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TNA drops the ball again on Impact

AnubisPosted on 01/19/07 at 05:38:51

Main event, Kurt Angle versus AJ Styles.  This is a dream match.  Two great wrestlers who are exciting to watch.  Perfect opportunity to show that TNA is better than WWE, perfect chance to show off the in-ring product.

What do they do?  They have Angle squash Styles completely.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Angle winning the match.  The problem is that they made it an absolute squash, basically 5-10 minutes of Angle beating the shit out of Styles, save for a very short time when Tomko distracted Angle.  This could have been a great match, but in the end, it was pure crap.  You might as well have had Tomko himself in there instead of Styles, it would have been just as "good".

Oh, and as funny as it was, it was absolutely ridiculous how, when Angle was trying to find out who Christian Cage's coach was, he asked "Is it Goldberg?" and "Is it Brock Lesnar?" after Cage had said it was someone who wrestles "just like Angle"; even funnier was that, all the while, the crowd was chanting "RVD"!  Someone fucked up that segment.

This was a golden opportunity.  You can't have more than one "first match" between two wrestlers.  TNA dropped the ball, as seems to be the norm.  Vince Russo is almost as bad as Vince McMahon, maybe moreso.  TNA is gonna go down the drain if they don't can Russo immediately.  The guy is poison.  WCW died because of him and so will TNA at this rate.  I believe now more than ever that Russo is a plant from McMahon to sabotage the competition.
Rick GarrardPosted on 01/19/07 at 05:55:36

Actually WCW died because Bischoff didn't know how to say "no" to Hogan and his buddies when it came to guaranteed contract, unlimited character creative control, and numerous other things. Russo was brought in after Unca Eric had pretty much already gutted the coffers of WCW.

That being said, Russo was not the creative genius that he thinks he was.  He's a legend in his own mind, if you will.  Ed Ferrera was moreso responsible for the writing aspects of the WWF Attitude era, while Russo was the "ideas" guy.  They admit to this on a shoot interview that I saw last year that I rented through NetFlix.
HugeRockStar760Posted on 01/19/07 at 07:17:28

That's not a squash. A squash is something like Goldberg going up against Gillberg. The finish is never in doubt.

Let's face it. The best of wrestlers are going to lose. Just because the Suns lose to the Lakers doesn't mean they were jobbed out. It's because it's a sport and there are winners and there are losers. The best of teams are going to lose because on that given game, the other team was just better than they were.

I'd say where TNA is dropping the ball is offering a match like these on free television and not on the Monday night special that will be aired in a few weeks or better yet, on pay per view.

Also, is Angle a face or a heel? Attacking Samoa Joe's girlfriend to me is a heelish act. Attacking everyone backstage just because you're angry about losing to Samoa Joe is heelish. Yet, they are making Angle the de facto face now. While Samoa Joe is, well, he's just Samoa Joe, a tweener.

Actually WCW died because Bischoff didn't know how to say "no" to Hogan and his buddies when it came to guaranteed contract, unlimited character creative control, and numerous other things.  Russo was brought in after Unca Eric had pretty much already gutted the coffers of WCW.
WCW died because Time Warner didn't want wrestling on their networks. That's it. Fusient had a deal in place to buy the promotion but without television, the deal was basically worthless (they could've gotten a deal with the USA Network if they had been patient enough).

While Eric Bischoff made lousy business decisions, that wasn't the reason WCW isn't around today. I wonder if Vince buying WCW was even a good move. It seems the only thing they were interested in was the tape library and putting their competition away. The parallels to Jim Crockett Promotions buying UWF are very similar.
AnubisPosted on 01/19/07 at 09:42:01

You must not have seen it.  While it wasn't a "under one minute" style of squash, the fact that AJ Styles had less than 30 seconds of offensive time and was completely crushed by Kurt Angle is what makes it a squash in this case.

Rick, WCW didn't start going downhill until after Eric Bischoff was gone the first time, and by the time he came back to work with Vince Russo, it was already way too late to repair the damage Russo had already done.
HugeRockStar760Posted on 01/19/07 at 15:50:18

On 01/19/07 at 09:42:01, Anubis wrote:You must not have seen it.  While it wasn't a "under one minute" style of squash, the fact that AJ Styles had less than 30 seconds of offensive time and was completely crushed by Kurt Angle is what makes it a squash in this case.

Rick, WCW didn't start going downhill until after Eric Bischoff was gone the first time, and by the time he came back to work with Vince Russo, it was already way too late to repair the damage Russo had already done.
That's odd because the match went about 8 minutes without commercials, not under 1 minute. Besides, you're in no position to ask if someone watched a match to critique. Considering you're the one who will criticize an entire TNA pay per view based on writeups instead of trying to support TNA and buying the pay per view.

And Anubis, you're ignorant about the reason WCW is out of business. It had nothing to do with Bischoff or Russo. It comes down to Time Warner not wanting wrestling on their networks. That's why WCW is not around today with Fusient owning it. WCW was still getting decent ratings near the end. (WWE never did capture that audience either, especially after Vince's ego wouldn't allow for a relaunched WCW, along with Viacom not wanting to add more wrestling either).
Rick GarrardPosted on 01/19/07 at 16:50:33

WCW started going downhill when Hogan joined the nWo.  He couldn't stand to watch something that wasn't his idea still his place in the spotlight.  Go back and watch some of the old WCW Nitro's pre-Hogan nWo vs Hogan joining the nWo.  the quality of booking started going downhill when Hogan started using his "creative control" every Nitro main event, forcing almost every show to in a no contest.  

And the real thing that was going to kill WCW even with or without a TV deal was going to a city, announcing a card, then not having a single match out of 5 or so that were announced.  This happened in many cities.  Basically WCW was making promises that it couldn't keep to the fans.  Talk about pissing people off.  I was in one of those crowds in Terre Haute when such a thing happened for a Thunder taping no less.

And yes WCW was getting better ratings toward the end.  And that was mainly because Terry Taylor was booking coherent old school heel vs face storylines.