Who will be Big in TNA in 2006 ?

[Bazzy]

Who will be big (good things happen for them or get a push) in TNA in 2006 ?
I reckon Monty Brown (TNA Heavyweight belt ?) / Christian Cage / Samoan Joe (How long before the X Division champion at least ?) / Team 3 D & Austin Aries . Personally I would like to see more of Shark Boy as well .

[pikemojo]

I would say that you have a pretty good list there. Samoa Joe is already the X champ though. The question I have is how long before he moves past the X division. Shark Boy will never get a big push. He is funny and all but I would never want to see him in a serious feud or as any kind of champ.

[myview]

Christian Cage will become the NWA World Champion in 2006, and this is a very good push for Cage. I think Konnan's Crew will be involved in a very cool feud, and this has been building up in 2005, and now it's heading in a new direction in 2006. STING! I love Sting, all time favorite wrestler and he will make a iMPACT in 2006. I know many hate seeing old timers in the ring, but it is STING! @lx SHELLEY will have a good year too, he has a unique style and he's just so damn funny. Shannon Moore will be the suprise in TNA, he just has that TNA vibe to him and the X-Division needs to be PUNK'D!

[thefamoustommyz]

I'd like to see them fix the Monty push, but fat chance of that now.

[Chewey]

Personally, I hate Monty Brown, and as long as he's allied with Jarrett in feuding with Christian, I'm missing Christian on TNA.

I would like to see a Christian-Samoa Joe feud for the NWA belt, but I doubt that will happen since the TNA fans would end up cheering for both of them, and the bookers would end up teaming them together against Jarrett and Monty Brown and it would suck because it would involve Jarrett and Monty Brown.

I would like to see Alex Shelley get a proper push. Or for them to let Christopher Daniels to be given a chance to show his character and personality more in an X Division storyline. But now I'm treading close to the point of having Tommy Brownwell bash my fantasy booking again so I'll stop.

[cakejedi]

I think that Christian Cage will be the next NWA Heavyweight Champion.

But for TNA to survive, it is my opinion that they need to give A.J. Styles a BIG push. He is a "homegrown" talent and very exciting to watch in the ring. A heel turn for Christian resulting in a Christian vs A.J. Styles feud could be very interesting.

[JED-SE]

I got four words... No, not "I'm Kip James b*tch!"...

"Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe!"

[swarm]

well, not the ratings...

thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week...

[LWPD]

"Who will be big (good things happen for them or get a push) in TNA in 2006?"

Crystal ball time. Who will big/good things happen for in TNA this year? When the year closes the same guy who was the biggest TNA 'star' when this whole thing started will still be in the same spot come this time next year. I'm referring to the eternal main event, the Icon who's very existence dominates each and every Panda television show and PPV. Nostradamus has told me that throughout the year the belt will either be strapped firmly around this man's waist...or it will be waiting for him just around the corner as he's challenging in the Main Event for it. Furthermore a Gypsy Fortune Teller whispered to me that If by some miracle he's _NOT_ programmed around the belt he will still be working in the main events in some form with the Title and concept of 'Champion' itself being booked below him. I'm speaking of 'The Rhinestone Cowboy' himself...Jeff Jarrett!


Like Watching Paint Dry (who's reminded of the old Glenn Campbell song every time Jeff Jarrett appears on television)

There's been a load of compromisin'
On the road to my horizon
But I'm gonna be where the lights
Are shinin' on ME!
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don't even know
And offers comin' over the phone

-Glen Campbell 'Rhinestone Cowboy'

[thefamoustommyz]

aaron168 said:

Personally, I hate Monty Brown, and as long as he's allied with Jarrett in feuding with Christian, I'm missing Christian on TNA.

I would like to see a Christian-Samoa Joe feud for the NWA belt, but I doubt that will happen since the TNA fans would end up cheering for both of them, and the bookers would end up teaming them together against Jarrett and Monty Brown and it would suck because it would involve Jarrett and Monty Brown.

I would like to see Alex Shelley get a proper push. Or for them to let Christopher Daniels to be given a chance to show his character and personality more in an X Division storyline. But now I'm treading close to the point of having Tommy Brownwell bash my fantasy booking again so I'll stop.

Brown impresses me far more than Joe does, who I've yet to see what the big deal is about.

Daniels...I liked Daniels before I started training to be a wrestler...then I realized just how bad all his matches are...especially if they involve more than one opponent.

As for the fantasy booking...eh, you throw your ideas out on the internet and someone WILL take a shot at them. I've done my own fantasy booking (though, not since WCW died) and I was CONVINCED that I was MUCH better than the real product...which, well, I probably was during Russo's run at least, but upon re-reading, found all kinds of huge plotholes and boners that no one else seemed to catch when it was being compared with the existing product.

Besides, as Tom himself has said, fantasy booking is easy...when you're doing the real thing, you have all these egoes to appease, plus the unexpected like injuries, deaths, arrests, etc...and fantasy booking is only remotely good if an attempt is being made to keep it within the realm of realism, otherwise its just bad fanfiction...and I saw a few ideas in that fantasy booking thread (not necessarily yours) that were so unrealistic as to be bad.

I sure didn't mean anything personal to any of the posters, but I won't apologize for not finding anything there that was better than what's going on right now...=P

Oh, and its Brownell, not Brownwell...plainly visible on all my posts...=P

[Chewey]

What is it about Daniels that make his matches so bad? I'm not so sure what you mean although you may be right, but if you only noticed it after you started training, then I'm sure you can explain it to us. As for matches with Daniels involving more than one opponent, I've always assumed in TNA that any X Division match with more than two participants is an automatic excuse for a spotfest even more so than normally so I'm not sure if this applies more to Daniels than the rest.

I feel though that TNA should be allowing guys like Daniels and Shelley who have proven that they have personalities (unlike some other X Division guys) to show it on screen, but I figure that either A) they're X Division guys and won't get the opportunity to have a storyline or B) they can't be allowed to outshine TNA's poster child AJ Styles in that respect. But until they create round characters on television in this division that fans can relate to, the X Division will continue to seem like a dime-a-dozen group of acrobats that is just professional wrestling's answer to male gymnastics.

Brown to me is still Ahmed Johnson 2005 with a couple more suplexes and a much lamer finisher (albeit the Pearl River Plunge was pretty damn cool). Sure, he's over with the TNA crowd and I can't take that away from him, but I also know there are many others like me who can't stand him. I didn't see Samoa Joe's match with AJ Styles and have mainly seen him booked as a monster on iMPACT, but Joe comes across to me as a much more believable wrestler with his skill set than Brown, who to me is still just a big guy with muscles who has been booked strong.

As for the other stuff, I don't really care enough about it to fuss over it, but I will make an effort in the future to spell your name correctly. =)

[thefamoustommyz]

You know, you have a great point about Styles that never occurred to me...TNA may be gunshy about the X Division not because they don't want the guys to get over, but they may be afraid of them getting more over than Styles. Styles has all the personality of a wet noodle. But so long as he's showcased in a division about athletic stuntwrestling with a bunch of other guys who never get within 20 feet of a microphone, he looks like a star.

Daniels is tiny...God, I'm starting to sound like Swarm here, way to go, buddy =)...but, not unlike Shawn Michaels, he likes to wrestle like he's twice is size. Now, I'm not saying every little guy needs to lose to every big guy, far from it...but book it creatively and don't let the little guy just outmuscle the big guy...and Daniels has this thing where he likes to do these utterly unrealistic spots in his matches. The most glaring example was in a triple threat on Impact a while back, I don't remember against who (since Daniels is the only guy I remember from the match, that says something about the division), but he had one guy in a DDT and just held him...until the other guy came off the ropes and Daniels caught him with the other arm, and dropped them with a flatliner and a DDT.

It looked wholly unrealistic, and mostly because 1) Daniels was smaller than one of them and no bigger than the other, and 2) the guy in the DDT never once tried to fight his way out of it. Now, if it *had* been, say, Samoa Joe doing it, the spot would have looked much more believable.

And that's the key word for me here: believable. One of my trainers drilled into my head early on "What if it were real?", a mantra he, in turn, took from Jim Cornette, who despises the X Division style of wrestling because none of the guys can remember to work the audience because they're too busy trying not to forget the insane spot sequence they laid out in the back.

Daniels just seems to have more contrived spots in his matches than the other guys do, but I find that most any multi-man match bores me to tears because of this.

That said, Styles vs Samoe Joe at Turning Point suitably impressed me...it didn't WOW me...but it did impress me. Petey Williams and Chris Sabin have had some great matches together once they stop and realize that there's an audience actually watching what's going on.

Hm.

Sorry.

Didn't mean to make this so long.

Tommy
Who Still Loves The Canadian Destroyer In Spite Of Himself

[pikemojo]

I really hate the 6 man matches in TNA. I guess not necessarily the matches themselves but that they always have to include the incredibly stupid looking stacking superplex/powerbomb/whatever 6 person move. I can't stand it. When I see that move in any match anywhere it just completely ruins the match.
I guess I don't have as big of a problem with Daniels doing the move Tommy said but there is definitely something to be said about wrestling "your size". If you are a smaller oponent then you have to resort to speed and cunning if you are bigger you pound the crap outta the guy.

[Wad]

I think there will be a lot of belt-trading between Jeff Jarrett and his opponents. Sting will get a lengthy program and at least one title reign, but this may be a way of keeping Christian Cage warm for his eventual reign. It won't mean that Monty Brown will end up on top.

I also think WWE will lure away a couple of TNA's home-grown stars, especially when breakout stars are seeing that former stars and more of WWE's sloppy seconds get the star treatment.

[Chewey]

thefamoustommyz said:

Sorry.

Didn't mean to make this so long.

No apologies at all. You made some good points. I sort of noticed what you were saying about Daniels' power moves, although I just assumed that he's a heel, and heel cruiserweights always get to use those kinds of moves. As a heel though, I think Daniels sometimes does a bad job with the timing of his moves, as I've seen him hit the first holy sh!t move of the match before, which makes no sense with a TNA fan base that has difficulty telling the difference between the good guy and the bad guy.

Next time I'll watch Daniels more closely and see if this new observation bothers me.

[Wad]

thefamoustommyz said:

You know, you have a great point about Styles that never occurred to me...TNA may be gunshy about the X Division not because they don't want the guys to get over, but they may be afraid of them getting more over than Styles. Styles has all the personality of a wet noodle. But so long as he's showcased in a division about athletic stuntwrestling with a bunch of other guys who never get within 20 feet of a microphone, he looks like a star.

Styles is also their biggest homegrown star. He first hit the mainstream in WCW's last days, and established his rep on the indy circuit. If Styles were to leave to WWE for the better money, this would hurt TNA a lot more than it would help Styles or WWE.

Styles is, for better or worse, the Hulk Hogan of TNA's signature X Division matches. Otherwise, TNA's heavyweight roster is wrestling's equivalent to what Las Vegas was about 20-25 years ago: where celebrities take their careers on a downward spiral.

And that's the key word for me here: believable. One of my trainers drilled into my head early on "What if it were real?", a mantra he, in turn, took from Jim Cornette, who despises the X Division style of wrestling because none of the guys can remember to work the audience because they're too busy trying not to forget the insane spot sequence they laid out in the back.

The X Division, or attention-deficit wrestling, has the same fault as sports entertainment does for WWE: both of the federations have become addicted to their operating formulas. TNA knows that their heavyweights are hand-me-downs, but the X Division guys have been cultivated into stars. They were able to do it without developing personalities and fans really dig their matches. Once TNA realized that fans dig the matches, the wrestlers only put on spotfests. In another thread, I called this "wrestling to the pop." ECW was also guilty of this.

Conversely, the McMahons resent the fact that they run a wrestling company, and now that the WWE is a corporate titan, wrestlers are looked at for their commodity potential: who can be programmed in a way to bring in the most revenue deals through pay-per-views, merchandise and cross-promotion.

Both have become successful on their individual formulas that their presentations are boxed in by them. Both try to stray from the formula and fail, because fans subconsciously expect the same formula that they are simultaneously tired of. It's the old chicken-and-egg dilemma.

[Vidtek]

OK, some of my picks for who will be big in TNA 2-Double-Ought-6.
Jarrett (Like he's going anywhere)
Christian (casue that's how he rolls)
ABYSS (casue I want him to be!)
Lance Hoyt (Go Lance!)
RAVEN (nevermore baby!)
and Rhino (cause he's cool)
Guy I think that will take away from TNA in '06:
Jarrett (ha ha, no really...)
Sting (sorry folks, he's not drawing me...)
Monty Brown (STILL can't figure out what is good about this guy!)
Sonjay Dutt (becasue the sprinkler SUCKS!)

Of cousre I could give my oppinions on the entire locker room, but I won't. At least not here.
Big Time.

[Chewey]

cledermuller said:

Both have become successful on their individual formulas that their presentations are boxed in by them. Both try to stray from the formula and fail, because fans subconsciously expect the same formula that they are simultaneously tired of. It's the old chicken-and-egg dilemma.

Very good point, Chris. This was very well said.

Makes me think that I may be as crazy as Jim Cornette for wishing for the return of the territories, each territory would employ its own "formula" that would appeal to a certain fanbase, but at least then we'd have options to choose from.

[pikemojo]

Wad, I like your look back at ECWs formula in comparison to the X division. I think it is pretty acurate. I also think that ECW kind of got it from Japan. In Japan they really only pop for big moves. The difference is, though, that they appreciate the in between stuff. I believe that the American fan is capable of the same thing but the promoters don't have this kind of confidence in them. If the announcers maybe put more emphasis on the skill required for the more technical moves and sold the working to the audience aspects of a match then maybe the American wrestling fan would love non-spotfest type matches. I wanna hear if people agree or disagree. Tell me I am an idiot if you want. Just lemme hear it.

[Wad]

pikemojo said:

Wad, I like your look back at ECWs formula in comparison to the X division. I think it is pretty acurate. I also think that ECW kind of got it from Japan. In Japan they really only pop for big moves. The difference is, though, that they appreciate the in between stuff. I believe that the American fan is capable of the same thing but the promoters don't have this kind of confidence in them.

TNA does have this confidence, and encourages it. The problem is that wrestlers follow their first instinct, and that is to wrestle to the pop. The moves are cool, and I enjoy a good spot, but good spots don't make for an overall good match.

WWE concertedly avoids this, and WWE's partisans have been self-conditioned to point out to the purists that what it does is sports entertainment, where the icing is as important as the cake.

If the announcers maybe put more emphasis on the skill required for the more technical moves and sold the working to the audience aspects of a match then maybe the American wrestling fan would love non-spotfest type matches. I wanna hear if people agree or disagree.

I agree with you, pike. You make a very good point about the quality of announcing. There came a time in the '90s when we saw so many new moves that the announcers could not identify them.

Gordon Solie is the gold standard, and I think that he set the bar so high that no other announcer will ever be up at his level. Jim Ross certainly has the ability, but it's not needed for WWE's business model. Mike Tenay, for all of his faults, is up to the task, and TNA at least gives him such a platform.

What separates the good from the bad? First, identify what's going on in the ring. Name all the moves, and sell any lulls between spots as part of a wrestler's game plan. Second, give background on the wrestlers. Tell us their approach, their strengths and their weaknesses. Third, focus on the task at hand and don't harp too much on the main event guys unless any of the participants have to cross their path soon.

Kevin Nash earned the nickname "Big Poochie" after he booked himself as the center of the WCW universe. Not only was he always in the main event, but the announcers always dropped his name even when he was not on screen or had a story with any of the participants in the match. Most people should know this, but the nickname came from an episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer voiced a new character in a cartoon show, whom everyone hated. This lives on in WWE, as the announcers will give a cursory acknowledgement to the wrestlers in the ring but then spend the time hyping the main event.