I like it! Magnus' push has been a long time coming, and (on the surface, so far) the push has been very well done. His push may have started before he got the rub from The Main Event Mafia (arguably), but that's the first time I could see that IW was putting a good amount of faith in Magnus.
The heel turn was well done for Magnus, too. It wasn't done too quickly, but it was teased several times (at least) since his match with The Stinger at BFG. Every time Magnus would act heelish, it seemed he would go to the ends of the Earth to prove that he was still a "good guy". The last "important" heel turn we saw on IW was when Bully Ray blasted Jeff Hardy with the rubber hammer to win the World Title. Bully had seemingly betrayed everyone important to the company. Calfzilla turned on Hulk Hogan, Brooke Hogan, Sting, Jeff Hardy, and all the fans (there might be more I'm missing, but Hulk, Brooke & Sting were the ones who were most important for the story). Even though there are obvious similarities between Magnus & Bully's heel turns, there are subtle differences as well.
During Bully Ray's relatively short face run in 2012, his presidential reveal happened with a hammer shot to Hardy - and a World Title win. Bully's turn was executed over a decent amount of time as well, but with a lot less "teasing" than we saw from Magnus...at least as far as I remember; I don't recall any "big" teases from Bully (at least not in the same vein as the ones we saw from Magnus), he seemed like he had truly reformed for the sake of fighting the masked motorcyclists. From what I remember, TNA creative let Bully's past behavior and Hulk's distrust in him be the only "real" clues.
One of the things I don't like about Magnus' heel turn is that the cast of characters involved were Sting & Hardy. Sting was the guy who trusted both Magnus & Bully completely (almost blindly), and gave both of them the more credit than anyone else. Hardy was the guy who took the fall in both stories; it almost seems that TNA is starting to use Jeff in the same way that WWE was using guys like Kane, Jericho and/or Christian. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing to do at this point in time, especially with TNA's UK tour looming on the horizon. Hardy will most likely be written off TV before the UK tour, because I believe he's still on probation (in the state of NC, if I've got my facts straight). If he's leaving TV anyway, why not use him to create another new star? I just don't that Hardy was used for both Bully AND Magnus to step over. Kurt Angle may have been a better choice for Magnus' final opponent in the Title Tournament, but the timing of the UK Tour made Hardy the most logical guy to put in that position...not to mention that Hardy is one of TNA's top babyfaces.
The other thing I don't love about the Magnus turn is how it's yet another heel stable starting with a brand new heel at the helm. There was Hardy turning to join Immortal, Bully turning to join A&8s, and now Magnus turning to join Team Dixie. There's also "The Band", and the original MEM to consider. Those two groups didn't create a champion (or top star), but they were still top heel groups. The Band tried to elevate EY, but the group dissolved before they could do anything with him (if I've even got that right). There are probably other dominant heel groups I'm forgetting, but we all know they were just trying to bottle some nWo lightning each time. "The Band" was the only group that didn't try to disguise the fact that they were trying to directly emulate the original nWo. Even without Hogan, it was essentially the most important original nWo members from WCW (and even the WWF/E revival in '02).
I remember an interview with Kevin Nash (and this isn't verbatim, so I'm apologizing in advance for my summary), during the time of either the original MEM or "The Band" - where he said something like this (speaking on his opinion of an what average TNA fan might be thinking at that time): "...a strong group of like-minded heels can beat a lone-wolf face (or group of faces that aren't on the same page) most of the time. That makes sense to me. Nash was probably right, but it' seems it's been done to death at this point.
I love Impact; I'm usually more excited for Thursdays than I am for Mondays...but it seems like more of the same song & dance TNA has been doing for years. Are they beating a dead horse here? That's not for me to say, at least not yet. Hopefully this story (AJ vs Magnus, at least eventually) will have enough steam to be different than the other stories. I feel that a factor a lot of people overlook during the original Monday Night Wars is that WCW had the heels winning all the time, and the WWF/E had the faces coming out on top. People (or fans) want to see the good guys succeed, and that's not what TNA has been giving us over the recent years.
I know TNA wants to be an alternative the the WWE, but they're doing a lot of things the WWE/WCW has done in the past anyway. Having the bad guys win isn't the way it works in Hollywood most of the time, and that formula has worked ever since the "moving picture" was invented. The bad guys aren't supposed to win all the time, but neither are the good guys. IMHO, TNA needs to let AJ be their Hogan - their Stone Cold - their Sting - their Goldberg - their Ultimate Warrior - their Rock (etc). I've only been a regular TNA viewer/fan since 2007ish, but IMHO they need to change their booking style to let the good guys be the focus of the show for a while.
I'll (finally) end this post paraphrasing the great Albert Einstein: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different results. Wise words from a wise man.
