Did you know that some guys in TNA used to work for the WWE? Well, if you didn't, they'll sure let you know. When DX made its high-profile return, former members BG and Kip James, formerly Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, went ape-shit over the whole thing and changed their tag team name from the James Gang (which fit) to the Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM - Vincent Kennedy McMahon - get it?). Mick Foley made his debut and talked about how awesome the people Kurt Angle used to wrestle against are. It's always WWE this, WWE that.
TNA, after all this time, is still lacking its own identity. I know I can't get through a TNA post without mentioning WCW, but this is why. Once the nWo storyline was milked to death (three times) - WCW has absolutely nothing, so it tried to emulate the WWF. ECW mentioned both companies quite often, but that WAS its identity. It was the one company that didn't want to be like either of the other two.
TNA is not doing that. It's quite obvious that TNA badly wants to be the WWE. They need to focus on refining TNA and worry a whole lot less about whatever they're trying to accomplish here.
What if Smackdown moved back to Thursday? I'm just saying.
Showing posts with label TNA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TNA. Show all posts
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Another Seven Bite the Dust
WWE has released six more names as of yesterday.
Shannon Moore and Domino were on my list. Nunzio should have been, but I forgot about him.
Braden Walker used to be "Wildcat" Chris Harris in TNA. Aside from Monty Brown, Harris was the only "home grown" TNA star to jump ship to WWE. After signing his contract back in January, he was invisible for six months until popping up in ECW. He was released after just two televised matches.
James Curtis was a jobber in ECW, but back when he was KC James he was one of Michelle McCool's "Teacher's Pets" along with Idol Stevens. After that tag team went nowhere, he went back to OVW. He eventually found his way to ECW, where he never won a match.
The story going around was that Big Daddy V was sent home and told to lose some weight. Apparently, WWE saw being a 900+ lb. bucket of jiggly man goo in suspenders as not healthy. I'm guessing the efforts to trim up didn't go so well. Along with Trevor Murdoch, he was a wasted draft pick as he got released before even making an appearance on the show he was drafted to.
And finally, famous referee Nick Patrick got the sack as well. I have no idea why, but I can't say as I remember seeing him on television recently.
Shannon Moore and Domino were on my list. Nunzio should have been, but I forgot about him.
Braden Walker used to be "Wildcat" Chris Harris in TNA. Aside from Monty Brown, Harris was the only "home grown" TNA star to jump ship to WWE. After signing his contract back in January, he was invisible for six months until popping up in ECW. He was released after just two televised matches.
James Curtis was a jobber in ECW, but back when he was KC James he was one of Michelle McCool's "Teacher's Pets" along with Idol Stevens. After that tag team went nowhere, he went back to OVW. He eventually found his way to ECW, where he never won a match.
The story going around was that Big Daddy V was sent home and told to lose some weight. Apparently, WWE saw being a 900+ lb. bucket of jiggly man goo in suspenders as not healthy. I'm guessing the efforts to trim up didn't go so well. Along with Trevor Murdoch, he was a wasted draft pick as he got released before even making an appearance on the show he was drafted to.
And finally, famous referee Nick Patrick got the sack as well. I have no idea why, but I can't say as I remember seeing him on television recently.
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