Man-Up TNA: Turmoil-Not-Action
Right now should be the most exciting time in TNA's young history. Unfortunately for them, and the fans, it's also the most turbulent time as well.
It's almost seems as though this organization is blessed with a curse. But I'm not here to point fingers, I'd much rather help solve the problems. So it's time to Man-Up TNA, let's knock a couple of these out shall we.
Two Many Stars:
I'd never thought I'd say that having too many top superstars come to TNA would be a bad thing, but in this case it is. Two too many to be exact.
TNA got a huge boost from Bobby Lashley a month or so ago, only to find out they might have pulled the trigger too quickly. The two sides couldn't work out a deal, until after Lashley's MMA fight, which left fans wondering what all the pointing was about.
And once the ink was finally dry, TNA picked the worst time to let the world know it was done. Victory Road should've been about two things. The Mafia capturing all the gold, and more importantly, Tazz's TNA debut.
Unfortunately for us, Tazz's debut was played down as he merely did his human urn impersonation as his mere presence gave Samoa Joe instant super powers. [credit Shane for the correlation]
This was just bad, but it quickly went from bad to horrible when moments later they played a clip of Lashley announcing he officially signed with the TNA. It totally eclipsed Tazz's arrival. The announcers were going crazy over Lashey and never said a thing the rest of the night about Tazz. And Tazz reappeared at the end of the night when Lashley never walked through the curtain.
Solution:
All we've been hearing about for the past month or two was this mystery advisor. Who's in the Porsche? Why is he telling Joe this and that? But when Tazz finally does arrive, he get's a nonchalant treatment by the announce team. All that build up was for what?
Now, I know Lashley is a wrestler and has mainstream appeal with MMA while Tazz can't even wrestle. I get all that. But that doesn't mean one should be played down more than the other.
They should have played up Tazz for the pay-per-view and made a big deal out of his arrival. Let him mean mug and then wait for him and say nothing. Maybe get a little physical, even if it only means to jump on the apron in distraction. Then everyone would tune into hear the speech he gave on Impact.
You play Lashley's video on the website, which everyone will jump to for results the following morning after a PPV anyway. That way you don't waste Tazz's arrival and you still get the word out on Lashley in time for Impact.
I'll Take It:
Giving credit where credit's due, they didn't try and swerve us with Tazz's arrival. Everyone knew it was him, which is fine, and they didn't try and throw in Spike Dudley or some other lesser known talent just to swerve us. So congrats on that, I'll take it.
Karen Jarrett:
Everyone's up-in-arms about the whole Karen Angle living with Jeff Jarrett. Yeah, that's as bad as it sounds, but it's not the end of the world.
People are saying that Jarrett's going to be bought out, Angle's quitting to go to the WWE, Dixie Carter is going to fire everyone and we're all going to be forced to watch an Impact of nothing but Mick Foley promos.
But all this turmoil is crazy. History (Chyna-Stephanie-HHH, Edge-Lita-Hardy) shows us that one person will get fired, but that won't happen. But then again TNA follows WCW, not WWE, and we're more likely to see a Women-Bennoit-Sullivan feud. It will be as exciting as Edge vs. Hardy, without the leave of absence and the build up.
Solution:
Everyone knows that the real storylines are the best. Yes TNA is going to make some changes, but they've been doing this constantly over the past couple years. Hence the firing of Petey Williams, Roxxi and Rudy Charles.
Now everyone knows it's bad business to hire your friends and family to run your business. That's what TNA was built on, Jeff's friends. Dixie's merely fixing a problem that Jeff couldn't avoid in the first place.
So yes, bring on the changes. Maybe they should start with creative and work down. But it doesn't have to be as crazy as the media makes it out to be.
Quick Hits:
- Elijah Burke is schedule to come in soon, WAIT! Let us digest the arrival of Tazz and Lashley first before you throw Burke into the mix as well.
- The only way to right the Tazz debacle is to quickly get to the point of his signing. MEM needs to take over the announce team and appoint Tazz as the lead commentator.
- With Don West out and Tazz in, the only thing to do next is to add Mick Foley into the mix. He's played out in the ring but still insightful in the booth.
- And the next logical step is to leave Teney as a special analyse. He was brilliant when he gave us the obscure facts on the wrestlers. ex. Did you know, when AJ Styles was just 2 years of age, he jumped off his mother's ceiling fan onto his teddy and his mom said, "wow, that was phenomenal" thus his nickname was born. Yes, you might be thinking "how WCW of TNA" [also a gem by Shane]but it works. That's Teney's niche, not the lead.
- Concentrate on the storylines. Forget the false finishes and gimmick matches and get back to the basics. Anyone who's ever seen a TNA house show would agree that it's breathtaking. Why? No bad head scratching storylines to follow. Fix these unbelievably bad storylines and you're golden. No brainer, yeah, I know.
- And finally, stop using ex-WWE stars testimonials as sob stories to try and make TNA look like the island oasis. Yes, we get it. Less travel and less stress in TNA, but there's a reason there's not that much pressure. YOU'RE NOT No.1! I'm not saying don't bring ex-WWE guys in, that would be naive. Just don'y try to put yourself over at the WWE's expense (Tara, Foley, Tazz, Angle). You don't have to pull a WWE and ignore the past, just don't force feed how great you are until you're number one. And if you get there, we'll all know you're number one and won't want to hear it then either.
Check out HitTheRopes.com as we have the new interview with ECW star CW Anderson. And this week's show features an interview with Indy Wrestler Mr. 8x10 and Turnbuckle 2 Turnbuckle. Upcoming interviews: Buff Bagwell and Petey Williams.

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