TNA Wrestling: Impact Takes a Page from the NWA and Gets It Right

Finally, Impact Wrestling has come back to the NWA.

OK, it is not The Rock and his famous announcement to fight at WrestleMania 28, but TNA is doing the right thing in promoting the Bobby Roode/James Storm battle that will take place at Lockdown.

Hallelujah! This is a great thing for TNA and those of us who remember the drama of building a high-caliber match that MEANS something.

It goes back to part of the plan of TNA in the middle of last year where "Wrestling Matters," and wrestlers pour their heart and soul into a match. It is creative, it is real, and we see the development of characters who are "real people" and identify with us.

The idea of carefully plotting interviews and vignettes about how both Storm and Roode started out in TNA and made major successes of themselves to get to where they are now is genius, and takes a page from the old NWA of building characters who have been away from the ring from "injury" and want revenge.

Ric Flair and Harley Race at Starrcade. Dusty Rhodes and The Four Horsemen. Both revenge angles drew lot of attention in the mid 1980s when wrestling was still territorial and found its fame through local stars and national wrestlers who came through town to sell tickets and challenge anyone who would want a crack at the world title.

That is how Ric Flair became famous for his "Dirtiest Player in the Game" routine.

Roode and Storm have been a "fire storm" since November, so more than six months later, we get the match we want. Maybe it has lost some luster due to injuries and what I feel is poor booking, but there are circumstances involved which "happen." 

And with the growth of Bully Ray, and now that Jeff Hardy seems to be out of the title picture, the match comes off as one of the biggest, if not the biggest match in TNA history.

Make no mistake, this is "BIG" time for this company and the business. We have been waiting for the next big thing and the next Arn Anderson and Ted DiBiase (the person I believe Storm reminds me of, not the character in the WWF). Both are finally here and both will deliver at Lockdown.

And TNA has taken the opportunity to build it right, and make it the best damn thing in the company.