Sorry, TNA – Its Time To Revise Gut Check

[It's Damn Real!]

The point I'm trying to make is that there should be a margin to who is Gut Check material and who is above it.

I don't want to do the point-by-point because it's going to get too semantical from this point out.

I think right here, we can find common ground on.

I'd be OK with them perhaps continuing with Team 3D Academy or OVW talents, specifically, if (and it's a big if) those talents seemed like they were actually ready to make a jump. This is where the "margin" comes in. That margin being that they have to have identifiable talents that endear them to the televised audience.

What, outside of the morbid hilarity of how fuckin' bad he was, was endearing about Kris Lewie, for example?

 

[The mind]

I agree this needs to be revamped.

How about this: TNA signs say the top 16 (maybe less) or so indy wrestlers. They have them under a "mini" contract. Then they have a series of match. Call it the "Battle for a roster spot" Tournament. Make it a yearly tradition.

 

[Jessie Lynn DivaGirl]

I'm agreeing. I liked the concept of Gut Check but none of those people have shown up. And some of the stories start out goodd then go straight to BS. Such as the guy from last night. What is it he said, that he was "starving"? Anyone else notice he was a little plump around the middle? It was obvious when he was sitting in the corner, you could see the flab sticking out.

Gut Check was about giving new wrestlers a chance to prove themselves, right? They proved themselves once and then disappeared into thin air. If not change Gut Check for the better then let it end with the summer and then bring up the people who got contracts have matches. Hell, put the boys against each other and start a feud with the new chick and Tara. It'd be something to watch.

A lot of things need to change as someone said before me on this post, but I say end it now and try again next year.

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

I think that GUT check bears alot of similarities to the old Tough Enough without the build up. I think that it should be retooled a bit and should have since Flair screwed up the start by giving Silva the green light. I think that Sam Shaw showed the most promise and actually was exciting to watch. Hendrix was serviceable and isn't any worse than Madison Rayne was when she first came into TNA, so she should fit right in. Not sure where they think they are going with the Joey Ryan story, but it could lead to something big if it's done right. But Chris Lewie was the WORST of the batch. He had size but his look was completely awful. His skills were so green that it looked like he forgot the match and his charisma was atrocious. He made so many mistakes that it wasn't even funny. And yet, one mistake that was made by Lewie could very well make him interesting. If anybody noticed, during the Aces and Eights attack Lewie was one of the masked me. This was noticed by the fact that he was so over the top with his selling that enough of his costume came of to realize who he was. Other than that, he's not worth the time TNA would need to polish him into even a decent hand.

If TNA wants to do something meaningful with new talent, they should take a page from WWE's notebook and try to get OVW a one hour show on Spike. This would help with the Gut Check storyline as you get to see what happened to the contestants, as well as seeing possible future TNA talent in their developmental stages. It would give credibility to Gut Check and help give TNA another brand to market.

 

[HBsam31]

I do think it is a good idea, but it has definitely grown stale. I liked the idea if they would have had Aries come in through Gut Check, and then have the year he did. I think more immediate results need to happen with some of the guys anyway.

 

[Ovaltine]

Kris Lewie's match was definately a train wreck, but I will give him credit he has heart. So, far he has been the only guy (aside from Joey Ryan) that has actually tried to engage the crowd. I actually felt the guys genuine passion while I watched him. Unfortunately, the match he had though had more botches than I could count. He needs quite a bit more work before he can be given a spot.
I was actually wondering if all of these guys that are being brought in are actually already in TNA's developmental territory. It would make sense and it would serve to save them a lot of money by doing so.

 

[Kitten Cutter]

I hate to bring up old WWE stuff, but I personally loved the original NXT, the one where now 7 out of the 8 wrestlers actually matter on the programming. It even led to the Nexus, which made a great summer storyline in the main event scene.

Gut Check, however, is just awful. I can't stand the fact that 4 wrestlers have appeared, 2 won contracts, 2 didn't, and yet none of them matter in the long run. It's as if they want the fans to forget these guys existed. Alex Silva won a contract, and we haven't seen him since. Joey Ryan did not win a contract, and has been waging a non-mentioned war on Twitter. (Which means literally nothing if it's not even acknowledged; Ryan showing up with a megaphone and throwing water on people isn't enough) Taeler Hendrix won a contract, and we haven't seen her in a wide-open Knockouts division! This guy Kris Lawrie didn't win a contract either. Great. What's the point?

In the NXT, even though guys were "voted out," we still saw them on television with things to do, or were at least mentioned in passing in the weeks leading to the end. Daniel Bryan was eliminated first, didn't win a match, and yet was probably the most popular guy on it.

Could this be leading to a Nexus-like storyline where the "non-contracted" Gut Check rookies rampage the Impact Zone? Nope, can't be because that's what Aces and Eights are doing. Could this lead to even one of them winning a belt? Nope, because the two winners don't seem to exist anymore. If this is a reality show, we need to know about them!

Also, why bring in these guys if it's one-and-done? Wouldn't it be more compelling to follow them longer? One match and Taz knows how good they are? One match against a "veteran" (which made me laugh when Gunner and Robbie E. are considered as such when neither can win a real match without help) and Al Snow knows your potential? Why aren't we at least investing a few matches? Why can't Gut Check be for a month so people can at least see a little something called growth?!

It'd be more of a Gut Check if the new wrestler can last a month facing mid-card competition and looking good every week instead having only one match on one night. It's equivalent to taking one test out of the blue to see if you pass instead of actually learning in classes for 4 weeks then taking the test.

 

[I_Like_All_Wrestling]

I disagree with the mention of NXT. NXT is/was wrestlers who are already contractedt o WWE and who WWE already has plans to use. Some (most) of them have been champions in other orgs, including ROH. They're not random developmental wrestlers, which is seemingly what TNA is doing.

I like the idea of TNA doing gut check, the problem is that they're just not doing it with quality guys. The original poster mentioned having someone like Austin Aires doing it. That's too far I think. But they do need quality "contestants" for this. It's just not working out.

 

[MayorMcCheese]

You have to give them credit in that not only did they take a risk here, but took one that seems calculated. I won't deny that. There's nothing inherently wrong with the principles of Gut Check, but there's a huge hole in the logic behind the whole thing when it comes to who TNA has been picking to participate in it each month.

Alex Silva, Joey Ryan, Taylor Hendrix, Chris Lewie — four up, four down. Ryan, granted, probably deserved the contract and was light years better than any of the other contestants, but regardless there's been a trend (tonight's IMPACT was no exception) we've seen since the start of this whole thing, and that's this propensity for TNA to inject the program with total unknowns. When I say total unknown, the keyword is on total, not unknown. I get that you want to give "unknowns" an opportunity, but those unknowns should actually have the ability/potential to make an impact on the roster — immediately. Not a single one of the contestants or winners to this point have, and if TNA continues down this path, none of them ever will.

I said in the LD, and I'll say it again — Kenny King, Austin Aries (the year before he re-joined the company), etc. are the types of guys who should be brought in through this competition because they actually stand a chance to validate it. I get that you want to get trainees from the 3D Academy, OVW, etc. the opportunity to showcase their work, but this just isn't the platform for it.

Thoughts?

Kenny King and Austin Aries before now were known by a small percentage of the fans, people on the internet think the average fan knows these indy guys, or when these guys made sparse appearances many years ago. I don't get it, it's just like the guy saying Kevin Steen would increase ratings, even though about 1000 people on the internet know who he is

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Kenny King and Austin Aries before now were known by a small percentage of the fans, people on the internet think the average fan knows these indy guys, or when these guys made sparse appearances many years ago. I don't get it, it's just like the guy saying Kevin Steen would increase ratings, even though about 1000 people on the internet know who he is

And while TNA tends to cater to internet fans more, I completely agree, and it's why I felt they'd have been perfect candidates for an event like this. Maybe Aries was bigger than it, but Kenny King? Kevin Steen? El Generico? These are absolutely independent wrestlers. Grab a group of 100 average wrestling fans and maybe, just maybe, ten will be able to tell you who one of the three of them are, and far fewer would be able to tell you who all three are.

I keep pointing back to the recent X Division tournament as proof of this. This is a wrestling forum. You won't find a greater collection of wrestling geeks and super fans, yet there were people in the LD who had no idea who "Rubix" was, or who Mason Andrews was or who just about anyone but Sonjay Dutt were.

 

[SpecialFNK]

what did people think about last nights contestant on Gut Check? Evan somethingorother.

you can vote whether he should get a contract or not.
http://twtpoll.com/ojnlnq

current votes.
65 % for yes (369 votes)
35 % for no (201 votes)

WTF are 369 people smoking?!

there's no way this 18 year old kid should get a TNA contract. he might be worth training and maybe in 3-5 years he could be something, but he's nowhere near ready now. he should be in OVW. now I know you can get a TNA contract and be sent to OVW, that's what happened to another Gut Check contestant Alex Silva. but I don't agree with that. you can still go to OVW without having an actual TNA contract.
these nobodies that TNA are bringing in for Gut Check are not good at all. the only one who looks ready to contribute now is Joey Ryan.
if TNA wants these type of prospects for the future, then have them on a different special show like WWE has with Tough Enough. these guys (other than Joey) are a complete waste of time on TV.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

These polling results make me suspicious that TNA is fudging with the results. I'm suspicious of online polls and these results do nothing to help it. Basically, two-thirds of the voters think TNA should give this kid a contract based purely upon what they saw him do on live television last night? I know that 369 isn't exactly a massive number, but I do think it's a sign that some IWC fans are starting to inbreed or have long since started. These fans seem to be on the same level as a lot of fans in the Impact Zone as they'll cheer for anything no matter how bad it is.

It makes me wonder if the people doing the recruiting for TNA have any idea what they're doing when it comes to finding new talent. Out of all the contestants, Joey Ryan is the only one that's shown...well anything to be quite honest. Even if he outright sucked, he'd suck less than all the others by far.

 

[Remy LaCroix]

I don't have any complaints other than some of the winners not being ready for television and their "kick out" promos being bland. Other than that, it's okay in its current form. I'm just waiting to see the winners debut.

I keep pointing back to the recent X Division tournament as proof of this. This is a wrestling forum. You won't find a greater collection of wrestling geeks and super fans, yet there were people in the LD who had no idea who "Rubix" was, or who Mason Andrews was or who just about anyone but Sonjay Dutt were.

An LD in which at most twenty-five people post is not a great indicator of the Internet wrestling community, especially when most online fans tend to be WWE and TNA fans. Surely I wasn't the only one who knew Rubix was a Chikara guy.

 

[Just Do It]

I really like Gut Check. It's something different, breaks things up and seems fresh every time it is on. I like the results portion the most with Snow, Taz and Brother Love and I think it can only do TNA well. Casual folk will tune in, see a template they can instantly relate to through many other similar reality shows, and stick with the content for a little while. Hell, they may even get hooked. Well done to them!