Before I get into discussing the show, there is one thing that bothers me about TNA, or maybe it's just what bothers me about the former WWE SuperStars on the roster. Why can't they come up with new gimmicks to go with the name changes? For instance, when The Dudleys came to TNA, they moaned about not being able to say their WWE Trademarked catch phrase, "Get the Tables!', which really is their own fault for not trademarking the phrase themselves, because we all know Vince would so he could sell more shirts. So they solve that delima by having the fans say it for them, BRILLIANT!! Then we have Kurt Angle who can no longer tell us "It's True, It's Damn True" Instead he can tell us that it's "Real". Now we have Mr. Anderson with the exact same gimmick. Granted he's great on the mic, hell he's excellent on the mic, but it was a gimmick seen every week on the WWE. Sometimes you just have to change.
Let's take a look at this weeks matches.
Match One: Mr. Anderson vs Brutus Magnus for the 8 Card Stud Tourney.
Anderson wins in what wasn't a pretty match. The end was never truly in doubt. The only thing that was showcased was that Anderson is as cocky in the ring as he is on the mic. You know if we are getting the honor of watching matches for Tournament Spots or Elimination Chamber Spots, they could at least book matches that would give us a doubt as to who would win, or at least an upset or two, so we are more interested in the matches. OR Maybe it's just me that it irritates.
Match Two: Morgan/Hernandez vs Team 3D
Not a fan of the Dudleys much anymore, but when they go up against a bigger sized team they look their best, their stiff match giving best. The match didn't make the tag team look strong, it was basically a match to push the Dudley/Nasty Pigs feud. The Tag Champs make the save, so they look good and offer handshakes to the Dudley's so we know that both teams are "face"
Match Three: The Squash Match
Really, why is Jesse Neal in the ring? Is he the next generation George South? OR Iron MIke Sharpe? Actually that is wrong of me to compare those two bastion's of Jobberism to this Neal Punk. He doesn't look good in the ring, he just shows his teeth and flexes his neck muscles. Time to send him back to the TNA training fed. Oh, they don't have one? Well bye bye then.
Match Five: Angle vs Tomko 8 Card Stud Tourney
Once again was there ever any doubt as to who would win? Didn't think so. Mediocre match at best. Angle is a bit worn down and needs a light schedule for a while, because he coulldn't carry Tomko to a decent match. I wonder after Tomko botches the third German Suplex by jumping before Angle was ready, if Angle didn't him him with two more as a bit of a payback.
Match Six: Tara vs Angelina Love
I've long been a fan of Tara (Victoria), more so in her crazy days than her "look I have a pet spider" days. Angelina Love is just nice to look at, she seems to wear outfits that show off her long limbs and lengthy torso. Anyway some decent mat wrestling during the match, even if the ending pin was a bit sloppy. BP run in looks like it's pushing for a Love/Tara vs BP match, which I'm sure will have Love rejoining the BP.
Match Seven: Nash vs Foley
This has to be the worst Street Fight, No DQ match that i have ever seen. It was bad, awful, terrible, hell it just plain wasn't good. Suckpac and Stupor Hall make their appearance, through the fans and the opening in the guardrails, because, well Hall would fall on his drunk face if he had to climb over the guardrail. They enter the ring and atack Kevin Nash. Um, what? Ok, yeah, this makes perfect sense.
Match and Segment of the night
Easily the match of the night. After "Jobbing" out to Orlando Jordan a few weeks ago, we get to see Dinero facing the TNA Champ. Nicely executed match. Styles is getting better as the cocksure heel, Flair is a great Manager, Dinero is fast with his hands and feet. This is what TNA does better than WWE, have WRESTLING matches. When they do them right, their matches actually tell stories and they have mat wrestling. It was great to see Dinero get the win over the champ.
Styles and Flair give Dinero the beatdown for having the nerve to defeat the champ. Samoa Joe makes the save. After security break it up we get some mic time for Joe and Flair. Well done, I thought. Joe telling Flair to shut up, Flair going all indignant. So we finally have some build up for the next PPV, besides the Stud Tournament.
Segments
None of them were that good.
There have been some complaints about Joe being a face now and um, when did that happen. I don't see Joe as a face at all. I didn't see him as a heel before. Joe is just Joe, the tweener. He's always done the honor and respect thing. He feels Styles has turned his back on being honorable, so he wants to beat it back into him. Not necessarily a face stance. lol.
So we get two segments with Nash pleading the cases of Suckpac and Stupor Hall so that they can attack him in the ring, because you know that just makes so much sense. I understand that they are friends with Nash, Hogan and Bischoff, but for the love of Lou Thesz, Hall has not looked sober yet and Waltman, just looks like he is phoning it in. Send them on their way.
So Abyss is supposed to be the big Monster of TNA, but we get two segments of him crying over the risk of losing his job. Since they got rid of James Mitchell, he just gets more and more watered down. He could have been their Undertaker, instead he's becoming their Shockmaster
The Good
- No horrible "Comedic Gold" from Ric Flair this week. Have some respect for yourself for god's sake. Stop playing the idiot, you're better than that. You're turning into the sad comedian and disrespecting yourself to do it.
- No Sean Morley, Orlando Jordan. No Nasty Boys in the ring.
- Dinero vs Styles, with the Samoa Joe chaser.
- Foley's Rip on Bischoff.
- No Bubba the LiveSponge. Thank God for small favors.
The Bad
- No X-Division. So the one thing you have that WWE doesn't is a Cruiser division and you decide not to have a single Cruiser match. Yep, Hogan and Bischoff know exactly what the TNA fans want.
- Nasty Boys on my TV
- Taz's rip of Mike Adamle, really was that necessary? He's not even onvolved in wrestling anymore.
- How long are we going to go before Hogan "realizes" that Bischoff is power hungry and a feud breaks out between the two. Every week it's been the same Bischoff up to no good and Hogan oblivious to it.
The Rant
So an improvement on last week, but still I just think that Hogan and Co. have no idea what the TNA fan wants. Hogan's whinning this week about the fan's not understanding how he has to answer to Spike and they want certain things in the program, just doesn't fly. His theory that TNA is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, flies even less. He's the great Hulk Hogan and he thought that just because he rubber stamped his name on the product that rating's would improve, and for the most part they have, but they will start to drop off once again unless something is done.
If I was in charge, I would drop the dead weight and show them the door. I understand that you have to have segments in wrestling today, people are used to it, it's the way things are done now. TNA needs some excitment and right now they aren't getting it. I would solve that problem by losing the stupid minute snippets of people walking to the ring, standing at the Gorilla position, or snippets of ring action. It pisses me off everytime I see it. I would have five matches a night with ten minutes time limits and a final Main Event with Twenty Minutes time limits. The time limits could be used to tell the "stories" as well as segments and the matches would have more of a sense of urgency to them. Having a couple of the matches end a little earlier than the ten minute time limit would trim the matches to an hours worth of time leaving an hour for segments to push storylines. If the matches take up a little more than an hours worth of time so be it. I would have two X-Division matches, one to two Knockout or Tag matches and Two "Heavyweight" matches each week.
They need to go with what brought them to the dance. Let the wrestlers wrestle, stay true to the lie that Hogan told on January forth, if you can't wrestle there's the door.
That's just my opinion, what do I know? Do you disagree, sign up at TWFNews.com and discuss it.
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