The lyric above is pretty apt this week. It comes from a song called ‘Entertain Me’, in a week where both of the televised wrestling shows I generally watch failed miserably to do that. This week has been one of the most predictable in wrestling.
On top of that, someone recommended I watch NXT…
But lets start with the most successful show on Spike. Impact opened with a hero’s entrance for the Melendez. I may have mentioned before that TNA seem to be doing a ‘sex wee’ over this guy. Again, I get he is a war veteran, I get he has one leg. But do we really need a national anthem along with the NY colour guard, the day after the anniversary of a terrorist attack to welcome him?
You can just imagine the discussion in booking for this. ‘ We have a one legged war veteran, how should we introduce him? Wait till the anniversary of 9/11, pull the patriot strings, then bring out the one legged guy. Associate him with 9/11, how can that not work?’
Now I am quite prepared to admit that I am not the most empathetic guy around. I don’t watch the paralympics and tell everyone how great it was. I don’t watch women’s football and say how good it is they are taking part. What I want to watch is the best of whatever it is. If I want to watch good football, wrestling or any event I go and see professionals do it.
Watching DJZ run around a one legged man is not my idea of entertainment.
Next, in a direct rip from the WWE rulebook, a tag match involving champ and challenger. WOW!! great idea. the match was OK, EY continued to get his push AFTER he has lost the title, Roode gets the win. Nothing too bad in there, it was just so predictable.
The rest of the show is pretty much filler till the tag match at the end. Here at least we got something unpredictable. After the Dudleys won the first leg, no-one could possibly predict they would do anything other than win their speciality tables match could they? I mean, nobody really expects this to go to a fourth match after the Wolves win the next one, the ladder match. Nobody could possibly guess the Wolves will want to up the ante for the final match and go Tables, Ladders and Chairs….. Nobody expects that.
Anyone with a broken sarcasm meter should send it to me, I will get it fixed for you.
And so, we move to the flagship WWE show, and it is the go home show for Night of Champions.
Brock wont be tagging with anyone, so WWE instead use the face of their anti-bullying campaign to bully Paul Heyman, then we get the US champ in, believe it or not a six man tag, and the IC champ in, unbelievably, a tag match. If we add in a Divas tag match featuring all three from the Divas title match at NOC, it is almost possible to spot a pattern forming…
And those are the highlights, I refuse to even talk about any other Divas match which may have taken place, or the push for the crying giant.
TNA have, on occasion been accused of copying what WWE do. I have said it, you have said it, the whole IWC says it regularly, because it is true. Realistically tho, WWE copy themselves far more than TNA do. EVERY show before a PPV is tag heavy. EVERY show after a PPV has repeats of matches that were on the PPV the day before. And every time we need a new contender, Bray gets his ass kicked.
I am sure anyone involved in WWE would argue they are using a tried and tested formula, one that works.It would be hard to argue with that. Except…
They had a tried and tested formula at Mania, they tried and tested it 21 times. When they broke away from the tried and tested, they got the biggest reaction seen in wrestling. Bigger than the Hogan heel turn, bigger than the Punk pipe bomb, bigger even than Horowitz beating Skip.
So why do they not go with that plan on the go home show? Or on any show?
WWE are currently in a situation where they NEED new subscribers to the network, and the trusty book of…well booking is not doing the job. So try something different, gives us something we do not expect, take the odd risk and see how it goes. TNA have an excuse, in truth they have several excuses. They are a smaller company, with a smaller roster. They are figuratively sleeping on someone’s sofa, as they wait to find a new home of their own. They have very little security at all, and in that position really need to play it safe.
And still they are taking more chances than WWE. They are maybe not making good choices in the chances they take, one legged wrestlers and guys on short term deals to get the local pop, but they still take the chances. Right or wrong and lets face it, mostly wrong, TNA are still there fighting.
WWE on the other hand is doing nothing. They are saying to their customers, ‘this is what we do, if you dont like it, you are wrong. shut up and keep watching.’ Now that has to be a very dangerous strategy, even in a market where you have a near monopoly. How dangerous that is can be seen in the low take up for the network.
Viewers are voting with their wallets and letting WWE know they are unhappy with it, WWE are ignoring them and selling 9.99 Tee-Shirts.
Having read back what I have written, I cannot believe I am actually making TNA look good, so just for balance, I will add two words on TNA at the very end of this article. If you do not like spoilers, don’t scroll down.
Before I go, I want to revisit something I mentioned earlier, NXT, and in particular Charlotte, the NXT womens champ. She is rank rotten based on that match, that moonsault was the worst thing I have ever seen in a wrestling ring. You can have the look, the lineage and everything you need to succeed, but when your finisher is basically you doing a back flip, landing on your feet, then falling forward, you have some real work to do.
And that is a shame, because that one move put me off the rest of the show, which might have been great,I turned off.
Back to my normal routine now, as I recommend all the other great writers who do the biz here on sltdwrestling.com. Under the Spotlight, Davie’s dungeon and Duckmans Layin the Quackdown are all great reads every week and are well worth the effort of tearing yourself away from my genius to check out.
This week we also see the return of the predictions league before NOC, and I would urge everyone to take part. It only takes a few minutes to do, and gives you the chance to show off your knowledge of WWE and its current stories. Come back later in the week once the predictions page is updated to take part, and have the chance to win some great prizes.
Comments below are extremely welcome, but please be advised you will see those two words which tell everything you need to know about the future of TNA, which i have put way below the rest of this….
Brodus Clay
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