So I might as well get on the ball.
TiVo is the greatest invention ever. It has saved my wrestling fandom. I work second shift so I'm not always home when the shows are going on but I just TiVo it and BAM I have instant wrestling gratification.
The best part about TiVo is you can judge how quality a show is by seeing exactly how long it takes you to watch it.
For example SmackDown takes me 0 minutes to watch 2 hours. Because I don't TiVo it because it's terrible.
ECW takes 20 minutes for 1 hour worth of "entertainment" and it's teetering awfully close to the edge of not being TiVoed. But I enjoy Elijah Burke and now that Shelton Benjamin is there it gives me more reason to watch.
RAW takes around an hour or 40 minutes to watch a two hour show. Most of it is spent in fast forward only pausing when I see HBK, HHH, Y2J or some tag team action because the RAW tag teams aren't that horrible.
TNA usually takes around the full 2 hours. Why you ask? Because they make every match mean something. They keep their storylines going. They have SUPLEXES IN MATCHES! One of the worst things WWE ever did was ban all forms of suplex not known as VERTICAL. The matches are boring and lack a certain reality that a crisp belly to belly or german suplex brings to the table. TNA can take a fun little angle like a beer drinking contest and turn it into a bloody feud in a matter of seconds. It's better written. Now I'm not a full blown TNA mark though I am on my way.
I still hate the six sided ring and they have the worst announce team on TV presently. But in a marketplace that is so thin for good wrestling entertainment. TNA is definitely head and shoulders above the competition.
But I never would have known that if it wasn't for my TiVo.
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3 comments:
Really?? Really now?? TNA is far worse than anything else on tv these days. They don't make any of their matches mean anything!! Occasionally they will have a good match or two on their broadcast, but there is never a finish!! They cut from one match or angle to another seemingly instantaneously leaving no time for anything to sink in. It is all rushed and unimportant. The matches that last more than 2minutes are marred with interference and nonsensical booking. Their homegrown talents who can actually go are shoved down the card at the expense of numerous wwe castoffs who are immediately cast as main eventers in tna, no matter how short their stay in the company ends up being. Look at last night's ppv. Two singles matches? Everything else a clusterfuck. Main eventers not even showing up. Garbage. I do not see how anybody can even begin to defend this shit. They have a ton of potential. That's about all I can say positive about this company..they have potential.
Merchandise, I couldn’t agree with you more. Hack, I love ya buddy, but there is a lot in this post that I disagree with as well as your response to my post. Your method of judging a wrestling show solely based on picking and choosing what you see when you watch it on Tivo, doesn’t make sense. For someone who has been close to the business, such as yourself, I’m very surprised. Going into a show with a pre-set idea of what you want to see can’t allow you to accurately determine whether a show or a match is good. You put over the 2 to 3 minute spot-fests that TNA puts on, but you fail to even watch an edition of Smackdown, give anyone else on the ECW roster a shot and as you said in regards to Raw, “Most of it is spent in fast forward only pausing when I see HBK, HHH, Y2J or some tag team action because the RAW tag teams aren't that horrible.” You’re better than that, bro.
While Smackdown’s creativity on the storyline front might be lacking, you still get a chance to watch quality wrestling matches that, believe it or not, tell stories from beginning to end. I don’t get to watch The People’s Show as often as I’d like because I’m 23 and it’s a Friday night, but I do try to enjoy it when I can. When I do, I am never disgusted by any of the in-ring work I see. When watching, you also get to see a great up and comer in MVP. Viscera has been on point as of late as an unstoppable beast. Batista and Undertaker have exceeded expectations when working together and when he’s not sucking face with Vickie Guerrero, Edge is back. Oh wait, isn’t your favorite wrestler of all time Rey Mysterio? I rest my case on Smackdown. ECW has just picked up Shelton Benjamin as you mentioned, which is great, but it also has quality performers in John Morrison, CM Punk, Matt Stryker (he’s a tremendous manager right now) and The Miz hasn’t disappointed as of late. If you give certain shows a shot, you might be able to pick up on some good stuff, likeable characters that you haven’t given a fair shake and matches that tell stories.
Watching a show on fast forward and just stopping at what you assume are going to be the good parts and then saying the show sucked is like fast forwarding through a match, just seeing the finish, then making the judgment that the match sucked, solely based on the finish.
Like I said earlier, I agree with all the points Merchandise made about the quality of TNA. Had I known the rebirth of Steel Cage Radio was going to be a big TNA knob slob, I would have put up the money for an abortion. TNA is WCW’s bastard child and it’s as plain as day other than the fact that the ring has 6 sides. Samoa Joe and Christian are the two guys on that roster that I am a legit fan of. I’ve stomached plenty of episodes to give you a judgment on the product. Kurt Angle is a shell of his former self and your argument on “TNA is better because they can do more suplexes” is uneducated. If you barely watch the WWE product, then how do you know? I for one saw your boy Shelton Benjamin throw quite a few suplexes other than a vertical just this past Tuesday. Also saying that TNA’s matches have anything to do with wrestling psychology is absurd. Kurt Angle vs Samoa Joe (which is TNA’s biggest attraction to date) should have been a wrestling clinic. Instead, Kurt Angle is busted open 3 minutes into the match and we get a bloody brawl when one wasn’t necessary. I’m not even going to go into the ridiculously obscene amount of gimmick matches, battle royals, and tag team handicap flippy spot thumbtack hardcore house of pain double elimination bullrope blindfold electric cage ultimate x contract matches.
I’m going to close by sticking to my position that Randy Orton is a bad WWE Champion. They needed someone to keep up the momentum while Cena was out, but he’s just not delivering. I like the guy as a performer in the ring (him vs HBK at Survivor Series was awesome), but he’s not getting that legitimate heel heat that many have had in the past. Something about him just isn’t clicking with the fans in the live audience. Obviously you see something that I don’t, but he’s not registering as the face of the company and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so. Also, Santino Marella is great. I won’t budge on that. He goes out there and entertains the people and gets a bigger reaction than most of the guys on the show. He does a great job as a heel and he’s good in the ring and for an “anonymous” reader to question my credibility on the subject of wrestling obviously doesn’t know me very well. Thank you and enjoy.
And Delgado, had I known that you would spend all of your time fellating John Cena, I never would have invited you to ruin the legacy of sCr in the first place. Seriously, John Cena is the worst WWFE champion in over a decade. Talk about being force fed homegrown talent, you guys talk about TNA force feeding you whatever, WWFE has stuck by Cena as a champ when it was obvious that the MAJORITY of the house HATED him. You made some retarded reference to XPac heat in another post, dude, Cena is providing a new definition for the old Waltman treatment.
Do you know what ring psychology is? Its apparent to me that you have your definitions crossed. Allow me to educate you as its clear that the third rate indy promotions aren't getting the job done. Ring psychology is nothing more than the story telling aspect of the match. How does a bloody brawl lack ring psychology when the feud isn't based on a championship quest, its based on hatred. I love to see a wrestling clinic between to talented workers but the Joe and Angle feud was fueled on by emotional battles. To watch those guys massacre each other is to watch the story of their rivalry unfold. But what, now you think going to the blade is somehow beneath the art of wrestling? Get over yourself dude.
Orton is a brilliant WWE champion. I'm not a fan of the product but he fits the mold perfectly. I'm sure he's going to do some fine things with Jericho and that will prove to be the only thing I watch on that show. Batista vs Undertaker has been a disgrace. Talk about shells of former selves, this isn't the Undertaker I grew up watching. This is a almost 50 year old man who is hanging on too long, no sells almost everything, and leans on nothing but his character to get him by. Meanwhile, Batista is incapable of having an entertaining match unless HHH carries him to one. I haven't enjoyed a Batista match since his feud with Hunter. He's just not very good.
As for Tony and his opinions on TNA. The matches don't mean anything? Really? Apparently you're not watching the shows. The X Division champion (who has the best gimmick in wrestling) is entrenched in a David vs Goliaths struggle to save TNA's signature division. The Dudleys keep beating the smaller men to the punch but eventually they'll get their comeuppance. Angle is dealing with the effects of double crossing Kevin Nash. The logical draw when feuding with Nash is an outsiders return (kinda like WWE teases and does everytime they get HHH and Michaels on the same side of the heel/face spectrum). Fine, Hall no showed and everyone saw that coming but by all accounts, Hall has been making strides in the right direction with pulling his life together. Besides, WWE had a talent no show for their ECW title match this summer because he was too busy murdering his family. You tell me who had more egg on their face in that front.
How does not being a singles match equate to a clusterfuck? Sure the main event was rushed but you can blame that on your boy Joe going way over his given time with the mic. I loved the promo (as I wrote about earlier) but as a result, they ran out of PPV time (something wwe never does as their PPVs never end later than 10:40pm). TNA puts the focus on matches, thats what I tune in to see. I don't need a 2 hour show with only 45 minutes worth of matchs (and only 9 minutes worth of watchable matches). Give me TNA where I'm entertained by every match on the card for a solid hour (leaving time for commercials and a few short backstage segments).
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