After last week’s marathon article, this week I intend to keep it pretty brief,for a couple of reasons.
Number one is I had an exam to sit, and it was pretty important, so most of my time has been devoted to that, number two, appropriately, is TNA. With my free time taken up by the aforementioned exam, the only wrestling I have seen this week is Impact, and I have to say, after that, it may be a while before I can get the dirty feeling scrubbed off. This show was horrendous.
Considering we are building to the company’s biggest night of the year, a night where they may even hope to get over 100 buys of Slammiversary, it would be reasonable to expect, ten days before that PPV to have something which would whet the appetite of the viewer, give them a reason to consider shelling out some of their hard earned on a wrestling show.
Instead, it was Edge and Christian I believe who coined the most appropriate description of Impact. It reeked of sucktitude.
MVP tells Samoa Joe he has no contract with the company, but if he can win a match against Aries, he will get one. If he loses, he will be fired.MVP will fire someone he just told the world does not work for TNA. How? If that is not enough, MVP then inserts a ‘no finish’ clause, when he tells Aries if he loses, he will be fired.
Unbelievably, no-one loses this match, so nobody is fired, although Joe did not win, so has no contract, which apparently is no barrier to him continuing with the company, he is facing Lashley at the PPV. I am sure there is some logic to that, and I am the stupid one for not seeing it…
Now, after that amazing piece of booking, MVP goes way over the top, and books the Wolves to face EACH OTHER! Stunning stuff, that nobody saw coming, as you just did something extremely similar ten minutes ago. To ensure this match is competitive, Kenny King stands at the top of the ramp and shouts stuff. Anyone having trouble seeing where this is going?
With no real incentive to win, and I get that there never is, but at least their generally is some pretence there is, the Wolves have the opportunity to put on a wrestling clinic which does nothing for anyone who may have wandered into the Impact Zone by mistake. Somebody wins, Kenny King is not happy, Wolves attack him. Absolute garbage.
If you add in the other crap, a DQ in the Willow v Bram match, cheating for a win in the knockouts match, and an eight man first blood match that had the worst finish ever, after zero build, it is hard to explain where the TNA audience is going. Below is a picture which reportedly shows a crowd at a TNA house show. I was not there, so cannot verify its authenticity, but would be inclined to accept it as fact.
What Did You Expect From the Vacuous
Now if you have a TV show, and you want people to come see your house shows, give them something to get excited about. Look at WWE, Daniels may have to give up the belt, The Shield have split, Cena beat Bray again, Punk still has not returned.
Whether or not you like any of that, it is something you might want to talk about on internet forums, or with like minded friends. MVP not being able to cut a promo, or EY as champ may merit a passing comment, Joe not having a contract and still being with the company probably wont.If you don’t excite people with your TV show, you cannot really expect them to leave the house to turn up for a live show.
TNA used to excite me, it used to entertain me, it used to be the wrestling show I never missed. Now it is the wrestling show I watch out of habit, and a bit like a junkie, I do it then hate myself. The storylines make little or no sense, the matches are now down to less than five minutes in most cases, and you have to feel for wrestlers who have to work in these conditions.
The company has probably been at deaths door for quite a while, and it seems the writers have decided they will not go quietly. They are kicking down Death’s door, and challenging him to a fight. This is a fight, a bit like the Samoa Joe v Aries fight, that nobody really wins.
WWE need a strong competitor to keep Vince honest, a strong TNA, like in the past with WCW, makes wrestling everywhere better. A weak TNA, and boy are they weak, means WWE does not really have to try to hard to impress. But worse than that, encouraging new viewers into wrestling becomes an impossible task if the first thing they see is Impact.
Imagine never having watched any wrestling, and your introduction to it was TNA. Would you EVER watch another wrestling show?
This, I think will be the last I write about TNA, at least for a while. For a while, the company actually put out some great PPV’s while Impact was poor. This stopped about three PPV’s ago, and sad though it makes me, I probably wont even bother watching Slammiversary, and it may take a while before I build up the courage to watch Impact again.
It does not make me happy to say any of this, but realistically,the effort I put in to switching on my TV is far greater than the effort it seems the writers of anything TNA are producing at the moment are putting in.
I would like to leave you with a positive note, so I will say I aced the exam this morning, although not in an Aces and Eights way. Results are yet to be forthcoming, but it is the only positive thing I can think of to end on.
This week I would suggest to anyone who has not seen Impact yet, don’t do it. Stay here on SLTDwrestling.com, and read something people actually write about with passion, and look like they care. SLTD radio celebrates its birthday this week, and is also well worth a listen, while the MFX podcast takes a week off.
Finally, the twitter war rages on, and despite my best efforts, my girlfriend passed me for followers last week. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that you follow me @GrantCookDFC she is unbearable at the moment….
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