Chris Cash called me Sunday at 5pm, wanting me to co-host the Wrestlezone.com”s coverage of Against All Odds and my first reaction was “ugh… that means I gotta watch TNA?” I am glad I did.
Listen, no one has been more consistently critical of TNA Creative than me. From the early days of Jeff Jarrett impersonating Triple H, not wanting to drop the belt to Raven to today’s mish-mosh, I’ve never hated something more than I’ve wanted to love.
As a fan of wrestling, I want TNA to set up shop as the second wrestling promotion in America. Number two is a good thing when the pie is so lucrative and most of it is being left uneaten on the table. But, TNA has done everything they can to alienate the fan base they should embrace.
As a father of two boys and the owner of the remote, I make the TV decisions in my house. If TNA was good, we’d watch Impact and TNA would have two young potential fans and consumers of their toys, videogames and merchandise. But the show sucks and it is not watched in my house. Just because I write for Wrestlezone, I don’t need to watch a show that blows. I watch enough to know that it’s rotten but if it was good, I’d watch every week and so would my kids.
So, I ordered the PPV and my 12-year old son watched with me and as I said in the opening paragrah, I am glad I did. The show rocked and I now will order TNA PPV’s because I got more than my money’s worth. Just like UFC, I will order PPV’s but not watch the weekly show. I don’t need to… As long as I know that UFC PPV’s are good, they’ll get my money.
An informal poll in the chat room during the event showed that less than 3% of those chatting with us ordered the PPV. How many of those who didn’t order Against All Odds chose not to because Impact is so dreadful? If the weekly show was good, I know that their PPV buys would increase because a bad show hurt buy rates. WWE PPV’s were in the toilet in the mid-90’s and so were their show’s ratings. When their shows got better, the ratings slowly increased but the buy rates jumped and house show attendance increased quickly.
One great element that added to the enjoyment of AAO was the crowd. They were off the hook from the first match but there were only about 1000 paying fans in a 14,000 seat arena. How many more fans would TNA have had if Impact was good?
WWE ratings have settled but house show attendance has increased in the most recent Quarterly Report. They also are charging more per ticket and still got more fans in the doors. WWE house shows have top guys working hard and they make money. WWE TV markets their top guys well on TV. ROH has no TV and yet sells tickets at a high dollar amount because of word of mouth. ROH fans they know they will get their money’s worth. Impact has marketable names and two hours of weekly TV but can only sell around 1000 tickets and their PPV buy rates are microscopic? That’s because the show sucks. Raw and Smackdown are decent to good. Impact does such a bad job of marketing their top guys with all the confusing turns and nonsense that it turns away fans.
So, that’s where I come in. I am recommending everyone who reads this column to order a TNA PPV because the mindless Creative Team gets out of the way for the most part and the good talent gets to shine.
That 6-Man tore the house down. The Dudley’s were on fire and they made Jay Lethal look like a million bucks. Robert Roode and Booker T had a match that looked like a fight and would not have been out of place on a WWE PPV. Both girls matches were better than any Diva match on WWE and the main event was as good as any match I’ve seen. The only thing I didn’t like was the stupid backstage skits with Kurt Angle. I don’t think a World Champion should ever be shown as a henpecked, yelled-at husband. He’s the World Champ and should always be shown as larger-than-life. But that was kept to a minimum and I forgot about that when the night was done.
Even my 12-year old liked it and he said that we should watch the next one. And we will.
I don’t care how they get there and Impact will still remain unwatched in my house but I’ll order the PPV’s as long as they continue to be good. Will you? What are your thoughts? Will any of you take my recommendation and order a PPV that you normally don’t? To those of you that do order, how much does Impact affect your buying decision?
Let’s talk about it in the forums. Happy Valentine’s Day!
