Hitting Below the Beltway 10.20.07: How TNA Can Save Itself
Posted by Alex Barcham on 10.21.2007
TNA showed some promise by putting on a top notch PPV with Bound for Glory, but that won't be enough for them to become a legitimate competitor. This week I'm talking a look at what TNA could do to really improve their product and draw in new viewers.
For a few weeks now I'd been planning on writing a column on how bad TNA has gotten and what they could do to fix it. Then they went and put on one of the best PPV's of the year with Bound for Glory. BFG showed what TNA is capable of being and what it should be on a regular basis. Unfortunately, TNA still has a long way to go; Bound for Glory was only one show and it was still flawed.
One great PPV isn't going to turn a company around. They need to be good every week. People aren't going to pay to see if TNA can crank out another great PPV if Impact stinks in the weeks leading up to it. TNA is making a lot of the same mistakes that WCW made in their dying days. Lets see what they can do to change that.
Stop making your biggest babyface look like a chump
I was very happy with how TNA handled the title change at Bound For Glory. There were plenty of run-ins and shenanigans, but things worked out properly in the end. At their biggest PPV of the year the babyface triumphed over adversity and won the title from the villainous heel. Its story that's been done over and over again in WWE at Wrestlemania, but they keep doing it for a reason; it's a great story and it works. I'm not a particularly big Sting fan, but I was glad to see him win the title. He's still a big name, he's over with the crowd and he can still work a solid match.
**If you don't want Impact spoiled don't read this paragraph**
I thought this was a sign of things looking up in TNA until I read the spoilers for the 10/25 edition of Impact. Just two weeks after his big win at Bound for Glory Sting lost the title back to Kurt Angle in a TV match thanks to the interference of Kevin Nash. This seems wrong to me on a variety of levels. Losing the title so quickly really takes away from the importance of Sting's big win. You could argue that the important thing for Sting was chasing the title and getting the big win, not the title reign itself, as many argued when Homicide won and quickly lost the ROH title. I'm not buying that argument in this case. Sting didn't even get one successful title defense.
**end spoilers**
Sting has been made to look like a chump over and over again in TNA. He trusted Christian Cage and got screwed out of the title, got screwed out of the title by DQ against Abyss and repeatedly got beat down when he tried to make Abyss his protégé. These were all the results of facing off with devious heels, but at a certain point you need to start seeing this stuff coming. Getting outsmarted and screwed over is acceptable on occasion because it puts over your opponent and gives you a reason for vengeance, but Sting looks like a dunce for only getting the heels back once a year at Bound for Glory.
Make Samoa Joe the company's top face
If TNA is going to run with Sting as their top guy, they should stop having him get punked out all the time. Ideally though, TNA's top guy would be Samoa Joe. I'm not just saying that as a smarky internet fan; Joe is massively over with the crowd in TNA. Every time he walks out there are big "Joe's gonna kill you" chants. He put ROH on the map with his incredible title run and could help elevate TNA.
Joe has a lot more potential for TNA than Sting does. Joe is much younger than Sting. Joe could be a top star for another 10 years; Sting has a year or two left in him. Sting is still a bigger name than Joe right now, but he's not the huge draw he once was. To current WWE fans checking out TNA for the first time, he seems like an old timer. Joe is a fresh face to anyone that TNA is trying to pull in. TNA should be pushing him the way they did when he first debuted in TNA, as an unstoppable bad ass. He's been jobbed out way too much as of late, although he did get some revenge with his decisive victory over Christian Cage at Bound for Glory. Joe needs to keep on rolling and work his way back into the title picture.
Kevin Nash should not be a main eventer at this point in his career
I loved Nash's segments with Alex Shelley and Papparazi Productions, but that should be about the extent of his involvement in TNA. Nash was actually a solid wrestler in his younger days as Diesel, but those days have long since passed. Age and injuries have taken away all the mobility that Nash ever had. Watching him do anything in the ring other than the Jackknife Powerbomb is just ugly. He shouldn't be challenging for the title in a company trying to distinguish itself based on its superior wrestling matches.
His poor match quality isn't the only thing working against Nash. The guy has never exactly been a team player. He's mostly interested in making himself look good. He pulled out every trick in the book to avoid having to job in WCW. He booked himself as the man to beat Goldberg. For all of his talk about helping out the X-Division, he mostly just destroyed every one in the division before ducking out of jobbing to Chris Sabin. And he bailed on a main-event title match the night before Bound for Glory 2005 claiming to have had a heart attack, forcing TNA to hotshot the belt onto Rhino. Whether he actually had a heart attack or lied about having a heart attack, neither makes me want to put him in a key spot. TNA shouldn't risk having such an unreliable guy challenging for their title.
Stop talking about WWE, WCW and ECW
A couple of months ago there was a segment on Impact that drove me absolutely insane. Team 3D came out and stated their case for being the greatest tag team of all time: they were the greatest ECW champs and had held the titles in every major promotion. Then the Steiners came out and stated their case: they were WCW champs at WCW's peak. Then out came VKM/New Age Outlaws: they were WWE champs during their hottest times. Finally, LAX arrived claiming to be the best champs, because they were the best champs in TNA history. The other teams promptly beat down LAX and threw them out of the running as the best tag team.
This segment was very telling look at what is wrong with TNA; they would much rather push WWE rejects and WCW has-beens than their own home grown talent. That segment had the potential to really put LAX over as the future of TNA. Team 3D, the Steiners and VKM are all well past their prime. They're pulling in big salaries without pulling in big ratings. As they've always done TNA pushed older guys with any sort of name recognition over younger more talented wrestlers. Additionally, dismissing the TNA team makes the company look small time. The segment basically made it look like the older guys were all bitter that they couldn't be in the big time anymore and were slumming it in TNA; which is pretty much true. TNA would be much better off using the older guys to put over their new guys. Beating former WCW and WWE stars would really help establish the younger guys, while beating up LAX doesn't do that much for the old fogies. In the last days of WCW you had guys like Hogan, Nash and Hall refusing to put anyone over and it prevented WCW from creating new stars. At various points WCW had Triple H, the Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Chris Jericho on their roster and never did anything with them. The older stars refused to put them over and WCW cast them off because they couldn't get anything out of them. TNA needs to avoid making the same mistake with their young stars.
Push the Motor City Machine Guns
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley are both outstanding young wrestlers. They need to be pushed, whether it's as singles wrestlers in the X-Division or as a team. Lately, they've been in the same position as LAX, a TNA tag team getting buried by VKM, Team 3D and the Steiners. Most recently, they were both taken out of the Fight for the Right tournament after being beat down by Team 3D. These guys are great, but they aren't being given the chance to succeed. A lot of indy wrestlers are accused of not having any personality, but the MCMG's, particularly Shelley, have plenty of charisma. While I think they're work better as a team, Sabin and Shelley might be better off primarily as singles wrestlers and occasional partners in the X-Division. TNA is pretty set on pushing the older established guys in the tag division, but not as much in the X-Division. Younger guys like Jay Lethal are getting a chance to shine in the X-Division, even though they're set back by being slaughtered by the heavyweights. Hopefully, they'll get a chance a fight back against Team 3D in their quest to destroy the X-Division.
Stop all the crazy gimmick matches
The gimmick matches in TNA have gotten completely out of hand. Back in their early days TNA hit a huge homerun with the introduction of the Ultimate X match. This was something new and innovative that was unlike anything that had come before it. Then they introduced the King of the Mountain Ladder match. The KotM wasn't quite as successful as Ultimate X, but it wasn't bad. It's a bit convoluted and has too many rules, but still usually resulted in something different and interesting.
Lately the TNA gimmick matches have gotten ridiculous. Elevation X was better than it had any right to be, thanks to the terrific efforts of Rhino and AJ Styles. The reverse battle royal is a bizarre concept. I'm still not sure I entirely understand the rules and that's a problem. Mike Tenay and Don West shout endlessly about how new and innovative these matches are, but then don't even bother to explain them. No one is going to care about a match if they don't know what the object of it is.
Currently, TNA is running their Fight for the Right Tournament. At Bound for Glory they had the Fight for the Right battle royal. Of course, it wasn't a regular battle royal. It started as a reverse battle royal, with 16 men fighting to get into the ring. The first 8 in the ring fought in a regular battle royal until they got down to the final two when it became single match. I believed, as did Mike Tenay and Don West apparently, that this match was for a shot at the TNA title. That would have been way too simple for Vince Russo. Apparently, Eric Young hadn't actually won a shot at the title, but rather the #1 seed in a tournament, which would determine the eventual #1 contender to the TNA title. So battle royal was essentially worthless. Now Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley have both eliminated from tournament after going to a no-contest after being attacked by Team 3D. Their spots were taken by Samoa Joe and Christian Cage, even though neither had to qualify in the battle royal.
TNA's booking has gotten so screwy that their announcers don't even understand what they're doing anymore. Tenay and West seem legitimately confused as to what Eric Young had won in the Bound for Glory battle royal. TNA Commissioner Jim Cornette blatantly mocked how ridiculous the tournament and its rules were when he told Christian he was going to have to "Fight for the right to fight for the right to fight". Viewers aren't' going to take this tournament seriously if the announcers don't even understand it and the commissioner talks about how stupid it is.
Get rid of Tenay and West
I'll keep thing short since everyone is already on the anti-Tenay and West bandwagon, but it needs to be said. These guys are really bad announcers. Their constant shouting is annoying and unnecessary. Jim Ross doesn't shout about every single thing that happens on Raw. John Madden doesn't go ballistic every time somebody makes a tackle. When Jim Ross shouts you know something important and exciting is happening. Tenay and West shouting just makes them seem unprofessional and obnoxious.
No more Black Reign
Dustin Rhodes' current run as Black Reign has been absolutely awful. The character lacks any of the bizarre fun that made Golddust so entertaining. The guy looks terrible. He's clearly out of shape and he has the worst gear in professional wrestling right now. His matches are crappy and he's just taking up way too much TV time. I really have no idea what the kayfabe reason was for putting him with Jim Mitchell. I guess Mitchell needed a new henchman and Black Reign is crazy, but that's about it. I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Judas Messias.
Push AJ Styles
AJ Styles takes a fair amount of abuse from internet fans, but he's a great wrestler. He's the guy who made me start watching TNA. I started buying ROH DVD's because it was another place I could see him wrestle. For the first three years of their existence, AJ Styles was the face of TNA. He was the first TNA Triple Crown champion, winning the World, X-Division and Tag Team Championships. AJ made the X-Division something buzz worthy.
AJ has seen his role reduced in TNA the last couple of years. He did just win the tag team championship, but he's no longer a premier guy in the company. After a long run as a face, AJ finally turned heel. At first I thought this was great. AJ was, and continues to be hilarious as the cocky hillbilly goofball. His alignment with Christian and Tomko also worked because they were such good straight men to his goofiness. Unfortunately, AJ has just become Christian's lackey. He's stuck playing second fiddle, and worse, has become a glorified jobber. AJ still has the potential to be a big star in TNA again. He hasn't lost any of his ability, he's actually gotten a lot more comfortable on the mic, TNA has just decided to push a bunch of WWE and WCW guys over him. TNA is wasting Styles in such a small role. He should still be the guy leading the X-Division to prominence. He should be at the forefront, protecting the honor of the division he helped build from Kevin Nash's and Team 3D's of the world. AJ leading a group of X-Division stars like Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, and Sanjay Dutt could do wonders for all involved. WCW ran a very similar angle where they had the Millionaire's Club vs. the New Blood. That angle had a ton of potential except the Millionaires' Club dominated and the New Blood looked like whiny bitches. TNA could have something hot on their hands if they would actually let their young guys get over against their older stars.
Less non-wrestling characters
There has been way too much focus lately in TNA on characters who can wrestle, particularly Pac-Man Jones and Karen Angle. Neither of them is going to draw in any fans and they're taking time away from people who could. Pac-Man Jones hasn't drawn in any viewers to TNA and that shouldn't be too surprising. Pac-Man wasn't a big star in the NFL. He was a good defensive back who gained some notoriety for shooting a guy and beating up a stripper. And he cant wrestle! That's not going to bring in fans. Neither will guys like David Eckstein and AJ Pierzinsky.
If TNA could actually get a big star like Peyton Manning or Brett Favre to wrestle a match, that would draw in some fans, but anybody worth getting isn't going to want to be in TNA. A $25,000 appearance is chump change to Peyton Manning and it would just take time away from his never ending quest to endorse every product on the market today. Near their end WCW brought in big stars like Jay Leno, Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone. Those guys weren't great at least they were big stars and they were allowed to wrestle, even if they stunk it up in the ring. In this way TNA is actually worse than WCW. Seeing Pac-Man dodge any contact while celebrating the fact that he paralyzed a man and assaulted a woman by making it rain is going to turn off more fans than it draws in. There's really no benefit to having him around. At least, Karen Angle is somewhat useful for drawing Kurt extra heat and looking good at ring side, but she's getting way more camera time that she deserves.
Final Analysis: TNA still has the potential to turn into a really good company. They showed a lot of promise with a top notch PPV at Bound for Glory. Now they have to keep that momentum going. They have a very talented roster stocked with plenty of guys who could pull in fans; they just need to start using them correctly. WCW had the more talented roster than WWE in their heyday, but wasted it by refusing to put young guys over. They need to cut out the dead weight and push the younger, more exciting wrestlers. More importantly, they need to cut out the ridiculous angles and gimmicks. Russo should know from his time in WCW that pushing old-timers in non-sensical storylines is not the way to build your promotion. Hopefully TNA management will figure that out before they've lost too much money.
