TNA is no longer Total Nonstop Action. TNA is now Total Nonstop Angle!
When TNA first signed Kurt Angle, I had mixed emotions. I was at first excited for TNA because Kurt Angle is a known name throughout the wrestling world. It's not like TNA signed a barely known indy guy to a deal. They signed Kurt Angle. This guy won a gold medal with a broken freakin' neck! I wasn't that happy that Angle was released to heal up and get over his personal issues. Vince & the E were doing Angle a favor and he was basically pissing on them, even though Vince told Angle that a cup of coffee and a gold medal didn't mean shit. To be honest, if you win an Olympic gold medal in anything, that's a big deal to me. Angle's signing was a shockwave throughout the wrestling world.
I devoted a blog following the signing to debunk the theories behind Angle's actions. I had to explain why he did signed with TNA and the fallout surrounding it. I even had to explain that Vince didn't own TNA and TNA wrestlers weren't paid by Vince. Ahh, the retardedness of people these days. Is retardedness even a word?
No Surrender makes it a year since Angle's signing was announced. It was announced at the end of the show that Angle had signed and it was real, it was damn real! I remember after hearing that, I was pretty freaking excited. I couldn't wait to see Angle feud with Joe, Styles, Daniels, Cage, and any of the other stars that were suitable. Well, Angle has pretty much feuded with Samoa Joe and a few sporadic feuds with Abyss and Christian Cage.
Almost a year later, Angle has taken over TNA. I was happy to see Angle in TNA, but I didn't expect him to destroy what the original stars had built. That's what happens when you place a full creative control clause in a guys contract and then basically give him a lot of money for a couple months of shows. While guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage, etc. don't get the big money Angle does, they deliver better than Angle. Angle's addiction to pain pills can be noticed by simply talking to him backstage. He mumbles and is incoherent whenever he's talking. You can't really see that on TV because he doesn't show the signs. But, Vince was trying to do him a favor and he metaphorically spit in McMahon's face.
Angle has come in, put himself as the center of attention and become like Hulk Hogan was in WCW and Triple H was a few years ago in WWE. He is the centerpiece to every Impact it seems and now, he owns 4 different championships, 3 of which are useless because their division doesn't matter or their "promotion" doesn't recognize the belt. The X Division is pretty much dead. If you're not in a tag team or stable, you're not used. Where's Petey Williams? Where's Shark Boy? I can remember when TNA would have random X Division matches and we would get some exciting action. Now, X Division guys are used for squash matches, crappy segments, and crappy stables/tag teams. Serotonin was built up and they haven't done much, except create a feud between Kazarian and Raven. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley, two dynamic wrestlers, have been paired up as a tag team who better get a push. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were given decent gimmicks at best. Last year, we got a World X Cup. In the past, we've gotten a Super X Cup to determine the new #1 Contender to the X Division Championship. What have we gotten this year? The Paparazzi Championship Series which was sometimes funny and sometimes dumb.
The crap continues with the tag team division. The last two title defense were by singles wrestlers! What in the hell is going on? Now, No Surrender is all about Kurt Angle. I kind of wish a fan would hope the railing and attack Angle. He needs to go away. He needs to go away now.
But, who is to blame for the BS we're seeing in TNA? I know his name. His first name Vince but his last name isn't McMahon. It's Russo. We're seeing a big influx of former WWE talent into TNA. Dustin Rhodes is the latest example with his Black Reign gimmick, which seems like a Goth version of Goldust, except he carries a spike. So much for an LAX-Naturals dominating tag division. The tag division is run by the AARP Crusty Bastard Guys. If you don't know AARP, it's the American Association for Retired Persons. I do not want to see the Voodoo Kin Mafia. First of all, the only thing voodoo about them is that chick that wiggles around. Other than that, it's just a play on McMahon's initials. I do not want to see the Steiner Brothers. Rick is old and Scottie is one move away from being injured again, not to mention he'll explode with one more dose of 'roids. I do not want to see Team 3D. They're past they're prime and need to step aside. Letting go of the Naturals was flat retarded. The Naturals were one of the best tag teams when TNA first started. They were in line for a push and got buried. America's Most Wanted was the cornerstone of the tag division since the start of TNA. They split them up and were going to give them singles pushes and I don't even know where they're going. Who's to blame? Vince Russo.
The storylines keep getting weirder with this guy. Eric Young & Robert Roode have feuded for too long. It's like Russo tried too hard to gain viewers. He tries to do wacky stuff that might get the casual fan to become a regular fan. The swerve from the Angle-Joe match at Hard Justice could have been seen from a mile away. To the smart wrestling fan, it was easily spotted. It wasn't a matter of if but when. To the casual fan, they would have thought that was genius. I thought it was genius the first time I saw it when I was a little kid. If they were going to "get back together" they could have done it a different way. Have Karen get in the ring and attempt to hit Angle with a chair, only for it to backfire and she ends up hitting Joe. Or, have her get in the ring after the match and after Angle's won and instead of kicking him in the nuts, have her hug him and bring the family back together. Or, have Angle win, get out of the ring and shove his victory in Karen's face. Or, have Samoa Joe win and Angle walk away for a few months & come back a changed man. Or, have a No Contest or a draw between the two. There's so many other ways to end a match, but Russo goes with the most ridiculous one.
I realize that they're trying to draw in the casual fans and make them regular fans. But, I'm not really high on casual fans even though they can make or break your business. I've been around casual fans before, the most recent was at the December to Dismember PPV. I had a guy tap me on the shoulder and ask me if John Cena was going to be there. Keep in mind, this is an ECW-only PPV. I politely told him no, because face it, with 2 advertised matches, that PPV was going nowhere fast. I know Russo is trying to draw in the casual fan that thinks his storylines are cool. But, in the process, he's losing the loyal fans that have been with TNA since the beginning, one of which is me. I consider myself a hardcore wrestling fan. I know the storylines and stuff are fake, but you can't tell me that taking bumps on broken glass, or being put in a submission hold, or getting nailed with a steel chair is fake. If you think that's fake, I would invite you to meet up with me and let me nail you with a steel chair or toss you onto a ladder and we'll see if your opinion changes.
The casual fan doesn’t want to see old guys vying for championships. I've talked to some "casual fans" about TNA before. They're open to the idea because they don't want to see the soap opera in WWE. But, the first thing they notice is the old guys that are in TNA. I'm not talking about Jerry Lynn, who can wrestle circles around some guys. I'm talking about the Non-Voodoo Kin Mafia or Dustin Rhodes or Raven or the Steiners. The guys I referred to are the ones that look odd whenever they're wrestling. When you watch a match that involves LAX on Impact and it's considered by some the worst match of the night and it's not because of LAX, you've got a problem. The only thing that’s missing from TNA is a few more old Divas. If they went out and signed Lita, Terri Runnels, Sable, or Ivory, we would pretty much have the WWE all over again. I don't want to see a bunch of old guys trying to keep up with the young guys. The only guys that I know that I've ever seen pull that off was Jerry Rice & Michael Jordan and they weren't exactly in their prime. If anybody from TNA is reading this, and I know you do because you've threatened me over my logo, GET RID OF THOSE OLD PIECES OF COW DUNG AND LET THE HOMEGROWN YOUNG GUYS RUN THE SHOW! I don't mind Christian Cage because he's fairly young and he's a great heel. I do mind VKM, Team 3D, and the Steiners running a tag division that should be run by Triple X, the Motor City Machine Guns, and LAX. I don't mind Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt competing for the X Division Championship. I do mind even the rumors that the X Division Championship will be scrapped. GET RID OF THOSE OLD TWEEBS!
Like I was saying, I'm a hardcore wrestling fan. I've thought to myself that I watch too damn much wrestling during the week. I watch RAW, ECW, TNA, Smackdown, and I occasionally pop in a wrestling DVD of some kind. Just the other night, I watched ECW One Night Stand from 2006. Why? Well, there wasn't anything good on TV.
I said all of that to say this, you can only try & grab those casual fans for so long. Seeing any champion or veteran star hog the spotlight makes me sick to my stomach. I hated when Hulk Hogan ran WCW and was the center of attention. At first, it's cool. But, after a while, you need to shake things up a bit. That's how it is in every profession. On a professional football team, you hire a coach to get you to a certain level. After a while, you plateau and if you lift weights, you know what I mean when I say plateau. You reach a certain point where you just can't seem to get over that hump. That pro coach can only take you so far. A perfect example of this was when Tony Dungy was coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs. Now, I'm a huge Dungy fan but he just couldn't seem to get the Bucs over the hump. Enter Jon Gruden and they win a Super Bowl. The same is in professional wrestling except it's with the writers. The previous booking team could only take TNA so far. TNA brought in Vince Russo to get them over that hump, which seemed to be a 1.0 rating. Well, in my humble opinion, he's reached that hump. He can't get TNA over that plateau and it's hurting the business.
New blood needs to be brought into the writing team. They need to bring somebody in that will carry them to the next level when they get the 2-hour slot in the fall. I consider getting a 1.0 or higher a success for an organization. When Wrestling Society X premiered and garnered a 1.0 rating, I considered that successful. They had reached the "playoffs" so to speak. Well, Russo has reached the playoffs time & time again. Right now though, he's "spinning his wheels." He's trying too hard to gain the casual fan, while leaving the loyal fans out in the cold. When TNA gains a 2.0 rating, I would consider that getting to the conference championship. When TNA gains a 3.0 rating, if that ever happens & they're still in business, I would consider that getting to the world championship. To do that, TNA needs some players to step up.
Jeff Jarrett, the franchise QB, could only take TNA so far. So, he gave the ball to Christian Cage, the go-to wide receiver. Christian is one of those guys who never really got a break in WWE. He had glimpses of main event glory, but was passed over. So, they brought a "free agent" in with Kurt Angle, the hard-nosed running back. Russo is that coach that's had success but can't recapture it. His buddies on the writing team are the front office executives. It's time to change things up in TNA. They need a new guy to step up and carry the "team." That guy needs to be Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe need to be like LeBron James was to the Cavaliers. Joe needs to be the face of the company. Instead of having Kurt Angle run everything, they need to pass the torch to Joe.
Joe built Ring of Honor into a respective company in many people's opinions, including mine. He gave respectability to the ROH World Championship. I'm hoping and literally praying that the Samoa Joe-Kurt Angle feud is some how extended to Bound for Glory in some capacity. Joe needs to win the belt and go on a tear like he did in ROH for about a year. They need to build Joe into the face of the company. Pass the torch to him and do what they did in ROH and a little in TNA. I wouldn't mind if Joe went through the entire TNA roster and defeated everybody. Yeah, that would seem like what John Cena is doing but Joe is a better wrestler and could build TNA some respectability. I remember at Bound for Glory 2005, they had a match between Samoa Joe & Jushin Thunder Liger. It was a dream match to hardcore wrestling fans. Give Joe the belt and after he runs through most of the TNA roster, and I say most because I don't think a PPV main event between Joe & Shark Boy would draw, bring in outside guys. International wrestling fans and fans from North America would be drawn to a world title match between Joe & Jushin Liger. What about a Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, & AJ Styles 3-way? What about an inter promotional match between TNA Champion Joe & ROH Champion Takeshi Morishima? That probably won't happen because TNA severed ties with the most well known North American indy promotion. Hell, I pitched an inter promotional ROH invasion of TNA a while back.
Will all of this happen? It probably won't because logic is no longer part of being on any wrestling creative team. Whether it's TNA or WWE, logic isn't brought into the equation. My right butt cheek can’t think. But, if it did, it would use more logic than the members of the WWE & TNA creative teams. If you get rid of the non-drawing veterans, use some logic in the creative decisions, and make Joe the face of your company, you will not lose the loyal fans or the casual fans.
You can e-mail me at
yellow_jackets2000@mgoblue.com. If you send me spam, I will knock your block off. Just kidding, but seriously, I will.
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