KINGSTON: Monday Night Wars Part II: TNA Impact

Now that we've all had a few days to digest the insanity that was the much ballyhooed return of the Monday Night Wars, I thought I'd take this time to weigh in on the proceedings. In this column I'll be discussing the three hour TNA Impact extravaganza. (Check out the column I wrote yesterday for my thoughts on the WWE’s offering.)

 

Head to head for one night, I feel like TNA put on the better show. The show had a real unpredictable feel that we haven’t seen since the heyday of Nitro -complete with the insider references and “shoot” comments. It harkened back to a time when anything could happen and you never knew who would be coming out of the woodwork. With that being said, I think the show was very poorly thought out from a creative and a long-term business perspective. But then again, when you model your program after the show that put WCW out of business, what do you expect?.

 

I understand that TNA had to pull out all the stops to get people talking so to a certain extent I understand why they did what they did. But when you step back and look at it, TNA gave away a ton of memorable moments (and potential ratings draws) for a one night ratings bump when in truth Hogan was going to draw the rating anyway.

 

But this has always been the problem with TNA. In fact, I would call it their biggest problem: pacing. (I’ll have a column on this in the near future)

 

So much happened on that show that a lot of it just doesn’t stick with you. They debuted 11 new characters in one night. Not to mention the fact that they brought back Jarrett and Sting. I like the idea of bringing in some fresh blood and I’m not nearly as down about bringing in Val Venis and Orlando Jordan as many are. (don’t get me started on The Nasty Boys) But they very easily could’ve spaced some of these arrivals out to give them all more impact.

 

The problem arises because this can’t be sustained. They essentially blew their wad on one night. Who else could they bring in that would make a difference? Maybe Rob Van Dam or Mr. Kennedy but that’s it.  And of course, you could argue that they still haven’t properly utilized a good chunk of the guys that they have on their roster at the moment…

 

I’m also very skeptical about how this new talent is going to be booked. Why bring in guys if you don’t have a story for them? But with 12 new acts (The Youngs Bucks and Tomko debut next week), they are going to have to go over someone….History tends to show that the young guys aren’t going to be getting the pushes. Time will tell…

 

Now, the other issue I have is who they chose to bring in. Hall, Waltman, and Hardy. All of these guys have burned TNA in the past in one way or another. All of them have been repeated drug abusers. Hell, Hardy has an impending drug trial. Hogan has stated in interviews that if he doesn’t like how things are going that he’ll walk.

 

Doesn’t really seem to be a solid foundation to build your future on, does it? Not to mention the questions that it raises some very serious questions about TNA’s drug policy. (And don’t think for a second that if competition were to get tight, that Vince wouldn’t start barking up that tree.)

 

I like that they featured the TNA talent in the ring but some of the match-ups and booking were questionable. 

Much like WCW's cruiserweight division back in the day, TNA's X-Division gives the company a highly entertaining division that WWE is both unwilling and incapable of competing with. We needed a spotfest. Bodies flying every which way. Instead we got a screw job ending. That couldn't have been booked worse if you tried. 

Samoa Joe is one of the keys to TNA's long term future. He needed to look strong. Not sure matching him up with Abyss was the way to go here. They definitely didn't click. I would’ve had Samoa Joe work with someone faster so he could’ve had a more athletic- and dominant- match. If they wanted him to go over someone with size, he should've been matched up with Steiner b/c at least that would've meant something to a first time viewer.

Matt Morgan and Hernandez definitely needed to be featured strongly as they are both talented heavyweight performers who haven't been overexposed. I had to go back and look at the results to see if they were even on the show. Definitely victims of too much on one show. 

 

I definitely could’ve done without the ridiculous strip poker segment.  The Beautiful People are an entertaining act with an incredible ring entrance. How do they get written into a segment that doesn’t feature that?

Now I don’t want this to be a completely negative review b/c there were also a lot of good things about the show. 

 

First and foremost, Angle and AJ really tore the house down. One of the best matches I’ve seen on TV in quite some time. I’m mildly intrigued to see how Flair fits into this but I hope it’s not something as mundane as just mentoring AJ.

 

Secondly, I’ve never really been a huge Bobby Lashley fan but I absolutely love this new dynamic with his wife doing the talking. Krystal is amazing in her role and I’m probably more excited about these characters than I’ve been in a while about anything.

 

D’Angelo Dinero is really coming into his own and I really enjoy his “black pope” character.  Hopefully he’ll be given some time to shine. A win over Desmond Wolfe certainly looks promising. Although I hate to see them job Wolfe so soon after they put so much effort into building him up.

 

I like the fact that they still featured the Knockouts heavily. Strong women’s wrestling is going to be one of the things that will help differentiate them from WWE. It’ll be very interesting to see how the old “superstars” react if the Knockouts are drawing the highest rated segments.

 

Overall, TNA put together a really entertaining train wreck of a show. However, it really felt like too much of the bad days of WCW for my taste. The show was built around a lot of old guys who can’t really wrestle anymore while the young talent shoulders much of the workload in the ring.  I can see their ratings definitely going up but I can’t really see this doing much for their PPV buys or house show business. 

I'm definitely interested to see where they are going. Somehow I fear the political intrigue around the Impact Zone may be far more interesting than anything the company decides to put on their programs. I'll give them a few weeks to change my mind. 

Mike Kingston is the writer/creator of the wrestling comic book Headlocked. Follow him on Twitter at Headlockedcomic.