Why Ring Of Honor Should Soon Be The Number 2 Promotion In America

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TNA, what the hell happened? I hate to begin a column with such a negative question but really, what the hell is wrong with you guys? You have about 8 to 10 quality main event wrestlers, about a dozen of the most athletic and entertaining wrestlers for your X-Division who should be putting on half hour long matches for your undercard and some of the hottest women wrestlers in the world. Your shitty booking has turned what was once must see TV for the Internet fans into an unwatchable pile of puke. Do you know how hard it is to not root for TNA? You’re the only other alternative to the Great Khali vs. John Cena and at this point I’d rather watch that.

To make matters even worse you’ve now got a little bit of competition from Ring Of Honor for the number two spot. Okay, that might not be such a big deal. You’ve raided their top talent. Homicide, Austin Aries (who LOVES being a part of TNA because you make all of your undercard talent feel so important), Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jay Lethal, Senshi, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and more were plucked by you from Ring of Honor and have toned down their acts to make them fit into three minute matches. All Ring of Honor has left is a top wrestler who proudly admits to weighing less than 190 lbs, some Japanese guys, a British guy prone to injury and some douchebag in a green mask. You probably would have gotten him too if you had more time.

I guess the problem you face with Ring of Honor is that the Internet fans you MUST have to grow as a wrestling company are hopelessly devoted to RoH. I was there Saturday night at the PPV taping, and you should have heard the hate the fans sent your way. For some reason they think you’re responsible for ruining their favorite wrestlers. It’s not so much that you sign away the RoH stars. It’s that you don’t let them put on a show. RoH, on the other hand, encourages their performers to put on a show.

TNA: Christian and Kurt Angle are great. LAX is great. James Storm and Chris Harris are great. The remnants of the X-Division are still watchable. But you have NOTHING like the Briscoe Brothers: two guys of average size and build who make everyone they work with a million times better. You have no one like Bryan Danielson: a smaller-than-average wrestler who can conceivably be viewed as the greatest worker in the world. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe once could have laid claim to that title, but you have diluted the both of them so much they are shells of who they used to be and almost have no chance to be who they one day could have been.

The Japanese wrestlers will never be too marketable in the United States to non-Internet fans, but those more “casual” fans will buy into the Briscoes and Danielson. RoH will hire the best available talent and allow their workers to put on amazing matches. The booking is minimal, the matches need very little explanation. There will be no coffins being lowered from the ceiling, no lights being flickered on and off when someone touches a cage. Just a good comedy match, great singles matches, and the most amazing tag team matches possibly ever done.

TNA, you have all the tools at your disposal to produce a show similar to the one RoH puts on. Your talent roster is far more impressive than theirs. What you do with what you have is embarrassing. What RoH does with what it has is one of the last reasons left to still be a wrestling fan for a person in their mid-20s like me.

People, please buy the July 1 RoH PPV. Tell your friends who used to watch wrestling and stopped to buy this PPV. If we can make this big, if we can make this a success, we can have a wrestling show we can be proud of. If nothing else you will get sucked in by the passion of the crowd. RoH is the new ECW, but it’s so much better. Give it a shot so we can stop watching TNA.