A Non Wrestling Fan's Opinion of TNA
 

So I watched Lockdown earlier in the week.

My mrs doesn't watch wrestling, but she's vaguely familiar with some of the wrestlers due to my watching it, but not to the extent that I thought she'd even be able to distinguish that I was watching a different promotion (TNA) to the one she's caught glimpses of (WWE) in the past.

Anyway, the very first match was some clusterfuck with Curry Man, Shark Boy, Consequences Carribean Creed, The Blackcho Man and a few others. She took an instatnt dislike to TNA!

Comments throughout the show included:

- This isn't the one you normally watch is it? This looks some kind of third rate rip off

- It's as if this company just raided the bargain bin in a fancy dress costume shop

- That's ridiculous!

- What the hell is Kurt Angle thinking working for them?

- That's like the stupidest thing I've ever seen

- Is this for real? Or is it like a joke?

- Why does this match need to take place in a cage anyway?

- This is maybe the worst thing I've ever seen. Can we please watch something else?

The thing is she's not a hater, she'll sit there and watch Raw with me acceptingly if she's around when it's on, sometimes even get into it if it's a good show, so she doesn't have any prejudices towards TNA, or any internet fuelled conceptions, or even any loyalty to the competition. She's a non-fan who will sit through a WWE show and genuinely give it a chance, but she hated TNA and considered it a third rate rip off at first viewing.

I think as wrestling fans, we're more accepting sometimes even if we are more critical, we will still accept it without thinking too much about... whereas if this is the casual viewer's first impression of TNA then it's no wonder the gap between the two top companies just isn't closing.

I didn't see all of Impact, but what I saw I liked.

I saw the Super Eric thing though, and that was not good.

When and why did they change the Motor City Machine Guns' theme song? That was one of the only good tracks TNA had.

And don't insult my intelligence by having Eric Young put a mask on and then easily snap a pair of handcuffs that the likes of Scott Steiner were bound to the cage by for the entire match. It either says that we're supposed to think that Eric Young is stronger than Steiner, or that Steiner is so stupid he remained cuffed to the cage and took a beating even though he could have broken free if he wanted to.

Interestingly enough, this isn't really recent, because I haven't watched TNA in a month or two. But I was talking with some friends about TNA, and they actually knew what I was talking about. So apparently the word is getting around. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, mind, since the word is that it's too shitty to even stack up to WWE shitty.

"That's ridiculous!"

That is a perfect TNA PPV name.

TNA Ridiculous - So bizarre you won't know what hit you!

TNA--Pro Wrestling's Ed Wood!

Don't you people understand? Vince Russo is all about ratings. He gets the ratings. Do you have the numbers to prove he doesn't get rating? NO! All he know is that TNA is one everyone's mind when they talk about it. That means he gets ratings

Yeah, TNA really needs to fire Russo.

They don't need to fire him, just don't let him control the direction of the whole company.

Give him two or maybe three mid card storylines to work on, let him put his full effort into those and I guarantee you'll have a couple of interesting feuds down the card in TNA. Not neccessarily great, but it will certainly not be boring.

How bout a joint PPV between TNA & WWE and call it Clusterfuck?

I was going to write a long review of Angle/Joe, which I just watched, but I'm finding myself not really caring...which is pretty much how I felt when I was watching the entire PPV.

From the TNA crowd who almost never reacts to anything going on in the ring, which could be a byproduct of watching constant spot-festing (Although Angle/Joe really wasn't), to the announce team that only has one volume setting (loud), I just can't really care about any of it. Hell, maybe I'm being too hard on the crowd...maybe they actually just don't care. Maybe they just come to watch someone give someone else a flipping piledriver. (Which by the way, requires just as much effort, if not more, from the guy actually being piledriven)

I kept expecting a huge pop from the crowd when Joe (bahgawd) finally one the title, but instead, it sounded exactly the same as when the match was going on.
The team couldn't call themselves out of a paper bag, and showed it yet again when the match was over...and I swear to God, Joe finally winning the title sounded exactly like 'Angle's got the ankle!' and 'Joe's got the BOSTON CRAB on!'

As far as the ring work, I guess the match was alright for what it was, and the PPV in general was what I've come to expect from TNA...lots of spotfesting (sorry fanboys, but it is), and again, I just can't bring myself to care about any of it.

If you make a better call of Curryman's entrance than Samoa Joe at last winning the TNA world title in a match that was supposed to be career threatening against Kurt Angle, who is one of the most familiar faces in the professional wrestling scene today, with as huge of a buildup as they've given that fued, you sir, are a hack, and belong nowhere near an announcer's table.

I've had way too much beer. I'll go back to lurking now.

Couldn't careless about TNA, tbh. everytime i watch it its usually either for the opening segment or one of the big matches that is close to ending.

I still don't see the greatness of Samoa Joe.

I don't know many people outside of the internet who like wrestling probably about two people. They both have seen TNA and think it's quite good. I had one of them telling me about Sharkboy in a positive way in the pub the other night and the other mentions Nash/Angle/Joe etc when I see him and thinks it's better than WWE when it comes to moves etc.

Does the phrase 5X big mean anything to you? ;)

TNA does have more going for it than people give it credit for. The matches are underrated, and you always see something new or something that gets a reaction out of you. There are performers in the company that are just too good to give a bad performance, and too good to be a part of anything that completely sucks.

Just thought I'd throw in random praise of Matt Morgan's mic skills. He's yet to give a blow-away promo, to my knowledge, but the guy can talk. He's good for a guy his size, too. Best Chokeslam going today. I hope he makes it places.

I was actually watching it when my dad was over, and was hoping he'd make some comments about it. He walked into the room when Jay Lethal made his entrance, and that got his attention. He didn't make a comment about Black Machismo, but he normally makes a comment if something bugs him about the product. It seemed more like a good kind of attention-grabbing.

He knew TNA was "the one with Kurt Angle." He also asked if Angle was the Champion of it. I told him that the Samoan guy beat him, and he said that he likes that guy. I tried to provoke negative Joe comments, just for research's sake, but when I talked about Joe's size, he made a comment about a lot of Samoans looking fat but being tough motherfuckers. So yeah, Joe and Machismo got his approval.

Awesome Kong gets an interesting reaction out of my family. There is a mixture of "fuck, she is a freak, can we get her off?" and "it's good to see a woman actually do something in there." My mother hates the way the WWE treats their women, and seems to enjoy TNA's Knockout Division, but she is a little disturbed by Kong, as well.

The only other real comment, though, was when Sting came out. He recognised him, and asked if he was in the WWE. I told him that he wasn't, but that didn't matter. He still said "it's filled with old WWE guys," in a way that was not positive.