WWE & TNA - Call the action, dammit....

I've just been thinking that both Raw and Impact would be more enjoyable at the moment with the sound turned down and a musical accompaniment selected.  I feel a playlist of 80s heavy metal would work well....It's just that every week I get so annoyed by the commentators.

Let's break this down.  Michael Cole is probably the least worst of WWE's commentary team.  He's a reasonably competent play-by-play guy who has recovered after a dreadful, ill-advised heel turn a few years ago.  Aside from the obvious fact that the main anchor should be on the side of the fans, as he's the one who is guiding us through the action, Cole's horrible heel performances were weirdly counter-productive.  Put bluntly, his relentless negativity was basically shitting on the product and the performers.  How is the audience supposed to take a show seriously if the main announcer apparently hates it?  No matter, this is now finished.  Actually, as a neutral figure, he tends towards blandness.  He lacks JR's talent for inspiring hyperbole.  But he can stay for the moment, as he's basically assured on the mic, and drew deserved praise for how he handled proceedings during Jerry Lawler's on-air heart attack.

The principal problems are elsewhere.   Talking of Lawler, he is a true legend who deserves respect.  But, just how out of touch does he appear now?   His performances are lazy and phoned-in, and his casual sexism while talking about the Divas is irksome.  During the days of the brand split, it was noted during a PPV that Lawler had a crib sheet enabling him to identify all the Smackdown stars.  As he never watched the b-show, he had no idea who these people were, so the supposed 'expert' actually had less knowledge about half the roster than the average WWE fan.  This speaks volumes about Lawler's apathy concerning the current product.  Indeed, the best role for him currently might be alongside Gene Okerlund on WWE's excellent Vintage show.   Clearly, he has little feel for today's WWE, and he might regain his enthusiasm if allowed to talk about a past that he is far more knowledgeable about.

But the ultimate irritant is the bellowing bore that is JBL.   This guy just has one note.  He spends the whole show shouting everyone down with insight-free assertions.  I realise he is supposed to be annoying, but there is an art to heel colour commentary, and the audience should be able to love to hate him.  Instead, whenever those bullying Texan vocal chords fly into action, people are reaching for the migraine pills.   He's just too loud, too overbearing.

A common complaint is that all three commentators only pay minimal attention to the action happening in the ring, and spend too much time with frankly irrelevant discussions about random topics.  In particular, JBL will crowbar references to current sporting events in a most tangential fashion every week.  At present he's supplying running commentary on the football World Cup, which at least is an event which has captured the imagination of the world (including, at long last, the United States).  However the other week, he started talking about the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield, to the basic bemusement of his fellow commentators.  The impression I get is that sometimes JBL is employing an avoidance strategy; he'd rather talk about anything other than wrestling.

Of course, as with so many other problems with the show, the real issue is standing behind the curtain in the Gorilla Position.  The commentators are just reacting to Vince McMahon's instructions, and if he wants them to ignore the impressive suplex that's just been performed and  talk about an obscure sporting event in Yorkshire instead, they'll jump through that hoop.

It doesn't have to be this way.  The contrast with the commentary team on NXT couldn't be more pronounced.  Of course, this show is HHH's baby and Vince stays away.  The result is that the rotating commentary team (including Byron Saxton, the charming Renee Young and the Artist Formally Known As Albert/A-Train/Tensai) seems more relaxed and more focused.  In particular, William Regal displays a true old-school commitment to putting the talent over. No matter whether he's discussing a heel or face, he'll talk up their attributes and point out their most powerful moves.  He wants us to believe in these characters.  In interviews, Regal has responded to praise about his current role with typical English modesty.  He points out that he doesn't know if he could handle the pressure on Raw, and that the low-key atmosphere of NXT allows him to develop this onscreen character.  I actually reckon he'd be just fine on the main show.  He can't be any worse than JBL.  Interestingly, there seems to be backing for Ms Young in WWE, as she'll now be handling commentary on Superstars.  Could Renee become the first female commentator on Raw eventually?

Meanwhile on TNA Impact, the problem isn't with Mike Tenay.  He's an authoritative-sounding broadcaster whose urgent commentary helps build up the product.  Unfortunately, he is teamed up with Taz, who simply is not up to the job.  His rambling commentary is full of malapropisms and other weird phrases.  Sometimes he'll get halfway through an overly-complicated sentence then lose his way and try to bail himself out with a feeble joke.   In the Impact discussion group I am a member of, we have a running joke that Taz appears to be drunk for much of the show (his habit of yelling random things in a high-pitched voice seems to back up this theory).  I suspect that the truth is that he isn't drunk, but just incompetent; however he often sounds inebriated, which is just as bad.  It's painful to listen to his verbal fumblings.

I'm amazed that someone this poor is still employed in this role.  In fairness, Taz can work well when he has a prepared script.  As an onscreen character in the Aces & Eights saga, he was effective in pulling off a major swerve at the Bully Ray/Brooke Hogan wedding.  TNA needs to get him out of the commentary booth and into backstage angles, I feel.

Who should replace Taz?  Well, the obvious candidate is Jeremy Borash.  Indeed, Tenay and Borash  already team up to supply commentary for matches on Xplosion.   Both are perfectly professional, but there's no real tension between them as they are too similar and basically do the same thing.  They even sound alike; sometimes on Xplosion I have to listen carefully to discern which one of them is speaking.  I think Mike Tenay needs an antagonist to work off.   I wonder if Don West, whose heel commentary was often hilarious, would consider a return to TNA?

TNA - A Tale of Two Cities

Although I've avoided spoilers concerning TNA's recent spate of shows in New York, which will be edited to produce their programming through the late summer, the impression I get is that these were successes.  The company genuinely achieved sell-outs in a 1,200 capacity arena according to reports.  While it's true that the UK (still the company's principal market) supplies much bigger crowds, this is a significant advance on the company's domestic house shows, which sometimes have dipped as low as 400 paying customers.  What may be of more significance is the nature of those audiences.

Now, firstly, let me say that one of the things that drew me to TNA in the first place was that the Orlando soundstage that became the Impact Zone was pleasingly intimate.  Whereas the WWE juggernaut travelled to faceless corporate enormodomes, this felt like a pleasant low-key contrast.  However, after a couple of months, the drawbacks of the Florida theme park became obvious.  Crowd response was, at best, unreliable.  Crowds, consisting of curious holiday-makers who, having paid to enter the park, could claim free tickets to the tapings, often behaved as if they were at the library.  During the Hogan years, a silent crowd would often only come to life when the Hulkster nursed his bruised body to the ring, simply because he was the only person there who most people actually recognised.  Some weeks it was better, but you couldn't depend on the location to deliver the kind of constant crowd response that a wrestling show needs.  Realising a change was needed, TNA took to the road and got better responses across the USA.  Unfortunately, they were losing money so fast that they had to return to Orlando temporarily to face more flat crowds.  Now they've found what seems to be a reasonable compromise.  During their British tour of early 2014, they embarked on an ambitious taping schedule.  Over just four nights, they shot six regular editions of Impact in Glasgow, Manchester and London, plus a One Night Only special in Birmingham.  This was a good way of squeezing maximum value out of their travels, although it meant punters sat through extremely long shows.   I can testify from experience that, in London, a show which kicked off at 7pm with a dark match only packed up after 11pm.  Both myself and my companion missed our last trains home as a result.

So, this is the new strategy.  TNA will travel across America, staying in one place long enough to get a month or more's worth of programming before moving on.  The obvious flaw with this approach is that there's such a delay between the shows being filmed and actually airing that fans need to be vigilant to avoid spoilers.  But this does seem to ensure that TNA can tour on a more economically-sound basis.  However, I feel the company needs to choose its venues carefully.  At the moment, we're getting a run of shows filmed in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (no, me neither) and frankly they suffer from the same problem they had in Orlando.   The crowd occasionally wakes up (the other week they responded strongly to Dixie Carter's heel promo) but also remains inactive for lengthy periods of time.  It cannot be overstressed how important audiences are.  Not only do they create the show's atmosphere, a vibrant crowd will psychologically encourage the wrestlers to put on more of a show.   All TNA wrestlers say how much they enjoy coming to the UK, and I believe they mean it; they get large, loud crowds on this island, so of course they'll look forward to that.

Meanwhile, on a recent PPV taping in Dallas, they had a terrific crowd who showed appropriate enthusiasm.  The lesson here is a little brutal.  While I appreciate them going out to small towns like Bethlehem, you will only get small town reactions there, and the promotion will look small.  Appearances matter, so TNA needs to be shooting its programming in large cities with big wrestling cultures.  And this is where New York comes in, as maybe only Chicago can supply wilder crowds than the Big Apple.   Looking at photos taken during the tapings, the venue certainly looks very handsome, so there's a good chance that these shows will at least have the right feel.  Also, with the return of the six-sided ring and some familiar names, TNA seems to be reaching out to its hardcore fanbase who perhaps became disillusioned when Hogan tried turning the company into WWE-lite.  TNA says it's pressing the reset button in NYC; worryingly that's the second time they've made a claim like this this year, but this time it may have more substance.  Whatever, I can't wait to see the New York shows.

However, even more exciting news involves the second city alluded to in the piece's title is addressed.  A big announcement out of the blue has boldly stated that Bound For Glory will take place in Tokyo this year.  This is exciting on many levels.  The first thing it confirms is that the relationship between TNA and the Great Muta's fledgling promotion Wrestle-1 is taken very seriously by both parties.   It also suggests that, after a year of making cuts to manage its costs, TNA is starting to expand its ambitions again.  Presumably, by presenting the show as a joint promotion with a third party, costs become more manageable.  The logistics of this will have to be worked out carefully, but I think this is a great move.

Most importantly, it makes a statement about TNA's direction.  As I've stated earlier, a big problem was that TNA became too much like WWE under Hogan's watch.  This is a mistake, as TNA will never be as big as Vince's company, and needs instead to build a distinctive niche for itself.  At the moment, a lot of adult wrestling fans are uneasy about where WWE is going, with its recent poor decision-making, including misogynist toilet humour and yet another Cena title run, adding to the dismay.  A company offering a fresh approach could mop up some of that disillusioned fanbase. 

Some of the comments already made say that TNA will need to alter its product radically to suit Japanese tastes, and this should also affect the build-up.  Basically, this means fewer gimmicks, fewer screwy finishes and a greater emphasis on in-ring action.  All of this will benefit TNA, as the problem this year is that the show has moved too fast and has frequently over-booked important matches.  Take, for example, last winter's "Dixie-land" title match, a convoluted mix of a cage match and a ladder match that offered ample scope for outside interference.  Shenanigans like that won't work in Japan.  Meanwhile, the show is currently continuing a dizzying and confusing set of multiple turns.  This week, Brittany turned heel on Madison Rayne after her affections were spurned, while Samuel Shaw has apparently turned face, under the psychological supervision of Gunner.  Oh, and Rhino reappeared to make a babyface save for Bully Ray, only to immediately swerve and attack the former Dudley Boy.  It's all too much, and I hope that in New York the storytelling slows down and they build existing characters without further swerves.

The interesting thing is that, in the quieter corners of Impact Wrestling, this may have begun to happen.  One real benefit TNA has already reaped is the loan signing of 26-year-old Seaya Sanada, whose road to stardom is being carefully mapped out by Wrestle-1.  Sanada is a brilliantly smooth and confident ring worker, who can use the limited timespan of a TV match for optimum effect; he can always fit in a series of memorable spots.  So far, Sanada has spent time in an impressive program with Mexican luchador Tigre Uno.  This is a very simply-managed rivalry, an unusual face-on-face battle underpinned by mutual respect.  This feels far closer to what you'd expect to see in a Japanese ring, and not just because one of the competitors is Japanese.  Reports suggest that the loan spell, due to run out this summer, may be extended as the American experience has been beneficial for Sanada's development.

There is also an echo of this kind of booking in the Knockouts too.  Last year, the division's highspot was a pair of scintillating, hard-hitting contests between Gail Kim (then playing the heel role) and Taryn Terrell.  This rivalry was cut short due to Taryn taking maternity leave, but one year on she's back in the company.  On her return she was welcomed back by Gail, now a face again due to TNA's massive deluge of turns, who paid tribute to her former opponent, thus laying a trail that should lead to a third bout in the series, this time a face-on-face encounter again based on mutual respect.  So far, the pair have either teamed as tag partners or been kept apart, which again suggests the kind of patient booking that TNA needs to do more of.  The longer they are kept separate (while their match is still hyped up), the more special it should appear when the match happens.

Meanwhile, a taster for the big Tokyo show is aired on Challenge this Wednesday (9th July) at 10pm, as there is a special broadcast of a show taped this year, where TNA talent faced up to Wrestle-1's roster.


One final point is that some of my compatriots have been a little put out that Japan gets a major PPV ahead of a loyal British fanbase that has helped the company stay afloat.  There is some justification here, but I don't think we're being forgotten.  Next weekend, Jeremy Borash will be taking a group of TNA stars to appear at a comic con in London, and he promises a big announcement about the UK will be made there.  Surely he will announce that one of the 2015 PPVs will happen over here?   And anyway, this perhaps misses the bigger picture.  TNA need to focus in the short term on their partnership with Wrestle-1, which is only just starting to get established itself.  In the immediate future, New York and Tokyo are the cities that will determine the company's destiny.