Time Travel With TNA

The re-boot for Impact Wrestling is going pretty well.  The presentation has definitely improved, the show seems livelier than the increasingly torpid Raw and even Taz is pretty tolerable now he's been paired with Josh Matthews.   However, some of TNA's flaws continue, and one is a direct result of their economy drive.  In order to get the best value out of booking venues, TNA shoots a lot of television at once.  On the current British tour, they are shooting two episodes per night on each of the three dates before returning to Orlando for a week of massive taping sessions that will produce programming up till the end of April plus eight One Night Only specials.  This leads to odd timing problems.

Last night in Glasgow, TNA pulled two surprises, with the full-time return of Mickie James plus the signing of Drew Galloway (who was formerly Drew McIntyre in WWE).  The former is perhaps the lesser surprise, given that TNA's women's division needs more bodies and Mickie's partner (and father of her child) is Magnus.  A very logical signing.   However, Galloway genuinely made me raise a quizzical eyebrow, as he seemed to be happy on the UK indie scene.  In particular he played a major role in BBC Scotland's "Insane Fight Club 2" documentary about cult Glaswegian promotion ICW, in which the Ayr-born grappler was apparently returning home.  TNA has pulled a definite swerve here.

However, this left TNA with a dilemma.   As there was absolutely no chance of either signing not being splashed all over social media as well as wrestling news sites, the cat was clearly not just out of the proverbial bag, but had also announced its escape via its Twitter account.  So, somewhat meekly, the company has announced the news on its website, even though the episodes in question have not been shown anywhere in the world yet.  They have issued perhaps the first officially-announced spoilers in wrestling history.  Even though their current approach obviously makes economic sense it leads to scenarios like this where the company ends up looking rather strange and not entirely professional.

Last year, I attended the London tapings, which felt a little surreal as the night was the last of the UK dates.  Three unseen episodes separated the most recently-aired edition of Impact Wrestling and the action I was going to see.  What became clear was that storylines had moved on considerably in the interim, and we could only guess at what had happened.  New alliances had certainly been formed, but why was Austin Aries acting as a referee?  And, more to the point, what was the deal with those extremely revealing shorts he was wearing?   Furthermore, wrestlers in their promos kept referring to a PPV happening in three days' time.  In reality, this event was six weeks away!

So time has a different meaning in  TNA's universe; has anyone told Stephen Hawking?   I get the feeling that even the esteemed Cambridge don, renowned for his theories about the paradoxical nature of time, may struggle to follow what's happening when he watches the One Night Only shows.   These are basically slot-filling events that enable TNA to maintain its contractual commitments to Challenge and other partners despite having drastically cut down on its PPV schedule.   They are non-canon, so exist outside of weekly storylines.  This sounds fine in principle, but it does mean that the shows are literally inconsequential.  You might see decent action, but the show ultimately won't have any lasting effects.  Even more jarring is the fact that these events still offend against chronology, simply because of TNA's predilection for constant turns.  As months can pass between the shooting and airing of a ONO special, it is inevitable that you will see current faces acting as heels and vice versa.  So the programmes seem curiously outdated.

The better ONO shows are the ones that have a theme.  Towards the end of 2014, TNA aired a rather interesting Knockouts special, in which top talent from the American indie circuit faced off against TNA stars.  This was clearly a tryout session, in which TNA could cast a critical eye over potential new female signings.  This was enjoyable as it allowed us to see the likes of Mia Yim, Reby Sky and Veda Scott on TV, and allowed the existing Knockouts (who have faced each other way too many times) to have fresh match-ups.  This is all good stuff.   However, it was just shown too late in the year for two reasons.  First of all, EC3 and Spud presented the show using heel personae, which felt odd as Spud had since turned face and was now even feuding with Dixie's evil nephew, a feud which continues today.  Even odder was the fact that we already knew who won this talent show.  Jessicka Havok, here introduced for 'the first time' was actually an Impact regular by this point.  Furthermore, she lost, which rather undercuts the 'unstoppable wrecking machine' image she now has.  It seems irresponsible to air something that actually harms the image they're trying to present for Havok.

Whatever, timing is a real mess in TNA.  On forums, I've seen it suggested that the promotion should purchase its own venue, thus meaning they don't have expensive hire fees and can shoot without long gaps before airing.  This is surely the answer, and I'm amazed they haven't set up a venue in Memphis in which they can build up a specific flavour for their product (just like Paul Heyman did with the ECW Arena in Philadelphia).  The Carters have the money to make this happen. 

I don't want this to be a complete moan, and I reiterate that I do enjoy TNA,  But this is an issue that needs to be sorted, as it's leading to absurdity.

Can the Roman Reigns project be rescued?

It says a lot that a PPV that contained a five-star match, which was a rollercoaster of excitement, still ended with chants of 'We want refunds'.   WWE managed the seemingly impossible by booking an even worse Royal Rumble match than last year.

Before I discuss Roman Reigns' badly botched coronation at the Rumble, I'll note that Seth Rollins deserves a lot of praise for his exceptional performance.  He proved that he absolutely belonged among the highest echelon of the WWE's ranks, as for long periods he was carrying that fight, and supplied the two most memorable spots: a reckless aerial dive to send Lesnar through a table, and an Adrian Neville-style corkscrew twist.  In fact, Rollins can probably feel aggrieved that the best performance of his career was overshadowed by later events.

The eventually hostile Philadelphia crowd, after failing to engage with a tepid undercard (Damien Mizdow excepted), reacted to the triple threat title match with glee, and no wonder.  It was breathlessly exciting action throughout.  So it wasn't a problem when the Rumble itself started slowly.  After all, we needed to catch our breath.  There was a nice unexpected moment when Bully...er, I mean Bubba Ray Dudley came out to a fair pop.   He proved in his TNA run that he's still got it, and I'd like to see him have one last run in the E.

The real problem started when crowd favourite Daniel Bryan entered surprisingly early.  His clashes with Bray Wyatt looked promising and were logical given the pair's past history.  However, shockingly Bray got to eliminate Bryan before the match entered its final stages.   The crowd's response immediately turned sour, as one of the potential stars of the fight had basically been given the kind of role dished out to someone like Fandango.  The crowd's mood turned ugly, and matters weren't helped by the sheer flatness of the in-ring action.   A strong performance by Bryan would have got the crowd energised, but amazingly WWE threw this chance away. 

Eventually Reigns entered to a severely subdued reaction.  The early exit of Bryan meant that Reigns was certain to win, almost, as the company is clearly unwilling to create a swerve to benefit a fan favourite like Ambrose or Ziggler.  Hell, even an unlikley victory for Mizdow would have placated an irritable crowd.  Unsurprisingly, Dean Ambrose did get the second biggest pop of the Rumble, and I started to wonder if perhaps it was his night.  No such luck; as the final foursome consisted of Ambrose, Reigns plus (give me strength) Big Show and Kane, it was clear that Ambrose's sole role was to help his former Shield colleague clear the ring.  After Ambrose's exit, Reigns pulled off a double elimination of the two big men, and, in a twist, found he also had to eliminate Rusev, which he did in perfunctory fashion.  Boos rang out, and even an appearance by Reigns' more illustrious cousin, The Rock, failed to improve the crowd's mood.   Reigns looked visibly unnerved. His big night had turned into a disaster.  Worse was to come with the news that online fans had also acted in anger, with so many Network subscribers cancelling their contracts that the cancellation page reportedly crashed.

This is brutal, and it would be easy to conclude that the Roman Reigns experiment has crashed and burned, much like the career of Vince McMahon's 'chosen one' Drew McIntyre.   However, I think it's possible to rescue this.  Reigns' debit column has clear entries.  For example, he cannot deliver a decent promo and probably never will be able to.  Also, compared to the other Shield members (both seasoned indie veterans), he is very green as a performer, and away from his signature power moves, a lot of his offence lacks conviction.

However, we shouldn't be too hasty here.  For one thing, whether we like it or not Reigns will headline Wrestlemania this year.  Plus he has good looks and natural charisma, so it should be possible to build on this.  Also, while he's not there yet, his in-ring skills are improving  But things need to change.  Not every crowd will be as hostile as Philadelphia, but if he gets booed in other smarkish cities like New York or Chicago, his reputation will suffer further.

So what can WWE do?  Here's my three-step plan:

1)  Stop the atrocious cheesy promos he's been forced to recite.   Sufferin' succotash, they've been dreadful!  I suspect WWE has started to learn this lesson, as he's been talking less recently.  He should be packaged as a man of few words who is more concerned with action.  This was how he was presented in the Shield and it worked.

2) Put him in a program with Seth Rollins.  Not only does this make storyline sense, working with a superior technician like that will improve his skills significantly.  Also, get Dean Ambrose to partner him in tag matches; they will be good matches and hopefully Ambrose's natural connection with the crowd will start to rub off on Reigns.

3) Lesnar vs Reigns isn't a very exciting prospect, but there's scope to change this as a main event.  Daniel Bryan can start lobbying that, as he never lost the belt in the ring, he deserves a chance to regain it at Wrestlemania.  This is fraught with danger, as Bryan's fan popularity would mean Reigns would be overshadowed if a triple threat occurred.  But that may still not be a bad idea ultimately. 

The reason is that Roman Reigns should be seen as a long-term prospect who should not be rushed.  The Royal Rumble match was poorly handled but hopefully WWE can learn lessons and act to rescue his project.  After all, last year's reaction to Batista led to Daniel Bryan's elevation at a memorable Wrestlemania.  A similar plan is needed urgently now.


FOOTNOTE: I'm already reading that WWE have discussed inserting Daniel Bryan into the main event and have dismissed it as it would be a repeat of last year.   Funny how repetition was never an issue when John Cena and Randy Orton hogged the main event limelight.....This is a mistake.  A re-run that the audience can get behind is better than a fresh match-up that the audience doesn't care about.