Festive greetings to you all and welcome a different kind of review from me. Today, I’ll be taking a look back over the past year in TNA, going over what I thought were the highs and lows of 2013.
Well, where to start?!?! A lot has happened over the past year. TNA left the Impact Zone and took their show on the road before coming full circle and returning to Orlando towards the end of 2013. There were also talent changes throughout the year with some notable names being released or leaving, and some old faces returning. We also saw a few new faces make their Impact debuts.
TNA also introduced some new ways for the fans to interact with the brand and its stars, like Impact 365, as well as some Q&A’s with their stars.
Let me explain how this article will work. First, I’ll go through my highs and then I’ll go through what I thought the lows were, going into some detail about why I thought the way I did. Let’s get to it.
Highs for TNA in 2013
The Rise of Bully Ray: I don’t think Bully has got the credit he deserves over the past year. Love him or hate him, he’s a crucial member of the TNA roster.
He has a lot of experience both in and out of the ring, and he’s now training younger wrestlers, helping them on their journey into the wrestling business. If TNA were to use Bully in a backstage role, then I think he would not only make a great trainer, but he’d be a great GM for TNA. After Hulk Hogan’s stint as GM, TNA could really do with someone in that position who has great promo skills and who’s still able to compete in the ring when needed.
With AJ Styles absent from the main-event for most of the last year, Bully’s led the company ever since the introduction of Aces & 8’s. He did a great job of making everyone believe that he was a part of Team TNA fighting against Aces & 8’s until he was finally revealed as the president of the group. After that reveal at LockDown, Bully’s promos were great and he really showed his ruthless side as the group began to self-implode by taking out his own men one by one.
His feud with the returning Mr Anderson towards the end of the year was just what TNA needed after hitting the reset button. They tore each other apart in the first match, let alone in their (as yet) final encounter, but I don’t think that’s the end of the feud. I’ve got a feeling it might continue in the New Year.
Bully Ray may not have Aces & 8’s at his disposal any more, but we’ve begun to see just how ruthless Bully can be to get what he wants. We’ve not seen the last of Bully Ray in a TNA ring, but just how dominant will he be without the support and interference from Aces & 8’s in the next 12 months?
Bad Influence/E.G.O: The tag-team of Bad Influence have been very entertaining to watch this year, whether it’s been their promos or matches, and they’ve pretty much carried the tag-team division. Although they didn’t hold the tag belts in 2013, I can see them having another run with them in the not-too-distant future.
TNA cannot afford to drop the ball with these guys because the fans enjoy watching their antics. Their recent segments with Eric Young and Joseph Park have been some of the most entertaining stuff we’ve seen in TNA this year and for me, the detective segment really was classic Bad Influence.
In the latter part of the year (around the Bound for Glory Series), Bad Influence teamed up with Bobby Roode to form E.G.O. Combining Bad Influence’s comedy and Bobby Roode’s inflated ego, E.G.O became a formidable group, showing they’d do whatever they could to get a win.
I can see Roode splitting from Bad Influence in 2014 and going on his own again to remind us that he is the “IT Factor of professional wrestling”.
The X Division: As a long-time fan of TNA, I wouldn’t be doing them any justice if I didn’t include the X-Division among my highlights of the year. After all, it was the X-Division and its innovative style that drew me in to TNA and away from watching (mainly) indy wrestling.
I wasn’t too sure about it when TNA changed the rules of the X-Division earlier this year, but it worked for a while until they started cutting talent, but I’ll get into that a bit more later on. I enjoyed the triple-threat matches and the concept could have worked in the long run had the powers that be in TNA worked it out properly.
The Ultimate X matches are good to watch, but they’ve just started to get back to what made them good in the first place. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I feel that we’ll get back to the stage where the Ultimate X matches are awesome and get the fans talking. The X-Division has since gone back to what it used to be, and it’s returned to being about singles matches, which are enjoyable to watch.
TNA should use the collection of talent that they have – like Kenny King, Austin Aries, Chris Sabin, Manik, Zema Ion, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt and Jeff Hardy – to take the X-Division to the next level. All of those guys have experience in the division and they could make it even stronger, which could help to take it to the next level in 2014.
TNA World Tour: I know that some of you reading this, including me as I’m writing, feel that the move away from the Impact Zone did cost TNA and because of that, they had to cut back on production and talent costs.
However, if you look at the following they have in the UK and other countries around the world, TNA have now been able to expand in to these countries with bigger TV deals and have announced a series of One Night Only and Impact tapings for their upcoming tour of the UK and Ireland.
I think the live TV tapings in the UK will do TNA some good because there’ll be a strong crowd reaction for the shows. Hopefully TNA can build on that and start taking the show further in to Europe and around the world.
Taking Impact on the road is a building block in terms of taking TNA further. I still think TNA should have a home base, but they should record the TV specials and PPV’s out on the road. It still gives them the chance to expand, but without the constant costs of travel, booking venues, work permits etc. It will give the TV specials and PPV’s a different feel to regular Impact shows, and they’ll get genuine TNA fans in attendance.
The AJ Styles Storyline: This has been rumbling along for the past year, ever since AJ’s ridiculous Claire Lynch storyline and his feud with Bad Influence ended. Since returning to Impact and throughout his “path to redemption” story, AJ has gone from strength to strength, becoming TNA’s poster boy once again.
He returned to Impact earlier this year as the guy down on his luck and became a lone wolf character. It looked as though he was going to join Aces & 8’s at one stage, but he didn’t. Eventually, he turned back into the fans favourite and went on to win the Bound for Glory Series.
After he won the BFG Series, AJ delivered a message to Dixie Carter, saying he’d take the title back for the fans. He went on to defend the title around the world for various promotions in Japan and Mexico. I mentioned earlier that TNA have grown in terms of international TV deals this year, which will hopefully enable them to trade/loan talent with companies in these countries.
There are a lot of rumours about whether AJ’s contract has expired or not. Only time will tell about which rumours are true. I’m hoping that they’ve been able to come to terms on a new deal and that AJ’s been signed up for the next few years. He’s one of the few remaining TNA “Originals” and, in my opinion, he deserves to be rewarded for sticking by TNA.
So, there were my highlights. Let’s get to what I didn’t like in TNA this year.
Lows for TNA in 2013
One Night Only PPV’s: These were a good idea at the start when the storylines made sense, but by the time they were shown, the characters had changed so much that the One Night Only events were a joke by the end of 2013. It would have been better if they weren’t taped so far in advance.
As time went by and these specials were shown, some of the talent appearing in matches had already been released from the company. I wouldn’t have minded previous talents returning on a one-night basis. That would have been understandable, but showing talents on-screen who had been released months earlier didn’t make sense.
These specials should have had a Wow Factor and been used as a way to draw new fans to the company. All that happened instead was that most TNA fans didn’t bother ordering/watching them. We’re lucky in the UK because we get these specials and PPVs for free. I definitely wouldn’t have paid to watch the “One Night Only” shows. Would you have paid for them if they weren’t free?
Gut Check/British Boot Camp: I originally liked the idea of these competitions, but TNA totally dropped the ball with them.
We’ve only seen 1 series of Boot Camp and it seems to have faded into obscurity. The UK wrestling scene is growing at a rapid pace and we have a very good array of talent, so I would’ve thought that a company like TNA, who have made their name by using great indy talent, would have taken the opportunity to raid the UK market.
Only 2 of the stars of Boot Camp have appeared on Impact – Rockstar Spud and Holly Blossom.
Where’s Hannah Blossom? She’s talented and would be a good addition to the Knockouts Division. After all, she was the OVW Women’s Champion until Lei’d Tapa beat her for the title, so you could bring their feud over to TNA now that they’re not associated with OVW. I’m not sure if I like the role that Rockstar Spud is playing on TV right now, but I’ll give it some more time before judging it.
Like I said earlier, Gut Check was a good way to bring in new talent, but it lost its way as time went on. It started off as a regular segment on the live Impacts before becoming infrequent and eventually being dropped. In a way, I was disappointed that TNA dropped it, but I suppose that, after releasing some of the talent who came through that competition, it was inevitable.
Talent Cuts: I understand that, in order for a relatively young company to grow, cuts need to be made, but when you look at some of the talent that TNA have released/let go this year, they’ve lost some great in-ring workers and good veterans with backstage experience. Here are some examples for you.
- Joey Ryan – he was released shortly after winning his contract. TNA have missed out on a talented worker who also has experience booking and training new talent
- Doug Williams – he left when his contract expired, but TNA could’ve used his experience as a trainer, teaching younger talents how to perform in front of a crowd
- Tara – again, like Doug Williams, she left after her contract expired. She would have been great training new Knockouts, preparing them for promos and matches
- Taeler Hendrix – from what I’m led to believe, she asked for her release because she felt that she wasn’t getting the opportunity to perform. Taeler was good enough in the ring, she just needed a character. I believe that she’s been in negotiations to come back to TNA, so I hope they re-sign her and develop her character
As a fan of wrestling who has a limited knowledge of the business, I would’ve thought that it would be necessary to have a fairly sizable roster with talent for each division, which would allow for unexpected injuries. I understand that there’s not enough TV time for everyone, but a bigger roster gives you more variety for storylines.
The Joseph Park Character: Chris Park/Abyss/Joseph Park – whichever character or person you know him as – is a capable wrestler and I don’t know whose idea this storyline was, but I’m glad it’s finally drawing to a close. Well…I hope so anyway. It would be good for Abyss to return full-time and bring back the TV Championship. It would give the mid-card something to fight for again.
I’ll go on record and say that I never got this storyline to begin with and to say that it’s been drawn out is an understatement. It was never going to work and it’s just been a joke over the last year or so.
Using him as a comedy character was a waste of time and devalued the character because TNA already have a few comedy wrestlers on their roster. They didn’t need to use one of the few wrestlers who can actually work (and who has a good character), pretending to bumble his way through a match.
What did you think? What were your highs and lows in TNA during 2013? Let me know by commenting below or send me a tweet. I’m @emmagiles98.
Thanks for Reading!
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