Last night, while planning this article, (lets pretend we believe I plan for this), I realised that to write about wrestling, it might be an idea to actually watch some of the product. I had not watched Impact for two weeks, or last weeks episode of Raw, or even for that matter, had time to listen to MFX99Aor B.
Something about that whole situation was not right, and had to be fixed. I watched Impact, Raw, Impact one after the other, followed by both MFX episodes, almost 11 hours worth, just so i could write something current and up to date for you, the SLTD reader. I decided I should probably write about the WWE Network, and its shocking low sales.
Today, in an unusual twist of events, I signed in to begin writing, and noticed that this week the mighty Duckman decided to copy my article BEFORE I had written it!
Now, I could look at the network from a different angle, and crunch some numbers while talking about how great it is just over half the subscribers are really happy, ignoring the fact that almost half are not. I could offer solutions to the low uptake numbers, or I could just hold my hands up and admit that Duckman does it better than I ever could.
So, what to write. Ripping off ideas seems popular in wrestling these days, so in homage to our leader George, I decided to follow up his idea to review of every Wrestlemania. With MFX reaching a particularly significant milestone later this week, I decided to do a review of every MFX episode leading up to this centenary episode.
- Episode 1. It was funny
- Episode 2. Was funny too
- Episode 3. Also funny
- Episode 99B was funny
Now I skipped a few there, but any I may have missed would also have been funny, so if you have not listened to MFX, help them celebrate reaching episode 100 by doing as I did, and go listen to every episode so far in one night. It should only take a month or so, allowing for the odd tea break.
To be honest, this article is shorter than I thought it would be, I better write something else, something positive, original and entertaining would be great, but hardly in keeping with the product these days, so…
TNA and Spike TV. I know I wrote about this last week, and gave suggestions as to why things had gone wrong. But that was before I actually watched some TNA.
Bully Ray has, for what seems like a year, had a hit list of people to go through a table. I believe he had six tables with names, and has so far managed two from that list, Spud and EC3. Of the remaining four on the list, three seem to have been completely forgotten about, and only Dixie Carter remains.
Here I will take a leaf from the book of Dixie promotions. People, this bit is important, so could you shut up for two seconds while I tell you?
A few weeks ago, I predicted that fans of TNA who are waiting to see Dixie go through a table would have a very long wait. I did this with confidence because I knew something important. Spike TV do not like showing anything that depicts men being violent towards women. It is why they stopped showing WWE, they asked if that could stop, Vince kept doing it, Spike did not renew.
For this very reason, we have watched matches where knockouts get in the ring with male wrestlers and win without ever being touched. Spike don’t allow it. These matches have been horrendous to watch, but Spike are clear, women being violent towards men is fine, the other way around is not.
So the logic is simple, if Dixie goes through a table at the hands of Bully, Spike TV, the people who basically pay the wages, might just be a tad pissed.
So how do TNA resolve this dilemma? The obvious answer is to do it at Bound For Glory, the biggest show of the year, and not shown on Spike TV. You get a massive build, maybe increase the buyrate and everyone is happy. They could maybe try sneaking it into a TV show, they could have had Bully get a knockout to do it for him, they could have done anything except what they are doing.
Now this will hardly count as a spoiler, they trailed it at the end of last weeks episode, but it appears as if Bully will powerbomb Dixie off the top rope, through a table this week. They are running a campaign on social media, calling Thursday ‘Put Your Boss Through a Table Day’- I am not sure on how this works, the idea is so stupid I never clicked the link.
So, not only are they giving this much anticipated event away for free, they are doing it in a way the absolutely, 100% knew would annoy the company that airs their product to the world. And they did it at a time when they also knew absolutely 100% that their contract was up for renewal.
Really?
Now I am not saying this is possibly one of the reasons that convinced Spike to look at the relationship between the two companies, but I am saying that it was never going to make things better between them.
Bearing in mind this comes around the same time as the ‘revelation’ that Russo has been writing for TNA, and nobody anywhere likes Russo, so TNA just tried, and failed, to keep it a secret.
And this is far from the first time TNA have made absolutely horrible decisions. Losing the six sides, putting the belt on AJ in a major storyline before getting his new contract signed,Hogan,Monday Night Impact,and those are just the bigger mistakes. They have made plenty of smaller ones, pretty much every week.
I have said fairly consistently that TNA needs new writers, with something different to offer, and that still holds true, but they also need someone who can be responsible when it comes to making decisions, someone who will just say no. Someone who points out that what you are about to do is stupid, and has the ability to stop you doing it.
TNA may well lose their TV deal with Spike, but they would have nobody to blame but themselves. Unless Spike told them it was now OK to not just have men be violent towards women, but to do it in an ECW based environment. the E stands for Extreme by the way, so it would take some shift in stance from Spike for this to be cleared by them.
Now, like I said last week, it would not be best for business to have TNA off TV, and hopefully Dixie has an ace up her sleeve, and can pull off a miracle to keep them on air. But judging by previous attempts, chances are she would fold the royal flush because the other guy went all in.With Aces and Eights.
For anyone looking to read all about the WWE network and its below expected sign ups, get all over Duckman as he Lays the Quackdown here
While you are at it, check out all the fantastic work done by everyone here on SLTD, and I would recommend doing it while listening to the latest episode of SLTD Radio.
As previously mentioned, the MFX podcast celebrates 100 episodes this week, and I would like to congratulate Duckman and Sir Ian on reaching this fantastic milestone. I honestly cannot recommend this podcast enough, their light hearted(mostly) look at pro wrestling is the reason I am now writing here on SLTD. Between them and the vast array of special guests who arrive weekly reignited my passion for wrestling, and even now, I sometimes only watch the TV shows so I get their jokes.
Celebrate with the rest of the MFX Galaxy by giving the podcast a listen, episode 100 promises to be bigger than Brock Breaking the Streak, and if you miss it, you will miss out.
Finally, an update on the twitter war… It is not good. Despite my best efforts, and the valiant efforts of almost everyone I know, I am still 20 behind. @GrantCookDFC you know you want to…
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