“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – )
Last Sunday night I came ever so close in this mind-war to victory. So my cries will not go unheard, my reasons for writing these columns will not go unanswered, and while our world and our country is drowning under mediocrity of leadership I would hope that my time is well spent when it crosses the bridge of what truly matters which is NOT wrestling. I am uncertain how long I can keep this charade of writing meaningful column after meaningful column but Sunday inched me closer to screaming a collective “I told you so” to all of my and TNA’s critics. We are not there yet but please take notice of what could be coming…The quiet before the storm as I had previously mentioned. Below is an undeniable list of what TNA will have to offer to the world now and soon to come. You do the math…
World Champion: A.J. Styles – Finally, a champion that can send TNA in the right direction. Jarrett has been dethroned, challengers await, Abyss, Monty Brown, Raven, Jeff Hardy, we have our champion to compare with the worthless and talent less Batista, the mediocre wrestling skilled, but well verbally set John Cena. Hell even King Vince wanted to offer Styles a huge contract and a world title run…Advantage A.J. who will spend more time working on a new move and workouts, than a rap CD that is completely laughable.
X-Division Champion: Christopher Daniels – It’s a good comparison to compare Daniels and London. Not the WWE cruiserweight division though. When the X-Division was getting hot King Vince feared any repercussions from it and quickly put a halt to the joke of the division that it was with Chavo Sr. and Jackie as its champions. “London is a Ring of Honor indy guy, they outta like that!”…Too late. The X-Division is more in line with the Intercontinental title division on RAW and when Benjamin just has to constantly wrestle recycled opponents for no reason, it gets annoying. Besides, anyone in their right mind knows how talented Christopher Daniels is, he is without a doubt a future TNA world champion. Advantage: Daniels.
Tag Team Champions: The Naturals – Emotional yes, with the death of their manager Chris Candido, but in a match dedicated to him with his trademark towel draped over his chair at ringside I watched what the tag division would be on a regular basis. Fast paced, good wrestling, great tag teams with actual chemistry. We’ve seen King Vince copy this one as well. Instead of throwing two wrestlers who have nothing else to do on the card as a tag team, he tosses MNM into the spotlight and the inexperienced Heartthrobs. Keep in mind that Americas Most Wanted also offered contracts by King Vince head this division with Team Canada not far behind, Apolo and Siaki, 3 Live Kru and the possible return of the Hardy Boyz. TNA actually focused on their tag division, unlike King Vince. Advantage: The Naturals.
Gail Kim and CM Punk: Gail Kim will be making her TNA debut soon…What does this mean? This means TNA has built every one of its divisions to be better than its new rival, and they will do just the same for the women’s division. Gail Kim, Traci, Trinity…You know you would. Oh yes, they can actually WRESTLE! I expect Noreen Greenwald AKA Molly Holly to also make her debut in TNA at sometime in a division run by RESPECT and not HORMONES. CM Punk is rumored to be coming back to TNA. This will be a huge boost to TNA, since he left he only became a bigger name around the internet working Ring of Honor shows. Punk has had classic encounters with A.J. Styles and Raven, and could easily continue any of these feuds. CM Punk is easily the top indy prospect in the business right now and likely the best talent too. Adding CM Punk to the TNA roster will just give it even more of a boost.
Scott D’Amore: As you may know Dusty Rhodes is no longer booking for TNA. This is a very good thing as Scott D’Amore has taken over along with Billy Banks and Jeremy Borash under him. With Hard Justice we have already seen storylines shaping. Jeff Hardy’s absence although unintentional will only spark the ongoing Hardy/Raven feud that will lead to a climax at Slamiversary. Raven can make any feud a classic with himself merely included in it. The best storyline and feud in the history of wrestling was Tommy Dreamer and Raven. If you want proof I’ll write my next column about it. After recruiting Michael Shane to help with her feud against Traci, Trinity took on Chris Sabin and Traci with Michael Shane as her partner. In a beautiful and unknown twist, Shane and Traci turned on Sabin and Trinity and walked out the victors. Along with the building BG James/Outlaw feud that could involve 3 Live Kru, TNA is actually set with more storylines than the WWE along with Styles and Daniels heading TNA in the right direction.
Now any intelligent individual that appreciates competitive wrestling and respect for the sport will watch TNA. TNA has some ways to go before achieving the level of wrestling Ring of Honor has, but the WWE has light years to go before coming close to Ring of Honor. People seem confused about why I constantly bash the WWE. It’s simple. They don’t respect their fans; they don’t respect the sport of wrestling. Evidence A is Batista. He was made champion for basically science lab reasons. “Lets see if he can do it”. I can’t think of any world champion in the WWE or WCW besides David Arquette that held so little talent as Batista does. After Samoa Joe lost his ROH world title to Austin Aries the place broke out in “Thank you Joe” chants. THAT’S respect for the competition of wrestling. That’s what I want out of my product. TNA offered a survey for their fans to take on what they would like to see in their product…That’s what you call respect for the fans. That’s what I want out of my product. You rarely hear about sources leaked in TNA, nobody truly knew if Jarrett was going to retain or not, nobody knew about the Shane/Sabin twist, I think everyone knew that Batista was going to be world champion. Everyone knows that Lita and Edge were going to turn on Kane. Is it that hard not to leak out storylines? Does King Vince make a profit off of these wrestling news sites? I don’t understand how we know everything from the front desk of Vince McMahon but when it comes to Dixie Carter and Jimmy Jarrett it’s silent. Take a cue from the top sitcoms on television who keep what happens confidential until the actors have to actually recite their lines in front of the camera, hell even Mark Hamil was not told that Darth Vader was Luke’s father until he had to go act out the famous scene minutes before. I think from rumors I already know that John Cena will hold the title for 6 months until Randy Orton comes back to Smackdown after his injury to feud with him. This is dumb. I would think a billion dollar corporation would have a little bit more intelligence than that.
Pretty soon my job will be done, winds are changing and TNA will have the option to do whatever it pleases very soon. Now I can’t count on society, most people are generally stupid, as with most die-hard WWE fans who likely do not understand the concept of true wrestling. I can only hope that TNA is a success to the point where they can stay on the air. As far as Dethroning King Vince, it’s possible, but as Arthur Clarke mentioned, “it has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value”. I’m out.
-Joseph Bachman
