Another Rant on Tommy Dreamer and TNA Booking

If you are a fan of Tommy Dreamer, stop reading now. If you are an ardent supporter of TNA Wrestling and thoroughly enjoy watching Impact every Thursday (that is, unless they are going to get crushed by the NFL season opener and thus preempt the show), stop reading now.

I ask you to stop reading because the following is a rant against Tommy Dreamer and his continued self righteousness, TNA’s obsession with trying to out-do WWE, and their recurrent failed attempts to provide an alternative that the industry so terribly needs at this time.

Simply put, if Tommy Dreamer legitimately perceives himself as an innovator that changed the course of professional wrestling history, he is as deep in a delusion as a 25-year-old who still believes in Santa Claus. Apologies to anybody that was getting ready to address a letter to the North Pole—but it's better to save the stamp.

After watching Dreamer’s promo on Impact last night, I had to read and re-read the report on the show just to be sure it was as absurd as I remembered. In the promo, Dreamer referenced WWE on four separate occasions (at least, if there are more, please comment below.)

He slams WWE for not using him to the best of his ability and not capitalizing on such great talents as Robert Roode, Frankie Kazarian, and Matt Morgan. He references several WWF/WWE wrestlers, even using their character names when not necessary.

It’s one thing to say Rick Rude, but why call him Mr. Perfect when just as many people would have known what he was talking about by saying Curt Hennig? Then he mentions The Undertaker and Kane, who both just happen to be in the main event of a PPV three days after Impact’s airing. It’s references like this that make TNA seem second rate.

After this promo, viewers will now explicitly identify Robert Roode with WWE Hall of Famers Rick Rude and Curt Hennig, two comparisons he can’t begin to hope to ever hold a candle to. Face it. Roode is a great tag-team talent. If TNA was legitimately behind him as a main eventer and a potential draw, he wouldn’t have kicked around the mid-card and tag ranks as long as he has.

Then he uses Matt Morgan’s name in the sentence as two of the greatest big men performers of all time, including the iconic Undertaker, who may be the longest running top draw in the history of the industry.

Morgan is an incredible talent, but he shouldn’t be held up to either of these two and to say he is now the measuring stick is once again delusional. When Morgan was with WWE, he wasn’t anything more than, as Dreamer put it, a big goofy looking kid. Since then, Morgan has honed his craft, worked extensively and has become the best big man in TNA.

Hearing Dreamer cut this promo calls into question TNA management as a whole. Let’s take Dreamer at his word. Let’s assume for a second that he isn’t full of crap and does indeed have a great eye for talent. Let’s all follow the thought process that Roode, Styles, Morgan, and Kazarian are capable of being the future of not only TNA, but of the industry—drawing massive crowds across the not just the country, but the world.

Let’s wager that WWE really missed the boat on these four specifically. Then it begs the question, why has TNA been so eager, since its inception, to throw money and cupcake work schedules at any former WWE employee that had been future endeavored for any reason?

If you have the best wrestler in the world in Kazarian, has the high-flying ability to captivate an audience, and build his own brand, why sign Jeff Hardy and attempt to piggyback off the character and brand that WWE had built on his shoulders for the last decade?

If Robert Roode has the ability to run the cocky heel character to perfection and draw in audiences desperate to see him get his comeuppance, why sign Mr. Kennedy—I mean—Anderson, and use the exact same gimmick as developed for 2+ years in WWE? 

If AJ Styles is the best wrestler in the world; in fact, he built the ImpactZone on his short, yet sturdy, shoulders, then why sign Rob Van Dam? Van Dam developed his character and became an Internet darling in ECW. Yet he truly became a household name to the general wrestling audience across the country with WWE, to bury Styles in a TV main event. This event wasn't promoted prior to the show, had no storyline, and was built only to relegate Styles to wrestling garbage matches against Dreamer as he attempted to give legitimacy to the Legends/Global/Television Championship.

Hulk Hogan, Dixie Carter, Eric Bischoff, and for the last few months, Tommy Dreamer, have run their yaps about how talented the TNA locker has become and how they have the best wrestlers in the world and that their young stars will become the standard-bearers of the future of the industry. Yet, take a look at next month’s PPV main event.

TNA Heavyweight Championship—Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson

Three men who made their name in WWE, crafted their characters while performing on Raw and Smackdown as TNA attempts (key word, attempts) to profit off the hard work that went into building their brands.

TNA has to do this because over the years they built, wasted, rebuilt, blew the push, painted the face of, thrown in a truck by ninjas, only to re-emerge unannounced and sink into a dead-end feud with three old men. Samoa Joe, the man they signed years ago, led the charge and brought a national stage.

Of course, they also have AJ Styles who they built, put over, made a star, turned heel, made a stooge, put in a love triangle, turned face again, made champion, turned heel, made “The Nature Boy,” jobbed out on TV and stuck in mid-card purgatory. Matt Morgan could be a main eventer, but after Kurt Angle almost made him a star with a great match on PPV, they tossed him in a never-ending tag team with partners that hate each other, feuded with Hernandez, and relegated him to Fortune’s muscle.

TNA has nobody to blame but themselves for the gross incompetence of their booking as they attempt to compete on a national stage with a company they really shouldn’t be trying to compete with at this time. Dreamer can stand in the middle of the ring and put over Fortune’s members, but that brings about another delusion and that’s the thought that matters.

While I’m one that does indeed believe that success in WWE is far more important than anything accomplished in TNA, I’d be willing to say AJ Styles is more important than Dreamer in wrestling history and doesn’t need a self-declared “ hardcore legend” to put him over.

If Roode, Morgan, Kaz, and the rest of TNA’s young talents are as good as advertised, let them show us because Dreamer can spew all of the accolades he wants, but it all means nothing if TNA doesn’t follow up by making them main events.

Tommy Dreamer is a legend no where except his own mind and until I see otherwise, Fortune is nothing more than mid-card fodder.