Last Updated on: 26th September 2013, 03:34 pm
I just read a news report that said that since making his return to booking TNA, Vince Russo has been writing twice as much material as the previous creative team. That’s all fine and dandy, but it’s too bad that A not much of it has been very good and B nobody bothered to let him know that he might want to consider slowing down and not using it all at once. I watch every episode of Impact and every pay-per-view, and when I’m getting lost trying to figure out what the fuck is supposed to be happening, there’s a problem.
The most positive thing I can say about the last few weeks of TNA is that at least it’s not ECW. This is also a problem. TNA is supposed to be our alternative to what WWE is doing, presenting logical storylines and good wrestling to counteract whatever the hell some of the stuff coming out of the E is these days, and for a good long time, they were. Sure they made a few mistakes along the way, who doesn’t? But since the creative change, I feel like I’m watching a slightly toned down version of WCW from 1999-2000, and anybody who knows anything about wrestling is well aware of how that turned out. Anybody who knows anything about wrestling is also well aware of who is responsible for most of the utter shittiness that that period is famous for, so why they would let him try to kill TNA for the second or third time now I have no idea.
In case anybody has forgotten this, and it appears that many in both major companies have, the idea behind promoting a successful wrestling show is to hook people and make them want to watch the product you’re presenting, not baffle them with stupid bullshit that hardcore fans either can’t or don’t want to follow and that casual fans have no hope of understanding. And on the off chance that there is any confusion here, a reverse battle royal followed immediately by a regular battle royal to determine tournament brackets which then play out in a series of matches which culminate in a 3-way to see who gets to face a guy for a title shot who just lost to somebody who wasn’t the champion in a match completely unrelated to the tournament in any way doesn’t belong in the good idea folder. Neither does a 4 things on a pole match to determine which of those 4 things 2 people are allowed to use to help win a cage match on a different show. And while I’m dishing out free advice, a ladder match that isn’t actually a match but rather a “ladder challenge” between 2 people to see who gets posession of a title that neither man actually has the right to possess because neither one of them is the champion, that’s also stupid.
You know, the more I sit here and think about it, the better some of that ECW stuff is getting. Actually no, it still pretty much sucks. But at least Raw is good every…now and then I guess. But thankfully there’s always good old Smackdown to come through with a good weekly effort…ahh forget it, long live UFC!