Please Don’t Hate 4.06.08: TNA Wrestling

Before I get started, I would like to thank 411Mania for welcoming me on board and I hope to provide a cool column for everyone’s reading pleasure every week!

Now onto the topic at hand:

TNA Wrestling, the wrestling organization that has a much storied love/hate relationship with its viewers

The interview just basically asked Carter what her role and goals were in TNA and she simply replied that she wanted to give the loyal paying fans a great show and product night in and night out. Surprisingly for a talk from a company president the chat wasn’t filled with any false promises or soulless master plans to make as much money as possibly. Instead it was a nice heartfelt profession of her love for the sport and her desire to create a great promotion by taking TNA to the top. So my main question is why do we constantly hate on a company that has a good motivational head like Carter and an increasingly well-rounded roster who all truly want to put on good diverse shows?

Compared to what they were when they got started 5 plus years ago TNA has come a LONG way and are just now getting their identity together. It’s pretty crazy to think that they could possibly stick to one type of format and even one exact type of wrestling show with all of the changes they’ve gone through in so little time. So far they’ve taken their original 2 hour weekly PPVs to a 1 hour show on Fox Sports, and then to the 3 hour PPVs to a 1 hour late night show on Spike, until finally settling on a prime time spot on the same network with 2 hours to boot. If it took me a long sentence to describe their short timeline then imagine their constant shuffling to settle their booking and lineups in such a short time period. After watching the TNA: Year One DVD recently and hearing everyone’s account of how hard it was in the first year alone it furthers the point that the company has been trying to find the right fit for a good while now. Despite this, it still seems that people are expecting them to magically turn into the picture-perfect company that they hope and imagine them to be overnight.

A good unique thing and also equally major critique about TNA is its mix of wrestlers from both the old school (Sting, Nash, Steiner) and new school (Tomko, Kaz, Roode). The negative comments on this are the accusations that they are burying the “home-growth talent” by putting the older wrestlers over at their expense, but I beg to differ. While many may want just the nice “TNA Knockouts, Samoa Joe, X-Division Show”, they have to realize that the shows have to also involve everyone else in the company as well, on the same level. Without the former big company wrestlers present to compliment and actually help boost up the other “fresh blood”, they wouldn’t be as good and well-balanced a wrestling company as they are right now. With a fleshed out roster, as compared to just having relatively unknown talent to the casual wrestling fan, the company can now focus on carrying out equally fleshed out storylines (i.e. the Abyss/Sting angle, the Angle Alliance/Christian Coalition saga) while still turning out good matches.

The last thing that people should stop hating on TNA for is their character directions. Some critics state that some of the wrestlers’ characters have become too gimmicky and that they should just stick to the wrestling. When I began watching TNA, while I loved most of the in-ring antics, I didn’t particularly care for any of the wrestlers outside of the ring. A prime example of this is A.J. Styles. I have been a huge fan of A.J. since day one in TNA and loved every single one of his matches, but when it came to caring about A.J. the character when he’s not wrestling that was a different story (bland promos, no real direction or alliances). But now he’s known as “Prince” A.J., the cocky, somewhat dimwitted heel who still kicks ass with the rest of them. Sure the personality was the result of a somewhat corny story, but the fact remains that A.J.’s character now has depth and is known for more than just his crazy moves.

With that, this brings me to the X-Division. With them and many of the other people on the roster, it seems that they all have a personality now! Almost every single person has a nickname and personality: “The Guru” Sonjay Dutt, “The Maple Leaf Muscle” Petey Williams, “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal, the Motor City Machine Guns, and even “Stone Cold” Shark Boy. While the X-Division has always had the best matches on every show they never took the time to give them storylines or personalities. But now that has changed, with every one of these people having an angle to match with their new personas (Steiner/Petey, Dutt/Lethal, etc). Without these backing them up the audience might sometimes find it hard to root for someone who doesn’t pull off a big move every match.

Since day one the Samoa Submission Machine’s stint in TNA has been nothing but awesome. While there have undoubtedly been some bumps in the road with his direction (random nonsense feuds, countless world title shots) the man has still managed to take full advantage of whatever match, storyline, or push he has received by being a constant highlight in each show.

(Joe’s X Title win against Daniels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIRPCB9njxs

(Joe’s Destination X promo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RvAT4W-Itc

Good, Lasting Feuds

For every not-so-popular feud (Eric Young/Robert Roode, anything with Black Reign, etc.) that has aired TNA has 2 or 3 that are ten times better. For instance, the Christian Cage/Rhino feud was one of the best the company has ever done so far with having a great trilogy of matches and good personal back story to boot. While the surprisingly 4 month long Team 3D versus X-Division match-up ended up being a wild random rollercoaster ride that elevated both sides in the process.

(Christian/Rhino feud)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRekBfyQAVw

(Team 3D vs. X-Division)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUi49dj4JMs

Old School meets New School

Another unique thing about TNA in comparison to the other wrestling companies is the fact that they have a nice mix of old school and new school wrestlers in their roster. Luckily they have taken full advantage of this by having a good number of dream matches. They’ve done this well with matches like the random one-shot deal of former ROH talent “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels meeting multiple World Champion Sting, to the increasingly entertaining feud of veteran Booker T versus the young up-and-coming Robert Roode.

(Daniels vs. Sting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2UlVxAKk0U

(Roode vs. Booker)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0Jz1wVYz7g

With all of these reasons, it’s hard to hate on a company for its minor flaws when their overall wrestling product and their desire to do their best shines over it. TNA Wrestling shouldn’t be hated on so much because they are still trying to find themselves as a company and are so close to doing so. They aren’t quite the dominant force that the WWE continues to be, nor are they the mostly pure wrestling based entity that is ROH. But if you think about hating on TNA one day instead just take a step back and think what it would be like without the company existing today….wrestling entertainment just wouldn’t be as fun or exciting without having them at the big party.