TNA: Make The Change

I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time.

Hi. My name is Brian, and I'm one third of the blogging team here at Cena Nuff. If the posts on this blog seem a bit disjointed at times, like opinions change, it's because there are three of us with three distinct personalities and opinion sets who report on each news item from our own perspectives.

I've always been the pro-TNA guy. Even from the day I heard they existed, when I saw pay-per-views on my digital cable that included Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, and a handful of other names I'd been wondering about since the demise hostile corporate takeover of WCW. And with some names of other guys that I'd never heard of (America's Most Wanted?!, The Naturals?!), I was intrigued. I never had the money to order the weekly pay-per-views back then, but once I heard they had a TV deal with Fox Sports Net, I was glued to my TV as soon as the show was on. And when that deal ended, and they went to web shows, I was on it. All the way to the Spike deal, from Saturdays to Thursdays, from one hour to two hours, and now... from taped Thursdays to live Mondays. TNA has always been the little engine that could. The underdog. And I always root for the underdog.

To be honest, I can't really explain my fascination with TNA. I know some of the booking is nonsensical. I get royally cheesed off (if I can say that on a family-oriented blog like this) when TNA sits on one of the best tag teams in the world (the Motor City Machineguns) and barely ever uses them. I've been annoyed with the camerawork, I hated Don West (till he turned heel), and I got VERY tired of Jeff Jarrett's nepotistic main event spot. But at the end of the day, I was still right there chanting "TNA! TNA! TNA!"

Now let's get one thing straight - I'm not anti-WWE. It may seem that way at times, but really, I'm just calling a spade a spade. After having lived through the Monday Night Wars era, having seen the pure unadulterated awesomeness that was Stone Cold, The Rock, The Three Faces of Foley, the rise of "Mr. McMahon," The McMahon-Helmsley era, the original formation of Degeneration X as an angsty youth-in-revolt angle... well... it makes SuperCena and a leprechaun a little tough to swallow. Are we all clear on that? They've booked this guy as a leprechaun. Not a tongue-in-cheek "haha, we all know this is just a little person but we're pretending he's a leprechaun," but a REAL LIFE LE-FUCKING-GITIMATE LEPRECHAUN. There's a figment of our imagination running around creating portals to other worlds under the ring. Now, I know that pro wrestling has always been about suspension of disbelief, but there's usually some kind of coherent world that the disbelief clings to. I'm also giving the Undertaker and his occasional "otherworldlyness" a free pass based on the fact that he was established back in the pre-Attitudes, and is allowed to grandfather in his old character. But don't give me this world -- *ahem* excuse me, Universe, wherein 95% of the people are just regular guys with full names in plain old trunks and boots who hold storylines based on each other, and then throw in this leprechaun to appease the kiddies and sell merchandise. If I wanted to watch cartoons, I'd watch cartoons. If I want to watch pro wrestling, I'll watch pro wrestling.

And that right there is the major difference between WWE and TNA. Vince McMahon has made "wrestling" a dirty word. (Forgive me if this sounds like an oft-repeated Jim Cornette or Paul E. rant, but it's still true and relevant.) WWE's announcers aren't allowed to refer to the talent as "wrestlers," they're "superstars" or "sports entertainers." Vince has engrained into our heads that it's not okay to like "wrestling." Lingerie pillow fights? Big Show punching out a mechanical bull? THIS is what Lou Thesz, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Ric Flair, and a host of others sacrificed their bodies and probably 20 years off each of their lives for?

I'll give WWE credit where it's due. I thought CM Punk as a heel in the scope of the WWE Universe would flop miserably, but the Straight Edge Society is one of the best things going today. I don't know how they pulled off Edge turning face after everything he's done in the last few years, but he's done it. The slow burn implosion of Legacy is going to turn Orton face as well, which is good because I don't want the WWE Regime to take away my "Randy is God" sign whenever I make it to another live event. But for every good thing they have going, they throw us twice as much crap - i.e. devoting 20 minutes of your go-home show for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (oh, don't even get me started on these ridiculous match-themed ppvs) to a Jerry Springer skit that went absolutely nowhere. But you know what? It's Monday Night, and that's why I watch.

And this is exactly why the TNA jump to Mondays is a good thing. Many people seem to think they'll just get crushed by the WWE Juggernaut, lose their current fans, and go out of business or move back to Thursdays with their tail tucked. I don't see it that way. I can't be that atypical of wrestling fans, so I have to believe that there are hosts of others out there who only bother watching Raw because "it's Monday night," and Monday = wrestling day. Even at its worst, I find myself making the pavlovian trip to the TV on Mondays to watch Raw. I don't do that with ECW/NXT, I just catch it whenever I can. I don't do that with Smackdown even though it's clearly the superior of the WWE brands. I DO do it for TNA Impact on Thursdays, but only because I've been that loyal TNA fanboy that followed from FSN to every timeslot under the sun that Spike has given them.

So, come Monday night, there will be an alternative. It's "wrestling night," and once again, there are two shows to choose from. You can choose the spoonfed Cena/Orton/HHH power struggle, with almost no focus on the midcard, with guys like Khali, Kofi, and soon to be Sheamus given a short main event thrust followed by a steep descent back to mid-card/curtain jerk purgatory, or you can choose to watch a program that actually pushes younger guys and makes new stars. A program where an entire pay-per-view can be devoted to a tournament in which Mr. Anderson and "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero tear the house down, before the world title match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. A program where guys LIKE The Pope are given room to shine, room for their character to breathe and develop into quite possibly the most entertaining guy on the mic this side of The Rock, rather than just being "that one black guy, Elijah Burke." In just a few short weeks, they've made Mr. Anderson relevant, and have him in a heated, emotional feud with Kurt Angle. You have Hulk Hogan finally giving Abyss a reason to exist again. You have AJ Styles, who's always been famous simply for being AJ Styles, paired up with one of the most recognizable names in all of wrestling history, becoming "the new Nature Boy." It's not campy, it's not cartoony, it's just Flair once again being the dirtiest player in the game (and being better on the mic than he ever was in WWE), and AJ finally having some kind of personality. Yeah, there may be some crap mired in there as well, but every wrestling show is bound to have that. And for my money, I'd rather have a little bit of crap on a wrestling show than a whole lot of it on a "sports entertainment" longest running weekly episodic blah blah catch phrase blah blah vintage whatever.

So, come Monday night, I'll be ready. I can't speak for Ashlee or Cory, and I'm sure they have their own fairly-based opinions on TNA and WWE, and they're entitled to like what they like, and I'm entitled to like what I like. As are all of you, the internet wrestling community members who now have a Monday night choice. If you dig the big flashy corporate WWE envivornment, more power to ya. But if you're like me and you're sick of all the stuff that Vince and company force down our throats, and you want to see something new and exciting but just haven't bothered watching TNA based on laziness, or being busy on Thursdays, or you just "don't think about it," well... here's your chance. Finally, you once again have the choice. You can continue to feed McMahon's ego, or you can "Make The Change."

I implore you to tune in to Spike TV this week on Monday night. Watch TNA Impact. Give the "new flavor" a chance, and help keep the spirit of pro wrestling alive. I'm Brian Thompson, proud member of the "TNAtion," and I approve this message.