Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Does TNA Wrestling Know What It's Doing?

Fact:  I am a life long pro-wrestling fan.
Fact:  I know the "sport" inside and out.

In 2006, I became very disenchanted with WWE and its monopoly on the genre, which caused me to start watching TNA Impact (now Impact Wrestling).  The product was awesome!  They had great matches, good storylines, and the best thing that they had going for them was their six-sided ring, as it gave them their identity and made them a great alternative to WWE's boredom-fest because they were doing something different.

Flash forward to 2011...

The six-sided ring is gone.  The matches are short and not very spectacular.  The storylines may be the worst in wrestling history.  And Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are in charge...two men who tanked the former pro-wrestling giant...WCW.

Can anyone explain what has happened?

No?

I'd like to take a stab at it.

Dixie Carter is the problem.  Not to take anything away from her, as she seems like a very intelligent business person with tons of moxie, but she has taken the helm of a company in a profession that she knows very little about.  Bad move.  Pro-wrestling is a form of entertainment that takes historical knowledge and appreciation to run it effectively.  You must know what the fans enjoy and hate.  You must be able to deal with the varying personalities of the wrestlers.  You must know how to build characters, and in doing so...you build a brand.  Vince McMahon knows this...and look at his juggernaut.

It takes a wrestling person to run a wrestling company...not a marketing executive, which is exactly what Dixie Carter is.  She honestly doesn't know what she's doing, and I'm sure she knows that, but she has hired the wrong people to guide her ship.  Vince Russo?  He had been the head creative person in TNA almost from its inception, and there were times when he did great things, but it seems like he just stopped using his intelligence once Hogan and Bischoff joined the company.

Instead of trying to build their own identity, they are banking on former WWE stars to carry them, but it's not working because once they make an acquisition, they handle him/her like an idiot. From WWE, they have gotten Jeff Hardy, Bobby Lashley, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, RVD, Christian, Orlando Jordan, Brian Kendrick, Tommy Dreamer...none of whom have catapulted their ratings (except for Kurt Angle with the Main Event Mafia, but they were silly enough to kill that money in the bank).

TNA has extremely talented non-former WWE employees on their roster, the likes of AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Kaz, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley, Crimson, Eric Young, and coupled with their WWE acquisitions, there is no way that this company should be as lackluster as it is.  Impact Wrestling should be a joy to watch every week, but if you don't know how to use the talent that you have...then you have NOTHING.

A few weeks back, James Storm (another TNA original) was graced with their World Title, but only to have it quickly taken away by Robert Roode in the worst swerve in recent history.  Why?  Storm winning the belt actually felt monumental (a feeling that I haven't gotten from TNA in a long time) and it was different.  Again...it all comes from their creative team not knowing what to do.  Dixie needs someone who puts the best interests of the company first instead of their pockets.  Hopefully Bruce Prichard (their new head of creative) will do something interesting, but it's not looking good thus far.

She needs to call Paul Heyman as soon as humanly possible and beg him to reconsider.  If something isn't done, TNA won't be around much longer.

The truth hurts...

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