Against The Grain 1.18.09: A Night In The Life of A TNA Fan

Posted by Julian Bond on 01.18.2009

My name is Julian Bond and I am a TNA fan. With the company constantly being hated on for multiple hiccups in their booking, I would like to take a minute to present what it’s like to spend a night being a true-blue fan of the promotion and how we fans may collectively feel about some of TNA’s current “up and down” condition.

"A Night In The Life of A TNA Fan"


Welcome everyone to Against The Grain, my (bi-weekly) take on some of the most unconventional and not-often talked about subjects in the wrestling world. Today, I'm going to tackle a subject that's nearest and dearest to my heart, and I'm doing to do it in a semi-unique way. The subject is TNA and the topic is its fans. With the company's heavily criticized approaches with its booking by a good number of people in and outside the IWC, nowadays it may seem hard to be a good-loving proud fan of TNA. So I just want to take a minute to run through what it's like to be one of these fans (like myself) for one night just to show that we, against what hardcore critics and "haters" may think, are not all delusional in liking the product without bias. There exist tons of flaws with the company, but I just wanted to show that fans also share this pain of watching it equally with casual viewers. So with that, here are some highlights from the night of a TNA fan (i.e. Me) watching a recent episode of Impact. Please forgive me ahead of time if it comes off kind of corny. Just going away from my usual format :).

[example] = Inner Thoughts

9:02 p.m.
Alex Shelley faces Eric Young in the last semi-final match in the X Division Tournament

[This should be a good bout. Damn…I love the fact that a good focus is being put back on the once converted X Title. While I feel that the company has never outright crapped on the title ala WWE's cruiserweight title (from putting it on such non-cruiserweights like Chavo Sr. and Gillberg to getting rid of it altogether), I definitely agree with many on the mass disappointment in its underused status in the last couple of years. But I have confident in this attempt at bringing it back into the spotlight. And by spotlight, I hope that doesn't mean 2 minute matches every once and awhile.]

9:09 p.m.
Sheik Abdul Bashir confronts referee Shane Sewell on the rampway and the two get into a brawl until Jim Cornette breaks it up.

[Sweet! Bashir and Sewell get into it AGAIN. While TNA's wrestling matches have for the most part been their strong point, the storyline end has often been less than stellar. But this slowly brewing feud between "referee" Shane Sewell and ex X-Division Champ Sheik Abdul Bashir has been played to perfection so far (minus the multiple confusing match reversals involving the X Title). To have a most-for-the-part unknown person in Sewell been rooted for heavily by fans and in turn to have massive heat for the relatively unpopular (i.e. having no play in his former WWE role as Davari) Abdul Bashir has been a huge accomplishment. I really hope that they give this feud a good set of legs so that the two can really show their chops in and outside of the ring. I love watching TNA on a regular basis, but honestly this is one of the main reasons that make me want to tune in every week…good steady feuds.]

9:21 p.m.
The Main Event Mafia is in the ring and Kurt Angle is cutting a promo about beating down B.G. James and destroying the living daylights out of Jeff Jarrett at the Genesis PPV.

[Man, this feud just gets keeps constantly getting better and is in my opinion one of the best ones the company has ever put on. I've been watching Impact since day one and I don't think that I've seen too many major "main-event" storylines that have reminded me of some of the WWE's best (ex. Stone Cold/McMahon, Triple H/Evolution). Besides Christian Cage's Coalition, this angle has given TNA that big major feud feeling that company so desperately needs to push itself more forward. I'm loving every moment of this so far and I hope that it gets even better.]

9:30 p.m.
A skit with The Beautiful People (Angelina Love/Velvet Sky) that involves them following a Sarah Palin impersonator.

I run to the bathroom as soon as I see "Palin" and the Beautiful People and think about it further as I sit on the toilet.

[God Bless TNA for wanting to put ‘The Beautiful People' in featured skits, but the whole "Sarah Palin Tour" idea is already old news. It was funny at first because people were still talking about the woman, but now it's kind of like beating a dead horse. As I loved Tina Fey doing it…well…I would of liked this a lot better if it was done during the election. I rather see them (and hell, the rest of the TNA Knockouts in general) in better skits to help get them over more or at least a good in-ring storyline to get them back on track…"don't you know" (in an Palin-Alaskan accent). Huh...I'm assuming the skit is still on...should give me some good time here to read my new issue of Entertainment Weekly...what the living hell is "The Room"?!?]

9:37 p.m.
Abyss gets interviewed by Loren about his tag team match at Genesis against Beer Money.

My wife (who's a very casual wrestling viewer by default…due to her husband) comes over to the screen and asks me "Who the hell is that?", regarding Abyss' new look and tone. I respond "It's that same big guy who we saw in that Barbed Wire match awhile back". She replies back "Oh…that guy…he looks goofy now." I mumble back "…oh".

[With this exchange, I think…I want to give Abyss props for wanting to switch up his look and style from the long known "Doomsday Monster" who's mostly identified for putting himself through thumbtacks and tables on a regular basis, but the way he's doing it now really comes off like a "bootleg version" of the Mankind character. I truly believe that imitation is flattery and can work out if done right, but Abyss needs to get out of this funk of his and start doing something significant, maybe like kicking the crap out of his partner Matt Morgan or something.]

9:49 p.m.
Best of 2008 Video Recap

[Wow, this video looked awesome. As a fan who constantly reads about people crapping on TNA for putting on sometimes not-so great matches and angles, they should just look at this video and see that they are slowly but surely making progress. For every stupid storyline they mess up on, they seem to come up with something else better.]

10:19 p.m.
Creed and Lethal cashed in their Feast or Fired briefcase a few minutes ago against Beer Money and won the Tag Team titles.

[Holy crap. That was cool and unexpected. I'm a big fan of Beer Money and didn't want them to lose the straps yet, but Creed and Lethal cashing in their Feast or Fired (F&F) briefcase now was a perfect example of how to use them to everyone's surprise (i.e. Money in The Bank). Of all of the things that I wished TNA did more was do more unexpected, "out of left field" moves like this to get people talking and interested. Hope they do the two other F&F briefcases their proper justice as well.]

10:57 p.m.
At the conclusion at the BG James/Kurt Angle match, after the MEM destroys BG's ankle, the Frontline chases the group from the ring and threatens them on the mic.

Finishing up my bag of chips and pop as I'm about to turn from this to ‘The Daily Show w/Jon Stewart'.

[This was a pretty good overall show right before the PPV, especially with the surprisingly well-fought and appropriately timed match between BG and Angle. I love that they're doing more put-together main events that they used to on Impact (i.e. just random tag matches), but as much as I am a good-loving fan they still haven't fully convinced me to shell out the $30 to order a PPV as of late. I have a very good feeling that at the conclusion of this feud (probably round Lockdown I'm assuming), I will finally want to give up the dollar, dollar bills to see TNA on a Sunday night. Until then, I'll keep cheering on my couch on Thursdays and keeping my good faith in the good ol' company known as TNA Wrestling.]

Next Time On….Against The Grain
Around this time 8 years ago, the now deceased wrestling company known as WCW put on one of the most weirdest and interesting PPVs ever, and by interesting I mean that in a very bad way. I will explain how one of the most anticipated and promising PPVs that the company had at the time was oddly and utterly destroyed broken and taken apart piece by piece before and during its broadcast and why to this day I am still fascinated with its existence. Ladies and gents I will bring up the lost and forgotten 2000 edition of WCW Souled Out.