1.3.  That’s their best in awhile.

For a little bit at least.  It’s been confirmed that in February at least some shows will be taped in North Carolina.  I have no idea if this is going to be a regular occurrence or if it’s a one off thing but either way it’s a good idea.  They need to get away from the Impact Zone crowd for a change to see what works and what doesn’t.  Even for a week or two it’s a good thing for them.

Thoughts?

TNA Weekly PPV #1
Date: June 19, 2002
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Don West, Ed Ferrara

So since last night was the 3 hour Impact, I thought it was a good time to go back to the beginning and take a look at the origins of TNA. This was the Wednesday night series when once a week for 9.95 you could watch the NWA. It’s still the old school show at this point and this is literally their first show ever. No one knew it would one day become as big as it is now, but it amazingly is.

This is from about the time that Hogan is world champion in the WWF. Actually no he’s not as Taker would have it at this point, but Hogan is still around. Anyway, let’s take a look back at almost 8 years ago and see how TNA got its start.

The intro is of course about the old days of the NWA because everyone wants to see that right? Don West brings out Ed Ferrara, who looks almost exactly like Road Dogg. I saw him and thought it was him. He even sounds like him. Tenay welcomes us to the show as apparently we have to start with a legends ceremony. There will be a new world champion tonight in the first ever Gauntlet for the Gold. It’s a Royal Rumble but the last two have a singles match.

Oh I’m going to get sick of Ferrara.

JB, in a four sided ring of all things, introduces some legends. Harley Race, Dory Funk Jr., Jackie Fargo, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Corisca Joe and Sara Lee (who ARE these people?), Bill Behrens, who wants you to know he likes the NWA and if you don’t know, he’ll make sure to tell you, Ricky Steamboat (NOW we’re getting somewhere! He has the world title with him and they say it must be like old times for him to have it.

That would be the case if he held that one and not the big gold belt which he actually had). Steamboat addresses the crowd. There actually was a reason for this starting the show: something about a no show or something and they had to reschedule things. Steamboat says he’s the referee for the main event tonight.

Jeff Jarrett interrupts and says the main event is going to suck. Well ok then. He says it’s going to be stupid and then Mike Tenay just sounds like a moron by shouting answers at the questions that Jarrett asks. Jackie Fargo is annoying. He’s a legend, but he’s old. That’s the problem with the NWA: they believe that the fans care about these old guys that most of them have never heard of.

Apparently Fargo has matchmaking power and puts Jarrett in at number one. Ken Shamrock comes out and agrees it’s going to suck. Here’s Scott Hall. This feels like last night. Oh let’s reference the NWO again, because that’s SUCH a fresh idea. HALL says the battle royal will suck, but they have to do it so shut up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? They had the three biggest stars in the company say that the show is going to suck. You can’t script this kind of stuff.

Some chick named Goldilocks talks to a midget. Take that Hornswoggle bashers.

AJ Styles/Low Ki/Jerry Lynn vs. The Flying Elvises

You read that name right. They’re Jorge Estrada, Jimmy (Wang) Yang and Sonny Siaki. It’s original if nothing else. AJ looks YOUNG here. He’s just a regular guy. The legends in the back aren’t sure what to say. They point out that this isn’t about weight limits, even though other than Joe, no one with any weight has ever held the belt and he was about 5 years away. Ok so the Elvises are heels. Got it.

The faces hit dropkicks and ranas to start. It’s your standard spotfest to start and that’s fine. It’s a tried and true method to get the crowd going so there we are. Next week we have the X-Division Title tournament in a round robin tournament. Cool. I might do more or these but we’ll see. More or less everyone just shows off for awhile which is what they’re supposed to do.

The X Division has never been about stories but just insanity and that’s perfectly fine. We start the Elvis puns and I shake my head. For the life of me I’ll never get how the Honky Tonk Man got over as much as he did. We get an MMA reference before MMA was cool. Here’s AJ who looks about 17 here. Estrada kicks his head off so there we go. Lynn hits the Cradle Piledriver and it’s all breaking down. We get our first Pele kick. Yang hits a rotating moonsault to pin AJ which means nothing at this point.

Rating: B-. This was fine. There was no story and there wasn’t supposed to be. This was to get the crowd going and it did just that and more. It’s really short but that’s fine. No problems here, but DANG AJ looked like he was in high school or something.

Hollywood vs. Teo

Yes, it’s a midget match. The irony here is STUNNING. Oh Teo is an EXTREME midget. Apparently Rey Mysterio was originally asked to be a midget wrestler in Mexico. That has nothing to do with the mask but they talk about it anyway as they need to get references to WWE in there to give them credibility.

I have no idea what the point to this match is. Teo hits a splash from the top that wasn’t bad. Naturally the biggest spot in the match gets two. A top rope leg drops gives Teo the win. His name stands for Totally E. Outstanding. Oh dear goodness.

Rating: N/A. It’s like two minutes long and I’ll spare the it was too short jokes. I’ve never gotten the appeal of these matches but whatever.

Girls dance.

Ferrara and West get in the ring to announce a lingerie battle royal for next week. They bring out some of the women for next week, including Francine, Joanie (no clue who that is), Daffney (they say she used to be Daffney but now she’s Shannon), Alexis Laree (Mickie James, pre implants), Sasha (no clue but she’s ugly), a Ravens cheerleader named Erin, Elektra from ECW, Taylor Vaughn (who is apparently familiar but I don’t know her) and some chick named Tarita.

This is just an eye candy segment but not a very good one. Mickie looks WAY different, to the point where I had trouble picking her out of a line. Francine and Elektra argue and it’s apparent why they never talked. They actually blame Francine for ECW going bankrupt. A guy would wind up winning the battle royal.

There’s a guy named Mortimer Plumtree. I can’t make this up. He’s a teacher apparently, just not a very good one. He would actually wind up managing AJ for awhile. He has a tag team that we don’t see. Oh wait it’s the Johnsons.

Johnsons vs. Psicosis/James Storm

Yes, it’s the tag team that wear masks and full body suits and look like human phalluses. This team actually exists. Storm looks completely different too and it’s not a good thing either. Storm fires off some cap guns. Good for him. OH MAN he looks young. Apparently their names are Richard and Rod, or Dick and Rod. I hate this already. Ryan Shamrock comes out looking hot to watch them.

And now it devolves into nothing but the expected jokes. They say Psicosis’ real name for absolutely no apparent reason. Ryan Shamrock, called Alicia, still is there. Storm hits a rana and a very good one at that. They say Storm could be great. Not really but he’s not bad. And then he gets pinned off a bad TKO.

Rating: D+. This was just pointless. It’s like they have nothing but the main event and they know it. This was just freaking awful. The jokes were completely pointless and annoying. I have no clue what they were going for here but whatever.

The referee gives Ryan Shamrock money.

The Dupps, a hillbilly team, torment Goldilocks. They and some chick try to drink beer but some random guy says not to. Ok then.

Two NASCAR guys are here for the sake of being NASCAR guys. Ron Killings (R-Truth) show up to interrupt them. Of course he’s a heel because he hates NASCAR and says it’s not a sport. Brian Christopher of all people shows up and beats up R-Truth. Naturally a match is set up for next week. Oh and his name is K-Krush here. Dang they got that one right eventually.

Jeff Jarrett harasses a 71 year old man. Thanks for killing another 15 seconds.

Christian York/Joey Matthews vs. The Dupps

The Dupps are named Stan and Bo. Stan Dupp. Oh dear. Their cousin is both of their girlfriends. I hate this gimmick already. The faces are your standard face cruiserweight tag team. They have a ton of charisma if nothing else, but they’re just generic. Ferrara needs to fall in a hole. After the faces dominate for about two minutes the girl interferes to crotch York for the pin.

Rating: F-. This was a waste of 4 minutes of my life. The heels had NO offense but they win on a fluke anyway. That’s just crap but of course it’s what they went with here. I hated this and they could have used it for ANYTHING else.

Toby Keith has one of his music videos played and then sings live. That’s completely pointless again but it’s considered an epic moment. Jarrett interrupts him and we start the battle royal now.

NWA World Title: Gauntlet for the Gold

Royal Rumble with 90 second clocks and then a singles match at the end. Jarrett is first and second is Buff Bagwell. Bagwell hits the Blockbuster and then is thrown out. Before the 90 seconds are up they have the next guy come in to avoid the clock just ticking away. I like that. Lash Leroux of all people is second. Just end this now. He’s out in about 45 seconds and Norman Smiley is 4th of 20.

There goes Norman after about a minute. This is just pointless. Apollo, a Puerto Rican wrestler with a great look is 5th. K-Krush is 6th and he saves Jarrett. Actually he doesn’t but the announcers say he does. This is just mindless stuff as nothing of note is happening and it’s just random stuff to fill in time, which is how you could describe the whole show to be fair. Oh hey let’s make fun of Toby Keith even more.

Tenay is TICKED that the heels are working together for no apparent reason. Slash, with James Mitchell who has a stable that we haven’t heard from until now, is 7th. He’s one half of PG-13 who was a big deal in Memphis and nowhere else. Jarrett saves him for no apparent reason. Must be a Tennessee thing. Del Rios who is another big guy is next. He’s a former USWA (Memphis) champion. He’s a Scott Steiner lookalike and they even point that out.

He’s better known as Phantasio, which is a guy that Monkey is a mark for. He was a wrestling magician of all things which somehow evolved into Papa Shango but was given to the guy that played him instead. Oh come on he’s even got the Superman S on his tights. Some guy from NWA Wildside, a former WCW farm territory, is 9th. The clock is off the screen now and the times are getting longer. Konnan is 10th.

Every guy has their resume read with as many WCW, WWF and ECW references as we can get in there. He beats up everyone and is over as free beer in a frat house. We really need some eliminations. Joel Gertner who has lost about 100lbs brings out Bruce from a team called the Rainbow Express. Yes it’s a gay tag team and Billy and Chuck are a big deal at the moment. No coincidence there at all.

He’s Kwee Wee from WCW if you’re wondering. He’s the guy that wins the battle royal next week. MAYBE 15 seconds later, Rick Steiner comes out. Slash is out. There goes Justice who looks like a combination of Rhyno and one of the Pitbulls and now Rick goes after Jarrett. Malice (The Wall from WCW) is 13th. He chokeslams everyone in sight. Ok with Konnan it’s more like a chokeshove.

Truth makes up for it though by going WAY into the air. There goes Bruce, Truth, Del Rios, Konnan and Steiner are gone, leaving us with Malice, Apollo and Jarrett. Scott Hall is 14th to a huge pop and they actually give him a resume too, like he needs it. He’s the Outlaw now for no apparent reason. Hall hits a Razor’s Edge on Jarrett and here’s Toby Keith to suplex Jarrett and throw him out.

Oh how I hate singers trying to be wrestlers and failing so badly at getting people to care. Hall actually throws Jarrett out to make it count for the ridiculous NWA. Chris Harris is 15th and no one cares as no one knows who he is. Vampire Warrior (Gangrel) runs out early and beats up Harris. Ferrara will not shut up about Jarrett and I’m sick of him in ways I didn’t think were humanly possible.

Devon Storm, more commonly known as Crowbar from WCW, is next. The second biggest star in this match is Gangrel. That says the whole thing. Steve Cornio is 18th as I can’t believe this made it 5 weeks. Ken Shamrock is the penultimate entrant and he suplexes a lot of people. Brian Christopher, who should give his father 20% of every dollar he ever makes in wrestling because he never would have made a dime otherwise. A ton of people go out in succession and all by Christopher. Yes, they had him be a force.

The final five are Shamrock who is almost unrecognizable, Christopher (out before I finish his name), Malice, Apollo and Hall. Malice puts out everyone not named Shamrock, so it’s Ken Shamrock vs. the Wall for the world title. You read that right. This is just garbage as he survives the ankle lock for about 40 seconds before walking around just fine. A belly to belly ends a five minute nightmare.

Rating: F+. This was just a trainwreck. We had Brian Christopher, Gangrel, Lash Leroux and Norman Smiley in the main event. Let that sink in for a bit. Also, Shamrock beats the Wall for the title. Why not Hall, who people at least know? This was just a mess, much like the whole show. I have no idea what the point here was but it was bad. This was ¼ of the show, and that’s just unacceptable. The booking was off the wall as SHAMROCK, who hadn’t been seen in about two years and looked awful, gets the belt.

Jackie Fargo, who looks and sounds older than his 71, wants to fight Jarrett who wants to fight Toby Keith but Scott Hall fights Jarrett next week. They brawl to end this mess.

Overall Rating: D-. And that’s being generous. This was awful on all levels as nothing of note happens with the main event was just a trainwreck. When the three biggest names you have all say the main event is stupid, it hurts things badly. There is zero flow to this and if I didn’t know better, I would have bet on this not making it three months.

They changed things up a lot and it got a ton better, namely when Russo and a ton of other guys showed up to replace guys like the Dupps and the jokes in the main event. Definitely stay away from this one as it’s awful.

TNA Year In Review 2010

As I did with the WWE Year In Review, I’ll be looking at various aspects of the company and giving more or less a history of what happened along with some analysis of things I found intriguing. This one will be a good bit shorter than the other two with the obvious reason of there’s far less aired by TNA than WWE. Let’s get to it.

As always if you think I’m wrong on something, yell at me for it.

Since TNA tends to have the majority of their storylines built around one or two major things, I’m going to break this down differently and go month by months instead of looking at various aspects of the company and how they did through the year. First off though, the big things in the year.

Highlights

Monday Night Wars Redux

Back in January, TNA moved to Monday nights almost directly against Raw to try to fight them off. In short, this didn’t work very well. Ratings hit an all time high for Hogan’s debut and then actually held fairly steady. At this point the show began at 8 and had a one hour lead on Raw. For these 9 weeks, the show averaged a 1.25 rating.

Then on March 8 the shows moved head to head with each other and the ratings fell like a stone. Between March 8 and April 5, the average rating was a .86. Seeing the issues, the company shifted back to 8pm, regaining the hour advantage. For the following four weeks the show averaged a .75 and the writing was on the wall. The “war” ended on May 3 as Impact aired its final Monday night show.

While the results clearly didn’t go well like at all for TNA, they did put in a fresh energy on Monday nights as there was a question of which show to watch. They jumped too far too fast though and it caught them, but I’ll give them credit for jumping at all.

The Band/New Faces

With Hogan back in power, the old friends of his would begin to show up. Aside from a few random appearances, the main additions were Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean “X/Syxx-Pac” Waltman. The former NWO guys showed up and expected things to be like they had been earlier with Hulk.

This didn’t go exactly as planned as the trio eventually did some stuff in the tag division before going after Eric Young of all people. Young fought them and then of course joined them. After using the Feast or Fired case to win the tag titles, Waltman was phased out as he more or less couldn’t wrestle anymore and Young took his place. Hall left soon thereafter also and then Nash and Young split up, ending the concept.

Also in this period various other new named popped up, such as Sean Morely (lasted all of three weeks), Orlando Jordan (still around for some reason), Jeff Hardy (didn’t really do much for a few months), Mr. Anderson (Mr. Kennedy, big deal actually), Rob Van Dam (nice surprise) and Ric Flair (one of the top heels now for whatever reason). These guys would kind of force the TNA guys away for a bit which would of course become an issue later.

Other Early Year Stuff

Coming into the year, AJ Styles was world champion. He and Angle had an awesome match on January 4 and then another at Genesis, but at that show AJ turned heel for the first time as a serious wrestler in forever, joining with Ric Flair. About a month later, Mr. Anderson debuted at Against All Odds.

D’Angelo Dinero won a tournament at the same show to get a shot at AJ at Lockdown. During this time the main feud was Team Hogan vs. Team Flair because these two are freaking joined at the hip for all eternity for some reason. Aside from all that, this was also going on.

THEY

I go back and forth on this one. Apparently starting back in about March, the main storyline began, destined to be blown off at Bound For Glory. The idea was that after Abyss was mentored by Hogan, he would snap and talk about someone known as THEY who were going to take over the company.

Hogan and Bischoff braced for their arrival as Sting and Kevin Nash tried to warn TNA president Dixie Carter of something evil about Hogan and Bischoff. As anyone with a brain saw coming, Hogan and Bishcoff were the core of THEY along with the turned heel Jeff Hardy but we’ll get to that in a bit.

The angle was incredibly intricate but there are still plot holes in it which to be fair is almost a universal issue in wrestling. The problem with this was two fold. One was Abyss, as he managed to become the least interesting character you could possibly imagine. Also, the storyline got so intricate that by the time it was over and the payoff was given, most people didn’t want to sit down and figure it out. There were other aspects to the story besides Abyss, such as this one.

Top Ten

Around this time there was a rather brief concept of ranking the top ten challengers. In April Rob Van Dam won the world title and needed challengers. The first would be Sting in an angle I’ll touch on later. The concept became that Hogan, Bischoff and Carter would rank the top ten guys in the company and the #1 ranked guy would get the title shot. It lasted maybe two months or so and was more or less a joke.

EV/ECW Return

Have you ever heard of a company called ECW? TNA might have but I’m not sure as they keep changing whether or not they can say it. Back in I think June, Tommy Dreamer and various other ECW guys started sitting in the Impact Zone and watching. The theory was that these guys were THEY but that was soon proven wrong.

Eventually a massive brawl broke out with EV and the team called Fourtune which was broken up by Dixie Carter, saying she invited the EV guys. The idea was that ECW was getting one more chance to shine because of their dedication to the business or some nonsense like that. They even got a PPV out of it called Hardcore Justice. The show was pretty bad unless you were a diehard ECW fan, but of course it was a huge part of the THEY angle, as was this.

Sting/Nash/Deception

This was something that was talked about for a good while then not talked about again then talked about again. Sting, ever the guy that said exactly what he was thinking, kept talking about how there was a massive deception going on but Dixie wouldn’t listen to him. Nash joined him, knowing something we all didn’t know. This eventually was revealed to be that he had figured out the Hogan/Bischoff conspiracy and was trying to tell us what was going on but Dixie wouldn’t listen. This all came out here.

10/10/10/Immortal

This was the blowoff to the whole thing. Abyss had said that THEY would make themselves known here. After RVD had been attacked by Abyss and a board with spikes in it called Janice, he had been stripped of the TNA Title and a tournament had been held with the finals being a three way dance here.

After a good match, Jeff Hardy fell to the floor and here came Eric and Hulk. Hogan was on crutches but handed them to Hardy to clobber Angle and Anderson and give him the world title. Jarrett and Abyss came down and THEY were here. Soon after, Flair’s team called Fourtune joined in and Immortal was formed.

Since that that has been the main story as Anderson had been trying to get a shot at the title but was given a concussion by a Hardy chair shot. After a feud with Matt Morgan who had been thrown out of Immortal, Hardy is looking for a new challenger as we end the new year.

Also going on right now, Jeff Jarrett thinks he’s an MMA god while we wait on the return of Kurt Angle to destroy him. This is something different at least but there isn’t much to it I don’t think.

Main Storylines: Much like everything else in TNA this was a love it or hate it area. The vast majority of the year was built around one major storyline and if you weren’t into it, too bad. I’ll go more into detail on that later near the end. The stories were ok for the most part, but with Abyss as the catalyst for the whole thing it’s kind of hard to get into. Hogan’s booking isn’t something I’ve ever been a fan of and this was no exception. Some ok stuff, but the problem was that the ok stuff was weighed down by all the bad stuff and the bad delivery and the slow buildup time.

You know, I had meant to make a month by month breakdown, but after all that there isn’t much left to talk about so I’ll just leave it with that and a few sections that are upcoming. The only major thing I haven’t talked about is this.

Tag Teams

This was an odd year for these belts. After a few weeks of the British Invasion holding the titles, Matt Morgan and Hernandez won them at Genesis. After about two months with them Morgan turned on his partner and defended the titles on his own.

After a title defense, Morgan was attacked by the Band who won the titles using a Feast or Fired case and defended them using the Freebird Rule. Hall would be arrested for an issue at a bar in Florida and therefore the titles were stripped. The Motor City Machine Guns had been the #1 contenders so there was a tournament instead, won by the Guns.

Something that a lot of people seem to overlook about the Guns getting the titles: they weren’t the first choice. Had Hall not gotten into trouble, there is no telling how long the Band would have held the titles for. The Guns holding the belts is a good thing as it’s long overdue, but had the Band not been forced to drop them, there’s no guarantee the Guns would have won them.

Soon after this the Guns and Beer Money had a best of five series of matches which were mostly awesome. After defeating the drunken rich dudes to keep the titles, the Guns continued a long feud with Generation Me in which the Guns still kept the belts. The “great” tag division is now back to Beer Money vs. the Guns, probably at the next PPV.

Tag Teams: Once the belts got on the Guns, as in a young team that deserved a chance with them, things went way up for this division. And then something became clear: this division is nowhere near what it’s built up to be. You have the Guns, Beer Money, Gen Me, Ink Inc and Young/Jordan as a comedy team. That’s really about all you have too. The Guns vs. Beer Money is fine, but they had one real set of challengers in the last five months. That’s not depth, no matter how you slice it.

ReAction

No real other place to put this but it was kind of a highlight. On and off throughout the year there were specials called ReAction. More or less it was shot like a documentary and recapped a lot of what happened that night but also offered some more details in the form of candid interviews. Oftentimes the end of Impact’s main event would spill over into this. It was an interesting concept, but 3 hours of TNA was a bit much and the show airs it’s final episode tonight.

Superlatives

Just like in WWE, only Show and Wrestler of the year.

Show – Lockdown. This show worked rather well overall and had an excellent match with Anderson vs. Angle in what I thought was the best match of the year for any company. The main event kind of sucked but the show was fun throughout as much like TLC, they amped up the gimmicks and it worked in this case.

Wrestler – Kurt Angle. By default for the most part actually. No one really stood out to me so I went with Angle instead of anyone else. Hardy’s matches kind of suck, Anderson barely ever won a stupid thing, RVD is ok and not much more, and that leaves AJ who is stuck in Flair mode and has been for the majority of the year. Angle was his usual awesome self and always entertaining.

Overall Themes

Devaluing of the Titles

This is a big one. Aside from the world and tag titles, the belts all feel almost meaningless. Let’s take a quick look at how every title changed hands this year aside from the world and tag.

Knockout Singles:

Clean win
2/3 Falls win
Pulled out of a box
Champion not pinned in a tag match
Won via DQ
Title handed over
Clean win
Champion not pinned in a four way match
Champion lays down to lose title

In other words of the NINE title changes this year (think that’s a bit much?) 1/3 were clean pins over the champion with no shenanigans.

Knockout Tag:

Clean win
Titles vacated for lack of defenses
Won in a threeway
Champions not pinned in a tag match (Freebird Rule)
Titles vacated for lack of defenses
Tournament final with a woman throwing herself into the winning team

Again, one time where the initial champions and initial challengers won the titles, back at the beginning of the year.

TV/Global:

Won at a house show
Won with outside interference
Clean win

This is far better but in the entire year, there were a total of 11 televised title defenses, including PPVs. The title was changed to the TELEVISION Title in late July so we’ll say from the beginning of August to the end of the year, as in five months, that title was defended on Impact four times. With less than a title defense a month televised, how in the world can I take the title seriously? Why should I? No one is challenging the champion the vast majority of the time so apparently they don’t want it. Why should I care about it other than simply it’s a title?

X Title:

Feast or Fired cashed in (not by the person that owned the case)
Title stripped (due to travel issues so not TNA’s fault at all)
Clean win in a threeway
Clean win
Clean win
Changed at a house show
Changed at a house show
Win with outsider interference
Clean win

Now, out of all these, name one specific one that stands out in your mind (rhetorical for you lunkheads out there that don’t get what I’m talking about). Williams, Lethal, Kaz and Robbie E have held it on TV this year. When do you remember anything about the title other than it being won or lost? The title isn’t fought for anymore and it’s not like people talk about it. The division means nothing at all anymore and more or less is three guys fighting over it on occasion.

In short, aside from the world title and arguably the tag titles, the belts have been made to look like absolutely nothing.

Isn’t Nostalgia Supposed to be Fun?

Hulk Hogan (57), Eric Bischoff (55) and Ric Flair (61) are the three top heels in this company. Hardy, the world champion as of this writing, is a distant fourth. Why should we fear these guys? Are they going to run over us with their wheelchairs? Before they were the top heels, Nash (51) and Sting (51), were the top heels. I understand the idea of having your big stars be a major focus of your show, but at the end of the day there comes a point where that’s simply not working.

As I’ve said numerous times on here, why pay out the likely big fat contracts to guys like these if they’re not going to get you even a slight push in the ratings? Without all of the numbers from this year and with only through September of last year (Hogan signed in late October), the ratings are down nearly 9% this year. Think about that for a minute. Not only are the salaries there, but ratings are down.

Since these guys showed up they have been the focal point of the company be they faces or heels. A lot of fans, myself included, like these guys but at some point even their big fans are going to start to say “Ok, we get it: Hogan and Flair are the biggest stars ever and Bischoff is slick. Can we see something else?” They’ve been doing the same stuff for 15 years now and it’s a little tiring. This ties into my next point.

Insert Witty Line About Too Much of the Same People Here

TNA doesn’t seem to get the concept of show us something different. Like I said, Hogan, Bischoff and Flair have been the focal points of the company. When I say focal points, I mean for awhile they were in seemingly every segment. For about 9-10 months this year, the vast majority of the show was about one thing at a time.

When the year started, the majority of the show was about Hogan and The Band with some stuff about AJ and his defenses thrown in. Then it became about Hogan vs. Flair. Then it became about THEY ARE COMING. Then it was about Sting and Deception. Then it was about THEY ARE STILL COMING/EV 2.0. Then it was about Immortal and since then it’s still been about Immortal.

When they’re not in the ring they’re in the back talking. When they’re not in the back talking they’re in the back fighting. When they’re not in the back fighting, they’re on a commercial. More or less, the main storyline takes up well over half of a show more often than not. While there may be individual storylines, they always tie into the main one (Pope vs. Abyss for example).

In short, if you don’t like the main storyline, you might as well only watch about half an hour of the show. Let’s take a look at the show from 12/23 for an example.

Immortal/Rob Terry introduced/Morgan weigh-in/Foley vs. Flair yelling
Jeff Hardy talks to Morgan
Jeff Jarrett’s MMA thing
Tara and Madison talk
X-Title #1 Contenders Match
Sarita beats up Velvet
Bischoff and Flair address Immortal
Kendrick talks to some lady in a cafeteria
Knockouts Tag Title match
Pope gets donations from Young/Jordan
Ironman Match
Team Beer Money talks
Anderson interview
Team MCMG talks
Main event – Team MCMG vs. Team Beer Money

That’s 15 segments in total. 8 (not counting the #1 contender match) involved Immortal or Fourtune. If that’s not enough, let’s go back a bit to the July 1 show.

Abyss and Eric talk/Hogan hits Abyss with a chair/Hardy saves
Tag match
Bischoff makes Abyss vs. Hardy the main event
Dixie Carter arrives
AJ vs. Joe
Dixie talks to Hogan and Eric
Kendrick vs. Wolfe
Dreamer talks
Video on Pope
Pope promo
Lethal vs. Morgan
Abyss makes Janice
Rayne vs. Wilde
Sarita beats up Wilde
Dixie talks to Sting
Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy

16 segments, 7 were about Hogan/Eric/Abyss/Dixie, all of which were about THEY. In other words, just shy of half was about the same thing. See what I mean? It’s fine to have a main story, but it can’t be half of your show because if a fan isn’t into that story, there’s little point in watching the whole show because they’ll get sick of it. I checked other shows and came up with approximately 50% as well. That’s overkill of an angle, period.

Overall

This was not a good year for TNA in my eyes. With the arrival of Hogan and Bischoff, everything was changed and the focus almost instantly was on them. The vast majority of the year has been the buildup to Immortal and then Immortal itself. The problem is that the payoff, Immortal being here, worked for maybe two weeks and since then has become boring quickly.

Hardy is intriguing as champion, but after that the whole team kind of falls apart. As I said earlier, having three guys that aren’t wrestlers anymore leading the top heel stable is not a good idea. In short, if you don’t like Immortal you’re not going to like Impact because the show completely revolves around that one story.

The major issue this year has been the writing. The storylines just aren’t intriguing at all for the most part. The shock value was definitely there on 10/10/10 but aside from that, nothing has really been a huge deal. Everything feels flat and there doesn’t seem to be a sign of that getting any better. That’s not a good sign as 2010 was a major step backwards for this organization.

I probably left some stuff out but I think this definitely covers the high points. Oh and Samoa Joe was kidnapped by ninjas and then came back and that was just kind of never talked about again.