High Road/Low Road 01.29.10: Ken Anderson In TNA

Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road!

A brief explanation of the column: Sat takes the High Road (positive view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related “stuff” while Chad Nevett takes the Low Road (negative view).

Results for TNA Getting Rid Of The Six Sided Ring:

High Road: 23%
Low Road: 54%
Both Roads: 23%

Chad Nevett: I was expecting the Low Roads to take this one. Also, I made a mistake regarding when TNA introduced the six-sided ring. Since I haven’t been watching TNA for much longer than a year or so (with the odd viewing before that here and there), I looked it up on Wikipedia, which wasn’t clear and implied that the ring had been around since the company’s inception. My mistake.

Sat: I also thought the low roads would win. I think that this is a both roads though because I like the new ring, but the way the new ring was introduced was a mistake

Ken Anderson In TNA

High Road:

TNA always has some huge announcements for us. Sometimes they are huge announcements, but generally they are a disappointment. This huge announcement however was just that. I look at this signing and I think that this will be a huge success because I see Ken Anderson winning the TNA World Title in his career with TNA.

Low Road:

The hype leading to this announcement made Anderson’s debut anticlimactic. Does anyone really believe that he can come in and win the world title in heartbeat? No. Hogan oversold Anderson and that hurt his debut since it’s been a while since he was close to main event status (a status he’s still yet to achieve). Anderson is talented and could be a world champ someday, but not any time soon.

High Road:

At Genesis, the crowd initially gave him a great reaction. And then the crowd turned on him. I think it turned out to be a good thing because Ken Anderson is much better as a heel. While it is disappointing that the crowd turned on him, I think at the end of the day, TNA got lucky because Ken Anderson is much better as a heel.

Low Road:

That relies on TNA booking him as a heel. As they’ve shown recently, Hogan and Bischoff are a little stubborn in their booking decisions and ignore crowd reactions. Or simply take those reactions as a cue to go so far over board in characters acting good or bad that they simply become parodies. If they don’t recognize Anderson’s talent as a heel and insist on pushing him as a face, his run could be very bad.

High Road:

Ken Anderson has gotten a bad rap for not being very good in the ring. I’ll agree that in the past few years, he has not looked very good. But I think there is a reason why that is the case. He has been injured off and on and that really has not allowed him to get in a rhythm. I think after being healthy for awhile, he will start to get decent in the ring.

Low Road:

Except currently he is injury prone and not good in the ring, which makes his signing right now not a big deal. Currently, TNA has a mediocre worker with a habit of getting injured just before a big push. Worse yet, they have a mediocre worker that was fired because he’s not a safe in-ring worker. He injured John Cena and nearly injured Randy Orton, two the WWE’s top guys. He’s a liability to the company and its talent.

High Road:

Ken Anderson joining TNA is a good idea because I think the TNA schedule will be more beneficial to him than the WWE schedule. There is no getting around the fact that he is injury prone. I think the TNA schedule will help him because the less time he is in the ring, the less likely he is to get injured.

Low Road:

With the lighter schedule, it will take him longer to get into that rhythm you mentioned. He hasn’t done a lot of work since leaving the WWE and while a lighter schedule protects him from injury, it also means his growth in the ring will be slowed considerably as well.

High Road:

You can argue the fact that Ken Anderson is injury prone or the fact that he is not very good in the ring, but the thing you can not argue is that Ken Anderson is one of the best talkers in wrestling. I look at his promo that he had on Impact where Abyss was standing behind him and that was one of the best promos in TNA in quite some time.

Low Road:

It was indeed good, but also showed the problem with TNA’s booking that I mentioned: was he a face or a heel? The content of his promo leaned face, but his delivery was definitely in the heel category. It looked like they were trying to present him as a face chosen personally by Hogan and neither Anderson nor the crowd bought into that booking.

High Road:

Hulk Hogan is going to have a huge impact on whether Ken Anderson is going to be successful in TNA. I look at the Ken Anderson signing and I think Anderson’s success will determine whether Hulk Hogan’s run in TNA is going to be successful. I feel this way because bringing in the veterans is only a short term thing and the changing of the ring is really not that important. So, I think that Hulk Hogan realizes this and he will do everything in his power to make sure that Ken Anderson has success in TNA.

Low Road:

I think it will take more than Hogan liking him to make him a success. Unless you simply mean a guy who gets a big push. Part of being a success for the company is drawing in the fans and unless Anderson improves in the ring, stays healthy, doesn’t injure anyone, and is booked properly, no amount of pushing by Hogan will make him a success. That will just make him a wrestler that’s being pushed on fans despite their protests.

Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?

High Road
Low Road
Both Roads
OR

Simply write “High Road”, “Low Road”, or “Both Roads” in the comment section.

E-Mails:

These are all of the e-mails that we received this week. We do not respond to the actual e-mail, but the reply to your e-mail will be below.

John Bateman Writes:

Hey Sat, Chad Nevett I haven’t written in, for quite some time. Now onto the topic without question it has to be Low Road. back before I had even heard of TNA, around late 2004 early 2005 when my friends would tell me about this, they would mention stars like AJ Styles Chris Sabin, the Ultimate X match, etc. however one of their biggest selling points was that the ring was nothing like WWE’s and that intrigued me because I had only seen the traditional 4-sided ring. to take away the 6-sided ring also takes away the tradtional Ultimate X we had grown so used to over the years. and we also drop the Six sides of steel. while some fans might like it as it signifies a new era of TNA, most will and do hate it, even the TNA marks that I know hate this change.

Now onto the suggestion, you guys will hopefully talk about the Awesome Kong/BTLS situation. What does this means for TNA with Kong leaving, more than likely not by her own choosing, this starts the TNA regime change on a bad note because now the homegrown talent despite her success as Amazing Kong in SHIMMER and other companies, most mainstream fans know her and the departing Alyssa Flash through TNA, are given the perception that anyone who speaks against, or in this case, shuts up one of Hogan’s boys, they might as well update their resume and start talking to ROH and WWE.

Sat: It has been quite some time since you wrote. I really see the ring impacting the six sides of steel, the ultimate x match should be okay. As for the Kong/Bubba The Love Sponge situation, I have to give props to Kong. Somebody needs to get Bubba out of the wrestling business as quick as possible and sadly I don’t see it happening.

Chad Nevett: Being a lover of alliteration, I will miss the six sides of steel. I think what Awesome Kong did was completely understandable and completely unprofessional. It’s a case where you can’t help but admire the sentiment behind the act while condemning what she did. She physically assaulted a fellow employee and should have been fired as a result, honestly. Maybe that’s what ‘asking for her release’ means, maybe not. But, it was out of line no matter how much I would have wanted to do the same in her place.

Freddy Neuwendyke Writes:

I’m going low road. Not so much because I had any real strong feelings about the 6 sided ring but because the way they went about getting rid of it. It just seems like a great big “up yours” to the fans. It’s like TNA takes one step forward then they take several back and it’s frustrating because you know they can and by all means should be doing better.

Sat: I can’t argue with the fact that the promo that Bischoff and Hogan cut about the ring was stupid. They totally made the fans look like idiots for supporting TNA before their arrival.

Chad Nevett: What baffles me is that Hogan is apparently meant to be a face. For someone who knows as much about the business as he does (or should), some of his promos have been completely wrong including that one. I don’t understand the thinking behind it.

Jeremy Castillo Writes:

No other wrestling company, in America at least, had a ring that wasn’t four sides, so it was part of TNA’s individuality. Every wrestler besides the has-beens Hogan has hired so far was in the company long enough to get used to a hexagonal ring. Now they have to adjust their styles accordingly, especially the X-Division. That ass-ugly ramp leads directly to the ring now, eliminating the major area TNA’s spots are performed. The name “Six Sides of Steel” is made completely obsolete.

Honest to God, I hope Hulk Hogan and his entire family is violently raped and murdered.

Sat: Whoa, that last remark seems a bit harsh just for getting rid of the six sided ring.

Chad Nevett: Hogan and his entire family violently raped and murdered because of a wrestling angle? Look, we all like to take this seriously, but that is completely and utterly uncalled for. You really need to stop and think before you write or say stupid things like that.

Yeren Writes:

The six-sided ring is rather uniquely identified with TNA wrestling in the US. The complete lack of disregard seemingly shows how little Hulk Hogan and Co. care for the legacy of TNA. The only way I would vote this as a high road is if the six-sided ring was ultimately brought back at the end of a major angle. I don’t thin that TNA are booking that far ahead though.

Sat: In a way, it would be cool to see the ring brought in after a major angle, but I kind of like the new ring.

Chad Nevett: Of course, by the time it returns, we’ll have all gotten used to the four-sided road and you can all expect a High Road/Low Road on the return of the six-sided ring.

Comments:

Below are the comments for last week’s columns and our responses. Every comment will not be included because it makes our lives a lot easier. The comments section was last looked at on Sunday Afternoon Pacific Time.

Steffjonesy Writes:

Low Road. The ring helped differentiate TNA from WWE, and the manner that Hogan treated its exit and the fan reaction to its exit was disrespectful to both the company and its fans. TNA doesn’t need to be WWE Lite to succeed, it needs to have its own unique identity, and like the ring or not, it was definitely a unique trait to TNA in the US wrestling scene.

Sat: I’ll admit that it did give TNA an identity, but it also seemed a bit gimmicky.

Chad Nevett: I liked the uniqueness of the ring and thought it was a way to immediately make TNA stand out as its own entity.

ROH Commish Writes:

Both Roads.

The ring change made no difference on the amount of space outside the ring. There is still not enough space to do more than one move or so.

With the 6 sided rings, all suicide dives went to the front side where the ramp came down. No variety whatsoever.

Part of the thing that set WWE and WCW apart was WWE’s great use of the ring surroundings including announcer table bumps.

TNA has a reasonable hardcore roster and the ring setup doesn’t enhance that aspect. The backstage brawls of TNA are shitty and most of the big spots happen on the entrance ramp.

Sat: The six sided ring did allow for stuff to happen outside of the ring, but it was always at the same place. Now, I would argue, there is no space to do anything. That could be a good thing because it could keep the action inside of the ring.

Chad Nevett: I never really thought about the difference surrounding the ring. They’ve always seemed to make it work for me. To be fair, a lot of the bigger dives in the WWE happen where there’s more space near the ramp, too. I don’t mind them doing their best to pull those moves off in one location if it means making them as safe as possible for the wrestlers.

xtopnotchx Writes:

High Road….I never was a big fan of it but if it is used from time to time it could be good…maybe hkeep the lockdown ppv using the six sided ring

Sat: This view is basically my view on the whole situation.

Chad Nevett: I rather liked the six-sided ring, so seeing it reduced to a gimmick would bother me a little.

Guest#9637 Writes:

Low road.

Hogan with one terrible speech essentially buried TNA and its fans.

Removing the six sided ring and especially the way it was done sends only one message to the fans: If you’ve enjoyed TNA until this point, you suck.

Sat: The way it was done was definitely better than having the ring demolished.

Chad Nevett: I think destroying the ring could have worked if done properly. Just switching the rings could have worked if handled correctly.

KanyonKreist Writes:

Look, it’s been eight years now, and they STILL need to distinguish their product from the “sports entertainment” we’re used to. Do I even need to explain why the ring switching back to four sides is a step backwards?

This is going to help TNA about as much as the Nasty Boys.

Low road.

Sat: I think the first thing that TNA should do is fix the product and not worry about the ring.

Chad Nevett: Yes, the ring is a superficial element of the company. It does impact the wrestling, but if anyone thinks switching to a four-sided ring is suddenly going to take TNA to the top without great stories and matches, they’re deluded.

Hoodoo91 Writes:

Both Roads. I’ll miss the ring but not the ramp. The Ramp is a lot better for guys taking bumps, but the loss of the ring will take a bit away from TNA’s identity.
Personally, the 6 sides will stand as symbol of Hogan/Easy E’s vision for TNA. Should they fail to take TNA to the big time, the ring will symbolize their failure. If they DO make it, no one will question them, in fact the ring will probably be lauded as what brought about the change.

Sat: I will say that the changing of the ring is not going to determine whether TNA is successful or not.

Chad Nevett: I don’t like the new ramp. Watching Impact, I keep noticing how it doesn’t actually touch the ring and that seemed to throw some of the wrestlers. I have a feeling that that small gap could result in something bad sometime in the future.

Anonymous Smart Mark Writes:

High Road. The traditional four-sided ring is what pretty much every wrestler trains in, and having to make them adjust to a non-traditional ring that has less space to work in just for the sake of “being different than WWE” is ridiculous. The six-sided ring was a gimmick and nothing more, and now that the gimmick’s run its course, it’s time for TNA to go back to what works – in this case, the four-sided ring – and get their shit together booking-wise.

Sat: I think there has to be an adjustment phase when people come to the six sided ring; I think that changing rings has to be a positive for TNA.

Chad Nevett: I have a hard time calling something TNA’s had for the majority of its existence a gimmick. At that point, it’s the norm.

Guest#2100 Writes:

Ok, the issue at hand is: the removal of the six sided ring, not whether I like the six sided ring.
I do like that ring a lot, but given the circumstances, I’ll say it was the right thing to do.

High Road

Positives:
– The 4-sided ring (and ramp) should appeal to wrestling traditionalists.
– The 6-sided ring was most helpful to the X-division, which TNA (and Hogan) has been de-emphasizing, despite the addition of Hardy.
– A 4-sided ring seems to be more friendly to heavyweights: more springy and perhaps softer. It’s like when WWF used the big blue cage instead of a chain-link cage. It catered to heavy guys.
– From a TV production standpoint, I think a 4-sided ring is easier to shoot. There have been times where shots inside the 6-sided ring were kind of disorienting.
– It may help with sponsorship deals. Potential advertisers look at what works. WWE draws millions of viewers and has a 4-sided ring. Advertisers may want TNA to do the same.
– It makes it ok when one of the veterans cuts a promo and uses the phrase “squared-circle.” Just kidding.

Negatives:
– This takes away a big part of TNA’s identity.
– Likely spells the end of “Six Sides of Steel.”
– The replacement was unceremonious. I’m not saying we should have seen Hogan take it down with a chainsaw or anything like that. But a spot like Lesnar superplexing Big Show to destroy the ring would have made for a cool visual. Or maybe, TNA could have hatched its own version of the Inferno Match and the ring could have caught fire. Even an old-school vs new-school match to determine the fate of the ring would have made things interesting.

Sat: Burning the six sided ring probably would have created a huge backlash.

Chad Nevett: I can see positives and negatives to putting the ring in a storyline. While it is a part of TNA’s identity, it is also just a ring and there is a logic in changing it and moving on to focus on actual stories. But, Hogan’s dismissal wasn’t the right way to go for sure.

The Gold Standard Writes:

High Road for TNA, Low Road for TNA Originals and Long Term fans such as myself. The 6 sided ring was one of the first things I noticed about TNA when I started watching it on the Fox Sport channel or whatever channel it used to be on before Spike and it made them different than other federations which I liked. I feel like all these changes that are bound to happen, TNA assumes for the better but really they were already good just needed better bookers. In the end I believe TNA will succeed although lose a lot of loyal fans with the changes. They need to stop worrying about the haters (cause they will always hate regardless) and WWE and start worrying about not only their own product but be more of a difference than an alternative for Ex WWE guys. Exception to Pope cause WWE really missed the ball with him.

Sat: I’ll agree that TNA needs to get better bookers. The one thing they have definitely done well is the Pope, but you can’t have him losing left and right either.

Chad Nevett: Definitely. Stop focusing on the WWE and just focus on doing the best work you can.

SpankyHamm Writes:

I’m going with Both Roads.

I actually believe this to be part of a storyline similar to the MEM angle. Hogan/Bischoff come in and start changing a bunch of stuff. The older wrestlers come in and hog the spotlight. Heck, I’d even expect to see some of these guys winning titles.

And eventually – Jarrett, Daniels, Joe – all of the TNA originals will start to fight back. And eventually, you will see the company revert back to the 6 sided ring.

Even if this is not part of a storyline and is permanent – I don’t think that it matters that much. Good wrestlers are good, bad wrestlers are bad – and the ring doesn’t matter that much.

It may improve upon TNA’s tendency to miss things outside of the ring. With the ramp on one side – there are only three sides (two corners) for which the cameramen have to watch out. With the 6-sided ring, there was a tendency to miss something happening right around the corner (and there were more corners).

One thing though – the ring is way too small. The faster wrestlers have less room to work with and that may reduce the impact some of their speed moves will have (one step of momentum vs. two or three steps – visually it makes a big difference when measuring the “impact” of a speed move).

Sat: That would be kind of cool with the originals getting the six sided ring back And yeah, you make a good point, the ring isn’t going to matter much.

Chad Nevett: I could see it being part of a story, but I kind of hope not. I would rather that if they were going to change it, they’d just change it and move on.

supa sta Writes:

The shape of the ring has nothing to do with how tight the ropes are, as far as springing off of them. They get tightened at the turnbuckles, regardless of the shape, and can be tighter or looser as desired.
Plus, the Six Sided Ring bumps a lot harder than a four, due to the nature of it’s construction. And as we all know, softer bumps means less injuries. Plus it appears as if the ring is a twenty footer, four feet smaller than the WWE ring, making the in ring pace seem quicker because less distance is covered.

Sat: I have never been a big fan of the smaller ring; I actually like the size of the WWE ring.

Chad Nevett: Softer bumps are always a plus, yes.

Michael Bauer Writes:

100% Low Road

The six sided ring was the one thing that got me give TNA a look as something different than the WWE. Taking that away now makes them look totally inferior to the WWE as just another lower federation.

Sat: I’ve been trying to write a response for the past half hour, but have been unable to because I keep getting distracted by this awesome episode of Tru Calling called The Longest Day. Anyways, now that it is over, I have to say that I don’t think getting rid of the ring makes them inferior to the WWE, I would say the thing that makes them inferior to the WWE is their booking.

Chad Nevett: I think that if all TNA had going for it was a different ring then they’re in seriously rough shape. Thankfully, I think they’ve got a lot of assets, they just need to use them correctly. Having the same shape ring isn’t going to make the comparisons to the WWE harsher.

The Great Captain Smooth Writes:

Both roads. High, because the ring never made much of a difference. Low, because it was their “thing”. I just hope they don’t try a 3-sided ring.

Sat: Didn’t Kevin Nash wrestle in the 3-sided ring when he was training for the X-Division title?

Chad Nevett: Oddly, I would like to see a three-sided ring… okay, not really.

Guest #9281 Writes:

Low Road. The 1 good thing about seeing the returns of Hogan, Flair, and etc was I was excited to see them wrestle in a 6 sided ring.

Hogan screwed that up, now I want him out and I’m going to cut down my TNA watching.

Sat: I think one of the reasons the ring was changed because if Hogan does wrestle, he is not going to wrestle in a six sided ring.

Chad Nevett: Changing the ring because any of the older guys can’t adapt says to me that they probably shouldn’t be wrestling anyway.

Tom Writes:

Both roads

Yes, the 6-sided ring was certainly different and original when compared to the WWE’s presentation, but at the same time, the 6-sided ring will only stand out as much as the booking allows it to. For example, I’d rather watch AJ Styles vs. Daniels in a 4-sided ring than watch Team 3D vs. The Nasty Boys compete in the 6-sided ring.

Truth be told, a ***** match inside the 6-sided ring would probably still be a ***** inside a 4-sided ring. The only way TNA is truly going to differentiate themselves from the WWE is through good booking and proper utilization of talent.

Sat: The last point you make is a very good one and I hope that TNA realizes this and starts to focus on the booking.

Chad Nevett: To be fair, I’d rather watch AJ Styles and Daniels compete in a barn than watch the Nasty Boys wrestle… anywhere.

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Your reasons for taking the High Road, Low Road, or Both Roads and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road are welcome at [email protected] or in the comment section. Your reply will be included in next week’s column.