Glorious Maxxwell
11-06-2009, 07:58 PM
For those of you who don't know me too well, I do not fancy myself a smartmark... I'm a wrestling fan, plain and simple... and at the end of the day... we're all marks... Once again, plain and simple... I've been a professional wrestling fan for many, many years... The first time I saw wrestling was on Shotgun Saturday Night when the Olympic Strongman, Mark Henry had a tug-of-war with Vader... and sense then, I have spent a good part of my free time watching wrestling and being a fan... I was a really rabid fan until recently (this past year) when I finally realized that wrestling, as the classic country song goes... ain't what it use to be... These days I can't even watch any WWE and TNA is becoming more painful to watch every week... so instead of bitching and moaning in the SB or writing some of my opinions down in the threads of the PWS forums and the Universe of Wrestling forums... I thought I'd put my complete bitchings and moanings in an article and let y'all read it... Now I'm not an insider... or an “insider,” so I may not know everything about wrestling... but hopefully, I have a decent enough barring on the sport I love...
At present point, I am having a tremendous problem with TNA. First off, the TNA youth movement. Now before I get yelled at for saying I support TNA keeping it's young talent down... I'm for a resurgence of talent... TNA needs new stars... But how am I suppose to believe that the Motor City Machine Guns went from Show opening, comedy wrestlers to serious tag team title contenders in about a month's time? Or AJ Styles, and I love Styles but TNA hurts his credibility by bouncing him back and forth, going from losing to Matt Morgan... to near retirement... to becoming a serious contender for the gold, taking the gold... IN TWO MONTHS TIME!!! And if you need a third example of this... Christopher Daniels... one of my favorite wrestlers currently in TNA... in, once again... ONE MONTH'S TIME, he went from X-Division Champion hopeful (losing to Samoa Joe) to World title contender... Do these bookings really make any sense to anybody?
To me... building a wrestling storyline, or wrestling talent, or building the image of a company is like building a skyscraper. You start with a plot of land... get your tools... make a foundation... setup the framework, then build the shit...
From their quick fix booking it's like they already trying to move into top floor, office suite before they even set the framework up... much less build it properly...
Somebody site TNA for a building code violation...
If you want to have this youth movement... give it a year to build... if you want AJ or Daniels to lead the company from a babyface side... Give them a year to get the fans on their side and build them up to be the legit contender to the World's Championship. AJ's got the fans at present time, but doesn't have the proper build... You went from AJ wanting to retire to being World's Champion in one month... good god... build it... have him take Sting's advice... but let him fuck up a few times... let the character start to succeed, but then give him a devastating loss where he loses all hope, but Sting keeps him on and teaches and mentors him... slowly building up his confidence and his love of wrestling again... and then sometime in that year/year and a half build, start the chase for the World's Championship. Let the heel be a heel... use his dastardly tactics to "show" AJ he should have retired... show AJ he should have never step foot in the wrestling business... be a piece of shit and bring up he's just as terrible as his dad was by practically abandoning his family for TNA... The heel champion fucks AJ a few times... but Sting's there to convince him to keep on going... and then finally... you have a long winded match where the champion tries everything to retain his title... but AJ has smartened up, learned what to watch out for... and FINALLY... beats the champion for the belt... good god... the place would explode if that happened... not just oh AJ won the title... lets let the fans jump the guardrail... granted that reaction was huge... but good god, if you built it up, let AJ slowly become a serious wrestler and legitimate contender for the gold. Build heat on your heel champion for this specific angle... You would've had the defining moment TNA needs to turn the corner and grow to become a serious threat to the McMahon empire... And you can do the same pretty much for Daniels... except make the build LONGER and change the retirement thing... and add an angle before he starts the chase for the gold.
Same thing for the Machine Guns if you want them to be your next Tag Team Champions, or at least in contention for the belts... let them crawl out of the whole you pigeon-holed them in and let the grow and become a legit TNA tag team (not to say they aren't a legit tag team, but again, like with AJ, TNA hurt their credibility). It's hard to accept them as a serious contender when ONE MONTH AGO (OK, maybe two, but you see how this month thing is a reoccurring issue) they were the comedic slackers of the tag team/X-division where they would goof off instead of try to earn their television time. They would run joke commentary or read video game manuals. How am I suppose to take them so seriously after that? You gotta let them build... hell, run a fucking angle where the "grow up." Is that too hard?
And good god... the Knockouts division... usually I would talk about a situation as this as being horribly pillaged and raped of dignity... but we're talking about women here... Saying something like that would be in bad taste. Anyway... Knockouts Division... yeah... it hasn't been as hot as it was at one point, Gail Kim and Kong fighting over the title... but at least from that, it still had respectability... Well at least until they unleashed that godawful "King of the Knockouts" deal... Literally ONE MONTH BEFORE that, you were still touting the Knockouts division as a serious division for women. No bullshit, no cheesecake, no divas... But Cody Deaner gets the fall... claims himself as women's champions for a month... Then ODB wins, and the next month after that angle... we, as fans, are suppose to take the Knockouts Division seriously? You're kidding right? Now, I'm not a fan of ODB in the least bit... but why couldn't she have just won the belt and continued on about her business... Why did we have to endure Cody Deaner parading about as "King of the Knockouts" and have to stomach a cheesy MMA match with him and Tara... Why? And now we're suppose to take the belt seriously again... and consider that to be a great highlight for that division... Let's just make the 4th floor completely out of cardboard, guys...
I can probably go on for days and days about TNA taking short cuts, or using faulty building material to build their storylines and their company division... Though I will say one positive thing about the current product... so far, how they brought in Desmond Wolfe has been nothing short of great. Even though Kurt has probably helped get Wolfe over better than anybody else currently on roster, he may have started against too high of a caliber of TNA talent, in regards to a long term stay for Wolfe. That's just my opinion. But everything they've done so far is fantastic. Even though, the fans can't really take Angle's word about being a good guy and supporting the new youth moment of TNA, when ONE MONTH EARLIER, he was bashing the young talent and saying they haven't earned their spot yet... The opinion may change after a great match with a younger talent, I won't take that part of the logic away... But should the fans not be expecting of Angle... hell... I'm positive, as a fan, he's going to turn anytime now... And since we're on the topic of Angle... and how Angle's and Rhino's opinions basically flipped from last month to this month... how do we take Rhino seriously after spontaneously flipping his opinion and going from helping the Frontline to suddenly being against the new wave of talent and being paranoid about losing his job. Hell, lets say the Frontline, which he help, didn't fragment and ultimately defeated the Mafia... Rhino would still be in the same position...
And good grief, if it wasn't bad enough that the "TNA" building was so shoddily put up... they want to move the foundation... fuck the youth movement... that didn't work in ONE MONTH'S TIME... Lets bring in Hogan. That'll pop a fucking buy-rate... Let's bring in these legends that the fans remember and have them take over. Now I'm not bitter... I've read rumors of DDP coming back and I absolutely LOVE DDP... And even though I haven't watched the new episode of TNA yet, somebody ruined part of the show for me and said Raven is coming back... HOLY SHIT!!! Established stars aren't as bad as the holier than thou, 05 X-Division smartmarks say... (with the exception of Hogan, and trying to bring in Flair... both of which are pointless and bad... especially with Hogan and Bischoff are probably making combined... probably triple or quadruple the entire X-Division with the midcard wrestlers thrown in there) But come on TNA... make up your mind and stick with it... do you want your established stars to take you to the promise land... or do you want to stick your stock in the young, and get them properly over in a year or two... or put them on the long term plan and build them up to be stars in 5 years plus when those established stars start to retire... or in the more likely event, get called back up to the WWE...
Either one... but TNA... once you have a plan... you have to stick to it... and if you want the fans to give a shit... there has to be a solid framework and foundation there for you to build upon... or else you'll be stuck waiting, a very long time, for the fire marshal to finally approve your "building" for use...
Shaun Andrew Maden
At present point, I am having a tremendous problem with TNA. First off, the TNA youth movement. Now before I get yelled at for saying I support TNA keeping it's young talent down... I'm for a resurgence of talent... TNA needs new stars... But how am I suppose to believe that the Motor City Machine Guns went from Show opening, comedy wrestlers to serious tag team title contenders in about a month's time? Or AJ Styles, and I love Styles but TNA hurts his credibility by bouncing him back and forth, going from losing to Matt Morgan... to near retirement... to becoming a serious contender for the gold, taking the gold... IN TWO MONTHS TIME!!! And if you need a third example of this... Christopher Daniels... one of my favorite wrestlers currently in TNA... in, once again... ONE MONTH'S TIME, he went from X-Division Champion hopeful (losing to Samoa Joe) to World title contender... Do these bookings really make any sense to anybody?
To me... building a wrestling storyline, or wrestling talent, or building the image of a company is like building a skyscraper. You start with a plot of land... get your tools... make a foundation... setup the framework, then build the shit...
From their quick fix booking it's like they already trying to move into top floor, office suite before they even set the framework up... much less build it properly...
Somebody site TNA for a building code violation...
If you want to have this youth movement... give it a year to build... if you want AJ or Daniels to lead the company from a babyface side... Give them a year to get the fans on their side and build them up to be the legit contender to the World's Championship. AJ's got the fans at present time, but doesn't have the proper build... You went from AJ wanting to retire to being World's Champion in one month... good god... build it... have him take Sting's advice... but let him fuck up a few times... let the character start to succeed, but then give him a devastating loss where he loses all hope, but Sting keeps him on and teaches and mentors him... slowly building up his confidence and his love of wrestling again... and then sometime in that year/year and a half build, start the chase for the World's Championship. Let the heel be a heel... use his dastardly tactics to "show" AJ he should have retired... show AJ he should have never step foot in the wrestling business... be a piece of shit and bring up he's just as terrible as his dad was by practically abandoning his family for TNA... The heel champion fucks AJ a few times... but Sting's there to convince him to keep on going... and then finally... you have a long winded match where the champion tries everything to retain his title... but AJ has smartened up, learned what to watch out for... and FINALLY... beats the champion for the belt... good god... the place would explode if that happened... not just oh AJ won the title... lets let the fans jump the guardrail... granted that reaction was huge... but good god, if you built it up, let AJ slowly become a serious wrestler and legitimate contender for the gold. Build heat on your heel champion for this specific angle... You would've had the defining moment TNA needs to turn the corner and grow to become a serious threat to the McMahon empire... And you can do the same pretty much for Daniels... except make the build LONGER and change the retirement thing... and add an angle before he starts the chase for the gold.
Same thing for the Machine Guns if you want them to be your next Tag Team Champions, or at least in contention for the belts... let them crawl out of the whole you pigeon-holed them in and let the grow and become a legit TNA tag team (not to say they aren't a legit tag team, but again, like with AJ, TNA hurt their credibility). It's hard to accept them as a serious contender when ONE MONTH AGO (OK, maybe two, but you see how this month thing is a reoccurring issue) they were the comedic slackers of the tag team/X-division where they would goof off instead of try to earn their television time. They would run joke commentary or read video game manuals. How am I suppose to take them so seriously after that? You gotta let them build... hell, run a fucking angle where the "grow up." Is that too hard?
And good god... the Knockouts division... usually I would talk about a situation as this as being horribly pillaged and raped of dignity... but we're talking about women here... Saying something like that would be in bad taste. Anyway... Knockouts Division... yeah... it hasn't been as hot as it was at one point, Gail Kim and Kong fighting over the title... but at least from that, it still had respectability... Well at least until they unleashed that godawful "King of the Knockouts" deal... Literally ONE MONTH BEFORE that, you were still touting the Knockouts division as a serious division for women. No bullshit, no cheesecake, no divas... But Cody Deaner gets the fall... claims himself as women's champions for a month... Then ODB wins, and the next month after that angle... we, as fans, are suppose to take the Knockouts Division seriously? You're kidding right? Now, I'm not a fan of ODB in the least bit... but why couldn't she have just won the belt and continued on about her business... Why did we have to endure Cody Deaner parading about as "King of the Knockouts" and have to stomach a cheesy MMA match with him and Tara... Why? And now we're suppose to take the belt seriously again... and consider that to be a great highlight for that division... Let's just make the 4th floor completely out of cardboard, guys...
I can probably go on for days and days about TNA taking short cuts, or using faulty building material to build their storylines and their company division... Though I will say one positive thing about the current product... so far, how they brought in Desmond Wolfe has been nothing short of great. Even though Kurt has probably helped get Wolfe over better than anybody else currently on roster, he may have started against too high of a caliber of TNA talent, in regards to a long term stay for Wolfe. That's just my opinion. But everything they've done so far is fantastic. Even though, the fans can't really take Angle's word about being a good guy and supporting the new youth moment of TNA, when ONE MONTH EARLIER, he was bashing the young talent and saying they haven't earned their spot yet... The opinion may change after a great match with a younger talent, I won't take that part of the logic away... But should the fans not be expecting of Angle... hell... I'm positive, as a fan, he's going to turn anytime now... And since we're on the topic of Angle... and how Angle's and Rhino's opinions basically flipped from last month to this month... how do we take Rhino seriously after spontaneously flipping his opinion and going from helping the Frontline to suddenly being against the new wave of talent and being paranoid about losing his job. Hell, lets say the Frontline, which he help, didn't fragment and ultimately defeated the Mafia... Rhino would still be in the same position...
And good grief, if it wasn't bad enough that the "TNA" building was so shoddily put up... they want to move the foundation... fuck the youth movement... that didn't work in ONE MONTH'S TIME... Lets bring in Hogan. That'll pop a fucking buy-rate... Let's bring in these legends that the fans remember and have them take over. Now I'm not bitter... I've read rumors of DDP coming back and I absolutely LOVE DDP... And even though I haven't watched the new episode of TNA yet, somebody ruined part of the show for me and said Raven is coming back... HOLY SHIT!!! Established stars aren't as bad as the holier than thou, 05 X-Division smartmarks say... (with the exception of Hogan, and trying to bring in Flair... both of which are pointless and bad... especially with Hogan and Bischoff are probably making combined... probably triple or quadruple the entire X-Division with the midcard wrestlers thrown in there) But come on TNA... make up your mind and stick with it... do you want your established stars to take you to the promise land... or do you want to stick your stock in the young, and get them properly over in a year or two... or put them on the long term plan and build them up to be stars in 5 years plus when those established stars start to retire... or in the more likely event, get called back up to the WWE...
Either one... but TNA... once you have a plan... you have to stick to it... and if you want the fans to give a shit... there has to be a solid framework and foundation there for you to build upon... or else you'll be stuck waiting, a very long time, for the fire marshal to finally approve your "building" for use...
Shaun Andrew Maden