Well, before I throw my few points into the ring, I want to thank Schizo for mentioning me as I do believe that our "battles" have been quite fun and certainly I feel like he is a guy that deserves respect on these boards whether you agree with him or not.
As for TNA under Hogoff (it still hasn't caught on, come on people!), I think it's still very much in a transition period. I admit that I have been quite critical of the product since 1/4 (and many times before), but I also understand that Rome wasn't built in a day. The main issues as I see them are as follows:
1) Too much focus on Hogan and Bischoff - did anyone notice that there were A LOT of segments that involved a wrestler entering Bischoff's office or Hogan's office. So much of the focus of the show is on getting those two on TV, which I'm not a fan of since they aren't wrestlers. I understand that the management will get involved in storylines, but at some point, it's overkill. A simple remedy for this would be for a single story to develop and take up only so much tv time.
2) Not enough wrestler feuds - right now, the ONLY feud between wrestlers seems to be the Nastys and Dudleys, and even that isn't so exciting. There's a lot of wrestlers that have "issues" with the new management, but no one is really in a feud. After this tournament, I hope more of the TV focus goes to actual feuds so that matches will actually mean something.
3) Too much talent - there's too many wrestlers employed for only 2 hours of TV a week. When you have so many segments involving non wrestlers like Hogan or Bischoff, that time isn't being used on wrestling talent. People like Beer Money (who I like a lot and at one time thought Robert Roode would make a great singles champion and he still might if given the chance), Daniels, etc have barely made TV since 1/4 and I do think it's unfortunate. However, unlike others, I'm not going to just attack the Nastys (who don't have a place in wrestling in 2010 given they still think it's 1985). Think about the WWF when many of the board loved it in the last 90s. The non wrestlers like Vince and his stooges were in one segment a show, maybe one in ring and one backstage at most. While that corporation vs. Austin storyline was the main one each show, other sub storylines were featured close to weekly. Midcarders got their time each week as well as stable wars (Nation vs. DX), lower belt feuds (European and IC), among other things. Each story had its time and was covered, but the airtime was predominantly for wrestlers. Right now, there's too many guys employed in TNA and not enough TV time to go around, but I believe more TV time could be available if Bischoff wasn't in like 6 segments a show and Hogan in 5. That would solve so much.
4) Planning in advance - it comes off to me like the booking at this point is eerily similar to WCW as it started to go downhill.....seat of the pants booking. I don't mean that in a good way in that you are hanging on the edge of your seat. I mean that it seems the long term isn't always in the back of the writer's mind and there's a feeling of disorganization. It comes off to me like the performers may or may not know what's going on a few minutes before their time on screen. That was a major problem in WCW and it may be returning in TNA. I would recommend slowing down. It seems the writers are trying to do too much too soon and it comes off a bit chaotic and lacks a flow. The best way to combat this is to focus on a couple of major stories and use the rest of the show to create #1 contenders to each belt and let feuds develop simply over being champion. This way you'd have belt feuds and 1-2 personal feuds. As things start to come together, more personal, storyline stuff can work, but at this point, it's a bit disorganized and needs to be cleaned up.
5) Show organization - the show has a weird flow to it at this point. It confused me tonight that the main event was followed by like 3 segments. I'm not saying to copy WWE's structure, but you do need a stucture. The whole chaos thing is not an angle, nor is it attractive for the product. Use the general TV formula of quarter hours and figure out how to organize the product based on that.
There are more, but I'm tired and I don't feel I even need more to make my point. That point is that TNA isn't there yet. We all know this and should probably understand it. At this point, things could go either way. I am personally hoping TNA can do some positive things because I'm a wrestling junkie so the more I can watch, the better. However, I know I'll get crap for this, I wouldn't mind it staying on Thursdays because I'm selfish and I'd like to have a wrestling show to watch most days of the week. If both were on at the same time, I wouldn't want to have to choose (that's if they were both good of course). With that all said, TNA has work to do, but I do fear that the wrong men are in place to do that work. It appears to me that TNA is looking to become WCW 2.0 under the guys that grew WCW and then ultimately led to its demise. I get that people are saying "but AJ is champ and Pope, Wolfe, and Anderson are getting pushes". I agree and that's great, but the focus of the show is squarely on Hogan, but more on Bischoff than anyone else. If the focus shifts to those guys getting pushes and we see less Hogoff on our screens, I think the product benefits. Let's not kill TNA just yet. However, if in a year they are still sitting at 1.2 ratings with a lousy product, then let the attacks out. For now, be patient, be critical yet hopeful, and just understand that it has to storm before it is sunny, so expect some continually chaotic and mediocre television for a while until they hopefully realize the mistakes and look to improve upon them.
