TNA on the Road: This Is How It Should Be.

This week’s Impact Wrestling was taped on the road in Huntsville, Alabama (the place where the first TNA show was held) and it brought a whole new atmosphere to the show.

TNA has been trying to prove that it has the ability to stand toe to toe with the WWE, and (even though we know that’s garbage) whenever TNA is on the road, it has a real big show feel to it.

The arena was much better (mainly because it seats more than 1,000 people), and the crowd was so good that I didn’t notice any piped in cheers. The entrance ramp went back to the rising screen thing (I have no clue what to exactly call it), and it gave the whole show more of a big-game feel.

That’s to say nothing of the performers themselves, who seemed to take their game up a notch, and were obviously excited to be performing for a new and more energized crowd.

The show was very good and it seemed like management pulled out all the stops in order to impress the crowd. The whole atmosphere even made Karen Jarrett and Hulk Hogan more tolerable (Hogan even looked a bit like his old self at the start of the show).

Did anyone else think that this is what TNA should be?

The size of the crowd, the entrances and even the performances all felt like this is what I want TNA to be, and I have no doubt I will be disappointed when TNA returns to Florida and that disgraceful excuse for a crowd.

I’m not saying that Impact this week was perfect; Mickie James beating Winter for the title is like something the WWE would do for John Cena (Oh wait they did do that with Cena and Rey Mysterio). Hogan also having to interfere in the main event (again) and more air time given to Karen Jarrett (who needs to leave and actually look after her kids) in what was the most sexist segment I have seen in a long time.

TNA is at its best when it is on the road and you can see that quite easily this week. The best thing that Bischoff and Hogan have ever done in TNA is the fact that they are taking the company on the road a lot more than usual. But they are still holding over 50 percent of the pay-per-views in Orlando in front of a crowd full of 1,400 people.

The Impact Zone is a graveyard that wouldn’t even entice independent promotions to show up, so why hasn’t TNA moved? Universal Studios probably offers some cheap discount for using the studio because they had nothing else to put there.

Here’s an interesting fact: Did you know that the real name for the Impact Zone is Sound Stage 21? That says a lot about how much Universal Studios care for TNA.

TNA has a lot of problems, but when I was watching it on the road this week, the atmosphere made me forget those and just enjoy the show. TNA needs to go on the road more (if only just for PPVs) and it could help a lot of their crowd problems.

The best-case scenario is that they move fully to another arena (hopefully in Nashville for nostalgia’s sake) where they can charge for entry and the people in the audience actually care about the product, but that won’t happen for a long time.