Okay, so I just wanted to make a quick point.
I'm a WWE fan through and through, and for all the criticizing I do of Vince and Co., I will always be a WWE fan.
I always manage to catch RAW...I may miss three or four a year. With the magic of DVR, I catch it every week no matter where I am or what I'm doing.
Also with the magic of DVR I'm able to watch TNA, which I would otherwise be unable to enjoy because I'm working both Thursdays and Saturdays: the two nights it broadcasts SpikeTV.
I don't always get around to TNA, so I have about two months of shows stocked up on my box at home. I just whipped out the July 24 edition to see Matt Morgan squash...hell, I don't even know what his name was because I wasn't paying attention to him. I was paying attention to Morgan.
TNA had been trying to get Morgan over for months. Morgan would cut some mediocre promo and then come out and squash somebody Goldberg-style, and no one cared. The crowd continued to sit on their hands for both halves of this segment.
I don't like the image Matt Morgan gives. It goes beyond being a simple "Golberg/Batista/Lashley/Lesnar" clone. In an age where professional wrestling is constantly under the microscope TNA pushes Matt Morgan with this, and I quote "Genetically jacked" superstar. That's not just a catchphrase. That's a moniker. One that never fails to air every week he's on.
Wow. Wonder what all the fuss is about when it comes to "performance enhancement in entertainment", eh?
I'm not saying Morgan is on steroids. I don't know anything about the man to make that assessment. He certainly isn't as veiny as Batista or Triple H, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway, his squashes were quick and meaningless for weeks, even months, and despite being in fairly prominent storylines, even involving Jim Cornette, it seemed Morgan was destined to flounder like so many before him. Remember: this is the same man who debuted as a stuttering powerhouse in WWE no so many years ago.
Then I watch this edition of iMPACT: July 24. Morgan comes out, no prep, no promo, not even a promotional shot before commercial. He just comes out. In about three and a half minutes he squashes this guy...again, I forget his name and it's not really important. What IS important is the fact that he got the biggest pop of the night.
The moral of the story: you can use as many "performance enhancers" as you want. You can have creative script out the best storyline, and you can rehearse the best promo ever written for the camera. But what's going to get you over is what you do IN THE RING, BELL TO BELL. Everything else simply enhances that experience. Morgan's match on this episode was not intertwined with any creative thread. There were no titles on the line, not even a title shot on the line. It was simnple wrestling. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
This should have instantly put a nail in the coffin of WWE's trademark 15-minute monologues (I'm talking to YOU, Hunter). But of course, TNA is not even on Vince's radar, so he'll just keep doing what he's doing until TNA poses some "real" threat to his company.
Oh, the irony.
