Do You Give A Fuck About Gunner Yet?

[ABMorales787]

Because I honestly don't. Not a single one. When I see him come out, dullness leaks out of my shaved sideburns. When Mike and Taz call him "Mr. Intensity" and tell us he served in the military, it sounds like white noise. I could not give two shits about him. His character is dictated almost exclusively by others. Whether it's the commentators, James Storm, his dad... Fuck, seriously. His dad. Storm beat the crap out of his dad and all I could think about is.... "Wow, they really fucked up Storm's push".

Gunner is dull in the ring and that becomes clear when you wrestle several matches with the same guy and it's the same spots over while the other guy, Storm, shakes it up.

Gunner is in the wrong position. TNA wants to push him as this big hero. But he just does not have the charisma to carry that. They can beef him up all they want. James Storm can work all the miracles he can, as usual, and Gunner will just not stick. No matter how many times he bangs his head on the turnbuckle. He's just surrounded by guys with way more charisma.

 

[JT Strike's Alt]

Wow bad language on this site.

TNA Stinks so i don't really care much about anybody on tna.

Gunner is Okay, but you know whats okay in the wrestling world is fantastic in tna.

 

[klunderbunker]

More than I did before, but at the same time there's only so much you can get out of beating the same guy in slightly different versions of the same match over and over again. Whether it's an I Quit match, a Last Man Standing match, a cage match or an Unlocked match (whatever that was supposed to be), it's the same violent match over and over again which gets less and less interesting every time. It was a fine idea to start but now it's just repetitive and doing more harm than good.

Gunner is better than he was before, but it should have been him getting the title run instead of Eric Young if they actually care about his push.

 

[Rassling Fan 1974]

I'm liking Gunner now more than ever. But need to get in more feuds down the road outside of James Storm.

 

[Alex]

Like KB I care marginally more than I did before but he's still 'eh'

They harp on about him being 'Mr Intensity' and yeah him smacking himself in the face/off the turnbuckle is intense as is his facial expressions but at the same time I don't really care.

They were calling him 'The Modern Day Viking' and honestly I thought that had potential. Give him a horned helmet or something and have him being ruthless. If they really wanted to they could have ripped off Thor and have him take elements of the character.

At the end of the day Gunner is where he is because someone or a few people in the back like him, but he just doesn't click. He needs to find some charisma somewhere for people to give a shit and he won't find it in the turnbuckle no matter how hard he tries

 

[MrPlatano1989]

Wow some people here have little imagination and always think formulas and routine always works. Back in the day people would feud for a year or 2. Their first match was only at Lockdown in March if I remember. Its more personal than just tag mates at this point and that is being displayed. If someone that has never seen TNA catches their latest match or segment they might instantly be pulled in because of the history in the vid package and the chemistry between the two. Its the same as Bryan & Kane, although they had some breaks in between they have been feuding since before the Team Hell No days. Gunner can be busy in single feuds before getting a title shot. They aren't trying to bill him as some hero, they are building him up as a warrior. Before this feud he was still green in some aspects. He was always background to somebody else these past 6 years (Security in 2009, immortal, to James). James Storm's push hasn't been halted, he's gold as a heel and is still standing and whooping ass. No one takes the fall in this kind of feud, the war is what matters not the victories. Expect Gunner to be a legit force in the BFG Series, this is the purpose of his recent rise.

 

[Papa Pillman]

Count me in the camp who atleast gives more fucks than I did previously.

I think that from a match perspective Gunner has done a solid job holding up his end of the Storm feud. However he hasn't gotten to do much character work even as personal as the feud has been booked. That's probably more so to keep Storm's heel turn in focus, but it also works two fold because it helps to protect Gunner.

Instead TNA has done a good job of building Gunner by selling him well on commentary and putting together quality video packages to try and establish his appeal to the audience, while Gunner has done a commendable job of not fucking it up, even if he hasn't been able to springboard to the next level.

He's a solid hand, so even if he's not destined to stick near the top of the card, he's still fairly young and has a good look due to his size, which combined with his military experience makes him at minimum an easy sell as a midcard babyface going forward.

I'm sure TNA will get good value out of the long term contract that they recently signed Gunner to, since they surely didn't overpay.

 

[A11oftheLights]

Wow some people here have little imagination and always think formulas and routine always works. Back in the day people would feud for a year or 2. Their first match was only at Lockdown in March if I remember.

But they didn't wrestle as much

 

[Freedom Fighter434]

Gunner is a guy TNA is trying to turn into their Sheamus or their Batista. Gunner right now is paired with a great guy in Storm who is playing his new heel role so well. The issue they are going to have now is that they seem to want Storm v Anderson, so Gunner needs to find someone new. Magnus seems to be facing Abyss or whoever the fuck this Bram guy is, Roode is headed toward a face turn (check the spoiler reports on the main site) so unless they want Gunner to run through Spud, there is nothing really there for him because we won't see Shaw for a while now.

Do I care about him? Yeah, he is probably TNA's closest thing to a legit monster face (Abyss doesn't count because he has so many turns you can't keep track) but they need to find him something to keep him ticking over in the meantime, or people are going to disconnect even more with him before he next has a feud. Heck, turn the guy heel after the next FPV or something, just give him something to do before he turns into another Rob Terry (I know he is in The Menagerie but he got a mini push running through Robbie E and a couple of others then disappeared off the face of the earth)

 

[Dirk]

Many fucks, yes, Killjoy. Not just about him, but about James Storm as well. While I don't particularly like Gunner banging his head on the turnbuckle, I've enjoyed his promos immensely, because it seems like it's him, "with the volume turned up". He's speaking from the heart and slowly getting more and more over.

At this point it's still early days, but let's see where this goes.

 

[IT Factor]

Gunner is decent in the ring but do I care about him? No. TNA has done an awful job making him a character that is relevant or deep enough to like. He is bland and vanilla. I am open minded when it comes to giving new talents a shot and I really wanted to like Gunner. So far, he is uninspiring in the least bit.

 

[Lowdown]

There was potential with Gunner when he was affiliated with Immortal. He got better when Ric Flair was his mouthpiece; similar to Brock and Heyman. To answer KJ's question, yeah I do care to an extent. I mean he doesn't make me change the channel when I see him (i.e. Bromans). But I do see where KJ is coming from in the charisma department. Gunner really doesnt need to say much, but I also feel he was better as a heel. He's gone way past the point of his feud with James Storm, so who could be next for him?

 

[Reflection]

James Storm, Gunner, Bobby Roode, Bully Ray, EC3, Rockstar Spud, Eric Young, Magnus, Abyss, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Samuel Shaw, Ken Anderson, the tag team champions, and a few DUDs...
Right now TNA has only about 20 male wrestlers in their active roster. So it kind of becomes inevitable that the same guys will keep facing each other from time-to-time.
The problem with a small roster is that if you book them in long storylines (like Storm vs Gunner here), it seems like the same thing is happening week after week. And if they try to shuffle things and most people face each other, the matches come off as pretty random, without much development. They are in a fix, really.
As for Gunner, I have to say that the character is not an interesting or intriguing one. He doesn't have any speciality. His opponent too (self-admittedly) has been playing the same gimmick for too long. So when you put two not-so-entertaining guys repeatedly against each other, the end result will be little more than a Miz vs Kofi.

 

[T2KFreeker]

Saddest thing here is that Gunner does have potential to be a really big deal. I would rather see a Goldberg type of thing with him though. Have him switch to the guy that never says anything and does the talking with the match in the ring unless it's a short and sweet little interview. TNA hasn't had a squash monster in some time and they could have done that with Gunner. Stuff like this could be fixed in wrestling if managers came back. It was one of the best things in wrestling until they stopped using them. Even Abyss was much better with James Mitchell as his mouthpiece. He seemed more foreboding and scary when someone who could talk could really build him up because all Abyss had to do was stand there and look the way he did. Gunner was better when someone else was doing the talking because his Mic Skills aren't that good. Saying this though, he is a pretty good wrestler and would be served well in the environment above stated. Do I care about Gunner? Sure, he's entertaining to watch in the ring. The match that he and Storm had at Sacrifice was excellent and showed again how much he has improved. Could I care more for him? Sure. Would I be angry if TNA got rid of him? I wouldn't miss him much, and that's what is sad because he is a solid worker.

 

[Notorious718]

I also at least give more fucks about Gunner now than I did when he was affiliated with Immortal but I'm not sure if it has to actually do with Gunner himself or the fact that he was feuding with James Storm who has played his role as a heel phenomenally. He's certainly better in the ring than I remember when he was with Immortal and I find him to be at least passable on the mic. Not extraordinary but just okay. I'm not sure. I find him to be a solid worker and while I give more fucks about Gunner than I used to, I wonder if TNA still feels the same way right now. I am in agreement with KB in regards to Gunner being the one who should've taken the title off of Gunner instead of Eric Young if they were really planning to go all the way with him.

I guess ask me this again in six months or so.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Nope. What is his character? No disrespect to anyone but only in America can someone walk into a wrestling ring, say they are a veteran and get a face cheer and that is supposed to be good enough. I respect that he fought for his country but so what in terms of wrestling? Not that it would work today but if he had a gimmick like Slaughter, fighting to uphold American ideals in the ring, then fine but really they mention he is a veteran to get people to cheer for him but don't develop the character at all. If they were using his background more then that would be fine but really, he is no better off as a character than when he first started with TNA. Ignore the fact he is a veteran and the character is exactly the same. Either use it to develop the character or ignore it. They don't use it for other guys.

 

[horseman5]

I do, they put him with Ric Flair, he was not ready then. He is ready now! TNA under bad booking, had a problem. Pushing people that were not ready. I think the talent has stepped up. I think there is still too much comedy in TNA. But stars have been made recently. You help create a star every six months, your doing something right.
Every guy does not have to be good on the mic, Goldberg did not talk for a year. Gunner has a presents of a power house, it works for me.