Title Match Booking

[shattered dreams]

I was thinking about the varying opinions of RVD's run with the title thus far, the top 10 and the general idea of TNA forming its own "identity" and wanted to throw something out there. I think part of what has people somewhat skeptical on RVD as champ is that there is no defining feud. He faces a different person every month in a new "direction." My opinion is that this is not necessarily a bad thing and may very well be intentional. This might be another example of people becoming too ingrained in the WWE way of doing things while simultaneously demanding TNA be different. WWE tends to like longer feuds over the belts lasting a few months and usually rotating a similar select group in the main event (although this last part is changing some now).

My theory is that TNA has been trying to make the title match more important by not giving people multiple shots and return bouts no matter what. This could be viewed as a pro or a con. It seems to limit the idea of feuds over the title yet it might add a unique realism to the equation. Kind of like a real fight, if you lose as the challenger there is no guarantee you get a second shot. AJ defended the belt 10 times after winning it before losing it in his 11th defense, every match was a different matchup except Angle got two shots in January and 10 of those were one on one contests (the other a three way of which he later faced both in different singles matches). So AJ defended his title against 8 different wrestlers, all in singles matches over 7 months before losing it to a 9th. RVD has picked up where AJ's trend left off. All his title defenses have been unique matches thus far and if you count the whole f'in show match 4 of the 5 defenses will be one on one.

So the question is do you like the idea of one-chance one-on-one title shot booking that builds to a new PPV challenger most months or are you a fan of longer feuds over the belt spanning more than one PPV?

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

I think this is what has hurt RVD's reign for me..the fact that the 'rankings' decides on who challenges him..sure it might be different but I think it doesn't do good for the current champion...its like saying RVD can't get into a good feud by himself...

I enjoy long feuds, and so i'm not totally for the idea of having a ranking system, it makes the feuds more interesting and rememberable..unlike what they are doing now!

 

[sislater69]

I personally like the idea of the "one chance" title shots as it gives a sense of realism and keeps things fresh.

I, for one, don't enjoy lengthy feuds over titles any more. Mainly due to the fact you have PPV's every 4 weeks or so. Just last year in the 'E we had to sit through 4 or 5 months of Cena v Orton main eventing PPV's which became so dull, when they announced an Iron Man Match I stopped watching.

So yeah, I do enjoy watching different people challenging for titles.

 

[Raven1788]

The fact TNA looked at RoH's old ranking system and said "oh we gonna steal that" does not make them innovative sorry. RVD wasa great champion in WWE (as short as it was) because there was this great story in place for him to take the title from Cena (still wish they could have jobbed Cena clean without the Edge interference) however with his TNA run he beat AJ on impact.......r u seriouz? It diminishes his title run right from the get go. And the names he has fought since with the exception of AJ have been pretty stupid. Why has he yet to defend the title 1 on 1 against Anderson or Pope I don't understand both guys have "future of the company" written all over them. They can both talk, they can both work, and they are both prejudiced against WWE so you don't have to worry about them jumping ship.

So it is written....so it shall come to pass....
Quoth the RaVeN....Nevermore

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I agree. One reason why I haven't been able to ultimately get behind Rob Van Dam as TNA World Champion is because the man hasn't really had any feuds with anyone. The way the TNA Ranking System works is that TNA World Heavyweight Champion winds up with a different opponent each month and each opponent is given only one match. Sometimes, you might see a brief confrontation between RVD and the #1 contender on iMPACT! or occassionally even a match that lasts 3 or 4 minutes. But, generally speaking, it usually all revolves around a single match at a single ppv. A single match isn't enough to ultimately ignite my interest and there's generally so little build up for this single match on iMPACT! that I ultimately don't really care.

Sometimes, feuds can go on for much longer than they should. The WWE has done before especially and it's likely it'll happen again. However, I'd much rather have a feud that goes on for too long instead of feuds that seem to only exist on paper for 30 days before everyone involved moves on to something different.

 

[shattered dreams]

I think it is worth pointing out that this system does not necessarily mean that the story has to fit a month. Look at Abyss right now. The back and forth between the two has been going on over a month. There are ways on occasion to stretch a "feud" longer. For instance, if Abyss wins the belt RVD would likely be number one and get a re-match at the next PPV, that would be almost three months worth of back and forth action.

I find a response like Hammer's frustrating not because of anything he said but because I do not understand this TNA double standard I alluded to earlier. Everyone says TNA has to do something different than WWE. Whenever they do it people always say it does not work and it would be better if they did it a different way. That different way happens to be the way WWE does it. So I think people need to figure out if WWE has a monopoly on the tried and true ways that things work best in a wrestling show or not. Because it is frustrating to hear people saying that TNA needs to be "different" while simultaneously suggesting various things they do different work better when you do them like WWE does. Those positions are contradictory but it seems like many continue to say both.

 

[Raven1788]

I don't care how "powerful" either "they" or hogans ring made abyss he is not world champion material. He never was in my opinion he never will be in my opinion. He is like the Kane of TNA. Always in the picture but never on top of the mountain. (yes i know Kane is the current World Champion maybe because Punk and Mysterio are both hurt and Jack Swagger is more like Sylvester the Cat then wrestler cutting a promo)

So it is written...so it shall come to pass....
Quoth the RaVeN....Nevermore

 

[Nada]

Im not a RVD fan at all, not even by a longshot but i actually think he has done a decent job, the reason it has been forgetable is because he dosent have a top heel to feud with.

TNA has the reverse problem of WWE, in that they have plenty of people who the crowd will cheer for, they could turn AJ tomorrow and he will get a big pop, Joe, RVD, Hardy, Anderson etc.

They really struggle with having a heel who gets booed out of the building. Ric Flair isent even a heel anymore, he gets cheered more than most faces.

 

[Raven1788]

While i agree Nada that TNA doesn't have a true Uber heel the same could be said of WWE...you could turn Edge, Jericho, Miz, or Punk face tomorrow and none of them would miss a beat. TNA does have a few guys I think can make excellent heels if they were booked properly (and with TNA's poo flinging monkeys on the booking team that aint gonna happen). If you stop the tweener crap with AJ he's gonna get cheered but can still draw heat, Abyss is always a stable heel, Desmond Wolfe if he hasn't killed himself from being underused was an AWESOME heel in ROH and could do the same for TNA and of course with the ECW faction returning this biased fan is gonna say give Raven (who old has he is finally has his thyroid condition under control) a shot at being that heel taking younger guys under his wing...the trick is to make it so he's the mentor (ala Flair) and not the focal point of the group.

 

[DangerousDave]

TNA has the reverse problem of WWE, in that they have plenty of people who the crowd will cheer for, they could turn AJ tomorrow and he will get a big pop, Joe, RVD, Hardy, Anderson etc.

They really struggle with having a heel who gets booed out of the building. Ric Flair isent even a heel anymore, he gets cheered more than most faces.

The thing I've noticed about the Impact Zone, especially being there in person, is that there is about an equil number of fans of heels and faces. I have always been a fan of heels, but there was a time when 95% of the fans were for faces. I used to really catch hell for cheering for Flair when he was facing Hogan, but these days even wearing a Matt Morgan shirt gets no reaction. TNA need to do more to better define who the heels are and increase the number of feudes. Beer Money & MMG is an excellent example of what can be done if they tried. As far as Flair goes, people know hes a heel, but ya gotta love his promos and even people who like faces like Slick Ric.

 

[gd]

The fact that RVD hasn't had a real feud has basically destroyed his title reign. He kinda had one with AJ, but that only lasted a couple of weeks. He didn't feud with Sting, it was all about DECEPTION, not about the two of them or the title. The thing with Abyss is the closest thing he's had to a feud thus far, but that's really about the ECW guys and Hogan.

Because of all this, there's just no reason to care about RVD or the title. Sure, he's still really good in the ring, but there's nothing behind it to interest anyone.