A bigger 'Impact' from TNA?
I just watched last night's TNA Impact, which was the first in the company's new 2-hour timeslot on SpikeTV.
I've been sort of burnt out on pro wrestling of late. WWE has become quite stale and I always found TNA's breakneck pace in the 1-hour timeslot to be far too hectic to enjoy. Ring of Honor has been my main source for pro wrestling, and, if you haven't checked out any of their DVDs, go to their site right now and purchase a couple. If you're a fan of in-ring performance and believable storylines, you'll love ROH.
Getting back to TNA, I'm not ashamed to admit that, in general, I'm not a fan of the 1-hour format. These last dozen years or so have spoiled many wrestling fans. One hour just doesn't give me my fix of wrestling. When it was announced that TNA was getting a 2-hour slot, I got a little excited. After all, the company employs several of my favorite wrestlers, including Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, A.J. Styles and Low Ki (I refuse to call him Sen-Shi). Also, Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin are the best young tag team in the business and I'm really enjoying Jay Lethal's "Black Machismo" gimmick, despite my original reservations.
So, what did I think of last night's episode?
It was a solid first outing.
The main event, featuring Triple X (Daniels and Low Ki) teaming with Styles and Christian Cage against LAX (Homicide and Hernandez), Junior Fatu (formerly Rikishi in WWE) and Samoa Joe, was outstanding. It showcased everyone's skill set and kept a fast pace.
This is one of the things that WCW was really good at when the company was kicking WWF/E's butt in the ratings in the mid-90s. They'd allow the strong workers (Jericho, Malenko, Mysterio, Guerrero, Benoit, etc., etc.) do their thing on one half of the card, and let the big names (Hogan, Hall, Nash, etc., etc.) do the storytelling in the main events.
Sometimes when I watch TNA, I get the feeling I'm watching a company that was founded by a group of over-the-hill wrestlers and WWE castoffs in order to be big fish in a small pond and continue their long-should've-been-over wrestling careers (watching The Steiners attempt to do a "run in" is almost painful to watch).
But if Vince Russo and the rest of creative takes advantage of the extra time on their TV shows and gives the fans a little bit of everything (some great wrestling, some soap opera angles, etc) then TNA will continue to grow.
The biggest mistake TNA can make, though, is to keep wanting more. Two hours is the perfect amount of time. Wrestling fans saw when Nitro went to 3 hours on Monday, followed by another couple hours of Thunder a few days later. That's just too much wrestling.
Two hours to develop characters, put over storylines and put on one 3-4 star match is more than enough to get that company over in the long term.