What a week! Well, not really. But these is ONE important thing about all of this. There was someone who transcended the brands this week. Appearing on both a RAW and a Smackdown! show. You’ll have to read the Tivo Gems for that one though.
Have you downloaded my exclusive interview with Hillbilly Jim yet? Get it HERE!!!
Looks like this week you took that “Skip Reader Mail” a little too seriously.
Everyone did this week.
For those of you who didn’t check out LAST WEEK’S BIG LINK last week, you missed a conversation about Mohammed Hassan.
Check that out for some fantasy booking and some good booking by you guys as well.
#1 Courtesy of Sunday Night Heat
Oh yeah, that’s ME talking about the Road to Wrestlemania
#2 Courtesy of Velocity
Oh yeah, that’s ME next to Hillbilly Jim before our interview that you can get HERE!!!
Skip Download of the Week
My suggestion from my week of downloading
HULKRULES.ISO & HULKRULES_2.ISO
Of course these are to only back-up my pre-existing copies, but damn if this thing isn’t fun to watch.
Macho Man
Oh yeah, it’s his RAP ALBUM. Man this thing is terrible! So bad you need to hear it. It’s been much more poignant since Macho backed down from TNA. What a fool.
Goldberg Nitro Matches 1998-1999
Also known as “Goldberg kills a bunch of guys” and the matches that aren’t squashes basically end in the classic WCW security guard ending. This one’s a low recommendation, but if your bandwidth is burning a hole in your pocket, spend it here.
Have a suggestion? E-mail me not only the match, but where I can get it from and why you like it as well.
it’s been a busy week and the meat’s only rare to medium rare, but here it is…
1. Take the title off Jarrett
Every promotion is defined by it’s champion and how it’s fans perceive that champion. When that champion walks out to the ring, you can tell if he’s respected by the fans by their reaction. I’m not talking about cheering him. If he’s a heel and you like not liking him, you boo him. But the fans react. Let’s take a look at Mr. Jarrett as of late. On the January 28th edition of Impact, the crowd chanted “BORING” at Jarrett. To quote Armodio who covers Impact here on IP, “Yes, he’s the world champion folks.”
So what’s the solution? You can’t just take the title off him and give it to the next challenger that comes down the pipe. With a seasoned world champion, you should start to think about what young guy he can make if he lost the title to. TNA’s got a nice young star ready to break that glass ceiling into the main event picture: Monty Brown.
Is it Brown’s time? Absolutely. Well, it might even be past “Primetime” for Brown. What sporting event has Brown participated in twice with two different teams that just passed by? Oh yeah, the Super bowl. What better promotion for the company than to send him to different sport shows talking about the Super bowl and segueing into talk about TNA. With the Super bowl past, all he’s got is TNA talk, and anyone outside of wrestling doesn’t pay attention when a wrestler talks wrestling. How do you win people over, prove you’re smart, and be funny and still know what you’re talking about and THEN talk about wrestling.
They’re certainly not send Jarrett around to make the rounds on whatever show will accept them as a guest, and why would they? He doesn’t have cross-over appeal like Brown would. Is he gonna talk about “Planet Jarrett” on Leno? Doubtful.
So the bottom line for #1 is that they’ve ALREADY missed one great opportunity to have their talent on national TV with the Super bowl having just passed. As the days tick on, more and more people will be adopting that “BORING” chant we heard when Jarrett opens his mouth.
2. Know what decade you’re producing TV in
I know this sounds silly, but does anyone else notice that TNA’s IMPACT looks a whole lot like WCW Saturday Night? I’m not talking about a passing resemblance to the program, I’m talking about “it looks just like WCW Saturday Night”. I don’t know whose idea it was to make the dominant color of the show grey, but it MAKES THE PRODUCT UNEXCITING.
A big part of the image of the show is the image quality. And CONTRAST. Think about what the WWE changed when they started to take control of the Monday Night Wars. The contrast of the show, the blacks were darker and the whites were lighter. WCW, meanwhile was swimming in a sea of grays. Think about ECW, high contrast despite the image quality being lower.
And one more thing: THE LASERS! Why are those necessary on the program? NOTHING screams mid 90’s like LASERS.
For the love of God please get rid of those stupid lasers!!!
But anyway…
3. Lose the jobbers from IMPACT
You know what screams “you don’t need to watch this match!”? Jeff Hardy vs. David Young. Monty Brown vs. Johnny Devine. Cassidy Riley vs., A.J. Styles. Get the point?
Why on earth would you air these matches on your TOP PROGRAM? We understand that A.J. Styles is a good wrestler and that Monty Brown is unstoppable, but airing crap that like that is unexcuseable for your top program. More than half of the matches on the show are BORING! The results are a foregone conclusion. Who the hell wants to watch that? Who’s your audience? Who? Wrestling fans won’t buy into that crap. This isn’t All-American Wrestling, this is NWA:TNA IMPACT. Think Saturday Night’s Main Event, Think Raw, think Nitro, think Hardcore TV or ECW on TNN, think… well you get my drift.
Wrestling fans want wrestling. And you know, what’s wrong with having A.J. Styles wrestle a match that makes him sweat? Yeah, if you watched last week’s IMPACT, you saw A.J. Style challenge Christopher Daniels after wrestling a match WHERE HE DID NOT BREAK A SWEAT. Now THAT is a crime.
4. Tag Teams, Tag Teams, Tag Teams
Now that Team Canada appears to have been ruined and buried, what tag teams stand in America’s Most Wanted’s way? What teams do they appear to have that can even pose a threat to those guys? They’ve broken up XXX, and have rumored to have brought it Billy Gunn and Sean Waltman. So they can attempt to re-create the New Age Outlaws and some sort of D-X once more.
They appear to be bringing in two new teams, “Team Trinity” and “Team Traci” but who knows if these guys will deliver. And do they have the chemistry in the ring to give AMW for a run?
But are these formidable tag teams for AMW? Face on face? Turn AMW heel? Who knows with TNA, who’s a heel and who’s a face anyway? That’s #5.
5. FACES AND HEELS
I think it’s cute the little back and forth that goes on amongst the TNA crowds. “Let’s go A-J” “Let’s go Petey!” I understand that the crowd appreciates the action in the ring. You know how else they can show their appreciation? BY BOOING FOR THE HEELS IN THE COMPANY.
I’m not blaming the crowd. No. What reason do they have to boo anyone anymore? There appears to be no effort establish anyone as a heel except the top guys. Yet, you’re supposed to boo Scott Hall and cheer Kevin Nash. Maybe cheer Kevin Nash? Who the hell knows anymore.
What do you think? Click THIS WEEK’S BIG LINK
See you next week, same Blatt time, same Blatt channel.
