Watching TNA and WWE with in a 48 hour period, and you can see the different priorities with the two companies clearly. I decided to watch in it’s entirety, TNA’s Bound For Glory, because I was extremely curious to see how TNA was going to handle Kurt Angle’s TNA PPV debut and the main event career versus title match between Sting and Jeff Jarrett. I enjoyed the PPV and thought that Jeff Jarrett finally did the right thing and hopefully will no longer hold the company back by having to be the main event world champion. TNA has always had a very talented roster, both established and guys that a mainstream WWE fan have never heard of. The problem has always been the lack of direction in the world title picture, and the lack of respect Jarrett has had as champion.
The purpose of the main event champions is to represent the company as their identifying man or woman otherwise known as “the face” for their company, both for the public, the wrestling audience and the media. If you have any talent that can’t respectively represent the company, then you are wasting your time. It also goes without saying that your WWE champion should, in theory, be the one making you the most money.
Will Sting be a transitional champion? Even though Sting looks incredible for his age, and I do like his mix of retro Sting and nWo Sting, I couldn’t help but think, ‘who will he pass the torch to?’ The one feud that is just developing that has me ready to put money down to see is Samoa Joe versus Kurt Angle. If all roads lead to Joe versus Angle, then with the right promotion and marketing (which can never be underestimated), TNA will be a more serious contender to the WWE. WWE is in a safe spot in general, they are mainstream, they have no head to head competition that is another pro wrestling company and they have what seems like a bottomless bank account (and they must to promote the Marine like they do). I would like it to start off with Sting versus Somoa Joe, it makes more sense because Joe has been there longer than Angle. Sting can pass the torch to Joe, and then we can see a championship match (that would need the appropriate championship build) between Angle and Joe. Kurt Angle versus Somoa Joe has a big feel to it, but also, TNA is more like ECW in what they offer pure wrestling wise, than WWE’s ECW.
What TNA needs to do is to market their strengths: wrestling that creates impact. TNA isn’t without gimmick (see Kevin Nash’s invitational, or LAX), but they can produce a good show without being dependent on gimmicks. The WWE right now is so overdosed on storylines getting over based on characters (even to the point of John Cena acting like a Marine, when all he did was PLAY ONE IN A MOVIE), and the natural heel heat of Kevin Ferderline, that I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferderline got signed to a WWE contract.
Marketing Kurt Angle as the face of TNA is a must, but not in a half-assed way. Kurt needs to be making mainstream appearances off of SPIKE, his face needs to in mainstream ads in newspapers like US Today and even a front page ad on MySpace (it’s not like TNA is hurting for money either). If WWE fans have never heard of TNA somehow, they aren’t going to know Angle is there based on how it’s been handled so far. Have his peers comment on what kind of impact he can make, bring back some of his training video footage that he owns, show him training, show his intensity. And don’t miss the golden marketing opportunity of marketing Kurt Angle related mouthpieces along with those shirts you’ve made, TNA.
Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
