Let’s just be honest from the start, TNA is in a funk. A really bad funk as of lately. I contemplated over several different topics to write about, but I was always driven back to this one, TNA just isn’t cutting it. The fear that this federation may close its doors, in my opinion, is real, it’s damn real. They are just not cutting the mustard anymore, so to speak. Their television programming remains stagnate, their story lines are all overdone and their talent is dwindling. I am trying to be biased as I write this column, trying to take the fan in me out of the equation, but even as I type these words, the truth starts to sink in and hurt. It’s just not happening for TNA and it may never. TNA started with so much more going on than they do now. They had thriving Knockouts and X-Divisions, their story lines were relatable and interesting and you could almost guarantee that when you tuned into Impact Wrestling on Thursday nights, it would be entertaining, at least most of it. I truly can’t remember when, outside of a PPV, Impact wrestling kept my attention. Once upon a time, TNA harbored massive potential and gained success through displaying their talent for in-depth story lines and an innovative roster. What happened? Where did it all go? Nowadays you are lucky to watch one interesting segment on this passé brand before clicking the remote and tuning into something relatively interesting, like the World Log Chopping Championships(Please note the hint of sarcasm).
As a fan of this brand for so long, I always have the notion to take offense when I hear negative comments about their performance or talent. I defend them to my opposing counterparts from the WWE, always adding comments like “We are a fairly new federation” and “wait and see…” to up my defenses against any wrestling skeptics. I am tired of defending it all the time though. It is becoming an exhausting effort that shows little payoff. I consider myself to be a bright individual and a pretty talented writer, if I do say so myself…. and I do. But when you are constantly caught defending something you love to others while the thing your defending only gets worse, well it makes you look like the jackass and an incompetent fool who doesn’t know what they are talking about. I am tired of being that person. Defending this brand from others has become a full time job and I just don’t think I want to report to work anymore. I am in no way a fly by night kind of fan. I have been with TNA ever since its inception on Spike TV, even before that in Nashville, after all, it is my hometown. It hurts my soul when I have to lash out like this to TNA, but maybe somebody will wake up and listen to us speaking out. Maybe positive changes will finally come to this brand and I can stop complaining so damn much.
Recently Hulk Hogan did an interview where he discussed his future with the company, the financial changes the company is going through and the recent roster cuts. Hogan stated that most promotions go through a “roster clean up” every three or four months, they reposition everything and build up from there. Which makes sense if you think about it, we are fans, and we could care less what kind of restructuring they’re going through if it’s going to cost us our federation. We are losing TNA. It’s a fact. Things are becoming so cloudy throughout this brand, fans can tell where a story line begins and where the next one ends, everything just seems to run together. Some might say that it’s all connected, to place a well-organized series of story lines throughout all the plot points within TNA is brilliant. I say you’re full of it. I say stop being like me, blindly defending this federation to anyone with constructive criticism. Open your eyes and face the truth. Times are truly changing within TNA and unless we can identify some serious problems honestly, then we are not going to be happy with the end result.
Suggestion after suggestion, column after column, I have tried to point out some of the complacencies within the offices and ranks of TNA. Each week I hope that things will be different and I can find some other over powering opinion about this brand that isn’t currently a negative one. Each week I find myself searching for something that isn’t there. I am no wrestling expert. I have never stepped inside the squared circle as a wrestler, so I wouldn’t know the difficulties that they may be experiencing. But I am a fan, a very loud and boisterous one, one with more opinions than there are words in a dictionary. As a fan, I have that right to want a change for the better. If I said it once, I will say it again, GET RID OF HOGAN! I don’t think he is the bearer of all things bad, but I do think his salary could be used in more constructive ways. Hogan was brought in to raise the company up from a little known company to an international brand. He did that. Congratulations Hogan! Now it’s time to move on. The name Hogan doesn’t mean as much as it used to in professional wrestling. Hulk brought the fans in, no doubt about that. TNA has optimized the Hogan’s usefulness of his name and now they can use his salary to grow the brand even further. TNA has just outgrown the Hogan name, simple as that. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business. It’s all about the numbers of dollars and cents, if his name isn’t bringing in the dollars then it just doesn’t make sense.
This column could truly go on and on with all the things that TNA are doing wrong at the moment. As a fan, you always want to try and help build up the brand in a positive manner. It’s just not always easy when things you notice are all going so wrong. I don’t know if I could do better, I just don’t think that I could do worse. If TNA doesn’t wake up real soon and recognize their deep issues within their company then they may soon find themselves with one fan less, then again that’s just my Chaotic Theory….
