TNA
I’ve never been a fan of TNA wrestling. I want to like their stuff. I want them to grow into a viable alternative to WWE. I have tried, several times, to get into watching their TV shows, and I paid to watch Victory Road. There have always been two things holding me back from being a TNA fan, and from what I read online they are as problematic today as they have ever been.
TRIPLE J
I can’t stand it when promotions try to force a wrestler down their fans’ throats. This was my problem with all of the “Next Hogans” in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was my problem with HHH from about 2001 until the point where I just stopped caring, it is my problem with Brock Lesnar in New Japan right now, and it has always been my biggest problem with TNA.
It’s always the worst when that problem is tied in with nepotism, or the promoters pushing members of their own families at the expense of what’s best for the business. Nick Gulas damn near killed the Nashville territory in the late 1970s by insisting on pushing his hopeless son, George. Verne Gagne actually killed the AWA, once one of the three biggest promotions in America, by trying to make a top star out of skinny little Greg. Bill Watts’ Mid South/UFC could have stepped in and filled the void, except Cowboy Bill was too busy trying to get Erik Watts over. Both the Hart and the Von Erich families had real success building a promotion around a talented group of sons, but both families paid for their success with very real tragedies. Even the local indy promotion that I got my start with, Vancouver’s All Star Wrestling, was run into the ground because promoter Al Tomko could never bring himself to push anyone above his own sons.
You’d think that people might learn from that long legacy of failure, but you’d be wrong. TNA has always been, and likely will always be, built around failed attempts to make Jeff Jarrett into a major star. They re-run the old weekly TNA PPVs on free TV in this part of Canada, and I can’t be bothered watching them. For every half-decent X Division match, there are several dozen insultingly stupid skits and pointless run-ins. It’s far worse than watching RAW or SmackDown! The worst part of the show, though – of EVERY show – is the Superman push that Jeff Jarrett was getting at the time. It didn’t matter how many heels there were in the ring, or what weapons they were holding, Double J and his guitar would always send them all running for cover. “Stone Cold” Jeff Jarrett is just painful to watch. TNA have toned things down considerably since then, and they’ve wisely turned Jarrett heel, but he’s still the guy that they want on top, and it doesn’t look like that’s about to change any time soon. I can’t say it’s killing the promotion, because TNA seems to be slowly improving and growing more popular… but I will say that the promotion’s need to keep Jarrett on top has always been a giant albatross around their proverbial neck.
THE DUTHTY FINISH
I have another problem with TNA, and it is this: I prefer matches that have a clear winner and a clear loser. I generally dislike “Dusty Finishes,” run-ins, screw-jobs, and all manner of Sports Entertainment endings.
I have a fair bit of 1970s and 1980s All Japan Pro Wrestling on tape and DVD. The wrestling is tremendous: Stiff, hard-fought, well-paced, old school goodness abounds, all of it based around very solid ring psychology. Great wrestlers like Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tsuruta, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Bruiser Brody, Jack Brisco, The Destroyer, The Funks, Don Leo Jonathan, Dick Murdoch, Billy Robinson, Harley Race, and many others all fought in All Japan back then, and they are all over those tapes and DVDs. Still, I very rarely watch their matches. I’ve recently come to realize that the main reason for this is that the majority of All Japan’s matches in those years ended in some kind of a Double Count Out, DQ, Double DQ, or Time Limit Draw. Run-ins and interference are mercifully rare, but so are clean pin-fall victories.
It wasn’t until 1988, when Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Akira Maeda made a big splash with their iteration of the UWF, that this would change. The Japanese UWF was a Shoot Style promotion, which means that their matches were incredibly stiff and realistic, and that every match ended with a clean pinfall or submission. Their tremendous success in the late 1980s forced Zen Nihon and Shin Nihon to change their booking policies, which in turn opened the door for the Golden Age of 1990s All Japan and New Japan. As a proud internet wrestling nerd, who has fed himself a steady diet of 90s Pro-Wres, I am entirely unable to get behind TNA’s policy of ending damn near every match with some kind of run-in, interference, or screw job. That’s a huge part of why I’d rather throw in a “Best of Japan 1990s” DVD than order a TNA PPV.
REALISM
One other common online complaint about TNA is that their matches lack realism. The most frequent example I have read is that Petey Williams’ Canadian Destroyer doesn’t make for a believable finisher.
I find this laughable.
Do you know what I find unrealistic? I find it unrealistic when one wrestler throws another towards the ropes, and the thrown wrestler turns around, bounces against the ropes, and runs back towards their opponent. In UWF Shoot Style wrestling, they never, ever, run the ropes. If you want to see some realistic Pro Wrestling, seek out Vader vs. Takada or Maeda vs. Yamazaki, or pretty much any of Maeda or Takada’s late 80s matches. I have been a huge fan of Shoot Style ever since being turned on to UWF by some internet friends on the 411 forums a couple of years back. It’s seriously good stuff, very innovative, and entirely different from Sports Entertainment.
If, however, you (like I) can suspend your disbelief enough to appreciate a good Irish Whip, then maybe you should cut The Canadian Destroyer (and The Styles Clash) some slack.
AJ STYLES: 2005 INSIDE PULSE WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
Speaking of the Styles Clash…
I got the new “Best of the X Division” two disc set for Christmas. Due to the reasons I listed above, and due to sometimes having my head jammed pretty far up my ass as far as opinions on wrestling, I was actually disappointed by the gift. I felt, to pick an example, like a huge Vancouver Canucks fan opening a gift box to find a brand new Calgary Flames jersey.
When I saw that AJ Styles had been named Inside Pulse’s 2005 WOTY (as well as being the top man in the 2005 IP 50) I grit my teeth, rolled my eyes, and prepared to write a column explaining why I think Styles is overrated. To prepare for the column, I pulled out my unappreciated Christmas gift and threw it in the DVD player.
I started out with the DVD Bonus Match, a six-man cluster**** from the FOX Sports iteration of Impact. Out of the six men in the match I’ve seen five in matches that I really, really liked: Amazing Red (vs. Low Ki from UCW in 2001and then again at Road to the Title where they repeated the awesome Crouching Tiger stuff), Frankie Kazarian and Chris Sabin (vs. one another from the ’03 ECWA Super 8), Alex Shelley (vs. Bryan Danielson at Glory by Honor III), and AJ Styles (vs. Bryan Danielson at Main Event Spectacles). I have nothing against Kid Kash, but I none of his matches leap to mind as particular favourites. Theoretically, this match could have been excellent.
It stunk. It was rushed and spotty, and it lacked any semblance of psychology, drama, or a story. This made me pretty happy, since I was mostly just looking for ammunition to use against Styles, and TNA.
I PICTURE THINGS A CERTAIN WAY…
The next match I watched was the Ultimate X Match from Final Resolution 2004. I was genuinely surprised to find myself enjoying the hell out of this match. I suppose it would be easy to just hate on it for being a spot-fest, but I assume that the whole point of Ultimate X as a gimmick is to let the wrestlers put on the best spot-fest that they can. What is important in that context is that the spots should at least be interesting, and hopefully be worked into some sort of narrative structure. In this case, the spots were genuinely innovative, and at times they were breathtaking. AJ Styles’ full flip bump off of the wire was something that I can honestly say I’d never seen before. I found myself forgetting about analyzing the match. Instead, I was getting into it, and hoping that AJ would win. That is exactly what a good wrestling match should do: Take you out of yourself and allow you to really believe for a moment.
To get myself back on a negative track, I picked my jaw back up off the floor and switched over to the match between AJ Styles and Chyna’s girlfriend from No Surrender ’05. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised, as the wrestlers showed a little old-fashioned hate, fire, and anger in the ring. There was a touch of the old “veteran uses his wiles to counter the younger man’s speed and athleticism” story to sink my teeth into. Even the “Special Guest Ref” stipulation worked to the benefit of this match.
I was rapidly running out of ammo.
The next match was Samoa Joe vs. Chris Sabin. While it was nowhere near as good as Joe’s best Ring of Honor matches, it was a great deal better than I’d previously been willing to assume I’d ever get out of TNA.
Now, I’ve got the Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles 30-Minute Iron Man match all cued up and ready to go once I finish this column. That will be the fifth TNA match I’ve willingly watched today, and I fully expect that I’ll enjoy it as well.
I don’t know if I’m ready to start taping Impact or buying TNA PPVs, but I am seriously considering picking up The Best of AJ Styles, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up giving TNA another chance sooner or later. I think that in the near future, if AJ finally learns how to sell convincingly, he might even deserve to be called our Wrestler of the Year.
Jed has a full review of The Best of the X Division right here.
If you haven’t done so already, I suggest that you treat yourself to Bambi’s fascinating interview with Jim Cornette
