It has certainly been a long time since I have posted anything about wrestling. Life threw some lemons my way, and Im trying to make lemonade as the saying goes. But Im back today to talk about TNA Wrestling, a company that continues to put out a product that people – myself included – continue to watch, hoping for the best, but always getting the worst.
Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, Booker T, AJ Styles – the list of talent goes on and on. Primetime programming on a national network. One would believe that this company could compete with WWE, and they do – but it is with the ECW brand, which is almost an afterthought in the WWE program structure. ECW, once the cult phenomenon and upstart promotion run by Paul Heyman, has been turned into a joke by Vince McMahon. TNA competes with this brand when it comes to looking at viewership numbers, not something to brag about. With the talent they have at their disposal, TNA has done nothing from a creative standpoint to make people want to watch their programming.
TNA is eerily reminiscent of the dying days of WCW, where angles made no sense, finishes were practically given away and a viable promotion was destroyed. The Main Event Mafia and the frontline is similar to the WCW angle pitting The New Blood against The Millionaire’s Club. It is everything that is wrong with professional wrestling. It is an older generation of wrestlers hanging on to their glory days and keeping the younger generation in the same spots they were in years ago.
There is younger talent in TNA that – presented correctly – could be stars. Samoa Joe has been hurt by the change in appearance. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin were a hot tag team that has been put to the side even though they were getting over with the fans at one point. LAX is being misused. There is absolutely no need for TNA to push a 50 year old Kevin Nash who cannot move with his bad knees, a Scott Steiner who is probably dangerous to work with given the terrible back pain he suffers from.
TNA got to the point of gaining national exposure by presenting a product that differed from WWE programming. It showcased wrestling and innovation. Now, TNA is just a WWE ripoff with horrible production and booking. I sincerely hope that TNA gets the message eventually, or else they are likely to follow the destructive path already travelles by WCW.
– Michael
