A reader recently emailed and didn’t really have a question but an observation about me and my Impact recaps. The reader said that whenever I have nothing good to say about the show the ratings prove the exact opposite, especially after pulling in their highest ratings ever last Thursday. Here is my response to the reader and feel free to send in any other questions, comments or criticisms to starman@inlinefusion.com.
Comment: Every time you do not have anything good to say about TNA, the ratings prove the exact opposite of what you say!
Response: Even though it may seem that I am anti-TNA due to what I wrote during my Impact recap, my feelings are the exact opposite. I sincerely want TNA to succeed and I am happy that they are setting ratings records, however, I wish that some more thought, effort, creativity, and focus would be put into their story lines and angles. Not much of anything appealed to me last night, but then again, that is just my opinion.
As for the ratings going up when I have nothing good to say about the show, just take a look at the ratings of some of the shows that I have praised over the past few months:
02/05/09 (1.07 rating)
“On a normal week I would have been ranting up and down about the lack of quality matches on the broadcast, but tonight I am going to say that I enjoyed how they all played out.”
01/08/09 (1.06 rating)
“With some stiff competition from the BCS Championship Game and with Genesis only three days away, TNA had to be firing on all cylinders tonight and they actually rose to the challenge. There was plenty of hype going on for Genesis tonight and it is starting to look like a half decent pay-per-view.”
12/25/08 (1.00 rating)
“For those people spending time with their family instead of watching Impact missed Mick Foley announcing that he is going to return to the ring as part of a six-man tag team match at Genesis. Those people also missed a classic pull apart brawl between Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett that ended the show.”
09/25/08 1.07
“Tonight’s show is exactly how Impact should be like going into their biggest event of the year. It seems that they were firing on all cylinders tonight as the promo work was stellar once again and the matches, although short, were a lot of fun to watch.”
As is evident from my past reviews, I will give TNA credit when the put on an entertaining show. I try to keep my opinions unbiased when I write my Impact reviews and will voice my opinion on what I liked and didn’t like. Last week was not entertaining in my mind and I felt free to say so in my recap.
As a fan, I am happy that they pulled in the highest ratings ever, but I am also surprised that they were able to keep the audience tuned in for that long to do so. If they keep on putting on show such as the ones they have in the past two weeks, though, I wonder how long the ratings spike will last.
Hi, I’m Dorian “The Cyclone” Noel a long time supporter of TNA Wrestling since the company’s inception and have always defended what TNA does creatively because during it’s earlier years it truly was an alternative to WWE television. I love what you said about keeping an unbiased opinion when you write your reviews and try to look at the show at every angle (no pun intended) and point out your likes and dislikes. Now I watch WWE television programs because that’s what I grew up with so I do keep in tune with what’s going on over there but one thing that I can’t stand that WWE did was unify the tag team championships which I feel was a terrible move since the beginning but here is the problem that I’m currently facing with TNA, not only is Matt Morgan a one man tag team champion basically but he seems to be in limbo with these belts since he is constantly trying to find a partner to defend the belts with him but everyone he has chosen as an interim champ has just been random people on the roster. Now to me this almost seems like a subtle jab to the WWE. WWE put two sets of belts on one team must defend. This sounds extremely similar to what TNA is now doing with Matt, only difference is he is one man with the belts to himself it seems like the exact same scenario to what the WWE is doing just to a lesser extent. My point here is I try to be unbiased and like both WWE and TNA but it’s hard to defend two companies who seem to be doing the exact same thing and what I want to know is do you think TNA is giving Vince (McMahon) a subtle jab by doing the tag team thing or is it pure coincidence that they are doing the exact same concept, and do you think either promotion should keep it up? I’d love a response so tell me what you think.
Dorian “The Cyclone” Noel
and by the way do you think that if either promotion gave more importance to their tag team divisions would it increase ratings or are mainstream tag team wrestling truly a stale draw in today’s mainstream market?
I don’t think Matt Morgan or the tag team titles are in limbo right now as Morgan holding both titles and talking about himself as two people has been one of the more interesting aspects on Impact. Morgan took out his own partner and is now choosing random people because “TNA management is making him,” even though he seem to think that “they” (meaning himself) can do it on their own.
I don’t think this is a jab at the WWE in any way, but I can see how it can be viewed that way. I mean a good majority of recent tag team champs in WWE have been random guys thrown together, such as Jericho & Edge, Jericho & Big Show, Big Show & the Miz, but I feel TNA is going in a different direction. Since taking on Hernandez, Morgan has developed a new level to his personality that I think is working for him.
I’d much rather see Morgan try to find a interim partner rather than have him destroy tag team challengers by himself, which would make any team he faced seem extremely weak. I also like how wrestlers are not falling for offer. Sure, Amazing Red fell for it but he was the first one. Shannon Moore flat out said no and Jesse Neal said no at first but agreed to it after talking it over with Team 3D.
As for the state of tag team wrestling, I feel that there is place for it but both TNA and WWE are at very different points. TNA can have a decent tag team division with all of their established teams – Beer Money, Team 3D, Motorcity Machine Guns, Generation Me. Tag team wrestling isn’t what it used to be, but it can still be a moneymaker when you have the right teams in the mix. The Team 3D/Beer Money feud or Team 3D/LAX feud that happened a while back is a good example of it. With that said, I don’t think it will draw anything in TNA until Morgan either finds a permanent partner or he drops the titles.
On the WWE side of things, though, I don’t see any emphasis on the tag team division happening any time soon. Both Cryme Time and Legacy recently broke up, which basically leaves the Hart Dynasty and Croft & Berretta as the only legit tag teams in the company. There is a reason why both of the tag team titles have been unified.