Reality From Ringside #80
September 6, 2010
By: Doug Lackey of Wrestleview.com
TNA No Surrender 2010: The Hangover
I used to view this time of the year as one of grand anticipation. It’s football season! It’s time to grab the portable grills! Stockpile the coolers with beer and raw meat! Throw those ugly-as-hell cargo shorts in the cardboard box; it’s time to break out the jeans!
But wait… there’s a pay-per-view… a TNA pay-per-view at that.
It was this same time last year that I began to write pay-per-view hangovers for TNA. I blamed Adam Martin (Editor-in-Chief, Wrestleview) for it then, and I still do to this day. What seems to numb the pain is looking back at last year’s hangovers and seeing how far away a company is from what it was.
Take a look at last year’s ‘No Surrender’ card and see for yourself:
Taylor Wilde & Sarita def. The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne) [TNA Knockout Tag Team Title Match, 1st ever]Hernandez def. Eric Young
Samoa Joe def. Daniels [TNA X-Division Title Match]D’Angelo Dinero def. Suicide [Falls Count Anywhere]ODB def. Cody Deaner [TNA Knockouts Title Match]Kevin Nash def. Abyss [$50,000 Bounty Challenge for the TNA Legends Championship]Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode & James Storm) & Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother DeVon) def. The Main Event Mafia (Booker T & Scott Steiner) & the British Invasion (Magnus & Douglas Williams) [Lethal Lockdown Match]Bobby Lashley def. Rhino
AJ Styles def. Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, Sting, & Hernandez [5-Way Match for TNA World Heavyweight Title]
Now check out this year’s card:
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) def. Generation Me (Max & Jeremy Buck) [TNA World Tag Team Title Match]Douglas Williams def. Sabu [TNA X-Division Title Match]Velvet Sky def. Madison Rayne
Abyss def. Rhino [Falls Count Anywhere]Jeff Jarrett & Samoa Joe def. Kevin Nash & Sting
AJ Styles def. Tommy Dreamer [“I Quit” Match]Kurt Angle fought Jeff Hardy to a no contest
Mr. Anderson def. D’Angelo Dinero
See any striking differences between the two? Let me point them out for you; if you find even more startling ones, reveal them for the masses to see! (doug@wrestleview.com)
Stipulation Matches – 2009: 4, 2010: 2
Amount of talent performing in the ring – 2009: 28, 2010: 20
Talent no longer with TNA appearing on No Surrender 2009 – 6 [Daniels, ODB, Cody Deaner, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Bobby Lashley]Talent signed to TNA since NS’09 that appeared last night – 6 [Generation Me, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson]
Through all of this listing and evidence gathering, I believe we could make a few statements that many would take no offense to:
* Stipulation matches have been significantly cut down on TNA PPVs.
* TNA has potentially cured its ‘over-booking’ problem.
* TNA is still dependant on ex-WWE talent.
* TNA’s roster has not changed since NS’09 (in fact, it has increased instead of decreased).
With all of this said, it’s now time to dive into the real reason you enjoy reading this and making me relive, recollect, remember, and regret last night… the questions we are left answering:
If Angle-Hardy was so epic, how does it make Mr. Anderson and D’Angelo Dinero look?
This may seem odd to some, but I do get replies to my columns. The ratio between love and hate is about half and half. All of the heat seems to revolve around TNA and how I ‘don’t know what real wrestling is’. Other reasons for this claim include ‘I’m WWE biased’ or ‘I haven’t watched Ring of Honor or any other Japanese federation’.
Since I don’t know what ‘real’ wrestling is, I need some things explained to me. I need to know why it was great that Angle-Hardy went to 30 minutes without a victory in a tournament determining the World Heavyweight champion. I need to know why it was great that we saw all of the aspects of ANY Kurt Angle match drawn out 15 minutes longer than any of his other 15-minute long presentations. I need to know what was so special about this match that I could not have seen in any other match involving either one of these two performers on any broadcast, PPV or otherwise.
Most significant of all, I need to know how this was a good thing for Mr. Anderson and D’Angelo Dinero? If Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy put on such an epic 30 minutes with no result, what should we call Mr. Anderson and D’Angelo Dinero’s less than 15-minute escapade of determination?
According to the logic of the TNA faithful, the ‘real’ wrestling fans, the streamer junkies, the Cheetoh-munchers, the Dew-chuggers, and the virgins… Mr. Anderson and D’Angelo Dinero should be released, tarred and feathered for attempting to even resemble professional wrestlers. If every match is to be laced with finishers, counter-productive counters, and no-selling appendage damage (how the hell Hardy could climb a turnbuckle after taking a grapevine ankle lock for over a minute is beyond me), then I can’t imagine how any of the previously-mentioned would view professional wrestling in 1980’s or 1990’s.
What storyline should I be paying attention to?
On DirecTV (which I subscribe to), I was enticed to purchase ‘No Surrender’ for only one reason: Kurt Angle v. Jeff Hardy for the first time ever. However, for the past month on TNA television, I have been warned about the inevitable doom of the federation from all sides.
Fortune vs. EV2.0 to determine the future of the company…
Abyss’ “Them” appearing at “Bound for Glory” (10/10/10) to determine the fate of the company…
Sting & Kevin Nash angry with Jeff Jarrett, TNA Founder, about the direction of the company and how their actions will determine its fate…
I haven’t even touched the tournament for the TNA World Title yet!
I will fully admit in the past how I would complain about the lack of storylines in TNA; how matches seemed to sprout up out of nowhere with no reasoning behind them at all. At the same time, I’ll confess to my objections to TNA’s storyline continuity (if there was any).
However, TNA seems to have cured itself of these problems somehow. A nice program between TNA mainstays (Fortune) & ECW rehashes (EV2.0) that has been building for the past month is refreshing. In regards to title contention, putting together a tournament due to Abyss bludgeoning Rob Van Dam with an open container of V8 may seem harebrained from the attack, but the end result does not.
What I am confused about though is… which storyline should I be most concerned about?
I hear an argument from the TNA faithful, the ‘real’ wrestling fans, the streamer junkies, the Cheetoh-munchers, the Dew-chuggers, and the virgins brewing, “Can’t you say the same thing about WWE’s storylines?!”
Let’s look through those then:
* The Nexus continues to run rampant on Raw
* Sheamus must defend his WWE Title against 5 others in the next PPV
* The Miz-Daniel Danielson program (United States Title)
* Melina-LayCool program (Unification of Women’s & Diva’s Titles)
* Kane-Undertaker program of revenge, vengeance, and World Heavyweight Title
* Alberto Del Rio-Rey Mysterio program (Rey time off?)
* Dolph Ziggler-Kofi Kingston program (Intercontinental Title)
* Christian & Matt Hardy-Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre program
Do you think you could prioritize these programs? Don’t be a Dew-chugger and tell me The Miz-Daniel Danielson is the dominant program.
Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having plenty of programs and storylines to drum up interest in your television show; the problem with TNA right now is not establishing which programs and storylines should be given the most importance.
Which is the most important: The future of the company or who the World Champion will be?
Until next time, mouth-breathers!
Annoy me with your assumptions and affronts… adore me with your adulation’s and acknowledgments: doug@wrestleview.com.
Don’t forget to check out “Reality from Ringside Radio: 3R” this Tuesday on Wrestleview! It’s only available to Wrestleview VIPs though… so sacrifice a Big Mac value meal!
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