FRIDAY MORNING NOTE: This was written prior to the airing of Impact and some amends have been made since the show aired. Since the shows in question are in the books, there’s no point in hiding the below text, so enjoy my rambles.
So, stop me if you’ve heard this before.
A wrestling promotion decides to push one of its young talents – one half of a pretty respectable and notable tag-team in that promotion – and have him go through the entire roster in a tournament that lasts the better part of a few months. And during that time, the promotion builds him up to meet with the world champion at the promotion’s biggest show of the year, with some pretty good promo work and a thrilling story about his being put in matches with his fellow stablemates. All indicators have you believing that this individual they’re pushing for this big show is going to be the next big thing and the guy to lead the promotion to a new era.
And then when the biggest show comes along, just when you’re expecting a title change, the guy that they had been pushing for the past several months… doesn’t win it. The heel champion retains. The feel-good moment everyone was hoping didn’t happen… because Hulk Hogan didn’t think the guy they were grooming was ready for the big time and at the last possible minute, the promotion lost its balls and changed its script.
The feel-good moment didn’t happen… people are pissed as a result…
Meanwhile, during the tapings of the promotion’s weekly wrestling show (that people don’t even need to pay to see) where wrestling supposedly matters but instead we have promos taking up most of the show, the heel champion drops the belt to the guy’s tag-team partner in a short match. On free TV. Before a live studio audience that has been pampered by this promotion for years on end.
People are not so pissed anymore… a new guy has been elevated and given the top prize in the promotion… it just isn’t the guy they spent months building up and making people care about…
Now, with all the thinly-veiled storytelling out of the way, I’m actually quite happy that James Storm won his first World Title – even moreso that he won it in a minute and tried to do the classy thing by giving the belt to partner Roode (who had refused it). Hell, I’m happy that TNA finally decided to give the strap to one of their own instead of another former WWE guy. And the possibility of a Roode/Storm feud does intrigue me somewhat, given what has transpired… and all things considered, this is a much better story being told than watching the rise and fall of the McSon-In-Law being usurped by Johnny Laryngitis on Monday nights. I will give them that.
The thing is… as happy as I am that James Storm got the title, I’m not quite thrilled with how they got there. It’s almost as if TNA thought, “Oh noes! People are angry we didn’t give Bobby Roode the strap on our PPV that they paid good money to see! Let’s give the strap to James Storm so that people will be happy!”
I was content to skip on the PPV… hell, outside of the annual Wrestlemania investment, there have a minuscule number of PPVs that I felt were worth following, considering my jaded tastes. I had gotten close with Money In The Bank and decided against it – and I’m trying to track down a copy of the DVD as a result. I had almost gotten close with Bound For Glory and ultimately decided against it – but considering what happened, I might not want to get the DVD of it… well, that and I can live without watching the atrocity that is Sting vs. Hogan 2011. (Yeah, out of the few things I was able to catch from the PPV through a friend, the Sting/Hogan ‘match’ was one of them – and yes, I thought it sucked lemons.)
Really, why not wait until the next PPV to do the title switch? Why now? I’m just baffled by this… I know Angle is injured, but it just really seems like a big ‘fuck you’ to the people who bought the PPV to watch the torch getting passed.
In any event, despite my misgivings about the road taken to get to this point, I’m thrilled that someone new and purely TNA talent like James Storm is given a chance to run with the title. I hope that he has a rather fruitful reign as champion and slowly but surely, this might be the beginning of a new age where the TNA talents will step forward, push past the wall of WWE rejects and veterans and show the world what they truly have to offer. TNA always had potential; they needed something to live up to it.
This could be the first sign of such potential shining through the cracks…
Or it could be wishful thinking on my part…
We’ll see…
dtm666 