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15 minutes of good content in a 2 hour TNA Impact show; 30 minutes or less of good content in a 3 hour WWE Raw show...yup, both promotions are pretty much running neck and neck. I still maintain that the wrestling is better with TNA, so they get a slight edge over WWE as far as interest level goes for me
Last edited by Cannibal Spork (Fri-3-May-2013 15:42:18)
Angle and AJ had a nice little segment there. AJ is the key to killing A&E. It's about damn time that they treat AJ with the respect he deserves. No fake pregnancies. No crack heads. He is so fucking good that anything short of main eventing is a waste of his talent. I'm glad to see they are making him the one who can tip the balance of power in TNA. They can't drag this out though. They have done that too long with A&E and reavealing Bully as the leader. If they drag this out with AJ, they could miss their window. Once AJ makes his choice to fight A&E, they need him to beat the odds and beat all of A&E leading to him taking the title from Bully and ending A&E for good.
This x100. I've been saying this since like 2006, AJ is in TNA's top 3 greatest wrestlers ever but he's never been consistently at the top. Same with Joe, whats even going on with him now a days? People always use to talk about Joe all the time but the last time I heard someone talk about him was when he was attacking the Main Event Mafia with a penis painted on his face.
I don't keep up with TNA, last time I checked on them Aries was champion and I told myself I would get into it again. Next thing you know Jeff was champion and well that's when I lost all interest. Seems like they're still pushing WWE talent and Ex Stars instead of using them to put over their own stars but that's just an assumption so if I'm wrong you can tell me and I won't argue.
My biggest question is, is TNA really the Hogan show? Everytime I hear people criticising it that's the complaint they use. I'm actually interested in TNA, I wanna know whats going on since when I think about it they ironically have way more star power than the WWE and a lot of my favourites too but I can't bring myself to get into it, mainly because I can't sit through a wrestling program anymore.
No its not the Hogan show. Im sure he has alot of pull creatively but I'm pretty sure Bruce Pritchard is doing the writing. I just think to many people are searching for flaws with TNA instead of going into the show with an open mind. No matter what era of wrestling there has always been something wrong with the show creatively, not everything is brillant.
TNA does do good though. The segments with Robert Roode and Austin Aries are gold. Everything with Bad Influence is gold. I love the layers to the storyline with the Bad Influence trying to influence Robert Roode to reform Fourtune. I haven't watched the latest show yet to see the continuation. Austin Aries showing a bit of jealousy adds a nice effect.
Oh and Taz is a terrible color commentator. There was one time where he was talking about having a boil on his ass. I do like the idea of having a member of Aces and Eights on the commentary team though.
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Both sides are basically right. TNA is great with long-term vision and sticking with plans until the last minute, but terrible with following through. They made Roode a star for BFG 2011, then changed their minds at the end. They did great work with Storm going into Lockdown 2012, but changed their minds at the end again. Then they were going to try again with Roode, but Aries caught on and they just lost interest. Now they're building AJ, I just really hope they do whatever they're planning to do. Roode, Storm and Aries have all fallen so far.
And that's also because of the Aces. With them on top, the other heels have to drop down the card. They can't work Devon for the TV title and they're not going to fit into the X stuff, so they're left with being a tag team. That means working with Chavo and Hernandez, which is no good for anyone. They deserve so much more than this. I did like the Fortune stuff so I'm not totally against Roode working with Bad Influence with Storm involved somehow, but that wasn't talked about very much at all last week. Might have been a one-night deal.
The Aces running through all the top faces is fine, that's how this storyline is done, but there has to be a guy at the end who stops them. There has to be a Sting, or a Goldberg. And by that I mean Sting from 1997, not Sting from 2013. That guy can't be Hulk Hogan. If they're holding off on AJ and if they don't want to use Morgan, that's fine, but don't write off Hardy so easily. Or Angle, or Storm. Anyone could be that guy, but they're killing everyone to build up the one guy who can't work a match anymore.
What they really need is someone new. They're doing that exactly right with the X division format, there's always a new guy in the contendership matches to keep things fresh. Back when the knockouts were doing well, they always had new faces there too. Taylor Wilde got that big upset win over Kong, and they used Sojourner Bolt, Hamada, Sarita, Rosita, Alyssa Flash, etc. The only new girl they've signed in ages is Teryn, and she's doing well. Gail complained this week that Teryn was knockout of the month instead of her, and my immediate reaction was "there are only seven of you, your turn will come." It shouldn't be like that. Even two or three more would be a huge help to that division. Use Taeler Hendrix and Ivelisse Velez. They're both acceptable.
They really should be signing someone new to take on Bully Ray. I like AJ, but really. Angle isn't going to be around forever and they've killed off Aries, Storm and Roode. WWE have been scooping the indies for a little while now, they have loads of great talent waiting for the call up, why is TNA settling for Alex Silva and Sam Shaw?
Apparently when they first started doing the Aces and Eights gimmick, the ratings for their segments were really good. I think that had alot to do with some of the stars falling off. Because Storm was on pace to win the BFG series and I think he was pretty over. He's a pretty marketable talent. Then the summer happened, Aces and Eights drew good ratings, so they changed the plan. Kinda sucks that the storyline fell so far down. They did a lot of improving on it once Bully was revealed though. Bully Ray saves that faction.
The thing about Bully Ray is though, I just don't see him as a marketable champion. I love Bully Ray and if everyone was a die hard wrestling fan like we were, then he would be awesome as a champion. I don't really know how to explain where I am coming from. Someone like James Storm would be the perfect face for the company at this point. I wish he were the one taking down the Aces and Eights.
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He should be a lot more than he is, yeah. I don't understand why he has to shout everything though, he's using a microphone.
I'm gonna assume Samoa Joe is injured because his name hasn't come up once.
Joe faced Devon a few weeks ago after Aces took out Magnus, because I guess Joe and him are still "friends"
Apparently when they first started doing the Aces and Eights gimmick, the ratings for their segments were really good. I think that had alot to do with some of the stars falling off. Because Storm was on pace to win the BFG series and I think he was pretty over. He's a pretty marketable talent. Then the summer happened, Aces and Eights drew good ratings, so they changed the plan. Kinda sucks that the storyline fell so far down. They did a lot of improving on it once Bully was revealed though. Bully Ray saves that faction.
The thing about Bully Ray is though, I just don't see him as a marketable champion. I love Bully Ray and if everyone was a die hard wrestling fan like we were, then he would be awesome as a champion. I don't really know how to explain where I am coming from. Someone like James Storm would be the perfect face for the company at this point. I wish he were the one taking down the Aces and Eights.
Bully Ray is TNA's JBL. When JBL first went over and became champ everyone said the same thing; "Bradshaw is the WWE Champion? What the fuck is that?" With Bully it's essentially the same thing but with a little more build to the title reign. Bully is in the best shape of his life, he sells great for a big guy, and he is pretty good on the mic. Sure he has his moments when he overdoes it but so does everyone else.
My point was that there seems to be about 5 different directions that creative is pointing to in regards to a legit challenger to Bully. I just can't wrap my head around why Sting? I get the value in his name and history but it's just that, history. Sure Kurt Angle only has maybe 3 good years left in his body but that's all the more reason to not let him be the guy that takes out A&E. If you are going to give someone the rub of putting away the most dominate stable in TNA, you gotta let it be someone who not only has main event talent and a main event rep, but can keep going for a long time to come and AJ Styles is that guy. A&E is threatening TNA's very existence and no matter which superstars Hogan throws at them, they come up short. Now is time for the original TNA original to come the rescue. AJ is the guy. He HAS to be the guy. At this point there are two paths with AJ. Next week he joins Angle and Sting to fight A&E in the six man tag. Then he takes out each member of A&E until he gets to Bully, who will beat Sting at Slamiversary. Then he wins the title thus getting redemption for all the shit he has endured.
Or they have him pull the fake heel turn ala Kurt Angle with the WCW/ECW Alliance. Take them out from the inside. I see this as the least likely scenario of the two because Angle was in good with Vince then turned and AJ is on the outs with everyone like Sting in 1997. Either way, we know that AJ can't even challenge for the title until Bound For Glory in October. That's still 5 months away. That means we have a long time to wait for this to play out. That's a long time for anyone to wait and with TNA's history of last minute booking changes, I fear for the worst. One thing I thought of to help this option play out would be for AJ to join A&E until the BFG series starts. He could be the A&E rep in the series and they help him win only for him to turn on A&E and beat Bully for the belt. It would be ironic for Bully to have someone do to him what he did to Hogan. Then AJ defends against Bully in a big rematch and once A&E is done, they can screw AJ out of the belt again like they always do.
If someone hasn't watched TNA for a long time and tuned it last night, they would have thought they were transported back to WCW Nitro circa 2000. First off, I cannot stand their announce team. Mike Tenay has always come across as a pompous, know it all dickhead. Todd Keneley is new but he already reminds me of Larry Zbysko, but worse. Taz is the only bright spot but even he gets caught in pissing matches with the other two and it takes away from where the attention should be, the ring.
I'm going to jump around here so bear with me and try to keep up. The idea of 75 year old Sting being a legit threat to Bully Ray's title is laughable at best. Just look at his match with Matt Morgan as an example. There were about 5 times where Morgan had to break his rhythm and slow down so Sting could catch up. It threw Morgan off and you could see he was having trouble trying to carry the aging icon along. Morgan is a big, mean, athletic monster and Sting beat him with 1, that's right, 1, O-N-E wrestling hold. What was the "wrestling hold", you ask? The worst Scorpion Death Lock of all time. I can't even put into words how shitty that was and for Sting, the man has been doing that move for damn near 30 years, it should be even more embarrassing. My 13 year old daughter was watching with me and as soon as Sting turned Morgan over she said "how is that supposed to hurt? he isn't even putting pressure on his back and he barely has his legs crossed." She was partly right. He should have sat down and put pressure on the back but it was such a lazy attempt that Sting barely even crossed Morgan's ankles. Bret Hart had a fucking stroke and he can still perform the sharpshooter like it was 1992. Then after Morgan gets to the ropes, Sting pulls him to the middle of the ring, jumps in the air and then just kinda sits on Morgan's back, letting his legs just dangle. This is supposed to be the big finish and this is supposed to make the fans see Sting as a legit title threat but, for me, it just made me sad. In one fail swoop TNA successfully ruined Matt Morgan's character development and at the same time booked what has to be one of the least exciting PPV main events in recent memory. Bully Ray is having his Golden Age right now and they are wasting him on Sting. Boo that!
On a side note, Sting is a legend, icon, or whatever label you want to use for someone who has been a huge star in this business. He was a huge steal for TNA when he first signed with them and he helped bring name value to a company that desperately needed it. Now, however, TNA has signed or made other big names like Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, ect. They don't need Sting anymore because, frankly, he is doing more harm than good at this point and on top of that, he was in like 5 segments in a two hour show. He is taking TV time from guys like Chris Sabin, Bad Influence, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, and James Storm. Sure they had a segment on the show but I would have rather seen them wrestle than watch Sting run around like people should fear him because he wears face paint and beats his chest. It reminds me of Hogan's run in the WWE where they gave him the Undisputed Championship. It's just sad to watch and completely unbelievable.
Back to Nitro, I mean Impact. After blowing both of his knees out and missing like a year or more of action, they throw Chris Sabin in a triple threat X-division match. Am I the only one who thinks this 3-way only X-Division is lame? Way to kill the triple threat match with over saturation. At least it only went 4 minutes. Sabin shouldn't be in the X-Division any more. He's out grown it. He is the type of performer that should be given a real shot to run with the big boys. If AJ, Daniels, and Kaz got their shot, why can't Sabin? He's a hell of a performer.
Aces and Eights segment time. No one in that room outside of Anderson and Bully would be believable as someone who can beat Angle. D-Lo stepped up after not being a full time wrestler in about 5 years or more to take Angle's challenge. Bully had the reaction I had. Just a blank stare that screamed "Really?" I am supposed to believe that a backstage agent is going to make Kurt Angle say "I Quit" just because he wears a leather vest and hangs out with "tough guys"? Sorry, not buying it.
As for the match, it was not anywhere close to good. I'd say average at best and that's an insult to Angle because he pulls good matches out of everyone. Execpt D-Lo I guess. Lame finish. It looks like that whole "Swear on your colors" thing doesn't mean anything because A&E isn't even aloud to talk bad about a guy who choked because "you never ride alone" or whatever that's supposed to mean. I liked the idea of A&E but with the level of talent assembled in that group, I can't take them seriously.
TNA obviously didn't get the memo that the fans don't want to see limited talent muscle guys like Crimson get pushes because they trying so hard to get people to care about Rob Terry. I don't care about him and I never will. He sucks in the ring, on the mic, and probably in the locker room too. He just isn't appealing to any of my senses and I don't want to see him wrestling 3 jobbers. He isn't a star, plain and simple. Cut your losses and move on.
Why are they wasting AA and Roode on the tag titles? Oh yeah, that's because the A&E storyline has taken over the main event scene and if you aren't a part of Hogan's Heroes, you don't get TV time. Bah, anyway. If you want to have a strong tag team scene, you need more than 3 teams. Especially since one of those teams is two main eventers who are just buying time until the A&E story is over. I don't care how good he is, I just don't buy Chavo as a star. He's a hell of a talent but he's a mechanic. He should be used to get young guys over in the ring. He isn't good enough on the mic to do it that way. Hernandez is just so disappointing. He should be main eventing. He had the push but for whatever reason, he flopped out. Probably because he tried to talk. Get that guy a mouth piece and turn him heel. He doesn't work as a face. Bad Influence is one of the few bright spots. Kaz and Daniels are so good at what they do, it's just fun to watch them. Aries and Roode are great as always going back and forth with them too. Now we get to add another main eventer with no current plans to this storyline. James Storm has so little to do that he is now refereeing tag team matches. God someone kill A&E and fast. Storm was given one of those rare life changing pushes and he is over but they just cut the rope on him and let him fall when A&E started up. Shame.
Angle and AJ had a nice little segment there. AJ is the key to killing A&E. It's about damn time that they treat AJ with the respect he deserves. No fake pregnancies. No crack heads. He is so fucking good that anything short of main eventing is a waste of his talent. I'm glad to see they are making him the one who can tip the balance of power in TNA. They can't drag this out though. They have done that too long with A&E and reavealing Bully as the leader. If they drag this out with AJ, they could miss their window. Once AJ makes his choice to fight A&E, they need him to beat the odds and beat all of A&E leading to him taking the title from Bully and ending A&E for good.
Why are they pushing Taryn Terrell? Sure she's nice to look at but so are 90% of the knockout and most of them have way more talent than she does. Meh, I liked watching Gail smash her though.
Overall, they probably had 15 minutes of a 120 minute show that was worth anything. They are trying to hard to get new guys over but they aren't putting any of the established stars in a place of stability. They have the right idea by putting the World title on Bully and then slow burning AJ to beat him but outside of that, everything else is just a cluster fuck. I think the tag belts have changed hand between 3 teams about 7 times in a two month time period. They have a TV title that hasn't been defended on TV in over a month. The X-Division is a mess. The KO division is flat because Velvet Sky can't carry that division. The announce team tells stories instead of calling the action and when they did call the matches, they messed up by calling moves by the wrong names. Just an embarrassment overall and it's becoming a pattern. It needs to change or they are going to start losing viewers. The crowd was shit outside of anything Kurt Angle and that didn't help matters. I just don't know what else to say. It's WCW all over again and we saw how that ended.....