Email This Article - Contact Us - VIP Sign-Up - Back to Home Page

|

TNA Impact last night drew a 1.0 rating again for the fourth week in a row. It began with a 1.06 Q1 rating, then dropped consistently the rest of the first hour to a show-low 0.94. The second hour jumped to a 1.14 for Q5, then dropped consistently again to another show-low rating of 0.94.

Most alarming is that the single-biggest drop of the show came for the Samoa Joe & Kurt Angle vs. Scott Steiner & Petey Williams tag match (1.10 to a 0.99). Once again, TNA's top heavyweights are not drawing the ratings they should based on their skills and star power.

KELLER'S ANALYSIS As I talked about in yesterday's Daily Keller Hotline, I think one tweak that would help TNA retain viewers who tune in at the start of each hour is to give them someone to cheer for at the top of the card. There are so many ambigious characters that for viewers who just want to latch onto a favorite and be given clear signals they're worth cheering for, they get lost in the mush.

There's A.J. Styles being a heel who happens to be a good guy when around Karen Angle, but a "nobody" in the eyes of babyface Booker T. There's Kurt Angle who acts admirably for a few minutes, then snaps and acts crazy and mean toward Karen. There's Samoa Joe who's a good guy, but is latched on to Kevin Nash, who talks about money being the mainsouce of pride in the world. There's Tomko, who was a babyface for a few minute several weeks ago before being jerked back into a heel role. There's Christian Cage, who also gives off mixed signals from week to week. Even Booker T and Sting are arguing one week, forcing fans to choose sides, before making up the next week.

Somewhere along the line, TNA would benefit from finding about four top babyface acts and portraying them consistently as heroes who act in an admirable manner, are put in jeopardy by clear-cut heels who act consistently as jerks, and eventually have a confrontation in the ring where things are settled. TNA bookers make things more complicated, and in the process create mushy emotions and connections between fans and the wrestlers on the screen, which I believe worked against them building viewer loyalty.

Look at the main event tag match this week. Who were fans supposed to root for? Samoa Joe? He was teamed with Angle, who's a heel. Steiner or Petey? Are they faces or heels? We don't know. Steiner did a comedy promo before the match, which is usually reserved for babyfaces. But Petey's been a heel in recent months and Steiner's initiation of Petey for several weeks wasn't a traditional casting of how a babyface would act. If TNA constructed TV main events with top stars with a clear-cut babyface and built the show around more conflicts that were "black and white" with fewer shades of gray, it might keep some of those 100,000 plus viewers who watch at the start of the hour but tune out within 30 minutes.

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

For more BREAKING NEWS on WWE, TNA!
VISIT OUR AFFILIATE - PROWRESTLING.NET

For UFC & MMA NEWS & BLOGS:
VISIT OUR SISTER SITE - MMATORCH.COM

Upgrade to PWTORCH VIP: DETAILS & SIGN-UP INFO

(c) 1999-2009 TDH Communications Inc. - All rights reserved.