TNA: The best keep secret of pro wrestling
For the past five years, the war between AEW fans and WWE fans have been dominated social media and wrestling media and opinions columns. The Pro-WWE fans don’t accept that another fed can actually compete with WWE and the anti WWE fans just want to defend AEW at all cost and will continue to live in this bubble where AEW is perfect and WWE is the big bad wolf that is out to get them
The reality is that nothing will change for both company and we need to except this. WWE will always be number 1 and be the mainstream face of pro wrestling and AEW will always be a mix of a lot of style that the IWC like and everybody else will hate. So all that bickering were doing about who’s has the best wrestling is all for nothing at this point because neither company will change and that’s why the number 1 and 2 spot are pretty much lock in right now.
But just like in the late 90’s with ECW, we have a little promotion trying to get notice by the wrestling fandom and that’s TNA wrestling and I think it’s why it’s worth writing a column on TNA to give them a little love and hopefully get more fans to sample the product because quite frankly, I think they’re producing the best wrestling product in the north American industry right now.
First, just look at the roster they have right now, it’s just the right mix of veterans and young wrestlers. Unlike WWE and AEW, they don’t have a bloated rosters where 50% of their roster is either sitting in cathering or just lost in the shuffle. Everybody as something interesting to do and feel like a star.
You have wrestlers like Joe Hendry and jordynne grace who are by far the 2 hottest act in wrestling right now and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get offers from both WWE and AEW once their TNA contract are up. You got veterans like Eddie Edwards, Nick Nemeth, moose & PCO just to name those guys who being doing the best work of their career. You can forget the rascalz and Mike Bailey who are doing awesome stuff in the x division and the list go on and on. The thing is with that roster is that for them, it’s not about being paid a huge salary and it’s all about working together to get the best wrestling product out there and entertain the fans and it shows on television and and PPV.
Then, let’s look at the product itself. Again, if you’re looking for great wrestling action without being forced to watch over scripted promo’s and matches like WWE does or just overbooked Indy/Japanese stuff like AEW does, TNA is the alternative for you. They actually found a way to get a great mix of modern and old school style wrestling going and I think that by far, they delivered the best bell to bell wrestling action of any north american company.
The thing with TNA is that they realized that you can have great wrestling matches without going overboard on high spots and stunts and have the well being of the performers in mind. So what you’re getting is awesome wrestling without the risk of seeing somebody getting seriously hurt because they did something stupid.
Finally, their current partnership with NXT is probably the best move the company as ever done because it give the NXT rookies a chance to get more experience outside WWE while giving the TNA wrestlers more exposure which means more exposure for the company and it’s probably the most interesting thing going in wrestling right now because of how unpredictable the whole thing is. Plus it make both product feel fresh which is what we need in wrestling right now.
AEW while being decent is a stale product and they know it. The fact that they feel like they need to go back to the late 90’s and do ECW type angle just to get fans talking proves that the product is stale. The WWE product is better but it’s still the same old WWE product but with a better creative mind at the helm.
TNA bring a middle ground between both product and has wrestlers that all feel different and look like stars. The wrestling itself is really strong and is probably the best belt to belt product going right now. The only thing preventing them from being competition for AEW is that they don’t have the resources or the money that AEW as but I feel that any fans of pro wrestling should give them a chance and it not like it’s hard to follow the product since they have their own streaming service that actually air the weekly product live on the service.
So in the end, while the wrestling news cycle as been dominated by WWE and AEW, I hope that this column will make fans give TNA a chance because I feel like they are doing the best product of the company’s existence and deserve to get discovered and talked about by the wrestling fandom and media