Greedy Hollywood ego

So let me be frank about Hulk Hogan. When he arrived at TNA they made one big change in the company. They got rid of the 6 sided ring and went back to the traditional 4 sides, the old squared circle. You know what? That was probably the key reason I started to watch TNA. You know what else? I actually remember sending an email to TNA some time ago to, when they still had the 6 sided ring, telling them they should seriously consider going back to a 4 sided ring. I argued that it might be one of the reasons some fans won't even look at TNA and that it might do something a lot for the ratings. Of course I got no reply and they didn't do it, until some time later, Hogan suggested it. Okay so the chances of them accepting advice from some guy who writes them an email are not great, but I am glad that Hulk made the suggestion, since personally, I could not stand the odd looking hexagon shape. Yes I know some people really liked it and were upset to see it go, but I was not one of them.

Anyway, praise over, now it's on to the bad stuff. While I understand that the Hulkster is probably the most recognizable wrestler in the world to this day, I don't like the fact that this guy is still the focus of Impact shows, even though he is no longer an active wrestler. Honestly, do you not feel that in many Impact events, he seems to be in all the non wrestling parts of the show [with the occasional exception]. I know he is supposed to be the GM but I don't ever remember a GM having so much air time. What's worse is that he is retired, he's not even one of those non wrestlers who has a match once in a while, he does not wrestler, end of story. That is why I find it even more annoying that he is in TNA, making lots of cash, when he doesn't have to sweat it out in the ring anymore. You might say, 'he's done his fair share of sweating it out.' Okay, but since he's not doing it anymore, why not let some of those that are have the air time?  

It's obvious why he is there. To bring in ratings. He is a known name. So are Ric Flair and Sting. These guys were the some of the most known wrestlers of the 80's and 90's and their names should be drawing in the masses, but yet despite their celebrity statuses, many people are still very skeptical about TNA and it's not hard to understand why. All you have to do is watch yourself an Impact show. You know, you're sitting there bored and you think, 'ah, I'll watch Impact, it might have improved.' Then you see the show and understand why TNA gets so criticized. Hogan has been about the money for a long time now and it's sad to see. Recently he has managed to make himself the prime focus of a story line, even though you know he's not going to get in to the ring at the end of it. What I am trying to say is, I'm sick of Hogan, I'm sick of his bandana and the stupid shades he sometimes like to have over it. When is the last time that look was in fashion? When is the last time Hogan was in fashion? Apart from the fact that he's a well known figure in the world of wrestling, he's pretty much useless on all other fronts. I say he should be released from his big ass contract at the first available occasion.

TNA Impact! Well that was sh*t

After watching and writing up the results for Impact, I feel like I am putting in a lot of work for something that really does not deserve it. Yesterday's Impact was weak. I mean, first of all, why does it seem Hogan is on the screen every few minutes? It seems that way because it's true. There was hardly a segment in the show he was not in. He must have had about 10 separate segments in the show, and most of them were pointless. About 4 of them were just him deciding who the 2 competitors for the vacated TV Title would be. If this was an EWR simulator event that I had booked, I would get 'You overused Hogan in the last show, the fans started to get sick of seeing him' as part of my feedback. 

Secondly, why are random people in masks able get entrants in to the TNA building and kidnap 2 of it's main guys? Is there no security? Why did the cameraman not call the police as soon as he saw this whole incident happen? Unless the leader of Aces and Eights is Eric Bischoff who has keys to the building, it makes no sense. Well, okay, I suppose asking for logic in wrestling story lines is asking for a bit much.

In total there was probably about 15 minutes of wrestling in the first 3 matches, then a fairly shot main event, you know, by main event standards, but not by TNA standards. The women's match was a squash, with ODB dominating the entire match, only to lose by some underhanded fake injury crap from Tara [I'm sure I've seen that before....a few thousand times]. The TV Title match was much shorter than even I expected it to be, considering it was Anderson and Joe, for the TV Title!!!! You would think they might give this a little bit of time. 

Overall it was an okay show by TNA standards, but a terrible wrestling event if you are used to more. Little wrestling, horribly long, dragged out backstage story lines that seemed to take forever to make a simple point, and a funny build up for Bound For Glory. You can tell this is supposed to be TNA's Wrestlemania, that's how they hype it, but it's so not gonna be.

Check out my results write up of the show here

The arena issue

And tonight we are live from....oh, here again.

Now don't get me wrong, it's a nice little arena, but having almost all the shows taking place there, it does defeat the purpose of wrestling being for the fans!!!! To be honest I feel wrestling stopped being for the fans a long time ago. It needs the fans to make money but the amount of times it has ignored fans and done what's 'best for business' rather than what would be most interesting for the fans, is too many to go in to now. The best current example would be John Cena. Despite being jeered constantly since late 2005, he it still a face. Why? Because the little kids still buy his merchandise. Not to get sidetracked from the initial topic, having the show in one place means that unless you live in Florida or happen to be visiting Disney Land on the same day that an Impact show is airing, you are not gonna get to see this stuff live in person. Once in a while they stray out to other areas and even taped their first Impact show in London, but normally it is always in the same place. 

Obviously this makes it easier on wrestlers who don't have to travel all around the country but as I said, it makes it harder on fans. If you really want to see a TNA Impact show, you should not to travel to the Orlando Florida resort, or hope that some day they might put on a show in a state just a few hours away from you, in order to see it. I am sure TNA is not a poor company, they must have enough money to be able to travel around and sell out, at least the little arenas. I wonder when they eventually decide to take this step, or is this set up just too convenient for them right now?  

Let's have fun counting mistakes

Now I'm not saying Eric Young is an idiot and I know wrestlers play to particular characters and gimmicks but it's hard not to notice there are a few grammatical errors in this steroid pumped TNA 'superstar's' twitter profile.

....not only that, he still hasn't taken the time to update the website name of the company he works for. Lucky for him, the link takes you there anyway.

Very big TNA [and no I don't mean tits and ass]

So you might watch TNA every now and then, or perhaps you watch it regularly, and you might wonder to yourself, why are so many of the shows that they put out, so very poor? By the way If you don't then you should my friend, since they are, extremely poor. My answer to you is short [only 4 words long], simple, and to the point. 

I have no idea!! 

Watching TNA now, it really is like a modern day WCW. Well....it's like a modern day WCW in it's dying days. You know those last few months when about 1000 odd people were showing up to the shows and the arena's that the events were held in seemed to get smaller and smaller. It's like that, only the roster that TNA has right now to it's disposition is better. Much better!!!! There is so much to work with, and yet so many Impact shows look like a car wreck. 

One thing that does need some thought put in to it, in my view, is the roster size. There are too many wrestler in this company and you often get shows where many of the folks on the roster are not only not in a match, but not even a part of the show. Now I am not suggesting TNA does a roster split, something that I never liked with Raw and Smackdown, and even now, although I am used to it, I would rather it was put back to the way it used to be. 

What I suggest, even though it is easier said than done, is to get a second prime time show during the week, like WCW used have when they aired Thunder and Nitro. This way they can put wrestlers in at least 1 of the 2 shows. I don't mean having a 'Worldwide' or 'Heat' type format either, where it's just a show with 2 or 3 matches, some recaps and nothing much else, I am referring to 2 shows that are both used to push the main eventers and main fueds, but at least with 2 of them, the mid and lower card wrestlers who don't make the card on 1 show, can make the other.

Well that was my first rambling on TNA in my freshly made blog. A little brief I know but enough to give a little bit of food for thought. That's it from me, don't let me catch you not checking back for more blog updates folks.