It has been more than six weeks since "TNA iMPACT" went head-to-head with "WWE Raw". On February 15, 2010, TNA officially announced it would be moving iMPACT to Monday nights in the 9-11p.m. timeslot, thereby competing head-to-head with "WWE Raw" every week starting March 8th.
This is huge news, and the wrestling world has been speculating on how WWE will respond.
First let me talk about the state of these companies following their Monday Night War last month.
WWE has seen an increase in quality in my opinion, though I could still do without the guest hosts. The hosts really don't do anything for the product, and while some can pull it off remarkably well (Freddy Prinze, Jr., Seth Green, Bob Barker, and William Shatner to name a few), some are just painful to watch. Watching guest hosts dance backstage with divas is not my idea of a good time. If you're sitting in the arena, you are SITTING in the arena. You're not on your feet, you're not dancing around (there is hardly room). Watching them make jokes about the wrestlers only weakens your product. Watching them plug their own products is shameless advertising. Taking entire segments of the show to pander to the guest host's forte is a slap in the face to the men and women who work hard to earn that camera time. In the end, I sincerely hope that WWE gets Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to guest host "Raw" the week before "Wrestlemania 26" and send this idea off on a high note. After that, they need to find a permanent GM for "Raw" to compete with "Smackdown"'s Theodore Long, who plays his role so well.
Don't get me wrong, WWE has done a lot right leading up to "Wrestlemania". They always do. This is their biggest show of the year. The angle Angle with Bret Hart is some of the most believable stuff I've seen in years and it is compelling to both past and present fans. The angle with John Cena and Batista feels genuine, and even though we've seen them wrestle a hundred times before, Batista has really changed in my eyes, at least in regards to character, and that adds a whole new dynamic to his matches. I absolutely LOVED that WWE allowed him to shirk off Cena's reved up promo on "Raw" this past Monday. That appeals to all the anti-Cena fans, and helps get Batista over as a heel. It is a terrific angle and they are working it well.
HBK's obsession with facing The Undertaker has taken some strange turns, seeming to culminate in Shawn's claim that if he can't face "The Deadman" at 'Mania, his career is over. My forecast for this sees HBK's obsession breaking up DX and either facing Triple H at "Wrestlemania" one-on-one in what could be Shawn's retirement match, or The Undertaker facing both members of D-Generation X in a handicap match for the World Heavyweight Championship. The Undertaker has only fought in one other handicap match at "Wrestlemania" ("Wrestlemania XIX"), but a match featuring three of the biggest stars the industry has ever seen would blow the roof off the place. We've seen HBK and HHH face off plenty of times over the last eight years, but making this a retirement match, especially after DX's second run, would add a fresh drama to the story.
Still, other things WWE does make me question who is in charge. Edge entering the Royal Rumble was a shocker, but letting him win it is another matter entirely. In the best-case scenario, Edge will go on to face The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship at "Wrestlemania" (assuming he retains his title in the Elimination Chamber match this Sunday). We've seen this match before, and at "Wrestlemania" ("Wrestlemania XXIV"), so really, what's the point? A lot of people think that Chris Jericho will win the World Championship in the Chamber this Sunday and go on to face Edge at "Wrestlemania", which could be a classic in the making. My point is, winning the Rumble is a huge rub to whoever gets the nod, and it could've been used to put over someone like C.M. Punk, Kofi Kingston, MVP, The Miz, etc. Instead it is simply used to re-jump-start Edge's career. WWE has done this before with John Cena, but coming back early from injury is never a good idea, and it is even more dangerous to saddle that vulnerable superstar with a championship, because you may have to strip them of it later.
Other aspects of the product, particularly "Raw" make me want to change the channel. At the "Royal Rumbe", I watched as Teddy Long, while talking with Cryme Tyme, made a reference to a terrible "American Idol" audition. Why?
So much of what WWE does is simply tongue-in-cheek humor. It's the kind of thing that we all think in the back of our heads, "Wouldn't it be funny if...?" but we never really want to see it because it would be preposterous. These are grown men and women whose job is to beat up other grown men and women, and instead we are treated to what feels like a high school locker room of beefed up teenagers.
This past Friday on "Smackdown" I watched as Layla and Michelle McCool made fun of Matt Hardy and Maria, accusing Maria of having "cooties".
Really? Cooties? Even the 12 year-olds in the audience were groaning at this. Matt made a strong exit when he told the girls to "grow up", but the fact that he even had to tell them that shows that WWE doesn't take itself seriously at all anymore.
On the flip side, TNA has pretty much kept to the formula that made them successful. But let's get something straight: TNA was founded with the intention of giving young guys their "shot" at the big time. That's the mission statement that Jeff Jarrett has been preaching to his loyal fans from Day 1. Unfortunately, TNA has turned into a sort of "Island of Misfit Toys", as most of their roster is comprised of ex-WWE/WCW/ECW stars. There are 69 names on the TNA active roster. These are wrestlers, both male and female. This also includes broadcasters, GM's, jeff Jarrett, and Hulk Hogan. Of those 69 stars, 26 (38%) have previously worked in either WWE, WCW, ECW, or some combination of the three. That's not including men like Samoa Joe or Christopher Daniels who worked in Ring of Honor before coming to TNA. It also doesn't include Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, both former WWE and WCW stars.
This would be fine if this 38% weren't the men and women getting all the TV time. TNA has very little homegrown talent that they put over on a regular and consistent basis. Hulk Hogan is at the forefront of every aspect of this company, and Eric Bischoff is the man cracking the whip. Jeff Jarrett himself is continuously in the spotlight, much like Vince McMahon in WWE, but to a lesser degree.
For a company that has made a reputation out of giving young guys their break, they certainly are bringing in a lot of WWE/WCW rejects. Unfortunately that often means that stars like "Black Machismo" Jay Letahal and Eric Young have to take a back seat.
TNA has the advantage when it comes to fast-paced, action-packed wrestling. There is no doubt there, but what TNA doesn't do very well is tell stories with their matches. My sister is a WWE fan. She grew up hating wrestling, but loved the character of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. She would watch every week to see what Austin would do next. She didn't care about the matches in and of themselves, she cared what happened as a result of those matches. The story is what keeps the fans hooked, and a good wrestler will incorporate the story into their matches. TNA seems to get lost on this point, as very little storytelling is done in these matches. Instead wrestlers concentrate on stringing as many moves together as they can and executing them as quickly as possible. That's all well and good, but after a while you begin to wonder if the story really means anything because A.J. Styles will do the same thing to Samoa Joe that he will to Kurt Angle.
One of the reasons Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, and Edge are so good at what they do is because you can see emotion in their actions. When Edge is mad, you can see it in the way he carries himself, in the way he performs, in every move he makes. You can tell Randy Orton is a calculating psychopath because of the way he slithers around the ring, and the glazed, far-off look in his eyes. Shawn Michaels and Ric Clair gave us a great example of emotion in matches when HBK retired "The Nature Boy" at "Wrestlemania XXIV". Emotion is something sorely lacking in TNA, and I want to see more of it incorporated into their matches.
One good thing about TNA's matches is that they all seem to have consequences, and that is something WWE misses much too often. WWE seems to be in a robot mode, where they put two wrestlers in the ring and expect something great to just happen. TNA gives every match a purpose and a consequence, and that makes for compelling television.
D'Angelo Dinero (formerly Elijah Burke in WWE/ECW) is a tremendous talent with such charisma I'm not sure why he didn't rise to the top of WWE. He is fun to watch, to listen to, and while I didn't agree with his disrespect of Ric Flair on "iMPACT" this past Thursday, he sold it for all it was worth. I can't wait to see what this young man's future brings to him. I truly hope he makes WWE regret that they ever let him go.
Seeing Ric Flair with A.J. Styles brought back memories of when he managed Triple H, except I don't think it worked here quite as well. A.J. has never been a flashy kind of guy. The reason fans have rallied behind him is because he has always been a man of few words who does his talking in the ring. I saw A.J. dressed in a suit, with shades and women hanging on his shoulders, and I just didn't buy it. Maybe it's because I haven't watched TNA in a while, so I don't know the whole story, but I just didn't buy A.J. in this new demeanor.
Flair did a tremendous job (as Flair always does) of playing off Dinero. I loved the "no holds barred" nature of their banter. Flair will always be royalty in wrestling, and the fans can respect that, but they hate what Flair has made of their Champion, so it's a complex dynamic there. Flair is still the measuring stick, he is still "The Nature Boy". I firmly believe he will never leave that ring until the powers that be take him from it. And while I don't necessarily buy the new A.J. Styles, any segment with Flair is a positive one for me.
Still, other parts of "iMPACT" this past Thursday made me roll my eyes. The entire speech Hulk Hogan gave to Abyss was one of the most preposterous things I've ever seen in wrestling. It started off good, with Hogan giving Abyss a kick in the rear for being such a coward, and I thought, "This is good." Then he gives Abyss his Hall of Fame ring and says that it has the power to make Abyss bigger than Hulk Hogan ever was.
The entire time, Abyss is screaming in joy as though some electric shock is coursing through his body from the moment that ring enters his hand. I'm sorely tempted to make a J.R.R. Tolkein reference here, but I wouldn't want to insult Tolkein that way. Abyss starts screaming, "I feel it! I feel it!"
This is ridiculous. First off, Hogan talks himself up so high it's a wonder he can still see the arena from where he is. Then he just gives away his Hall of Fame ring? Really? He goes on and on about how he worked his whole life for it, and then he just gives it away? Now Abyss is supposed to stand for all the Hulkamaniacs? What about Abyss' fans? Hogan is supposed to live vicariously through Abyss? Is the ring magic? Does it make ordinary men into superheroes? Even as a symbol, this angle with the ring is weak. Hogan basically just told the world that it doesn't take charisma or talent to make it in wrestling. In fact, anyone can do it, as long as they have someone's Hall of Fame ring.
But let's just assume for a second that I buy all this and that the ring will magically transform whoever wears it into the biggest star since "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
Abyss? Really?
Of all the people on your roster, you choose Abyss to receive Hogan's blessing? You could choose "The Pope". You could choose Jay Lethal. You could choose Samoa Joe. But you choose Abyss? Abyss has always come off as a Mankind clone in my eyes, so it would make more sense to me to see Mick Foley in Hogan's role, but of course the power of Hulkamania overrides all common sense, so it has to be Hogan here. If Abyss is struggling that bad that he needs this big a rub after so many years in TNA, then there is something seriously wrong with either TNA or Abyss. This angle is preposterous, and needs to go away as soon as possible.
The speech by Kurt Angle, on the other hand, was simply incredible. It's been a long time since I've seen that kind of genuine, heartfelt emotion in a wrestling ring, and at that moment, every fan in that arena was a Kurt Angle fan. Breaking kayfabe isn't really that big a deal in wrestling anymore, but Kurt didn't break it simply for the sake of breaking it. He didn't do it for shock value. I realize this is an angle (no pun intended), but it was done to progress the angle between Kurt and Mr. Anderson, and it was done well. Kurt was honest here, and the fans appreciated that. TNA has an incredible fanbase, and they supported Kurt through his entire promo. This is something you would never see in WWE, and that's part of what makes it so special.
Mr. Anderson, another former WWE star, is still one of the best talkers in the business. I wish him all the success TNA has to offer him, and he will only help TNA grow for the better.
The show ends with an angle between Hall, Nash, and Waltman, and I'm once again reminded that this is a show where, my like WCW, the veterans get top priority.
This brings us to March 8, 2010, when these two companies will go head to head to compete for the wrestling audience.
I just want to make two points here. TNA has all the tools to grow their company and be as big as WWE is. It will not happen overnight. This will take time. If anyone is expecting WWE to be toppled in the ratings on March 8th, they will be sadly disappointed.
Which brings me to my next point. Everyone is saying that Vince McMahon and WWE are suddenly going to change the style of their product to keep fans away from TNA, but let's be realistic.
Vince McMahon is not afraid of TNA.
TNA draws about 1/3 of the fans that "Raw" draws every week. Consider WWE's target audience: anyone between 12-18 is probably their core demographic. Who is cheering for John Cena? The young kids. The same can be said for Rey Mysterio. Meanwhile the older fans will cheer for Shawn Michaels, Triple H, The Undertaker, Edge, Chris Jericho, etc. Ask any of those fans if they know what TNA is, and chances are they will not. I don't have the means to conduct a study, but I would estimate that 1 in every 5 WWE fans knows what TNA is. Furthermore, WWE and TNA are competing for two different types of wrestling fans. WWE is pandering more to the young crowd, while TNA is putting a more "Attitude Era" product to appeal to older fans.
Vince McMahon is not threatened by TNA in it's current state. TNA does, however, have all the tools to make themselves into a formidable competitor in the wrestling market, and that is worth watching for. I don't expect to see any changes immediately, but if you're a casual fan, I encourage to watch on March 8th, and then come back in a year and see where things are at. My guess is that by then TNA will have garnered enough fans and sponsors to make a real go of things with WWE, and that is what Vince McMahon should be afraid of.
When USA sees a substantial drop in ratings due to fans switching over to TNA in mid-broadcast, they will put pressure on Vince and the WWE to raise those ratings. I'm guessing this will mean an overhaul on the creative side of things, and perhaps even a bit more of a TV-14-style product.
Meanwhile, TNA just needs to keep doing what it has been doing, only do it bigger. That's the only way they are going to get people's attention and make WWE fans concerned with a different promotion.
Either way, it's a great time to be a wrestling fan.
