TNA's Most Powerful Players Aren't Wrestling, and Why That's Hurting Them

For years TNA put on entertaining matches and offered wrestling fans something different than the juggernaut of the business, WWE. Many fans, including myself, got caught up in TNA because of the amazing matches they put up. I especially liked the X Division, with it's high-flying and career-risking moves that always kept you wanting more. Wrestling was the main focal point of TNA, and that's just the way it should be.

2010 was the year TNA ignored what built them up to where they are now. 2010 was the year that X Division died. 2010 was the beginning of TNA putting wrestling behind mic time and management gimmicks. Impact made wrestlers look like pawns in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff's game of chess.

Now every impact starts off the same way. A main eventer, mostly Mr. Anderson, comes out and complains about things done under TNA's regime, Immortal. Out comes Hogan and Bischoff, and for the next 15-20 minutes they continue to talk about how they run TNA and how it is their company. Bischoff will usually make a decision and just when you think you are going to see some wrestling, "The Network" makes things more complicated. For the rest of the episode, you see clips of Hogan and Bischoff complaining about the Network.

Another example of non-wrestling becoming more of a story than the actual wrestling was the Victory Road debacle. Victory Road should have been remembered as a good pay-per-view that TNA put up. Instead it will be known for Jeff Hardy's intoxication, which wrecked the heavyweight championship match.

I do not tune into Impact every week to watch Hogan and Bischoff blabber on, but that is all i have seen recently. Wrestling is becoming less and less important in TNA. One of TNA's new feuds, Hogan vs. "The Network", does not have any wrestlers at all! Instead of being an alternative to WWE, TNA is trying to copy it. Unfortunately for them, WWE has their product down pat, and TNA will only be more successful if they go in a different direction.

The simplest solution to me is to show Hogan and Bischoff their way to the door. This is very unlikely to happen, so TNA must start returning to it's original roots. It's time for TNA to stop being a talk show, and back to being a wrestling one.