In this post, as well as the next, I point out the positives and negatives of TNA and why TNA still has a long way to go before they can be considered on par with the WWE.
The Monday Night Wars of the late 90s were a wrestling fans dream come true. Today, with Vince having consolidated his control over the English-speaking wrestling universe professional wrestling is a shell of what it was in those days gone by. Today we have two and half WWE shows and then we have a little upstart with the wrestling affiliate known as TNA.
This post is going to be about TNA Wrestling and where it stands.
Some of it is going to be pro-TNA, I’ll save that for the latter half of my post, but most of it is negative. I don’t expect to make many friends with fans of either the WWE or TNA with these next two posts. I am not a mark for any other wrestling organization simply looking to put down TNA for the sake of putting down TNA. On the contrary, I’d like to see TNA be a successful wrestling company. I think its silly how in North America, in 2009, we still have fans who cling to a wrestling brand, where if someone insults that brand its as if someone has spit in their mother’s eye. Professional wrestling was far more interesting when you had more than one company in the fold and I’d like nothing more for the development of the old territories to come back. This is never going to happen so long as the WWE doesn’t go under so the only hope is to see TNA succeed.
TNA desperately wants to be viewed as an ECW/WCW hybrid to counter the WWE. But the TNA has a long, long, long, and I understate long, way to go before it will ever be on par with the monolithic promotion of the Western Hemisphere known today as the WWE. There are a lot of things that work against them while there are other faults that are rectifiable.
1) The first thing that works against TNA is their ring. I have nothing against a six-sided ring personally. I would rather they go back to the square ring, but the six-sides doesn’t bother me. I know they want to appear ‘innovative’ (a la ECW), but here is the thingl, TNA didn’t come up with the six-sided ring, so it’s not as if it was their own idea. They did this as an attempt to brand TNA with some sort of concept. But the thing is, when I think of a six-sided ring I don’t think of TNA, I think of AAA. The AAA promotion out of Mexico has been using a six-sided ring for forever now.
AAA also uses a ‘real’ six-sided ring and not a toy ring like TNA uses. What I mean by that is the size of the ring. AAA is a real territorial promotion, and the sizes of the rings they use for the arenas they perform in, to the naked eye appear almost twice the size of the one TNA uses. TNA rings are the smallest I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like a toy.
An example of what a real six-sided ring looks like is here in a clip of AAA wrestling
The reason for this is that TNA television tapings are not done in arenas, they are done in a tiny TV studio which they call the ‘Impact Zone.’ This brings me to my second point.
2) I’ve already touched upon it in my first point, but to flesh it out in more detail: TNA does not do arena shows on a regular basis. I know that in recent years they have toured a little, I really have no idea how successful or unsuccessful those arena shows have been (I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they were a success simply due to the public’s thirst for an alternative to the WWE) but they certainly never do a TV taping at one. The so-called ‘Impact Zone’ is a television studio at Universal in Florida (remember the old WCW Saturday Night days?).
TNA is contractually obligated to tape from this location, if they don’t they have no show. TNA is also not allowed to charge any admission to these shows they tape. TNA Wrestling is nothing more than a side attraction for tourists who visit Disney world. The fact is, when you hear people chanting ‘TNA, TNA, TNA’ on the show – these are not people who bought a ticket. For all I know there is one of those lighted signs which prompt the audience to start the chant at certain high points. The ECW fans who used to chant ‘ECW, ECW, ECW,’ among other things, paid admission fees, and you can rest assured there was no TelePrompTer to tell the audience what to chant.
I’d like to see TNA improve enough to the point where they are able to tour the country and host a show where 2-5,000 people pay to get in. Don’t get me wrong either, the WWE will certainly paper their events at times…but the fact is they are in the business of putting a product on their stage that is aimed at having people purchase a ticket to get in to see. TNA doesn’t have this burden, yet they try to project this image as if they are over more than they really are. If TNA tried to put a show on at Ford Field does it even sell 10,000 seats? I doubt it.
3) The second point leads me into the third, so let’s touch upon the talent on the TNA roster. There are essentially two types of wrestlers under contract to the TNA. The first are comprised of ex-WWE stars who want as big a pay day that they can find with as little travel involved, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. However, in this first type there are also wrestlers who never made it in the WWE and simply need the work, and there is nothing wrong with that either. The second group of talent on the TNA roster is comprised of those who are essentially waiting to get a call from the WWE offices. Sanjay Dutt essentially confirmed that after he was released. Anyone in TNA who has not been in the WWE is essentially trying out for the WWE. That’s how they see it. Once again, there is nothing wrong with this. But am I supposed to believe, as TNA would have me, that a better than average talent like A.J. Styles doesn’t want to go work for Vince and do his thing in front of 20,000-75,000+ at a Wrestlemania show? Incidentally, I can’t take A.J. Styles, or anyone brought through the TNA system seriously until they are put through the meat-grinding loops where performing night-in and night-out in different cities is involved. Whether that somewhere be in the WWE or someplace else, it doesn’t matter. It’s not fair to try and compare what you see on TNA, where you have a group of guys who work out of a TV studio (meaning minimal travel) to guys in the WWE, who have to perform in Japan one day and then South Korea the next when they do a tour of Asia for example.
4) My fourth point concerns the TNA commentators. I have no love for WWE commentators, however, this post is not about the awfulness of JR and Michael Cole or how the WWE goes about their announcing-business (that’s another post). This is specifically about Mike Tenay and Don West.
Tenay and West are brutal. I don’t know if the rest of the country got to see Don West on the home shopping channel like we had here in New York, but his voice is just grating. It always has been. Whenever I hear him I can’t help but think of the sports memorabilia or kung-fu weapon he’d try to shill in the early part of the decade. What association does West have with professional wrestling prior to his position at the TNA booth? None I’m aware of. But that’s besides the point. The fact is West is bad and Tenay is not much better. Tenay knows wrestling, I’ll grant him that, but he has no presence. He’s just a pipsqueak behind the mic who is as irritating to listen to as West is, but on a different level. Tenay has no ‘presence’ at the commentator’s table. This is not a commentating team you want to brand your product with. Ideally, TNA would axe West and switch Borrash’s job with Tenay’s. Borash is no great shakes either, but if you listen to him speak he has a better wrestling voice. Borrash would have to stop trying to act like wrestling’s resident metro sexual clown, a la Ryan Seacrest. His segments are not funny. If Borrash was a guy who simply stuck to the nuts & bolts of a wrestling show I think Borash could do well. Let Tenay have the role of interviewing the wrestlers backstage, or put him on the website somewhere in some info-reference role. Then bring back Zybyszko, or another heel color commentator to put next to Borash. I think Kevin Nash, who really has no business trying to wrestle anymore, would be perfect for it. A commentating duo of Borash & Nash the commentator is the type of tandem you can brand your show with.
For the JV wrestling program on TV these days, which is what TNA is they – should be looking to improve anywhere and anyway they can – and this is something they can easily do.
5) My fifth point, and probably the most important point regarding TNA is also the most easily overlooked. It’s founding and association with the Jarretts. Jerry Jarrett and his son Jeff are career underachievers in the national market place when it involves professional wrestling. If we want to simply look at their past track record to project TNA’s fate, then TNA is doomed to fail, plain and simple. Jerry Jarrett’s wrestling promotion career can be summed up by his latching on to the career of southern mega-draw Jerry Lawler when he was hot in the 80s and merging his fledgling CWA with Lawler’s startup USWA promotion, (only to have the USWA lose popularity as Lawler became more of a WWF fixture in the 90s). Meanwhile, his son Jeff the so-called ‘King of the Mountain,’ who has the book in TNA at the present and perhaps the most instrumental in founding TNA, is another underachiever.
Has anyone ever noticed Jarrett’s association with him either underachieving in a wrestling promotions while he was in that company and the company was doing well or having him overachieve only to see the company either fold or get zero attention? I’ll grant you that Jeff & Jerry both have a following in the mid-south, but when you try to take the Jarretts national or the Jarretts themselves try to go national, in any capacity it’s simpply not going to work. I can’t underscore this fact enough. If TNA were to remain a territorial wrestling promotion I’m sure the Jarretts would do well enough promoting shows in the various arenas and civic centers in places like Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas, perhaps even Georgia. These are some of the great wrestling territories historically and this is what they should have done. But if they did that, they’d have no affiliation with a national cabel outlet like Spike. Without a national TV outlet there is no product to compete with the WWE. What they’ve opted to do is try to build a nationally recognized wrestlng company hoping for a sustainable success in the way of WCW in the 90s and trying to create a following like ECW.
But as I’ve pointed out, it’s a joke to even try and think of TNA as anything conceivably akin to ECW and the Spike channel has work to do before you can consider it in the likeness of anything TNT was.
6) My sixth knock against TNA, and this is more of a nitpick, but TNA needs to improve in almost every conceivable capacity and that is the music they play for their wrestlers. It’s so badly produced it’s laughable. If you can’t come up with anything good for them, then don’t play anything. There is nothing wrong with not having entrance music for a wrestler!
I know I’m killing TNA here, it’s like clubbing salmon in a kiddie pool. But I want to reiterate how I still want to see TNA improve and do well. It fosters a competitive environment amongst companies which provides the audience a better product. My beef with TNA at present is I don’t think they are anywhere near competing with the WWE. Yet they go out of their way to pat themselves on the back every chance they get, as if they’ve provided wrestling fans with something on par with Vince.
Now WWE fans like to laud Vince McMahon with all kinds of praise for having conquered the industry – and it’s all well and deserved, but think about it…
Is the landscape of professional wrestling really better off now that Vince won the Monday night wars? I will be publishing a post in the future regarding my opinion on this matter, but for now I’ll stick to the topic at hand.
Despite all of TNA’s warts, there is still potential for it. To be fair TNA has a few assets and circumstances that work in favor for the future of the company. That’s what Dixie Carter knew when she had her parents at Panda Energy purchase 3/4ths of the startup company in 2002. That immediately brings me to my first plus which TNA has going for it:
1) Dixie Carter taking over as the majority stakeholder from the Jarretts’ J Sports & Entertainment. I can’t say I know much about Dixie Carter other than A) she has rich parents and B) recognizes a latent marketplace with the will to try and offer the market an alternative. Panda Energy taking over meant that now she was the major stakeholder and not the born to lose Jarretts. Of course, Dixie is not a wrestling aficionado, so unfortunately she’ll still listen to the Jarretts. As people behind the scenes at TNA are finding out now though, this is not necessarily a good thing.
Dixie Carter and Jerry Jarrett
[photo credit: Bob Kapur, SLAM! Wrestling --http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/home.html)]
Such as things are, its a better situation now than what it started out as. Ideally I’d like to see Dixie cut ties with Jeff Jarrett all together. Keeping Jeff off of the show and keeping him from booking immediately improves the quality of TNA. I know it’s not likely to happen, and perhaps might even sound a little cold-hearted, but this is a billion dollar marketplace when you play your cards right. There is no room for incompetence and loyalties to those who simply hold the company back.
2) The attractiveness TNA offers to older stars from the WWE. As I’ve discussed, everything TNA does is done out of a studio… there is no travel schedule. That alone would make TNA attractive to wrestlers like Booker T, The Dudleys and Kurt Angle for example. You take that and include the lucrative contracts they can provide such stars for a job that requires little travel makes it a haven. I will predict that pretty much everyone signed to the WWE as of now, March 21, 2009, will at some point take a detour down to TNA – either to take a break from the crazy WWE schedule or to make money before retiring all together. This promise of new attractions who will surely come through Universal studios is sure to help TNA sustain audience viewership in some capacity, just like WCW, but pre-1996.
Unless it is a pay-per-view, where TNA can charge admission and make money off of buys, there is nothing to generate revenue and force TNA to come up with and promote their own wrestlers like Vince has always done. TNA’s money is generated primarily by television advertising, which is big – but it doesn’t generate stars. Television is a showcase for existing stars. Wrestlers like A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Eric Young or anyone else who is what TNA likes to call a ‘TNA original’ will never achieve superstardom and will essentially always have second-rate pull in the company simply because TNA does not have the means or the know-how to make stars like Vince. This however segues into TNA’s third plus…
3) Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle is the top wrestler in the industry, period.
In the world of professional wrestling he is a big bright shining star whom Vince had promoted and he just so happened to find TNA a worthy venture. I shall explain in more depth why Angle is such an asset in my following post because I have a lot to say on this matter. Having Angle is the biggest plus TNA has going for them by far.
4) Oftentimes Vince McMahon’s worst enemy is not rival wrestling promotions or companies – but it’s Vince McMahon himself. Although the WWE is the top wrestling promotion in the western hemisphere there are times when they force their fans to sit through som eof the most ridiculous segments ever conceived. Try as I might, I can’t get that segment where we had the fake Rosie O’Donnell wrestling the fake Donald Trump.
The WWE fans were chanting TNA in this segment…and there was no prompt. So every so often, when the WWE gets full of themselves, as they are want to do – they’ll put garbage like this on, which will slowly erode viewership. This can only bode well for the TNA – assuming they can get their act together.
Now, I have critiqued TNA for running television tapings out of a television studio, but the fact is, in the wrestling world, this is nothing new. A promotion can be successful doing television tapings out of a studio. When pro-wrestling was as fractured as it was in the territorial days before the advent of national cable channels, wrestling was only aired on regional syndicates, so wrestling tapings were often held in a television studios. However, when WCW hit its wave, its flagship show was no longer Saturday Night, it was Monday Nitro. This was the WWF’s main competition and it was aired in different arenas across the country weekly. TNA as it is presently comprised can succeed, but there is a ceiling there. At best I see TNA as its presently run and operated as reaching the heights of success of the old WCW days, circa 1990-93. WCW had a NES video game released in those days as well. Just because you release a video game does not mean you’ve breached the hump. But it’s not a bad sign either.
I think TNA recognized the problem they had with the broadcast booth, as you see Don West turning into a heel announcer. It’s a step in the right direction, but just remember he’s Don West. If you want to fancy yourself a big boys wresting show you need to do better than plucking the guy from the home shopping channel – and although I killed the entrance music TNA uses, I do have to say I love the piece they composed for Angle.
But as of now TNA is still a Mickey Mouse organization in comparison to the WWE, plain and simple.
A couple of weeks back they had a segment written where Jeff Jarrett beat Kurt Angle in some sort of a street-fight thing they had set up in the television studio, where Jarrett threw Angle out of the building. It was one of the single worst segments in professional wrestling TV history (perhaps only the Rosie-Donald WWE match was worse). TNA cannot do things like this if they want to compete. Now I’m sure that in places like Kentucky and Tennessee people were clapping when they saw this. They love Jarrett in those states. But the rest of the country was left, like me, shaking their head. TNA cannot have Jeff Jarrett manhandle Kurt Angle, it kills the product because when you air that kind of a segment it shatters the theatrical illusion wrestling is supposed to provide. Telling their audience Jarrett can take out Angle at anytime would be like telling someone that the earthworm is going to go beat up that black mamba.
Hopefully for the sake of all wrestling fans TNA will learn. But until then, TNA will simply remain a work in progress.
If you have not already, check out Part 2 – in regards to Kurt Angle and his association with TNA.
