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I admire Jim Ross and I think he's the greatest wrestling announcer after Gordon Solie but he's really missing it if he thinks people talking about Michael Cole is the same as him doing a good job in his new role. Wrestling fans are familiar with the concept of the "heel announcer". Not necessarily in the lead announcer role but that could be an interesting twist if done well. The talk about Cole is about what a distraction he is and how he takes away from the programming and that's something an announcer/commentator should NEVER do.
While Ross is certainly correct that Black wrestlers are being presented better (in some ways) now than they were in the past, he may someone to show him how it can rub some African American fans wrong when it seems like nearly all of the Black WWE performers are "from the streets".
Last week, Layla El and Kelly Kelly had one of the best women's matches presented by either WWE or TNA in months and that's bad business for TNA, which used to be able to pride itself on having some of the best women's matches today. Hopefully the additions of Tara, Mickey James, and Katie Lea will signal a return to the "glory days" of Knockout wrestling. That would also mean deemphasizing The Beautiful People and giving more time to Hamada, Taylor Wilde, and Sarita. We'll see.
Speaking of the Beautiful People, just as overexposure has hurt their (at one time) hot gimmick, it's now hurting LayCool, who were "out-Beautful People"ing The Beautful People. I'm not sure how someone thought that live mic fiasco on Raw recently would turn out any differently that the debacle it was.
When commentators are bad, fans and wrestling reporters are all over them so I thought I'd take time to point out how good Mike Tenay and Taz were for the "Before the Glory" show, Bound For Glory, and the first Impact after BFG. Tenay managed to sound like a credible sports broadcaster and tell and push storylines and angles while Taz came across like a guy who's been in the ring and understands what's going on for the wrestlers.
If Jeff Hardy's going to be a heel, he should beat up all his old friends and not just RVD and Mr. Anderson. This would be a perfect opportunity to elevate Ink, Inc, with Hardy beating on Shannon Moore. I'm not even suggesting Ink, Inc go over Hardy and Abyss or Jarrett but it would give them some new matches and, with some competitive tag and singles matches, it would help boost Moore and Jesse Neal.
It's time for AJ Styles to leave TNA or at least take a few months off. He's been there from day one and there's nothing else for him to do. Indulge me a little fantasy booking. The old tension between AJ and Kazarian flare up again over the attention of Ric Flair. AJ gets fed up and quits Fourtune. They could then have him wrestle Douglas Williams on Impact building toward him facing Kazarian.
Ultimately Kazarian gets the biggest win in years and beat AJ for the TV title, cleanly. Kazarian wins the rematch. AJ then loses to Kazarian in a "loser leave" match (but not a "loser retires" match, that's been overdone). He takes that time and works some ROH, DGUSA, and even EVOLVE. Then they bring him back3 to 6 months later with Christopher Daniels to feud with Beer Money. Stretched out, that would give them months of great matches, elevation an excellent young talent,the return of a TNA original in a major way and a hell of tag match for Bound For Glory 2011.
Thanks for reading.
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