Recently, after nearly a year of resistance, I have decided to drink the Kool-Aid and became a new subscriber to
the WWE Network service. The WWE Network is a streaming service much like
Netflix and Hulu that offers a vast video library consisting of wrestling
footage and original video series. In addition, WWE Network subscribers are
also able to watch the monthly Pay-Per-View events as part of the subscription
package.
Now, you may ask me why I would
reference the WWE Network in an article about TNA. I have been watching the
original series about the Monday Night War on the network and as I watch from
episode to episode, I see similarities between WCW during the Attitude Era and
TNA in the present day.
While the documentary will
obviously be biased to make WWE sound good and WCW sound bad, the similarities
are between WCW and TNA too strong to ignore. The first similarity I noticed is
that in the documentary, it is claimed that Vince McMahon knows how to create a
superstar while Eric Bischoff simply took McMahon’s already established stars
and put them front and center, rather than grow their own home grown talent.
Bischoff spent so much time
snatching popular wrestlers away from the WWE, that he often failed to
capitalize on the talent pool that he already had within his organization. WCW
pioneered the cruiserweight division—gathering talent from across the world
featuring a plethora of wrestling styles including lucha libre, technical
wrestling, and submission specialists. They featured memorable wrestlers such
as Booker T, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero who went on to become legends in
the wrestling business. Despite the possibilities, during the Monday Night War
nearly all of WCW’s major storylines involved already-established WWE talent.
TNA has used the same practice to
try to bring credibility to their roster. They have opened their pocketbooks
and have featured former WWE stars such as Jeff Hardy, Ken Anderson, and even
Mick Foley as their world champion. Every
wrestling promotion is under the belief that writing large checks and signing
former WWE stars will lead to an instant ratings success, but they fail to
realize that simply signing a star isn’t enough.
Between 2010 and 2013, Hulk Hogan
was featured prominently on TNA programming. Hulk Hogan is arguably the most
well-known name in the wrestling industry, however TNA failed to utilize Hogan
in a way that would benefit the company. Hogan was featured regularly as both
an on-air personality and a wrestler. Hulk Hogan was incredible to watch in a
wrestling match…in 2005. In 2010, watching him and the likes of Ric Flair was
not only a stale repetitive concept, but it hurt the product. With all due
respect, Flair and Hogan are past their prime. They have both aged
significantly since their most prominent runs and there are hungry young
superstars salivating at the opportunity to showcase their talents. In addition
to this, watching two men in their late 50’s to early 60’s was a depressing
sight and severely hurt their famous characters. It wasn’t until their
respective WWE returns and WWE subsequently successfully utilizing them
correctly and making them hot commodities once again that their former glory
had been restored.
Not only has TNA used former WWE
talent in an attempt to boost ratings, but they have neglected their own home
grown wrestlers and their organic pushes in order to do so. In 2011, Bobby Roode was a top babyface in
the company. At the same time, Kurt Angle was the top heel and the TNA world champion.
Leading to TNA’s biggest Pay-Per-View of the year, Bound for Glory, Roode was
being groomed to become the top babyface in the entire company. Despite his
meteoric rise as a singles competitor, and so many wanting to see him become
“the top guy”, Roode failed to win the title at the Pay-Per-View. The next day,
Roode’s momentum seemed to come to a screeching halt after an interview with
Hulk Hogan where he said “Roode isn’t ready”. Despite TNA rectifying this
mistake, and giving Roode the world title two weeks later and making him the longest
reigning world champion in TNA history, it always felt like somewhat of a
let-down that the fans were denied that great moment of the top babyface
overcoming the odds and getting that big moment. Roode could’ve won the title
at their biggest Pay-Per-View, but instead won it during a forgettable
pre-taped episode of Impact.
Roode’s reign was ended after
almost a year when Austin Aries, another babyface who rose to the main event
scene organically, won the title at Destination X 2012. It was a great moment
in TNA history, and saw arguably the loudest pop in the history of the impact
zone. Despite this, Aries hard-earned reign as the top guy would be short
lived.
Jeff Hardy, a former WWE star known
for his drug addictions, had returned to TNA in August 2011 after a five-month
hiatus. TNA had previously severed ties with Hardy because he had showed up to
their Pay-Per-View, Victory Road, in no condition to wrestle. There has been
much speculation since then that Hardy was high on drugs and/or drunk on that
night. After a brief feud with Jeff
Jarrett, Hardy was immediately pushed back into the main event scene.
Over the course of the next year,
Hardy was in a majority of the main event matches, given more than his share of
television time, and was pushed to the moon despite his actions less than a
year earlier. What happened next showed exactly how TNA feels about their
talent.
Despite what happened with Hardy
just a year prior, he won the Bound for Glory series shortly after Austin Aries
had won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2012. There was an excitement
leading to the match as Hardy had just started his road to recovery and Aries
was the most over talent on the roster by leaps and bounds, with only James
Storm being a distant second. Despite this, Hardy won the title and Aries push
was halted. Because of the fact that Aries was receiving more cheers than Hardy
and TNA wanted Hardy as the top babyface, Aries was subsequently turned heel
and his push was de-railed. He experienced success in their tag team and x
divisions spanning multiple title reigns, but despite his success and the crowd
reactions hasn’t seen as much of a push since his world title loss.
A third example of TNA ignoring
their home-grown talent would be in current leader of The Revolution, James
Storm. Since his first world title win in 2011, James Storm got some of the
loudest pops I’ve ever heard in TNA. Whether it was on a live Impact, a taped
show, or when I saw an episode live in Cleveland, him and Aries had the loudest
pops out of the entire roster. It never made sense why Storm wasn’t pushed to
the moon: he had the wrestlers physique, he could cut a promo, he has the
talent, and he’s more over than most of the people that have been given a main
event spot in recent years. Perhaps if he had experienced success in WWE first,
he’d be a multiple time TNA champion as we speak.
I’m not saying that TNA only pushes
former WWE stars—there have been exceptions such as AJ Styles, Eric Young and
Monty Brown, just like in WCW there were exceptions like Goldberg and Sting.
However, even the biggest mark has to look at the facts. Their current champion
is Kurt Angle, before that it was Lashley. MVP was given a main event push
almost immediately after coming to TNA in 2014. It’s hard to admit, but the
writing on the wall is there.
In the last few years, TNA tried to
hard to emulate WWE instead of focusing on being an alternative. Their
top-billed stars were former WWE stars, and as a result are branded as such by
casual fans and diehard fans alike. Eric Bischoff, who basically ran WCW, was
even brought in to help with expanding Impact. While Bischoff came up with
great ideas such as traveling to different cities and venues and filming live
episodes to build excitement, he also tried to compete with WWE and even tried
broadcasting on Monday nights despite Impact only gathering one-third of the
ratings of Monday Night Raw.
I was excited for the relaunch this
year, I was hoping to find a great alternative to WWE because sometimes their
schtick can get tiresome. I love watching the likes of Seth Rollins, Daniel
Bryan, and Dolph Ziggler—every match that they participate in is gold. However,
sometimes the gimmicks can be too lackluster and cartoony and whenever the
Divas come on I instantly change the channel. As the debut edition of the new
Impact approached, I eagerly grabbed my remote and checked my guide…but I
couldn’t find it. I did a google search and discovered that Destination America
is only offered in premium cable packages.
I don’t want to knock TNA, but if
you’re striving to be competition to WWE, why would you choose a channel that
isn’t on basic cable? I’ve read reports of TNA’s declining ratings and I truly
believe that’s a big reason why. When TNA was on Spike, I could watch it no
matter where I was. With TNA on Destination America, I don’t know a single
person who has it through their cable provider. I want to be a TNA fan, I want
to at least try the alternative, but they make it hard to watch.
Impact episodes are nearly impossible to
find online, and when I do find them it’s either a lackluster 30 second clip
that I could care less about, or its so blurry and the sound is so bad that I
can’t go a full minute. It shouldn’t be so hard for a wrestling fan to watch
wrestling. Panda energy should shill out just a little more money in order to
make sure fans are capable of watching their product without having to jump
through hoops. Even if I find a decent stream, or find it through YouTube the
next day, that doesn’t help ratings. Ratings are only affected if I watch it on
my television as the show is going on.
Another concern on mine arose when
I watched the Monday Night War episode on Goldberg, I immediately thought of
EC3. Despite being a former WWE star, EC3 is truly one of the few stars in
recent memory that was completely established through TNA. Since his debut, EC3
hasn’t lost a match, at first it was exciting and despite being a heel
character his character is very entertaining. I will be one of the first people
to say I love Michael Hutter. When I met him at AIW in Cleveland he was one of
the nicest people, I have a photo of us saved into my phone camera roll like I
do with most of my favorite wrestlers when I go to shows, and a signed 8×10 of
his among my collection of wrestling memorabilia. But my question is: how do
they go about ending his undefeated streak?
They can’t just have him lost on a
taped impact. They’ve built it up so much that doing that will kill his buzz.
When he does lose, it will have to be a special moment. What also worries me is
how will the character recover? Will he be similar to AJ Styles when he
reinvented himself in 2013? Will it be a gradual slow build to a face turn? I
don’t want to see a talent like Hutter get wasted and it is getting to a point
where he has to sink or swim. If he wins for too much longer, it will get
stale. If he loses, they have to plan it so that the loss doesn’t completely
bury him. It is a double-edged sword right now and I am hoping this is one of
the times when TNA makes the right call.
Again, everyone is entitled to
their opinion and there will be people who will read one paragraph into this
and send me hate mail. There will be those who cuss me out in the comments or
call me a mark for making logical comparisons to past events. I only hope that
Impact will start to rise and create some memorable stars in the coming years.
Although I doubt that there will ever be competition as stiff as WCW, I do like
to think that maybe one day promotions like TNA, ROH, and Lucha Underground
will ignite a spark and help WWE to think outside of the box. Right now, the
closest competition WWE has is the UFC. When WWE had WCW, they pushed each
other to higher levels and created an era that is arguably the best era in the
history of the business. I only hope we can see a promotion give WWE that kind
of push once again one day.
As for TNA, I do hope the best for
them. I’d like to see them get their act together and start to create more of
their own stars instead of pushing someone simply because they were a WWE guy.
I also hope that they can learn from the mistakes of WCW and avoid making the
same bad choices.
It’s like the quote that Maffew always puts in his
Botchamania videos, “Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it.”
