simply put the title on one of these new guys as a way to get them over, but this would be a mistake IMO. Since he won the title at No Surrender, Austin Aries has effortlessly accomplished what Kazarian and Brian Kendrick (who seems to have completely dropped off the map) tried and failed to do last year -- he's made the X-division interesting and the title relevant again. He's been one of the most consistently entertaining and effective heels in the company, not to mention outstanding in the ring. You can't have him lose the title to just anybody, and at the same time, you have to give him an opponent that can present him with a believable challenge or else his title reign is going to stall no matter how talented he is. Not only was Shelley really the only option for this, he was almost surely the best option.

Sure, Jesse Sorensen has acquitted himself very well these past few months, but I don't see him being ready for the championship yet, certainly not after Aries has brought prestige back to it. Zema Ion is more ready in my estimation, but Ion's character seems tailored to a heel role, at least right now. Tony Nese hasn't been established yet, Mark Haskins only just resurfaced and Brian Kendrick as the champion last year didn't really work out. This being the case, it's kind of puzzling why they waited so long to put Shelley back in the mix to begin with.

Shelley is one of the best workers the company has to offer, he's got the personality and mic skills to match Aries and, as a former champion, he's got the credentials so that Aries dropping the belt to him wouldn't diminish Aries in any way like I feel it would if he lost it to Sorensen. If Aries is going to lose the title to anyone, Shelley is the guy.

Part of me wonders if their name dropping of Chris Sabin is to set up a feud between Sabin/Shelley upon his return from his knee injury. While I wouldn't be against a friendly short-term rivalry between the two to help legitimize Shelley a little bit more, the writers have to know how much the tag team division needs them to stay together. I may write a separate column about this, so that's all I'm going to say about that for now.

Zema Ion needs a push
It doesn't have to be towards the X-division title just yet, but he needs a storyline because he is too entertaining to be kept off TV. In just a scant few appearances, Ion has already distinguished himself with a personality and a character -- something Jesse Sorensen is still working on. I don't know if this is something the writers gave him or if he came up with it himself, but he's been tremendous. He's a lot like Austin Aries in the sense that I always look forward to seeing him, not just in the ring, but also as a character because his personality shines through so well in whatever he does.

And what's more, he's funny! I don't know if he's even trying to be funny; he just is. That's a refreshing change from a guy like Eric Young, who tries way, way, WAY too hard to be funny, and as a result, isn't. The way Ion reacts to things with his vain pretty boy character is just priceless. In his match with Alex Shelley, when Shelley had him in the corner, the camera man zoomed in, and Ion looked into it, going, "Cut away! Don't film this!" -- not only did I laugh out loud at this, it was the moment when I made up my mind that management needs to get behind this guy. Jesse Sorensen seems to be their favorite of the new X-division talents they signed last year, but Ion is the one with the real breakout star potential in that group IMHO.

Crimson's win streak needs to end
It was interesting when he started gaining momentum in the summer and fall of 2011, but it peaked the night he wrestled Kurt Angle, it stalled after he was taken out of the Bound For Glory Series, and now it's becoming more of a hindrance than anything else. The streak itself is a storyline, but once they started putting Crimson in angles with Samoa Joe and Matt Morgan, it lost its relevance. I don't see the point of Crimson remaining undefeated if he's working in a tag team now. In fact, it hurts him because it's hard for his opponents (in this case, Joe & Magnus) to get over on him with anything other than post-match and backstage attacks.

We know Crimson's streak probably isn't going to end in a tag team feud, and if we don't think there's a chance he might lose, then his matches have little intrigue or drama. With him being undefeated for over a year at this point, he should be in storylines facing people who are actively trying to be the guy to end his streak, but instead the streak is rarely mentioned and he's focused on the tag team titles. Plus, the streak really hasn't gotten over the same way Samoa Joe's streak did several years ago. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but it doesn't seem to have been terribly effective.

I would remedy this problem by having Joe & Magnus win the tag team titles, thus causing Morgan & Crimson to turn on each other, have Morgan be the man to end the streak and then use that first loss to turn Crimson heel.

I'm about 95% convinced that the reason why Crimson hasn't completely caught on as a babyface is because there's a monster heel in this guy just begging to come out, and the more I see of him, the more convinced I am. He looks like a heel, he acts like a heel, especially in his promos... Frankly, I'm kind of surprised this hasn't happened already. If they could repackage him as a badass killing machine who gets off on breaking people in half -- similar to Samoa Joe back in the day -- I think it might be exactly what Crimson needs.

iMPACT WRESTLING 2/02/12

2012-02-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

Logo by FreaXTVChannelE

WWE vs TNA: the Live Event Experience

2012-01-30T12:00:00.001-05:00

PART 2

Welcome to part 2 of our compare/contrast exploration of the live event experience offered by WWE and TNA. If you missed part 1 where I talked about the WWE, you can read it here. To sum it up, the spectacle is impressive, but there's very little effort on their part to make it feel like you're appreciated as a fan.

So how did the TNA live event experience compare? Let's find out...

FIRST DIFFERENCE: The Fans

I can't tell you how refreshing this was. The WWE show left me with the impression that their fanbase was comprised largely of mindless metaphorical dogs that, like Pavlov, they had trained to bark on command. And don't even get me started on those damn annoying-as-hell kids.

In stark contrast, this show was filled with people I could honestly relate to. This was the show where I could actually talk to people about things. This one guy I met in line for autographs mentioned an AJ Styles/Kurt Angle match he remembered from almost 2 years ago; I knew just the one he was talking about, and we struck up a conversation about the MCMG/Beer Money best of 5 series, how TNA would handle Flair possibly showing up at the HOF ceremony this year, how we both felt that the writers should align Austin Aries with Bobby Roode because of their similar gimmicks and former backstage interview girl, Lauren, who we both missed since she was so good at selling storylines.

This is the kind of people that attend TNA events -- people who are actually invested in the product, who care about it for more than just superficial reasons. I was hard pressed to find anyone like this at the WWE show.

And yeah, there were a fair amount of kids there as well, but not nearly as many and not nearly as annoying. Thankfully, these were kids that were NOT so irritating that they filled me with homicidal urges. Maybe the absence of John Cena was what did it; I don't know, but whatever the reason, I was grateful for it. Another perk of TNA being the company that caters to a more mature audience.

At any rate, the best way I can put it is like this: the WWE show was filled with kids, casual viewers and fanboys, whereas the TNA event was filled with fans. Just fans. You might think there's no difference, but there is. And it's a big one.

SECOND DIFFERENCE: The Cost

You know what's great about every TNA event I've been to (including this one) that I can't say about the other company? FREE PARKING! Thanks to their choice of venues, the food is cheaper too. I actually didn't feel like I was burning a hole in my wallet before I even got inside.

And then there's the merchandise. The price of t-shirts and other such things was comparable to the WWE's stuff, but TNA has something that WWE doesn't: Don West. It's easy to see why TNA promoted this guy in the merchandise department because, I swear, he can sell anything. What's more, he makes it seem like you're getting huge deals on damn near everything they have in stock. The brown bag special he came up with for this event was so ridiculous, I couldn't fathom how the company was possibly going to profit on it -- a t-shirt, a $20.00 program, 4 $20.00 DVDs and 2 action figures, all for just $30.00. Holy crap. At the WWE show that would have cost over $100.00 easy.

THIRD DIFFERENCE: Fan Interaction

Before people were even allowed into the building, Don West came out to talk with everybody and explain all the insane deals on merchandise that we were getting. Once inside, he talked about which stars were on the card and explained how the meet and greet (another thing WWE didn't bother with) would work.

Beyond that, he also produced a brand new iMPACT WRESTLING t-shirt that was available for the first time anywhere; it hadn't even been put on the website or arrived at the main office yet. THEN he said that everyone who bought the AJ Styles/Jeff Hardy action figure pack would get to go backstage, meet Styles and Hardy, and get their autographs.

Later, as everyone hit the merchandise stand, West actually hung around just to talk to people, happily signing every program, t-shirt, DVD and ticket stub they put in front of him. I even got an update from him on Chris Sabin's injury and when he might be back, as well as whether this was Alex Shelley's first show back since they stopped using him on TV (it was). Seriously, if you ever go to a TNA event, go out of your way to meet Don West. He really is one of the nicest, friendliest guys you'll ever talk to.

The meet and greet was fantastic. WWE needs to take a lesson on how accessible their stars should be. Several tables were set up on one side of the arena where people could get autographs from Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, Jesse Sorensen, Alex Shelley AND Gail Kim. That's just amazing.

And on the other side of the arena there was another table set up where you could get autographs and pictures taken with Velvet Sky -- I guess she got more of the star treatment since she was the home town girl.

Both lines were huge and they didn't leave until everyone got everything signed that they wanted. Add the Styles/Hardy thing on top of all that and I was already prepared to rate this far higher than the WWE event, and the show hadn't even started yet!

The WWE didn't allow their fans to meet anyone. TNA gave their fans the opportunity to meet nearly half the wrestlers on the card, plus Don West and Jeremy Borash. Advantage: TNA.

Once the stars went backstage to get ready, West warmed up the crowd for almost an hour with brown bag specials and other stuff. And once he was out of deals, he brought out a bag full of merchandise and just started throwing it into the crowd!

He also had some fun, pointing out fans wearing WWE shirts, getting the crowd to boo them. Hilarious! And then he gave them free merchandise anyway. I mean, good lord...

FOURTH DIFFERENCE: The Show

To start things off, Jeremy Borash came out to run down the show. Talk about a loaded lineup. This could have been a PPV card! While the WWE filled a good chunk of their card by trotting out the job squad from NXT and Superstars (people no one could possibly care less about), TNA hit the fans with both barrels.

This is something every TNA event I've been to has had in common. They usually try to pack these shows with a lot of the stars who are prominent on TV at the time. Yeah, WWE is in a different position, running more shows with an enormous roster -- not all of whom are big stars, let's be honest -- but it didn't stop me from feeling like I was wasting my time when they were sending so many nobodies out to the ring. Not so this time.

The show started with the X-division match: Austin Aries defending the title against Alex Shelley and Jesse Sorensen.

The crowd loved Shelley, half loved/half hated Aries, and kind of disliked Sorensen, though probably not for anything he did. I think they booed Sorensen just because he wasn't Alex Shelley, who had the crowd completely behind him.

Immediately, I felt right at home, knowing that, unlike last month, this was a crowd I actually understood.

This one match was better than anything on the WWE show (and it wouldn't be the only match of the night to accomplish this). Remember how I said that I couldn't have expected the WWE guys to kill themselves in the ring at a house show? Well, TNA gets another point in this area.

They were doing suicide dives, planchas over the top rope, everything you'd expect from the X-division on TV or PPV; they didn't tone it down one bit. Great match. Aries won with the brainbuster on Sorensen.

Next came the Knockouts title match with Gail Kim vs Velvet Sky.

Predictably, home town girl Velvet got a huge ovation. Gail got a lot of heat too, which, unlike the reaction to Eve Torres at the WWE show, I actually agreed with.

The match was better than you might expect, considering Velvet Sky was in it. I chalked this up as further proof that Gail can carry just about anyone to a good performance. The lack of interference certainly helped.

Gail won by holding the ring ropes and Velvet cheap-shotted her afterward. Don't be a sore loser, Velvet.

Something that's worth mentioning here -- they have a lot of fun with Earl Hebner at these shows. He gets his own entrance, he usually gets involved in the match in some way that's good for a few laughs.

You might find it silly, but the guy gets a legit reaction. TNA has turned Earl Hebner into kind of a special attraction at these live events, and I'll be damned if that t-shirt of his doesn't sell.

Next was AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels, which I wasn't terribly interested in since the feud has been done so many time times over the years -- plus, I'd already seen this match as a previous house show -- but it won me over in a hurry.

This was another one that beat anything the WWE show had to offer. I was actually surprised with how stiff some of the shots were. They were really wailing on each other at times, which I hadn't expected. Another great bout. AJ wins with the Styles Clash.

Post-match, Daniels jaw jacked with a fan at ringside and pretended to get into a fight with him, then told the referee to hold him back while kind of hiding behind the ref instead. This was hysterical!

After this was Bully Ray vs Rob Van Dam. Before the match, Ray cut a promo, reminding us why he's one of the best heels in the business today, insulting 5-year-old kids and a fat woman in the front row.

No one was safe from this guy, and it was awesome. He even managed to fit some jokes in there. Jokes that were actually funny (take note, R-Truth).

The match didn't blow me away, but it was entertaining. Van Dam put some effort in here, probably because he was wrestling one of his ECW buddies. He got all his crowd-pleasing spots in (Van Daminator, etc) and eventually Ray won by nailing him with a chain while the referee was down.

And they didn't do the typical face-gets-his-heat-back-after-the-match spot that's so typical of house shows, which, considering it's RVD and how entertaining Bully Ray was, put a smile on my face.

FIFTH DIFFERENCE: Intermission

You know what the WWE did during their intermission? NOTHING! It was essentially, "We need time to set up the steel cage. Everyone take a piss break and come back in 20 minutes." But TNA didn't allow a lull in their show for one second. Don West immediately came back out with even more deals. First, he offered up a limited edition glow-in-the-dark Jeff Hardy action figure, only 3,000 of which were ever made.

Then he said that since Earl Hebner had refereed his 100,000th match just last week, that they were not only selling the Earl Hebner 'Damn right I did!' t-shirt for $15.00 off the normal price, but if you bought one right now, they had a table set up where Earl and Brian Hebner would autograph it for free. So, yeah, I bought one. I'd been debating whether or not to pick one of those up, but with a deal like that, I was sold.

While this was going on, Don West hung out with people at ringside, again signing autographs and talking football with people. He made some cracks about Tim Tebow, which were mostly lost on me since I don't follow football, but were still funny.

The show resumed with the double main event. When Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode came out first, I had a feeling I was going to like the outcome of this one.

Sure enough, the match ended with Roode pinning Hardy after a low blow. Naturally, Hardy got his heat back with an attack after the bell, but it left me thinking that if their Genesis match had ended like this, that PPV wouldn't have annoyed me nearly as much.

The match was very good, made much better by the conclusive pinfall finish. And something else I

noticed -- either Bobby Roode is getting better at working the crowd as a heel, or something about seeing him live isn't quite translating to the screen for me. I'm not sure what it is, but he came off as a pretty detestable guy.

I won't lie; it kind of depressed me to see so many people so into Jeff Hardy at this show. I tried to stir up support for Roode, but (not for the first time that night) found myself on the losing side of one of TNA's infamous dueling chants. Picture hundreds of people chanting, "Let's go, Hardy!" vs me, by myself, chanting, "Let's go, Bobby!" You can't win them all, I guess...

Finally it was time for Kurt Angle vs James Storm. Having seen this in person, I will seriously raise hell if TNA drops the ball on James Storm's push, and not just because he was giving out free backstage passes, (which they were doing all night, BTW).

The match was a little slow in the beginning, with Angle trying to avoid the superkick, until finally Storm grabbed a mic and asked Angle if he was afraid of a beer drinker after that little situation he found himself in a while back. This was pretty funny, but afterward some people in the crowd

started chanting, "DUI!" which made me a little uncomfortable. Kurt was a really good sport for playing along with this.

I would probably rate this higher than some of their PPV matches, even if it was shorter than them. Something I loved about it was how they involved the fans in this match. Storm got a beer from a fan at ringside and blasted Angle in the face with it, then got a kid in the front row to put his foot up on

the crowd barrier so he could ram Angle's head into it. How cool is that?! It's little touches like this that make the audience feel like they're really a part of the show, rather than just watching the show.

This was a really fun match. At one point, Angle spewed beer in Storm's face, leading to some nice nearfalls. Storm kicked out of Angle's superkick and eventually won with his own.

Now here's the best part: remember how the crowd at the WWE show started heading for the door the second the main event was over? That didn't happen here. Everybody stayed put because they were, after all, real fans, and the show wasn't over yet.

James Storm stuck around and they announced that for $20.00 people could get in the ring and have their picture taken with him. TNA always does this to close their live events and it's by far one of the coolest parts IMO.

So after I got my picture with Storm, I went and got an autograph from Jeremy Borash, who just came back to hang out with the fans at ringside. I have several DVDs that are running out of autograph space after this show.

And there was one final thing, that might not seem like a big deal to you, but totally made my day. As the crowd was clearing out and they were starting to take the set down, I tried to get one more picture of Storm before he left the ring. I was maybe 30 ft away. The man actually saw me and posed for the picture. Wow.

This is the biggest difference between the WWE and TNA. When you see the WWE live, they tell
you you're appreciated, but when you see TNA live, you feel appreciated.

The TNA roster and crew go out of their way to accommodate the fans, to make sure they have the time of their lives. The WWE's mindset seems to be that if you have fun, great, but if you don't, they already have your money, so it doesn't really matter that much.

And so, with the match-up of WWE vs TNA for the title of Best Live Events now at its conclusion, TNA gets the decisive pinfall victory following a top rope powerbomb through a flaming table. Seriously, this wasn't even a contest. TNA offered lower prices, better matches, a much more fun fan atmosphere, infinitely superior interaction with the stars...

You know what the WWE had that was better? A bigger crowd and a bigger set. That's it.

My advice to you if you're a wrestling fan looking at the live event schedule for both companies: go with TNA. It might not have all the glitz and glamour, but you'll pay less money for a better, more enjoyable show, and at the end of the day, you really can't beat that.

Peace. Out.

iMPACT WRESTLING 1/26/12

2012-01-29T15:49:00.001-05:00

Logo by FreaXTVChannelE

WWE vs TNA: the Live Event Experience

2012-01-23T10:00:00.006-05:00

PART 1

So last month I went to a WWE house show...

Don't look at me like that. The ticket was a Christmas present and the show was on my birthday (yes, really). Plus, since the world is supposed to end this year, I figured I ought to get that Daniel Bryan shirt while I still can. I don't have to make excuses to you people! Get off my back, damn it!

Ahem... as I was saying... those of you who follow me on twitter were probably surprised to read this since I usually have some pretty scathing things to say about the WWE product on Monday nights at 9-11 pm. But I'm still a wrestling fan first and foremost. What's more, since my ticket to a TNA live event taking place 2 weeks later was already sitting on my desk, I thought this would give me a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the 2 companies on the live event experience they offer.

And heeerrreee weeeeee gooooo!!!

First, I have to dwell on a couple things for a minute. Seeing a WWE show is expensive. Yeah, I'm not exactly breaking new ground with that little nugget, but it's the truth. $10.00 just to park my car for a few hours?! Kiss my ass! And don't even ask what the venders were charging for food; bottled water must be in short supply these days considering how much they were demanding for it. And please don't bother telling me that it's the arena, not WWE, that sets the prices for these things; I'm well aware of that, but I reserve the right to get pissed off regardless. The economy sucks and my money doesn't just fall from the freaking sky.

Don't think of this as a criticism of WWE as much as just a general observation about what happens when you follow the company that books the bigger venues. If you go to a WWE show, expect to lighten your wallet. A lot. That's all I'm saying.

Also, the merchandise stand didn't have any Daniel Bryan shirts, so I got a CM Punk shirt instead. Not really important, I know, but still, it bugged me.

Anyway, on to the show...

WWE markets their product to families now. So, no surprises here, there were a lot of kids in the audience. Irritating kids. Kids that would make you want to sterilize yourself if you were subjected to them for more than a few hours. On this particular show I was seated next to one such child.

Within 5 minutes of sitting down, I realized, to my utter horror, that this shrill, ear-splitting, eye-gougingly, sack-crushingly annoying, loudmouthed little puke was a rabid R-Truth fan. With R-Truth being one of the most intolerable characters in this company, I started getting a sinking feeling in my stomach around this time. Then I found out this rancid little pustule was also a big fan of the godawfully dancing, excruciatingly bland personality vacuum that is Eve Torres. Now imagine that the arena is filled with many more kids like this.

Yeah... this night was not destined to go well.

To my great irritation, the show started with a lengthy video package featuring various celebrities talking about how awesome the WWE is. Yes, I know this is standard practice for WWE events, but it's always annoyed me. You don't have to sell the audience on the show; we're already here, we bought our tickets. All you're doing now is wasting our time, and quite frankly, it reeks of self-indulgence.

Once the show actually started, the Miz came out to cut a promo about his match that night. Apparently the advertised main event of Punk vs Cena vs Del Rio in a triple threat cage match was scrapped due to Del Rio's injury, and instead we were getting Cena vs Kane and Punk vs Miz, which struck me as a pretty poor substitute, but whatever.

R-Truth came out, Miz hightailed it, then John Laurinaitis came out and booked Truth in an impromptu match with (shoot me) David Otunga.

The only good thing about the match that followed was that it was less than a minute long. With that out of the way, finally the official card began.

First was Beth Phoenix vs Eve Torres for the Divas title, with special guest time keeper and referee, the Bella Twins.

The Bellas pulled some heel tactics (which was helpful since I had no idea if they were faces or heels these days), leading to Beth getting the win, then they beat down Eve until Kelly Kelly made the save.

Believe it or not, this was actually one of the better parts of the show, if for no other reason than the Divas didn't feel like the biggest afterthought ever conceived for once. By Diva match standards it was actually pretty good and it got maybe 6 or 7 minutes, which was very refreshing to me since their matches on Raw and Smackdown rarely go longer than 90 seconds these days.

There was nothing revolutionary here, but I would rank this highly above what we usually get from the Divas on WWE TV, simply because it was treated as more than just an obvious piss break segment. It's faint praise, yes, but praise nonetheless.

Then Mick Foley was introduced as the "special guest host" for the evening, and if I cared at all about Mick Foley at this point I might have thought that was pretty cool, but I really don't. His appearances just don't feel special anymore, they haven't for a long time, and stuff like this is not helping. He did his cheap pop routine that was played out 10 years ago, and this was really just a lame mini-angle to set up the next match.

What followed was a complete waste of 10 minutes that concluded with Jack Swagger jobbing to Jerry Lawler and then eating Mr. Socko. All you haters out there, please remember this the next time you bitch at TNA about the veterans overshadowing the young talent.

It made my soul hurt that the crowd was so into Lawler. Personally, I was pissed off that he was even there taking up a spot on the card that should have gone to someone young and relevant.

I tried to start a "PLEASE RETIRE!" chant, but nobody was interested -- they were too busy cheering for Swagger getting embarrassed by the 60-year-old color commentator. Hey, remember when Swagger was the world champion? Neither does anyone else.

Then we had a 6-man tag, which I thought might be fun until I saw who was in it. It was Alex Riley, Mason Ryan and some guy from FCW that I'd never heard of vs 3 NXT jobbers who, quite frankly, weren't even worth the effort I spent to stand up and take a picture of them. Riley seemed fired up here, but the match was completely forgettable.

Mason Ryan sucks on ice. This guy is only marginally better than Rob Terry, so imagine my complete incredulity and utter disgust when he was the most over person in the match.

It was at this point I came to the conclusion that if I really wanted to enjoy myself that night, I was probably in the wrong arena and I was just going to have to turn my brain off and roll with it.

Then came the match that I'm guessing replaced the Divas match as the piss break segment of the

evening, Santino Marella vs Michael McGillicutty. I spent the next few minutes wondering how in the world a ham-and-egger like McGillicutty even qualified for the house show circuit to begin with. Though, to be fair, I was thinking the same thing about Otunga and the entire heel team in the 6-man tag.

Discussing this match would only waste valuable seconds. The crowd seemed satisfied when Santino did the Cobra, which, I'm pretty sure was the only reason why the match was even on the show in the first place. But for people like me who think the Cobra is a stupid move, I was left grossly underwhelmed. Nothing to see here, folks.

Santino did invite some kids into the ring to do his victory trombone routine with him afterward, which was a nice treat for the kids, but was really nothing we haven't seen before.

Things then picked up a little with Zack Ryder defending the US title against Dolph Ziggler (w/ Vickie Guererro).

I'll give these guys credit -- they were the first people on the show who looked like they were really having fun and there's was the first men's match of the show that I was genuinely entertained by. Vickie interfered during the match and the referee ejected her from ringside, which felt like a mistake to me since whether or not Ziggler can actually draw heel heat without her is a total crapshoot.

But the match was enjoyable and Ryder earned some points with me for being only the second wrestler on the show who didn't head straight to the back immediately after his match. He actually took a minute to hang out with some fans at ringside, which I thought was pretty cool of him.

After this was John Cena vs. Kane, which wasn't nearly as eventful as recent episodes of Raw would have you believe. This went all of 4 or 5 minutes at most and ended with Kane getting himself DQed with a chair shot. L-A-M-E!

[SIDENOTE: Sorry for the poor picture quality here. This is where my camera battery died and I had to switch to my iPod.]

He then headed for the back, but the kryptonite must have fallen out of his pocket at that point, because he just HAD to go back to the ring so Cena could hit him with the Attitude Adjustment.

Naturally, all the little kids went nuts for that, but considering Cena was surely one of the main reasons why most of those fans showed up that night (I'm going by the t-shirts here), this was a total bust.

After a dull intermission, during which the WWE didn't lift a finger to keep the crowd entertained, it was main event time with CM Punk vs the Miz in a cage match for the WWE title.

Disagree with this all you want, but I'm going to say it anyway: WWE cage matches are BORING. When WWE watered down their ring style some years back, the cage match was one of the biggest casualties. There's just nothing exciting about these things anymore and this one was no exception.

Most of the match was slow and rather dull up until the last few minutes when it picked up. The finish was well booked and wrestled, but if you've seen any Raw or Smackdown cage match in the last few years, you've seen this one.

That said, I knew what to expect going in and I ended up enjoying the match for what it was; they weren't about to kill themselves at a house show after all. Plus, Punk was the main guy I went there to see and was one of only 2 people I genuinely marked out for (Howard Finkel being the other one), so seeing him go over in a cage match live was still really cool.

But get this: the instant, and I mean the instant Punk got the 1-2-3 and the bell rang, people started heading for the door. This is something I have never seen at any TNA event I've been to -- it was like they couldn't wait to leave. I know it's hardly uncommon at events like this and I certainly understand the desire to beat the masses to the parking lot, but the WWE champion is still in the ring for crying out loud! What kind of fan leaves when the show isn't even over yet?! The kind of fan the WWE markets their product to, that's who.

Anyway, a lot of those people probably feel pretty stupid now because post-match Punk jumped into the crowd to celebrate with the fans. And he actually stuck around for while, going from one side of the arena to the other, so a bunch of people in the stands got to see him up close, including me since I had a floor seat.

For this, Punk gets the same points that Ryder and Santino got. They were the only 3 people on the entire show that seemed to genuinely appreciate the fact that the fans came out to see them. Everyone else couldn't seem to be bothered that much.

And just like that, the show abruptly ended. The lights came back on and we were ushered out the door. And as I walked to my car, I was left thinking 2 things: #1) while it was a fun night out, the show I got wasn't worth the money, and #2) I regretted not staying home and watching UFC 141 instead. Thankfully, I got home in time to see Lesnar vs Overeem, so that worked out.

The WWE is an impressive spectacle, no doubt about it. The set is great, the production is superb, with all the bells and whistles that TNA doesn't have the budget for. But there's something very important that they're missing: heart. Seeing it live, you're smacked in the face with how cold and formal everything is, and the get-you-in-get-you-out mentality is in full effect.

With a scant few exceptions (Santino, Ryder and Punk), I left the arena with the impression that once they had my money they felt like their job was already done and they really couldn't get me out of there fast enough. If any new fans who were seeing the WWE live for the first time and didn't know what to expect were hoping to get an autograph or a picture with one of the stars, they were pretty much out of luck.

The WWE likes to project this image that they love their fans so much and it's their honor to perform in front of them, but in person it comes off like they secretly feel it's the other way around.

So, did the live event experience offered by TNA manage to raise the rather low bar set by the biggest wrestling/entertainment company in the world? Stay tuned for part 2 to find out.

To be continued...

iMPACT WRESTLING 1/19/12

2012-01-22T19:38:00.000-05:00

Mark Out Moments 08

2012-01-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

The Jarretts are FINALLY taken off our TV screens, courtesy of Sting

Magnus & Samoa Joe become #1 contenders for the tag team titles and actually appear to be getting something that resembles a legitimate push

Robbie E & Rob Terry lose like the losers they are, Matt Morgan & Crimson win, and Samoa Joe & Magnus make a statement, all in one segment

James Storm defeats Kurt Angle and becomes #1 contender to the world title

CM Punk drops a pipe bomb on John Laurinaitis

TNAsylum Spin Cycle 1/16/12

2012-01-16T20:01:00.001-05:00

Welcome everyone to the return of TNAsylum's Roundtable Column, the Spin Cycle. Much like the show seen on the web, we have collected a variety of different names to comment on different topics at hand. Meet today's cast:

Shelbin- The Writer of "Shelbin's Slant" and "The Abstract"

FK9- Writer of "Straight Shooting" and controversial columnist.

Irish Yid- Writer of "Irish Yid's Interpretation"

JSO- Author of the trademark "Narrative" column and our media guru.

Talon- Yours truly, writer of "Talon's Take" and "Last Night on IMPACT Wrestling"

Now with introductions out of the way, let's get into the Spin Zone.

With 2011 in the rear-view mirror, what are your overall thoughts on the TNA Product last year?

Shelbin- Sadly, I thought the overall product was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't until Bruce Prichard took over, immediately following Bound for Glory, that things started to look up. But the product before BFG was, for the most part, a mess. The world title picture had never been as bad as it was last year, the tag team division had been left to defend itself from Mexican America, the TV title was non-existent, and the Knockouts division had become Karen Jarrett's toy project. Conversely, the X Division saw a bit of a re-birth which is was one of the few positives of the year. On the bright side, the year ended on a good note with the focus being put back on to the titles and the younger stars.

Irish Yid- There were two good periods in TNA last year. The Destination X Pay-Per-View and the four weeks leading up to it as well as everything since the Bound For Glory Pay-Per-View. TNA went back to what got them started: the X Division and their home grown talent. The emphasis that was placed on the likes of Bobby Roode, James Storm and Austin Aries made me believe in TNA again and, hopefully, this leads into an amazing year for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2012.

JSO- There were certain intervals when the product was really engaging or just lagging. I personally enjoyed all the tournaments that took place last year on both Impact and Xplosion as those produced some great matches and a seasonal focus for the wrestlers involved. There were other little nuances that were refreshing as well - the rebranding to Impact Wrestling and the multiple road tapings being the most notable. Of course there were also quite a handful of low points that felt ridiculous or discouraging, some of which may have even turned some fans off the product entirely. Overall, 2011 was a mixed bag for TNA. It was just another year, that's all.

FK9- Most of the positives for me were summed up with the introductions of promising new/returning stars like Crimson, Austin Aries and others, the company finally making an effort to rebuild the X-division, and of course, Beer Money's ascension to top tier status. But if I'm being brutally honest, there were too few peaks and way too many valleys.

The Immortal takeover was an interminable year-long creative brainfart that served more as a vehicle for Hogan, Bischoff and Sting than anyone else, the tag team division was damaged beyond all repair, finally forcing them to throw the whole thing out and start from scratch, the one-two punch of Eric Young and Robbie E destroyed any chance fans had of ever taking the TV title seriously as a viable secondary championship, the creation of the Knockouts VP position threatened to devolve the women's division into a glorified circus act, and so on, and so on...

The on-screen product was a constant source of frustration until Prichard took over. Since then, I think he's been splitting his time between trying to move things in a positive direction and performing damage control on the creative quagmire Russo, Hogan and Bischoff left him with. All things considered, I think he's done very well. And now that the fallout has been mostly dealt with, I think we're finally going to see what Prichard's vision for the product is. It might not be revolutionary, but I'm quite confident that it will be infinitely better than what we had before.

So ultimately, 2011 was pretty hard to sit through at times, but the year ended with me feeling optimistic about 2012 which, a few months ago, I wouldn't have expected.

Talon- Aside from the few highlights in the product, I wasn't too keen on most of the product we got the first 6 months. It wasn't until things began to build up to Destination X, the BFG Series and Bound For Glory that things started becoming more concise. The final three months were the best of the year but that was because we got a creative change. What I am going to remember most about the majority of 2011 is the never-ending Immortal storyline, the constant face and heel changes of Mr. Anderson and the Victory Road incident with Jeff Hardy. Thank god these things were matched with the growth of new stars, the reinvention of different ones and new concepts that should be used in the future.

It's a new year with a new start, what is one wish you have for TNA in 2012?

Irish Yid- On the road full time. I can't stand the Impact Zone. The fans may be the worst wrestling fans in the world. I hope that the TV taping in London makes the higher ups see this even clearer. If not, then I'd like to see TNA change up the Impact Zone for each PPV, with the entire set changing, rather than just the ring ropes.

JSO- There are a lot of wishes for TNA every year to further their growth. Obviously the most important one is the transition to live weekly broadcasts from different venues. Since this year is specifically their 10-year anniversary, I would really like to see the company do something elaborate and/or extravagant each month leading up to Slammiversary in June. They certainly got the ball rolling on that with the upcoming double TV taping in London, and I'm sure they can come up with at least five other special ideas too. It can be something simple from bringing back old fan-favorite concepts to something grand like the aforementioned UK tapings.

Talon- There are tons of things I would love to see begin to culminate this year: Xplosion to Spike TV, Every PPV and IMPACT to be on the road, Occasional Live TV Specials, PPVs to mean something and the continued growth of our product. I will go a different avenue however.

I want the announcement of a new "IMPACT Wrestling" videogame in 2012. Let it be known that the best wrestling videogame I have played since 2005 was the spiritual successor to the original TNA Videogame in WWE All Stars. I have been playing the Smackdown vs Raw Series for years and the WWE All Stars game blows all of those out of the water. While we now know that THQ San Diego won't be developing the next TNA videogame, I would be happy with Namco Bandai (those who helped develop the TNA iPAD) game. I would want them to really focus on gameplay and maintaining the atmosphere of TNA TV.

FK9- Don't hit the panic button just because the ratings haven't been incredible lately. You're on the right track. Yes, putting the spotlight back on the veterans might provide a small ratings increase in the short term, but it would do absolutely nothing to benefit you 5 years from now. What you need to do is exactly what you're doing: building your future. Maybe some of these young guys aren't ratings draws at the moment, but if you don't invest time in them, that's never going to change.

Stay the course. Keep developing talents like Roode, Crimson, Aries, Magnus, Joe, Ion, Tessmacher, etc. And for God's sake, PLEASE don't drop the ball on James Storm. With Storm you have a home grown guy who could potentially become a breakout mainstream star; he's got the tools to do it. Don't derail him just for the sake of pushing Jeff Hardy back to the top. Learn from your past mistakes and you'll be a lot better off in the long run.

Shelbin- I wish that the writers continue to focus on character development that leads to inspiring feuds and rivalries. Keep the focus on the wrestlers in the ring and not on the non-wrestlers outside of the ring. Continue to deliver matches with no overbooking, intense feuds and fascinating relationships between wrestlers that viewers can embrace.

2011 was the year of Bobby Roode and James Storm. Who do you want 2012 to be the year of?

FK9- There's four guys that I'm really rooting for. The first two are Samoa Joe & Magnus. One, a former world champion that creative had been dropping the ball on for years, the other, a guy who could be a future world champion if given half a chance, and both were going absolutely nowhere until the dissolution of the entire tag team division as we know it created a desperately needed opportunity for them. One tag team tournament later and these guys are now showing early signs of becoming the next Beer Money.

Most people don't expect Matt Morgan & Crimson to be a long term team; they look like they were put together just to facilitate an eventual rivalry. My guess is that it will be Joe & Magnus taking the tag titles from them that does the trick. And once that happens, I want to see creative run with this team. They've got the talent, the charisma and the in-ring chemistry to be that top heel tag team that Mexican America utterly failed to be, and this could end up being the gateway to bigger things for these two that Beer Money was for Roode & Storm.

And that leads me into the next two on my list: the Motor City Machine Guns. By the time these guys return it will have been well over a year since we've seen them together. Injuries put TNA's tag team of the year in 2010 out of commission for all of 2011, and the results weren't pretty. Now that the company has hit the reset button on their tag team scene and is trying to rebuild it from the ground up, they need an A-list team to build the division around, and with Shelley about to make his return to television and Sabin due back from his knee injury in the not-too-distant-future, they'll have the perfect guys for the job.

This is the opportunity I've wanted to see Sabin & Shelley get for years now. In 2010, they proved why management was wrong to overlook them for so long, and in 2012, they can finally become the undisputed leaders of the tag team division without the threat of being overshadowed or held back by politics that company officials simply can't afford to indulge in anymore. They claim to be the best tag team in the world -- it's time to let them be exactly that.

Shelbin- Although the Bobby Roode and James Storm era had begun last year, it is this year that we will see their full potential. I think the two longtime TNA stars will flourish under Prichard and will essentially carry the company for most of the year. I also suspect that Jeff Hardy will have a fine year as he continues his road to redemption story. Other things to look for: Gunner's development, the debut of Jessie Godderz, the evolution of the X Division stars (Austin Aries, Jesse Sorensen, Zema Ion), the dynamic between Samoa Joe and Magnus, and the return of the Motor City Machine Guns.

Talon- I am a huge fan of many of the young guys in TNA so to name just one guy is hard. For the heavyweights I would love to see Magnus, Crimson, Gunner and the Pope continue to rise. I would love to see alot of the X stars get more attention as well. Overall I just want there to be a focus on the younger guys with talent.

Irish Yid- Gunner. Since his partnership with Ric Flair began, he's taken out Jesse Neal, Douglas Williams and Rob Van Dam. I'd love to see this continue and perhaps even someone like Mr Anderson being taken out, especially as he doesn't have anything creatively at the moment. I believe that Gunner could even win the BFG Series if TNA decides to bring it back for a second time. I just hope that we don't see Garett Bischoff pin Gunner and destroy all of Gunner's credibility.

JSO- I would have to go with Austin Aries. He has been superb in his current role in the X Division and like many before him he's destined to graduate to bigger things because of the consistent quality of his work. Aries is a good-looking, relatively young guy with well-rounded skills and a fancy moniker like the "greatest man that ever lived". All of those attributes scream main event level superstar to me. Remember back in 2009, The Pope was just doing his thing in the X Division until he took advantage of an opportunity to hang with the some of the top guys at that time like Morgan, Hernandez, Team 3D and Rhino. Aries can potentially follow that same path too when the right opportunity presents itself.

TNA is celebrating its 10-Year Anniversary this June, how would you specifically make this year and that event one for the ages?

Talon- In 2010 and 2011, Slammiversary has not been treated as a special event. In my mind, Slammiversary is the #2 or #3 TNA show of the year and should be treated as very important since it is TNA's Anniversary Show. With this being the 10-Year Anniversary, I would love to see a stacked show as well as homage to TNA's past. I suggested a Blast From the Past Battle Royal that would feature TNA Alumni that helped build TNA. I would love to see guys like Chris Harris, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt, The Naturals, Lance Hoyt and many others make an appearance at the show.

While many would love to see the return of King of the Mountain, I don't see the match in its current version returning. If we don't see some form of KOTM, I would love to see James Storm vs Bobby Roode main event the thing. Have one of TNA's originals in James Storm finally defeat Roode to become the World Heavyweight Champion once again.

Whatever is decided, TNA needs to feature buildup videos like WWE does with Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Wrestlemania. TNA has accomplished something great and the fans who have supported the product should be part of this moment.

FK9- I would put Eric Bischoff through a flaming table wrapped in electrified barb wire. Just imagine the pop that would get. LOL!

Seriously though, I would bring back the King of the Mountain match. I don't know why they got rid of it in the first place. Sure, the rules needed to be simplified, but it was an exciting, once-a-year event that made Slammiversary stand out from all the other PPVs.

Or if not that, then, after months of build up, I would have the main event be the big blowoff to the Bobby Roode/James Storm feud. I don't know if they could keep the feud hot that long, but I can't think of a more fitting way to celebrate TNA's 10th anniversary than with one of two guys left who were there on the night the company was born a decade ago, becoming world champion.

Irish Yid- Slammiversary has to be shown to be one of the most important Pay-Per-Views for TNA this year. It should be held in Nashville as that's where TNA began, and should bring together a lot of TNA's past with the return of the King Of The Mountain match. A tournament of some sort leading into the PPV could focus the show in the way that the X Division qualifiers focused the run up to Destination X. Whatever happens, I just hope that TNA adaquately lives up to their past and puts on a good show.

JSO- Well, I pretty much talked about the month-to-month buildup to the anniversary above. As for the event itself, I would just try to emphasize the excitement of the atmosphere and the pure talent on display. A good portion of the existing feuds/storylines should be settled at Sacrifice so management can freely select and build the most appealing match-ups possible leading into Slammiversary. Some ideas would be to book the two hottest main event stars at that time in the main event for the World Title, a few vintage matches that haven't taken place in years (e.g. Joe/Angle), an Ultimate X match with past winners only, a special gauntlet battle royal featuring former TNA stars for a contract maybe and so on and so forth. Sprinkle in the intangibles like pyro for the on-the-road set, a short speech from Dixie Carter and/or Jeff Jarrett and various video packages, and I think that's a good formula for the event.

Shelbin- If I were booking the event, Slammiversary would be the night that James Storm defeats Bobby Roode to win the world title. I would keep Abyss off TV until then and give him the opportunity to return (old ring attire and old theme music) with James Mitchell leading him to the ring. I would also end the night with a bang. An invasion angle would be fun, one that leads into Bound for Glory.

What are your thoughts so far on Bruce Prichard's creative era as opposed to the one that preceded it?

JSO- I'm generally enjoying the product under Prichard 's direction. Granted it's not devoid of its flaws, but the shows have a much more relaxing quality about them. Nothing really feels too crammed or out of place and everything flows nicely from one match/segment to the next like they should without too much confusion floating around afterwards. As a whole, that's a good upgrade from the nonsensical, chaotic, long drawn-out elements that used to be associated with the product on a regular basis.

Shelbin- I think Prichard has done a phenomenal job since he took over as head writer and I believe he will only improve as all of Vince Russo's storyline arcs are finally behind us and Prichard's vision can fully materialize. As for right now, the most obvious improvement is in the way that titles are presented. Title reigns are longer and more relevant, giving the entire product a sense of legitimacy. In addition, Prichard has taken the focus away from storyline-dictated plots and put it back on character-driven angles with an emphasis on old school feuds and relationships. This has given every wrestler a new focus and a sense of individuality. Wrestlers are not as expendable as they were under the Russo/Hogan/Bischoff regime.

Irish Yid- I have enjoyed Bruce Prichard's run so far and feel that the show has been better paced and more focused. They have concentrated more on particular roster members than others, and they have chosen the right ones. Prichard has settled the show into a proper format that gives us just enough wrestling and just enough speaking on each show. He has also concentrated on both the X Division and the Knockout Division, with a clear focused head of each division in Austin Aries and Gail Kim respectively. I have really enjoyed the show since Pritchard has taken over and can't wait for TNA in 2012.

Talon- In many ways, I thought Bruce Prichard was a placebo to the critics who were negative on the product just because Vince Russo's name was attached. I will say that while there are still eye-rolling moments, the quality of the product has been a definitive step up from what we were getting just months ago. Other people may notice the subtleties of the change but the big thing I see is the focus on younger talent and the buildup of new main eventers in James Storm and Bobby Roode. The buildup of Roode's heel character has been fascinating. I would be more than happy if we get the quality of the past three months for the next few years.

FK9- We're really talking about two completely different shows here. Most of what we saw up to and including Bound For Glory was poor to mediocre. There were flashes of greatness here and there, but generally, the Russo/Hogan/Bischoff gestalt was a train wreck. The booking was a mess, storylines made no sense at all, the crap with Immortal just wouldn't end and many of their ill-conceived attempts to create new stars were, shall we say, less than effective (ex. Mexican America).

Then Prichard took over and suddenly the show got a lot better. The addition of Prichard to the creative process brought a desperately needed infusion of intelligence, logic, common sense, and the ability to actually time a show properly and tell a freaking story in a coherent manner. Angles can be understood more and insult our intelligence less, matches get more appropriate time, the booking is much less frustrating. I'm not saying the show became perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better than what we had before. In short, everything before Bound For Glory was the same old crap, everything after Bound For Glory was a marked improvement.

This past week, TNAsylum had the debate of PPVs vs TV and what is more important. Where do you stand on this issue and how do you feel TNA treats its PPVs compared to its television show?

Irish Yid- The television show has around 80 times as many viewers as the average TNA Pay-Per-Views and so I definitely feel that the higher ups are right about giving more importance to the happenings on TV. However, giving away your two top matches from the Pay-Per-View on TV four nights later is just a giant FU to those customers who bought your PPVs. Putting emphasis on TV is one thing, but if you are going to produce Pay-Per-Views, then you should at least reward those people who were willing to pay for your shows.

FK9- With the way TNA does business and books their product, there's really only one answer to that question. Love it or hate it, their TV is more important because that's their main source of revenue. The kicker is this wouldn't be so if their PPV business was doing better. But from what we know, it hasn't gotten better, and IMO, that problem has been largely self-inflicted. Have their PPV buyrates not improved because PPV is a dying business, or is it simply because they've conditioned their fans to think that all the really important stuff is going to happen on free TV, and therefore the PPVs aren't worth the money? It's probably a combination of the two.

The PPV industry may be on the decline, but companies like the UFC have proven that people will still open their wallets for a show if you make it worth their money. Personally, I think people would be more inclined to buy the PPVs if they thought they were going to get something special that they would never see on iMPACT -- they'd pay that $35.00 because they support the company and they want it to succeed -- but that's not the mindset TNA has chosen to cultivate. On rare occasions when they've gone all out and really busted their asses to sell a PPV, featuring great anticipation, big matches, etc, they've done better buyrates (ex. Lockdown 2008), but I suppose they figured the effort wasn't worth the payoff.

I do think TNA could change this if they wanted to -- they could retrain their audience to think that their PPVs are more important -- but I just don't think they're interested in doing so. And that's unfortunate because, if and when their company grows beyond a certain point, they may find themselves thinking that the money they make from SpikeTV isn't as much as what they could be making if more of their audience was buying the PPVs, and find that it's too late to do anything about it.

Shelbin- I think critics are a bit misguided in their criticisms of the PPVs, in my opinion. As someone who buys the PPVs, I don't quite care if the company books rematches of the main events on the following episode of Impact. I buy the PPVs so I can watch the development of the feuds and/or storylines so it means very little to me whether they conclude on the PPV or Impact. I want them to put out the best product they can regardless of if it's on PPV or not. I just find it odd that people who buy the PPVs complain about the rematches on Impact. If it means so much to you, I suggest that you stop buying the PPVs so you can watch the matches for the first time on Impact.

JSO- In the modern age, TV is definitely more important. TNA has grown leaps and bounds with brighter animation and bigger name superstars on their roster. It's not just about a bunch of great wrestlers having excellent matches anymore; it's all about the sheer entertainment value of the product. That's why the Impact broadcasts are a higher priority than the monthly PPVs. Nevertheless, I feel TNA needs to put a better effort into their PPVs. They put together some really entertaining cards on paper, but then they are marred by half-assed finishes and such. It's a shame too because live PPV matches are generally more memorable than taped TV matches split with commercials. But that's the reality of the situation and it is what it is.

Talon- I first want to note that while many of us are divided on this issue, we show respect for each other's opinions and do not go around calling people names or trashing their opinion because we disagree.

It is no secret that TNA treats TV as the more important show and it is hard to disagree with that stance. TV is TNA's main source of revenue so they need to protect that revenue while keeping Spike happy. The problem I have with this is that they have made TV important at the expense of diminishing PPVs.

When you look at the numbers that TNA makes for one episode of IMPACT vs what they could potentially make from a well hyped and well purchased PPV, you will see it from a different point of view. From what I understand, Spike TV pays TNA a certain amount of money whether the ratings are a 1.3 or a 1.1. However the difference of 5,000 to 10,000 buys for a PPV is about the equivalent of 150,000 dollars.

While this past PPV didn't bother me that much when TNA gave away Storm vs Angle and Hardy vs Roode on TV as much as it did when they did it for AJ vs Roode last month, this is a recurring theme that will likely hurt TNA's bottom line in the long run. If TNA trains their audience to think that they don't have to pay their money to get the resolution they want, less and less people are going to buy their shows. I do it because, despite these issues, I still enjoy watching them.

I became a habitual PPV buyer in 2006, a year when PPVs had great matches and moments and were much higher quality than today. What one year of great PPVs did was create fans who were willing to dish out money once a month for the next seven years. I guarantee that if TNA delivered the PPVs they have done these past few years, I likely wouldn't have become a habitual viewer.

While PPVs are a dying business, they aren't a dead business. TNA has a commitment to their buying customers to deliver a show that the fan feels is worth their money. While TNA may be stuck in a contract, if they are promoting their PPVs then they should give their buyers satisfying events.

Source: TNAsylum.com

Genesis 2012 & iMPACT WRESTLING 1/12/12

2012-01-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

Now that's what I'm talking about

2012-01-10T04:49:00.001-05:00

That's right, people. It's another column about how much better the show has been since Prichard took over creative. Am I the most innovative pro wrestling writer on the internet? I think I might just be.

-Last week's edition of iMPACT WRESTLING was nothing short of outstanding. And the crazy thing is that nothing really monumental even happened on it. It was just a normal show that was well booked, with logical storyline advancement and absolutely perfect pacing. This was the most well timed episode of this show that I can recall. You would be very hard pressed to name a single segment on that show that was too short or too long. The important things were focused on, while unimportant things, such as the ridiculously unfunny Eric Young comedy segments were thankfully kept short. They managed to effectively hype every match on the Genesis card, with the exception of Pope/Devon. But since that's a feud most people don't even like, this was a nice way of showing us that Prichard has his priorities in order.

I guarantee you, if Russo were still running things, we would never get shows like that. Sure, Russo would get lucky once in a while and manage to put together a good show despite himself, but it was painfully clear that he had very little idea about what was good, what wasn't, what deserved screen time and what didn't. This was Prichard's doing, and hopefully these improvements will continue now he seems to be finished dealing with the fallout from Russo's run.

-The Knockout division has proven to be immeasurably better since the removal of the Knockouts VP role. I understand what they were going for with it -- the idea that the Knockouts have their own authority figure was an interesting idea, but they just went so overboard with it that it became more of a hindrance than anything else and was quickly exposed as something not intended to enhance the Knockout division, but a role created just to give Karen Jarrett a reason to get more screen time than she needed.

And this was made no better when Karen was "fired" and the job passed to Madison Rayne for a mercifully brief couple of weeks. In a truly painful segment involving Tara & Brooke Tessmacher (who I really felt bad for here), Madison proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it really didn't matter who the Knockouts VP was because it was the role itself that was the problem. The storylines it spawned never went anywhere, God knows it didn't make the matches better. Whoever was the Knockouts VP just ended up overshadowing everyone else; it needed to be done away with.

In just a few short weeks since Prichard aborted the Knockouts VP position, we were treated to better quality matches with better booking and less interference -- the frustration level went WAY down. Gail Kim was actually allowed to win a match clean, like a double champion should be able to. Madison Rayne was suddenly being booked in a way that minimized her weaknesses to a degree as tagging with Gail seemed to force her to step her game up.

BUT... then Genesis happened. Velvet Sky showed up, talking about the Knockouts VP position, and somehow this lead to Madison Rayne suspended above the ring in a cage with pink bars during Gail vs Mickie and a finish so stupid that it was almost comical how bad it was. I'm going to hope and pray that the live audience showering all the participants involved with chants of "BULLSHIT!" will cause the writers to rethink whatever their plans are and eliminate the Knockouts VP role, not just temporarily, but permanently.

-As long as Prichard is doing away with stuff that doesn't work, can we please cut the cord on the Time Traveling Lesbian Vampire thing? I can't imagine this is what fans of Winter had in mind when she signed with the company and Angelina has never meant less in TNA than she does right now, and it's all because of this stupid gimmick.

-I noticed something during the opening segment of last week's show that made me very optimistic about the direction this company is going in creatively. First of all, the heels came out to Bobby Roode's music. You may be wondering what the big deal is, so let me repeat myself: Kurt Angle (and Bully Ray) came out to Bobby Roode's music. During the days of the Main Event Mafia, did you ever think you would see something like that? I sure as hell didn't.

But it doesn't end there. Something else that was telling about this segment was who it focused on. Not counting Sting, the people who were really highlighted in this segment were Bobby Roode, James Storm and Abyss. Bully Ray didn't talk much, Angle barely said 2 words and Jeff Hardy never even opened his mouth. As a result, the up-and-coming home grown guys were the stars of this segment, and this is a trend I see continuing.

-The days of TNA relying so heavily on the crutch of aging established stars are over. Finally. It was pretty hard to suffer through at times, but it seems like this company has finally gotten it through their head that they need to build their future in order to ensure that they actually have one. They can't rely solely on the established guys anymore, and they're not. It's just a shame that they had to have this lesson beaten into them so many times before they finally got the message. They were burned by Kevin Nash, Booker T, and to a lesser extent, Mick Foley. Lord knows they were burned by Scott Hall. And so on, and so on...

And so it is that TNA seems to have finally wised up (mostly). The veterans that remain are actually in appropriate roles now, ones intended to enhance and build the young talent. Sting is the authority figure and rarely wrestles, Ric Flair is managing Gunner, Scott Steiner is pretty much being owned by Abyss, Kurt Angle has made James Storm look like a total stud, and best of all, Hogan is off TV, nowhere to be seen. We're very far removed from the days when the Main Event Mafia were burying young talent left and right, and the product is infinitely better for it.

I don't attribute that all to Prichard as those wheels were in motion before he took over creative. What I do attribute to Prichard is the fact that the young talent now in the spotlight is actually being used effectively. 'Effectively' is the key word here. Let's be honest, as members of Immortal Bobby Roode and James Storm got absolutely nothing out of standing in the background while Bischoff and Hogan talked and talked and talked, week after week. Take Bischoff and Hogan out of the equation and look at these guys now. Isn't this a much better way to allow young talent to flourish? Thank you, Prichard.

-Until Chris Sabin is cleared to get back in the ring and the MCMG return, Samoa Joe & Magnus are my new favorite tag team. The main purpose of the Wild Card tournament may have obviously been to advance various singles feuds instead of actually improving the tag team situation that it was supposed to address, but there was a silver lining, and it turned out to be a pretty big one.

I don't know if it was by design or happenstance, but Joe & Magnus have clicked in a way I don't think anyone expected them to. I think Prichard may have really hit on something when he put these 2 together. They have a surprising amount of chemistry in the ring, as well as in promos, and fans have been responding to them. Strangely enough, I see a lot of similarities between them and Beer Money -- 2 guys who management has no idea what to do with, so they get thrown together as a team that doesn't seem to make any sense on paper, but when they get in the ring, somehow it just works.

My fervent hope is that the writers continue to roll with this pairing after their program with Morgan & Crimson is finished because I really believe they're onto something here. Give Joe & Magnus a team name and some merchandise, and they could be the new top heel tag team that Mexican America failed to be so miserably.

iMPACT WRESTLING 1/05/12

2012-01-07T21:17:00.004-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 12/29/11

2012-01-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 12/22/11

2011-12-24T01:37:00.001-05:00

Random Odds and Ends

2011-12-20T09:00:00.001-05:00

-James Storm is THE star of TNA right now. He's been doing the best work of his career for the last several months. It dawned on me last week that I don't enjoy the show nearly as much when he's not on it and that clinched it for me. Storm is the top babyface on this show even though he's not technically in the world title picture at the moment and his elevation has been a joy to watch. My hope is that management will continue to roll with Bobby Roode as the world champion, have him successfully defeat Jeff Hardy and start building up to the eventual grudge match with Storm, hopefully at Lockdown. Storm vs Roode for the world title is pretty much the biggest money match this company could make that involves 2 homegrown stars.

-In contrast, the Bobby Roode angle has been a bit hit-and-miss IMO. It hasn't been BAD, but the James Storm storyline has been consistently great and I don't feel like this has been of the same quality. That has nothing to do with Roode necessarily, but the booking of him hasn't been as effective. His a-draw-is-as-good-as-a-win mentality that we saw at Final Resolution was very off-putting to me. #1) It feels too similar to Austin Aries' win-at-all-cost gimmick, and #2) not only does it make Roode look weak when he can't beat an injured opponent, but the finish of the match was extremely frustrating, and not in a "getting heel heat" kind of way.

Having the finish on the TV show the following Thursday didn't help matters either. Many of the PPV buyers probably felt ripped off after the finish to the main event they paid for happened on free television. TNA needs to be very careful with stuff like that because it could eventually cause a fan backlash; I just hope Roode doesn't get blamed for it. I will say that Roode looked much better at the end of iMPACT WRESTLING last week, than he did at the end of Final Resolution, but he needs to look consistently strong if they're going to legitimize him as the champion, which is very important, seeing as how it's his first run with the world title. They don't want to pull a Ken Anderson with him.

-Speaking of Ken Anderson, this guy's stock has fallen big time since the new regime took over. I get the feeling Prichard isn't a fan.

-TNA making the TV show more important than their PPVs is baffling to me. Just because they get most of their revenue from the TV deal with SPIKE, I don't see why this means they have to make their PPVs seem second rate. But apparently, people in the company think the best way to prop up iMPACT WRESTLING is to make the PPVs appear less important by comparison. Why the two can't be of equal importance, I don't understand. Yes, PPV buyrates aren't great, but it's almost as if the company doesn't even care at this point. When you train your audience to think that all the really important stuff happens on free TV, why should they spend money on PPVs? TNA may be of the belief that the PPV industry is dying, but there's no reason to encourage this when there's still opportunity to make money off it.

-The pairing of Samoa Joe & Magnus in the Wild Card tournament this past week looked completely random on paper, but having seen them in action, I warmed up to the idea very quickly. They may have little in common in terms of their personalities and gimmicks, but as characters, they're both men in need of an opportunity, so in a weird way it fits. They worked surprisingly well together, displaying a fair amount of chemistry, and looked great in demolishing Robbie E & Doug Williams. If it means a push for both men, I can get behind this in a big hurry.

I've said this many times before: if TNA actually got serious about pushing Magnus, he could be a star in 5 minutes; he has all the tools. Hell, if he were in WWE, they'd probably be giving him the Wade Barrett treatment. And Joe... well, they've been missing the boat with him for ages. I'm crossing my fingers in the hopes that this a sign that both men will be on their way back up the card in 2012.

-I've started checking out the OVW product, which is conveniently uploaded on their website every week. I've only watched a little bit so far, but from what I've seen, they have some promising talent that I'd like to see get TNA contracts and some other talent that you couldn't pay me to watch. It's a mixed bag, but there are some diamonds in the rough there.

-One of my twitter followers asked me which of the OVW female talents I thought would be good in the Knockout division. First of all, the Knockout roster is getting pretty full, and if they want to add more new women, they would do well to get rid of some of the current girls first since some of them are just spinning their wheels at this point. But if they did decide to trim the fat, there are a couple talents in OVW they might want to take a look at.

With the way the OVW women's matches are booked, it's hard to judge properly, but if I were to bring in any of them for tryouts right now, it would probably be the Blossom twins, Hannah & Holly. They're like the Bella twins by way of the UK, but more athletic. Again, it's hard to really gauge their talent with the way OVW's women's division gets treated, but they seem the most ready for TV at the moment from what little I've seen. They could be a nice addition to the Knockout tag team division and I could easily see them turning heel and being paired up with Magnus, which would fit his narcissistic ladies man character perfectly.

Also, I would encourage TNA to keep an eye on newcomer Taeler Hendrix. Of all the women in OVW, she stands out the most to me. She's a definite work in progress right now, but if there's one woman in the company that has the 'it' factor, it's her. She certainly looks like a star -- hell, she looks like she could be on the cover of Maxim. And I've seen enough of her to think she has the talent to become a strong worker in the future. I wouldn't put her on TV right now; she needs a lot of work still. But TNA ought to think about a developmental deal for her, maybe give her a dark match to evaluate her in a year or two when she has more experience. If she can improve her in-ring work, she could be a good investment. She needs to develop more as a wrestler, but there might just be a potential star there.

And sorry, Lady Jojo -- a.k.a. the artist formerly known as SomeJobber Bolt -- but you don't count. You just don't.

-There is apparently interest in bringing in John Morrison and Melina. With the way I feel right now, I would pass on both of them. Melina is a good worker and pretty charismatic, and if they signed her I wouldn't protest too much, although I think they have more than enough former Divas on the roster already.

However, I've always felt Morrison was overrated. He's an incredible athlete, sure, but he was a product of the WWE marketing machine. By that, I mean that if you take away all the glitz and glamour and the flashy entrance, there really isn't a whole lot that separates Morrison from every other high flyer out there -- certainly not his personality and mic skills (such as they are). He strikes me as someone who might make a big splash when he debuted, but whose novelty would wear off pretty quickly (Bobby Lashley, anyone?). While the idea of Morrison vs Austin Aries would be very interesting, honestly, I don't think Morrison would be worth the money.

Mark Out Moments 07

2011-12-19T14:12:00.001-05:00

Daniel Bryan PWNS Mark Henry

The elevation of James Storm continues

Magnus resurfaces, and him and Samoa Joe actually win a match

John Laurinaitis has... THE TOUCH!

Daniel Bryan becomes the world champion

iMPACT WRESTLING 12/15/11

2011-12-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 12/08/11 & Final Resolution 2011

2011-12-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 12/01/11 & a personal message

2011-12-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

Mark Out Moments 06

2011-11-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

James Storm becomes the world champion

Gail Kim returns to save the Knockout division from Velvet Sky

CM Punk drops a pipe bomb on Alberto Del Rio

James Storm is a true main eventer because he's got Kurt Angle gunning for HIM

James Storm PWNS Kurt Angle

#PrichardLogic

2011-11-27T12:30:00.005-05:00

It's been a little while since I've done a text column, mainly because most of the big talking points have already been covered by other writers at TNAsylum and anything else on my mind was usually covered in the weekly iMPACT WRESTLING review. But after suffering through the last 2 painfully dull and uneventful episodes of Raw (which is really saying something, considering one of them featured the return of the Rock), I was feeling a renewed appreciation for TNA, so here I go again.

The big topic of discussion for the last several weeks has been Bruce Prichard and the changes he's made to the product since replacing Vince Russo as head of creative. And the very fact that I didn't feel the need to put creative in quotation marks just now shows you what a positive change this has been.

While I haven't agreed with every single call he's made thus far, Prichard has been nothing less than a godsend to the television product. Under Russo's (and Hogan & Bischoff's) direction, the iMPACT WRESTLING TV show had become really hard to watch at times. Sure, every once in a while he'd Forrest Gump his way into a good feud or angle, but that's the same thing as giving a monkey a bow and a thousand arrows, and telling it to shoot an apple off someone's head; sooner or later it might hit that apple, but that doesn't mean you won't have a dead body on your hands.

Bad metaphors aside, Prichard has brought some things to this product that have been extremely lacking for a very long time now: logic, common sense and, dare I say it, a little bit of badly needed intelligence. He hasn't been trying to reinvent the wheel booking-wise, but after witnessing Russo, Hogan and Bischoff's ill-concieved attempts to do that, maybe this is a good thing.

Hogan & Bischoff's main contribution to creative had been the Immortal takeover angle, a horribly executed, paper-thin rehash of (surprise, surprise) the NWO. And considering it hadn't been that long since we'd had to endure the pro wrestling equivalent of a root canal that was the Main Event Mafia -- another NWO rehash -- this didn't go over well with a lot of people.

In fact, in many ways, the Immortal takeover was far worse than the MEM. For all its inherent flaws and counterproductive booking, at least the MEM storyline was fairly straightforward. But the Immortal takeover started with a complete bullshit premise and only got worse, spinning off into 100 different directions that never went anywhere, with swerves and character/story developments that made no sense at all. If you wanted proof that the Russo/Hogan/Bischoff gestalt didn't work, look no further.

Then there were all the other baffling decisions these people made. We've been over most of these ad nauseam, but one that really stuck in my head was what was done with AJ Styles early on. Recently AJ did an interview where he said that it had been Hogan's idea for him to adopt the Ric Flair gimmick last year, that he should have frosted tips in his hair, arrive at the show in a limousine, strut around with a girl on each arm, etc.

This does not surprise me at all because it was obvious at the time that whoever was responsible for that gimmick had absolutely zero understanding of who AJ Styles is as a performer and a character. Thankfully, the gimmick was short-lived. But when Hogan gave his take on the situation in an interview of his own and tried to indirectly blame AJ's refusal to roll with it for why it didn't work, I just had to laugh. The TNA fans know AJ Styles, they know when he's not being himself, and that sure as hell wasn't AJ Styles.

Anyway, fast forward the clock a year and a half, now Bruce Prichard is making the creative decisions, and suddenly the state of things is looking a whole lot brighter. As far as we know, Hogan and Bischoff's positions haven't changed, but at least now the TV show is being guided by someone who has their head screwed on straight.

The most noticeable and welcome change has been how the show is structured. Russo tried to blast through 50 different things at once every single week with no regard to how this effected the actual quality of the show overall, whereas Prichard prefers the opposite approach. Prichard paces the show more slowly, using generally longer segments that play out in a more natural way. Individual segments actually have a chance to breathe and resonate now because it doesn't feel like the show is in a huge hurry to get through everything. Also, unlike Russo, Prichard seems to have no problem with letting certain storylines sit out for a week here or a week there, so as not to cram the show with too much content and allow the storylines that are featured enough time to be properly showcased.

After that, the biggest change -- one I have throughly enjoyed -- has been the treatment of the opening segment each week. Under Russo, the first 20-30 minutes of the show were usually reserved for talking, talking and... you guessed it, more talking. Damn near every week for the last year, we'd have to sit through one never-ending Immortal promo after another, most of which consisted of Hogan and Bischoff just repeating the same tired old crap we'd heard from them countless times already. With Prichard, not only have these opening segments been tightened up significantly (the first show after BFG being the exception), but they don't waste any time and still manage to get far more accomplished. Whether their purpose is to advance feuds or set up matches, generally you see a lot more stuff happening in the first 20 or so minutes of the show when, a few months ago, it would have been Bischoff and Hogan front and center, sucking up TV time and flexing their egos while Immortal stood in the background like complete non-entities.

Something else that we've seen hints of so far that bodes well for future angles, especially if they intend to continue with long drawn out storylines, is simply this: Prichard seems to want things to make sense. Perfect example: if you watch my weekly reviews of the TV show, then you know I was wondering why Immortal members Eric Bischoff and Karen Jarrett were allowed to keep their jobs after Dixie Carter took the company back from them. Why is Bischoff still on TV every week, why is Karen being allowed to continue terrorizing the Knockouts, and so on.

Well, not long after I said that I was not expecting the writers to bother explaining this plot hole, Prichard actually explained it! Bischoff said in a backstage segment with Sting that the Immortal members had ironclad contracts and could not be fired. Now, thanks to that simple explanation that only took a few seconds to impart, they can continue to appear on the show without me having to scream my lungs hoarse about how their very presence makes no damn sense.

If Russo were still running things in the writer's room, he would not have even thought to explain this. Hell, he never bothered to explain how Hogan & Bischoff got away with stealing the company from Dixie Carter when their crime was committed on national television with millions of eye witnesses; I think it's safe to say a detail like this probably would have escaped him.

Also, we've seen significant changes in the various championship divisions. Following BFG, the current tag team title feud practically vanished from television. At the time, I assumed this was because Prichard was simply not a fan of Mexican America, but given how things have turned out since then, I'm guessing his distaste extended to the entire state of the tag team division in general. Frankly, I can't really blame him. It's hard to imagine a time when the tag team scene in this company meant less.

Mexican America were appalling champions and their run accomplished nothing but dragging the tag titles down with them. And it seems now that the reason why Ink Inc didn't win the belts -- as I suspect was probably the original plan -- was just to keep the titles in a holding pattern until Crimson & Matt Morgan could be put together. While I'm sympathetic to Ink Inc and lament the fact that the British Invasion have apparently become lepers to the writers, I won't complain about this. Prichard hit the reset button here and, all things considered, that was a great call. The tag division needed a big shot in the arm, and until the Motor City Machine Guns are ready to come back, this was probably the best option. Plus, it has the added bonus of giving Crimson & Morgan something different to do, which was needed since both had kind of stalled after BFG.

I'm not sure how much of this next change can be attributed to Prichard so much as the reintroduction of Gail Kim, but another reset button was hit with the Knockout division, and I, for one, couldn't be more relieved. After Russo spent the better part of a year grooming Velvet Sky of all people for a run with the Knockouts title and actually having her win it at BFG, Prichard quickly hit the brakes, took the title off her at the first opportunity and put it back on the returning inaugural champion of the division. Thank you.

Make of this what you will, but there is nothing anyone can say or do that will ever make me believe that Velvet Sky was championship material. She is simply not good enough, her gross limitations as a wrestler are on full display every time she sets foot in that ring, and damn it, that should count for something!

Say Velvet got screwed over all you want, but the fact of the matter is the Knockout division is better with Gail as the centerpiece than it was without her. Did they focus on her too much during her last run? Yeah. But there was a reason for that. This division is just a different animal with Gail in it; she makes every match she's in better. And mark my words, if Velvet had held that title for very long, she would have been exposed to the point where you would have been begging for them to take it off her and give it back to Gail. All Prichard did was save us the trouble.

One area I really wish Prichard would hit the reset button on is the TV title picture. We have seen changes here, but I'm honestly not sure if they've made the situation better or worse. Instead of Eric Young treating the TV title like a meaningless prop for pointless comedy angles involving D-list celebrities, we have Eric Young feuding for the TV title in a truly painful program with Robbie E, who is little more than a cartoon character himself. I suppose the only real difference is that now the TV title feud takes place in a wrestling ring instead of on a golf course, but that changes very little in the long run. The TV title is still being utterly wasted. A championship that should be used to groom up-and-comers for the main event scene remains a worthless comedic throwaway. If I have one major point of contention with the job Prichard has done so far, this is it.

The X-division is the only division that seems to have been wholly unaffected by the creative shakeup. Thankfully, Prichard was smart enough to know the title was already in good hands. Though it is becoming tiresome that the division remains so completely focused on only 4 guys while many of the other exciting new talents (and Alex Shelley) remain on the shelf, Austin Aries remains the X-division champion and that's absolutely fine with me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And as for the world title picture, I have just one thing to say: Bobby Roode is the world champion and top heel, James Storm is the top face and anyone who has anything bad to say about that can kiss my ass. Granted, not all of us agreed with how it came about. Personally, the way they turned Roode heel never felt quite right to me, but I'm passed that now and I'm certainly not going to argue with the results. The focus on these 2 has been an enormous breath of fresh air to what had become a very stale and uninteresting main event scene. Bobby Roode has made a terrific heel champion, and the only real thing you might be able to complain about regarding his performance thus far is that he's still being regularly outshined by how freaking awesome James Storm has been lately.

Whether this has to do with Prichard or whether this was executed from plans set in place before he took over creative is anyone's guess. But one thing that's certainly not up in the air is that I've been enjoying the show more in the few weeks since BFG than I was in the last few years before it. Storylines are more logical, matches are longer and have clean finishes, gimmick matches are actually announced ahead of time. Sure, there are points of contention here and there, but I'll gladly overlook those if the tradeoff is the overall quality of the show rising so dramatically. I get to look forward to Thursday nights again and that's just fantastic.

In fact, the one and only thing I can't forgive is that, since the product has been so much better lately, it's given me a lot less to bitch about when I review the shows every week. Damn you, Prichard, you magnificent bastard.

iMPACT WRESTLING 11/24/11

2011-11-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

Turning Point 2011 & iMPACT WRESTLING 11/17/11

2011-11-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 11/10/11

2011-11-12T22:05:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 11/03/11

2011-11-10T01:28:00.000-05:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 10/27/11

2011-10-29T00:59:00.000-04:00

Bound For Glory 2011 & iMPACT WRESTLING 10/20/11

2011-10-22T17:03:00.000-04:00

Mark Out Moments 05

2011-10-20T02:39:00.001-04:00

CM Punk PWNS Triple H again

Bobby Roode is Bound For Glory

James Storm calls out Kurt Angle

Bobby Roode... next world champ

Bobby Roode says it's time for a change

This one has been retroactively ruined by the way Bound for Glory ended. Hell, who am I kidding... all the Bobby Roode related videos have been ruined by that. But I marked out when I first saw them, so they still technically count, I suppose.

Before & After: Velvet Sky

2011-10-19T01:55:00.012-04:00

BEFORE AFTER

I actually did this one months ago, but I couldn't decide if it was too mean-spirited to post or not. Then, after Bound For Glory last Sunday, I just figured the hell with it...

Timing, as they say, is everything.

iMPACT WRESTLING 10/13/11

2011-10-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

This is just cool as hell

2011-10-13T23:45:00.000-04:00

Check out this sweet TKO graphic, courtesy of FreaXTVChannelZ. Awesome!

Check out more just like it at raw2ns-freaxtvchannelzvs.blogspot.com

iMPACT WRESTLING 10/06/11

2011-10-08T20:52:00.001-04:00

Change Can Be a Good Thing

2011-10-05T19:09:00.004-04:00

A few months ago, TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING management decided that it was time to make good on a promise they'd been making the fans for several years now and finally began to refocus on the X-division. It didn't happen all at once, but beginning with the gradual departures of several talents -- due mostly to them coming down with a bad case of Creative Has Nothing For You Syndrome -- and culminating with the beginning of a rebuilding process with the addition of a number of new signees, it seems to wheels are now in motion.

Granted, I wasn't happy about a lot of the departures -- I was okay with Jay Lethal being cut, since he'd never totally clicked with me, but letting Generation Me get away I didn't agree with as I felt they had untapped potential as a tag team and had never been given a real opportunity to succeed outside of their feud with the MCMG, and Amazing Red leaving still hurts.

But I have to admit, while I do regret some of the losses, now that the dust has settled and the void has been filled with an influx of promising new talent, the X-division does feel more interesting now. A lot of that could just be due to the fact that they're actually paying some attention to it for a change, or it could be because we now have a very different X-division landscape, with a roster full of new faces. Sometimes a fresh coat of paint can make all the difference in the world.

Something you should know about me is that I'm not one of these fans who remains fiercely loyal to a wrestler just because they've been around for a long time, regardless of how big a star they may or may not have been. It's been years since I stopped giving a crap about the wrestlers I watched when I was a kid and are still around today. Sure, I have my favorites like everyone does, but one of the things I love to see most of all is new faces on my TV screen. I mark out for new talents and new stars being created.

And that's a big reason why I like what's going on in the X-division right now. The transition was a bit rocky, but it may have been necessary. By eliminating the talents who either weren't working out or had nothing going on creatively, and replacing them with some exciting prospects from the indies, the X-division suddenly feels fresh and new for the first time in a long time, and this makes me a lot more interested than I was before.

Now, for the love of God, can we PLEASE do the same thing with the Knockouts?

I've made no secret of the fact that I think the Knockout division needs a serious revamp and it's not hard to see why. The roster has grown stale, the feuds repetitive and nonsensical, and in recent months, it seems as if the writers have been using it as a dumping ground for ideas that were either too half-assed for the men's roster (Velvet Sky's entire past as a heel being retconned away so she can be turned into a sympathetic bullying victim) or too flat-out bizarre to exist anywhere on the show that's actually supposed to matter (Winter's entire gimmick).

It's depressing to admit this, but right now the Knockouts just feel really boring. A lot of this can be attributed to management's failure to keep most of the women's roster relevant, and a lot of it has to do with the creative end, which means, like with so many other things in this company, the finger of blame is pointing at the writers.

Countless people have said that Vince Russo has no idea how to get someone over or keep them over. In fact, Jim Cornette has been quoted saying Russo actually gets people under. This might not be necessarily true in every case, but it's hard to deny that these people have a point.

Perfect example: the Pope. This guy was hot as hell when he first showed up. People loved him. In less than a year, he was headlining PPVs and challenging for the world title. Then Russo started paying too much attention to him and suddenly all that stopped. He got buried in a horrible feud with Abyss, then he turned heel for no discernible reason, had the absolute worst feud in wrestling since Kaz/Black Reign with Samoa Joe -- a feud so ill-conceived that, to this day, I still have absolutely no idea what they were even fighting about in the first place -- then he disappeared for a while, only to resurface as a face (I think) again and became one half of a makeshift tag team with Devon of all people because he had developed some inexplicable fascination with Devon's kids that has yet to be explained.

18 months ago, the Pope looked set to become a huge breakout star for this company. Now, because of how how horridly he's been written and booked since then in one awful storyline after another, I don't know if anyone even gives a rat's ass about him anymore.

The Pope is just one example of how this creative team can take someone or something with the potential to be really big and completely ruin them. And in very few aspects of this product is this more prevalent than with the Knockouts.

Mickie James signs with TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING. Mickie James, the most popular female star in the industry today. By all rights, she should have been made the new face of the division, and for a while she was. Fast forward one year and now she's just another Knockout. And why? Why do you think?

She started out great in a hot feud with Tara that produced some really strong matches and climaxed with a memorable bout in a steel cage. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there. She moved on to an agonizingly long, ridiculously drawn-out feud with Madison Rayne, an overpushed midcarder who had been a lame duck champion from day one, hadn't even managed to get over, and never should have had the belt in the first place. And instead of dethroning Madison easily, Mickie proceeded to job in one underwhelming match after another to this loser (not that this was Mickie's fault. Madison doesn't have good matches with anyone), until finally winning the title far later than she should have, thus making the long-awaited title change itself feel anticlimactic.

And what happened after Mickie finally captured the title? Not a damn thing. She was almost immediately depushed and started playing second fiddle to should-be-a-manager Velvet Sky.

After a few lackluster months as the champion in which she was never given a single compelling feud, Mickie lost the title to Winter, a woman with the most ludicrous gimmick in the entire industry, quickly won it back after Winter had virtually disappeared from television for 3 weeks, then lost it to Winter again a week and a half later.

So Mickie James has now had 2 title reigns in a few months, both of which went nowhere. That's hardly the outcome that should have resulted from Mickie coming to TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING to "make history" by becoming the first wrestler to hold every major women's championship in the industry. Her first title reign should have been epic, lasting until at least Bound For Glory, but instead it fizzled out after about 3 months because the writers couldn't produce any interesting opponents for her.

And Winter? This poor woman has already disappeared from TV again and her second transitional title reign in a row will most likely be coming to an end at the next PPV. As if she didn't have a hard enough time trying to work with a gimmick so outlandish, the writers must have lifted it from an old episode of Tales From the Crypt -- no one is ever going to take her seriously as a legit threat to the championship if her second run with the belt ends almost as soon as it begins, just like her first one did.

So bad booking and writing has rendered the woman who should have been the top face of the division all but irrelevant, and the woman who looked to have become the top heel isn't far behind her.

And let us not forget the rest of the roster...

Angelina Love was doing just fine this time last year. Then Winter showed up and things got really weird, really fast. Angelina, a talent that got over mostly with her personality and mic skills, was repackaged and given a drugged-out zombie gimmick which called for her to never talk and show no personality. When that didn't work, she went back to acting like herself. But instead of returning to her former partner Velvet Sky, she stayed with Winter, not only because she, for some reason, wasn't bothered by Winter using drugs to turn her into a meat puppet, but also because she apparently decided that becoming the partner/lover of a time traveling lesbian vampire was something that was going to help her wrestling career.

If this sounds kind of silly to you, then congratulations, your brain works.

ODB and Jackie Moore were going absolutely nowhere at the end of their previous runs in this company -- their characters had grown stale and neither had done anything particularly interesting in quite a while before their respective releases. A few months ago, company management made the puzzling decision to bring them back, and unsurprisingly, nothing has changed.

I have to seriously question why these women were signed instead of some promising new talent, especially when creative obviously had NO plans for them beyond being temporary heel foils for Velvet Sky. Eventually that storyline ended (I think. With Russo's booking, it's hard to be sure), ODB and Jackie were given contracts by Karen Jarrett and -- surprise, surprise -- they haven't been seen or heard from since. Personally, I'm glad about this as I have no desire to see either of them on my TV screen anymore.

Madison Rayne... good grief. What can I say about this woman that hasn't been said? The writers spent an entire year doing everything under the sun to make her a star and in pretty much every respect she was a colossal failure. She never had a single match worth getting excited about, was involved in boring feud after boring feud, and never managed to get over despite the mammoth push she received. She couldn't even get heel heat off of Mickie James, for Christ's sake! After all that, the fact that this woman is still employed by a major wrestling company is so baffling to me that I'm beginning to wonder if it's some sort of cosmic joke.

I like Sarita and Rosita. I always have. Rosita may be green, but has shown a lot of promise, and Sarita can be spectacular in the ring when booked correctly. Plus, them being the only real Knockout tag team in the company works in their favor. Unfortunately for them, they're stuck in the worst faction in any wrestling company in recent memory, partnered with 2 dangerous idiots who never learned how to work a match safely and are constantly injuring people as a result. There's nothing really wrong with Sarita and Rosita that getting them away from Hernandez and Anarquia wouldn't fix, but sadly, there don't seem to be any signs of that happening.

After being thrown together randomly one night despite never having anything to do with each other before then, Tara and Brooke Tessmacher are now the Knockout tag team champions. That might work in their favor if the Knockout tag titles actually meant anything, but they really don't. In a recent interview, Tara admitted to frustration over not being used much recently, and it's easy to see why. It seems like the writers only put the tag titles on her and Brooke because neither of them had anything else to do, and the fact that they're now champions who are rarely on TV is only shining a bigger light on this problem.

Surprisingly, the rookie Brooke seems to be in a slightly better position than her partner, by virtue of her continuing mutual antagonism with Karen Jarrett. I don't know if it's going to lead to anything, but these bits with her and Karen sniping at each other are giving Brooke something to do opposite the only woman in the company who will never have to worry about her spot on the roster simply because of who her husband is.

Traci Brooks returned to the company shortly after ODB and Jackie. But while they were brought in to prop up Velvet Sky, Traci was brought in to... prop up Velvet Sky. Seriously, that was the reason. She came back because she felt bad for Velvet for reasons unknown, and wanted to watch her back. Never mind the fact that Traci and Velvet had never been friends prior to this, due to Velvet being a shallow, mean-spirited, bitchy heel when Traci had last been in the company. I guess Velvet Sky's sheer magnificence had reached such staggering proportions that Traci just couldn't help herself; that sure seemed to be what the writers thought anyway.

Luckily for Traci, her part in that storyline ended almost as soon as it began and she eventually wound up in a new, albeit degrading, program with a bit more mileage. She gave Eric Bischoff sexual favors in an effort to get her old position as 'Knockout Law' back only to lose it to Karen Jarrett, then got offended that the Jarretts dared to call her a whore when all she did was prostitute herself to get a job (I know. Just roll with it). This lead to her real-life husband Kazarian getting involved, turning this into what I assume is going to be a mixed tag feud.

The way this storyline began has made it damn near impossible to sympathize with Traci, since she did exactly what the heels are accusing her of, but her and Kaz feuding with the Jarretts gives her a reason to be on TV. Unlike ODB and Jackie, Traci has managed to make herself relevant outside of an ill-concieved angle about how supposedly unbelievably awesome Velvet freaking Sky is, and you have to give her credit for that much at least.

And then there's Velvet Sky. It's obvious that the writers have been grooming Velvet for a championship run for the better part of a year now, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why. I'm not denying that Velvet Sky is over with the fans, and she's certainly a talented performer in a lot of areas. She's good on the mic, she has a lot of personality, she's very sexy, she's clearly a favorite in the marketing department, etc, and this is why she's over. But why should that mean she gets a run with the Knockouts title? She doesn't need to be a wrestler to do any of those things! Therein lies the problem.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: You could literally make Velvet a manager who never wrestles and she could still do everything that got her over. And when she does get in the ring for a match, more often than not, the results are pretty underwhelming, if not outright bad. This goes beyond her not needing the title; IMO, there is really no reason to put her in the ring period.

You're forcing a round peg into a square hole, trying to make Velvet a serious competitor. A much better fit would be to push Velvet like the 21st century version of Sunny -- a woman who's all about being sexy and entertaining people, and can certainly be a prominent part of the show, but at the same time, she doesn't wrestle because #1) let's be honest, it's not something she excels at particularly, and #2) there's no need for her to wrestle, because her being over has nothing to do with her wrestling and everything to do with her looks and personality.

But instead of putting Velvet in a role like that, which would maximize her strengths as a performer and minimize her weaknesses, the powers that be in this company seem to really want to put the belt on her. Unfortunately, instead of being smart about the process of getting her ready for it, they've gone so overboard with trying to make people believe that Velvet is the greatest thing ever that it's just become laughable.

If you absolutely have to push Velvet toward the title, the smart way to do it would be to have her be an underdog contender who has to struggle every step of the way, dealing with the fact that pretty much all the other Knockouts are clearly much more gifted athletes and accomplished wrestlers than her -- there is simply no way to disguise this, and trying to do so just looks ridiculous. She wins matches, but gains every victory by the skin of her teeth after her opponent dominates most of the match, forcing her to fight tooth and nail, and taking a beating along the way. Try to get people to rally behind her, to root for her to succeed in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Take the real-life perception of Velvet (that she's not a very good wrestler) and use that instead of trying to deny it.

It's-not-the-size-of-the-dog-in-the-fight-but-the-size-of-the-fight-in-the-dog is a much more fitting way to push someone like Velvet than having her going over everyone in the women's locker room because she's just that damn awesome. Unfortunately, the latter is the direction they've taken her in. She beats up the Knockout tag team champions with ease all by herself at Lockdown, she beats ODB and Jackie Moore in a handicap match on iMPACT, and so on, and so on.

Then came to biggest affront to the intelligence of the audience. The aforementioned ODB and Jackie explained that the reason why they were originally fired is because the company wanted to make way for the more prototypical Barbie types like Velvet, and that's why they had such a grudge against her. In ODB's case, there was actually a lot of truth to this, since she left the company during that lengthy period when the Beautiful People were being pushed as the center of the universe in the Knockout division and, with the possible exception of Tara, none of the other women really meant anything.

In the hands of a more capable writer this might have been an intriguing angle. Perhaps ODB and Jackie could have been a bit more relatable and sympathetic, making legit points that were hard for Velvet to deny, representing karma coming back to bite Velvet in the ass for all her past crimes when she was a heel. Velvet would then have to work hard to prove that she had changed and wanted to do things the right way now, showing an actual organic character evolution for her. Instead, ODB and Jackie were portrayed as bitter, mean-spirited, ugly (Velvet's words, not mine) harpies, who blamed Velvet for everything that had gone wrong in their careers just because she was a convenient target.

And then the cherry on this cake of bulls*** came when Velvet's entire history as a heel was retconned into oblivion and she revealed this never-before-mentioned backstory about how she was a victim of bullying as a kid and now she was standing up to the bullies, and refused to be picked on anymore by anyone.

Forget about the fact that this made NO SENSE WHATSOEVER when you think about everything Velvet had done in this company during the 3+ years she spent as one of the biggest bullies on the roster when she was 'cleansing the world one ugly person at a time'. The only purpose of it was to make the viewers feel sorry for Velvet, character continuity and good writing be damned. But the end result of this sloppy, carelessly written farce was making Velvet look like the world's biggest hypocrite by failing to take her own past actions as a heel into account. You can't just pretend all that stuff never happened, you know.

Later on, then-champion Mickie James made a big production of telling Velvet that it was going to be an honor to give Velvet her first ever Knockouts title shot, and when that match went down, it was going to be the greatest match in women's wrestling. And it was at this point that Velvet Sky finally crossed the line, going from poorly written babyface, to blatant hypocrite, to full blown Mary Sue character.

First of all, even suggesting that a Velvet Sky match is going to be the greatest match in women's wrestling is just insulting to the viewers because we all know that's a damn lie and you look stupid for saying it. Saying that Velvet would have a huge mountain to climb in order to beat Mickie for the title, but she would kill herself to do it would have at least been plausible.

Second of all, this would hardly be Velvet's first title shot. She had received several title shots in the past. In fact, once upon a time, she received 3 title shots in one night. But they didn't want us to remember this because she was defeated in embarrassing fashion each time, and they couldn't possibly mention that because it would make Velvet look bad. And God knows we couldn't have that, now could we?

Once again, instead of acknowledging Velvet's past and using it as storyline fuel -- maybe having her cite her previous failures to win the title as motivation to do better this time -- the writers just took the lazy way out. And instead of Velvet becoming a 3-dimensional, fully realized character people could get behind and root for, she became a ridiculous cardboard cutout Mary Sue.

Honestly, I don't know what hurts more: the fact that the writers took the sloppiest, most half-assed route imaginable in their efforts to make Velvet Sky championship material (cough), or the fact that a lot of casual fans actually seem to have bought into it. I have no rational explanation for this and I feel mildly sick admitting it, but this atrociously constructed, ill-conceived push seems to have accomplished its intended goal in getting Velvet over enough with casual fans to the point where the only legit argument for not putting the title on her is that her wrestling is still not very good and probably never will be (and seriously, why is that not a deal breaker? Is this the company where wrestling matters or isn't it?).

It's a really depressing commentary on the mindset of the modern wrestling fan. And frankly, it makes me feel a little embarrassed every time I insist that the audience isn't stupid and shouldn't be treated as such. Just because they serve us a s*** sandwich, doesn't mean we have to eat it, people. Don't lower your standards! We, the fans, deserve better than this!

Anyway, I assume the writers are patting themselves on the back right now for a job well done (cough). For better or worse, they've made Velvet Sky a top contender for the Knockouts title. Unfortunately, the process of getting her to that point was completely, 100% f***ed up, and now the woman likely to be the next Knockouts champion is stuck with a character that is a terribly conceived, albeit popular, mess.

And that's the state of the current Knockout roster. Speaking as the writer of TKO, this puts me in a very foul mood.

Many of the Knockouts have been booked into borderline irrelevance, and the ones that haven't either have nothing to do right now or are trying to create compelling television with stories and character work so poorly handled that to call it phoned in would be complimentary.

And that leads me to the point of this column. This division has seen much better days, but it's not irreparable. There just needs to be some house cleaning. What management just did with the X-division, they need to do with the Knockouts.

Some of these women need to go, either because they're doing nothing creatively, their characters have been ruined by bad writing and booking, or they've simply run their course. And yes, that would probably mean getting rid of a perennial favorite or 2. The change might be uncomfortable, but it would be no different than selling your old, beat up car. You might be attached to it, you might have a lot of fond memories in it, but it's racked up a ton of mileage and, by selling it, you'll have enough money to get a brand new car that's going to run better and you can get a lot more use out of.

-ODB & Jackie- These 2 can go. I don't see why they were even brought back in the first place. They haven't done much of anything other than hurl derogatory slurs at Velvet, and just a few months later it seems the writers have already lost interest in them. So why exactly are they still there?

-Madison Rayne- No Knockout has ever received as long and sustained a push as this woman and she has virtually nothing to show for it. So much time and effort went into trying to make her a star and she never even managed the first and most important thing a star needs to do: get over. Nothing they've tried with her has worked, and if she was going to catch on, it would have happened by now. It's time for them to cut their losses and stop wasting money on this joker.

Those are the no-brainers, IMO. The rest are a little trickier.

-Angelina Love- I like Angelina. She's great on the mic, pretty solid in the ring and was one of the more over women they had before the drugged-out zombie gimmick sucked all her crowd heat away like a vacuum. But to say her character needs to be rehabilitated right now is an understatement. Her association with the baffling Winter character has ruined her. After being put in so many flat-out bizarre situations, her stock has fallen big time, and even if they could fix her, I have to wonder if it would be worth the trouble.

Suppose they succeeded in getting Angelina back on track -- what do they do with her then? Reform the Beautiful People again? That faction is stale as s***. Give her another title reign? She's had 6 in the last 3 years! Angelina with a title is been-there-done-that territory. Add this to the fact that she's already had programs with all the other Knockouts, save a scant few, and it's not looking so good. How do you keep her relevant? What can you do with her that she hasn't done yet? Talented as she is, I'm starting to think Angelina has just run her course in this company. She might be another one I would seriously consider sending on her way.

Don't agree with me? Tough. Nobody likes change, but sometimes change is needed regardless. Amazing Red could have been this company's Rey Mysterio if they'd just booked him right. You think I wasn't pissed off at all the wasted potential when he left? And yet, the introduction of exciting new talent has cushioned the blow, just like it would in this situation. I just don't know if Angelina has a whole lot left to do in TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING, so rather than keep her around just for the sake of having her there, why not just move forward instead?

-Winter- Kat Waters, the woman behind the character, is a talented person and could have a lot to contribute. That being said, her gimmick is so ludicrous that even trying to understand what on earth the writers are going for with it is an exorcize in futility. However, I'd be hesitant to get rid of her because she's only been there a year and really seems to be trying her damnedest to make this work. I think she can be salvaged, but not in her current incarnation. The best thing she could possibly do right now is just go away for a while -- disappear from TV like she does every time she wins the Knockouts title, let everyone forget about the time traveling lesbian vampire thing (if that's even possible), then come back in a few months and try again with a gimmick that doesn't resemble something you'd see in a made-for-TV movie the Syfy channel would air at 3 in the morning. Give her some material to work with that doesn't seem like science fiction and maybe she could actually make something happen.

-Brooke Tessmacher- Much like with Winter, just the fact that Brooke is relatively new to the company works in her favor. She still feels fresh and has plenty of new things she hasn't done yet, which gives the writers a lot of possibilities to work with. Another great thing about her is that she hasn't yet had her character damaged by bad writing and booking like a lot of the others. Plus, while she seemed to me like a pointless signing at first, she has since changed my mind about her by displaying a surprising amount of raw talent. Her mic skills appear to be pretty darn good, she connects with the crowd easily and, despite her inexperience, has shown consistent improvement in her wrestling skills to the point where I now consider her a better worker than Velvet and Madison. She's still a work in progress, but I'd say she's a solid investment for the future.

-Mickie James- Duh! Most popular female star in the industry, remember? Sure, some of the shine has worn off this year thanks to bad booking, but all Mickie needs to put asses in the seats is an interesting feud with a good opponent.

-Tara- While I don't have much desire to see her challenge for the singles title anymore after she had multiple blink-and-you-miss-it runs with the belt, she remains one of the more popular women on the roster and never has any trouble getting over. The pairing of her and Brooke may have been completely random, but people seem to like them together, and for the time being, I think that's a good place for her. Like Mickie, the only thing that's keeping her from becoming relevant again is a decent feud. It's just a shame the Tara/Brooke vs Sarita/Rosita rivalry was blown through so quickly.

-Sarita & Rosita- These 2 are the only good things about Mexican America. Plus, they're the only female duo that the company bothers to market as an actual tag team rather than 2 singles wrestlers who just happen to work together. Their association with Hernandez and Anarquia does them no favors, but I don't think it really hurts them so much as it just holds them back. Luckily for them, they seem to have a ready-made feud with the soon-to-debut third member of Ink Inc, which will give them something to do other than interfering in the men's matches.

-Traci Brooks- Though she was brought back for the same really contrived reasons that ODB & Jackie were, Traci wisely found something else to do at the first opportunity. While her current storyline with the Jarretts may have been written all wrong if the intent was to create sympathy for her, at least it's something seemingly being done for the purpose of giving Kazarian a rub from a veteran, which certainly isn't a bad idea. If this is the kind of thing they intend to use Traci for, then I don't see why she shouldn't stick around. I don't care to see her wrestling very much, but she's always been a good manager in the past and could be again.

-Velvet Sky- Speaking of managers... yeah, you can probably see where I'm going with this. I credit Velvet for rising above a lot of really bad writing, being the marketing department's go-to girl and being charismatic enough to get over in situations where a lot of other people most likely wouldn't have. That said, I still see no reason to push her as a wrestler and even less reason to give her a title reign because she just doesn't need one to do any of that stuff. Take her out of the ring entirely and she would be no less over, so why have her wrestling at all when it's not where her real talents lie?

This may just come down to a difference in philosophy for a lot of people, but damn it, being a strong in-ring competitor should be a prerequisite to becoming a champion as far as I'm concerned, and Velvet just isn't one. She can be a star without getting in the ring, so why not just leave the wrestling to the more athletic women and let Velvet stick to what she's good at (promos, entertaining people, etc)? Sunny became one of the most popular female figures in the history of wrestling without ever becoming a champion; why could the same not apply to Velvet?

So that's one way to go if a Knockout division revamp were to happen. 3 women they could get rid of, 4 if they were really serious about starting fresh, and 2 put into managerial roles, which would free up 5 to 6 spots for intriguing potential new stars. Even if I'm way off base about the Velvet Sky thing, I think most, if not all these changes would be ultimately beneficial.

I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't agree with this, but I'm just tired of seeing the same women on iMPACT, doing the same things and feuding with the same people; a lot of them having their characters ruined because the writers don't know how to book them properly or even keep them relevant.

Do you know why I got excited when I heard about Christina Von Eerie's impending debut? Because finally something NEW was happening. Finally there was going to be someone different to watch -- a fresh talent that plenty of new things could be done with. Now just imagine if they got 4 more women like that. Wouldn't that be more interesting than what we have now? Wouldn't that be more appealing than certain women being pushed as huge contenders for the title when they can't even wrestle a decent match and championships constantly changing hands because a time traveling lesbian vampire spits blood in someone's face? If they did away with that crap in order to make way for exciting new prospects from the indies, would it really be such a bad thing?

Hell, the X-division had a rocky transition recently, but I'd say it's in a better position now than it was 6 months ago. Why couldn't the same thing happen with the women?

Sure, change can be uncomfortable, but it doesn't have to be bad if it's done intelligently and for the right reasons. Sometimes it can lead to good things; people just have to give it a chance.

Thoughts on the first ROH show of the Sinclair era

2011-10-02T20:10:00.004-04:00

Yeah, I know this is late. Sue me. I couldn't watch the show until Thursday and I had other stuff to do before I got to this.

I constantly find that I want to like ROH more than I do. Not I don't enjoy their product; I like what they do and I'm glad there's an alternative out there for fans who don't get what they want from the more mainstream companies. That said, there always seems to be something about ROH that leaves me strangely unsatisfied. It's hard to articulate this, but I think their first show on the Sinclair network was a good example of what I'm talking about.

First of all, this may be nitpicking here, but the production had some issues that need to be ironed out fast. I hate to say it, but they seem to have taken a step back from the HDnet show. The audio quality with the announcers wasn't the best, the video quality was grainy, but the real problem was the lighting. I know they're doing the best they can with a limited budget, but they have GOT to light the arena better than that. Seriously, the lighting wasn't much better than videos I've seen of WSU matches. Why is everything outside the ring so freaking dark? There were a lot of areas in the hard camera shot especially where you could barely see the audience. I know a lighting rig is expensive, but good grief, the look of the show is something that can attract viewers or drive them away. If the arena looks cheep and poorly lit, you're not doing yourselves any favors.

Another issue was poor time management. I was shocked that, for a show that only has an hour to work with, there was so much wasted time. The superfluous video packages got pretty excessive (one was actually shown twice, for crying out loud!). What's more, Nigel asking fans at ringside who they thought was going to win this match or that match was completely pointless. Why? Because fans watching at home most likely don't give a rat's ass what these people think; I sure didn't. When you've only got 60 minutes, you really need to prioritize. Why are you talking to people at ringside when you could be introducing us to the wrestlers?

I know some of these things were unavoidable, so I'm not going to give them a ton of grief about it. Hopefully, the production issues will be sorted out in the coming weeks and they'll start making more effective use of the time they have. Until then, all I can do is strongly urge them to work on the aesthetic of the show, because right now, it really doesn't look good at all.

As for the rest of the show...

Sure, the wrestling was great, but wrestling has never been ROH's problem. It's a given that the in-ring product will be impressive. Great wrestling isn't a bonus with this company; it's an expectation. What concerned me was everything else, and this was where I started having problems.

When I get right down to it, it just didn't feel like they were trying to do anything special or eventful or meaningful with their first show. I wanted to see them start off with a bang, and that didn't happen. This needed to feel like a pilot episode, like the beginning of something, a jumping-on point for new fans who hadn't experienced ROH before. Instead, it kind of felt like just a continuation of the HDnet show, rather than something meant to pull in new audiences.

And I'm afraid this is where ROH is shooting themselves in the foot. The show wasn't geared at the larger television audience they need to attract, but at the ROH faithful. And if they ever want to actually grow their business, they need to expand beyond that core group.

Outside of explaining the Code of Honor -- and let's be honest, a video about the significance of a handshake doesn't exactly make for riveting TV -- the bookers, for the most part, just seemed to assume that viewers were already familiar with the product, knew what was going on, who the wrestlers were and who was feuding with who. Not that there's something wrong with this necessarily, but again, they need to keep in mind that they're marketing themselves to a wider demographic now. New fans checking out ROH for the first time aren't going to know who most of these wrestlers are and will be looking for reasons why they should give a crap. If you present the roster as a bunch of non-entities, people aren't going to care.

And that was perhaps the biggest weakness about this first episode -- it didn't feel like there was enough of a reason to care about what was going on. A first time fan who's just now being exposed to Future Shock and the Bravado Brothers is going to wonder why this match is taking place, why these guys are fighting and what their characters are. The problem is there really weren't any characters; just wrestlers.

The whole thing just seemed very basic and, I hate to say this, but it was kind of dull. Yeah, I know ROH takes the back-to-basics approach with their product and business model, and that's why their core fanbase supports them. But come on, guys, you're on TV now! You need something more substantive than 'show starts, here's a bunch of matches, show over'. If that's all you're offering, no one outside of the hardcore fans is going to be interested; casual fans certainly won't be.

A big part of TV is sensationalism, doing stuff that grabs people's attention and makes them want to tune in to see what's going to happen next. There was no hook for the next episode, no cliffhanger beyond, "Tune in next week to see Person A wrestle Person B." You need to jazz this up!

Do more with the characters. Show what's going on backstage. Give them a more promo time than these little interview snippets before the matches -- at least enough so they can get their personalities over. Maybe cut out some of the lengthy recaps of events new viewers won't have seen and therefore probably won't care about, and devote that time to story and characters. I'm not suggesting you get as story-driven as WWE and TNA, but give us a little more of a reason why these matches are happening. Forgoing storylines altogether is just stupid. Storylines are a good thing -- they're what give the matches meaning. Otherwise, it's just wrestling for the sake of wrestling.

That's where this show lost me, and I'm guessing where it lost some people who may have been watching for the first time. For viewers who like characters and storylines in addition to wrestling, there just wasn't anything to sink their teeth into. I know it was just the first episode, but at least some kind of story-based incentive to tune in next week would have been nice. Sure, the promise of Lethal vs Generico was all well and good, but if I'm a new fan watching ROH for the first time, then I have no idea who El Generico is, and therefore have no reason to really care about that match, regardless of how good it may be.

To be honest, I was hoping for more from the first new ROH TV show. The focus on no-nonsense wrestling was refreshing at first compared to what we get from WWE and TNA, but it strikes me as something that's going to get old quickly for a lot of people. They need to understand that they're not just marketing their product to a fringe audience anymore and adjust the show accordingly.

I'm still rooting for them to succeed, but there are things they need to address. They have a great in-ring product; what's lacking is everything else. The biggest challenge they have now is adapting what they do for a new medium. I know they're hesitant to alter their formula, but, hey, welcome to television. A few tweaks here and there would make a world of difference. Some production upgrades, less unnecessary video packages and fan interviews, a little less time spent on wrestling and a little more spent on characters and stories designed to make the wrestling more meaningful, and they could have a kickass show.

I don't see a lot of these things happening, however, as ROH is a company that is somewhat resistant to change. On the other hand, selling the company to the Sinclair network was a pretty damn big change. So who knows... maybe they just need some time to get used to the idea.

iMPACT WRESTLING 9/29/11

2011-10-01T15:45:00.001-04:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 9/22/11

2011-09-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

No Surrender 2011 & iMPACT WRESTLING 9/15/11

2011-09-17T23:47:00.001-04:00

Mark Out Moments 04

2011-09-14T11:47:00.002-04:00

CM Punk PWNS Kevin Nash

CM Punk calls for change

TNA finally makes a real attempt to elevate a young star

Samoa Joe is a killer again... finally

Beer Money on the verge of becoming world title contenders

iMPACT WRESTLING 9/08/11

2011-09-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 9/01/11

2011-09-04T18:33:00.000-04:00

Use established names to build your future while you still can

2011-09-04T13:18:00.001-04:00

When the quarter hour ratings for the 8/25 edition of iMPACT WRESTLING came out, I knew I was going to have to write a blog about this. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene happened and I lost power for close to 4 days, so this is a bit late. No less relevant, though.

In the report that was posted on TNAsylum, we learned that the highest rated segment of the night was an in-ring confrontation between Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Sting, which garnered a 1.44. The second highest rated quarter hour of the show, featuring the Knockouts, X-division and backstage stuff, drew a 1.27 -- not a bad rating in and of itself, but a noticeable difference to be sure.

Of course, I knew what was going to happen next, and sure enough, the usual suspects in the comment section launched into the same debate they have every week when the ratings come out: "THESE people are the only ones who draw! FACT!" "No, THOSE people are the only ones who draw! DOUBLE FACT!" "You're both wrong! NO ONE on this show draws! FACT TIMES INFINITY!" And so on and so forth.

I try not to get drawn into the never-ending ratings debates anymore if I can help it because, quite frankly, it's the same exact argument with the same exact talking points over and over again, and the whole thing has become tiresome to me. But that doesn't mean I don't have something to say about this.

Certain TNAsylum posters are very fond of pointing out that "established stars" (meaning people who were established in WWE or WCW) are the only talents in this company that draw ratings. In fact, it almost seems as if they feel a sort of glee in beating other posters over the head with this, saying that the aging established veterans are the only ones who do business worth a crap and, with a few exceptions, the home grown talent are just a collective waste of human plasma who shouldn't even be employed, and constantly point to quarter hour rating stats as their proof.

I'm not going to agree or disagree with this assessment. That's not what this blog is about. Instead, I'm going to posit a question to these people...

If, in fact, it is true that the established stars are the only ones who make any difference in the ratings, why in the world do you think that's a good thing?

Newsflash: IT'S NOT!

You shouldn't be happy if the veterans and established talent are the only ones on the show garnering any interest from casual viewers. You should be concerned, just as I am, because this is not a good thing.

So Sting, Hogan and Flair drew a 1.44. So what? This is all in an effort to build up to a Sting vs Hogan match at Bound For Glory in October. Granted, I personally, have NO desire to see that match, but I will begrudgingly admit that this doesn't mean it won't get other people to order the PPV or buy a ticket to the event out of nostalgia. And that's all well and good for Bound For Glory, but what about when that show is over? What does one last Hogan vs Sting match do for the company after that?

Not a damn thing.

Don't you wonder why there was such a huge difference in viewership between the 2 highest rated segments on the 8/25 show? It's because those extra people who tuned in to see Hogan and Flair and Sting only wanted to see those guys, and left when the segment was over because they didn't care about anything else on the show. From 1.44 to 1.27, we're talking about a drop of 0.17. If you round up, that's a difference of 2 tenths of a ratings point. That wouldn't seem like much if we were talking about Monday Night Raw, but in TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING, it's the difference between a great rating and a rating low enough to have people predicting doom and gloom.

So why then would you want the company to continue utilizing the established stars and veterans in this way? Hogan vs Sting might pop the buyrate and attendance for Bound For Glory, but the first Thursday after that it leaves them right back at square one with all the same problems they had before.

These veterans are not going to be around much longer. This company needs to stop using established stars vs other established stars as a crutch. The day is going to come when that crutch breaks and they need to be able to walk under their own power when it does. They need to think about what they're going to do X number of years in the future after Sting has retired, after Hogan has moved on to his next cash cow, after Flair has died in the ring (don't start with me on this. We all know it's going to happen one of these days). Even Kurt Angle, the Randy Couture of pro wrestling, won't be there forever.

So what happens when those people are gone? What is the company going to do when there are no more established stars to lean on and they have to rely on the home grown guys? Signing Chavo Guerrero and bringing back Tommy Dreamer sure as hell isn't going to help them then (it wouldn't help them now either, but I digress).

This company (and all you people too) need to get that through their heads. Playing the established stars against each other might pop a rating for one segment, it might pop the buyrate for one PPV, but it does NOTHING to build for the future. For as many people who might show up to see Sting face Hulk Hogan in the ring one last time, that doesn't mean nearly as much as you might think. That match doesn't elevate any new talents, it doesn't create any new stars, ergo, it does virtually nothing to benefit the company beyond that one show. It's a short term solution to a long term problem.

What if, instead of Sting vs Hogan at Bound For Glory, it was Sting vs Crimson and Hogan vs Bobby Roode? Those matches almost certainly wouldn't draw as well, but the rub Crimson and Roode got would be hugely beneficial down the road. Crimson would get a big boost from defeating Sting on the company's biggest stage, and just imagine if Roode went over Hogan on top of that. Of all people, TNA home grown star BOBBY ROODE would now have the accolade of defeating the Immortal Hulk Hogan in his last match ever. BOBBY ROODE would be the man who retired Hulk Hogan. Ergo, Bobby Roode would become a made star.

If there's anything that would get the casual fans who only tune in to see the established talent to start tuning in to see the younger stars too, that's it. This is what they need to be doing more of.

Sting, Hogan and Flair drawing a 1.44 for one segment means exactly nothing. Put a young star with a bright future in the ring with them and now you're doing something productive.

Easily the best example of this that I've seen recently was what they just did with Kurt Angle and Crimson. Angle says he's going to take out all the young talent on the roster and chooses Crimson as his first target. The following week, Crimson calls out Angle, stands up to him and challenges him to a match. The week after that, they have another confrontation, hype their match up like a big deal, and the match is competitive enough that Crimson is made to look like a total stud against the world champion without even winning the match.

They built up to the match for 2 weeks, made it look like it was a BIG match, and when the bell rang they made the up-and-comer look like he was on the same level as the established star. Granted, it didn't pop the rating, but what it did was give Crimson a big rub and allow the fans to see him as a bigger deal than before, which will help his ability to draw ratings as his star rises in the future.

The company needs to be doing this with every established star they've got. Instead of Sting vs Flair and Sting vs Hogan, do Sting vs James Storm, Hogan vs Bobby Roode and Flair vs the Pope. Instead of Bully Ray vs Ken Anderson, do Bully Ray vs Samoa Joe and Ken Anderson vs Magnus. Instead of Jeff Jarret vs Kurt Angle for 7 months straight, do Jeff Jarret vs Alex Shelley and Kurt Angle vs Austin Aries.

Instead of playing them against each other, put all the established names in programs with the young talent with the expressed purpose of ultimately putting them over and helping to turn them into bigger stars. No more idiotic, counter productive bull@#$%, like Jeff Jarret tapping out Samoa Joe with his own freaking submission hold, thus forever destroying any mystique Joe's character had left.

Maybe this would eventually turn said young talents into ratings draws and maybe it wouldn't. But at least it would be doing SOMETHING. At least it would be an attempt to build the company's future. At least it would be some kind of effort on their part to prepare for the day when those established stars are no longer there to keep iMPACT's ratings in the black.

And that day is going to come. Do you want them to be ready when it does, or not?

iMPACT WRESTLING 8/25/11

2011-08-31T19:35:00.000-04:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 8/18/11

2011-08-19T23:29:00.000-04:00

The title = power... because they say so?

2011-08-18T18:03:00.001-04:00

At Hardcore Justice, in just the latest in this company's never-ending series of Russorific swerves, Kurt Angle nailed Sting with a chair and won the world title. The following Thursday, Angle cited Dixie Carter lying to him about Jeff & Karen's affair as the reason and aligned himself with Hulk Hogan.

Afterward, I was venting my spleen in the comment section of TNAsylum about how this heel turn made no sense whatsoever (which it didn't), and came across a particular post that got me thinking. The post was about how Hogan and Immortal got Angle on their team because they needed the power the world title brings.

Power? Um... what power?

People in this company seem to be constantly saying that the world title means power, that whoever has the world title has all the power, but they've never really explained that in any way. In fact, if you think about this for a minute, since the Immortal storyline began last year, when has being the world champion afforded anyone any real power? It hasn't. It's just been a lot of meaningless talk.

And this becomes even more confusing when you consider that there have been several storylines within the Immortal takeover angle that have been directly about the importance of the world title and the "power" it brings to whoever has it.

First, there was a hilariously bad and ineptly executed storyline about Dixie Carter taking legal action against Hogan & Bischoff, and Immortal needing all the championships in the company because they believed this would somehow give them the "power" they needed to fend off Dixie's lawyers.

For a minute, let's just try to forget about the fact that every human being on the planet who is not functionally retarded knows this is not how the justice system works. Instead, let's look at how this played out. For weeks, Hogan & Bischoff were drilling into their goon squad that they needed every championship in the company by a certain date or Dixie's lawyers were going to eat them alive. And what happened? That date passed and Ken Anderson was still the world champion. Immortal was without the world title, the most important piece of the puzzle, the championship they needed above all others in order the save them from the legal team bearing down on them.

And what happened next? NOTHING!

The fact that they didn't have the world title in their faction turned out to have absolutely no bearing on anything that happened next. Despite Hogan & Bischoff's crime being committed on national television with millions of people watching it, Dixie lost the court battle, the judge, throwing logic and common sense to the wind, ruled in favor of heels, and they continued on as if nothing had happened.

Next, Sting came back, immediately winning the world title from Jeff Hardy, who had just won it from Ken Anderson. Following this, Sting would often say that him being the world champion meant that he was the last line of defense against Immortal because the world title gave him power and that power was going to help him take the company back, or something to that effect.

Once again, the writers never even tried to explain this. How did the world championship give Sting power? What kind of power? Power to do what? If he had all this supposed power, why didn't he use it to actually, you know, DO something?

Because it was bullcrap. That's why.

When Sting (or anyone else for that matter) was the world champion, did he have any special privileges that he didn't have before? No. Could he veto decisions made by Hogan or Bischoff? No. Could he hire or fire people? No. Could he choose when and where he defended the title? No. Did being the world champion give Sting any significant leverage against Immortal like he claimed it did? No. Could he do anything with the title that he couldn't have done without it? No.

There was one instance in which Sting had the power to choose who he defended the belt against, but that was a right bequeathed to him by the Network, not something that came hand-in-hand with being the champion, and this power was exorcized exactly one time and then was never mentioned again.

Even though he was the world champion, Sting still had to compete in matches when Hogan & Bischoff said so, still had to defend the title when Hogan & Bischoff said so like any other employee unless the Network intervened.

So even though they're constantly saying that the world title means power, all the storylines have shown us that, in fact, the exact opposite is true. At this point, instead of the world title, you might as well call it the MacGuffin title, because that's basically what it's become. And why stop there? Since the writers have been on this stealing-ideas-from-movies kick lately, why not go one step further, take a page from James Cameron's book and call it the Unobtainium title?

All kidding aside, can we please end this ridiculousness about the world title coming with any sort of "power" when it's so obviously BS? The world title didn't give Sting any power to take the company back when he had it. It didn't give Immortal any power to keep the company when they had it. It doesn't give Kurt Angle any power to prevent Dixie Carter from getting the company back now that he has it. It doesn't give you the power to walk on water or turn dog crap into gold. It certainly doesn't have the power to change the whims of a federal judge.

That supposed "power" doesn't exist. In fact, from what I can see, the only one with any real power to do anything in this situation, one way or the other, is the plot device... oops, I mean the Network, because apparently everyone on the show, including Hogan, Bischoff, Immortal and whoever else, has to do whatever the Network wants whether they have the world title or not.

What happened to the world title having prestige simply because it's, you know, the world title, and being the world champion means that you're the best in the business? Was there something wrong with that? Was that too simple? Was that not entertaining enough? Why can't the title be important for the reasons titles are supposed to be important?

Oh yeah, because this show is written by a man who thinks championships are nothing but meaningless props. I guess that's how Eric Young has been able to go months without defending the TV title and hasn't been stripped of it yet.

Too bad, Stinger. If you'd just gone out to Hollywood and gotten into a fight with a Z-list celebrity like EY did instead of defending the title like a self-respecting champion should, you would never have lost it to Kurt Angle in the first place.

Not that still having the title would give you any "power", or make any kind of difference whatsoever really. But, hey, I suppose it would've looked nice on your coffee table or something.

Mark Out Moments 03

2011-08-16T20:28:00.001-04:00

CM Punk explains why he came back and takes a shot at the status quo

Beth Phoenix gives Kelly Kelly what she deserves... finally

CM Punk PWNS Triple H

CM Punk PWNS contract signings, John Cena, Triple H AND Johnny Ace

Mickie James embarrasses Madison Rayne again

If it's broke... fix it

2011-08-15T16:17:00.003-04:00

Let's face it, TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING isn't perfect. Far from it. The problems are glaring and numerous. The booking, advertising, PPVs, etc. -- all incredibly flawed, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. But more frustrating than the flaws themselves is the company's inability, or often their refusal, to do anything about them.

That's not always the case, however. There are (rare) occasions when company officials recognize a key weakness in the product and do what they can to correct it. This doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but it does happen. The most recent example of this is the X-division.

About every 6 months for the last several years, the company has issued a statement that they were planning to "refocus on the X-division" or "return the X-division to the forefront" or something else to that effect. Every single time it turned out to be a pack of lies and the X-division continued to be an afterthought.

However, something seemed to change recently. With Destination-X being an X-division exclusive PPV, the company actually gave the X-division the spotlight for once, and the result was easily the best PPV they've produced since Hogan & Bischoff showed up. Granted, that isn't saying very much, but still...

Since then, we've seen an increase in the amount of time devoted to the X-division on TV. While their screen time is still comparatively small when you consider how much is devoted to other things, the X guys have had more match time and promo time lately, and that's a big step in the right direction.

Then came the announcement that the company was looking to hire several new talents in an effort to rebuild the X-division roster with fresh faces following several departures in the last few months. Said fresh faces have already debuted at the latest TV tapings, so company officials aren't dragging their feet on making good on their promise this time. I don't know why they couldn't have done this several years ago, but better late than never. Judging from the spoilers, I'm quite pleased with how things seem to be going. The company saw there was a problem and they took steps to fix it.

But that isn't the only problem they need to consider. Aside from the usual horrible booking and the Sting/Joker nonsense, IMO there are 3 key weaknesses in the television product at the moment, and unfortunately, each one has to do with something TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING is quite fond of boasting about.

1. The X-division -- this is being addressed thankfully.
2. The tag team division.
3. The Knockout division.

"TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING has the best tag team division in the world."

How often do we hear someone say this? Pretty much every week. The problem is it's not really true anymore. Let's be clear on something -- until this year, the company did have a good argument for their tag team division being the best in the business, but that was pretty much entirely because of 2 reasons: Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns. Those guys do tag team wrestling better than any other teams they've got and better than just about any other team in the business I could name. The problem is that none of the other current teams in the company are on their level, meaning that without Beer Money and the Guns, this tag division sucks.

Why do you think the tag division was so great last year? Because it was built around the 2 best teams they had. It was because the MCMG were awesome champions, who actually had a well-booked title reign with several great feuds. But once they lost the belts, things changed pretty quickly.

Even with Beer Money as the champs, look at how much this division has declined since the Guns were taken off the table due to injuries. That's no coincidence. Then there's the issue of Beer Money becoming less involved in the tag division as they've grown more focused on other things, and with an impending split on the horizon for Storm & Roode, things are about to get a whole lot worse.

The Guns will be back eventually when Sabin returns from his knee injury, but until then this company has a problem on its hands, because without the Guns, without Beer Money, it leaves them with very little to work with as far as tag teams are concerned. There's the British Invasion and Ink Inc (when Jesse Neal returns from his injury. Sensing a pattern here?), who are generally solid teams with a fanbase, and then there's Mexican America, who are terrible. And that's pretty much it.

All due respect to the Brits and the mohawk boys, but that's not going to carry a division, especially not if the insufferable Hernandez/Anarquia continue to get pushed. You never know when those 2 careless pricks will injure someone else in the ring.

Something needs to be done to fix this. What puzzles me is why the company hasn't realized that yet, since they seem to be so adamant that they want a strong tag division.

There's a number of ways they could remedy this issue:

-Since it doesn't look like either guy will be getting a main event push in the near future, they could reform the AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels tag team, or maybe pair one of them with Kazarian. In fact, all things considered, that would probably be the best option.

-Another possibility that seems to have a lot of support is pairing up new signees Tony Nese & Jesse Sorensen. Sure, they're new and being put in the X-division right now, but they displayed good chemistry in their Destination-X qualifier with Jack Evans last month and there's enough new X-division talent debuting soon that they could be a lot more useful as a team, at least in the short term.

-I still think they could get some legit mileage out of James Storm & Alex Shelley.

-If they felt like looking outside the company for new tag teams, they could give Los Ben Dejos a shot. Admittedly, I've never seen those 2 in the ring, so I don't know what kind of workers they are, but they've had more than one tryout, and while they haven't been signed yet, officials seem to like them enough to periodically bring them back for another look.

-Or, if you were looking for ready-made tag teams that don't need any development and are good to go right now, you could take a look at ROH. Though, with them scoring their new TV deal, they're probably locking their talent into longer term contracts now, so that might not be a viable option at this point.

So that right there gives you a number of options to keep your tag division interesting until Chris Sabin is healthy and the Machine Guns can reform.

The Knockout division is a bit different. At least with the tag and X-divisions there are fresh feuds you can create. With the Knockouts that's going to be harder because the main problem with the women's division is that it's become stale due to the fact that it's essentially been the same women in the same spots, feuding with the same people for a long damn time now.

Mickie James is currently feuding with Winter, who she already had a lackluster feud with in the last company they worked for. Velvet Sky is feuding with ODB, as if we haven't seen that about 10,000 times already. And I swear, this thing with Madison Rayne and Tara feels like it's been going on since time began.

Much like with the X-division, the only real way to fix this is to make roster changes. In this case, both cuts and additions need to be made.

A few months ago, company officials finally seemed to realize how spare the Knockout roster had become in the last year and decided to remedy the problem, not by signing some of the numerous independent talents they had given tryouts to, but by bringing back ODB and Jackie Moore. This has only made the problem worse.

There were good reasons why TNA stopped using these women in the first place. With Jackie it was because her time in the company had simply run its course. The fact that she's pushing 50 probably had something to do with it too. With ODB, it seemed the writers had simply run out of ideas for her, which is not hard to imagine since her character is painfully one-note. As a face, she's a foul-mouthed funny drunk, as a heel, she's a foul-mouthed angry drunk; that's pretty much all she's got. There really isn't a huge variety of things you can do with a character like that. Eventually they just stopped using her and she asked for her release, citing unhappiness with the direction the division had taken. Though, to be fair, I can hardly blame her for that; the lockbox challenge angle easily ranks among the stupidest things this company has ever done.

Let me spell this out for you, if the creative team had exhausted all good story possibilities for these characters the last time they were on the payroll, bringing them back was probably not going to solve anything. And it hasn't.

What happened when they came back? They were put in a feud with Velvet Sky. Good grief, how many freaking times have we seen ODB feud with Velvet Sky?! I don't care if the face/heel roles are reversed this time -- that doesn't make this interesting and it doesn't mean they're suddenly going to start producing good matches together either. Couldn't they just feud with Sarita & Rosita instead? At least that would be something we haven't seen before.

But the roster of women is only part of the problem. The more obvious problem is, unsurprisingly, the creative end. Simply put, the storylines suck, the feuds are repetitive and go on far longer than they should, and they've got too many of the wrong people in the wrong spots.

Madison Rayne, the second worst female worker on the roster, was at the top of the division for an entire year despite the fact that she never delivered a single match worth talking about and never got over AT ALL. Her feud with Mickie James was dragged out for so long that the finish ended up feeling very anticlimactic because there wasn't a worthy payoff after months and months of build up. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly satisfying to see Madison get beat in humiliating fashion at Lockdown, but they never had any good matches prior to that and the title change was met with dead silence from the live audience due to the fact that Madison had been the most ineffective heel champion in any company in recent memory and had never gotten over despite getting pushed to the moon for a year straight.

And what did the creative team do now that they had Mickie James, the most popular female performer in the industry as the Knockouts champion? They put her in the back seat so she could play second fiddle to Velvet Sky, the only female worker they have that is actually worse than Madison Rayne.

Yeah... I don't get it either.

While that was going on, Madison continued to feud with Tara, and in fact, is STILL feuding with Tara, as if that program hadn't gotten stale ages ago. And as for Mickie's current program with Winter, while it may be a fresh feud in TNA, the problem is that we already saw them feud in WWE, in a rivalry that I don't think made very many people anxious for a repeat performance.

And let us not forget the worst offense in all this. Perhaps the biggest potential angle that could have possibly been done in the Knockout division was the breakup of the Beautiful People. Velvet & Angelina had been partners for years. They'd been together in a very prominent stable for so long that a breakup could have been, and for all intents and purposes should have been huge, if done right.

This breakup practically wrote itself. It could have been because Velvet was tired of always being in Angelina's shadow, or because Angelina was tired of Velvet holding her back. You know, real reasons, tangible reasons that had some weight to them and would actually resonate with the audience. It was so incredibly simple.

Instead, they broke up when Winter turned Angelina into a drugged-out zombie because she believed her and Angelina were lovers in a past life.

That's right... the Beautiful People broke up because of a time traveling lesbians angle.

Wow...

So, yeah, the Knockout division isn't exactly the best it's ever been at the moment.

I could go on. I could talk about the ridiculous notion of pushing Velvet Sky as a top babyface and why it's completely ludicrous, but I've already covered that ad nauseam in the weekly iMPACT reviews. Instead, I'm going to propose a hypothetical storyline that I think could solve just about all the problems with this division right now -- the lack of fresh talent, the stale feuds, the boring storylines -- all in one angle.

We'll give them some time to wrap up all the current storylines and begin this on the first show after Bound For Glory. All the Knockouts are told to gather in the ring, but they aren't told why. This includes, Jackie, ODB and Traci, as I'm assuming they're going to be back on the roster officially by this time. Once all of them are assembled in the ring, some unfamiliar music hits the loudspeaker, the house lights go out and 5 women appear on the stage under a spotlight. It doesn't really matter who these new arrivals are, but since it's my blog, I'll say they're independent wrestlers, Jennifer Blake, Serena Deeb, Athena, Portia Perez and Nicole Matthews.

These 5 women enter the ring and the production is giving them the superstar treatment. They've got custom-made ring gear, kick-ass music, a great entrance with lights, lasers, everything.

The Knockouts what to know what this is all about. Athena tells them that the Network was pleased with the company's efforts to rebuild the X-division and now it's turning its attention to the next item on the agenda, and that's the Knockout division. She says they all like to boast about how TNA/iMPACT WRESTLING has the best women's division in the business, but the Network doesn't see it that way anymore. In fact, the Network thinks that the Knockouts have become kind of boring. The Network has gotten tired of seeing the same women having the same matches every single week, and they're sick of waiting for company officials to get off their butts and do something about this, and that's where the 5 of them come in. They're here to figure out which members of the current Knockout roster aren't pulling their weight, to cut the cord on them and take their place.

Velvet Sky says this is a load of crap. The Knockouts may not all get along, in fact, a lot of them flat out hate each other, but they've all earned the right to be there and they're not going to just stand aside while 5 poseurs waltz in off the street and try to take their jobs.

Cutting her off, Jennifer says that, unfortunately for all of them, that's exactly what's going to happen.

Madison Rayne then speaks up, saying that for the first time in her life, she actually agrees with Velvet. She says these new girls are talking pretty tough considering there's only 5 of them and a whole lot more on the home team. She asks what's to stop the Knockouts from taking them apart right now and sending them home in pieces.

Serena asks Madison if she's been listening to a single word they said. They're here because the Network wants them here. The Network doesn't feel the same way about the current Knockouts anymore. If they think they all deserve to be there, they're going to have to prove it.

This would kick off a storyline which would involve all the Knockouts having to put aside their past differences and rivalries, and band together against a common enemy. A series of matches would follow where the Knockouts would be pitted against these 5 newcomers, with their performances determining which of them would get to keep their jobs and which of them would be replaced.

So the Knockouts would all have to become a team to drive these women back. They think that by doing this, none of them will be fired. But these new women prove to be formidable opponents and can't be beaten easily. The more talented Knockouts or those who have more to offer are deemed safe, so their spots on the roster are not in danger and some of the new women are out of luck. Eventually, though, not all of them make the cut, and the field is narrowed down until the Network decides that ODB, Jackie and Madison Rayne are on the bubble. They are given one final chance to prove themselves, and this leads to a 6-person tag match on PPV where they are ultimately defeated.

ODB, Jackie and Madison Rayne are then cut from the roster. They are replaced by 3 of the new arrivals -- which 3 doesn't really matter here as any of them would be fine additions IMO. Let's just say it's the 3 that have gotten over the most.

I've made no secret of the fact that I thought bringing back ODB and Jackie Moore was pointless. Like many veterans who are getting on in years, Jackie would be better served in a backstage role at this point, and the novelty of ODB's character had worn off long before her last run in this company came to an end.

And don't even get me started on Madison Rayne again. I've been over this and over this so many times, and there is nothing anyone can say that's going to convince me this woman is worth keeping around. After the interminable, mammoth push she received, she has virtually nothing to show for it. She doesn't deliver good matches, every single promo she cuts sounds like she's doing a cheap Vickie Guerrero impression and (I know I sound like a broken record by now, but...) she still has not managed to get over in the slightest. The Madison Rayne experiment has failed. The @#$%ing end.

So 3 of the current Knockouts are now gone, replaced by 3 women from the indies who have much more to offer. The Network decides that it's satisfied with the changes and steps back, leaving a radically different Knockout landscape where, as a result of them all teaming up against the newcomers, the face/heel roles have now been rebooted. Essentially, they were all faces against the women the Network brought in -- now that the ordeal is finished, some of them can remain faces when they weren't before, others can turn heel when they weren't before, new alliances, partnerships and character dynamics that didn't exist previously now factor into storylines, etc.

And that's just with the existing roster. Once you add in the 3 new talents, you have a very different talent pool that offers many new story possibilities and match ups that you didn't have before, giving you a division that IMO would be FAR more interesting.

When you think about it, this is really not that much different than what just happened with the X-division. A bunch of people left and they were replaced with new talent. The only difference is this way you make a story out of it.

Would these suggestions solve all the problems with the product right now? Of course not. Problems will continue to arise as long as the current creative regime is still writing the show. But this would at least make the product more interesting than what we currently have as far as I'm concerned.

iMPACT WRESTLING 8/11/11

2011-08-13T21:33:00.000-04:00

iMPACT WRESTLING 8/04/11

2011-08-06T01:37:00.000-04:00

Mark Out Moments 02

2011-08-03T16:38:00.001-04:00

CM Punk PWNS Vince McMahon

Cena then tries to PWN Punk... and fails

Wade Barrett tries to belittle Daniel Bryan and Bryan makes him tap

Mickie James embarrasses Madison Rayne, exposing her for the joke of a champion she always was

Sara Del Rey brutalizes Claudio Castagnoli

iMPACT WRESTLING 7/28/11

2011-07-31T00:45:00.000-04:00

Mark Out Moments 01

2011-07-28T15:20:00.001-04:00

Cristian wins the WWE world heavyweight title

Austin Aires qualifies for Destination-X

Low Ki qualifies for Destination-X

Jack Evans qualifies for Destination-X

CM Punk shoots on Cena and WWE

CM Punk crashes ComiCon and PWNS Triple H

Daniel Bryan wins Money In The Bank...

...and announces when he plans to cash it in

Longer version

Skip to 11:04

CM Punk returns to save the boring-ass show Raw had become without him

iMPACT WRESTLING 7/21/11

2011-07-24T01:22:00.000-04:00

Do we look like a company with a plan?

2011-07-22T09:00:00.035-04:00

If you've been watching iMPACT WRESTLING in recent weeks, you've seen their latest attempt to create a compelling story start with a genuinely intriguing angle in Hogan's office, and quickly devolve into a blatant and shameless ripoff of a much better story told by someone else.

This angle involved making up Sting like a Batman villain as they were portrayed in the Dark Knight and having him do a Joker imitation so hammy and over the top, that I'm left to wonder how it even made it on the air.

Skip to 2:13

Memo to Sting: Heath Ledger was an Oscar winning actor. You are not Heath Ledger.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Vince Russo, in just the latest example proving that he is completely out of original ideas, has begun, not only ripping off characters from the Dark Knight, but blatantly stealing actual scenes from the Dark Knight.

Skip to 10:35

Memo to Vince Russo: Christopher Nolan is a brilliant storyteller and filmmaker. You are not Christopher Nolan.

And by the way... the Dark Knight? That movie came out 3 years ago. Way to stay current, TNA.

Skip to 13:41

Skip to 3:24

Yes, the Dark Knight was a great movie. I should know; I saw it. Hell, everyone on the damn planet saw it. It's one of the biggest movies of all time. But that only makes TNA's act of lifting ideas directly from it all the more vexing. Did TNA creative honestly not think for one second that the audience wouldn't see right through this? An homage is one thing, but there's homage and then there's outright theft. Guess which one these people are doing...

Skip to 2:50

The more I try to understand this, the less sense it makes. This company seems to want to go in a more reality-based direction with most of their angles. Hogan himself says at every opportunity that TNA is, "All about shooting, bother." So why then are they doing an angle like this -- an angle directly and very sloppily stolen from a fictional movie the entire audience has seen -- an angle so damn silly it's impossible to even take it seriously?

Skip to 9:31

Is their intent to parody the Dark Knight? To mock it? If so, then why? For what purpose?

Is their intent to garner fan interest by acting out scenes from the movie? If so, they're a little late to the party. That might have worked if it were being executed by a competent writer back when there was still a buzz about the movie. You know, when it first came out. In 2008.

It's not like this is a minor storyline that doesn't receive a ton of attention like the Eric Young/TV title situation (and don't even get me started on that garbage). This is the MAIN EVENT angle, the story the entire show is built around. Which means that while the WWE is actually doing something interesting and compelling for a change with their CM Punk angle, TNA is presenting a very outdated, poorly written copy of a movie that most of the fans probably have a greater attachment to than TNA itself.

TNA, stuff like this is why people laugh at you. If you're going to steal story ideas from one of the most successful movies ever made, at least have the courtesy to do it well.

The really ironic thing here is that TNA and Vince Russo have been so busy taking things from this movie for their own use in this very contrived and frankly cheesy angle, that they've failed to realize that the answer to their seemingly never-ending creative dilemmas can be found, not only in the movie itself, but in the very character they've been ripping off.

That answer, my friends, is in one of the Joker's brilliant monologues -- the one from the hospital scene with Harvey Dent to be precise.

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. I just do things."

I'm looking at you, Vince Russo! If this ill-conceived Immortal takeover angle has proven anything, it's that Vinnie Ru's time is long since up. He's done the exact same thing he tried (and failed) to do with the Main Event Mafia angle -- craft a story spanning an entire year -- and he's run into the exact same problems, plus a few more. Story developments make no sense (just listing them would take hours), characters' actions make no sense, mini-angles within the overarching story are started and then scrapped with no explanation, and it's gone off in so many different directions that it's become impossible to care what happens because ultimately very little of it actually matters.

"The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon's got plans. They're schemers, schemers trying to control their little worlds. I'm not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. It's the schemers that put you where you are. You were a schemer, you had plans, and look where that got you."

Again, he might as well be talking directly to Russo. I don't know what kind of story plans Russo made before attempting an angle as long as this, or if he even made them at all. But I'll tell you this: if he had a plan, then he needs to get a new plan, because his plan sucks. This entire angle from the very beginning has been so damn schizophrenic, I have no earthly clue how he could have possibly mapped all this out and had it make any coherent sense to anyone, because it sure as hell hasn't made any in hindsight.

Granted, certain things happened that they didn't expect, which caused them to change directions. They planned for the Main Event Mafia to return, and that didn't happen (THANK GOD). For reasons I will never understand if I live to be 100, they planned for Jeff Hardy to be their top heel, counting on him to NOT be an unreliable screw-up for a change, and that didn't happen (no surprises there). But you know what? That's why you have a Plan B.

Considering how long Russo has been doing this, you'd think he would have learned by now how quickly things can change, how stories sometimes have to be altered at the drop of a hat to account for unforeseen events, be it wrestlers getting injured, certain angles not getting over the way they were expected to, people with a verbal agreement to return to the company deciding to go to WWE instead because they only care about the money, or your world champion, who has a history of substance abuse and is on trial for drug trafficking, getting stoned in the bathroom just minutes before he's supposed to headline your damn PPV.

I'm sorry, but you do not plan for a group from the past to come back and feud with your top heel faction without getting those people locked into contracts first unless you know exactly what you're going to do creatively if that doesn't happen (the Fortune face turn was obviously an unplanned last minute decision). And you DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, put a flake like Jeff Hardy in ANY kind of critical position unless you have a Plan B in place, ready to be implemented at a moment's notice. And if Russo didn't come up with a Plan B the second after the decision was made to put the world title on Hardy last year, then he's a damn fool.

So either Russo never had any real plan for this Immortal storyline and he's just been winging it for the better part of a year now, or he did have a plan, but he couldn't stick to it because he has the attention span of a 4-year-old.

Tell us, Vince, which one is it?

"You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan... even if the plan is horrifying."

In this case, the "plan" is the same one this company has had for years now: push the aging, past-his-prime, Sting like he's God's gift to everything, sacrificing the viability of numerous younger, more marketable, more relevant stars to do so.

So, TNA, how has this been working out for you? Sure, the segments Sting appears in tend to draw good viewership, but if THAT is all the push that would not end has amounted to, then it has been nothing but a colossal failure.

Has Sting increased the viewership of your show as a whole in any significant way? No. Typically, the people who tune in to see him don't stick around for anything else you're offering.

Have you used Sting to create any new stars? No. You've tried once or twice, but you've ruined it every time. No one even remembers now that Sting "passed the torch" to AJ Styles at Bound for Glory 2009, because Sting has since taken the torch back. No one really cares that Gunner pinned Sting on a recent episode of iMPACT WRESTLING because virtually no attention was payed to it, it wasn't played up in any kind of meaningful way, it was never followed up on and was quickly forgotten. Etc, etc...

Have you used Sting to build your company's future in any way? No. Countless opportunities to elevate your young talent have been cast aside in favor of going back to the well with this guy over and over and over again. If anything, the way you've been using him has been holding your company back, preventing it from moving forward, because you absolutely refuse to let go of the Sting security blanket.

"Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos? It's fair."

Yeah. No need to explain this metaphor, is there? The established order doesn't work. Russo, Conway, Bischoff, Hogan, or whatever bloated amalgam of people is responsible for what gets on TV -- it does not work. The Immortal angle is a mess. An absolute mess. From day one it's been a mess and it only seems to be getting worse. There have been moments here and there that were entertaining, but overall, this whole thing amounts to an angle TNA should be embarrassed by, as I would be in their place.

This is a storyline that desperately needed to be executed by someone with a much greater eye for detail, story, character and simple common sense than this creative team possesses. And they need someone with a fresh perspective, someone who doesn't think in the way this company has become accustomed to thinking, or this is never going to change.

You think having Sting cosplay as the Joker and act out scenes from a movie that was last in theaters 3 years ago makes you a good writer? It doesn't. It makes you out of touch, unoriginal and lazy.

We've all seen the Dark Knight. Let us not forget that, yes, the Joker may have been batshit crazy, but underneath it all, there was indeed a method to his madness.

But there is no method to the Immortal takeover storyline or the Sting/Joker character. It's just a bunch of @#$%ing craziness.

Destination-X 2011 & iMPACT WRESTLING 7/14/11

2011-07-16T00:10:00.000-04:00

Horrible Bosses in 5 seconds & iMPACT WRESTLING 7/07/11

2011-07-11T17:07:00.001-04:00

Jack Mother f'n Evans

2011-07-11T17:06:00.000-04:00

iMPACT Wrestling - 7/7/11 Part 4 (HQ) by T-Tvideos

TKO Season 1 Wrap Up

2011-07-07T10:00:00.001-04:00

I'd like to thank everyone who read and responded to TKO Season 1. What started as a side project born out of my frustration with TNA's booking of the Knockout division seemed to take on a life of its own after a while and I'm very pleased with how the whole thing turned out.

When I started this little opus several months ago, I never imagined it would be as long and detailed as it became. My intention was just to write a commentary on TNA's ineffective booking practices and give examples of, not just the kind of booking I'd like to see them employ with the Knockouts, but how to utilize their roster more effectively than they currently are, and how to introduce and create new stars rather than continuing to rely on past Knockouts and former WWE Divas to fill out the roster. If nothing else, I hope I succeed in that much at least.

In terms of booking, I wanted everything to be grounded in reality, rooted in real issues that would resonate with the audience. I feel this was best demonstrated with the the Beautiful People storyline. The Velvet/Angelina split happened due to underlying issues that had been there since the day these women walked into the company. Angelina was always seen as the better of the 2 and the booking of them reflected that for years. Velvet's feud with Sarita on iMPACT signified that she was growing tired of this and wanted to accomplish something on her own for a change. From there, it was simply a matter of delving deeper into those issues, examining and deconstructing them, so when Velvet finally turned on Angelina, there was a real weight to it.

I don't know about any of you, but I consider this a far more effective and meaningful way of splitting up TBP than the time traveling lesbians angle where Angelina is coerced into betraying Velvet and turned into a drugged-out zombie by Winter because Winter thinks they were lovers in a past life. Seriously, what on earth were the writers smoking when they decided that schlock was a good idea?

Another problem is the lack of focus. On any show booked by Vince Russo you're going to run into this problem. The guy must have some serious ADD because he can't seem to keep his attention on any one story for very long, and the stories that actually are developed over long periods of time often end up constantly changing direction (ex. the Immortal takeover), having little to no consistency, or get mysteriously dropped with no explanation.

For a perfect example of this, look no further than Velvet Sky. In just 2011 alone, this woman has feuded with Sarita, Angelina, Winter, Karen Jarrett, and now ODB & Jackie Moore. Were ANY of these feuds ever resolved? Was there ever any kind of payoff? I honestly don't know. Every story just seems to bleed into another and just when you think one feud is over, they revisit it.

This applies to pretty much every Knockout storyline. The only recent one that seemed to have a beginning, middle, end and a clear conclusion was the Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne/Tara feud, and even that one suffered from being dragged out way too damn long.

My solution to this was the 'umbrella angle' -- one central story that the entire show was built around. In this case, the main through line of season 1 was the growing conflict between Mickie and Traci, and the ripple effect it caused, which slowly encompassed everything else. I introduced the story, added new layers over time, and payed it off in the season finale. Yes, it ended on a cliffhanger, but the central mystery driving the story forward (what's Traci really up to?) was resolved in a way that was hopefully satisfying to everyone and would open up many new story possibilities in the future with a shaken up status quo. All other stories were secondary to this, but instead of being treated as such, they were gradually incorporated into it so that everything tied together in the finale episode, putting a period at the end of several current feuds, while opening up new ones.

And please note, the inciting incident was actually pretty mundane in its simplicity. Traci was fired from TNA, which caused her to change her mindset about what she was doing and her place in the business. One comment from a reader really summed it up perfectly: she got her foot back in the door by remaking herself into a female Eric Bischoff. And this, in turn, motivated everything she did. She needed the show to be a success, and therefore orchestrated events and created conflict where none would have otherwise existed for no other reason than to get people watching. As she explained to Mickie in Ep. #17, it was always just about business. She had her Ahab in Mickie James, and she made herself the white whale because the chase is what she believed was going to draw people in.

Now compare this to the Winter/Angelina storyline we're seeing on iMPACT WRESTLING. This thing has been going on for the better part of a year now, with no end in site, and very little has actually happened. We still know virtually nothing about Winter, where she came from, why she's really obsessed with Angelina (anyone buying into that past lives crap needs a CAT scan), how she was able to seemingly teleport in and out of rooms so only Angelina could see her when she first debuted, and so on, and so on. The whole thing is a mess!

Another issue I wanted to address was the business of putting people in spots they weren't suited for. Madison Rayne's year-long run as the top Knockout heel was absolutely intolerable because when you got right down to it, the woman was a glorified midcarder who just couldn't perform at the level she had been pushed to, and it showed. They took a 5 ft, 100 lb woman of mediocre (at best) talent and pushed her like some unbeatable force when she obviously couldn't pull this off convincingly in any way.

Velvet Sky is currently having the same problem. While Velvet does have Madison beat in the charisma department, she's barely serviceable in the ring, and yet she's constantly booked to carry the action of her matches, which makes her matches consistently bad. Her series of matches with Sarita would have been infinitely better if Sarita had been booked to dictate the action instead of the other way around, but that's not what happened. The way the matches were laid out by the agents, Velvet was tasked with carrying them, which made them all universally underwhelming.

This can be said about a lot of the women on the roster. When you don't book someone to their strengths, even the best of performers can be made to look bad. Hell, the entire first year of Tara's run in the company I thought was pretty lousy, simply because she was being booked all wrong. What else did people expect when they took a woman who was supposed to be a huge badass and had her burst into tears because ODB called her a Diva?

For this series, I really wanted to address this by putting everyone in roles they were more suited for. Velvet Sky is not a good wrestler, but she is a good actor and talker, so her role called for her to do more acting and talking than wrestling. And when she did wrestle, she lost -- but not for nothing, as the fact that she kept losing was part of her whole character arc.

Similarly, Madison Rayne is not a good wrestler, so she was quickly removed from the top heel spot and put in a supporting role intended to ultimately vindicate Tara and put over the far more talented newcomer, Jennifer Blake (Jennifer Blade). Elsewhere, Sarita and Winter had their gimmicks tweaked so they would no longer be hindered in the ring and were gradually elevated into a dominant heel position.

As I've said many times before, the Knoockout division was at its best when it spotlighted the best wrestlers and used the rest as cannon fodder, and that's what happened with TKO. The season ended with Mickie, Tara, Sarita, Winter and Jennifer Blake in the top mix, with others such as Christina Von Eerie and Serena Deeb ready to be rotated in when the time was right.

Also, Daffney was booked as a force for a change because, damn it, TNA dropped the ball with that woman!

And finally, another important issue I wanted to cover was the effective introduction and creation of new talent rather than relying on already established names. Last year saw many departures from the Knockout roster and several additions as well, and with only one exception, all the new additions were people we were already very familiar with. While this wasn't a bad thing in every case (signing Mickie James was a huge deal), familiarity doesn't exactly breed freshness.

There was a recent episode of iMPACT WRESTLING that featured a 6-woman tag team elimination match, and watching this thing, it dawned on me that 4 of the 6 women involved were former WWE Divas. Then there's Velvet Sky's current storyline which, rather than introducing new faces to give the division a badly needed fresh coat of paint, inexplicably called for the return of 2 clearly unmotivated former Knockouts in ODB and Jackie Moore.

Where is all the new talent? TNA has tried out numerous women from the indies over the past year, many of whom would be terrific additions to the roster, and instead of bringing in people like Serena Deeb and Jennifer Blake to feud with Velvet, they go with a 47-year-old Jackie Moore and ODB, a woman whose character was beyond stale at the end of her last run and asked for her release from the company a year ago because she hated the direction the Knockout division had taken. Rather than take a chance on exciting potential new stars, they brought back 2 irrelevant former stars, presumably for the sake of familiarity.

Why? Why, when there seems to be such a concentrated effort within the company to create new stars (ex. Crimson, Gunner) are they so hesitant to do so with the Knockouts? The one and only new addition to the roster that I hadn't been familiar with prior to her debut was Rosita. And that's better than nothing, I suppose, but she's been on the roster for months now and I still know absolutely nothing about her other than that she's Sarita's kayfabe cousin.

All that in mind, one of the main purposes of TKO was to demonstrate how TNA could introduce new stars rather than relying on people who were previously known in this company or the WWE. This is why all the new characters I brought in were women who had received recent tryout matches. If TNA wasn't going to use them, I wanted to show how I would use them. I tried to give every new girl a character and a storyline, and within 17 episodes of this fictional series, I feel like myself and readers alike got to know far more about Jennifer Blade, Serafina and Trina Diaz than we have about Rosita after months of her being on television.

Anyway, all patting myself on the back aside, now that season 1 is complete, I hope it will stand as a good example of the kind of booking and stories I'd like to see more of in the Knockout division, rather than what we currently get. And I honestly don't think it's that complicated. All it really comes down to is paying more attention to detail, realism, story and character. Unfortunately, such things seem to be beyond the current creative team.

And for those who have asked about season 2, it's up in the air right now. Whether or not I write season 2 will be determined by reader feedback and if I think I could make it as good or better than season 1. Also, if I would have the hours in the day to do it; writing season 1 was a labor of love, but it was very time-consuming process.

The finale was written the way it was to mirror reality. If the fans wanted more, Traci urged them to let SpikeTV know about it. This is the same position I'm in now.

If you enjoy TKO and want a season 2, let me know about it. If not, then hopefully some of the points I tried to make with this series have at least made you think, and isn't that the most important thing anyway?

Thanks for reading.

Peace. Out.