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Just 3 days shy of my 29th birthday, I’ve been a fan of pro wrestling for as long as I can remember. I was a casual fan throughout my youth, but then as I entered my late teens, I was bitten. What was I bitten by? It was wrestling bug. The wrestling bug bit me, and now I have the sickness. What is “the sickness”? The sickness is when you’re a fan through and through. The sickness is when you crave the wrestling industry in any incarnation, be it WWE, TNA, ROH, DGUSA, etc. The sickness is when you’re a fan through both the good times and the bad. Sometime’s it’s unfortunate to have the sickness. When The Goon and Man Mountain Rock were featured on WWF TV, the sickness was an affliction. When David Arquette was strapping on the same heavyweight title once worn by Harley Race, the sickness was a curse. Each and every time there’s the comedic equivalent of an abortion perpetrated by Santino Marella and a WWE guest host, the sickness is like herpes, just plain embarrassing.
However, tonight I was reminded that the sickness can be fantastic.
In my professional life I’m both a television producer and screenwriter. A few years back I actually had two phone interviews to go work on the Smackdown creative team. Truth be told, I have a lot on my plate most of the time. However, because of the aforementioned wrestling-related illness, I check wrestling news before work email. It may sound crazy, but I do. Following pro wrestling as closely as I do, I’ve come to realize the overwhelming sense of negativity most wrestling fans have. So many fans love to harp on the negative, and with just cause much of the time. I however pride myself on my positivity. Life’s too short to nitpick on the negative, but it sure as hell isn’t too short to praise the positive.
Tonight’s edition of TNA Impact made me proud to be a wrestling fan.
Any long time fan of the business has had that moment. That moment when you’re forced to defend your love of the industry to a friend or relative who just “doesn’t get it”. “It’s fake!”. Sure it is. It’s scripted. So was Seinfeld. So is Saturday Night Live. Pro wrestling at it’s best is a violent, athletic, entertaining, often times bizarre, variety show of sorts. When pro wrestling hits on all cylinders there’s just nothing like it. However, pro wrestling at it’s worst is a cringe-inducing embarrassment. Most of my buddies loved wrestling during the attitude era. They thought The Rock was hilarious. They marvelled at the Edge/Christian/Hardy Boyz matches. They thought Sabu was a maniac and that the NWO was cool as hell. These fans have since been turned off to the business. Whenever I ask why, they say that they feel it’s reverted back to a kids show. They say John Cena is corny. They said it’s not exciting anymore. I don’t disagree. But what I saw tonight was something that made me, for the first time in 5 years, text message these former fans and tell them they need to see what I saw tonight.
If you captivate them, they’ll come back.
Impact was captivating tonight. I’ve followed TNA since it’s inception. I’ve caught a few PPV’s before. Never felt the need to order every one. I was intrigued, I was often times entertained, but I was never fully captivated by the product. Tonight TNA captivated me, and for that, I thank them. I’ll not only thank them with literary praise, but I’ll thank them with my impending PPV purchases. And I can tell you that I will 100% be inviting my friends, the former wrestling fans, over for the next TNA PPV. Will they be captivated as well? I, and TNA, can only hope. They’re willing to come back to the product they once loved. Tonight’s show was the hook. Reel them in.
If my friends walked in and caught me watching the Raw with Santino dancing with Koslov, they’d laugh at me and say “Yep, this is why I stopped watching.” If my friends walked in tonight and caught me watching Angle/AJ, MCMG/Beer Money, Abyss/RVD or that fantastic closing angle they’d sit down, watch and be entertained.
The people WANT to like wrestling, they just haven’t had a product worth consistently watching. I LOVE pro wrestling, but the ROH product looks second rate, and often times bland. No former fan is ordering DGUSA. Sorry, but they’re not. But they WILL watch TNA. They’ll give it a shot. They want to be excited again. They want to be surprised again. They want to get lost in the moment just like the old days.
They want to be captivated.
