To Smash Wrestling Fans and Staff, I watched TNA wrestling on January 4th, 11th and then saw their Genesis highlights. I've been following Hogan's pro wrestling return and his launch in TNA for the last two weeks, and with zero optimism for TNA's future, this is my unbiased, straight forward review on Hulk Hogan's "Change" to TNA:
NWO aka the Band: Hall, Waltman, Nash, and Eric Bischoff
- "I see sold out arenas, big pay checks, and big parties," - Scott Hall to Hulk Hogan January 4th, 2010 TNA
Big pay checks for whom? From the moment Waltman and Hall entered the ring they looked completely disconnected with reality, and on the mic. Hall sounded damn near incoherent. Some have told me that this was a happy nostalgic moment, for me it was depressing and disgusting to see an obviously overweight and out of shape Scott Hall stumble around the ring. To Waltman's credit, he still looked like he could throw down, but his eyes told the story, and to me that story was the sooner they got to leave the ring, the happier he'd be.
Though he tried to hide it with sunglasses, Hogan's facial features said it all; his boys were killing the show. Not once, while Hall and Waltman were in the ring did Hogan smile, or smirk. He gave them the biggest chance they will ever have in 2010 and they pissed it way by looking like complete losers.
- "When did you turn so corporate?" - Kevin Nash to Hulk Hogan January 4th 2010 TNA Impact
This quote infuriated me because it insults the intelligence of wrestling fans. Nash, Hall, and Waltman would never be able to sell a feud against Hulk Hogan, so to even try and pretend that any of those three have to stones to try and tell Hogan "what's what" is a waste of time, as was the whole segment.
Eric Bischoff on TNA feels like Raw would feel like if it had two general managers, a president, and a commissioner booking matches at the same time, Bischoff makes the TNA management landscape entirely too top heavy, and I feel his mere presence completely undermines Hogan's competence to bring changes to TNA. Why does Hogan, with all his years of experience, need Bischoff with him behind the scenes? Bischoff should have taken a commentators spot, and left the perception that the wheel to the vehicle of change was in the hands of Hulk Hogan.
At Genesis Scott Hall was pulled from his tag match with Nash against Beer Money and replaced by Waltman. To me this is a clear example of TNA continuing to book undeserving talent, wasting time promoting them, only to ultimately pull them from a pay per view at the last minute. What this does show me is that someone in TNA smells the coffee and is aware that The Band is only going to embarrass TNA. Lets not forget who brought these rejects back together, Hogan and Bischoff. If those two wanted to totally undermine what little booking credibility TNA has, than they did it when they brought Hall, Nash and Waltman together again.
NWO? How about just “NO”. As for Hogan and Bischoff, experienced wrestling fans should know that Bischoff more or less pulls Hogan's puppet strings, but do we need to be reminded of that when we watch TNA Impact? Just let Hogan and only Hogan (that means no Nasty Boys, No NWO and No Eric Bischoff) do his thing.
From Six Sides to Four, The TNA Ring
I’ve already said Hulk Hogan and only Hulk Hogan, should be allowed to do his thing, well his thing is not as a booker and it’s not as a manager. When Hulk Hogan wants to come out on TV and rip his shirt for the kids, that's a good thing. When Hulk Hogan wants to team with AJ Styles against Tomko and Jeff Jarrett, that's a good thing. When Hulk Hogan wants to drop a leg drop on Abyss, that's a good thing. When Hulk Hogan says that he can't perform in a Six sided ring and it needs to become a four-sided ring, that's a bad thing.
Some might argue, "Well he's north of 50 and its tough for him to adjust" to them I say that should tell you the limited range of the man who now holds the fate of an entire company on his increasingly slopping back.
Despite being completely flooded with washed out WWE talent, TNA could always be seen as an alternative pro wrestling style because of their distinctive 6-sided ring. Instead of embracing that difference, and using it to make himself better while building on the little strength that TNA has, Hulk Hogan has selfishly made TNA cater to his needs in exchange for his face on their company. TNA should be ashamed of themselves for not sticking to their principals. TNA has fans, it surprises me most days but they do, and if TNA had faith in their fans, then they would know that they like 6 sided wrestling. Instead they listened to Hogan, who evidently listens to nobody.
Jeff Hardy, Bobby Lashley, Mr. Anderson, Brian Kendrick, and Sean Morely
As part of Hogan's wave of change, we've seen a lot of familiar faces resurface these past couple of weeks, while others seem to be heading for the door.
First I'd like to discuss Bobby Lashley. I said from Jump Street that Bobby Lashley was not interested in pro wrestling that he didn't care about pro wrestling or TNA. Finally TNA is getting the hint, as they pulled Lashely from his Abyss match and put Mr. Anderson in his place. I can't help but wonder if Dixie Carter sees that as a failure on her part, after all, she was the one who hyped Lashley up and promised we'd see big things from him. She probably thought that Lashley was on his way to what she thought would have been a landmark feud with Kurt Angle, but that's what she gets for not doing her homework.
In a recent interview with the Sun, Vince Russo (who works for TNA's Creative Department) was asked if he'd want a guy like Shelton Benjamin on TNA and he said, "I don't know him, I don't really watch WWE." As the head of a major wrestling company who is trying to compete with the most dominant pro wrestling entity on the planet, Dixie can’t have the same attitude as Russo. Dixie Carter can’t afford to be completely ignorant to the WWE, and expect to make rationale creative decisions that would put her company of ahead of the WWE. Bobby Lashley was never going to work out in TNA and had she followed his career and departure from the WWE she would have known that.
Taking the spotlight away from Dixie Carter, it was nice to see Mr. Anderson get a second chance at pro wrestling, but his weak brass knuckle finish against Abyss at Genesis shows me that he still doesn't have a solid finisher, and thus still brings an incomplete game to the ring. Anderson is to his credit an ok “mechanic”, but that's one of TNA's biggest problems. TNA doesn't need anymore mechanics, they need guys who can drive the car and win the race.
They damn sure are not going to win any races with Jeff Hardy. Jeff Hardy was looking for a quick pay-day and that was it. His segment ruined the steel asylum match on January 4th's Impact, and since he had no follow up to that segment on the follow up shows, it shows that his segment was in all honesty a waste of time; just there to keep people watching TNA a second longer than they probably would have had he not been on.
Brian Kendrick and Sean Morely are doing ok on TNA. Morely, Kendrick, The Pope, these are guys who fell through the cracks during their WWE tenures (at least Kendrick and the Pope did) who have come to TNA to work. That's what I like to see, TNA reinventing lost young and hungry WWE talent and giving them purpose, much like they did with Christian Cage. I wasn't a huge fan Elijah Burke, but on TNA when the "Pope" has spoken I was listening. Its healthy for the business to recycle young prospects, so long as there is a balance with developing fresh faces.
Speaking of developing fresh faces, I want to acknowledge the debut of a very special team on TNA, known as Generation Me. On January 11th Impact episode, Generation Me took on Smash Wrestling Nominated Tag Team of The Year, THE Motor City Machine Guns in one of the finest tag team matches I've seen on television in a long time, and they sold a convincing victory over the Guns with a sophisticated blend of high risk aerial attacks and tag team manoeuvres. While Generation Me looks on the surface greener than grass, they remind me of the Hardy Boys when they debuted and it be nice to see them get some more T.V. time, though in all honesty, it’s unlikely.
Conclusion
The superstars that make TNA semi enjoyable to watch, do because they are hard working, hungry and eager to please the fans, it has nothing to do with being inspired by Hulk Hogan, or his pseudo wave of change. The Pope, Desmond Wolfe, Beer Money, these teams and men were holding it down without Hogan and they don't need him now.
In short, while it’s always nice to see Hogan do a leg drop, it needs to stop there. He has no business being in a manager position, whether onscreen or off-screen, the change he promised was both a lie and a joke. Bringing back the NWO and the four sided ring does not constitute as change, one might say, "Well he brought in Mr. Anderson," to them I would say, "No, TNA brought in Mr. Anderson, Hulk Hogan brought in the Nasty Boys.”
Hulk Hogan should stick to what he knows (which seems to be very little) and TNA should write their own story and take control of their future while they still have one to look forward to as a company.
The WWE beat WCW; Dixie Carter is not Ted Turner and if she thinks TNA is above WCW's fate, than she is mistaken and the two people in the world who should know that better than anyone are Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.
As always I'd like to thank Smash Wrestling for this opportunity and TNA for giving us all something to write about.
Note to the readers: I got deep mixed feelings for the WWE as well, and I plan to put them on screen in the highly anticipated Royal Rumble Predictamania Column.
Keep Smashing,
Ryan Owens
Source: http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/
