JJYanks121
The Mouth of the South Shore
I'm just curious, and I ask because I think we have a mutual respect for one another, but do you stand behind what you said? I want to test it out.
Let's say that Sting gets an injury and retires (he's 51 and could happen). Now suppose that Kurt Angle is unable to perform anymore (also plausible given he can barely walk these days-trust me, I've seen it up close). Hulk and Eric's contracts are up and Ric Flair follows them out the door. This could all happen within a year from now.
Your main event scene is now Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Jeff Jarrett, and RVD. The closest to this scene without being in it are Matt Morgan, AJ Styles, then maybe Samoa Joe and Matt Hardy. Are you comfortable with those guys CARRYING the show.
Remember, I just took out the 3 top heels in the company as their contracts expired so you can't use airtime on them. Now, you need your wrestlers to carry the program. Can they?
What I have presented is a main event scene of 4 wrestlers. You'd have to assume a couple of the guys I mentioned get elevated (probably Morgan and AJ) to keep things fresh and get different matchups every couple of months, but again, can they CARRY a show.
When I talked about the company comparison in my previous post, I mentioned a few guys that are carrying their shows, or at least playing a part in doing so. On Raw, the main feud is Cena vs. Rock vs. Miz. As of this week, Miz is winning. His performance on Monday stole the show and he is firmly entrenched on top of the WWE world.
Over on Smackdown, Del Rio is the Royal Rumble winner and is THE prominent story on Smackdown. The other prominent story involves Rey Mysterio and the 25 year old Cody Rhodes, a name we didn't talk about previously but one that can do a lot for his future with a great performance at Mania. This feud has done nothing but make him look great and he is someone the WWE clearly sees as part of their future.
You make an argument that their are other talented guys in TNA but take shots at WWE guys. Let's just look at some of the comparisons.
-You called John Morrison a spot monkey but put Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley as talent you like in TNA. I'd argue that while they have gained psychology in some matches, they are still tag team spot monkeys for the most part. If anything, let's put them on an equal playing field (which I'm really grasping at straws here because Morrison's athleticism and innovativeness is vastly beyond anyone I've seen anywhere lately). The difference between most spot monkeys and Morrison is that Morrison has gotten singles matches at PPVs recently and even got a title shot. He's certainly in the upper midcard at this point and knocking on the main event door. It's a slow push, but it's a push. Ask HBK if a slow push can work in the long run.
-You mention Crimson because you like him, but is he getting ANY push? Not at this point. He got one squash match and hasn't been seen in weeks. He's a babyface behind like 10 other babyfaces, so he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. He might have something to offer, but are you going to push him over RVD, Anderson, Sting, AJ, Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, and Samoa Joe at the very least? Somehow, I doubt it. You may like him, but I like Zack Ryder. The difference is that I know Long Island Iced Z isn't getting pushed anytime soon though he has the ability to deserve one. Until he starts getting pushed, I wouldn't put him on my list for a youth movement. You have to take personal bias out of these things and I'm just not sure you can do that.
-You mention Storm and Roode, but you also say that Daniel Bryan's "push" is stagnate. I agree that it is and I've had a problem with his booking since he got away from being a badass. When he came back at Summerslam, he was awesome. He looked like a bona fide badass and couldn't be stopped. Then, he was a nerd with chicks hanging all over him. Thankfully, he already had the US title at this point. He also was able to overcome some of that for a while as he had great matches with Dolph Ziggler on Pay Per Views. You may be right in that his character sucks, but watch those matches and tell me honestly if they aren't good. Bryan is a midcard champion after less than a year with a company. That's nothing to be ashamed of. However, you mention Robert Roode, who I like. This is a guy that was on track for the main event, but instead of pushing him there, he was sentenced to tag team duty with James Storm. Talent is talent and he got the most out of the fat drunk, making them a formidable team, but Roode deserves better. You want to talk stagnate? Talk Roode. He's not getting a push, nor is he going anywhere good. He's stuck in a tag team. Imagine if after Bret Hart split from Jim Neidhart and had his feud with perfect, they stuck him with Bam Bam Bigelow for another 3 years. That's basically what happened here. Roode isn't up and coming anymore. He's in danger of being left behind. I like the guy a lot, but you can't talk about him as if he's on the verge of the main event. He's not. He's in a tag team and there are no signs that Beer Money are splitting up. It's simply not fair to talk about him as someone you COULD push to the main event whenever you want. Maybe you could, but after being in that tag team forever, he'd have to forge a path as a singles for a while.
Before you start talking about Sheamus or Barrett, I want to remind you that ANYONE is one push away from being in the main event. You could literally take Yoshi Tatsu, put him in a match against Edge, have him win, and you have a main eventer for a short period of time. The guys that stay in the main event are those who prove themselves getting there and continue to prove themselves as draws once they are there. This isn't one man's opinion either. It has to be something a company sees in the broad scheme of things.
What this comes down to is the fact that you like TNA and thus, you like their roster. I'm not arguing with you that they have a bad roster. They have some talent there, enough so that I watch every week and participate in live discussions about it. With that said, just because you aren't a WWE fan doesn't mean you can degrade their talent simply because you don't like the company. It's a biased view and it's not a fair assessment. Granted, whatever I say isn't the end all be all either, but I'm trying to see this down the middle. The truth is, if TNA's talent over 40 (RVD, Jarrett, Angle, Sting, Dudleys, and perhaps more) were to leave tomorrow, they'd be in much worse shape than if WWE's over 40 crowd (Triple H and Undertaker) (no, Rey is 36 and Edge is 37 so they aren't in this category, but for argument's sake, I"ll include them) were to leave. The WWE is preparinjg for the future while TNA is getting what they can for the present. While it's not the same situation, WCW went through this. They had tons of young talent, perhaps at levels TNA can't imagine. Guys like Jericho, Benoit, Booker T, Triple H, Austin, William Regal, and more, were employed during Bischoff's regime and he didn't see drawing power in them. He felt that you had to be a draw already and thus, stars weren't built, they were milked. While WCW was winning the war, they were milking guys like Luger, Piper, Savage, Hogan, etc. In that time, WWF was spending time building up guys like Rock, Austin, Triple H, and Mankind. Two years later, you had stars in WWF and a boring, stale product in WCW.
I sincerely hope that's not the case in TNA. I do like their talent pool and I wish they did utilize it more. I'd love to see Robert Roode in a main event spot. I'd love to see Crimson get built up. I'd love to see Alex Shelley become the HBK of TNA. However, until TNA actually puts time into building these guys, I will continue to be skeptical that it will ever happen.
You have argued that TNA doesn't need a youth movement at this point, and maybe you are right. However, things in wrestling can change fast, so let's see if that's the case in a year or two.
