When a TNA show has TWO articles written by me leading into it, you know there had to be good reason. After all, this was a show that was bringing in a former Jersey Shore cast member AND Bart Scott of the Jets, putting on a wedding that causes conflict between two of its biggest stars, having a grudge match that belongs on Pay Per View, and solving the mystery of 3/3/11.
Keep in mind all of these things were advertised prior to the show. This seems to be TNA's strategy under the current regime: build to super-Impacts, not to Pay Per Views. While I am not one in agreeance with this strategy, the idea behind it is to draw in fans for a huge show, get a ratings pop, and hope the show delivers so that ratings will stay at the level of the pop.
On the surface, it actually sounds pretty good, but if we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Think back to 1998. The WWF had finally taken over in the Monday Night Wars and WCW was getting desperate. Nevermind that the company was unable to pry itself away from the never-ending story that was the nWo, they were unsure as to why this once successful story wasn't beating the WWF the way it used to.
Now, instead of doing the smart thing and coming up with a new idea and a new direction for the company, hot-shot booking was in order for a quick fix. The idea was that a massive table turner on free TV would hook fans again and topple the WWF.
For all of 1998, a new star was emerging in the form of Bill Goldberg. His intense stare, his muscular physique, and his inimidation in the squared circle were quickly making him the most popular up and coming star. Thus, the decision was made for July 6, 1998: Bill Goldberg would become WCW Champion.
Sounds great on paper, but the execution was extremely poor. You see, this match was announced on Thursday Thunder, giving the fans all of 4 days to get excited about it. Not only that, this was a "dream match" by all acounts at this point, Hogan vs. Goldberg. To give it away on free TV and with little to no build seemed silly. Surely the nWo would crash the party, starting the build for an epic clash that could at least wait until the next PPV of something?
Of course not.
Bill Goldberg won the title that night and not surprisingly, WCW won the Ratings War that night as well. The WCW brash was elated, but that was short lived. Because the shows were still convoluted and nonsensical, and because the fans had nothing to look forward to on the title front, and because the title played second fiddle to the nWo split and power struggle, WCW quickly went back to second place where they would remain save for a few special days the rest of its existence.
Thirteen years later, TNA is trying to build itself as a national brand and essentially take WCW's place as a powerful wrestling organization to combat the WWE. However, in trying to even the playing field with WWE, it hired the men who had it beat years ago only to essentially run it into the ground a year after its peak. Thus, fans are placed with an age old question: will the losers learn from their past mistakes or repeat them? The answer, not surprisingly, is the latter.
The strategy of doing supershows has so far been a mixed bag. Some have delivered like "The Whole effin Show", but for every hit, there are a few misses. The February 3rd bait-and-switch supershow is a good example on the other end. Two things were promised essentially, Hulk Hogan and the Main Event Mafia. Neither were delivered.
A month later, Hulk was promised again, along with the aforementioned other draws to the show. So did it deliver? Was it the pop TNA was looking for? Were any hot-shot decisions made that mess things up long term? Let's discuss.
The show started out with Hogan returning and berating Dixie Carter. After all those months of waiting on a fictitious court case, it was settled in less than 5 minutes of TV. Thus, the situation that existed on October 14 (Hogan and Bischoff in charge, Jeff Hardy as champion) is exactly the same at this point. Got that? We started off with a storyline that accomplished NOTHING in almost 6 months.
The appearance of Bart Scott was tough on me. As a Jet fan, I had to see him brawl with train fighters, then, in perhaps one of the stupidest acts ever in wrestling (and that takes a lot), Scott was sent to the ring by Jeff Jarrett of Immortal to stand up to Kurt Angle. The problem though, was that Kurt Angle WAS WIELDING AN AXE! Not a fake axe, a REAL AXE! I know that you need to suspend disbelief a little bit in wrestling, but no sane human being is going in empty handed to take down a man with an axe.
Of course, this IS wrestling, so the axe played no part in the standoff, as Scott's pushing led not to a decapitation, but to an ankle lock. That seems more tame, but if Angle hurt Scott and ruined my football season, I will hunt the man down! To make matters worse, Mike Tenay took a shot at the Jets on commentary! Were they trying to get me to write a negative review of the show?
While Scott appearance did its job in a sense, Angelina's was exactly what you'd expect: crap. She sided with Cookie and Robbie E, challenging the Beautiful People along with their "bff" JWowww to a 6 Knockout match next week. I didn't like it when Rodman and Malone wrestled, I didn't like Jay Leno overpowering Hogan for any moment, I didn't like Seth Green in a wrestling ring, and I damn sure don't like this. Celebrities are fine to appear in segments, but don't ask them to wrestle! Of course, it has been reported that Angelina was inspired by her appearance and will be going to wrestling school in an attempt to do this full time. Help us now!
Morgan and Hernandez fought a 5 minute crapfest that should have been saved for Pay Per View. That's all there is to say about that.
And now, the big news. We discussed the 3/3/11 promo last week and I explained that any idiot could figure out what it meant. Apparently, any idiot did not include ANYONE in the TNA lockerroom. With the promo from last week lingering, Hogan, Anderson, Hardy, and others were trying to find out who "the network" (don't get me started on that one) ordered Hardy to defend his belt against. Nevermind that they talked about doing this match for ratings IN STORYLINE, but the fact that nobody knew it would be Sting was just baffling.
It was at this point that I said to myself "if Sting wins, this will be pathetic".
...it was pathetic. Sting won in what was essentially a squash match over the reigning TNA champion. Let me say that again. Sting, a man who left 5 months ago after wrestling like garbage for months before that, returned in the main event of Impact against Jeff Hardy, the reigning TNA Champion who is younger, more athletic, and has the backing of the owners of the company, and WON? Not only did he win, but he did so decisively, effectively burying the only heel remotely capable of holding the title at this point. And all for a shot at the competition.
I challenge anyone to debate me on this, but Sting was given the belt for one reason and one reason only: it was an attempted slap in the face to the WWE. TNA was saying "you wanted Sting, well we have him! Suck on that!" The problem is, Sting winning the belt negates all the hard work everyone else has done the last few months.
You have Mr. Anderson who won the belt and lost it quicker than you could say Anderson...........Anderson as a top contender to the belt that never got his rematch against Hardy. You have RVD who got his only title match "6 months in the making" as a throwaway where the focus was on Anderson the referee. And you have A.J. Styles, the proverbial face of TNA who recently became a good guy again as his group, Fortune, turned against Immortal to take down the heel group. Clearly, none of these logical choices to take down Hardy were worthy, as Sting coming in with one week of fanfare became more important than long term booking.
Speaking of which, not one match was made on Impact for the impending Victory Road Pay Per View this coming Sunday. NOT ONE! That's part of the issue with supershows, you build to THOSE, not PPVs. It's an ongoing problem and not the main one here, so for now, I'll let it slide.
The one positive of this supershow was the location though. Getting out of the Impact Zone was a fantastic idea and I sincerely hope they never go back. The feel was great and hearing real fans react to the action (albeit cheering the evil heel company owners since they were in Flair country) was a vast improvement from what we usually see on Thursdays. Still, if you dress up a terd..........
Take away the glitch and glam of a new set and bigger arena and you have the same problems that Impact has been having for a long time now. Major matches become 4 minute slopfests, angles and story development are weak yet take up the majority of the broadcast, and the latest swerve is always put ahead of possible long term plans. Actually, I think I know where I've seen this before.........
Trust me on this, TNA. The short term rating boost (a whopping .15 higher than the week before) is not worth sacrificing your entire outlook for. You are now stuck with a champion that buried the only credible heel on your roster. You have a bunch of younger, more appealing choices for champion that were passed over in an attempt to "stick it" to the competition. You have a champion who's last stint in the company (just 5 months ago) was criticized due to substandard matches. This does not seem to be the right move.
I understand that the name Sting was hot due to the WWE rumors. At least by your perception (since much of what you do is based on the tiny internet opinion), this was striking while the iron was hot, but why champion? Couldn't Sting be the new leader of Fortune? He could wrestle occasionally, feud with former foes Hogan and Flair, and lead his former protege AJ Styles to finally take down Jeff Hardy and Immortal. THAT would have made some sense.
As it stands, we have Sting, or at least the artist formerly known as Sting(what the heck was he wearing on Thursday?) as champion. I actually think it was a perfect ending to the show. Yep, if you are going to summarize why TNA continues to let me down like a dog that just can't catch the frisbee in its mouth, watch this show.
So much potential, yet another wasted opportunity.
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