Lance Storm's Commentary on TNA

[PureHatred]

K...courtesy of tnawrestlinnews.com...Lance Storm posted a commentary on his thoughts on TNA. They were basically awesome and prett ymuch sums up my issues with the company. Tons of talent. The people in charge are ass-heads. Like the Oakland Raiders.

Here's the commentary:

TNA Needs Mr. Spock
October 27, 2006

I’m going to go on a bit of a rant today because I’m about to lose my mind and I need to vent. Before I get into this I want to point out that I very much want TNA to succeed, I am a huge supporter and fan of most of the guys who work there. None of the comments that follow are meant to belittle their talent or work ethic. I think TNA has so many talented people, which I think is the root of my frustration and anger. There is so much potential and talent in this company yet every time I watch Impact, read a PPV report, or what have you, I find myself more frustrated and bewildered than entertained.

This is why this week’s commentary is titles TNA needs Mr. Spock. I have no idea if Leonard Nimoy likes wrestling, or even knows jack shit about it but I’m beginning to think he could do a better job of booking this show, than those currently doing so because at least Spock would bring logic to the table when booking. I know booking a weekly show and trying to drive monthly PPV buys isn’t easy but there is so much stuff going on that makes no sense what so ever.

FOR EXAMPLE:

The Booby Roode hottest free agent gimmick after disbanding Team Canada was a good idea, but thus far has made no sense what so ever. Let me start by saying I’m a big fan of Roode’s work. He was one of the first guys I noticed when I first started watching TNA on Spike. Team Canada gets disbanded and Bobby Roode is labeled the hottest free agent in TNA. Great. He then starts interviewing managers because everyone wants to represent him. Again, great. This creates a nice pop for TV getting to see the great managers from the past and shows that the Industry is hot for Bobby Roode. Then at last months PPV they proceed to book him in the Pre-Show (Dark) Match. If Roode is a hot commodity why can’t he get booked on the PPV? If you don’t have a place for him on the PPV, LEAVE HIM THE HELL OFF THE SHOW! At least if he’s left off fans can surmise that he is so busy interviewing managers that he is not taking bookings until he has confirmed his representation. Booking him in the pre-show makes him look like an under card guy!

Now the best part: After interviewing almost every great manager in the history of the business he hires Traci. What a let down. Again this is not to slight her but how she has been portrayed thus far on TV. The last I recall seeing Traci she was the girl who went to the ring with Matt Bentley and bounced. Her claim to fame was that she bounced her boobies, and she managed a guy who for the most part lost mid-card matches. If this isn’t bad enough he announces that he’s signed with his new manager and will debut her on the PPV and guess what. They aren’t on the PPV they are again on the pre-show. I guess that’s what happens when you sign with the girl who bounces. He got to choose any manger he wanted and he signed with one who could not get him booked on PPV. If that isn’t bad enough EVERY SINGLE other ‘wrestling’ member of Team Canada got booked on the PPV, including the one who got fired 2 weeks previous. That’s right the guy who lost a loser gets fired match, and was fired from the company got booked on PPV over the “Hottest Free Agent in Wrestling”. That is one sweet manager he’s got there!!!

Speaking of Eric Young, last weeks Impact drove me nuts. Eric lost a Loser get fired match, and appears on the show 1 or 2 weeks later (I cant’ remember if it was 1 or 2 weeks). I know he was just wandering around outside but still; HE’S ON THE F’N SHOW. I just finished reading The Death of WCW, and one of the things that killed WCW was booking over stipulated matches and the continued non-honouring of those stipulations. Why are fans going to give a shit about stipulation matches if they are NEVER honoured? To make matters worse, if that is in fact possible, while poor Eric is in the parking lot, JB informs him that he is booked on the PPV against Larry Zybisco. Young is of course shocked by this news because apparently TNA books guys who don’t work for the company (remember HE WAS FIRED!) in PPV matches without even contacting them to inform them of their interest in booking them again. This was 3 days before the PPV and NO ONE from TNA called Eric Young to tell him they booked him for the PPV. What would TNA have done if Eric hadn’t “inadvertently” found out he had a PPV match?

I also just finished reading a spoiler from the latest Impact TV Tapings and I cant’ make any sense what so ever of what I read. Apparently they are doing a #1 Contenders tournament to see who gets the next title shot at Sting. Isn’t this what win lose records are for? Isn’t there a Championship committee or at least someone in TNA Management (we hear so damn much about them) who ranks people in the company? You have Joe who is Unpinned and Unsubmitted, not to mention he’s been running around with the title belt for a few weeks. You have Christian who again is Unpinned, Unsubmitted and was never really beat for the title when he last held it. There is also “Arguably the greatest wrestler alive today” Kurt Angle in the company, not to mention the former champion who should be deserving of a rematch. With all these worthy contenders at their disposal TNA management couldn’t narrow it down closer than 18 people and had to have the most non-sensical match I’ve ever heard of, to set up a tournament.

The match is a reverse Battle Royal, where guys have to try to get into the ring. Once 7 guys manage that it’s now a regular Battle Royal and those 7 have to throw each other out. (The order determines the bracketing) When you get down to the last 2 they have a regular match and the winner gets a bye in the tournament. Can someone explain to me why they thought it necessary for someone to get a bye in the tournament and thus make this match even more confusing? Don’t answer that, it was rhetorical. If this isn’t good enough neither Kurt Angle or Joe were in the match and thus for some reason not considered top 18 talent in TNA (keep in mind that Frankie Kazarian and Lance Hoyt are in the match so they must be ranked higher than Joe or Angle).

I could go on but I think you get my point. Creative direction in TNA is atrocious, and while I admit booking isn’t an easy job it isn’t rocket science either. To make matters worse they actually have a guy in the company who has a strong track record in booking solid wrestling television. TNA employs Jim Cornette, who booked OVW, SMW, and contributed creatively in WCW for a number of years (the years that tended to make the most sense I might add). I am not even a full-blown Cornette supporter. We had creative disagreements while we worked together in OVW and I also disagreed with some of what he did in SMW when I worked for him. Jim Cornette is, in my opinion, a little old school and not overly innovative, but his shows make sense, you never have to ask WHY, and matches and titles feel important. That is what wrestling is all about. Give me some wrestlers I can care about, make me believe they don’t like each other, and then book them in a match so I can see them fight. When you want someone to build you a cart that rolls, you don’t always need someone with ground breaking innovative ideas, you need someone smart enough to put 4 F’N wheels on the damn thing so it rolls.

That’s my rant for this week,
Lance Storm

[PureHatred]

I mean, seriously, this is just about every exact complain I've made about TNA for the last few weeks and about the product in general.

So either Lance Storm has found a secret doorway into my brain, or I'm not the only person who's main problem with TNA is the total lack of logic.

[gwffantrav]

Look, I'm no fan of either TNA or WWE, but from what I watch of either, both of the booking is pee poor. WWE has no room to complain about anything on TNA.

If I gave the booking on both shows,

I'd give TNA about a 4 and WWE about a 5...

[thefamoustommyz]

One thing I like about that article, was that the first thing they did on Impact was announce Joe vs Angle at Genesis...which meant that they were already booked for the PPV...thus removing them as candidates. But hey, Joe is long overdue for a shot, I'll admit it...but wouldn't giving Angle a title shot, or putting him in line for a title shot in his first match, be just as illogical? I mean, he's never competed in TNA, so yeah, let's absolutely give him a crack at the gold.

They addressed Jarrett's rematch as well, when Borash interviewed him "post-match"...Borash asked him about a rematch next month, but Jarrett instead opted to "go home".

And Sting told Christian that night that he gets a rematch, just not on PPV, unless he wins the tournament, which he didn't.

Eric Young was booked in the match with Zbyszko entirely because Zbyszko had unfairly cost him his job...it was Cornette offering a sympathetic underdog a chance for revenge, all the while punishing Zbyszko.

As for what they would have done if Young hadn't "found out"...? Well, that's no bigger leap of logic than all the backstage segments on WWE programming that would completely alter the course of the shows if other wrestlers were actually watching...or the guys who sneak and plot RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA.

Some of his other complaints are quite valid, though...why wasn't Roode on PPV? Why couldn't he have hired someone other than Traci? Why do you need Russo (who, incidentally, push Storm himself harder than almost any booker Storm ever worked for) when you have Cornette?

But a lot of that sounded like a guy who read the spoilers and jumped to his own conclusions without watching the show, and the other half sounds like he's holding TNA to hire standards or logic than has existed in wrestling for years.

[Knapik]

Wrestling needs Lance Storm. TNA should hire him in place of Vince Russo. Thanks for posting that, PH.

Re: Tommy: It's true thet wrestling logic in the WWE isn't 100%, but it seems better than TNA's week-after-week making my head hurt. Ring of Honor makes sense, though

[weirdjerod]

i hope that's on a scale of 100??

this was meant to be in reference to Travis' post about their respective scores of 4 and 5

[swarm]

- "If i can be serious for a minute...TNA sucks..."

very strong.

[PureHatred]

Tommy,

I don't think that its holding TNA to a higher standard of logic, so much as TNA just throws logic out the window on a regular basis. I mean, i think we all know its wrestling and that there are going to be overly convenient plot devices or lapses in logic, but TNA does it so repeatedly that you would have to be a complete meat head to look past it.

I mean, do we have to go into the Cornette-Hebner-Zbysko-Jarrett title scenario which ended up with Jimmy "punishing" JJ by giving him two months off? The writing doesn't have to be airtight, but it shouldn't be swiss cheese either.

And to be totally fair, Lance doesn't wqork for the E and has written other columns where he complains about their product as well.

[mwjergs]

Interesting article.
To me this sums up both TNA and WWE fairly well.
Create your logic and "rules" and stick to them. Ground them in some kind of reality. Wrestling has gotten away from that and I hate it.