wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction 8.09.07: Pacman to TNA, Panicking over Raw Ratings, Vince’s Bastard Child and More
1. TNA’s signing of Adam “Pacman” Jones is a great business move.
Bayani Domingo: FICTION. Basically the word “Great” is what made this FICTION. The idea that something is a “Great” business move would have to connote some sort of significant increase in revenue. While the TV ratings may pop a bit, I think history has proven that anything more than a 1.2 is just not going to happen right now and if the average is 1.0 or 1.1 then its really not that significant. Also it’s not as if the .1 or .2 is going to translate into cold hard cash. I seriously doubt that Spike or FOX is also going to give TNA a 2nd hour of programming just because Pacman is now here to ‘make it rain’ on those Nielson families. I wish they kept those ‘cage dancers’ from back in the ‘Asylum’ days. Something about seeing Pacman showering them with cash and punching them in the face just seems like a good way to spend a Thursday night.
The problem is that TNA is pretty stagnant right now when it comes to growing their PPV buyrates and based on history, having “celebrities” come in has not really improved the buyrates much, if at all. While I am one of the few people who don’t have a problem with bringing him in so long as they aren’t paying him much just for some publicity, I have the feeling that they could better use the cash to actually pay for some of the travel arrangements for the guys who are ACTUALLY full-time wrestlers. Then again if this is a short 1 or 2-month cameo at most I’m sure TNA will be okay. while this isn’t the worst business move they’ve made, it certainly isn’t a great one…or even a good one. It’s almost certain someone is going to be made to look stupid by Pacman and at this point can TNA really afford to make anyone on their roster look more like a reject or a loser? then again, knowing Russo they’re planning to feud Pacman with a stable made up of multi-colored ghosts.
Andy Critchell : FACT. They are already getting tons of the coveted “mainstream media” coverage on this move. I’m sure that through this more people will know that TNA exists and they may even get a ratings boost. While Bayani makes some good points about rating the truth is that TNA can use any kind of upward ratings progress, no matter how small, to show Spike or Fox that they are more than just some WWE also-ran. This could do for TNA what having Tyson did for the WWE. BUT, the WWE didn’t put Tyson in the ring to work and yet TNA is apparently going to let Jones work matches. This could eventually be a disaster for all involved…but not today. Today, TNA is doing just about everything right.
Score: 0 for 1
2. Monday’s edition of Raw was the best “Raw” show of 2007.
Bayani Domingo : FICTION. I feel like half of RAW on Monday was just a replay of last week and the other half was just Vince McMahon’s masturbatory return to TV. Seriously, I hadn’t seen Vince in 2 months and now I’ve seen enough of him to last another 2. not only that but what the hell was up with Kennedy? Kennedy. Kennedy. Kennedy….Kennedy….Kennedy. there were really only two or three entertaining parts of the show this week. The dating game was fairly humorous, not LOL I wet myself funny, but still it had its charm. I was hoping for a bit more from Ron Simmons though. “What is your favorite curry?”, LAMB!! “What do you think of Bush’s involvement with Alberto Gonzales and the charges against him going unaddressed?”, SCAM!! “What’s your favorite 80’s pop band?”, WHAM!! Also the Battle Royal was somewhat entertaining and Cena/Umaga had the makings of a good match cut short. Still the show itself was just ridiculous.
Considering we were all expecting these HUGE changes and a new direction with Vince showing up all we get is Vince faked his own death because he needed validation and attention. Great, so now Vince is Emo? Is he going to start cutting himself, painting his finger nails black, and pasting lyrics to My Chemical Romance songs on the inside of his locker? “Welcome to the Black Parade Coach….life is pain.” The show itself was fairly ridiculous and it only served Vince a chance to give his “candid” and “tongue in cheek” opinions of the media and Congress. Then to top it all off…Vince has a bastard son. If that son ends up being Cody Rhodes or Elijah Burke I will absolutely sh*t myself. The BEST RAW of 2007 had to have been the one with the Cena/HBK 1 hour classic. I mean, people are STILL talking about that show even now. You think anyone will remember this show past “Hey Maria, I can’t hear you over the sound of these guys talking about how much they hate babies and puppies”? Oh, and for the record…I hate babies and puppies too. DAMN!!
Andy Critchell : FICTION. While I enjoyed the show, I enjoyed the Raw before it even more. Look, Monday’s Raw was indeed fun with the Regal Dating Game and Vince’s return but at the end of the day it didn’t really feel all that different. Two weeks ago we had Kennedy pinning the seemingly unbeatable Lashley and Carlito pinning the seemingly unbeatable Cena. That was pretty memorable to me. Monday we had Cena being super and…Cena being super. It wasn’t a bad show at all but it was not the best of 2007, that’s for sure.
Score: 1 for 2
3. TNA is only now looking into a “Wellness Policy” due to fear of Congress investigating them.
Bayani Domingo : FACT. I’m sure they were thinking about a “Wellness Policy” but I don’t think anything was in the works nor imminent until the whole “He Who Must Not Be Named” thing happened. While I don’t think Congress is planning to go after TNA it would be a good idea to put something into work as well as the trying to create a good image to the public. The upside for TNA is that they haven’t had any issues yet with their people dying, outside of the freak Candido thing of course. Then again they do employ an awful lot of ex-WCW and WWF guys and it is only a matter of time before something bad happens. That could go either way as they could try to blame the wrestler’s past career prior to TNA or then the witch-hunt could spread as it could be seen as an epidemic.
Something Kurt Angle said in an interview a little while ago really made sense. He mentioned that wrestling shouldn’t be looked at like the NFL or MLB, but more like music and acting. If you look at it in that respect the numbers aren’t so bad, also it’s not like taking steroids will help you actually win more matches *SPOILER*…….wrestling matches are pre-determined anyways. *END SPOILER*. The only reason Congress would get involved is if they believed that an employer was not only encouraging steroid and drug use but also facilitating it. I doubt Dixie Carter or Jeff Jarrett is that stupid. Then again, all it takes is D’von to go crazy at his smoothie shop after a Tropical Andro-Colada and starts dropping bodies and bibles all over the place for a dozen guys in black suits and glasses to show up on Panda’s doorstep. Oh…TESTIFY MY BROTHER!!
Andy Critchell : FACT. I’m sure that the folks running TNA know that from a business standpoint, turning a blind eye to drug use makes sense. Many on the TNA roster have to take Indy dates to supplement their income and hustle around from town to town which obviously takes its toll. Drugs (legal or not) help these guys keep going. Also, drug testing isn’t exactly free. TNA has yet to turn a profit so why would they want to incur another expense unless they feel they have to? Sure, someone may kick the bucket but it probably would not happen for a while if it happened at all. Call me callous but it’s still called show BUSINESS and the move to by TNA to institute drug testing likely isn’t done out of the goodness of Dixie Carter’s heart, especially with that walking medicine cabinet Kurt Angle around.
Score: 2 for 3
—SWITCH~!—
4. WWE totally overreacted over last week’s Raw rating.
Andy Critchell: FICTION. Glitch or not, obviously the low rating should serve to be a wake up call to WWE creative that they need to come up with some new and compelling storylines with new people shuffled into the main event. Still, I say FICTION because in my mind an overreaction would be to have a PPV level show on Raw Monday night and that’s not what happened. It was fun, it was entertaining, but it wasn’t a “blow you away show.” If that had done Triple H’s return Monday night it would have been an overreaction. If they had done Rey’s return Monday night it would have been an overreaction. If they had done a WWE title change Monday night it would have been an overreaction. None of those things happened. Instead we had the return on McMahon and the greatness that was Regal’s Dating Game. I don’t see that as an overreaction.
Bayani Domingo : FICTION. I’d say a HHH or Rey Rey return may have been panicking a bit, especially since they’re hyping HHH’s return just before Summerslam and Rey Rey is needed on Smackdown. I don’t think they did anything big and figured that a Vince McMahon return would be enough to get people interested. I would say that most people would be disappointed that the culprit all along was Vince himself. I thought the show was just okay, mostly for angle advancement in the two real storylines they have Cena/Orton/Carlito and Umaga/Santino, but that was about it. The Battle Royal at least brought continuity and closure to a long running GM search and overall the Cena/Umaga match was pretty good. Other than that it was just having Vince being forced down your throat as if you were a Diva contestant. Now if RAW ever does sub 3.0 two weeks in a row, you may see some wild things. No, not actual quality wrestling, but probably the revelation that Vince’s bastard child is actually….Stephanie’s daughter. Can you feel the excitement??
Score: 3 for 4
5. TNA’s signing of Andrew Martin shows once again that TNA isn’t concerned with making stars, but would rather rely on WWE cast offs.
Andy Critchell : FACT. but not completely. I still believe that TNA wants to make Samoa Joe into a star but they have gone about it in the most ass-backwards fashion imaginable. On the topic at hand, TNA has shown a disturbing trend of picking up WWE castoffs and immediately pushing them to the top of the card; Billy Gunn, Rhyno, Christian, Angle, and the Dudleys are all examples of that. With the exception of Angle, all of those guys were midcard workers when they left the WWE and yet they all came to TNA with fanfare and were immediately highlighted in top angles. Rhyno won the World Title for goodness sake! If you look at the Angle/Joe feud, while Joe is the one with the bulk of the gold it’s Angle that is receiving all the attention and the TV time and being treated like a star while Joe is just sort of “there.” Now we have another WWE castoff being injected into probably the second biggest storyline behind Angle/Joe, which by the way now features two ex WWE guys, a guy most still associate with WCW, and a TNA guy that doesn’t even talk as the main players. Oh, and “Mr. TNA” as the second fiddle to the second fiddle. Nice.
Bayani Domingo : FICTION. I want to say FACT, but it’s not as if A-Mart came in and laid a beating down on Joe and Angle. He’s part of the mid-card feud that people might actually care about and that’s fine. Besides TNA isn’t quite stupid enough to fully become WCW circa late 90’s….not yet at least. They did after all make AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels into ‘house hold names’. Provided your household enjoys Indy wrestling on TV. They also made LAX into the hottest team around as well as bringing us the greatness that IS Black Machismo. They are concerned with making stars, but they just can’t seem to commit to pushing them on a continual basis. I do agree about the back asswards way they are trying to push Joe and I’m afraid that it won’t get any better this weekend. Don’t be disappointed when Joe loses this weekend though. Angle will strike a deal with either the MCMG’s (Big Kev’s buddies) or Team 3D to help him win the match, he’ll give them the belts as payment, then Angle and Joe will face off again at “Bound For Glory” for the TNA title again. It’s true…it’s Damn True. That or his wife pulls a fast one and causes Joe to lose. I think a lot of this is built around Joe holding the belt for a good long time and although it seems all of his eventual opponents are WWE cast offs…well…I guess they are. Still this is barely a FICTION since in my mind Samoa Joe is still going to be the centerpiece of TNA as the Top Face of the show. Also the tag division still has LAX/XXX/MCMG to pick up the pieces and the X-Division (when booked right) is the one true TNA-only division so while I think the past few months have been focused on WWE guys, I think we’re in for a renaissance of sorts. Oh yeah, wait till A-Mart turns on Sting (like everyone and their grandma has done…mine turned on him in ’97, you go Lola!) and Tomko turns face when Christian turns on him, then everyone will get that awesome Tomko/Test feud that the IWC has been dreaming about for years. Mmm…taste the sarcasm.
Score: 3 for 5
6. The Vince McMahon “paternity lawsuit” angle from Monday night is a great angle.
Andy Critchell : FICTION. I know that most would expect me to answer FACT to this but while watching Monday night my first reaction to hearing Coach set up the angle was to groan and roll my eyes. That’s not to say that I don’t have some high hopes for the angle, it could end up being quite hilarious, and we all know that the WWE can do some really funny stuff when they want to. But right now I feel like this has all the makings of a McMahon-fest that will end up probably getting more TV time than it deserves. Even so, I’m going to keep an open mind.
Bayani Domingo : FICTION. A million times FICTION. As much as I’d love to have a McMahon driven angle take up 50% of RAW’s TV time based on Vince not being able to control his skeet, skeet, skeet, I can think of a dozen things I’d rather see instead. I’ll say that “Wrestling Matches” takes up #’s 1 through 8. I have no faith in this angle. I’m sorry, call me pessimistic, but this is just more Vince on my TV and I’m sick and tired of him. Seriously. I could live the rest of my life without ever seeing his face on TV again. I’m not even keeping an open mind on this. Screw that…I’m making a stand and I’m not waffling on it. This angle will be a HUGE waste of time that could be dedicated to actually letting the real wrestlers get over instead of an old ‘roided up egomaniac with a God complex.
Score: 4 for 6
These two finish 4 for 6! Join us next week for more Fact or Fiction!
