Hello, and welcome to our first look at the American promotion Total Nonstop Action (TNA).
As most wrestling fans know, TNA has made a dramatic shift in branding and put all of its literal eggs in the basket of one Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster is arguably (perhaps inarguably) the biggest name in the history of the wrestling business. Now at the same time, in the ‘smart’ community his attitudes and approaches to the creative process, let’s say, are very well documented.
I would venture to say that enough stories came out of Hogan’s nWo and WCW run of the mid-late 1990′s to remove most doubt. The infamous incident with Vince Russo / Bash at the Beach, where Hogan’s creative control card convincingly, amazingly came to a head live on Pay-Per-View, helped solidify and give fuel to most of the characterizations being made of the Hulkster. As the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, brother.
So what does this mean to TNA? Does it mean they didn’t do their homework, essentially? Is that what the Great Ones are hinting at?
“Why all the background rehash, dude? Get to the meat of it, brother!”
The connection to TNA at present should be obvious to those paying attention. Some of the opening salvos fired by the Hogan/Bischoff regime, talent-wise, include hiring The Nasty Boys, putting Val Venis back on TV, bringing in Bubba the Love Sponge and his “Army” of radio listeners to build a grass roots campaign, frowning on established, indeed credible talents such as Amazing Kong and “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels; the list goes on. One of the primary directives of Hogan’s ascension to power in TNA was to shape it his way, bringing in people he felt he could trust and those who he liked or were loyal to him. This pattern was fairly evident during the WCW run, as well, as objectively it’s not difficult to argue the case that Hulk has always been exceedingly Hogan-centric.
Indeed, it may seem rather apparent to loyal fans and internet readers that this is transpiring in TNA. At the same time, it seems quite unapparent to those making decisions and to many following the product. They have simply swallowed the Hogan-centric narrative and run with it in a sweeping wave of Hulkamania (“Brother brother brother!” to quote Shawn Michaels…)
They expect nothing less than to be expertly guided to the Light at the end of the tunnel.
Is that so bad? Is that good business?
That’s what is important to the bottom-line and, increasingly, more important to the internet readers. The “IWC” as we so often refer to the collective; really, the IWC is simply the whole flock of other fans who aren’t us. Many of the fans, internet writers, bloggers, commentators and so on are quite practically obsessed with the exact ratings numbers, comparing different show ratings despite a myriad of variable circumstances, house show attendance, and the like. It’s comparing apples and grapes, two completely different things produced on different scales.
This is precisely why, ultimately, the creative narrative is what will drive business and not the other way around. This is one of the core tenets of The Great Ones!
The soil of a given promotion must be rich, fertilized and tilled, the garden weeded and the best plants cherished and cultivated to thrilling harvest. If a young child or old lady can grow a garden based on these simple principles, why can’t a travelling entertainment promotion (essentially a modern travelling athletics circus of sorts) behave that way?
What needs to change? What needs to be adjusted? What are weeds in the garden.. and what are the best, most beautiful fruits…? As the great Jim Ross said in his ‘accidental’ twitter to TNA commentator Taz, the “players are easy to ID.”
They should be, shouldn’t they? If they aren’t ready … if those vegetables simply aren’t quite ready for the harvest, you take care of them, right? That’s the right to grow your garden, or grow your business of sports entertainment properties (the damn wrestlers, of course!) and as the great Curt Hennig would say it’s simply, “Perfect.”
This brings us full circle back to none other than Terry “Hulk” Hogan himself. Hogan has repeatedly said that this one is “for the boys” and he’s doing this to make something (and something rather vague, to be honest) right in the business again. Upon further inspection, it’s clear that one of the things Hogan wishes to do is to cut down or outright eliminate the actual structured writing of the shows; Hogan sees a vision of more organic, loosely paced, angle (and borderline shoot interview) packed shows of the regional feds or some of the NWA or World Championship Wrestling broadcasts.
In a nutshell it’s looking to bring an Indy feel – something that doesn’t feel as canned and force-fed as WWE at times – to a promotion that could definitely use that as a launching pad. TNA has been stuck somewhere between an indy feel, a regional feel and an occasionally national feel for several years now. Most of that is in the details – venue, travel costs, fewer contracted workers and fewer dates, dramatically lower overhead and so on. I believe that in business terms, TNA felt there was no other move possible than to take a sail on the Thunder in Paradise boat whenever a ride was available, no matter the cost.
The importance of merging the Hogan brand with the TNA logo was estimated to be high: was it worth it?
Ultimately, we cannot answer that yet. We can’t answer that pivotal question with any degree of reasonable certainty. What we can say, however, is that the patterns of the past may have emerged again with Hogan running a Hogan-centric show, where the faces are the ones he’s putting over, and the heels are the ones he’s feuding against. We’re not expecting a Kevin Sullivan appearance anytime soon, and it is encouraging to see the Nasty Boys let go (it simply wasn’t that nasty anymore, fellas). What we’ve found is that there is almost a struggle going on for the soul of TNA, some would say it was already lost, some would say it’s only been seeded and begun, some would say let’s wait and see while being critical.
Now that last one is us… here at The Great Ones. We’re watching, waiting, searching for any sign of a light at the end of this tunnel of Hogan/Bischoff tension, awkward angles sitting at a desk, a hot yet fickle crowd that goes from putting over Beer Money as huge faces to huge heels within a minute (a testament to Beer Money, naturally…) and an ad-libbing, thrown-together storyline feel that almost makes it a challenge to invest emotionally… and in this business, letting them invest emotionally will make them want to really invest in your product.
We’ve heard about Vince Russo wanting some time off; is it too early to read into it? Maybe.
Maybe he just didn’t want to attempt writing any lines for Shelton Benjamin.
Now the Great Ones ask…
Ultimately, was it the best thing for the boys to send the writers up north, Brother?
-Prescott…
The Great Ones
4-27-10
