With the recent news that TNA is being dropped by Spike TV in a few months, I realized that a lot of people were relishing in the idea that TNA would finally bite the bullet and suffer the consequences. I’m personally dreading the day, because it’s been proven in the past that the WWE needs a little bit of competition to keep them sharp.
When WCW and ECW were snapped up in 2001, it was the dawn of a new era, the WWE had risen from the ashes of it’s competition. But I will never forgive the aftermath.
Don’t get me wrong, I had a soft spot for the JBL “Wrestling God” run with the title, that would always generate a ton of heat with the fans and kept SmackDown afloat.
The year that stands out for me the most is 2006.
This was a painful year to be a fan week in, week out. Nothing seemed to be going right and it seemed the writers were stuck in a sort of limbo between the edginess of the Attitude era, and the change in demographic with the audience.
What spewed out was childish and disrespectful segments and spots.
The forced reunion of DX showed a clearly quite tired Shawn Michaels teaming with the future boss, Triple H that ultimately lead to Vince and his team getting feces dumped on their heads at the top of the ramp.
This was awful. I hated this feud with a passion. The more mature version of this is happening right now, but with Triple H in his Authority role and it’s working. For me, this was the storyline is was deprived of in 2006. They took the same roles they had in 2006 and re-cast them to almost perfection.
It’s as if Triple H was destined to be a heel and nothing else. It’s a beautiful thing.
2006 had a lot of feces, and it was dumping it on the fans.
But the one thing I take from this dark year is that I can fully appreciate what the WWE are trying to do now, and it’s because they have this drive to out do the competition, but not to come out on top, to drive them away. It forces them to be better for us, as the fans who tune in every week.
TNA may have pretty much copy and pasted the Triple H/Daniel Bryan feud and plonked it into the iMPACT Zone, but who cares, you recognised that and you laughed, everyone did. This only showed the WWE that they were doing it right.
TNA may seem like no threat at all, and you’re not wrong, but think of them as a necessary evil if you will. Without them, the content will suffer.
