PWTorch.com - TNA NEWS: TNA presents Impact product to TV critics, includes basic exchanges & answers on wrestler health, is it real?, more

TNA News
TNA NEWS: TNA presents Impact product to TV critics, includes basic exchanges & answers on wrestler health, is it real?, more

Jan 8, 2015 - 2:11:59 PM

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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Discovery Communications, Destination America, and TNA Wrestling were represented at a gathering of TV critics Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's Winter 2015 event.

Representing TNA were president Dixie Carter, Mr. Anderson, and Chris Melendez. Deadline.com recapped the presentation, with the following interesting exchanges:

- Critics asked very basic wrestling questions, such as whether TNA is putting on airs that wrestling is real. Anderson replied with the standard badge of honor answer about his history of injuries and pushing through when feeling hurt.

Carter offered: "The steel chairs are real. The blood is real." When asked if medication is involved, Carter jumped in: "It’s a new day and, under my watch, their health is the most important thing." She added: "This a marathon, not a sprint. That’s our company philosophy. Until he’s medical cleared to go he’s not going to go. We have a pretty strict policy.”

- Another basic question was whether TNA's characters are red, white, and blue babyfaces against "Muslim" villains. Carter jumped in with a statement about the locker room making up "every ethnicity, male, female, every culture." She added, "We’re not going in a stereotypical way.”

- TNA and Dest. America emphasized the Vince Russo term "rope opera" to describe the product, which was on-display at the end of Wednesday's debut show on Dest. America when the show ended with three heel turns and a TNA Title change.