Let me preface this blog by saying there are some spoilers in my blog for this week. Be forewarned!
I have to admit that I have been periodically watching TNA Impact Wrestling the last couple of weeks while flipping around on my Thursday night. That is a huge step for TNA wrestling because it wasn’t too long ago that I wouldn’t even watch it at all and would just read the results on the web. That is a major improvement in my book for TNA wrestling and I’ve got to admit that when I do turn it on, it’s entertaining.
With that being said, I have been following the last couple of Impact Wrestling episode shows and watching them during my Thursday night channel surfing & am pretty aware of the current storylines being developed on the show week-to-week. What I have come to enjoy is that new stars and being developed & those who are great in-ring workers are getting their opportunities at the top of a company that has showcased wrestlers past their prime the last two years. It’s refreshing and I have to give the devils their due.
[adinserter block=”2″]But what I have been frustrated with as of late is the way they put the TNA World Championship on Bobby Roode. Based off of my perspective from the outside looking in and the stories/interviews I have read in recent weeks I would have to guess that despite doing the right thing by putting the gold on Bobby Roode, they have done so in a very shady process. He doesn’t beat Kurt Angle at the biggest PPV of the year (while his partner James Storm did on free TV in 3 minutes) and he turns heel in the process.
I’m sure TNA fans are happy to see James Storm, Bobby Roode and soon to be #1 contender AJ Styles battling for the TNA World Championship. They are all TNA homegrown talent battling for the Championship in a company that has focused itself on the stars of yesteryears. But did they do this type of booking in a way that hurts the TNA talent you have watched grow on your televisions from the days of the Wednesday PPV to Fox Sports Net to Spike TV?
I am the casual TNA Wrestling fan; I have watched the product periodically at times but keep an eye on it on a weekly basis based off of internet reports. Being that casual TNA Wrestling fan I believe I have a little bit better pulse on the product from someone who hasn’t been “knee-deep” into this product for sometime. And to me, the casual TNA Wrestling fan, I feel the following about the current product in-regards to Roode, Storm and Styles.
– By putting the Championship three weeks after Bound for Glory on Bobby Roode you are telling me that everything we watched build to Bound for Glory wasn’t a real emotionally attaching path to glory for face challenger. You are also telling me that Bobby Roode isn’t in Kurt Angle’s class backed up by an interview Hulk Hogan did days before BFG.
– James Storm was just a transitional champion. He got the ratings to spike (no pun intended) for that particular episode but it was nothing more. He was a stepping stone for Roode to be champion because the bookers didn’t want Angle to lose clean to a guy not in his class but in the process you hurt Roode & Storm.
– Bobby Roode needed to stay a face. TNA does too many heels to faces, faces to heels turns in a year span that it’s hard to follow. One minute Angle is a face feuding with Jarrett and weeks later he’s a heel siding with Jarrett. One minute Mr. Anderson is a heel, then he’s a face and then he joins Immortal as a heel but ends up being a face again. It’s inconsistent booking from this casual fan.
– While having a great feud with Daniels, AJ Styles isn’t World Title material right now. He’s been out of the picture for almost 2 years and hasn’t ever recovered from his heel turn/Flair persona. While “old school” TNA fans may love it, I’m not sure a Roode vs. Styles Main Event brings the cash flow in.
– It’s almost a shoe-in that the TNA World Championship is being held for Jeff Hardy or a Kurt Angle (most likely face) return. It’s sad that Bobby Roode is a great talent and deserved the spotlight, but not in a heel persona. Hardy is a face and he needs that heel champion to feud with, so watch out for another Hardy run with the gold just before 2011 closes or shortly after 2012 begins.
[adinserter block=”1″]I don’t know if TNA wrestling has changed for the better in recent weeks or in recent months. It’s still a product that I will keep checking out until my frustrations keep me away from it or their television brings me into full-time. TNA is teetering on something good or something bad/the same old stuff TNA has done in recent years.
But if I had to put money on it, I’m going to guess I’ll be checking out of the product in the near future yet again.
For more on this topic join Eric Gargiulo & myself for the Thursday November 3rd edition of “The Still Real to Us Show” and download the show at www.wheelhouseradio.com and can be downloaded in the “Real Guy Radio” section of the site..”
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