Whammer's Week Episode 22 - TNA

Hello and welcome to another edition of Whammer's Week. Last week was all about RoH and their stars coming over to the WWE so this week, I'm going to talk about the other company making inroads on the WWE, TNA.

TNA

TNA have always been known as a high-risk, take no prisoners style promotion. However, recently, with the addition of people like Brooke Hogan, who has no wrestling experience but has a celebrity reputation, it seems like TNA is trying to get rid of that outlaw image. Everything that TNA had when it began is now gone. The 6 sided ring has now become a standard 4 sided ring, the old ECW veterans that came to TNA in an attempt to relive past glories are now without a job, the never before seen matches like the Monster's Ball and the Hangman's Horror matches are never utilised anymore, etc.

TNA officials seem to have sat down and decided that if the WWE are the top wrestling promotion, then they must be doing all the right things. So TNA have tried to copy them. Changing the ring, getting rid of the deathmatches and replacing them with Ladder and Cage matches and firing all the relics of the past, unless they still have some talent in the wrestling ring. TNA are now more interested in creating new talent and taking guys from the independent circuit, rather than aquiring guys who've been fired from the WWE or have come out of retirement. In the last year, TNA have made Austin Aries into a near main eventer, Bully Ray into a formidable singles competitor, Crimson into a 16 month unbeaten run, James Storm into a legit main eventer and Bobby Roode into the longest reigning World champion they've ever had. They don't mind keeping people like Mr. Anderson, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy out of the main event, while keeping them in the upper midcard scene because of their popularity. People like Sting, Hulk Hogan and until a month ago, Eric Bischoff provided TNA with star power to compliment the new guys and the existing talent also. Even the Knockouts division is getting better, with gals like Gail Kim, Mickie James and Tara providing top quality matches from the women's side of things.

This new approach of TNA has given them something that they've never had before. A balanced and talented roster. And that is something that the WWE need to watch out for because that's something that the WWE is lacking at the minute. TNA has the celebrity status in people like the Hogan's, which will attract people to the show and acts as a form of advertising, and has the individual talents of each wrestler to put on good quality matches that keep the viewers captivated. TNA have managed to shift from a bunch of old, past it veterans and guys who had never made it in the top promotions, all delivering the same rusty promos and the same predictable, brutal matches to people who are either big stars or up-and-coming talent, that can wrestle all day long and put on a great show.

In my opinion, TNA are catching up to the WWE. All they need is that one big break. A more popular TV network taking a chance on them, a celebrity involvement that catches national media or one massive superstar making the jump from the WWE to TNA. Any one of these three and the battle between WWE and TNA becomes as heated as the old WWE/WCW Monday Night Wars.



And that's it for another week. This has been Whammer1 and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Comment away and see you next week.