The Impact Crater 04.04.07

Posted by Ryan Byers on 04.06.2007

The fourth member of Team Angle is revealed, and I debate the pros and cons of Bob Backlund with a reader. Good times are had by all.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to your TNA Impact Crater for April 4, 2007. I don't know about you guys, but, if I were in charge of TNA, I'd be pretty annoyed with Spike TV this week. Why? Not only did they preempt the show for a UFC special (bumping it back to 11 PM), but they barely even bothered to acknowledge that fact. There wasn't a crawl across the bottom of the UFC show when Impact would have aired, there wasn't a commercial hyping Impact during the first commercial break after 9:00 PM, nothing. Hopefully the TNA fanbase is hardcore enough that the rating won't be damaged all that badly.

Before we head in to our usual show, I'd like to take a second remind everybody that one of my favorite promotions, SHIMMER: Women Athletes is holding a big event on Saturday in Berwyn, Illinois. They'll be taping two installments of their DVD series that night, and general admission tickets should be available at the door for $15. I'll be there marking out for Lacey, so feel free to stop by and say hi. Plus, I've been doing a rundown of the SHIMMER roster/preview of the show on my MySpace blog, so if you want to know what will be happening on the show or what is happening in the promotion generally, feel free to stop by there.

With that said, let's move on to some men wrestling.

Quick & Dirty Results

Segment #1: Rhino def. Tyson/Travis Tomko in a "Hey, it's a street fight for no good reason!" Match
Segment #2: The New Age Outlaws def. LAX by DQ
Segment #3: Austin Aries def. Low Ki in a submission match when Bob Backlund threw in the towel for Low Ki
Segment #4: Jim Cornette held a "town hall meeting"

Angle Numero Uno: Team Angle's Angle (Angle Angle Angle)

As has been the case for the last several weeks, roughly fifty percent of the show was devoted to advancing the storyline for the main event of the next pay per view. That's exactly how Impact should operate every week, but I do have to question a few of the moves that they made during the course of that half of the show.

First of all, what was the point of the Eight Mile Street Fight between Tomko and Rhino? I have no problem with individual members of Team Angle and Team Cage meeting up in the ring before Lockdown, but what exactly was the street fight gimmick meant to accomplish? Running gimmick matches just for the sake of running gimmick matches dilutes their value, and the last thing that you want to do is make gimmick matches mean less when you're headed to a pay per view in which they make up the entirety of the card. The finish also had me a bit confused. TNA gave Tomko a win over Samoa Joe and then spent the majority of last week's show talking about how great he was and how he would be a vital player on either Team Angle or Team Cage. Then, out of nowhere, they just have him lose clean to Rhino. Even though I personally would never push Tomko as a top guy, TNA needs to figure out whether they want to or not. If they decide he is, they shouldn't be jobbing him out to Rhino, a guy who hasn't won a feud decisively since he came to the company a year and a half ago. If they decide he isn't, they never should've put him over Joe and never should've built an entire week of TV around him.

As confusing as some of the booking surrounding the Tomko/Rhino street fight was, I do have to applaud the heel beatdown by Team Cage after the match ended. (With the exception of the Spiral Tap by AJ Styles. Seriously, what kind of move is that for a heel to use?) With the babyface team down five men to three, the beatdown did a good job of establishing that disadvantage and leaving the audience wonder what Kurt and company could do to counter. On one hand, I feel like it would have been better to have Team Angle at their major disadvantage for an entire episode of Impact, with them regaining the advantage the next week. That way there would be a little bit more drama between this week's TV show and next week's, which could in turn lead to more viewers. However, I understand that the company only has a limited number of weeks between now and Lockdown and probably didn't want to have two Team Angle members announced on the same show, so they do at least have some rationale behind doing the beatdown and the Sting save all on the same show.

Speaking of Sting, he is of course the newest member of Team Angle, as was to be expected once Abyss joined Team Cage. The sitdown interview with the Stinger and Mike Tenay was rather interesting. In short, Sting said that he was depressed that he had failed Abyss, as his plan to free the monster instead lead to him being worse off than he was before. In a perfect world, this would result in Sting disappearing for a few weeks before deciding that he never should have given up and returning to set things right once and for all. That would serve the dual purpose of briefly breaking from the Sting/Abyss feud without prematurely blowing it off and also giving the fans more time to build their sympathy for Abyss, thereby making it mean more when Sting returns as his liberator. Plus it would leave an open spot on Team Angle for a younger, less established babyface to get a much needed rub. However, if TNA feels that Sting needs to be in the War Games match, I can deal with that. Yet, with Sting announcing that he is a failure and then doing a 180 on that feeling within fifteen minutes, it does seem like a part of this story has been greatly rushed.

And we left the program with a tease that the fifth member of Team Angle would be announced next week. Yes, I've read the spoilers. Yes, I know who it is. Yes, the reaction of the Impact Zone crowd and the reaction of the internet will be very interesting to watch.

Angle Numero Dos: The Lockdown Card Takes Shape

Okay, this really isn't an angle, but I didn't think that there was a second storyline on Imapct this week that warranted a full write-up. So I suppose I'll use my additional space to run down the Lockdown undercard matches that were announced this week during Jim Cornette's "town hall meeting" with the TNA roster. I love these Jim Cornette segments, just because they feel so down home and folksy. It's like the TNA wrestlers are the citizens of Mayberry, and Cornette is Sheriff Andy Taylor.

Match #1:

Low Ki

vs.


Austin Aries
w/ Bob Backlund as Guest Referee

Match #2:

Gail Kim

vs.


Jackie Moore

Match #3:

Bobby Roode

vs.


"Canadian Pygmy" Petey Williams
(Hey, remember when wrestlers had tough names like "Dick the Bruiser" and "The Crusher?" Now we've got Bobby vs. Petey!)

Match #4:

Chris Harris

vs.


James Storm

Match #5:

X Division X-Scape Match

Chris Sabin vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley vs. Shark Boy



And the Rest . . .

~ Bob Backlund is still doing the Harvard step test. We'll have more on that later.

~ Gail Kim jumped Jackie in Jim Cornette's office. I like how James Storm, who Jackie is aligned with, stood in the room and did absolutely nothing.

~ I think that I can count on one hand the number of TNA fans who actually got that Kevin Nash/Sonjay Dutt "Oz" joke. Nash is a funny guy, but, for the sake of the company, they need to limit his humor to gags that the majority of fans will understand.

~ I feel like I should be devoting more space to the events that occurred in the Dudley Boys vs. LAX feud this evening, as it is probably the third largest angle in the company. However, despite the fact that they got a full segment of the show, nothing significant took place. It was just a Bubba Ray promo that was the same as every other Bubba Ray promo cut during the feud. Yawn.

~ Much like the X-Scape Match last week, TNA again felt that it would be a great idea to give away one of their PPV matches for free on TV, this time with Austin Aries vs. Low Ki. Seriously, who thinks this kind of thing is a good idea? I also don't get the point of Bob Backlund costing Ki the match. It's pretty clear that Backlund is supposed to be a face, so what does is Low Ki being angry with him supposed to accomplish? Does that make Ki a heel? Is TNA really booking a match in which the two wrestlers are heels and the only babyface is the referee? How is that going to entice people to buy pay per views? "Hey, Jimmy, let's buy TNA Lockdown. I love that Bob Backlund guy and can't wait to see him OFFICIATE!"

Overall

TNA has had an interesting trend going ever since they started to build towards Lockdown. The first show headed in to this pay per view was really quite good, but every subsequent episode has gotten a bit worse . . . which is the exact opposite of what you want to be doing. This particular show continued that trend. Though they did manage to keep the number of wrestlers on the program down and prevented the "cluttered" feeling that has plagued them for so long, there were a few problems. Several of them, like the lack of meaningful progression in the LAX vs. Dudleys feud or the stupid in-joke with Sonjay Dutt, can be ingored because they're minor in the grand scheme of things.

However, several events on this episode combined to indicate a complete lack of long term planning by TNA. The first is the previously discussed issue with Tomko, who seems to fluctuate between bit player status and main eventer status on a weekly basis. The fluctuations are almost approaching the levels of the rapid fire heel/face turns that we saw during the Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe feud. Simply put, the company needs to pick a direction for this guy and just GO WITH IT, as otherwise the weeks in which he's put over strong are very harmful to the men that he's put over. The second problem indicative of a lack of long term planning is the rushed nature of the Sting depression angle. Again, if you're not able to stretch a story like that over at least one week of television, you shouldn't be doing it. There's no reason for a guy to cut a promo that makes it sound like he's leaving for a while only for him to return fifteen minutes later. The third timing issue? Having Team Angle regain the advantage by the end of the show when there could've been more suspense built by having them wait one more week to announce man four. As I alluded to throughout the body of this column, any one of these problems on their own probably wouldn't have been a big deal. When you have all of them happening in the same show, though, it becomes apparent that the folks in charge are booking from taping to taping by the seat of their pants instead of having an end goal in mind and booking towards it. Having that end goal when you write has always produced the best results in wrestling, and I don't know why some people have yet to figure it out.

And, since I needed something to do while I waited for the UFC special to end, I managed to get to some reader feedback. Let's start with Ric:

associating tomko with dutch mantell was fantastic. its so preposterous it HAS to be true. i was dumfounded watching impact, as to why anyone would fight over the services of tomko? anyway, just wanted to write and say how big of a fan i am. 411mania as a whole is a great site. (i've been going to it for 5 years now.) i'm pretty disgusted with the russo ran tna, but until they repackage eric young as kwi wi 2 i'll remain faithful.

Yeah, yeah, I'm mainly publishing this one for the ego boost. I will say, though, that I also enjoy Eric Young when he's not doing stuff that is obviously over scripted. (These days, that's usually limited to times when he's in the ring.) He's one of the better comedy workers that I've seen come down the pike in quite some time, as he manages to do little things different every week, keeping the gimmick from getting old. He's also not that bad of a performer when he's not doing the comedy schtick, as he took some great bumps and sold very well during his Tag Team Title run with Bobby Roode.

And what was wrong with Kwee Wee? Seriously, I always enjoyed that guy, especially the two or three weeks that he and Mike Sanders teamed as the "Re-Enforcers."

But let it never be said that I only publish e-mails from people who agree with me. To that end, here's Giuliano:

in you latest Impact thoughts you wrote:

-- Bob Backlund is doing the Harvard step test throughout the show. Great, what does that accomplish? Does that get more viewers to tune in? Does that get people to buy pay per views? No? Then don't do it! --

This little bit of entertainment might not get someone to buy a PPV but it's a way to get that Backlund/Senshi/Starr angle out on a 1 hour show. Plus we don't know if some folks watch Impact every week just to see their hero Bob Backlund. Fact is though that not every little tiny bit on Impact has to resolve around "does this get ppl buying PPV's".

Well, I can't say that I've been persuaded by this argument at all, so we'll break it down point by point.

Your first point is that Backlund appearing on TV to do the step test was OK because it got the Austin Aries vs. Low Ki feud on Impact for the week. However, you did not tell us why it's important to get the feud on TV. Is there some reason that it MUST be on ever episode of Imapct? Even if we accept that proposition for the sake of argument, surely there is a better way of getting the feud on TV than Backlund climbing stairs. Wouldn't it be much better to get the feud on TV while involving the two men who will actually be wrestling in the blowoff match?

As far as Backlund being a ratings draw is concerned, that argument is ridiculous. If numerous people were tuning in just to watch Bob, there should have been a spike in ratings when he first appeared. However, the TNA rating has been stuck in the same 0.9 - 1.1 range for months, no matter who they add to the roster. If Kurt Angle didn't make a difference, Bob Backlund certainly won't.

Your third and final point is that not everything on Impact has to have the focus of getting people to buy pay per views. I disagree. Pay per views are the company's main source of revenue, as they make absolutely no money off of the Impact TV show itself. (They don't charge for tickets to the tapings, and SpikeTV doesn't pay them anything for the ads that are sold.) Plus you have to consider the fact that TNA has a five year history in which they have yet to turn a strong profit. In fact, they've been losing money for the majority of that time. When you have been losing money for half a decade and are only being propped up by a parent company that could leave you for dead at any time, you need to do whatever is possible to make that money. And how does TNA make money? PPV! That is why converting TV viewers in to PPV buyers should be their primary focus above all else.

That should do it for this week. I'll see you all next week, and hopefully I'll see some of you Saturday night in Berwyn!