Nick Sounds off on TNA Impact! Last Night By Nick Paglino

[Y 2 Jake]

Nick Sounds off on TNA Impact! Last Night
08/01/2008 by Nick Paglino

I never write about TNA because my job is to cover WWE television, but I have to sound off on TNA's Impact broadcast last night. I rarely watch TNA, mostly because the product is awful, and I have to say that last night's show was one of the worst two hour wrestling shows I have ever seen. What are they doing in that promotion? They seem to be misusing every marquee talent they have, and are drowning the audience with insults.

Nick's Notes:

-To begin with, I know that I have desecrated Mike Adamle's announcing abilities on a weekly basis, but it's embarrassing to me that somehow a broadcasting veteran like Mike Tenay is worse. The team of Tenay and West comprise about 25% of the nonsense that is TNA. Simply put, they are cheerleaders, not announcers. Tenay kept yelling out "Damn you Sting" when the bat was lowered into the cage. Now how much of an indication is this that it's NOT Sting lowering the bat? How much of an idiot is Tenay that he can't think of the possibility of someone else playing games? This type of "foreshadowing" makes the viewers seem like total morons. Well, I guess if you're watching TNA then...

-As far as the wrestlers go, TNA's top talent, like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, and the "allusive" Sting, are being used horribly. There are no levels to their characters. They are either screaming and yelling or booked to look like idiots. The question that kept running through my mind last night was "is Sting the only person in the world with access to a black baseball bat?" Why can't baby faces in TNA have brains? If you don't book a baby face with intelligence, then how is the audience expected to root for him in the ring? I wanted desperately for someone to come out during Styles' promo last night and beat some intelligence into him. Maybe that's why the live crowd was so dead while he was out there, because they were thinking the same thing.

-Thank God Joe brought his own weapon to the ring, I doubt the other 50 scattered in the cage would have done anything!

-I love the irony of people like Booker and Angle constantly talking about how terribly they were booked in WWE when TNA is either doing the same thing with them or making them look far worse.

-Who stole Val's ring? Hmmm, well, Curry Man and Shark can either run around like idiots and take up half the Impact broadcast time trying to find out, or simply watch the show. Super Eric eventually figured it out, which makes sense, because a month ago he was looking for Elvis' dead body.

-So basically Kaz is a huge cry baby? That's how you build a competitive face?

-Tomko is gone and Nash apparently walked out of an Impact taping because he was frustrated with creative. If TNA is gonna get as "big" as Angle says it will, they need to do something real soon, otherwise their marquee talent will be in their late 80's before Impact climbs above a 2.0 rating. Get smart TNA, that's all you need to do. Go back to being a professional wrestling promotion, not a TV show for 8 year old children with severe brain damage.

I was deeply amused by this article on the main site. I haven't seen the show but I can envision it in my head, and it's poor. People can praise TNA all they wish. If you love it then there isn't really anything anybody can do or say to change that. This is the same as me in the Triple H thread. I might point out minor inconsequential aspect regarding him. And even if I'm wrong in most people eyes I'm probably right in real life.

The only question I have is why this article was made now when this has been happening for almost two years now.

 

[mouse840]

Sorry,new here.I read the article and just had to respond.I know TNA is not the best when it comes to storylines,but when people judge something without even having a knowledge of on going storylines,I laugh at their ignorance.I challenge you and any other nay sayers, to watch the product long enough to allow 3 PPV's to go by so that you can get a true grasp on what's going on before you pass judgment on that in which you have no clue.For the record,Sting blatantly attacked Joe at the last PPV with the ball bat.How many times has Good Ol' J.R. yelled about what was going on in the same conviction?How many times has the WWE gone on in pointless directions with complete and utter chaos happening all around with no explanation.If you can in good faith say that it is not on par with what goes on in TNA then you my friend are a hypocrite.It is only the people who watch TNA once or twice a year that come to these forgone conclusions.Am I a TNA fan?Yes.Am I a WWE fan?Yes.But most of all I am a WRESTLING fan.Something people like you and many others like you use to be.Thank you for your time.

 

[Uncle Sam]

This guy is my hero. Like Jake, I haven't seen the show either, but this certainly paints a colourful picture. Tenay gets a bad rap. It sounds like he's having an off day... Which he often does these days. He can be a great commentator in my opinion, just stuck with bad partners. Still, I can imagine him yelling "Damn you Sting!" and it makes me crack up. Seems like the sort of melodramatic thing he would do.

And anybody that bitches about Kaz and Shark Boy are OK in my book. This article gets Sam's Seal of Approval.

Sorry,new here.I read the article and just had to respond.I know TNA is not the best when it comes to storylines,but when people judge something without even having a knowledge of on going storylines,I laugh at their ignorance.I challenge you and any other nay sayers, to watch the product long enough to allow 3 PPV's to go by so that you can get a true grasp on what's going on before you pass judgment on that in which you have no clue.

I've watched TNA consistently for nearly two years now. This guy makes great points. Besides, sometimes it takes an outsider to point out exactly how ridiculous something is.

For the record,Sting blatantly attacked Joe at the last PPV with the ball bat.How many times has Good Ol' J.R. yelled about what was going on in the same conviction?How many times has the WWE gone on in pointless directions with complete and utter chaos happening all around with no explanation.If you can in good faith say that it is not on par with what goes on in TNA then you my friend are a hypocrite.

It's not on par with what's going on in TNA. Why? Because TNA's storyline's are a lot less convincing. It's because they have a smaller budget, but go for big... I dunno what you'd call them. They like big, dramatic revelations, but can't pull them off convincingly.

It is only the people who watch TNA once or twice a year that come to these forgone conclusions.

Am I a TNA fan?Yes.Am I a WWE fan?Yes.But most of all I am a WRESTLING fan.Something people like you and many others like you use to be.Thank you for your time.

Used to be? I'd like an explanation.

 

[Dark Blaze]

I read this one, couldn't help but comment, I don't watch TNA as much as I should (ok, I admit, I barely watch it) and this and all of the criticism I've heard in the past and present, really discourages me from watching it, sounds like they had quite an interesting episode though, lol. The few times I've seen one of their ppvs, one thing I can't deny is the amount of in ring talent that they have, too bad it sounds like they don't use them properly. I think I'll try to catch up on the years of TNA I've missed, I like giving everything a fair chance and not just listen to what everyone says, think I should bother?

 

[mouse840]

Oops!!!I made a mistake in one of my lines that I wrote."If you can in good faith say that it is not on par with what goes on in TNA then you my friend are a hypocrite."In this line it is supposed to read WWE not TNA.I know that TNA storylines aren't great and those that have been good have been very few and far between.

I watch wrestling to escape everyday life and suspend disbelief.I watch wrestling because I am a fan of wrestling.Sure storylines help make sense of some things but isn't wrestling what it is supposed to be about.I can remember when wrestling was crap for storylines and the only thing that you had was the wrestling.It seems that at times that is all you have is the wrestling.In one federation you have good storylines and bad wrestling.In the other you have good wrestling and bad storylines.So the question is which one really is the better of the two.In my opinion both are at the same time equally as good and as bad as the other.Dispute that logic.