9 Reasons Impact is a Show Every Wrestling Fan Should Watch

[cero2k]

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53

I think a lot of people have this notion about TNA that it's a mismanaged hellhole that has repeatedly dropped the ball despite having every resource imaginable available to them. A lot of comparisons are made to WCW, which makes sense since many of the people who helped cause the demise of that company are in positions of power in TNA today. To be honest, those people weren't too far off the mark if that's how they looked at the first two years or so of the Hogan Era of TNA, because there are a lot of examples of them throwing away opportunity after opportunity for no other reason than apparent, sheer incompetence. I know this is how people feel, because I get a lot of email from folks who take TNA to task for every bad move they make, and then finish by telling me that this is why they don't watch TNA.
While I appreciate the spirit of what they're saying, the part where they mention that they don't watch TNA anymore makes me think two things. First, saying that when you're talking about how bad the company is kind of shoots your argument in the foot for the same reason it would if you said you don't like a food you haven't tried. But the other thing is that TNA has actually been really good for a solid eight or nine months now. No, everything doesn't always click as well as they probably hoped it would when they wrote it, but I really look forward to doing the Impact Wrestling report every week, and that's not something I could have said a year ago. When I watch them now, I see a company that's working really hard to make itself something true wrestling fans want to watch, and I think they're largely succeeding at that.

In fact, I think there's so much good stuff happening in TNA right now that you're really doing yourself a disservice if you refuse to watch TNA because you believe they can't do anything right. If you're still not convinced, let me tell you some of the reasons I like watching and think you would too:

Impact Wrestling is now live every week: At least until the end of the summer, anyway. Though this may seem trivial to some, the fact is that a lot of people thought of Impact as second rate because it was taped instead of being aired live. Also, a lot of people would read spoilers and either feel like they didn't need to watch because they knew what was going to happen, or would pass judgment on the storylines without actually seeing how they play out live. Because of this, they're also now able to spring things on the fans that they simply wouldn't be able to do if the show were taped and everybody knew about the new wrestler or storyline twist that would air on Thursday night. This freedom is also key to the success of other areas, such as the fact that...

They're working hard to develop new ideas: Just in the last three months, we've been introduced to Open Fight Night, the Gut Check tryout system has been made a monthly segment on Open Fight Night, and now we've got a new rule where the X Division Champion can turn in their title for a shot at the World Title shot every year at Destination X. I'm a fan of all three of these, the Open Fight Night dynamic allows for a more impromptu feel to the show, the Gut Check takes the Tough Enough/NXT model and strips away all the bloat to constantly introduce us to new talent in a pure "yes or no" type of scenario, and the Destination X rule makes the X Division Title a much more important thing to have than when it was just the flippy dippy title. It can now serve as something equivalent to a Money In The Bank win, and make it something that young wrestlers chase all year long. This brings me to the next point...

Coherent, long term storylines: I think the best example of how well TNA has been booking long term storylines and sticking with them is the James Storm-Bobby Roode feud that looks to play out over the course of a full year. Here you have this team that's been together forever, but then Bobby Roode becomes so jealous that Storm won the TNA World Title after Roode couldn't, that Roode was willing to throw away their friendship and burn damn near every bridge he had just to be the champion. They spent six months building to Storm and Roode in a cage, but Storm costs himself the match because he's more worried about hurting Roode than beating him. He goes home to reconsider his life for a month or two, and now he comes back and appears headed to a final showdown with Roode at Bound For Glory. In the meantime, Roode has become the longest-reigning TNA World Champion in history and has fulfilled the destiny everyone expected of him from the beginning. The only thing he fears at this point is getting back into the ring with Storm, and he's doing everything he can to avoid that.

That's just one example of an angle that played out over the course of several months, others include Roode-Sting and Bully Ray-Abyss. On the flipside, we don't see any more nonsensical turns coming out of the blue, no more "Pope is trying to steal Devon's sons", and no more "we're going to push Doug Williams to the moon and then suddenly we don't see him on TV for five months", either. Not every storyline has hit on all cylinders, but they've stuck to their plans and it makes TNA a much easier show to follow.

The titles mean something: With WWE treating every title but the one around CM Punk's waist like an afterthought, TNA goes in the opposite direction by treating all of its titles with respect. Titles are supposed to be the reasons everyone is there, and everybody in the company from Bobby Roode on down to Robbie E is clear that the desire to become or stay a champion is what drives them. Bobby Roode was willing to leave James Storm for dead to win the title and will do anything to keep it, while everyone else will do anything to be the guy to take the title from him. The X Division Title just became a steppingstone to a World Title shot in addition to being the centerpiece of the division TNA identified itself by. Devon has been a World Tag Team Champion over 20 times, but he still takes defending the lowest ranking title in the company as seriously as anything. When Brooke Tessmacher won the Knockouts Title, she reacted like it meant more to her than anything in the world. Winning the TNA World Tag Team Title revitalized Samoa Joe and Brutus Magnus, and they quickly went from not even wanting to know each other to developing great chemistry and teamwork once they realized they had a real shot at winning the title. Even Eric Young was thrilled winning the Knockouts Tag Team Title with ODB.

You look up and down that roster, and you do not see one person who is there for any reason other than to be a champion. No Santino Marella showing up to act like a dumbass and do the Cobra, no Brodus Clay showing up to dance and have a good time, no Damien Sandow trying to save anyone's intellect, and no David Otunga being a pain in the ass lawyer. TNA has wrestlers trying to win enough matches to get title shots, so they can try and win those too and become a champion. In fact, people are willing to go to some great length to get that title shot, such as...

The Bound For Glory Series: This is one of the greatest things TNA has ever done, and I'm glad they brought it back to hopefully make it an annual tradition. Bound For Glory is TNA's biggest show of the year, so it makes sense that they wouldn't give just anyone a title shot there. In order to make sure the most deserving person gets to challenge for the TNA World Title at Bound For Glory, they set up a THREE MONTH LONG tournament that includes twelve top contenders. Every win and loss affects the participants' scores, and then the four men with the highest scores go to the September PPV to determine the Bound for Glory Series winner, and then the winner of that goes to Bound For Glory to MAYBE win the TNA World Title. In a company where titles are the goal, and the title shot at Bound For Glory the TNA equivalent of the main event of Wrestlemania, it makes sense that someone would want to win the Bound For Glory Series (a big deal in and of itself) just to get into the most important TNA match of the year.

Austin Aries: Anybody who has seen Aries working in ROH and elsewhere on the independents has known for a long time how good he is, but probably also doubted that he'd ever make it on a higher level because he's too small for WWE and hasn't had the best relationship with TNA in the past. Aries has proven all those doubters wrong in his most recent run in TNA, far exceeding the expectations many had of him. In one year, Aries has become the longest reigning X Division Champion in company history, defeating literally every other top star in the division. His success in the X Division led to him getting increasingly loud reactions from the crowd, prompting TNA to give him opportunities to move up the card and work programs with Bully Ray and Samoa Joe, two large brawlers who would test whether Aries could adapt to working with men of their style as opposed to smaller high flyers. He came through once again, and now will be main eventing Destination X by challenging Bobby Roode for the TNA World Title. He rarely has a bad match, and is such a complete package at this point in his career that there was no holding him back in a company without a glass ceiling. He's a great example of somebody who the company had no choice but to make into a star because the fans had spoken. If current trends are any indication, others will get a similar opportunity, because...

There's a renewed focus on pushing younger wrestlers: Just in the last year, we've seen Crimson, Zema Ion, Jesse Sorensen, Austin Aries, and Brooke Tessmacher come into the company and take advantage of opportunities to make names for themselves. The Gut Check has become a monthly event, and has led to Alex Silva and Taeler Hendrix getting full time deals with the company, with Joey Ryan presumably not far behind them. Now we have a tournament to crown a new X Division Champion at Destination X, which will give new wrestlers from the independents the very same platform to make a name for themselves that Aries took advantage of last year, and will also give former X Division stars the chance to prove that they still belong in the mix. No other company in North America is giving young, up-and-coming wrestlers the kinds of opportunities that TNA is, and that stands out even more when you consider that...

The middle-aged main eventers who wouldn't go away went away: With TNA earning a reputation for many years as somewhere that WWE castoffs and old WCW wrestlers come to die, note that Booker T, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, and Scott Steiner have all left the company. Eric Bischoff has been banned from TV in storylines and doesn't seem likely to return anytime soon, Jeff Jarrett rarely appears on TV anymore, and while Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and Ken Anderson all float in and out of upper card storylines, none of them has been focused on as heavily as the homegrown TNA main eventers like Bobby Roode, James Storm, and AJ Styles. Team 3D are still around, but Bubba has worked his ass off to earn a main event singles run, while Devon has been put in a position as TV Champion to work with younger wrestlers on a weekly basis. Even Sting has been used more wisely since Bound For Glory, being presented as the first Commissioner/GM-type figure for as long as I can remember who wasn't sputteringly crooked, and then when he left that role to get back in the ring, it was to put the World Champion over. Oh, and there's one other guy I need to mention...

Hulk Hogan has finally grasped what his place is in today's wrestling business: We all had our doubts when he came in, especially when he had Eric Bischoff in tow. Sure enough, it didn't take long for Hogan to prove that those doubts were well founded, as TNA became a 100% retread of late-era WCW, complete with Hogan and Eric Bischoff as the stars of the show, taking upwards of a half hour of promo time on some episodes of Impact, with their nWo clone Immortal backing them up and all the homegrown stars who spent a decade building the company being either pushed to the back or released outright.

That all came to an end at Bound For Glory, and the company slowly started to rebuild itself with Hogan gone and Sting in an entirely new role. I'll be the first to admit that after months of Sting being the best GM the wrestling business had seen in years, I really thought that all the excellence TNA had accomplished in 2012 would be flushed down the toilet when Hogan was put back into power by Dixie Carter. Thankfully, not only have we not been subjected to the nonstop Hoganfests we got for two years after he first joined the company, but there are weeks you barely know he's there. Just this past week, Hogan spent a grand total of MAYBE three minutes on screen, all of which were in backstage promo segments that focused on other people. This is what Hogan should have been doing all along, and his willingness to finally step to the side and let the stars of today break through has helped the company immeasurably.

* * *

It's funny how after the many resets, new eras, and new directions TNA has proclaimed over the years, the one that worked the best was the one they never said was happening. They didn't come out of Bound For Glory yelling that everything was changing, they didn't drill down our throats that the company was being saved, they just made the changes they needed to make and let their work speak for itself. Everyone in TNA has worked their asses off and done a great job turning around what many people thought was a lost cause,and I have no problem saying I enjoy watching Impact a lot more than I enjoy watching Raw or Smackdown these days. Don't believe me? Watch Impact one of these days and see what I mean.

[RedSon]

amazing read. you may hate all you want, but if you still don't check out impact this week after reading this, there may be something wrong with you

[Big Red Machine]

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53


They're working hard to develop new ideas: Just in the last three months, we've been introduced to Open Fight Night, the Gut Check tryout system has been made a monthly segment on Open Fight Night, and now we've got a new rule where the X Division Champion can turn in their title for a shot at the World Title shot every year at Destination X. I'm a fan of all three of these, the Open Fight Night dynamic allows for a more impromptu feel to the show, the Gut Check takes the Tough Enough/NXT model and strips away all the bloat to constantly introduce us to new talent in a pure "yes or no" type of scenario, and the Destination X rule makes the X Division Title a much more important thing to have than when it was just the flippy dippy title. It can now serve as something equivalent to a Money In The Bank win, and make it something that young wrestlers chase all year long. This brings me to the next point...

Yes, there have been new ideas, but none of them (IMO) have been good.

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53


The titles mean something: With WWE treating every title but the one around CM Punk's waist like an afterthought, TNA goes in the opposite direction by treating all of its titles with respect. Titles are supposed to be the reasons everyone is there, and everybody in the company from Bobby Roode on down to Robbie E is clear that the desire to become or stay a champion is what drives them. Bobby Roode was willing to leave James Storm for dead to win the title and will do anything to keep it, while everyone else will do anything to be the guy to take the title from him. The X Division Title just became a steppingstone to a World Title shot in addition to being the centerpiece of the division TNA identified itself by. Devon has been a World Tag Team Champion over 20 times, but he still takes defending the lowest ranking title in the company as seriously as anything. When Brooke Tessmacher won the Knockouts Title, she reacted like it meant more to her than anything in the world. Winning the TNA World Tag Team Title revitalized Samoa Joe and Brutus Magnus, and they quickly went from not even wanting to know each other to developing great chemistry and teamwork once they realized they had a real shot at winning the title. Even Eric Young was thrilled winning the Knockouts Tag Team Title with ODB.

You look up and down that roster, and you do not see one person who is there for any reason other than to be a champion. No Santino Marella showing up to act like a dumbass and do the Cobra, no Brodus Clay showing up to dance and have a good time, no Damien Sandow trying to save anyone's intellect, and no David Otunga being a pain in the a** lawyer. TNA has wrestlers trying to win enough matches to get title shots, so they can try and win those too and become a champion. In fact, people are willing to go to some great length to get that title shot, such as...

I've got to call MAJOR BS here. The titles in TNA mean more than the titles in WWE? Come on! If TNA cared about any titles other than their world title and the Knockouts' title, then maybe they would limit title shots to people who actually EARN them. Look at the contenders for the titles in TNA this year.

For the TV Title, we started off at AAO with someone who hadn't been on TV for over a month answering an open challenge. Then someone else who hadn't been on TV for over a month answered an open challenge and won the belt. Then Robbie E. was given about thirty-eight rematches despite that fact that he lost every single match cleanly, and in under six minutes. The only times he didn't were when his chump bodyguard got the shot, when someone else who hadn't been on TV for months (Hernandez, Garrett) got the shot, when Devon called out Bully Ray (who actively tried to avoid the shot), or when the fans chose someone different (Jeff Hardy).

For the tag team titles, we got the same match three different times on PPV, with there being no real reason why Magnus and Joe were given a second shot, or for why Morgan and Crimson were given a second rematch... ON THE VERY NEXT SHOW AFTER THEIR FIRST REMATCH! Why did Joe and Magnus not get a return match, but Kaz and Daniels did? NO REASON (and I realize that WWE has been doing this with Ziggler and Sheamus, and I wish they would stop, too).

And the X-Division Title? How many damn title shots did Sorrensen and Kash get last fall and winter? You want ridiculous? In the build-up to Genesis, free title shots were handed out to those two (whom Aries had beaten a bunch of times before) but only one of the two between Ion and Nese would be allowed to earn their way into a four way match with Aries... AND THE TWO PERENNIAL LOSERS! This whole time, of course, Alex Shelley, Doug Williams, Shannon Moore, Mark Haskins, and Brian Kendrick, were sitting around doing nothing! Since then, aside from the tremendous match against Shelley, Aries has been more concerned with feuding with Bully Ray than he has with defending the X-Division Title.

In WWE, title matches are rarely made for no reason at all. Someone earns them on-screen (yes, the justification is often extremely flimsy, but it does exist, and especially for the two world titles, and the US and IC titles

Everyone in TNA is there to be a champion? Ummm... how about the Knockouts' Tag Team Champions, EY and ODB. What the author of this article says above about these two is factually correct, but it misses the point. EY wasn't thrilled that he was winning the Knockouts' Tag Team Titles. He was thrilled that he was winning them with ODB. There is a major difference, and their wedding angle has dominated all of their title defenses. The Question of "would EY stay faithfully to ODB if Sarita and Rosita tried to seduce him mid-match?" was made much more important than the question of "would EY and ODB retain the titles?"

Yes, Santino is there to act like a buffoon, but to say that you can't have a character like Sandow's and go after a title at the same time is utterly ridiculous. Just look at Sandow in FCW! That is like looking at 2004 ROH and saying "Homicide is too busy being a gangster to go after the ROH World Title." It is an utterly ridiculous statement.

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53

The Bound For Glory Series: This is one of the greatest things TNA has ever done, and I'm glad they brought it back to hopefully make it an annual tradition. Bound For Glory is TNA's biggest show of the year, so it makes sense that they wouldn't give just anyone a title shot there. In order to make sure the most deserving person gets to challenge for the TNA World Title at Bound For Glory, they set up a THREE MONTH LONG tournament that includes twelve top contenders. Every win and loss affects the participants' scores, and then the four men with the highest scores go to the September PPV to determine the Bound for Glory Series winner, and then the winner of that goes to Bound For Glory to MAYBE win the TNA World Title. In a company where titles are the goal, and the title shot at Bound For Glory the TNA equivalent of the main event of Wrestlemania, it makes sense that someone would want to win the Bound For Glory Series (a big deal in and of itself) just to get into the most important TNA match of the year.

I would be tempted to agree with this, but not this year. This year, we all know that Storm is going to win. Anything else would be an absolutely unheard-of level of booking incompetence. And because we all know that Storm is going to win, it pretty much throws every match in the series under the bus. They are wasting three months of matches for guys like Samoa Joe, Ken Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, and Kurt Angle (AJ, Daniels and Kaz are doing there own thing which will likely over-shadow their own BFG Series matches). The kicker, though, for this is such a bad idea, is that it is an entirely unnecessary vehicle to get Storm a title shot.

James Storm has just come back from two months of questioning his career and deciding that he wants his revenge on Bobby Roode and he wants to be TNA World Heavyweight Champion again. Roode only retained the title against Storm lasted time because he lucked out, and we have a babyface authority figure who wants the belt off of Roode and has been very hands-on with choosing his challengers. Have Hogan go to Storm and give him a title shot, but have Storm get too angry and get DQed while wailing on Roode. Storm demands another shot from Hogan. Bobby Roode tries to intercede by having his lawyers argue that Storm doesn't deserve another title shot and that stepping into the ring with Storm would endanger Roode's livelihood. Hogan creates a compromise saying that he will give Storm a title shot, but he also has to make some concessions to Roode: If Storm loses, this will be his last tile shot as long as Roode is champ, and the ref will be very strict in enforcing DQ rules. Storm says he wants his title shot ASAP, but Hogan tells him that he isn't ready. Over the course of the next few months, Storm has matches against (and beats) the best TNA has to offer (and maybe even bring in some international talent, too), with shots of Hogan watching from his office spliced in. When we come to the Impact after No Surrender, Storm tells hogan that he is finally ready to face Roode, and Hogan agrees, making the match at Bound For Glory.

It took me about three minutes to come up with that angle.

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53

There's a renewed focus on pushing younger wrestlers: Just in the last year, we've seen Crimson, Zema Ion, Jesse Sorensen, Austin Aries, and Brooke Tessmacher come into the company and take advantage of opportunities to make names for themselves. The Gut Check has become a monthly event, and has led to Alex Silva and Taeler Hendrix getting full time deals with the company, with Joey Ryan presumably not far behind them. Now we have a tournament to crown a new X Division Champion at Destination X, which will give new wrestlers from the independents the very same platform to make a name for themselves that Aries took advantage of last year, and will also give former X Division stars the chance to prove that they still belong in the mix. No other company in North America is giving young, up-and-coming wrestlers the kinds of opportunities that TNA is, and that stands out even more when you consider that...

Once again, I'm calling BS. Austin Aries isn't young. He's 34! Sorensen got pushed, but he wasn't particularly good, so that kind of defeats the purpose. Where has Zema Ion been since he got hot? I don't know, but it certainly hasn't been ON TV, which is where he should have been! Yes, Alex Silva won a full-time contract ... but he hasn't been seen on TV since then, so that doesn't help the company or the product at all! Crimson beat a bunch of top-guys and was undefeated for seventeen months... but he hasn't gotten OVER! No one cares about him at all! Fans still see the guys who lost him as much bigger and more credible stars than he is. If TNA was committed to pushing young stars then it seems logical that one of them would be the TV Champion and he would defend it against other young stars in meaningful matches that are given enough time to let the wrestlers shine, rather than the almost 40 year-old Devon beating Robbie E. in three minutes every week.

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53
The middle-aged main eventers who wouldn't go away went away: With TNA earning a reputation for many years as somewhere that WWE castoffs and old WCW wrestlers come to die, note that Booker T, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, and Scott Steiner have all left the company. Eric Bischoff has been banned from TV in storylines and doesn't seem likely to return anytime soon, Jeff Jarrett rarely appears on TV anymore, and while Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and Ken Anderson all float in and out of upper card storylines, none of them has been focused on as heavily as the homegrown TNA main eventers like Bobby Roode, James Storm, and AJ Styles. Team 3D are still around, but Bubba has worked his a** off to earn a main event singles run, while Devon has been put in a position as TV Champion to work with younger wrestlers on a weekly basis. Even Sting has been used more wisely since Bound For Glory, being presented as the first Commissioner/GM-type figure for as long as I can remember who wasn't sputteringly crooked, and then when he left that role to get back in the ring, it was to put the World Champion over. Oh, and there's one other guy I need to mention...

Booker T hasn't been with TNA for almost three years, and Nash hasn't appeared on screen in close to two, so why is it just now that TNA is (allegedly) getting around to pushing younger talent? Scott Steiner's ringwork wasn't all that bad, so he never bothered me at all, and I actually was disappointed that he left. Jarrett's wasn't bad, either. Yeah, Flair isn't around to ramble anymore, but now Hogan is doing that. Of the bunch of ramblers, Bischoff was the on-screen character who I actually enjoyed the most, and I would much rather have him on TV than his no-talent son, and Sting....

To say that Sting "put over" the world champion would require absolutely no knowledge of what the term means because Sting most certainly did not "put over" the world champion. Sting lost the matches, but he did not put Roode over. In fact, he did the opposite of that. Both matches consisted of Sting beating the sh*t out of Roode for most of the match. At Slammiversary, Roode had to cheat to win, and at Victory Road, Roode only won because Sting managed to accidentally KNOCK HIMSELF OUT! Compare that to Triple H's matches against Jeff Hardy in late 2008. Hunter won those matches, but Jeff came out of them looking like a star.

And one more thing I cannot resist commenting on:
"Devon has been put in a position as TV Champion to work with younger wrestlers on a weekly basis."

What show have you been watching? All Devon has done is have the same damn match with Robbie E. for three straight months!

Source: PWInsider

By Stuart Carapola on 2012-07-02 11:48:53
Hulk Hogan has finally grasped what his place is in today's wrestling business: We all had our doubts when he came in, especially when he had Eric Bischoff in tow. Sure enough, it didn't take long for Hogan to prove that those doubts were well founded, as TNA became a 100% retread of late-era WCW, complete with Hogan and Eric Bischoff as the stars of the show, taking upwards of a half hour of promo time on some episodes of Impact, with their nWo clone Immortal backing them up and all the homegrown stars who spent a decade building the company being either pushed to the back or released outright.

That all came to an end at Bound For Glory, and the company slowly started to rebuild itself with Hogan gone and Sting in an entirely new role. I'll be the first to admit that after months of Sting being the best GM the wrestling business had seen in years, I really thought that all the excellence TNA had accomplished in 2012 would be flushed down the toilet when Hogan was put back into power by Dixie Carter. Thankfully, not only have we not been subjected to the nonstop Hoganfests we got for two years after he first joined the company, but there are weeks you barely know he's there. Just this past week, Hogan spent a grand total of MAYBE three minutes on screen, all of which were in backstage promo segments that focused on other people. This is what Hogan should have been doing all along, and his willingness to finally step to the side and let the stars of today break through has helped the company immeasurably.

After Bound For Glory? What was all of that Garrett Bischoff crap, then? At best, Hulk has been used well for about three months now, but there is still WAY to much time wasted with Hulk rambling. The rambling is done in at least semi-productive segments, but it is still rambling nonetheless.

[RedSon]

I've got to call MAJOR BS here. The titles in TNA mean more than the titles in WWE? Come on! If TNA cared about any titles other than their world title and the Knockouts' title, then maybe they would limit title shots to people who actually EARN them. Look at the contenders for the titles in TNA this year.

For the TV Titles, we started off at AAO with someone who hadn't been on TV for over a month answering an open challenge. Then Someone else who hadn't been on TV for over a month answered an open challenge and won the belt. Then Robbie E. was given about thirty-eight rematches despite that fact that he lost every single match cleanly, and in under six minutes. The only times he didn't were when his chump bodyguard got the shot, when someone else who hadn't been on TV for months (Hernandez, Garrett) got the shot, when Devon called out Bully Ray (who actively tried to avoid the shot), or when the fans chose someone different (Jeff Hardy).

For the tag team titles, we got the same match three different times on PPV, with there being no real reason why Magnus and Joe were given a second shot, or for why Morgan and Crimson were given a second rematch... ON THE VERY NEXT SHOW AFTER THEIR FIRST REMATCH! Why did Joe and Magnus not get a return match, but Kaz and Daniels did? NO REASON (and I realize that WWE has been doing this with Ziggler and Sheamus, and I wish they would stop, too).

And the X-Division Title? How many damn title shots did Sorrensen and Kash get last fall and winter? You want ridiculous? In the build-up to Genesis, free title shots were handed out to those two (whom Aries had beaten a bunch of times before) but only one of the two between Ion and Nese would be allowed to earn their way into a four way match with Aries... AND THE TWO PERENNIAL LOSERS! This whole time, of course, Alex Shelley, Doug Williams, Shannon Moore, Mark Haskins, and Brian Kendrick, were sitting around doing nothing! Since then, aside from the tremendous match against Shelley, Aries has been more concerned with feuding with Bully Ray than he has with defending the X-Division Title.

In WWE, title matches are rarely made for no reason at all. Someone earns them on-screen (yes, the justification is often extremely flimsy, but it does exist, and especially for the two world titles, and the US and IC titles

Everyone in TNA is there to be a champion? Ummm... how about the Knockouts' Tag Team Champions, EY and ODB. What the author of this article says above about these two is factually correct, but it misses the point. EY wasn't thrilled that he was winning the Knockouts' Tag Team Titles. He was thrilled that he was winning them with ODB. There is a major difference, and their wedding angle has dominated all of their title defenses. The Question of "would EY stay faithfully to ODB if Sarita and Rosita tried to seduce him mid-match?" was made much more important than the question of "would EY and ODB retain the titles?"

Yes, Santino is there to act like a buffoon, but to say that you can't have a character like Sandow's and go after a title at the same time is utterly ridiculous. Just look at Sandow in FCW! That is like looking at 2004 ROH and saying "Homicide is too busy being a gangster to go after the ROH World Title." It is an utterly ridiculous statement.

the execution of the title matches may not be good, contenders may not be the best, but it is true what the article says. they're all about the titles. wwe's main title hasn't main evented a show since last year, and the story around it is not about the title, it's about aj. tna has been making things about the titles now, their titles get defended often. it's true that you don't need to go back long to see bad things about tna, but then again they only went live one month ago, they only started to their new concepts like two months ago, we can't really blame them for trying to fix the things they were screwing at the start of the year.

I would be tempted to agree with this, but not this year. This year, we all know that Storm is going to win. Anything else would be an absolutely unheard-of level of booking incompetence. And because we all know that Storm is going to win, it pretty much throws every match in the series under the bus. They are wasting three months of matches for guys like Samoa Joe, Ken Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, and Kurt Angle (AJ, Daniels and Kaz are doing there own thing which will likely over-shadow their own BFG Series matches). The kicker, though, for this is such a bad idea, is that it is an entirely unnecessary vehicle to get Storm a title shot.

up until now it all seems like a predictable end, but then again did you expect dixie and aj to be helping out a drug addict?? this is slowly gonna become tna's royal rumble, and even after many years the royal rumble is sometimes predictable too. just a little booking sense and you can predict the rumble as you can predict the series, as you can pretty much predict anything in wrestling, but at least we have 3 months worth of good decent matches. we're bound to get aj vs joe, kurt vs joe, aj vs danels etc etc

Once again, I'm calling BS. Austin Aries isn't young. He's 34! Sorensen got pushed, but he wasn't particularly good, so that kind of defeats the purpose. Where has Zema Ion been since he got hot? I don't know, but it certainly hasn't been ON TV, which is where he should have been! Yes, Alex Silva won a full-time contract ... but he hasn't been seen on TV since then, so that doesn't help the company or the product at all! Crimson beat a bunch of top-guys and was undefeated for seventeen months... but he hasn't gotten OVER! No one cares about him at all! Fans still see the guys who lost him as much bigger and more credible stars than he is. If TNA was committed to pushing young stars then it seems logical that one of them would be the TV Champion and he would defend it against other young stars in meaningful matches that are given enough time to let the wrestlers shine, rather than the almost 40 year-old Devon beating Robbie E. in three minutes every week.

aries is 34, but he's fresh talent, new talent, and considerably younger than guys like rvd or angle. i think this part is talking about not still having sting, angle, rvd, hardy and guys like that be the main focus of the show. roode, storm, kaz, aries are all fresh talent. sure silva hasn't been on tv, but joey ryan has. remember the winner of tough enough?? who had a whole show to get a contract and not just one show. who was only on raw once.

Booker T hasn't been with TNA for almost three years, and Nash hasn't appeared on screen in close to two, so why is it just now that TNA is (allegedly) getting around to pushing younger talent? Scott Steiner's ringwork wasn't all that bad, so he never bothered me at all, and I actually was disappointed that he left. Jarrett's wasn't bad, either. Yeah, Flair isn't around to ramble anymore, but now Hogan is doing that. Of the bunch of ramblers, Bischoff was the on-screen character who I actually enjoyed the most, and I would much rather have him on TV than his no-talent son, and Sting....

even when they (booker, nash, steiner) were gone, you still had hogan, bischoff and sting taking tv time. the problem with the old timers was not exactly their in ring work, no one ever said that booker, jarrett, or steiner were bad in the ring, the problem was always that they took tv time away from the guys everyone wanted to watch. we all thought about that when sting got booked to a title match one month ago.

After Bound For Glory? What was all of that Garrett Bischoff crap, then? At best, Hulk has been used well for about three months now, but there is still WAY to much time wasted with Hulk rambling. The rambling is done in at least semi-productive segments, but it is still rambling nonetheless.

it's not gonna change overnight, but hogan has been taking less tv time, or at least he just comes out when it is needed. he's not getting into personal feuds anymore.

[Big Red Machine]

I've got to call MAJOR BS here. The titles in TNA mean more than the titles in WWE? Come on! If TNA cared about any titles other than their world title and the Knockouts' title, then maybe they would limit title shots to people who actually EARN them. Look at the contenders for the titles in TNA this year.

For the TV Titles, we started off at AAO with someone who hadn't been on TV for over a month answering an open challenge. Then Someone else who hadn't been on TV for over a month answered an open challenge and won the belt. Then Robbie E. was given about thirty-eight rematches despite that fact that he lost every single match cleanly, and in under six minutes. The only times he didn't were when his chump bodyguard got the shot, when someone else who hadn't been on TV for months (Hernandez, Garrett) got the shot, when Devon called out Bully Ray (who actively tried to avoid the shot), or when the fans chose someone different (Jeff Hardy).

For the tag team titles, we got the same match three different times on PPV, with there being no real reason why Magnus and Joe were given a second shot, or for why Morgan and Crimson were given a second rematch... ON THE VERY NEXT SHOW AFTER THEIR FIRST REMATCH! Why did Joe and Magnus not get a return match, but Kaz and Daniels did? NO REASON (and I realize that WWE has been doing this with Ziggler and Sheamus, and I wish they would stop, too).

And the X-Division Title? How many damn title shots did Sorrensen and Kash get last fall and winter? You want ridiculous? In the build-up to Genesis, free title shots were handed out to those two (whom Aries had beaten a bunch of times before) but only one of the two between Ion and Nese would be allowed to earn their way into a four way match with Aries... AND THE TWO PERENNIAL LOSERS! This whole time, of course, Alex Shelley, Doug Williams, Shannon Moore, Mark Haskins, and Brian Kendrick, were sitting around doing nothing! Since then, aside from the tremendous match against Shelley, Aries has been more concerned with feuding with Bully Ray than he has with defending the X-Division Title.

In WWE, title matches are rarely made for no reason at all. Someone earns them on-screen (yes, the justification is often extremely flimsy, but it does exist, and especially for the two world titles, and the US and IC titles

Everyone in TNA is there to be a champion? Ummm... how about the Knockouts' Tag Team Champions, EY and ODB. What the author of this article says above about these two is factually correct, but it misses the point. EY wasn't thrilled that he was winning the Knockouts' Tag Team Titles. He was thrilled that he was winning them with ODB. There is a major difference, and their wedding angle has dominated all of their title defenses. The Question of "would EY stay faithfully to ODB if Sarita and Rosita tried to seduce him mid-match?" was made much more important than the question of "would EY and ODB retain the titles?"

Yes, Santino is there to act like a buffoon, but to say that you can't have a character like Sandow's and go after a title at the same time is utterly ridiculous. Just look at Sandow in FCW! That is like looking at 2004 ROH and saying "Homicide is too busy being a gangster to go after the ROH World Title." It is an utterly ridiculous statement.

the execution of the title matches may not be good, contenders may not be the best, but it is true what the article says. they're all about the titles. wwe's main title hasn't main evented a show since last year, and the story around it is not about the title, it's about aj. tna has been making things about the titles now, their titles get defended often.

I agree that this is unfortunate (although all of the main events aside from Cena vs. Kane were justified, IMO, and the only one I probably wouldn't have put in the main event spot was Cena vs. Brock), although, in a backwards way, I believe that the AJ thing is about the title as AJ has been theoretically attempting to help the person who she wants to have the title. It is backwards, but it's not like the title is unimportant.

it's true that you don't need to go back long to see bad things about tna, but then again they only went live one month ago, they only started to their new concepts like two months ago, we can't really blame them for trying to fix the things they were screwing at the start of the year.

But these are not problems that required going live to fix. They should have been fixed way before this.

I would be tempted to agree with this, but not this year. This year, we all know that Storm is going to win. Anything else would be an absolutely unheard-of level of booking incompetence. And because we all know that Storm is going to win, it pretty much throws every match in the series under the bus. They are wasting three months of matches for guys like Samoa Joe, Ken Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, and Kurt Angle (AJ, Daniels and Kaz are doing there own thing which will likely over-shadow their own BFG Series matches). The kicker, though, for this is such a bad idea, is that it is an entirely unnecessary vehicle to get Storm a title shot.

up until now it all seems like a predictable end, but then again did you expect dixie and aj to be helping out a drug addict?? this is slowly gonna become tna's royal rumble, and even after many years the royal rumble is sometimes predictable too. just a little booking sense and you can predict the rumble as you can predict the series, as you can pretty much predict anything in wrestling, but at least we have 3 months worth of good decent matches. we're bound to get aj vs joe, kurt vs joe, aj vs danels etc et

I will admit that I didn't see it coming, but a large part of that is because it didn't make any damn sense with the way things had been going. If all they were doing was helping a drug addict, why were they so damn secretive about it? Seriously, was it really so important as to let their families and the whole world spend six weeks thinking there was an affair going on? to let Serg punch AJ in the face?

As for the awesome matches, we could have gotten those matches anyway. We shouldn't need a months-long gimmick as an excuse to get awesome match-ups. And don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about an angle being predictable. I am complaining doing an angle like the BFG Series where the outcome of every match matters and where there is supposed to be a climactic points chase for the top spot when it is ultra-predictable who will win, and when there is a much better way to do it. I am upset because they are throwing three months worth of matches from their major stars under the bus for something that could be done in a much better way.

Once again, I'm calling BS. Austin Aries isn't young. He's 34! Sorensen got pushed, but he wasn't particularly good, so that kind of defeats the purpose. Where has Zema Ion been since he got hot? I don't know, but it certainly hasn't been ON TV, which is where he should have been! Yes, Alex Silva won a full-time contract ... but he hasn't been seen on TV since then, so that doesn't help the company or the product at all! Crimson beat a bunch of top-guys and was undefeated for seventeen months... but he hasn't gotten OVER! No one cares about him at all! Fans still see the guys who lost him as much bigger and more credible stars than he is. If TNA was committed to pushing young stars then it seems logical that one of them would be the TV Champion and he would defend it against other young stars in meaningful matches that are given enough time to let the wrestlers shine, rather than the almost 40 year-old Devon beating Robbie E. in three minutes every week.

aries is 34, but he's fresh talent, new talent, and considerably younger than guys like rvd or angle. i think this part is talking about not still having sting, angle, rvd, hardy and guys like that be the main focus of the show. roode, storm, kaz, aries are all fresh talent. sure silva hasn't been on tv, but joey ryan has. remember the winner of tough enough?? who had a whole show to get a contract and not just one show. who was only on raw once.

I would criticize that as well, although with Tough Enough they were being trained on the show, so they were mostly green as grass. With Silva, they saw him wrestle and he impressed them enough that they signed him to a contract. Also, with Tough Enough, it was the third one. Silva was the first person to win a contract through Gut Check. They needed to feature him to make Gut Check look important. I am not excusing the Tough Enough thing. I'm just saying that it was more important for Silva to be on TV than Matt Cappotelli.

[RedSon]

But these are not problems that required going live to fix. They should have been fixed way before this.

not at all, but like i said, tna is not gonna get fixed over night, we've seen what happens when they try to fix tna on a single try with hogan, the band, ecw, etc. but for the past several months they've been trying to fix their problems,they have a notion of what those problems are and they're appointing them

I will admit that I didn't see it coming, but a large part of that is because it didn't make any damn sense with the way things had been going. If all they were doing was helping a drug addict, why were they so damn secretive about it? Seriously, was it really so important as to let their families and the whole world spend six weeks thinking there was an affair going on? to let Serg punch AJ in the face?

As for the awesome matches, we could have gotten those matches anyway. We shouldn't need a months-long gimmick as an excuse to get awesome match-ups. And don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about an angle being predictable. I am complaining doing an angle like the BFG Series where the outcome of every match matters and where there is supposed to be a climactic points chase for the top spot when it is ultra-predictable who will win, and when there is a much better way to do it. I am upset because they are throwing three months worth of matches from their major stars under the bus for something that could be done in a much better way.

i agree that the dixie/aj thing didn't make sense so it was hard to predict. but it just shows that they can always come out with something from left field. we're all expecting that storm will win so he can fight in bfg, but what if they decide to give the win to joe, who lost all his matches last year, make him lose and have storm win the next impact. it could happen.

on the matches, i don't think they're necessarily wasted. it could even be a breather to have some matches with no storylines behind them, give us a break of the tna crazy booking and just have matches for the sake of them. plus it's an easy way to re-book storm into the main event since he did lose legit against roode last time, he needs a good enough reason to get a title shot.

I would criticize that as well, although with Tough Enough they were being trained on the show, so they were mostly green as grass. With Silva, they saw him wrestle and he impressed them enough that they signed him to a contract. Also, with Tough Enough, it was the third one. Silva was the first person to win a contract through Gut Check. They needed to feature him to make Gut Check look important. I am not excusing the Tough Enough thing. I'm just saying that it was more important for Silva to be on TV than Matt Cappotelli.

some things i see here is that gut check is not to find the next big thing, but to give opportunities to young guys out there. they thought that silva was good enough so they gave him a contract, that doesn't mean he's gonna get tv time every week, he still needs to build his way up in the roster, especially if the shows are currently overpacked with all the titles and bfg stuff. second, the big payoff of gut check right now is joey ryan, having silva as the sacrificial lamb is perfect because it gives ryan ammo to use on the judges. i agree with you that silva being the first should have meant something, but i also think that the judges still had no experience on what to expect from the people coming in.

[Big Red Machine]

But these are not problems that required going live to fix. They should have been fixed way before this.

not at all, but like i said, tna is not gonna get fixed over night, we've seen what happens when they try to fix tna on a single try with hogan, the band, ecw, etc. but for the past several months they've been trying to fix their problems,they have a notion of what those problems are and they're appointing them

I would disagree with your premise, though. With the exception of last week's show, I really haven't seen much improvement in the product.

I will admit that I didn't see it coming, but a large part of that is because it didn't make any damn sense with the way things had been going. If all they were doing was helping a drug addict, why were they so damn secretive about it? Seriously, was it really so important as to let their families and the whole world spend six weeks thinking there was an affair going on? to let Serg punch AJ in the face?

As for the awesome matches, we could have gotten those matches anyway. We shouldn't need a months-long gimmick as an excuse to get awesome match-ups. And don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about an angle being predictable. I am complaining doing an angle like the BFG Series where the outcome of every match matters and where there is supposed to be a climactic points chase for the top spot when it is ultra-predictable who will win, and when there is a much better way to do it. I am upset because they are throwing three months worth of matches from their major stars under the bus for something that could be done in a much better way.

i agree that the dixie/aj thing didn't make sense so it was hard to predict. but it just shows that they can always come out with something from left field. we're all expecting that storm will win so he can fight in bfg, but what if they decide to give the win to joe, who lost all his matches last year, make him lose and have storm win the next impact. it could happen.

Yes, they always could do something unexpected, but with something like this, not having Storm beat Roode (or at least challenge and have a non-BS finish) for the belt at BFG would crap all over the storyline they have spent the past year building up. Storm vs. Roode for the title is the match that people want to see the most, so it should headline your biggest PPV. Booking 101.
While they could have Joe (or someone else) win the BFG Series and beat Roode and then have that guy lose the belt to Storm on Impact, how does that help the company? We don't get the Storm-Roode payoff they have been building up to, and they give away their top babyface winning the title on free TV. That is just horrible booking. IMO, predictably it not a bad thing at all.

on the matches, i don't think they're necessarily wasted. it could even be a breather to have some matches with no storylines behind them, give us a break of the tna crazy booking and just have matches for the sake of them. plus it's an easy way to re-book storm into the main event since he did lose legit against roode last time, he needs a good enough reason to get a title shot.

IMO, the BFG Series is a storyline, so we have three months of matches that are irrelevant because they are part of a storyline about who can get the most points when we already know who will get the most points in the end.
I realize that I seem to be contradicting myself about predictability. I think that the way to look at it is like this: The BFG Series is like a marathon and the only person who gets any sort of prize is the winner. If we already know (or, at least, are 99.99999% sure) who will win, then we already know the only important thing about it. The journey that the others take is not relevant because there is no reward for them. To make it worse, this is something drawn out over three months, rather than just one night (or even one month). If this year's BFG Series is to succeed, it needs secondary angles running through it and spinning off of it. We need a reason to care about Joe, Magnus, Hardy, Anderson, RVD, etc.
I also don't think that James Storm needs to get back into the main event because, IMO, he never left it. Yes, he lost cleanly/legitimately to Roode and Lockdown... but it was not a loss that damaged him in any way, from a booking standpoint. He dominated the match and only lost on a technicality because he wanted to hurt Roode so badly that he lost sight of the title, and, by a stroke of horrible luck, that allowed Roode to win. Storm didn't get DQed for being to aggressive or he didn't get so angry that he made a mistake and allowed Roode to roll him up or anything... he lost because of a fluke of physics. If Roode had fallen in any other direction, Storm would have been able to pin him and win the belt. At the end of that match I was pissed off because Storm was the better man that night, he wrestled the better match and he should have won the title, but life isn't fair and that sucks. That finish made me want to see Storm win the belt more than ever. Then Storm went away to rethink himself and he came back. Upon his return, he is still at that same level of being the top babyface and the guy I (and, I think,most other TNA fans) want to see take the belt from Roode. As for needing a reason to get a title shot, all you have to do is have him keep winning matches, put him in a #1 contender's match and have him win. You don't need this whole elaborate tournament that unnecessarily drags eleven other guys into it.

I would criticize that as well, although with Tough Enough they were being trained on the show, so they were mostly green as grass. With Silva, they saw him wrestle and he impressed them enough that they signed him to a contract. Also, with Tough Enough, it was the third one. Silva was the first person to win a contract through Gut Check. They needed to feature him to make Gut Check look important. I am not excusing the Tough Enough thing. I'm just saying that it was more important for Silva to be on TV than Matt Cappotelli.

some things i see here is that gut check is not to find the next big thing, but to give opportunities to young guys out there. they thought that silva was good enough so they gave him a contract, that doesn't mean he's gonna get tv time every week, he still needs to build his way up in the roster, especially if the shows are currently overpacked with all the titles and bfg stuff. second, the big payoff of gut check right now is joey ryan, having silva as the sacrificial lamb is perfect because it gives ryan ammo to use on the judges. i agree with you that silva being the first should have meant something, but i also think that the judges still had no experience on what to expect from the people coming in.

I don't think Silva needed to be sacrificed for the Joey Ryan, angle, though. In fact, I think it would be better if they have made Silva seem important because I think that a great way for Joey Ryan to prove his point that he is better than Silva is to build up to a match between the two (with Ryan winning of course). Having Silva not on TV hurts the Joey Ryan angle because, if not the TV time (which is basically kayfabe for opportunity), what is Joey bitching about? He doesn't just want the contract. He wants to show how good he can be. If getting him the contract won't give him the opportunity to show how good he can be, it makes the angle worse.

[badnewzxl]

WTF is this guy talking about? "Pushing young talent?"

Crimson has only been winning his matches; half the time he doesn;t seem to BEAT his opponent, nor has he been a true contender for ANY title. TNA def WANTS him to be a big star, but they aren't DEVELOPING the guy.

Jesse Sorenson didn't make any real news until Ion took him out; and Ion hasn't done anything since Aries beat him. Tessmacher HAS grown by leaps and bounds; THAT is true. However, where is Gunner? Mark Haskins? Anarquia (fired)? Why isn't Pope a star by now? And Aries doesn't count bc ARIES GOT ARIES OVER, not TNA.

And they've gotten rid of the "middle-aged main eventers," but now they've got just a bunch of almost middle aged midcarders and now a bunch of their franchise guys they've damaged too much to be THE guy for their promotion (thank GOD Roode and Storm remained a tag team for so long or else they'd be in the same boat as Joe, Daniels, AJ (though he can come back from it), and Abyss.

[Big Red Machine]

And they've gotten rid of the "middle-aged main eventers," but now they've got just a bunch of almost middle aged midcarders and now a bunch of their franchise guys they've damaged too much to be THE guy for their promotion (thank GOD Roode and Storm remained a tag team for so long or else they'd be in the same boat as Joe, Daniels, AJ (though he can come back from it), and Abyss.

I think that the fans love AJ, Joe, and Daniels enough that they could easily still be THE guy in TNA. Hell, I STILL see AJ as THE guy in TNA, and that is just off of my impressions of watching Impact back in 2005 and 2006. The "AJ is our franchise player" vibe from back then still resonates with me... and AJ wasn't even in the world title picture at that point.

[badnewzxl]

And they've gotten rid of the "middle-aged main eventers," but now they've got just a bunch of almost middle aged midcarders and now a bunch of their franchise guys they've damaged too much to be THE guy for their promotion (thank GOD Roode and Storm remained a tag team for so long or else they'd be in the same boat as Joe, Daniels, AJ (though he can come back from it), and Abyss.

I think that the fans love AJ, Joe, and Daniels enough that they could easily still be THE guy in TNA. Hell, I STILL see AJ as THE guy in TNA, and that is just off of my impressions of watching Impact back in 2005 and 2006. The "AJ is our franchise player" vibe from back then still resonates with me... and AJ wasn't even in the world title picture at that point.

True, but imagine if you started watching in like 2008 0r after Hogan came in. To the newer TNA fans don't see those guys as major players bc they've been stalled for too long now. AJ gets occasional title runs, but they haven't push him as THE guy like they have with Hardy, Angle, and Sting. I don't think he comes off any differently than Anderson to folks who've only been watching since they've been on Spike......

[Big Red Machine]

And they've gotten rid of the "middle-aged main eventers," but now they've got just a bunch of almost middle aged midcarders and now a bunch of their franchise guys they've damaged too much to be THE guy for their promotion (thank GOD Roode and Storm remained a tag team for so long or else they'd be in the same boat as Joe, Daniels, AJ (though he can come back from it), and Abyss.

I think that the fans love AJ, Joe, and Daniels enough that they could easily still be THE guy in TNA. Hell, I STILL see AJ as THE guy in TNA, and that is just off of my impressions of watching Impact back in 2005 and 2006. The "AJ is our franchise player" vibe from back then still resonates with me... and AJ wasn't even in the world title picture at that point.

True, but imagine if you started watching in like 2008 0r after Hogan came in. To the newer TNA fans don't see those guys as major players bc they've been stalled for too long now. AJ gets occasional title runs, but they haven't push him as THE guy like they have with Hardy, Angle, and Sting. I don't think he comes off any differently than Anderson to folks who've only been watching since they've been on Spike......

That's a good point. I think, though, that AJ, Joe, and Daniels (and Anderson, too, if they really get behind him again) have the talent to immediately resume that "top guy" spot and make it work.