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Welcome to a new edition of the Greenfield Review, this week’s edition will be covering various topics going on in TNA wrestling. This week’s topics include TNA announcing they will go head to head with WWE Monday Night Raw on January 4th, Wrestler Pick, Vince Russo booking, Impact review and also a look at possible ideas that TNA can do for the January 4th show.
This past week it was announced that TNA wrestling will be going head to head with Monday Night Raw on January 4th, it will be 3 hour special and will be the first time since 2001 that two wrestling shows have gone head to head on Monday Nights. Monday Nights are considered to be the wrestling night, the reason for this is because in the late 1990’s wrestling audiences reached new levels and WCW and WWE went head to head for almost five years.
Hulk Hogan made the announcement on the Ultimate Fighter Live Special, this past Saturday and made it clear that Hulk Hogan was in TNA to take on the WWE. This for me was not really a shock when they announced the special because I don’t see any other reason for Hulk Hogan wanting to join TNA. I think Hulk Hogan has joined TNA to try and make them a more of a competitor to the WWE and wants to try and recreate the Monday Night Wars.
I have watched Hulk Hogan become a huge name in the wrestling business and one of the biggest draws in wrestling history. For at least 20 years he has drawn massive crowds, huge ratings and huge PPV’s buy rates. The question is can a 56 year old Hulk Hogan draw still? I think in some markets he can still draw because he is a national Celebrity but the wrestling business has changed so much over the last 10 years that Hulk Hogan is not a bigger draw than he once was.
I think this is a good announcement; they will not win the ratings war. I fully expect TNA to do at least, what they currently do now. I see them getting a 1.2, maybe a 1.3. But if they draw a 1.5 rating, I would think Spike TV would be very happy with it and may consider giving them a permanent time slot on Mondays! I think the announcement will hopefully get the buzz back in the wrestling business because not much of a buzz in the wrestling business lately. I think this is needed to create some talk and is a good way to really get the motion rolling again. I have seen wrestling fall in popularity over the last 5 years because the lack of competition and development of new, younger and fresh acts.
I think this is the biggest event in TNA wrestling and will be a test for the creative and the wrestlers to perform and create interesting storylines to keep the audience throughout the 3 hours. I think it is important they don’t do anything the WWE does and present the product as their own, making it a new beginning for the company. It will be interesting to see what they put on the show to try and keep the audience for the whole 3 hours and maybe gaining a few extra throughout the night.
I think that TNA will need to advertise this event to more extreme levels than they have ever advertised before. I think the show will need a few surprises. This is what I would do on the show:
TNA Impact this week was one of the worst episodes in TNA history because it represented everything that wrestling is not meant to be. I understand the storyline, where Kevin Nash is a wacky booker and did make some bad decision during WCW, when he was booker. But when trying to produce a product, that they are trying to sell the fans, they did the exact opposite. I thought the show was a load of rubbish, the matches on the show made no sense. I did not like the fact they gave away Desmond Wolfe Vs AJ Styles for free on television, without any hype and was for the World Title. It made no sense, these two can have a good solid match for 20 minutes, but were given just 5 minutes and the next match they will have, if on PPV will be meaningless.
It was the worst show of the year! The show had silly matches that only Vince Russo would do. For Example ODB Vs Tara in a match where they must get drunk before having a street fight, what does this mean? Plus a mud wrestling match between Lacey Von Erich Vs Velvet Sky, which is fine for a male demographic but when trying to define the Knockouts division from WWE Divas it did not help.
I saw no character development on the show and was really a waste of 2 hours. It reminded me of WCW Thunder. The only good things from the show were the 8 man tag match was good, but the stipulation made no sense. I did like the video package of Tomko, but still no idea why he is back and no promo from him saying what his goals are coming back to TNA? I did like the Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley video story, where Mick is trying to convince Jeff Jarrett to come back to TNA. I thought it was well done and will be interesting to see what they do with Jeff Jarrett.
Wrestler Pick:
My Wrestler Pick of the week in TNA is Kurt Angle, each and every week I plan to pick a wrestler and write a few points about them in TNA. Kurt Angle has been in TNA since 2006 after joining from WWE. This is the biggest capture from WWE to TNA because he was the first real major star that was popular with the fans to make the jump to TNA. Kurt Angle is the best wrestler in the world and since being in TNA he has shown, why he is still the best in the business. Every match in TNA he always makes the opponent looks good and does his best to get people over. His matches with Samoa Joe have all been classics, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle have a great formula when wrestling, Matt Morgan at Bound for Glory and even matches with the likes of Sting have been very good. He is my favourite wrestler in TNA and glad when he made the move because it made it clear to me that TNA is a good place to come and wrestle on a limited schedule.
The final part of this week’s column is dedicated to Vince Russo. Vince Russo is not a wrestling writer or booker. I have been disappointed that TNA continue to let him run the show and come up with stupid storylines that do nothing to help TNA. Everything he writes is complete crap, Jim Cornette is right in saying he is the worst booker in wrestling. I know Jim Cornette has a big opinion on this but I agree totally with what he has been saying on his website. I think TNA needs to realise, they need to find someone who is capable of booking wrestling and allows the wrestlers to sell the tickets. With Vince Russo, it is hard to define a heel and a baby face! But who can do a better that job?
That will be next week’s topic!
