Ladies and gentlemen, it is good to be back! I am sorry for the lack of column over the last few weeks, but I was on my honeymoon and I do not feel that my wife would have been cool with me breaking out the laptop to talk about wrestling. Sadly, that means that I missed the end of year and end of the decade column writing goodness. Please do not fear, I will be writing columns with my end of year and end of decade awards soon, I just have to take the time to figure them out.
However, one of the biggest events in recent memory happened this past Monday night. I know that I am a little late to write about it, but I would love the opportunity to address TNA’s taking of a head to head challenge against the WWE machine.
First, I want to say the good. TNA produced a great main event on Monday night with AJ Styles and Kurt Angle pulling out all the stops to produce a memorable match. The only problems that I had with this match happening was that it was neither advertised or announced in the first hour, when viewers were tuning in before Raw began. The match, which is being hyped as a PPV main event has been on free television (and produced memorable matches) twice in the last few months. Kurt and AJ can put on an amazing show, but who is going to pay to see them do so, when they have done it for free twice?
I personally do not like TNA’s approach to TV. IT all seems too fast to let anything sink in. Monday night was a great example of that. It felt like a month of programming forced into three hours. I know that they were trying to hit fans with all sorts of shock and awe, but I just felt numb. If nothing is given time, nothing seems important. If nothing is important, why am I watching? Hopefully TNA television will calm down in the future and focus in on wrestling.
And now for the real subject of this column, Jeff Hardy. I like Jeff a lot. The end of his most recent WWE run was mind-blowingly awesome. He tore the house down on a nightly basis and was the most over star in the WWE. Everyone, from kids up to the smarky adults loved this guy. He was one of the few wrestlers to leave a company and leave the fans wanting more. I would dare to say that no one has ever left a promotion more on top of their game than Jeff did this summer.
Rumors flew around the internet as to when he would return. Some said Wrestlemania. Some said when all of this drug business was over with. Some actually said that he was done. Fans were beckoning for the return of the rainbow haired warrior. WWE even smartly released a DVD on his career just in time for Christmas and used their heel whose persona was based on being anti-Jeff to promote it.
Then the unthinkable happened, Jeff Hardy showed up on TNA Impact. This is not, in itself, a bad thing. The company had just grabbed the most over WWE star in the last two years. They had a man who had been a world champion for the competition just five months ago. This should have been a no brainer. Jeff Hardy could make more of an impact on the company than Hulk Hogan if he was used correctly. TNA may not be targeting kids, but Jeff Hardy could produce a bigger audience of children than Hulk Hogan could in the current day.
What, you may ask, was TNA’s mistake? It surely was not the signing of Hardy. They were smart to pick him up while they could (especially since there is a chance that the WWE would no longer work with him because of the drug charges). It also was not the timing. Jeff debuted on TNA’s most watched show ever. The mistake that TNA made was debuting Jeff in the X division.
I really do like the concept of the X-division. It was a great move by TNA and in it’s glory days of 2004 and 2005 it produced some of the best matches in TNA’s history. Now, aside for this division being a shell of its former self, this division would be a great place for a debuting independent wrestler, who is known on the fringes of wrestling society, but not widely known to most fans. An introduction and steady build could do wonders for a talent like that.
An X-division debut did not make sense for Jeff Hardy though. He is a former world champion in a more credible company that TNA openly admits is bigger than them. They address the competition head on and say that WWE is the big dog. So when they get a former world champion that WWE was still putting over as a great competitor just two weeks ago, they decide to put him against an X-division star who most fans have never heard of. Why would they do this?
Jeff Hardy is a star and he should be in there with legitimate stars. What I saw when Jeff debuted (for some reason through the audience, although he had entrance music) was not a former world champion who wrestled in front of almost 80,000 people last March. I saw exactly what Jeff was last time he was in TNA, a man who will jump off of tall things for a pointless pop and not do much else for the company. Why was Jeff not in the ring with AJ Styles and Kurt Angle? Who did he not have an interaction with Samoa Joe? Would it have killed TNA to make Jeff look like a world championship contender?
On a side note, TNA has recently been advertising on WWE’s shows. What would happen if they ran a main event with Jeff Hardy in it and showed ads during Raw and Smackdown? TNA would gain viewers, children would get to see their drug trafficking hero again, and TNA could actually use this new acquisition to gain momentum for the “new war†that they would like to start.
In the end, I am not into train wrecks. I like to see a simple rivalry. I like to see history acknowledged, but not dwelt upon. WWE actually moved forward in history with the Bret Hart segments on Monday night and TNA seemed to take a segments from Nitro in 1997 and reenact it, complete with Sting in the rafters. Jeff Hardy in TNA is new, but already feels old. He may be made to look like a bigger star in the future, but unless he is, it is just another train wreck in Jeff’s career of them.
I have a lot more to say on both of these subjects and plan to share more of my thoughts in further columns. Have a great new year folks and, as always, leave a brother some comments, I’ll be sure to respond.
