The Women’s WAR GAMES Match SUCKED; TNA’s Questionable Booking Choices

Yeah, I said it.

Salutations to those who are still reading. Some of what you are about to read are thoughts that were going to be included in my last column, but I decided to make this its own piece, seeing as how the previous one was long enough.

But before I talk TNA- I feel compelled to “be that guy”. Looking at the comments under WWE’s social media posts about the women’s War Games match, I’m seeing fans reacting to it like Meltzer reacts to a Will Ospreay match. Some of y’all are rating it 8/10 or higher, and the match even got a “THIS IS AWESOME” chant. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But… WERE WE WATCHING THE SAME MATCH??? What some saw as “awesome”, I saw as awkward, plodding, mistimed, overly rehearsed, and repetitive (see Iyo’s annual trash can spot). The cameras picked up every single moment of a woman not-so-subtly sliding into position for the next spot, or hesitating because they slid into a position seconds too soon. The match relied on weapons and spots (including the aforementioned Iyo trash an dive). A scene in the match that stuck out to me (for the wrong reasons) was Bayley taking Bianca’s braid and whipping an opponent, awkwardly yanking Bianca’s head in the process. Just a sloppy match, and proof that WWE’s need to always have a “female version” of a gimmick/stipulation on the same PLE as the men’s dilutes the whole gimmick.

And I can’t stand Alcia Taylor’s ring announcing. I’m sorry.

I look forward to your attacks in the comments.

Questionable TNA Booking Choices (in no particular order)

Moose as X-Division Champion

I like Moose. And I am not opposed to him winning more titles, or having matches with smaller opponents. However, nothing screams “random” louder than putting the X-Division title on Moose. He just walks up to “Speedball” Mike Bailey, says to him, “when I want it, I’ll take it,”… and… one week later- new champ. I understand that they had to get the belt off of Bailey (if the rumors of him going to AEW are true). But geez-Jonathan Gresham was RIGHT THERE. I don’t know if the Octopus plans to leave TNA the same time his wife does, but if Gresham leaves TNA without having won a single title- that would be tragic. For those that didn’t watch Ring of Honor during the pandemic, Gresham went on an absolute tear as ROH Pure champion, with thrilling technical masterpieces that saw him win with a different finish for 12 or 13 consecutive defenses. TNA could’ve EASILY allowed Gresham to recreate that in front of crowds.

As good as Moose is, he adds nothing to the title, and the title adds nothing to him.

Masha Slamovich defeating Jordynne Grace for the Knockouts Title

From the moment Masha showed up with blood-stained photos, to being undefeated for several months, to her stellar (but unsuccessful) title matches against Grace, to the underrated and too short tag team run of MK Ultra (with partner Killer Kelly), we all knew that Masha was a future world champion. We also knew that her talents and connection with the TNA fans would turn her babyface despite being a psycho foreign heel. My issue isn’t the who or what, but rather the when. The trigger was pulled too soon. And it was a babyface vs. babyface match, which made Masha’s big moment somewhat anticlimatic as people weren’t necessarily ready to see the Juggernaut lose the title yet.

I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t understand why they never put the Knockouts title on Alisha Edwards. Alisha has proven herself to be an absolute heat magnet that the fans love to hate. Between the ropes, she isn’t bad, and she knows how to work the crowd enough during matches that she doesn’t need to bust out 450s or moonsaults. With the thinned out women’s division, Alisha was the logical choice to steal the title from Grace through nefarious means. This would’ve kept Grace strong and sypathetic in dropping the title, and the newly-turned face Masha could have gained more steam in the chase. Now, Masha is getting “meh” reactions since she’s no longer the edgy heel, and TNA has to go back to the Rosemary well because there are no stronger heels among the women. There’s still time to book Alisha to screw Masha out of the title with help from Tasha Steelz (or put the title on Tasha- but I think Alisha is the better booking choice), and put Masha on the chase. And there was no need to take the belt off of Jordynne this soon without at least giving her the honor of being the longest reigning champ or something. Just seemed rushed.

First Class… existing

Whenever someone gets released from WWE and ends up in TNA, I try to give that person the benefit of the doubt and the chance to show me that they deserved to keep their job. To AJ “Top Dolla” Francis‘ credit- he is a decent talker and good at getting heat. Whether it’s the good heel heat or “go-away” heat is in the ear of the beholder. I just struggle to take him seriously. I don’t enjoy hearing his music play or seeing his matches. I thought he looked ridiculous with Rich Swann as his partner, and he looks even more ridiculous with KC Navarro as his partner. And judging from some of the comments I see whenever he appears on TNA’s social media- I’m not alone in struggling to care about anything he does. Some fans won’t even allow him to live down his botched dive from Smackdown from however long ago that was. Francis’ forgettable run as Digital Media champion drastically decreased the value of that title (to be fair- Laredo Kid holding it didn’t help either). I honestly don’t know what could be done with Francis or First Class that would make things better. Maybe just keep them on X-plosion…

Speaking of the Digital Media Title…

That belt has sunken into the tarpits of TNA booking after Joe Hendry’s record-setting reign. With the likes of Hendry, Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, Crazzy Steve (where the heck is he?), and even Tommy Dreamer, the DM title actually felt like a viable tertiary title that could be used to elevate talent. Unfortunately, PCO has not been that star to help increase its prestige after it was passed around from Laredo to Francis. The title doesn’t even look right on PCO. PCO is one of those acts that doesn’t necessarily require titles as it’s enough to see a near-60 year old man dive off of stuff and survive the fall.

As I argued for Jonathan Gresham above, I believe the same can be said for Kushida. How this guy has been in TNA for this amount of time and never won a title (and AJ Francis HAS won one) is insane to me. Instead of throwing Kushida in random six-man tags, I think the DM title was tailor-made for a wrestler with his skillset.

JBL is taking forever, and Frankie Kazarian has yet to “call his shot”

Out of everything I’ve discussed here, this one at least makes the most logical sense, as Kaz doesn’t want the ever-present JBL to thwart his cash-in. On the subject of JBL interfering on behalf of Nic Nemeth– man, are they ever dragging that story out! It’s about time we start getting some explanations. But back to Frankie: given his ability to be conniving and manipulative, one would think that he would’ve already found the perfect opportunity to cash in his title shot and begin his long-awaited world title reign. I don’t know what they plan on doing with this Nemeth/Bradshaw situation, but I don’t think it makes sense to turn Nemeth heel and reveal that he’s been in cahoots with JBL. I don’t want the world title to be hot potatoed or anything, but I hope there is a solid plan in place to give the subject of the next paragraph the feel-good win he deserves- if they plan on putting the title on him at all.

Which brings me to-

The Cooling Off of Joe Hendry

Maybe I’m premature in my analysis here. I was even *ok* with Joe not defeating Nemeth for the title (though the finish of that match could’ve been a little better). I (along with many others on the internet) thought that Bound for Glory was Joe’s moment, but TNA had other plans, and I was tentatively on board, thinking that they really wanted the pop to be monstrous when Joe finally wins the big one. Monstrous pops for titles wins can be tricky when a face defeats a fellow face.

Regardless of if you feel as if Joe should’ve won at BFG or not- I don’t think you can argue that his momentum has slowed down. No- he’s not jobbing every week. But he went from facing Moose, to Josh Alexander, to Nic Nemeth, to… Ryan Nemeth. That “life story” video was hilarious, but facing the guy who couldn’t even buy a win on AEW Dark is a massive step backwards while Mike Santana is being steadily built, and anyone from the System can seemingly step into the world title picture whenever they want. This weekend, Joe Hendry was sent out to warm up the crowd in the kick off to Turning Point, which means his music was played twice, and the second time you hear it is always less special. He was in the annual “loser wears the turkey suit” match. Sure, he won. And the commentators desperately tried to pretend like that win meant something. It didn’t. Because you don’t remember the winner of this type of match; you remember who had to wear the costume.

What are they doing with this guy? His NXT debut is still the most-viewed wrestling clip on socials, and he’s the first active TNA star to main event a WWE (NXT) PLE. Even if you’re going to hold off on putting the title on him- Joe Hendry needs to continuously be treated like he’s the second coming of Dwayne Johnson on all TNA programming. Right now, it just feels like they don’t really know what to do with him, but they know that he just needs to win matches. I’m trying to give TNA creative the benefit of the doubt (perhaps they don’t want to do anything too big during the holiday season when everyone’s ratings take a dip), but I hope with everything in me that they don’t fumble the ball with their golden goose. Don’t let this be another Eli Drake situation…

Feel free to tell me I’m trippin’. But if you do- please tell me why.

Peace.