BRM Reviews the 10/29/2014 Impact: the Problem with TNA is...

[Big Red Machine]

TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT SEMINFINAL MATCH: MVP & Kenny King vs. Samoa Joe & Low Ki- 7.5/10
Well… that as pretty darn great. Lots of good teamwork spots here, without relying on many actual double-team maneuvers. Ki played a good babyface in peril, and Joe played a good house of fire after getting the hot tag.

Tenay refers to Taz and Sabu as “rivals-turned-teammates.” Wasn’t it the other way around?

DEVON PROMO- okay. He’s got some secret back-up.

BRAM PROMO- he says he will “systematically destroy the brotherhood of hardcore.” Sure. Whatever.
He then brings out Magnus and they cut promos about how great they are and being brothers and that stuff. Bram asks Magnus to think about how great his title reign would have been if he was trying to be violent like they used to be back in the schoolyard days. This part of the promo really feels like it should have come a few months ago (like right after Slammiversary).
They say they want to make the “hardcore dinosaurs” extinct. Snore. Let me guess. Devon is going to bring in Tommy Dreamer and Rhino on his side. How do I know? Because those are the guys TNA ALWAYS brings in for this sort of thing.
Devon then shows up and brings out his partner. Tommy Dreamer. Who could have seen that coming? Now let me guess. At some point during the show, Tommy will cut a promo in which he puts over his opponents and the rest of the locker room as the “the future of this business” while he cries his eyes out.

Then they have a brawl. The most important part of this, to me, was the fact that they came up with a kayfabe explanation why Bully isn’t here (he is healing his wounds after being in so many hardcore matches, which is a great explanation).

TARYN & MADISON BACKSTAGE- Madison insincerely apologizes for cheating to beat Taryn a few weeks ago. She calls it a “lapse of judgment” because she really wanted the Knockouts Title, and asks Taryn wouldn’t you do the same?” Taryn doesn’t want to talk about it. She wants to focus on their match tonight against The Beautiful People. Taryn walked away, and when she did, Madison acted evil. Good stuff.

FAT SHARK BOY EATS FATTY HOTDOGS AT AN AUTOGRAPH SIGNING- he is an ass to small children and old ladies. Road Agent Pat Kenney yells at him about blowing his second chance and tries to motivate him to “be Shark Boy one more time.” After Shark Boy walks away, a cameraman asks Kenney if he thinks this is possible. He says “no way.”
SO WHY ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME WITH THIS?!
In kayfabe, the man is a fat old jobber who used inappropriate language in front of little children, and as of the last time we saw him, would rather eat doughnuts than wrestle for TNA. Now you are telling us you think he has no chance at all. SO WHY DID YOU EVEN HIRE HIM?!
Out of kayfabe, the company is in a position where it absolutely NEEDS to impress networks with good ratings, because if they don’t get a good enough TV deal, THEY WILL DIE! So why the f*ck are you wasting time with dumb comedy skits with a jobber that not only has no one cared about in six years, but you are now constantly burying for being unprofessional. Here’s an idea… instead of this dumb sh*t, GIVE MORE TIME TO YOUR MATCHES! You know… THE THINGS FANS ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE!

THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE vs. TARYN TERRELL & MADISON RAYNE- 3.75/10
Madison came up with a bunch of excuses not to make the tag. Then she turned on Taryn. WHY? What does she have to gain from this? She just said that she wanted the title, so how does ensuring that her team loses do that?
It would have been a lot better to have her keep finding excuses to not be there for the tag until the very end, when she blind tags herself in and steals a pin after Taryn does all the work.


KURT ANGLE INTERVIEW- he says he made himself the special guest referee because Roode and Lashley are the two best wrestlers on the roster, and therefore “they deserve a fair fight called down the middle. Fair and square.”
Umm… excuse me… Kurt? Are you taking questions from the gallery? Because I have some:
1. Doesn’t EVERYONE deserve a fair match?
2. If they deserve a fair match that will be called right down the middle, why are you the referee, instead of one of TNA’s many professionally trained pro wrestling referees. Why isn’t, for example, TNA SENIOR OFFICIAL Earl Hebner refereeing this match? He has decades of experience and has refereed many big title matches in the past.
3. Does you making yourself the referee mean that you don’t trust the TNA referees’ morality? Because that’s what it implies to me.
Kurt is asked “what about MVP and Kenny King.” Kurt says that he is the ref because “if they want to get involved, it’s gonna get real. Damn real.” So what he is saying here, is that if they want to get involved, he will distract himself from his refereeing duties. DUMBASS. Why not make yourself the special enforcer and let a TRAINED REFEREE do the actual refereeing? Or bar them from ringside and announce that the results of the match will be null and void if they help Lashley win? Or just book a cage match? Or any number of other solutions that is less likely to lead to a bullsh*t finish?

TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT SEMINFINAL MATCH: The Hardys vs. EC III & Tyrus- 6/10
Being sh*tty announcers, Taz and Tenay took Tyrus’ clever “dollars and sense” line, and they beat it into the ground.
Big scary Tyrus gets beaten already. EC III yells at him.

JAMES STORM PROMO- he promises that his revolution will expand tonight.

JAMES STORM’S REVOLUTION IN-RING SEGMENT- Storm’s promo wasn’t bad, but it would have been better if he had referred to Manik and Sanada as “these men” or “these warriors” or something like that instead of just “these guys.”
He’s also carrying a noose for some reason.
Storm calls out Davey and asks him to join their group, claiming that his partner is holding him down. This would make a lot more sense if the Wolves weren’t the tag champs right now. Eddie comes out and tries to get Davey to think straight. Davey angrily says that he can talk for himself. Eddie asks Davey to hell him where his head is at.
Storm tells Eddie to butt out, so Eddie challenges him to a match and slaps him. Storm’s minions want to fight Eddie, but Storm holds them back.

EDDIE EDWARDS (w/Davey Richards) vs. JAMES STORM (w/the Great Sanada & Manik)- 6.5/10
Okay… before I crap on this story as a whole, I need to give credit where credit is due. In this case, that is 100% to the wrestlers. The action was good, but all of the stuff with Davey and the minions on the outside was great. Davey did a fantastic job of looking completely shaken-up and full of self-doubt on the outside, and when they were setting up for the finish, I honestly had no idea where it would go because there were SO MANY different possibilities, all of which would have worked to get them to wherever they wanted to go.
Maybe Davey proves he is still loyal to Eddie and warns him about the superkick, or maybe he proves he is a babyface by pulling Eddie out of the way and eating the superkick himself. Maybe Eddie ducks and Davey eats the superkick, then Davey blames Eddie for it. Maybe Davey joins Storm by tricking Eddie into turning around into the superkick. Maybe Davey didn’t see Storm, but Eddie thinks he did and gets angry at him, resulting in Davey joining Storm.
Any one of these would have made logical sense from where they were and gotten them to a logical next step or conclusion that would fit the story.
But oh boy this story. This is whole thing was just such an example of bad storytelling.
Last week James Storm asks Davey to join his group. This week, Davey just comes out, and we’re all supposed to believe that Storm’s offer is attractive to him, and that he and Eddie haven’t communicated about this at all over the past week, despite being best pals and tag team partners?
Last week was chapter one, but this week’s segment should have been about chapter seven or eight. If you want tell your story effectively, you need to SHOW the story developing. Do some matches where Eddie is the babyface in peril, Davey gets the hot tag for the comeback, but Eddie is the one who eventually takes the pin. Have Storm keep talking to Davey backstage this whole time. Do backstage segments where Eddie asks Davey what is on his mind, but Davey doesn’t want to talk about it.

By skipping all of these chapters, you not only aren’t telling the story well, but you are in fact, creating a bunch of holes in the story that would otherwise be explained. How is Eddie possibly holding Davey back? They are a tag team, and they are the tag team champions. What more is there for them to want? Is Eddie holding Davey back because it’s Eddie’s fault that Davey didn’t get into WWE or New Japan or Noah or couldn’t stay with ROH or work for Gabe, and thus had to come here to cruddy little TNA? I hope that’s not what they mean, but it really seems to be the only answer. (Actually, if they wanted to add some realism to this, they should have swapped Eddie and Davey’s roles here.)


TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH KURT ANGLE AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE: Bobby Lashley(c) vs. Bobby Roode- 4/10
Overbooked bullsh*t. Stick around everyone, because I’ve got a lot of important things to say here, and not just on this match, but on the company as a whole.

I actually really enjoyed the first few minutes of this match (though it would have been better if the first big set of heat spots with Lashley working over Roode’s back hadn’t all taken place during a commercial).
Then it all went to sh*t.
First, KURT F*CKING ANGLE takes a f*cking REF BUMP off a clothesline in the corner, so Kurt goes down… and LASHLEY is the one who gets screwed out of the win because Kurt wasn’t conscious enough to count. WHY THE F*CK WOULD YOU DO THIS?! You don’t need a reason to give Lashley a rematch because (as Tenay noted at the end of the show), he has his standard rematch clause. The only things this did were make Kurt look like a chump, destroy our ability to trust the build-up for the match (which was based around Kurt as the referee meaning we would have a fair and decisive winner), and most damagingly, pointlessly taint the credibility of the babyface’s big title win.

Then Kurt took ANOTHER bump, this one off of a spear. Taz blamed this on “Kurt’s inexperience as a referee” causing him to stand in a bad spot, and thus not be able to see the spear coming until it was too late. Again… why did anyone think that Kurt would do a better job than a trained ref?

Then it was Roode’s turn to be screwed out of a pin because Kurt was down, so Brian Hebner came down to make the count, but Lashley kicked out. Taz put Hebner over for being so on top of things by “being on deck.” If he was so on top of things, why didn’t he come out as soon as Kurt got speared? If he had, then Roode would be champion right now (or actually Lashley would if he had come out after the first one). What if MVP and Kenny King had tried to interfere while Kurt was down?
Brian Hebner then went to check on Kurt, allowing Lashley to hit a low blow. Lashley wanted to use the title belt as a weapon, but Hebner told him he couldn’t… so Lashley just clotheslined him (yes there were THREE REF BUMPS in a fifteen minute long match that we had been continually assured was going to be totally fair and clean and have a decisive winner). He then hit Roode with the title belt (well… not well, because even with the cut, it was pretty clear that he pretty much made no contact at all). This led to another nearfall with a groggy Kurt making the count.
Roode finally got the win with a roll-up. No one came out to celebrate this big moment with him. Before the show even ended, Tenay was already talking about Lashley’s rematch clause.


Every time they mentioned how Kurt was the ref because he wanted a “definitive winner” and to prevent interference, and how Kurt’s reign as Director of Wrestling Operations has been “all about the competition,” it made me more and more angry, and after the fact, I was utterly furious. Why? Because this match that we were constantly assured would be totally fair and have a decisive winner, wound up being a lot less clean than their first match, which this was supposed to “build” from, where the heel won completely cleanly.
(Oh. And if you’re trying to push the idea that Kurt’s presence will make things totally fair and will prevent any interference, then don’t have JB introduce him as “the third man in.” For those who don’t know, “third man in” is/was a hockey penalty given to someone who jumps into a fight that is already in progress, making it a two-on-one. It carries a game misconduct, and usually a suspension. The reason for this harsh penalty is because by making the previously even fight a two-on-one, you obligate everyone else on the ice to run in and protect their teammates, because if one guy doesn’t jump in, then it won’t be a fair fight. So you see the problem here.)

To make matters worse, everything they did here felt completely disjointed with the previously set-up story. If you’re going to build the story of this match around Roode trying to avoid the spear, then why would you have him kick out of it in their last match? If you are building up Kurt’s presence as the thing that will prevent MVP and Kenny King from interfering, why didn’t they interfere when Kurt took his ref bumps? If you are going to turn Lashley babyface (which is where last week’s segment seemed to have been going), why have him cheat in this match? If you are building this match up as having a decisive winner, why would you let the heel get a visual pin on the babyface at all?

The more I think about it, the more I hate the way this match has been built up. I’ve talked ad nauseam about the lack of a reason for us to side with Roode when he (and Angle and the announcers) are trying to get across that it is some sort of moral imperative that he get a title shot. But let’s assume, for the moment, that for whatever reason, TNA HAD to have Roode lose cleanly in their previous match. What we then need is a reason to believe that Roode will triumph this time (as well as some reason for him to earn a title shot, but that is easy to take care of).
At the beginning of this match, Tenay pointed out that, in their last match, when Roode kicked out of Lashley’s spear, that was the first time anyone had ever done that. Of course, he got beaten by the exact same move later in the match, making the whole thing a huge waste… but what if (using just the most basic bit of advanced planning, which is critical in booking), he didn’t. What if Roode just got beaten by the spear like everyone else, one-two-three?
I’d now like to compare two scenarios for you. I’m not doing this to toot my own horn. I am doing this because I think it is a great illustration of a problem with TNA’s booking philosophy.
The first scenario was something we did on the old EWA e-fed here on this forum. The world champion, Joel Carter, used a Gore (which is essentially a spear) as one of his finishers, and en route to winning the title, he had defeated another wrestler, Phreak, by catching him with a Gore; not after he had beaten Phreak down a lot and weakened him to the point where he couldn’t move out of the way, but rather he had just countered an attempted tornado DDT by throwing Phreak off of him, but Phreak landed on his feet in front of Carter, and in that split second after Phreak had landed but before he could shift his weight enough to start moving, Carter charged at him and caught him with a quick Gore and got the pin.
Phreak then went away for a while to try to fix the weakness in his game which had caused him to lose this match, and when he came back, we spent a match or two building up his speed, while having him earn a title shot. Their title match was then built around that point: was Phreak now fast enough to avoid Carter’s main weapon?
When it came time for the big match (the main event to EWA show #12: Night of the Grudges- still up in the e-fed section if anyone wants to read it), the story of the match itself was also built around that same point. The very first spot in the match was Carter trying to catch Phreak with a Gore right out of the gate, but Phreak sidestepped it. The match was filled with spots of Phreak being too quick for Carter’s Gore. He sidestepped it. He leapfrogged it. He quickly countered it by dropkicking Carter in the knee as he came by or by bringing his knee up into Carter’s head once Carter committed to the move. And (of course) we had a clean finish with a decisive winner that built perfectly from the story.

Roode and Lashley actually did a few similar spots in this match with Roode avoiding the spear, and the announcers did call it out. Lashley not only worked over Roode’s mid-section to soften him up for the spear, but to take his wind away to make him slower, too. The difference between what we did and what TNA did, though, is the stories we chose to commit to. We committed to our story about Phreak’s new and improved speed being a weapon that would allow him to avoid the move that beat him in their previous match and would help him win the EWA World Title. The story that TNA committed to was this idea that Roode had come so close last time that he somehow deserved a rematch, and that having Kurt Angle as the referee would somehow make the outcome different. The focus in our angle was on the wrestling, and the focus in their angle was, almost by its very nature, on overbooking. And THAT is TNA’s problem.
Overbooking doesn’t sell tickets or PPV buys or get ratings. Overbooking turns viewers off. Ref bumps and run-ins and random turns; these are high up on almost every fan’s list of things he or she wishes would be toned down in wrestling. And TNA has been doing it at the top of the card FOR YEARS. From S.E.X. to the Jeff Jarrett days to the Christian Coalition… which quickly turned into the Angle Alliance, to the Main Event Mafia to Immortal to Aces & Eights to DixieLand.

Go ahead, right now, and make your list- just off the top of your head if you want, of your ten favorite matches in TNA history.


I’ll bet anything that most people’s lists include a good chunk of the following:

The first Angle vs. Joe match (Genesis 2006) and the match where Joe beat Angle to win the title (Lockdown 2008). The Unbreakable three-way for the X-Division Title between AJ, Joe, and Daniels, and the three-way they had in 2009 for the world title. The two Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe PPV matches. The Triple X vs. AMW blow-off in the cage. Storm vs. Roode at BFG. The match where Aries beat Roode to win the title. Angle vs. Anderson from Lockdown 2010. Angle vs. Jarrett from Genesis 2009, the first AJ vs. Daniels Iron Man match (Against All Odds 2005), Harris vs. Storm from Sacrifice 2007, and the final MCMG vs. Beer Money best of five match for the tag titles.
What do all of these match have in common? They are either matches with guys competing to see who is the best, ending in clean finishes, or they are about guys who hate each other trying to kill each other, and fighting until there is a decisive winner.
When it comes down to it, THAT is what fans want to see. And yet TNA rarely gives us that. It doesn’t matter who the head booker has been: Russo, Dusty, D’Amore, Bischoff, Prichard, Gaburick… they have all kept overbooking to the point where it is now synonymous with the TNA name. That’s why TNA could come to your town in 2013, with a card loaded up with big names like Kurt Angle, Team 3-D, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, and Samoa Joe… and only draw five hundred people, and yet in 2014, just AJ Styles alone on a small indy will draw 1,000.
They can talk about how things are all about “competition” now, but we know that’s not true, because every time that they have promised us that, it has turned out to be the same old sh*t, and we won’t ever believe them until they actually SHOW that they are out of this mindset where they think that overbooking is what draws.


HYPE FOR NEXT WEEK- they claimed that the match we just saw was “a match for the ages.” That’s some bullsh*t right there.
But that’s not what pissed me off. What pissed me off was that they hyped up “a twist you can’t miss” involving Roode, Lashley, and MVP. You know what the best way is to ruin a plot twist for your audience? TELL THEM THAT THERE IS A PLOT TWIST COMING!!!!
The point of a plot twist is to SURPRISE people, but if you tell them one is coming, they will spend the whole segment looking for the plot twist, so they won’t be surprised by it (and also they won’t actually be into the segment at all).


Anyway, this was a good show until the main event completely killed it for me.

[cero2k]

FAT SHARK BOY EATS FATTY HOTDOGS AT AN AUTOGRPAH SIGNING- he is an ass to small children and old ladies. Road Agent Pat Kenney yells at him about blowing his second chance and tries to motivate him to “be Shark Boy one more time.” After Shark Boy walks away, a cameraman asks Kenney if he thinks this is possible. He says “no way.”
SO WHY ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME WITH THIS?!
In kayfabe, the man is a fat old jobber who used inappropriate language in front of little children, and as of the last time we saw him, would rather eat doughnuts than wrestle for TNA. Now you are telling us you think he has no chance at all. SO WHY DID YOU EVEN HIRE HIM?!
Out of kayfabe, the company is in a position where it absolutely NEEDS to impress networks with good ratings, because if they don’t get a good enough TV deal, THEY WILL DIE! So why the f*ck are you wasting time with dumb comedy skits with a jobber that not only has no one cared about in six years, but you are now constantly burying for being unprofessional. Here’s an idea… instead of this dumb sh*t, GIVE MORE TIME TO YOUR MATCHES! You know… THE THINGS FANS ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE!
this is something that intrigues me, but not necessarily in a good way. At first i thought it was just gonna be shark boy doing squashes, but i can't think of any other reason they would run this specific segment unless they wanted to truly revive the shark boy character. I would love to see this become a good story where shark boy gets in shape (AKA replaced underneath the mask) and goes and wins the x division title in the future or something


EDDIE EDWARDS (w/Davey Richards) vs. JAMES STORM (w/the Great Sanada & Manik)- 6.5/10
By skipping all of these chapters, you not only aren’t telling the story well, but you are in fact, creating a bunch of holes in the story that would otherwise be explained. How is Eddie possibly holding Davey back? They are a tag team, and they are the tag team champions. What more is there for them to want? Is Eddie holding Davey back because it’s Eddie’s fault that Davey didn’t get into WWE or New Japan or Noah or couldn’t stay with ROH or work for Gabe, and thus had to come here to cruddy little TNA? I hope that’s not what they mean, but it really seems to be the only answer. (Actually, if they wanted to add some realism to this, they should have swapped Eddie and Davey’s roles here.)
I think that's part of the thing, Storm has nothing on all the claims he made with Manik and Sanada, he's just bullshitting and getting into people's minds until they buy his shit. Running those segments that you mentioned would give Storm a small amount of credibility that maybe, just maybe, he's right, But this way, it's all 100% brainwashing. Storm is creating an cult here. Without knowing the spoilers, i can already predict that Davey turns on Eddie and lose the titles to whoever wins the tourny (which i'm guessing hardyz), when this happens, i think (while a stupid idea to break them up) will make Eddie a great babyface in the sense that is trying to save his buddy from, who seems to be becoming a huge mastermind all of the sudden, Storm.

I think this has the potential (if TNA exists by then) to run a lengthy story with this group. Before the comparisons start in, i could see a rivaly between Davey and Eddie as Ambrose and Rollins are having, with the different that Eddie is not out there to kill Davey, but to beat some sense into him and save his buddy. This could also be a huge awesome turn down the line for Davey to rejoin Eddie and defeat Storm's minions. TNA has my interest here, not gonna like breaking up the wolves, but i'm interested.

[Big Red Machine]

FAT SHARK BOY EATS FATTY HOTDOGS AT AN AUTOGRPAH SIGNING- he is an ass to small children and old ladies. Road Agent Pat Kenney yells at him about blowing his second chance and tries to motivate him to “be Shark Boy one more time.” After Shark Boy walks away, a cameraman asks Kenney if he thinks this is possible. He says “no way.”
SO WHY ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME WITH THIS?!
In kayfabe, the man is a fat old jobber who used inappropriate language in front of little children, and as of the last time we saw him, would rather eat doughnuts than wrestle for TNA. Now you are telling us you think he has no chance at all. SO WHY DID YOU EVEN HIRE HIM?!
Out of kayfabe, the company is in a position where it absolutely NEEDS to impress networks with good ratings, because if they don’t get a good enough TV deal, THEY WILL DIE! So why the f*ck are you wasting time with dumb comedy skits with a jobber that not only has no one cared about in six years, but you are now constantly burying for being unprofessional. Here’s an idea… instead of this dumb sh*t, GIVE MORE TIME TO YOUR MATCHES! You know… THE THINGS FANS ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE!
this is something that intrigues me, but not necessarily in a good way. At first i thought it was just gonna be shark boy doing squashes, but i can't think of any other reason they would run this specific segment unless they wanted to truly revive the shark boy character. I would love to see this become a good story where shark boy gets in shape (AKA replaced underneath the mask) and goes and wins the x division title in the future or something
Maybe he's just growing up. He's no longer Shark Boy. He has now become The Shark

EDDIE EDWARDS (w/Davey Richards) vs. JAMES STORM (w/the Great Sanada & Manik)- 6.5/10
By skipping all of these chapters, you not only aren’t telling the story well, but you are in fact, creating a bunch of holes in the story that would otherwise be explained. How is Eddie possibly holding Davey back? They are a tag team, and they are the tag team champions. What more is there for them to want? Is Eddie holding Davey back because it’s Eddie’s fault that Davey didn’t get into WWE or New Japan or Noah or couldn’t stay with ROH or work for Gabe, and thus had to come here to cruddy little TNA? I hope that’s not what they mean, but it really seems to be the only answer. (Actually, if they wanted to add some realism to this, they should have swapped Eddie and Davey’s roles here.)
I think that's part of the thing, Storm has nothing on all the claims he made with Manik and Sanada, he's just bullshitting and getting into people's minds until they buy his shit. Running those segments that you mentioned would give Storm a small amount of credibility that maybe, just maybe, he's right, But this way, it's all 100% brainwashing. Storm is creating an cult here. Without knowing the spoilers, i can already predict that Davey turns on Eddie and lose the titles to whoever wins the tourny (which i'm guessing hardyz), when this happens, i think (while a stupid idea to break them up) will make Eddie a great babyface in the sense that is trying to save his buddy from, who seems to be becoming a huge mastermind all of the sudden, Storm.

I think this has the potential (if TNA exists by then) to run a lengthy story with this group. Before the comparisons start in, i could see a rivaly between Davey and Eddie as Ambrose and Rollins are having, with the different that Eddie is not out there to kill Davey, but to beat some sense into him and save his buddy. This could also be a huge awesome turn down the line for Davey to rejoin Eddie and defeat Storm's minions. TNA has my interest here, not gonna like breaking up the wolves, but i'm interested.
I agree with all that, but I just don't get why Daniels would believe it. Manik had nothing when he joined Storm (also he was kidnapped and tortured. Sanada had just suffered a big defeat. I think it would work better here to do this after the Wolves lose the tag titles (which I'm pretty sure they will because they didn't have them in this segment, although that could just be grasping at straws)

[cero2k]

FAT SHARK BOY EATS FATTY HOTDOGS AT AN AUTOGRPAH SIGNING- he is an ass to small children and old ladies. Road Agent Pat Kenney yells at him about blowing his second chance and tries to motivate him to “be Shark Boy one more time.” After Shark Boy walks away, a cameraman asks Kenney if he thinks this is possible. He says “no way.”
SO WHY ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME WITH THIS?!
In kayfabe, the man is a fat old jobber who used inappropriate language in front of little children, and as of the last time we saw him, would rather eat doughnuts than wrestle for TNA. Now you are telling us you think he has no chance at all. SO WHY DID YOU EVEN HIRE HIM?!
Out of kayfabe, the company is in a position where it absolutely NEEDS to impress networks with good ratings, because if they don’t get a good enough TV deal, THEY WILL DIE! So why the f*ck are you wasting time with dumb comedy skits with a jobber that not only has no one cared about in six years, but you are now constantly burying for being unprofessional. Here’s an idea… instead of this dumb sh*t, GIVE MORE TIME TO YOUR MATCHES! You know… THE THINGS FANS ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE!
this is something that intrigues me, but not necessarily in a good way. At first i thought it was just gonna be shark boy doing squashes, but i can't think of any other reason they would run this specific segment unless they wanted to truly revive the shark boy character. I would love to see this become a good story where shark boy gets in shape (AKA replaced underneath the mask) and goes and wins the x division title in the future or something
Maybe he's just growing up. He's no longer Shark Boy. He has now become The Shark

I would be 100% pro that. I still wanna see him join the Redneck Revolution as "The Great [white] Shark"

EDDIE EDWARDS (w/Davey Richards) vs. JAMES STORM (w/the Great Sanada & Manik)- 6.5/10
By skipping all of these chapters, you not only aren’t telling the story well, but you are in fact, creating a bunch of holes in the story that would otherwise be explained. How is Eddie possibly holding Davey back? They are a tag team, and they are the tag team champions. What more is there for them to want? Is Eddie holding Davey back because it’s Eddie’s fault that Davey didn’t get into WWE or New Japan or Noah or couldn’t stay with ROH or work for Gabe, and thus had to come here to cruddy little TNA? I hope that’s not what they mean, but it really seems to be the only answer. (Actually, if they wanted to add some realism to this, they should have swapped Eddie and Davey’s roles here.)
I think that's part of the thing, Storm has nothing on all the claims he made with Manik and Sanada, he's just bullshitting and getting into people's minds until they buy his shit. Running those segments that you mentioned would give Storm a small amount of credibility that maybe, just maybe, he's right, But this way, it's all 100% brainwashing. Storm is creating an cult here. Without knowing the spoilers, i can already predict that Davey turns on Eddie and lose the titles to whoever wins the tourny (which i'm guessing hardyz), when this happens, i think (while a stupid idea to break them up) will make Eddie a great babyface in the sense that is trying to save his buddy from, who seems to be becoming a huge mastermind all of the sudden, Storm.

I think this has the potential (if TNA exists by then) to run a lengthy story with this group. Before the comparisons start in, i could see a rivaly between Davey and Eddie as Ambrose and Rollins are having, with the different that Eddie is not out there to kill Davey, but to beat some sense into him and save his buddy. This could also be a huge awesome turn down the line for Davey to rejoin Eddie and defeat Storm's minions. TNA has my interest here, not gonna like breaking up the wolves, but i'm interested.
I agree with all that, but I just don't get why Daniels would believe it. Manik had nothing when he joined Storm (also he was kidnapped and tortured. Sanada had just suffered a big defeat. I think it would work better here to do this after the Wolves lose the tag titles (which I'm pretty sure they will because they didn't have them in this segment, although that could just be grasping at straws)

Agree, the timing seems off, but I understand that they likely want to move the titles to another team while not having the wolves eat a pin.