Not to exaggerate but this is officially TNA's Katie Vick in my mind. I mean nobody's gotten into a coffin and dry-humped a corpse yet, but honestly, it's on that level for me. Owning a woman for 30 days? Seriously? In 2010?
As has already been said this is definitely NOT face behaviour. Heels do it, and they make the women do demeaning things in front of the audience, and we make little jokes about how far the ownership extends, but those are just us being silly, the ownership is what we're shown on tv, and then a valiant face liberates them. Abyss is not doing anything with her in front of the audience, he's taking her home with him, laughing like a demented monster the entire way. Why the hell does he want her if not to do the monster mash all night? He's shown no signs he likes her, so romanticists out there can't even infer that from it... unless I missed his reasoning for wanting her.
How the hell can you reason that the guy trying to save a woman from the unwilling captivity of a massive scary man is the BAD GUY?! Have they stated on-screen whether or not Desmond and Chelsea are supposed to be an item or if she's just his valet/associate? I can't really decide which they're meant to be. If it's the former then seriously TNA, how do you book this? Man tries to save girlfriend from monster is perhaps the oldest face vs heel story of all time, look at the Mario Bros. ffs! And yet Desmond's the heel?
I'm not a WWE fanboy, I'm not a TNA hater, I defended every single move Hogan & Bischoff made when they arrived for about 2 months. I have posted short essays on how we should wait and see what happens before we cave the roof in on them. I defended the Nasty Boys... but I can't defend this. This is terrible writing and terrible execution. It's terrible business sense, and it makes me feel genuinely afraid that nobody in the big scary room that makes the decisions in TNA has raised their hand and asked what the hell they're smoking. Less scary, more worrying is the idea that someone has said this but they've been ignored.
TNA needs to get a grip, because this angle smells an awful lot like a calling card for a cataclysmic downfall. They can easily let the 30 days expire, never breath a word about what happened, and pretend it never happened and maybe they can take steps back in the right direction... but I fear it's not going to get any better.