In his latest blog post, Jim Ross
spoke about TNA’s problems and his thoughts on how live crowds should react to
wrestling crowds.
On live crowds: “Some thoughts on pro
wrestling’s live audiences…..St. Louis wasn’t great for WWE Monday night and
the lack of noise adversely affected the broadcast IMO. Here’s how I look at
that matter: No one buys a not so cheap ticket, packs up the car,drives to the
venue and parks to come in and have their mind made up to NOT make noise. The
commitment to get to one’s seats is too great to come and act as if one is
watching golf or tennis. The product that one sees before them is what is going
to motivate a crowd to emotionally invest and to be loud and proud. The St Louis
crowd, normally a very good wrestling crowd, apparently did not see enough to
make the show sound special. There were moments but not enough of them over the
three hour show.”
On TNA: “TNA had a PPV a week ago where the
smaller crowd in a sound stage was embarrassingly quiet and provided little to
no motivation for the talents some of which had excellent bouts. TNA is in an
especially precarious position as they are in the closing months of their TV
rights deal with Spike and have zero momentum or leverage with which to
negotiate. Trying to save money by having the TV’s in the same venue more often
than not in Orlando is the kiss of death. If the crowds that attend Impact
events there don’t react to what they saw on the loaded, PPV card then they are
unlikely to ‘pop’ for much of any thing. That makes the TV show sound uninspired
and not ‘must see’ TV. It’s a good thing that Impact is going to do some of
their tapings outside the Orlando sound stage going forward as that scenario is
one designed for failure.”
On how stories should be told: “Perhaps the
days of the ‘traditional’ pro wresting villains have left the building but I
remain steadfast that there still must be heroes and villains in the conflicts
played out in pro wrestling. I also realize that some fans who are defiant in
nature simply like cheering for the “bad guys.” Nonetheless, the shades of gray
booking is ill fated and neuters the audience emotionally in my view. Fans have
to want one wrestler to win and the other to lose which lends to the definitive
antagonist or protagonist philosophy.”
You can read Jim’s full blog by clicking here.
