One Bobby Wins the World Title; Another Returns

[It's Damn Real!]

Well, let's get the easy stuff out of the way — "The Destroyer", Lashley (I think TNA is dropping the "Bobby" from his name) speared his way to victory after MVP stacked the deck in his favor and is now the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Why they didn't just have him win it on Sunday at 'Slammiversary' is beyond me, but with the other Bobby—Bobby Roode—making his late, but triumphant return to television immediately following Lashley's victory, this should sit at least semi-comfortably with the crowd unhappy with how long Eric Young has been carrying the TNA title around, myself among them.

I like EY, but I don't like EY as a World Champion, and if TNA's ratings every week since he's won it are an indication, few others do either. With Lashley carrying it and Bobby Roode stepping into the scene, provided this angle carries forward, we should have a more refined world title picture going into Destination X, which is only a few weeks away.

For those who didn't see it, check it out below:

[YOUTUBE]WbLTdLxC0Fw[/YOUTUBE]

Let's hear it...

 

[Chrome]

As much as people dislike Bobby Lashley, he is more of a believable champion than Eric Young.

It's not even a debate.


I'm not against this at all, Lashley is the best person right now to take the title from EY. But why didn't they just give it to Lashley at slammiversary?

 

[Slash-LN]

I'm not sad at all that EY lost the title.
I'm not a fan of Lashley but I agree he's a better title holder than EY.
I won't be bothered if Roode is put into the title scene.
Overall I think it was a good idea to take the title off EY and to be honest I didn't see it coming.

 

[SpecialFNK]

this is awesome for TNA. finally a legit champion. ratings are going up.
Bobby Lashley is a beast!
also from what I read, the first black champion in TNA.

as for Impact vs Slammoversary. what is more important to TNA right now? the PPV or the TV show on Spike? IMO it's the TV show that TNA is trying to get renewed. without the TV show the PPV has a lot less meaning. this isn't really new either. for awhile now TNA has been doing title chances on TV.

 

[Lowdown]

I'm cool with Lashley being champ, provided that MVPis the mouthpiece. EY wasn't necessarily a bad champ, but let's face it, the title was thrown on him, and if the ratings were crap during his reign, well you gotta do what you gotta do. But can Lashley turn the ratings positive? Roode coming back is the true plus in this story. A little late with the save, but it's a welcome return.

 

[CM Steel]

I am so happy to see Bobby Lashley win a world title in pro wrestling! He is now the first african-american world champion in TNA's Impact era. Ron Killings aka R-Truth was the first ever african-american to win the world title in TNA's history back when TNA was working with NWA. Thursday nights Impact will go down in wrestling history no doubt. Very proud of Bobby Lashley!

I think that he could have been a world champion during his run in the WWE. But for some reason WWE chairman Vince McMahon doesn't want a african-american man to be the top champion in his company. I hope that McMahon isn't on that Donald Sterling tip.

 

[kumarjtk]

oh ratings is not about one man. Ey is a good tna wrestler. Lashley is good wrestler. they put lashley instead of mvp. If mvp not injured then he is the world champion not lashley. Roode return is not a big impact than kurt angle as a new director of impact.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I like Lashley, I always have. He looks the part, can wrestle and is definitely a more believable champion than Eric Young, whose being given the belt still baffles me to this day. If Lashley could talk he'd be a megastar, but at least he has the excellent MVP as his mouthpiece so hopefully that can be covered up a bit.

I'm surprised that TNA did this on Impact rather than at the Slammiversary PPV, but it's definitely a step forward. At least now the company has a believable champion, who at least has some name value.

Bobby Roode's return is great news for TNA. In my opinion he is one of the best in the world right now, and a guy I am always pleased to see in the main event. Roode is one of the few guys from TNA who could be a big star in the WWE if he was ever to go there, and I look forward to seeing the 2 Bobby's go at it for the World Title.

 

[Dirk]

I'm going to disgree with y'all and say that this could be a step backwards for TNA. I mean, we just had a run with Magnus and Aunt D as his backer, now they just run that again with another faction? Same old shit.

EY was a great champ. He has lots of charm and personality (things Lashley does not have, to be honest). Transition should've happened at Slamniversary. The only money I see in Lashley's run would be him vs MVP. Knowing Lashley, that'd also probably be it for his stint in TNA.

Roode's "return" wasn't really that - he was barely gone. Was it an injury that kept him out or was it the usual contractual bullshit?

 

[MWRedskins]

i like Lashley as champion. with him as champion and so many faces now, there's more feuds he can have. Bully Ray, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe. all 4 of those guys are legit contenders for his title. and of course we cant forget that EY will get his re-match. as for Eric Young losing the title, i never loved him winning the title and thought he would lose it in a month to Magnus and even now, i still dont love it. it felt that it was a move that came out of left field and the problem i had with Young as champion was all his past gimmicks that i couldnt get out of my head, mainly his last gimmick where he married ODB, wrestled matches where he sometimes would put the ref in a hold and he would take off his pants in the middle of the match. it's a good change, but odd as they should've done it at Slammiversary instead of Impact.

 

[Harthan]

So, I'll try to be nicer to TNA here - I like the move. Lashley was on the fringe of world title contention in his WWE days and is in some ways one of the bigger gets in TNA history despite the fact that his first run never took off properly and the whole MMA/wrestling thing never worked and never will. He's the kind of champion TNA just hasn't had in a while - big, dominating, imposing. There's not a long list of good comps for that in TNA championship history, so I like this.

That said, I'm slightly perplexed by the timing. I mean, he was in the title match at Slammiversary, so why not? I mean, sure, TNA established long ago that Impact was more important to their business model than most TV shows are to wrestling companies traditionally, but the whole point - or so I thought - of rearranging the PPV model was so that the PPV's that did happen would matter. And yet, going back to Bound for Glory 2012, only three of eight world title changes have gone down on PPV. Admittedly, not that bad for a model that, hypothetically, puts TV and PPV on a 50/50 basis, but it's odd that they didn't take the obvious path and balance out that number and put the title on Lashley just days earlier.

It's possible that this was always the plan of course - maybe MVP was meant to lose then Lashley win on this Impact from the beginning - and if so I give TNA credit for sticking to the plan. I'm a little confused but ultimately it's not too big a deal when placed beside one of the smarter championship decisions they've made in some time.

 

[horseman5]

I like Lashley, he is a good wrestler for his size. His PPV matches were great. MVP can do his talking for him. I didn't like Eric Young winning the title at first, but it grew on me. I don't see the complant it was on free tv. We got a great PPV and a great Impact. Things are looking up at TNA right now.

 

[T2KFreeker]

Considering that they had to pull that last minute thing with the Championship match, I think the Slammiversary match was just fine, plus the way they did it helped to make MVP seem like the Devil. Brilliantly booked, actually. I really believe the way they booked all of Impact from Last Night was solid and the title win is just some more to pile up on MVP as a monster heel. Hopefully they book Lashley as a Kick Ass champion and not the way they booked Magnus. I don't mind a Heel champion, but it would be nice to see one that get's in the ring and destroys his opponents. I could see it ending with MVP getting better and expecting Lashley to Lay down for him so he can get the title. Obviously not have Lasheley do it. Could be a fun feud between him and MVP, but I'm also looking forward to this run against Roode. If there are two people I think deserve a run with the title again it's Roode and Joe, so let's get this going!

 

[ABMorales787]

Personally, the fact that Eric Young lost the title in such an uneventful fashion ticks me off. TNA's track record with babyface Champions has been so abysmal in it's 12 year history. Eric Young was such a breath of fresh air by just beating bad guy after bad guy like nobody's business. But fun's over. Back to reality. The evil faction needs to have the title so the good guys can fight for it. Then they get screwed by the newer evil faction.

Is Lashley a bad choice for champion? A far better one than MVP actually. But I seriously hope he's a transition to set up Bound For Glory. Which will hopefully put Eric Young back in the limelight.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

Personally, the fact that Eric Young lost the title in such an uneventful fashion ticks me off. TNA's track record with babyface Champions has been so abysmal in it's 12 year history. Eric Young was such a breath of fresh air by just beating bad guy after bad guy like nobody's business. But fun's over. Back to reality. The evil faction needs to have the title so the good guys can fight for it. Then they get screwed by the newer evil faction.

Is Lashley a bad choice for champion? A far better one than MVP actually. But I seriously hope he's a transition to set up Bound For Glory. Which will hopefully put Eric Young back in the limelight.

My thoughts exactly. I think Lashley is the right person to hold it right now and I have zero problems with him being the Champion. Maybe he hasn't "earned" it but he'll make for a nice little champ for the purpose of the storyline. However, I really think that if you start a story big time, you should end it big time, even if the character has run its course. Otherwise it just looks so sloppy. That way you also make the title change seem like a bigger deal.

Plus, it goes against EVERYTHING they built up with EY. He was supposed to be this fighting champion, beating the odds, a true TNA original slugging it out with the best. And then what? He loses because of a simple distraction and interference.

Come on, man, you could've been creative here and accomplish everything. For example, why not have MVP try to screw EY in many different ways through the match and have him fail time after time. And I don't mean just your regular shit they do (distract the referee). Go balls out. You have power, you have control, enforce it. Tell the production crew to shut the damn lights off, walk in and knock the ref out deliberately and order another ref to come in that you have under your thumb, just go berzerk. And yet EY still overcomes those odds.

That shows EY is clever (like you made him look), it shows he's tough and he fights the odds. In the end, have him pull something that even we didn't think of and finally break EY showing he's not unbeatable and even he can't stand against the power even though he did give them quite the headache. Lashley gets heat, MVP gets heat, MVP looks determined and yet also smart, EY doesn't look weak because he monkeyed them around for so long and kept dodging the bullet and everything is aligned with the storyline and people's characters. And it might make the crowd enjoy it more since all the screw overs are teasing them more and more until it all ends.

Why so lazy sometimes ...

 

[Dagger Dias]

Alright so I know I'm nearly a month late to the party here, I have not watched TNA in ages. When I heard Eric Young became World Champion, I was done. I decided this week to give them a try again, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bobby Lashley is the World Heavyweight Champion! I had no idea about this title change since I had not been following TNA for such a long time and haven't even been reading posts in this section either. I will be watching TNA and its product again now. Back in 2006-2007 I was a fan of Lashley in his WWE run, I was disappointed in his original TNA run so clearly things are going better for him now. He deserves this. The best part of Lashley being the champion is the fact that he's actually believable as a World Champion unlike Eric Young who to me never will be and never should have held the belt to begin with, so this win was a VERY good thing. Better late than never, but congrats to Lashley on his big win. TNA has won me back over as a fan.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Alright so I know I'm nearly a month late to the party here, I have not watched TNA in ages. When I heard Eric Young became World Champion, I was done. I decided this week to give them a try again, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bobby Lashley is the World Heavyweight Champion! I had no idea about this title change since I had not been following TNA for such a long time and haven't even been reading posts in this section either. I will be watching TNA and its product again now. Back in 2006-2007 I was a fan of Lashley in his WWE run, I was disappointed in his original TNA run so clearly things are going better for him now. He deserves this. The best part of Lashley being the champion is the fact that he's actually believable as a World Champion unlike Eric Young who to me never will be and never should have held the belt to begin with, so this win was a VERY good thing. Better late than never, but congrats to Lashley on his big win. TNA has won me back over as a fan.

So you were done watching a product you haven't watched in ages because Young is champion and won you back over because of Lashley? Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Only way I see Lashley being better than Eric is if he never opens his mouth to speak. I'm still cringing when he got on the mic and spoke to Finlay in 2006. Hopefully, they'll let MVP do all the talking. Maybe Lashley has gotten better and if the ratings rise, he'll stay champion. If not, they'll put it on somebody else.

 

[Dagger Dias]

So you were done watching a product you haven't watched in ages because Young is champion and won you back over because of Lashley? Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I gave up on them during the Brooke Hogan and Bully Ray angle, came back a few times to give them another chance when the Main Event Mafia came back, then I was going to try again a few months back (much like this week) but then I heard Young had become the World Heavyweight Champion and said "No way, forget it. I'm never watching TNA again until he loses the belt". I was bored enough thursday to ignore that, I legitimately had no clue Lashley had won the title and I was a huge fan of his WWE run. If you're not a Lashley fan, that's fine. I'm not an Eric Young Fan. There is nothing wrong with that. 100% agree on your different strokes for different folks statement.

Only way I see Lashley being better than Eric is if he never opens his mouth to speak. I'm still cringing when he got on the mic and spoke to Finlay in 2006. Hopefully, they'll let MVP do all the talking. Maybe Lashley has gotten better and if the ratings rise, he'll stay champion. If not, they'll put it on somebody else.

This is where I disagree with your post. Lashley may not be on Jericho or Punk's level on the mic, but he has something that makes him infinitely better as a World Heavyweight Champion than Eric Young. Bobby Lashley is believable as being the guy holding the top belt of the company. If I show someone a picture of Bobby Lashley and tell them they are looking at a picture of the TNA Champion.... They are likely to say he looks cool or like a champion. If I show those same people a picture of Eric Young and tell them he has held the belt before, shocked remarks along the lines of "THAT guy was a World Champion!?" are sure to follow.

Young is about as believable in the World Championship tier as The Miz was in WWE. He should never have been anywhere near that belt. Had he remained in his World Elite persona and never become a "comedy" act (used quotes since he was NOT funny) then we might be having a different discussion, but even then, Young's not believable as anything above the X Division Championship. He never will be to me. Lashley is. Again, we may have to disagree on this too. I have no problem with you not being a Lashley fan, to me though he's an excellent choice to hold the top belt.