I guess I always knew this day would come. I’ve been putting it off for a few years, trying to convince myself that everything was OK and the passion I once had was still burning brightly. Sadly, that fire has gone out and today I face a scary reality – I’m done with WWE and TNA.
That’s the kind of overly dramatic statement you see on Twitter every time either company broadcasts an embarrassing skit or ‘buries’ the IWC’s latest darling. Then the complainer is back watching the following week. I don’t see that happening with me.
Like most of you reading this, I love pro wrestling. I’ve watched wrestling for as long as I can remember. It’s been my lifelong hobby/obsession. I studied wrestling and its history more intently than I did for any of my exams in school. Don’t follow my example kids, I’m really dumb.
Over the last few years I’ve struggled to maintain my levels of interest in both WWE and TNA. I refuse to blame it on getting older and being more grown-up. That would be an insult to all the older fans who are reading this, and I’ve got plenty of other ways to insult you old losers. Also, no has ever accused me of being grown-up.
I recently took a six week break from watching any WWE or TNA programming. Our podcast (MFX) was on a break and I decided I would completely step away from WWE and TNA. I hoped doing this would kick start my interest again. For over a year I’ve felt like I had to watch, as opposed to wanting to watch.
So I went cold turkey and waited for the withdrawal symptoms to kick in. Nothing happened. No cold sweats, no panic feeling, no desperate need to watch the shows and find out what was going on. The only thing I felt was relief. I was relieved I didn’t have to watch every week. That’s when I realised the writing was on the wall.
I still love pro wrestling. I’m just not in love with pro wrestling. Or at least the version of pro wrestling that WWE and TNA currently produce. I still love New Japan’s product, which I watch regularly. The days of being someone who watches RAW and IMPACT without fail are over. I just don’t care enough about either company to spend hours every week watching, writing and talking about them.
This means big changes for me. I won’t be writing for SLTD in the future. I’ve got a few more wrestling related articles I want to write, but after those I’m finished. I’ll still be writing on a regular basis, I just won’t be writing about wrestling and I won’t be here. People come to places like SLTD to read about wrestling. If I’m here and not writing about wrestling, then I’m just taking up space.
The same is true for the MFX Podcast. We’re moving away from being all about wrestling and instead we’re talking about life, movies, sports, pop culture, politics and the weirdest news stories we can find. These are things that interest us and make for fun discussions. We’re hoping we’ll take our wrestling fans with us as MFX evolves into something new.
There’s no doubt that the days of the fan made wrestling podcast are coming to an end. You can’t really be successful anymore doing that kind of show. The interest in shows featuring two marks with a microphone, giving their opinions on the working ability of today’s top stars, vanished as soon as Stone Cold, Jericho and JR got into the podcast world.
Who gives a fuck what someone like me thinks about wrestling? I don’t. Now you’ve got the biggest star in WWE history, one of the most successful and enduring superstars of all time, and a guy who ran WWE’s creative and talent relations departments for years, all putting out shows. They have great interviews with top talent and they share insight that only those who worked at the very top of wrestling can bring. Play time is over podcasting smarks.
I’m good with that. I’m not a professional broadcaster. I’m someone who worked out how to podcast, cultivated a decent sized audience, enjoyed what we produced and had a lot of fun doing it. Now though, with no interest in either WWE or TNA, coupled with the kind of competition there is for wrestling podcasts, it seems like a good time to take MFX in a different direction.
I know this reads a little like the demented ramblings of someone who is facing a cross roads and is trying to convince you that he’s chosen the right path. That’s because it is. Sorry. I’ll get on with the wrestling stuff you came for now.
Seeing as I’m saying goodbye to wrestling (at least my interest in current WWE and TNA) and the blip on TNA’s life support machine gets weaker with each passing day, I thought today would be a good day to say goodbye to TNA. I’m going to look at some of the good and some of the bad that the little promotion who couldn’t have produced down the years.
First though, Bound for Glory. I don’t think there’s been a sadder show than TNA’s ‘biggest PPV event of the year,’ from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Amazingly, TNA didn’t actively promote the show, at least not to any degree that would lead to a successful buy rate. I’d be surprised if more than 5,000 people actually bought the show on PPV. This was the very definition of a lame duck show. I say that with some authority, being the lamest duck around.
There was so much going against this show as soon as it was announced. It felt so out of place, so weird and kind of desperate for TNA to take this approach to their biggest PPV of the year. It’s time for people to accept that TNA took the decision to run Bound for Glory in Japan not because they want to break into Japan or expand internationally. It’s because TNA can’t afford to run a PPV anymore.
They can’t afford to pay for a building, they can’t afford to bring in all their production team and roster, they can’t afford to promote the show through local and national advertising, they can’t afford to split any money they make with the PPV carriers.
It’s a sad fact to admit, but the truth is TNA are in such bad financial shape, they literally couldn’t afford to run their biggest show of the year. TNA really do find themselves staring into the abyss – and I don’t mean the fat, wheezing guy with the board full of nails.
The ONLY reason this show took place in Japan was because Wrestle-One paid for it. They paid for the building, for the promotion and the production costs. All TNA had to do was pay to get its talent to Japan, and even then they only sent 13 wrestlers to the show, with lots of big name talent missing.
I still don’t understand why they decided to run the show from Japan. Surely a promotion in the UK would have been a much better option? I’m sure with some support from Challenge TV, TNA could have had Bound for Glory in the UK, maybe co-promoted with PCW or one of the other big UK promotions.
That would have cut down on TNA’s costs, while also allowing them to put on a show in front of a hot crowd, add some top UK talent to the line-up and really solidify the already strong market presence that TNA has in the UK. At least the show would’ve felt like a big deal and not another throw away ‘Joker’s Wild’ style PPV that no one buys.
One of the major problems for TNA running Bound for Glory in Japan was that the culture towards wrestling is a lot different from the US. TNA tape months in advance and this leads to situations where people on TV have actually already lost their Title but it won’t air on TV until after Bound for Glory. TNA don’t give a shit about this. Their philosophy is that the Title change doesn’t happen until you see it on TV. That’s perfectly understandable and their right to run their promotion in this way.
In Japan that is seen as insulting the fans intelligence, because they all know so and so dropped the belt at a TV taping last month. That’s why TNA sent hardly any of their Champions to the PPV and why we had the weird situation of Samoa Joe retaining the X-Division Title over Low-Ki, when in reality he’s already dropped the Title due to injury and Low-Ki is the current champion. Which the kind of hardcore fans who went to this show would know.
TNA wouldn’t make any concessions to the tradition and culture of Japan, so why go there in the first place? If it’s just to pretend you’re an international wrestling promotion, that’s cool. Perception is important in this superficial world we live in. But surely they just created problems for themselves and bad feeling with Wrestle-One? Then again, Wrestle-One weren’t exactly playing ball with TNA.
The main event of Bound for Glory was Sanada and James Storm vs. Tajiri and Great Muta (yes, seriously). A week before Bound for Glory, Tajiri turned heel against Muta on a Wrestle-One show and yet the following week, was back to teaming with him on this weird TNA show. I know to a lot of people that is just trivial detail, but in Japan – a country where wrestling is still presented a sporting contest – none of this made any sense and people were actually upset.
Then again, who cares? It’s not like anyone watched this show in any great numbers. Why would they? It was on tape delay. TNA gave their fans absolutely no reason to pay for this show. It featured hardly any of TNA’s top stars and it was so bereft of content that every promo and every video package felt like they were twice as long as usual, just to fill time. Yet no match went more than 12 minutes.
Bound for Glory 2014 was the sad result of the terrible financial and creative decisions that TNA have made in recent years. Those decisions have left the company financially fucked, creatively stagnant and hanging on to life by their fingernails. Even a new TV deal might not be enough to keep TNA alive. It’s such a sad state of affairs. Can you see why I don’t want to write about this shit anymore?
I’ve watched TNA since day one and I was a big fan of the promotion in 2004, when they were producing the best TV and best PPVs of any wrestling company. I’ve stuck with them through the good and the bad. Here are some of my favourite highlights and lowlights:
The Good: AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, James Storm, Alex Shelly, Chris Sabin and others I’ve forgotten.
TNA gave these incredibly talented performers a national platform to showcase their skills. Sure they all got screwed in the end, thanks to poor booking and TNA’s financial woes. But before it came crashing down and hurt inside, these guys got to show the world that they were some of the best in-ring performers of their generation. I’ll always be thankful and grateful to TNA for giving these guys (and others) a chance to shine.
The Bad: Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Mr Anderson, RVD, Booker T, Hall, Nash, X-Pac.
The first two are listed not because of their in-ring performances. They’re listed because TNA allowed two men, with serious drug issues, to continue to hurt themselves on a nightly basis and to continue their drug use without any repercussions. In fact they both got pushed to the World Title while suffering serious drug and health issues. TNA sat back as their lives spiralled out of control with multiple arrests and showing up to TNA shows in less than stellar condition. TNA acted as an enabler to these two guys, who should have been getting help, instead of taking bumps. I really do feel it’s only by the grace of God that neither Kurt nor Jeff died while working for TNA. The others are listed because they milked TNA dry financially, got pushed to the moon, and in return put in zero effort and brought zero increases to TNA with their ‘star power.’ They weren’t the only ones, but they’re the first who spring to mind.
The Good: The re-birth of Bully Ray, MVP, Kenny King, Bobby Lashley, Bram, EC3 and Rockstar Spud.
Say what you will about TNA’s mistakes, but they’ve done great things with all the guys listed here. In particular Bully Ray has turned his career completely around and has been one of the main lynchpins holding TNA together for the past five years. While the future for TNA is very much uncertain, if they do manage to continue, they have a solid roster of talent to work with and build on for the future.
The Bad: Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Dixie Carter.
They can find all the excuses in the world, dress up failures as successes and try to re-write history all they want. The numbers speak for themselves. The finances don’t lie. The ratings tell the true story. These four people (along with Jeff Jarrett) are responsible for the near death state TNA finds itself in today. Hogan and Bischoff worked Dixie to perfection and made out like bandits. Russo only needs to open his mouth and you’ll quickly understand why he is so successful at writing terrible wrestling shows. Dixie oversaw it all and while she has the excuse of being clueless about wrestling, after ten years she should have known enough about business to see it wasn’t working and change it for the better. Instead she brought in the three guys who all played large parts in killing WCW. Genius…
The Good: TNA British Boot camp.
Whether or not there will be a TNA for the winners of Season 2 to work in is debatable. What’s not up for debate is the success of this show and its importance. TNA has a big fan base in the UK. We also have some of the best wrestlers in the world, plying their trade on these shores every week. The fact that some of these wrestlers get to showcase their talent with TNA is a great thing. I just wish the company they were trying to win a contract with wasn’t so close to the knacker’s yard. Plus, I’d love to see Grado regularly on US National TV.
The Bad: The end of TNA.
I’ve said it for years but it bears repeating – TNA going out of business is not a good thing for anyone. Their shows may suck and you may hate everyone who works there, but the US wrestling scene needs TNA. As fans, we need TNA because the alternative of only WWE is a scary prospect for those of us who don’t buy into Vince’s vision of sports entertainment. I take no pleasure in making fun of TNA or criticising them (ok, maybe a little) and when they do eventually go out of business, it’ll be another hit to already wounded US wrestling scene.
They say you should always end on a joke, but given I’ve been writing about TNA, this whole article could be considered a joke by some. Instead I’ll leave you with a reminder to follow me on Twitter which is @MFXDuckman, where you’ll be able to keep up with the evolution of MFX and also find links to the new blog I’ll be starting soon.
Be sure to check out MFX, either on the page here or over at www.mfxpodcast.com Even if we won’t be talking wrestling all the time anymore, there’s still plenty for you to put in your ear holes and we promise you’ll laugh until it hurts.
Screw it; let’s end on that joke after all. Why did the pervert cross the road? Because his cock was stuck in the chicken!! Ahahahahahahahaha!! Badda-bing-badda-boom! I’m here all week, please tip your waitress.
As always, thanks for reading.
Until next time…
Peace
Duckman
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