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Written by Justin Parker, Torch Specialist

Tuesday, May 13th

After seeing last night’s Raw and the reaction that William Regal received, I have come to a conclusion. TNA needs to leave the Impact Zone.

Before you ask how the two are related, let me explain. In my blog two weeks ago, I explained how the casual fan perceived Regal going to black at the end of a main event match between HHH and Randy Orton. The reaction last night solidified that fans put the heat on Regal for this act (thus suspending their disbelief or perceiving it as real) and not WWE. It has led to very effective heat, and it really has built up Regal’s character.

Now, looking at Sunday, TNA ran a PPV from the revered Impact Zone, where a female participant was to get her head shaved. After the battle royal and subsequent ladder match, Roxxi Laveaux was to be shaved bald in the middle of the ring due to the outside interference of her rival, Angelina Love. A very dramatic scene followed with Roxxi getting scalped, the babyfaces at ringside crying, and the dastardly heels laughing it up. This dramatic scene was met with chants of “Fire Russo.”

Now, the too “smart” for their own good Impact Zone fans basically killed all of the viewers at home chance of suspension of their disbelief. It is now a show and the booker received all of the heat from this dramatic spectacle. If this were presented in an arena with a casual fan presence, and not in front of the same 900 people that are there week in and week out, the perception to the TV viewer would have completely changed and they could have been caught up in the moment.

Fans who chant this are really doing a disservice to themselves and to the promotion that they “support” by taking a very dramatic scene (what wrestling, at its core, is supposed to create) and giving all the heat to the booker. If this was done in front of some non-Impact Zone fans (you know the ones you may want to get on board to increase your ratings), the heels would have received the heat and instantly been put over and Roxxi would be one of the most sympathetic characters in your promotion. Instead a faceless off-air character received all the heat. Nice work, Impact Zone.

William Regal is now rejuvenated as a heel character for some of the same dastardly heel tactics and the WWE may have another money player that can help their promotion. Can you imagine if the WWE fans thought they were going to be cute the next week and started to chant “Fire Steph,” or “Fire Brian.” The heat would instantly be turned over to them and the casual fans would have reason to believe that it wasn’t Regal but in fact, it was WWE that pulled the rug out from under them and they would lose a now major heel on the Raw roster.

In essence, this is what the Impact Zone did on Sunday. By transferring the heat to the booker, they really lost out on a lot of potential from this great scene at the end of the Knockouts match and the subsequent angle that is inevitably going to follow.

If I was TNA, I would show this angle and remix the audio track and show some shocked faces in the crowd on each of the next couple of Impacts. At least this way, you can present what you originally intended to the millions that view the TV as opposed to the tens of thousands who order the PPV. Allow a couple weeks for the angle to sink in and the bring back the now-bald Roxxi for revenge on the heels.

In closing, let me ask the fans that were there in the Impact Zone that night something. What was so bad about this that you felt the need to chant, “Fire Russo?” The match itself may have been convoluted but the dramatics that followed were tremendous and the best thing on the show. I’d like to hear you opinions at torchparker@gmail.com.

******


Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Since everyone has expressed their opinion on the subject, I may as well throw mine into the pot as well. While I think I’m in the minority in my opinion, I loved the ending to last night’s Raw. With that said, follow-up is key and I can see why people didn’t like this ending based on their perception of how WWE should be presented.

When looking at it from WWE’s perspective, they look at themselves as competing in the entertainment genre, as opposed to the sports genre. I totally agree with James Caldwell in his assessment that sports fans and wrestling fans who view it as sport would absolutely not like the ending, as it did not provide any finality. I believe that last night’s approach to the end of Raw was WWE’s way of aligning with the format of today’s most popular dramatic series (Lost, CSI, 24, etc.) that always end with some kind of hook to make you tune in next week.

Looking at this move from a casual fan perspective, and assuming that less than 20% of their audience are hardcore, internet followers, this should, in theory, increase at least the first quarter hour’s rating next week. Using Lost as an example, I am a casual viewer in that I watch every week but don’t look at the internet for spoilers, discussion, etc. so the cliffhangers mean more to me when I watch the following week with the mystery of how they are going to follow-up on them. Use this logic for the casual fans watching last night, then you can assume that it will spark interest in next week’s follow-up.

Also, I applaud WWE for trying creative ways to get out of a ratings slump as they could have succumb to the same formula as recent years (main event matches on free TV, increased frequency of gimmick matches, the return of Mr. McMahon, etc.) and I am all for a new idea that seems fresh. Approaches like this show that you should have a mix of writers who are not just “wrestling guys” as it provides for an out-of-the-box approach to how your product is presented.

Creative ideas that challenge the status quo of how wrestling looks should be embraced and the results data associated with them should be intensely studied to see exactly what it is telling you in terms of audience perception of the change. If you are going to implement a creative idea to change the look of the product, the results must be studied or else there is no way to know if the change was a success or not. Look no further than TNA keeping with the status quo after knowing that the build-up and presentation of Angle-Joe at Lockdown drew one of the largest buy rates in company history.

If a casual fan suspends their disbelief and looks at WWE existing in a world unto themselves, similar to the island that the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors are living on, this move puts the heat on William Regal and makes him a despicable heel. I don’t agree that the casual fan looks at it and says that they got screwed by WWE, but rather that Regal screwed them and they want to see him get his comeuppance at the hands of HHH or another babyface.

Sometimes we really have to look through a less discerning eye and look at wrestling the way that we look at some of some of our more casually viewed shows and then form an opinion from there, as it may change our viewpoint on whether or not a specific idea was effective.

If you don’t follow Lost, I apologize for all the references.

Justin would like to know what you think about new ideas and how they should be implemented within the wrestling context. Please e-mail any feedback to parjustin@gmail.com

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Tuesday, April 15th

An interesting topic has come up in VIP forum around title unification within WWE and since I have been reading a few historical pieces lately, I feel that this topic would be relevant.

In the thread, there is a point made regarding why maintaining the brand split and the current championship structure works, but I slightly disagree with the opinion on this subject. Rewinding back to the territory days, each territory had its own top title, and the NWA World Champion would come through periodically for title defenses, but when he was not around, most wrestlers were vying for that the top title in the territory, which held a high level of importance.

I know this is not a total apples to apples comparison but I think that you can apply the same logic within the current structure in WWE (assuming they are committed to enforcing the brand split). On all brands you have a title that would be considered the top title on each brand (IC, US, ECW) that you could have the top guys feud over when the world title is off being defended on another brand along with the tag titles that can be used to draw if built effectively (I know, a huge if).

This structure, in my opinion, would be a win all around. Let’s look at it from a business perspective by starting with the unified world title. By having it defended sparingly, as in not on TV and only on select house shows, the title match could be a bigger draw on PPV and on the house show circuit than both titles combined are now, as the fans really feel like they are seeing something special when the world champion is in their town.

Now, let’s look at today’s secondary titles, which would now become the top brand-specific titles, the IC, US, and ECW championships. Now, these are for the most part treated like afterthoughts, once prestigious titles that are now rarely defended on PPV. With this new structure in place, since brand members can only challenge for the unified world title once every 3 months or so, these titles would be the main goal and the in-road for a world title shot. Top contenders on the brand, who will be reconditioned that this is not a step down for their character, would feud over this while the world champion was off facing other challenges and could build their credibility in the meantime.

I would definitely make the case that this would maximize your drawing power at house shows and on PPV and ultimately lead to the titles being more meaningful and the feuds geared around them more of a consistent draw. It would definitely takes some work in the way of reconditioning the fans as to the importance of the now secondary titles, but it’s nothing that a few months of video packages showing past champions and top stars feuding over the belts won’t be able to accomplish.

Now ideally, on the house show and PPV circuit, you have four titles/champions that can be built up as draws instead of just two today, so I would make the argument that this is a win. Add these to a newly rebuilt tag division and you are off to the races.

******


Monday, April 14

Last night’s Kurt Angle- Samoa Joe match has become a matter of mixed opinion throughout the day. Some people like the MMA style that the match brought , some like a more traditional pro wrestling match, while some are in the middle.

Personally, I loved the match and think that this could be a building block for the future of TNA and the entire industry. Mixed opinions taken into consideration, I think that most can agree that the true takeaway from last night’s show was the excellent tone that the show took.

Whatever your preference is for how the match should look in terms of execution, I think that the way that the match was built throughout the show and even leading up to it, made it seem like a must-see event that you would regret if you missed. It is something that the boxing world and UFC have been able to effectively do for years, while pro wrestling has tried many different strategies for match promotion over the years.

This PPV has led me to think to the future and has led to a genuine excitement for TNA going forward. This excitement led me to start thinking of how to maximize this tone going forward.

As Jason Powell said in his blog today, there are way too many performers on these shows, and that is the first improvement I would make if I was in TNA’s shoes. The highlight of the night for me was the focus that TNA put into the match, not the match itself (while it was equally great). Ideally, I would put 5-6 matches on the card and heavily promote the top two matches, which would include a mix of different matches from month to month, hardly repeating the same two types at once.

The matches don’t necessarily have to look like last night’s match to be successful, but the build for those top two matches has to be similar. The wrestlers in these two top matches should not wrestle on free TV prior to the month, but rather be in taped segments or have live promo time such as Angle and Joe had prior to this match to build up the anticipation. I would have the whole PPV show geared toward these two matches every month, getting perspective from other wrestlers, family members, past opponents, etc. to really make it feel like everyone in the wrestling world is paying attention to these matches and that they are a big deal.

Since the talent roster is so deep in TNA, they can easily rotate talent and match types in for each PPV and not have the same talent on top each month. For instance, one month can be Joe in a title defense along with say a grudge match blow-off (Roode-Booker) as the semi-main event. The next month you can headline with an X Division title match and a tag title match. Presenting the product seriously with something to lose/gain from the match will allow different combinations to draw on top, and allow the top guys to really have an “aura” to their matches if they are only seen bi-monthly or quarterly on PPV.

Priority one on TV should be getting over the issues in the top two matches and really establishing characters and motives for each performer in the top matches. You can also use the TV to feature some of the midcard guys who may not have a purpose just yet and allow them to develop some type of winning streak or feud to where they feel entitled to be on a future PPV show. Fighting on a prestigious PPV should be everyone’s goal in the promotion and the only way to accomplish that would be by winning your matches, now that there is an increased influence on wins and losses and only 12-15 spots on PPV, not 48.

There are so many options for this approach and you can still appease the masses by not going completely to a version of worked MMA (although there can be submission based matches spliced in), but take the same tone as they did in building the Joe-Angle match on the TV and at the PPV last night.

Justin welcomes your comments and opinions on last night's match and opinions of how you think TNA should promote their product going forward. Please send to parjustin@gmail.com.

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