Pro Bro

Want an example of something done right in TNA? The BroMans.

Jessie Godderz and Robbie E were originally put together because nothing else could be thought of for either man as a singles act. They turned what could have been a quick way to get released, treading water as a thrown together pairing, into a success. They got matching outfits, worked on their promo patter, and implemented some double team moves more complex than double suplexes and wishbone leg splits.

The addition of Zema Ion as DJ Z helped. He works surprisingly well as a hype man and the idea of the team having their own personal DJ fits perfectly. Most importantly it gives them an entrance that no other promotion would do. A DJ playing guys to the ring is something WWE wouldn’t touch, and while I can imagine ROH and similarly sized promotions would they don’t have the budget or setup to pull it off as well.

Okay, so The BroMans aren’t the best wrestlers in TNA. In fairness they’re not meant to be. They’re supposed to be a gimmick team that gets heat, which is precisely what they are. Given that role and the way they’re booked I think they turn out better quality matches than they need to.

Note the shades, bro.

TNA should make the most of The BroMans’ relative success and work on getting a good tag division going. Not only would it make use of an entertaining team but it would also allow for some fresh matches, something the company’s crying out for with all the established names it has under contract. As good as the formerly American Wolves are we can only see them tangle with Jessie and Robbie so many times before the match becomes a chore to sit through.

EC3 and Rockstar Spud could work as a team, as could Kurt Angle and ‘Willow’ Jeff Hardy. TNA’s already set these four up for a tag encounter. It would be easy enough to turn it into a series instead of a one off, and for storyline reasons to be given to explain each duo remaining together after said series. Dixie Carter could decree she wants EC3 and Spud to remain together while Hardy and Angle could say they want a fresh challenge. This would have the added bonus of helping to protect ‘The Olympic Hero’s’ increasingly frail frame.

Tigre Uno and Seiya Sanada could become a team after their best of three series wraps up. It’s a bit of a cliché at this point but that doesn’t mean it would be bad. They could have great matches with The Wolves and The BroMans.

There’s Beer Money too, of course. They’re already back together in an unofficial capacity. They could be reunited on a permanent basis by their dislike of another team, The Wolves for example, describing themselves as the best team in TNA history. A smart writing team (unfortunately that’s not a description that seems to fit the current one) could use a Beer Money reunion to redo the team’s split and segue Storm and Roode back into the world title’s orbit.

If Bad Influence were re-signed TNA could have a very good doubles division. The BroMans wouldn’t need to be the centrepiece but they could be an entertaining part of it.

X Additions

TNA needs to do something with its X Division. This is something I've written before (as recently as last week, in fact) but it's worth writing again.

This Thursday's Impact will apparently see new rules announced for the X boys. I'm not aware of what these rules will be but I can't imagine any that could bring about enough change to restore the league to its once lofty heights. Fans don't care too much about the rules governing wrestling. We're even less inclined to care about the rules of a division that's not currently entertaining on any meaningful level.

There's only one thing that I think could improve the X Division. It’s not a new rulebook. It’s new talent.

The X Division, much like the Knockouts division, is an area of the TNA roster that is ridiculously under stocked. The Knockouts at least have a variety of characters in their midst. Nobody's going to confuse a Gail Kim promo with an ODB promo. The same can't be said for the X Division. The heels and the faces all sound the same. Even Zema Ion, once someone who stood out from the pack, has regressed. He's now little more than spray and Dragon Ball Z hair.

Kame hame ha!

What's so frustrating is that when treated properly the X Division is TNA's greatest tool against WWE. Vince McMahon is notoriously reluctant to promote anything resembling the X Division in his company. Look at his half-hearted treatment of the cruiserweight and light heavyweight titles. He's not against promoting smaller guys, but when he does they wrestle a slower, more deliberate style than that seen in the average X bout.

The argument that TNA also has the Knockouts to set them apart from the competition is flimsy. While the KOs used to be great their matches and programmes have slipped in quality like the X Division. More to the point WWE has shown that they are willing to push female performers in the past. Just because they're not right now (mainly because they have about two female performers of note) doesn't mean they're incapable of doing so. The Knockouts are a less unique attribute to TNA than the X Division.

Matches involving Kenny King, Christian York, and Zema Ion can only be cycled through for so long. The reappearance of Sonjay Dutt was nice to see, not to mention welcome, and Rockstar Spud won’t hurt. But they alone can't save the X scene. If the league is to return to the spectacle associated with its heyday two or three other guys need to be brought in to provide fresh bouts.

Right now I can't foresee these new X Division rules being anything but a flimsy substitute for much needed new talent.

Back on Form

Last night's Bound For Glory pay-per-view presented its audience with no less than five championship matches. Four of those saw titles change hands. While some of the switches were good moves (Tara dethroning former tag partner Miss Tessmacher and Guerrero and Hernandez capturing the doubles straps) it was still far too much for one show.
 
The approach is worryingly similar to the TNA of three or four years ago. Back then matches took place with little rhyme or reason and championships changed hands so frequently that their importance was severely diluted. TNA has done if good job of restoring some lustre to those battered prizes over the last year. Bound For Glory 2012 felt more like a step back than a step forward.
 
If the company felt the need to have so many prizes change hands then they should have planned things out better and had some changes take place on different dates. Rob Van Dam's X Division title win is a perfect example of a switch which didn't have to take place at BFG. Defending champ Zema Ion could have wrestled RVD to a time limit draw, setting up a rematch on IMPACT or at November's Turning Point show. Even a deliberate DQ to set up a return encounter would have been better than a cluttered card.

The man who replaces Austin Aries at the top of TNA

 
The multitude of new champs crowned on the undercard diluted the importance of Jeff Hardy's TNA title win in the main event slot. 'The Charismatic Enigma's' victory over Austin Aries would have meant more had it not had to share the night with Tara, Guerrero, Hernandez, and Van Dam's wins.
 
The show itself was mostly enjoyable. The main event was a fittingly well-crafted encounter and while I wish 'A Double' had remained the world champion for a while longer I can't fault the decision to move the belt on to Jeff Hardy considering the reaction his win got.

The interaction between Hardy and Aries should prove a highlight of Thursday’s IMPACT and I imagine we’ll see them clash for the title over the course of the next few PPVs. I hope their inevitable match at Turning Point is of the same standard. Hopefully the rest of the card will be too, but with a few less title changes. Remember, TNA: less is more.

Aces, Eights and Chavo Guerrero

Things were going pretty well in TNA.

Late last year Bobby Roode and James Storm were promoted to the main event and presented as genuine singles stars. Austin Aries recently joined them and captured the company’s world championship, a positive sign as it showed TNA had noticed the man’s talent and rise in popularity. Zema Ion is now leading the X Division into what is hopefully going to become a renaissance for the league and for the most part talent such as Samoa Joe, Magnus and Chris Daniels are being generally well used.

Most notably the various former WWE employees under contract (Mr Anderson, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, Devon, and the rest of the gang) have had their pushes decreased in order to allow those mentioned above to rise to the top. Hulk Hogan and Sting are now being booked more as special attractions than regulars and Eric Bischoff has been written off television all together.

The positivity I felt about the TNA product was undone by one thing: the announcement that Chavo Guerrero had been signed by the promotion.

Chavo is a competent worker who can produce good to great matches if he has the right opponent. He is not someone renowned for being able to carry far less experienced men to excellent matches. His verbal work is merely average. In short he excels at no one aspect of professional wrestling over any other and has not shown at any point during his career that he has what it takes to make it as a headline attraction.

I am less than enthused about Chavo Guerrero's addition to the TNA roster

At 41-years-old and with younger, better men plying their trade on the US independent scene I can see no reason for TNA to have hired Chavo. He would make a very good addition to their group of trainers and road agents (which currently includes D’Lo Brown, Al Snow and Simon Diamond) but that’s not what he’s been hired for. He is being brought in as an on-screen performer. Considering the fact that his first appearance on this evening’s live IMPACT is being pushed heavily by TNA it seems as though he’s going to be a featured performer.

Perhaps I’m being unnecessarily negative. Maybe Chavo will be brought in for a short run to help grant the X Division some credibility. A three or four month stint topped off by a babyface Chavo unsuccessfully challenging a heel Zema Ion for the X belt could do the league some good.

I don’t think we’ll get that though. I think Chavo is going to be around for a while and TNA are going to do all they can to get him over as a big star when they should be giving more time to men like Ion and Kenny King.

On a related note we have the mysterious Aces and Eights faction attacking members of the TNA roster, seemingly at random. The crew has featured a revolving roster of men, always working under hoods and masks to obscure their identities.

At this point the Aces and Eights faction looks like it's going to be another excuse for TNA to hire a load of ex-WWE talent

This being wrestling it’s been easy enough to identify some of the assailants so far. Drew ‘Luke Gallows’ Hankinson is currently the only man to have been involved in every Aces segment. He’s expected to be a member of the faction when the masks are dropped. Wes Briscoe was on run-in duty and is similarly expected to wind up on the faction’s roster. D’Lo Brown was also involved in the beatdown of Aries on last week’s IMPACT, but he will likely end up just being an uncredited extra.

The reason TNA are revolving the men working under hoods is so that the eventual line-up, whenever it’s revealed, comes as a surprise to viewers. That’s a nice approach but based on the men involved in the angle so far it seems as though TNA is planning to stock the faction with former WWE names.

As I stated above an increase in ex-WWE performers is not what TNA needs. Find some new talent and let them connect with the audience. It’s worked for Aries, Roode and Storm. It would work for others, but it can’t if the Aces and Eights faction begins gobbling up air time once they’re unmasked. Sadly that seems like the likeliest route at this point.

Regeneration X

During the first few years of TNA’s near decade-long existence the X Division was its crowning achievement. It provided viewers with the fast-paced, high-flying excitement that WWE has never been able to pull off, which had been absent from American TV screens since WCW and ECW went under in early 2001. Over the years the X Division has been the setting for many of TNA’s greatest matches and was the proving ground for many of the most lauded names to have passed through the company, most notably Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe.

Sadly over the last two or three years the X Division has fallen on hard times. This is thanks to a combination of inattentive booking and a lack of fresh talent being brought in to keep the Division feeling fresh and exciting. 

Despite this state of affairs last year’s Destination X pay-per-view, which exclusively featured X Division matches and saw multiple performers brought into the company for the weeks prior to the show, was TNA’s single greatest show of 2011. That should have told TNA that the X Division is still something that can succeed and set them apart from their chief rival.

It didn’t.

If anything the X Division has become more stifled and limited since that show. A weight limit of two hundred and twenty pounds has been placed on the Division and there are now only around half a dozen men in the company that could be considered X performers.

The weight limit is particularly frustrating for viewers: TNA itself used to tell its fans that the X Division wasn’t about weight limits, it was about no limits. While that may have been a slightly embarrassing tagline it was true enough: X Division wrestlers worked a fast, exciting style which lent itself to cruiserweight performers but heavyweight wrestlers such as Joe and Kurt Angle could still fit in nicely.

The lack of talent isn’t entirely TNA’s fault. Jesse Sorensen suffered a severe neck injury just a few weeks ago and will be sidelined indefinitely. Chris Sabin (who could play a significant role in the Division without harming the momentum of the Motor City Machine Guns) has been on the injured list since last spring. Brian Kendrick had to be let go because of apparent creative differences. These things happen and they’re nobody’s fault.

However TNA does have to take the blame for the Young Bucks leaving last year and the inadequate booking of talented guys like Alex Shelley and Kid Kash. They also took the decision to move Frankie Kazarian away from the league without finding anybody to fill the gap the left.

The good news is that the X Division can be salvaged relatively easily. It helps that there is already a supremely talented champion in place. In my opinion Austin Aries is the greatest all-round performer currently under contract to TNA and there’s nobody better to lead the X Division out of its current slump. Being great on the mic and in the ring, ‘A Double’ is capable of making limited performers look good and good performers look great.

In order to restore the X Division to its former glory TNA first needs to concoct a plan of action. The performers in the Division need to be granted a minimum set amount of time on IMPACT each week. Ideally it would be around the same time every week so viewers get a rough idea of when they can tune in to see the X Division performers. As good as Aries is on the mic he needs to be limited to backstage interviews and brief post-match victory speeches for a while: the X Division’s time should be for matches rather than talking.

Booking plans need to be drawn up for the next few months. A novel approach would be selecting four performers to be used as primary and secondary heels and faces. That would give TNA several months of storylines, with the primary face feuding with the secondary heel as the primary heel feuds with the secondary face. Things could then be changed around with the secondary names branching off into a feud as the top heel and face clash for the title.

Aries is the obvious choice for the Division’s top heel and Zema Ion would make a fine choice for the secondary bad guy spot. I don’t believe there’s anybody on the current roster who’d work in either of the top two babyface spots. Alex Shelley may be talented enough but he needs to be kept available for his imminent MCMG reunion with Chris Sabin, meaning he can’t afford to get tied up in a months-long booking plan for a singles division.

The top two babyface spots would need to go to outsiders. In a perfect world TNA would splash some cash and bring in Jack Evans and John Morrison. Evans did a fantastic job of getting himself over during his brief time with TNA around last year’s Destination X show (which I wrote at the time). If TNA gave him some backing dancers and invested time in him then Evans could do big things in, and for, the company.

Hire this man!

Morrison is an obvious choice for the top babyface spot because he is incredibly popular thanks to his time in WWE. If TNA showed they could use him correctly he could help give viewing figures and live attendance at house shows a small nudge. Booking him to go over Zema Ion and ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’  in his first two feuds would create a new X Division kingpin and restore fans’ faith in the X Division as a whole.

In addition to this it would also benefit the company to hire one or two additional names to use as X Division under-carders. Names like Johnny Gargano, Kenny Omega, Mark Haskins, Pac, Homicide, Petey Williams, Low Ki, Akira Tozawa and Ruckus immediately spring to mind as ideal candidates, though in truth TNA could sign almost anyone from Dragon Gate USA or Ring of Honor. Bulking out the roster with guys of that calibre would ensure that there are plenty of fresh, enjoyable matches for TV and pay-per-view, and people ready and capable of moving up to replace featured stars who’ve become overexposed and need to be moved down the card for a while. They could even take the novel approach of scouting some new talent to introduce to mainstream wrestling.

When push comes to shove, all the X Division really needs is talented workers. Storylines are nice, but ultimately the X Division has always been, and always will be, about high match quality. If TNA can restore that and give us some variety they’ll be doing a fine job.