Five things about Impact

Despite their claims, TNA is not active competition to the WWE. It's a fact. Are they growing? Slowly, but yes. However, watching an episode of any WWE show (even ECW) then hitting up Impact will immediately showcase an inferior product. I have been watching Impact more regularly lately, and I've gathered five things (in random order) that makes the experience somewhat difficult for me.

1) Crowd reaction
Now I realize this is hardly TNA's fault, but the crowd reaction really does seem to hurt the product. The smallest aerial spot will ignite a 'TNA!' chant, and well-known names will be cheered simply for name recognition. I'm pretty sure that of Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Sting, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner, Tomko, and Samoa Joe, there should be one heel, but you can't tell from the crowd. Everyone gets cheered. Of course, I remember the days in which WCW piped in 'Goldberg' chants, so I guess this may be the lesser of two evils.

2) Inconsistency
The problem with my inconsistent viewership of Impact is that I am constantly wondering who's on which side of what. The Team Angle/Christian Coalition thing had me scratching my head, Tomko's allegiance baffled me, and just what is up with Kevin Nash and Samoa Joe? Sting is supposed to be this holier-than-thou bitter veteran, yet still high fives the fans on his way to and from the ring. Everyone loves the swerve, but you really need to keep some kind of consistency if you're going to make them mean something.

3) Gimmicks
First and foremost, leave Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt out of this category. They have both taken what could be awful gimmicks and have run with them. I'm talking about Shiek Abdul Bashir (Shawn Davari) who is holding the X Division Title as his hostage (yes, Mike Tenay really said that). I'm talking about Christopher Daniels being 'fired' and returning as the masked Curry Man. I'm talking about the imminent arrival of Suicide, a character based on the amnesia-based video game character. There seem to be a million bad gimmicks out there, and TNA is slowly but surely trying to go through them all. At least Matt Morgan isn't stuttering. That's a plus.

4) Don West
As the voice of the product, a commentator's voice is the most-heard noise on a show. You'd think that with responsibility, one would find a set of somewhat pleasant voices to be heard for the product. WWE has its teams of Jim Ross, Tazz, Matt Striker, Todd Grisham, Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, none of whom are hard on the ears. TNA has its longtime team of Mike Tenay and Don West. While Mike Tenay is certainly a capable commentator (as well as a walking encyclopedia of wrestling knowledge), Don West yells. And yells. And yells. I would probably be welcoming on TNA programming if West wasn't screaming at me for both hours. TNA also falls into the old WCW trap of having two play-by-play guys and no color commentators. Surely there's someone who can provide analysis - maybe someone like Scott D'Amore or James Mitchell or even Raven to take the spot. Just please, PLEASE, get rid of West.

5) Crazy-ass matches
If you think about it from a business standpoint, the weekly, free TV shows are there to allow a storyline to unfold and build to a turning point/climactic moment at a PPV, in which the viewer has to pay. It is at these PPVs that the highest quality matches should be on display. This includes gimmick matches, that don't (or shouldn't) appear regularly. Such is not the case with TNA, though. Every episode of Impact usually has at least one crazy stipulation match, be it a object-on-a-pole or a ladder match, or some hard-to-define stipulation that TNA is so renowned for. Most of these matches would likely be heavy PPV draws had the fans not become so used to them from episodes of Impact. WCW did the same thing in its closing days, desperate to get a quick ratings jump. So put on quality matches on Impact, and save the special stuff for the PPVs. If you can even get storylines going consistently, you might get a better fanbase.

So there you go - five things that make watching Impact a chore for me most weeks. There's potential there, which is why I tune in at least every other week. it just needs a lot of fine-tuning to make it.