All of the concepts have their positives and negatives just like anything else does.
The Royal Rumble has become part of WWE tradition. As it pertains to a gimmick of a wrestler earning a guaranteed championship match, it's really WWE's first one outside of a #1 contender's match or a tournament. As the Royal Rumble only happens one night a year, that gives it a novelty that's managed to keep it fresh overall. At the same time, it does seem kind of stale, which is something that plagues all traditions at some point. Even though you still enjoy it, there's part of you that would like to see something different, just to shake things up a little.
As for Money in the Bank, it's got an element of unpredictability about it and that's extremely rare in modern pro wrestling. After all, with the internet, it's common knowledge for dirtsheets to release information on spoilers for upcoming TV programs, matches being planned for upcoming ppvs, stories on who is getting pushed to a title run, etc. With MITB, the winner can cash in anytime and anywhere. At the same time, the drawback for MITB has become that some people have gotten tired of the opportunistic cash ins and the fact that there are two separate MITB briefcases. When there was only one case, that meant that both the WWE or World Championships were in potential jeopardy; so the briefcase holder could go after either one of them at a moment's notice. At the same time, however, the MITB matches are probably the most popular gimmick matches in wrestling. They're consistently entertaining and very physical matches that people get excited about.
For the BFG Series, it offers something that we don't see very often in pro wrestling: a tournament that's ultimately booked in a way that gives it a lasting impact. Even on rare occasions where either WWE or TNA hosts some sort of tournament, it doesn't come off as a big deal. Sure there are some entertaining matches but, at the end of the day, the tournament doesn't make any sort of significant mark on the company landscape. The BFG Series is able to do that. A possible downside to the BFG Series is that it lasts for so many months and a lot of matches don't really feel like they're all that meaningful. Maybe if they added something where those two or three with the lowest level of points at the end of each month is eliminated, it might add some urgency to those matches and help keep the tournament from dragging. Another possible downside is that the excitement can depend on the make up of the competitors. This year's line up, for instance, doesn't come off nearly as strong as last year's. Jay Bradley, Hernandez, Kazarian and Joseph Park have no hopes of winning it and I can't help but wonder why they're even part of it in the first place.. Mr. Anderson hasn't been relevant in more than 2 years and his career hasn't recovered from the two mediocre runs he had with the title; so I don't think anyone is in a hurry to see a third. Samoa Joe hasn't been all that relevant for much longer, having spent most of the past 4 years or so floating around in limbo. Magnus, while very talented with a lot of upside in my opinion, doesn't have the credibility at this point to be viewed as a genuinely viable challenger for the top title at TNA's top show. Daniels has been an X Division & tag team scene mainstay in TNA since its inception and has an outside chance, though probably not a big one. So that leaves Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries as really the only genuinely viable competitors. Don't get me wrong as I'm not saying that there aren't some good matches going on, which is always nice to watch in & of itself.
As it pertains to the "Option C" gimmick, I can't say that it does much of anything for me as a whole. It worked with Austin Aries great last year because TNA had built him up as a star in the X Division. Even though he was wrestling, for the most part, against the same handful of wrestlers time & time again, his charisma & overall ability was enough to shine through and get people to notice him. Since dropping the title, it's gone back to being mediocre and generally meaningless until it gets around the time for Destination X. Chris Sabin is a talented wrestler but TNA hasn't put a tenth of the effort into him that they did with Aries. He wasn't pushed as a strong champion the way Aries was and he hasn't been booked strong as TNA WHC, which is why I think he drops it tonight. The format of the X Division is that TNA puts on random triple threat matches that features forgettable, interchangeable & replaceable cruiserweights that attempt to cramp 15 minutes worth of wrestling into 4 or 5 minute matches. There are no feuds or character developments for the X Division wrestlers and the matches are generally forgotten about as soon as they're over. Option C is worthless when the X Division is worthless.
) making the match before kind of redundant.
