Tim’s Take 10.14.08: Here We Go Again

TNA has become the company that is based on specialty. They made the permanent switch to the six-sided ring, possibly on some whim from someone in AAA who told Jeff Jarrett it would help define them as different from the competition. They can’t have less than three people involved in a match, it seems, as even in the one-on-one match, they believe a third party needs to be involved to spice things up, I’m sure.

Bound for Glory is supposed to be TNA’s WrestleMania: The biggest pay-per-view on the company’s calendar. It’s supposed to blow off feuds that had been brewing for months and it’s supposed to bring an end to the proceedings with a definitive ending that sets the company off in a new direction that leads to success.

Instead, TNA has reverted to the mean. Again.

For the third straight year, at their biggest pay-per-view of the year, no less, Sting has won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, and it has involved outside interference with one of Sting’s trusted bats AND Kevin Nash every time, with this time being Nash hitting Samoa Joe with the bat to job out the one guy outside of AJ Styles who had been built from within the company as a true top-flight singles competitor.

What’s happened the last two times Sting won the title? Well, for starters, his reign ended in controversial fashion both times. His wins have been used as buyrate boosters, but in the long-term (hell, even the short-term for that matter) it has never mattered, as the October title win always put TNA a tough spot. Sting has only signed one-year contracts with the company, meaning that even though he wins the belt in October, who’s to say he’ll be willing to be there in two more months to really make his reign mean something?

Last night’s pay-per-view was full of the usual TNA insanity, both intentional and unintentional. They had two huge specialty matches with tons of crazy spots, but instead of them actually being something special, both matches were used as a way to get tons of talent on the show without having any of them stand out. The spots might have induced some “oohs” and “aahs,” but in the end, people aren’t going to be interested in something that doesn’t get treated like a big deal. If you want to see a flaming table used in its zenith, I invite you to watch the Edge/Mick Foley Falls Count Anywhere match from WrestleMania 22. At least that one leads to the deciding pinfall in the match.

They continue to reference things in WWE-speak, and use insider terms and pander to the internet fan so that the rubes out there can say, “Oh! Brother Ray called Mick Foley, ‘Cactus!’ They used to be in ECW and WWE together! Only his close friends backstage call him that, I bet! I wonder if his Cactus Jack persona will be coming back!?!” Even Ring of Honor went away from that, and they are truly considered a minor league institution.

Oh, but that’s not enough for the three-headed monster of creativity that TNA currently employs in Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantell and Vince Russo. They feel that they need to dumb down their fans by believing things might be different when Jarrett returns to the ring. Instead, it’s the usual TNA insanity. Interference, a guitar shot, another Jeff Jarrett victory.

I’ll say this. The company has built itself on the reputation that it is truly Total Nonstop Action. That also means, from what I’ve seen, that the company is built on the notion that the good old fashioned one-on-one contest, you know, the contests that built the entire professional wrestling business as we see it today, aren’t good enough. There needs to be a special enforcer. Or a cage. Or a ladder. Or a table. Or thumbtacks. There’s three-way matches, there’s 6-person intergender tag matches, there’s a free-for-all in a goofy looking cage, there’s a four-way tag match where anything goes.

Hell, TYPING that made me feel like it was overkill. Even if they did have a one-on-one match, to end the show, their biggest show of the year for them, mind you, they couldn’t have a clean finish!

TNA has just never decided to truly go in a different direction. Actually, let me rephrase that. They HAVE gone in a different direction, but it has not been the direction that company should go in to not only turn a profit, but to become successful.

Ring of Honor was smart enough, FROM THE BEGINNING, mind you, to show off a specific product, work within their confines to make that product worthwhile and because of that, become successful. Are they big time? Not exactly, but they don’t want to be, either. They have their niche, they turn a profit and they have a good legion of fans who back it. They know their limitations.

TNA has passed itself off as big-time, but it has become a caricature of pro wrestling. They have no real limitations. They have two hours of TV a week. They have monthly pay-per-views. Yet they constantly pass up the opportunity to pass itself off as an alternative. They have no homemade stars (and I mean true stars to build the company around) because they don’t want to show too much faith in them, fearing that they could fold at any time.

You know, like the way Samoa Joe folded as Ring of Honor World Champion for almost two full years and put the company on the map when he took the championship and defended it all over the world (a point that was made upon his debut, no less!). Or how AJ Styles was such a huge talent in NWA Wildside that it led to him getting a cup of coffee in WCW, and Jeff Jarrett liked him so much he made the X-Division around Styles for the better part of a year and a half.

And how about that X-Division, eh? No limits? How about no clear direction, either? A division that was the best thing to come along since the dawning of the WCW Cruiserweight division has become an afterthought, when it was that division that brought people in to watch TNA in the first place. Now it’s being treated like a heavyweight division, where the gimmicks are weighing down the work. I’m not saying gimmicks are bad, but when you’re pushing “No limits” as your motto for something, you’re severly limiting that when the gimmicks weigh down the excitement.

TNA doesn’t realize that the idea with guys like Angle, Jarrett, Sting and Booker T, it’s their duty to put over the young talent and make sure that they are put in a position to succeed. Unfortunately, the only guy who seemingly gets that is Angle, whose comments a couple weeks back speaks volumes of just how badly TNA is behind the curve on putting a good product.

I’m one of the guys on this website who has criticized Angle the most, but at least he understands how to build a product. Specialty matches for blowoffs are supposed to be used sporadically for added effect, not to be watered down on a weekly and/or monthly basis to the point where it all blends in. I hope that he’s able to get into the heads of the creative team and really let them know what goes on. Speaking of things to tell creative, they need to tell the commentators to turn it down a tad. You can get excited every once in a while, but I think the high fives and such might be overdoing it a bit. I’m sad to say I didn’t get to see the Mike Tenay serious face. Oh, well.

While I’ve basically run a laundry list on TNA for all their shortcomings, one thing is still certain: they have the talent to be a good company.