Not the first time I've brought up wrestling but after last night I feel motivated to talk about wrestling again.
First off, I'm not a die hard wrestling fan. I'll watch Smackdown only if I'm having problems falling asleep on a Friday night. Monday Night RAW hasn't really changed in years. Sometimes I'll watch the opening bit of a show and then flip back and forth between shows / commercials. I also read the "dirt sheets" as I find the back stage stuff more interesting then what goes on in the ring. The Miz and R-Truth both are interesting characters to watch and I've always thought R-Truth was an amazing wrestler. His time in TNA when he was part of "3 live crew" really showcased his abilities and made me wonder why WWE held him back. Kofi Kingston has nothing on R-Truth when Ron is allowed to cut loose. His whole
Jimmy angle and
Don't "what" me and both funny. The Miz and his
"Really?" catch phrase is doing well for him.
But aside form that WWE hasn't really changed.
Then there is IMPACT wrestling.
Up until last night I was still calling them "TNA Wrestling". Sure, it's easy enough to re-name your product and hope it catches on, so I didn't give it much thought other the thinking they were grasping at straws. My views on them have made a 180 turn. hey are no longer a poor mans WCW.
First off, with the change from TNA to Impact wrestling. Think about this, how many wrestling promotions are there? Lots. More then I know about, that's for sure. And all of them seem to follow the old NWA template of using an acronym. I'm sure there is an exception to the rule out there, but I'm talking main stream North American wrestling. WWWF, WWF, WWE, WCW, ECW, ROH, NWA, etc...
TNA finally broke away from the mold and went without the acronym. Finally. Thank you. Now maybe it can be seen by the general public as something a bit more serious and not just men running around in their underwear throwing punches in the air and stomping the ground so we hear a long bang.
Next thing they've done is learn what makes them stand out. A few years back TNA a great place for the younger and smaller guys show their talents. Slowly, over time they started picking up more former WWE and older WCW guys. The smallers guys were being dwarfed by there former "big time" stars. Then they brought in Hogan and Eric Bischoff, along with Ric Flair, Jeff Hardy, RVD and a slew of Hogans friends and TNA lost all credibility as far as I was concerned. They dropped the 6 sided ring (you know, one of the things that made them stand out) and basically buried the X division.
For anyone who doesn't watch wrestling and doesn't know what the X division is, it was basically like a cruiser weight / hard core division without a weight limitation and didn't rely on things like chairs or barb wire. This is where you got all you "Holy S**T" chants from the audience because they would pull off some crazy moves in the X division.
So with this re-launch under Hogan we saw more fan favorites get released as they didn't fit in with the new direction of TNA, which was a joke because the new direction was nothing new at all. Basically it was the same old bad guys in power angle that has been done to death. That and they needed to release the older mid card TNA roster to make room for WWE / WCW left overs like Flair, Christian Cage, Nash, Foley, Dreamer, both Hardy boys, etc...
So far a while, much like WWE, TNA became very stale relying on big muscle men with name recognition using heavy power moves.
Now fast forward to the area of IMPACT Wrestling. At first there were some minor changes. They came out with these 30 second interviews with their wrestlers talk about why wrestling matters. It was decent enough looking, but nothing really stood out.
Then they announced they were going start a tournament leading up to “Bound For Glory” where wins and loses mattered. If you win a match with a pin fall you get 7 points, 10 points if you make your opponent tap out, zero points for a loss. The points would be add up over the next few months until the pay per view. Nice concept really, one I had thought of myself years ago.
Good concept but still not blown away yet.
Then I heard the next pay per view was going to be an all X division PPV. That and I’m seeing guys like Austin Aries and Jerry Lynn in the back ground of back stage segments has now got my attention. Then A.J. Styles comes out and says the 6 sided ring will return for the X division PPV.
Mix in the fact a great female wrestler named ODB has been jumping Velvet Sky for the past few week and now Miss Jackie is with her and you’ve really got my attention.
It shows that IMPACT wrestling has finally clued into what the fans want. The story has become more believable. Hogan isn’t this total jerk of a heel. He’s still a bad guy, but he’s not hulking it up. Eric Bischoff is take the blunt of being the bad guy, and he does it well. He’s not a walking cartoon villain like Vince was on WWE. He’s a better actor and as such his heel character makes more sense.
In general the matches feel more believable. Last night I saw a great match between Bully Ray (Bubba Dudley) and Scott Steiner. Bully Ray has dropped a lot of weight and has really embraced being a heel. Steiner I’ve never really cared for, but putting these two smash mouth wrestlers together gave a great stand out match and helped to build a future angle where Steiner might be joining Hogan’s heel group, along side Bully Ray.
In fact, the only goofy angle going on right now is Eric Young is the current TV champion and he is challenging all the wrong people, like Popeye the sailor man. But this is vintage Eric Young, so more proof TNA has gone back to what works.
All of this together makes for some decent television.
But here’s the part that made me want to sit down and write this. Last night Sting took his character to a new level. Years ago in WCW Sting dropped all the colourful face paint and costume in favor of a look that strongly resembled The Crow, played by the late Brandon Lee. While Sting looked like the crown and became a bit darker, his core character didn’t really change. Last night Sting’s character became more maniacal, more chaotic, more like the movie character The Crow.
This is the first time since the 90’s that I actually stopped in my tracks and took in the segment. This was the first time in over a decade that I really, truly cared about wrestling. Sure, the angle was a bit old, Eric Bischoff is the evil mastermind, blah blah blah but Sting really stood out. He reminds me of the Joker.
Really, if you’ve read this far, then check out this link and tell me what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5CI54TZlRY
