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  NoDQ.com > Columns > Off The Top Rope: Insanity or a perfect plan?
Posted by Charles Deane on 08/04/2008 at 10:08 AM

See what’s going on inside my mind…

Besides the money and the exposure, there is one major difference between TNA and WWE. A difference that, like some sort of long awaited epiphany, has only just been opened up to me. Yes, it’s pretty common knowledge and it’s something I’ve said before, but in order to truly understand why the gap between TNA and WWE is so large, you need to read between the lines. The difference is thus:

TNA is driven by wrestling and WWE is driven by storylines.

O.K., it’s not exactly groundbreaking. As I said, common knowledge. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. It’s only when you compare the rosters that this difference becomes apparent. Since the dawn of TNA, people have been comparing the rosters of the two companies. The TNA diehards maintain that TNA’s is better and vice versa. But please, just look at the rosters for a moment. The truth is, you cannot say that one roster is better than another. In order to do that you need to emphasise what it is that’s better about them.

Let’s look at the top 5 names that people namedrop for TNA, in my opinion: Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Abyss and Christopher Daniels (Sorry, CURRY MAN!). When you think of these guys, except maybe Abyss, you think about their wrestling. For WWE: John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker, Edge and CM Punk. When you think of these guys, except maybe CM Punk, you think about their characters. See where I’m going with this?

TNA’s roster is primarily built around people who just get it done in the ring, while WWE’s roster is focused on people who can make you want to see matches happen. The result? TNA provides good matches that nobody cares about while WWE builds mountains of hype for matches that too often fail to deliver. There is a lack of balance here.

The reason I have stuck with WWE for so long is that I am a fan of the story-driven side of professional wrestling. I struggle to enjoy even the best of matches if I can’t follow why it’s so important that these two men are going at it. Yet even still I struggle to justify why so many WWE matches fall flat on their face. On the flipside, TNA usually have no trouble showing you a good match (at least when they don’t go off the deep-end with gimmicks, anyway) but more often than not I’m apathetic as to what happens anyway since the story lacks any real depth.

TNA has come out and said that they want to blur the lines between faces and heels before, and in my opinion that is not the path they want to be going down. A lot of what makes a good match great is based on the crowd reaction and if they aren’t cheering for one guy and booing the other it’s hard to want one guy to win. There’s also a problem in the writing department itself. Storylines are either far too complicated to keep up with or too simple to care about. The WWE seems more able to strike a balance in this area in general, and with well defined faces and heels it’s very clear who the crowd should want to win. So, how can TNA solve this problem?

Bring in Flair.

Now, I don’t know if Ric Flair is actually any good at storyline writing or match booking, but I do know this: He has been around long enough to know what will and won’t work. TNA could quite easily hire Flair and have him wrestle a few matches, spitting all over the retirement storyline for the WWE and just generally doing what they did with Angle and Booker, i.e. not a lot, really. The only people who would have cared about Angle and Flair moving to TNA would be dedicated wrestling fans, and at the end of the day they probably already watched TNA anyway. If TNA want to start being a threat to WWE they need to draw in the casual wrestling fan.

I can sense the TNA diehards quaking in their boots. “Casual fans? What is this madness? They won’t possibly appreciate the technical prowess of Samoa Joe or the high flying antics of AJ Styles!” Are you really sure about that? TNA could be onto a winning solution if they brought in Flair to the creative team. If you can draw in the casual fan with an interesting, exciting, believable storyline and then blow them away with an epic match at the end of it, you know what you’ve done? You’ve created a proper wrestling fan, one who will tune in week in, week out, through thick and thin. You know what? WWE are in no position to do this right now. TNA are just one good storyline away.

The Nature Boy could liven things up in the creative team. It would provide a morale boost. It would get the creative juices flowing. It could spark the single greatest idea in TNA wrestling’s history. It could send them to the top. Here’s hoping…

~ Sheepling (Branded like an animal)

P.S. Please let me out…

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