TNA's Product "Could" Be Great—But Will It?

I know what your all thinking, how can Joe be saying TNA could be great when we have seen a lot of inconsitency going on there for some time now?

I know it is a bold statement, but I think they are very close to being great. They have to plug in a few things and possibly add to what they are doing great already.

First off, they have added two new wrestlers who could easily be main eventers in The Pope and Bobby Lashley. Lashley may not be a World Champion there at any point, but he is worthy of the title if they want to place it on him.

With his MMA work going on, it may be impossible to have him hold onto a World Title for a long period of time. TNA wants to add credibilty to their World Championship of course, and if someone drops it in a few weeks, it doesn't make it look that good.

Also, it doesn't make Lashley look great either. He is supposed to be this intimidating force in TNA, "The Boss" even. If he loses the World Title, it makes him look like some easy mid-carder. TNA does not want that of course.

They have a lot of things they could do with Lashley, and I am sure we will find out more next week because he is supposed to be revealing his role there next Thursday.

Also, the iMPACT debut of Dixie Carter is coming too. This is probably a good idea, you know, to get her out there for the fans to know more about her, that she owns half of the company and whatnot.

However, she really has no experience in acting or wrestling. I am sure she won't be wrestling any, she may not even take a bump in there. But, even though she has a background in music (mostly producing and owning companies) and other forms of entertainment, acting was not one of them.

I am curious to see how she does because of that. I remember that Shane and Stephanie McMahon didn't have a background in the acting industry and went to college for business. Both turned out to be great on the mic.

However, they did take acting classes to improve their mic skill. Carter may be getting lessons, but I will have to see for myself if they pay off, as will all of you.

With Jeff Jarrett seemingly gone, Carter will need to take over her the "Owner" role. Vince McMahon does it, and they of course have to compete with the WWE at everything they do. That is not my personal feeling, but their own.

They feel that they are just as good, and they can't understand why the WWE gets all the attention and they get nothing.

The reason is because Vince McMahon is a far better at business than Jarrett and Carter are combined. He also knows how to market his product where as TNA has had massive trouble in doing so.

There are stories about how TNA would go to a city and have one billboard up saying they are coming to town only a week before they came.

Usually the WWE announces shows months in advance and not only have billboard rented out, but they also do commercial spots giving the time and day. That is good marketing if you ask me.

Also, when is the last time you saw a TNA Wrestler on a talk show or TV show? They have been at awards shows—mostly for Spike TV—but nothing more than that. If they are going to get their name out there, they need to do a better job in getting their product exposure.

MVP, John Cena, and Triple H have all been on a talk show in 2009. Cena was promoting 12 Rounds a lot, but he also promoted the WWE while doing so. He has been doing other TV spots for shows too. Cena is probably the busiest man in pro-wrestling today.

However, because Cena is connected to a pro-wrestling company in the WWE, the WWE gets a lot of exposure. If TNA were to get their wrestlers more exposure, they could really rival the WWE in terms of ratings.

And I don't mean promote guys like Booker T, Sting, Kevin Nash, and other WCW or WWE vets. They have already have plenty of exposure, why add to it when you could get others more exposure?

People such as Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Daniels, and others are great wrestlers who will be around for a long period of time. If TNA doesn't go out of business, they could be there for another 10 to 15 years or so. Why not put them on talk shows, get them on TV shows, and make them the main attraction?

I think the others have had their time, there is no reason they should still be headlining every single show when there are plenty of others who are just as good if not better than every single one of the vets in TNA.

While some wrestling purists think wrestling is going through a down period, I think it is revolutionizing and getting better week by week in terms of wrestling. TNA is doing quite well in going with the flow wrestling wise, but in storylines not so much.

As long as Vince Russo is the head writer, they will have trouble moving forward. The man is focused on having the Main Event Mafia get as much TV time as possible. He along with Jeff Jarrett have friends in the Main Event Mafia.

They talk all the time and put their "friends" in the top spots. I think it is a good idea to take Jarrett away from booking, and put a person like Dixie in charge. I know she probably couldn't book a show to save her life, but at least she would switch things up a bit.

Of course she may get too much help from others like Angle, Nash, and Steiner. They could talk her into putting them in top storylines because she is so vulnerable being new to the industry.

But, if we can get a fresh face in charge of booking, one who doesn't have an affiliation with anyone on the roster and just does the booking and that only, then they could be successful.

The WWE is like that. They have 3 different bookers for the 3 shows. Superstars is booked by all 3. Then, they pass on the matches to Vince McMahon, who approves them.

A guy like Vince is not swayed by anyone on the roster, he could care less who you are and if he is a friend of yours. He runs his company as it should be run, as a business.

The reason we see Cena, Triple H, and Orton in just about every RAW PPV for the WWE Title is because they are the WWE's cash cows for that show. Their popularity is very high, and because of that they are in the main events all the time.

Also, unlike TNA, one out of that group is 40 in Triple H. Triple H just turned 40 a few weeks ago even. So its not like they are trying to build their company out of old tired superstars like TNA is.

SmackDown has The Undertaker who is over 40, while he is in the main event picture a lot, he is not around all the time. He has a light schedule, and the WWE takes advantage when he is able to compete.

All the other main event caliber stars on the show currently are Jeff and Matt Hardy, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, and Edge are all under 40 years of age.

Who in the Main Event Mafia is under 40? You have Samoa Joe, thats about it. And he just joined the group a little while ago. It seems this is the only group TNA pushes whatsoever. I am happy to see Samoa Joe getting a push, but can I really be happy with one guy under 40 getting attention?

It seems Matt Morgan is seeing the spotlight more and more too, which is great to see. But, does anyone really think TNA will put the World Title on him? He is worthy of it if you ask me, but TNA may keep the title on Angle or another veteran.

That may be another out of the small group under 40 getting a shot, but it may end soon.

AJ Styles may be gone for a little while, so I can't blame TNA for not pushing him. But when he gets back, there is no reason not to.

I feel TNA will hit it big in the middle of September, possibly October at Bound For Glory. See, there are two men by the names of Eddie Fatu and Ken Anderson whose 90 day no compete clauses will be up by then. You know them as former WWE Superstars Umaga and Mr. Kennedy.

TNA has expressed interest in both of them, especially Anderson. If they were to get two former WWE main eventers in there, they could really hit it big in terms of storylines.

They would have two young stars who could easily help them out. If they sign, think of the roster at this point.

The Pope, Lashley, Morgan, Joe, Anderson, Fatu, and Daniels. All men under 40, who could help storylines and main event in TNA. All have hit it big in either the WWE or TNA already, and they can help add to the ratings.

TNA already has a great tag team division, and their Knockouts Division has really hit it big. With the announcement of the new Knockouts Tag Title, they really earned my respect.

I have never seen an all women's tag division outside of a women's promotion like Shimmer. TNA actually has a great idea here if you ask me.

You see all of these women's tag matches that kind of bore you to death. It's not like they are not great wrestlers, but there is nothing at stake that makes you want to watch.

Usually, in TNA at least, you have one women is the current Knockouts Champion on one team, then on the other team you have the number one contender, both would have partners.

It is cool to see a preview, but nothing is at stake for the others, and they are basically an afterthought in the match. With a tag title at stake, that all changes. More female teams and/or factions could come out of it, and female roles change completely in the world of pro-wrestling, at least for TNA that is.

Then you get to the regular men's tag team matches. TNA's tag division is the best in the world if you ask me. ROH is a close second.

You have young talented stars in this division, and they could easily transition into singles wrestling too. Some actually started out in singles before getting a partner for tag action.

Take Chris Saban of the Motor City Machine Guns. This man is a former 4 time X-Division Champion. Alex Shelly is a former X- Division Champion in his own right, but the fact that both can thrive in the singles world is key. They could soon go into just singles wrestling, or keep storylines going in the singles world while still tagging with one another.

Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed tag with one another, but Lethal is a former X-Divison Champion himself. He could easily be a World Champion in the future.

We are already seeing LAX go into singles wrestling, and it is kind of sad that TNA is breaking them up tag wise. It kind of makes no sense. They can still tag with one another if you ask me.

Beer Money is the best tag team in TNA right now if you ask me. I think it is because both came from singles wrestling. They are so good in the ring on their own, that when they teamed together, they showed a lot of energy tag wise in the tag division.

They added moves to the tag part of their game along with keeping their singles role involved too. Sometimes people who are just pure tag guys don't show a lot in the singles world, but when someone comes from singles wrestling, they show a lot of promise in the tag division.

It is kind of weird how it works out, but it does. There is a man in the WWE by the name of Vladimer Kozlov, he is terrible to watch on his own. But, if he has a partner to tag with he looks a heck of a lot better.

I am happy to see him getting better, its about time.

But back to TNA...

They seem to really want their tag division to shine, which I personally respect. They have a good X-Division too, which we don't see in places like the WWE. However, the only thing the WWE has over TNA is their main event singles wrestling and of course storylines.

While TNA has great wrestlers, their storylines suck. If they can improve on that, then add to their singles wrestling they could be great. However, they have to get better business sense, without it they won't get anywhere.