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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE - TNA Impact 9/24: ODB's chance at history, Arrested Development, Going rate for JB's autograph, Numbers crunched - TNA or ECW oldest roster
Sep 25, 2009 - 3:19:10 AM |
By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch Specialist
Welcome to the TNA Impact edition of Under the Microscope. This is not a detailed recap of the show, but a review for those of you that saw the show but didn't actually "watch" it. We're here to point out all those little tidbits you may have missed, make some random observations, or use a little research to dig deeper into what was on the show. Cue the opening pyro.
The One When they Overbooked All the Matches
This week's show title is a little odd - "The One About the Broken Picture." This must be leading to a story behind the broken "Tweak and Tweet Connection" picture we saw last Sunday. Not sure where they are going with this, but the title of the show may imply that it will be a comedic storyline.
The popular television show Friends titled all of their episodes in the same manner, as their episodes started with "The One..." followed by a brief summary of what the episode was about. I was never a huge Friends fan, but I am familiar with their episode naming technique due to another show. One of the greatest shows of all time, Arrested Development, used the tactic for a couple of their season two episodes as a reference to Friends. Every episode of Arrested had cultural references and hidden jokes that took a few viewings to spot. Oh how I miss the Bluth family.
A weekly battle royal
We've seen a number of counters in the history of the TNA Microscope - Sting's name-drops, bleeps, and Hector Guerrero's "Esse" - but there may be a new one in need of formation, the number of people in the ring during the opening segment of an episode of Impact. A few weeks ago, I pointed out that 15 individuals stood between the ropes to start the show. This week didn't match that, but it was close. With World Elite joining the Mafia in the ring, we had a grand total of 14 people in the ring during our first segment. All we need is another faction and everyone could get a payday within the first five minutes of the show.
The next Cody Deaner
As we headed towards our first commercial break, we got a glimpse of Bobby Lashley in preparation for his (second) Impact match debut. A quote by Mike Tenay caught me off guard, as he mentioned that Lashley was "coming off his impressive knockout victory at No Surrender." I had no idea Lashley came to TNA to compete in the Knockout division. He did face Rhino last Sunday, who if you remember, participated in a "Bimbo Brawl" match at last year's Bound For Glory PPV. We may need to create a third division for the likes of Lashley, Deaner, and Rhino. A men's division, a women's division, and a...sorry, this is a family column.
A lovely Sears Portrait Studio picture
We get some reason behind the odd title to tonight's show as Mick Foley is upset over the Tweak and Tweet Connection photo being destroyed. The picture has been discussed during promos from Foley's office before, but I noticed a new photo during this segment. There was a 7x10 photo on a shelf behind Foley featuring Rocco and Sally, Foley's former security members. We haven't seen the two on TV in quite some time, but apparently Foley still has a place in his heart for the two guys who were on his security team for five weeks.
Going once...going twice
The Mick Foley/Jeremy Borash picture has been destroyed, but JB is not upset. He is happy that there are still "Tweak and Tweet Connection" trading cards out there, and talks about "a guy on EBay" who is selling them for $300 apiece. I highly doubt the cards even exist. A search for "Tweak and Tweet" on EBay yields zero results. A simple search for Jeremy Borash will get you 26 results, all trading cards. The high price item is a JB autographed trading card currently going for $44.95.
Better late than never
It's been a while, but A.J. Styles is once again the top dog in TNA. This is Styles's fourth run with a World Title, but the first time we've seen him as World champ in over four years. Four years may seem like a long time to wait for the chance to once again reign supreme, but there are other wrestlers who have had to wait far longer.
Bob Backlund is the first to come to mind. When Backlund won the WWF title in 1994, it ended a nearly eleven-year drought without a major Heavyweight title. Mick Foley had quite the drought as well. When he won the TNA Title earlier this year, it had been almost ten years since he had held the WWF Title. Tommy Dreamer almost hit the decade mark along with Backlund and Foley, as he had a gap of nine years between his two ECW Title reigns.
There are plenty of other wrestlers on the list if you look at guys who had to wait at least five years between World title runs. Sting, Raven, Lex Luger, Chris Jericho, Undertaker, and Kane are a few others that come to mind. Maybe The Great Khali will win World Title number two in summer 2012 and we can add his name to the list.
One is not enough
It didn't take long for Sarita and Taylor Wilde to defend their newly won KO Tag titles, as they faced off against Tara and ODB this week. It was just a standard match to build the Kong-Tara feud, but it was also a match where ODB could have made some history. If ODB and Tara were victorious, it would have marked the first time a female has held two different major titles at one time as ODB is the current Knockout champion.
Mickie Knuckles (Moose) is the only female I could find to hold two titles concurrently, although they were independent titles in the IWA-Mid South promotion. Mickie had a one month stretch where she was both the Women's Champion and a Tag Team Champion with male partner Josh Abercrombie. I'm sure ODB would love to gain a second title. Maybe TNA should add even more titles for their roster to compete for to give ODB another shot at history.
Can I see some I.D.?
It's C.S.I. night on TNA, as Foley and JB interrogate Lethal and Creed about the broken picture. Foley questions Lethal and asks "Mr. Lethal...if that is your real name." Actually, it's not. We know him as Jay Lethal or Black Machismo. Some may call him Randy Savage. ROH fans may refer to him as Hydro. But the government probably refers to him by his real name - Jamar Shipman. A wrestler being questioned about his real name? Am I the only person who though of Chris "Masterpiece" Mordetsky on the stand during the Eric Bischoff trial during this segment?
Donde es la biblioteca?
Hamada gets the chance to speak this week, although it is through a translator. Lauren mentions that Hamada is able to speak Spanish (due to her time wrestling in Mexico), so Willie Urbina is present to relay her message. Urbina may not be familiar to some TNA viewers, but is a regular to others.
Urbina is the play-by-play commentator for the Spanish broadcast of Impact along with color commentator Hector Guerrero. He has a history in wrestling aside from TNA, as he has been involved with the IWA and World Wrestling Council promotions based out of Puerto Rico as well. Maybe TNA should try the WWE approach of destroying the Spanish announce table at every PPV so we can all get to know Willie a little bit better.
Isn't a Nation smaller than a Universe
Don West is back on TV, hyping the upcoming live events for TNA. One of the events not mentioned by West but listed on the TNA website is for a show in Colorado at the end of October. I did a bit of research into tickets for this show, as it is a rare chance for me to see TNA live. You know you live in the middle of nowhere when you're excited that TNA will be "only" a four-hour drive away.
While reading about TNA live events on their website, I came across a term I had not seen them use before when referring to their fans. Rather than calling them fans, they are referred to as the TNAtion on the website. Along with their show information, there is a dig at WWE as well. The last line reads "Why get lost in a 'Universe' when you can join a Nation?" It is a catchy little slogan, but I still miss the days of us simply being called fans.
Numbers crunched - Youth vs. Experience
There's a tough balance to find when presenting a wrestling show. You want some established veterans to get viewers to tune in, yet it's important to elevate the youngsters as well in order to plan for the future. TNA and Smackdown have done a nice job of pushing newer names to the top of the card and giving television time to wrestlers who have yet to reach their prime. But just how young or how old are the shows we watch week after week?
Totaling up the male rosters for WWE and TNA, we find that TNA has the older roster by a slim margin. The average male wrestler in WWE is 32.8 years old, while the average in TNA is 33.8. ECW has given us the New Talent Initiative and at times resembles developmental on TV rather than WWE. But breaking apart the ages of the three WWE shows we find that ECW does not have the youngest roster. Raw is the youngest show at an average age of 31.8, while Smackdown's roster clocks in at 33.3 years old.
ECW is surprisingly the oldest WWE show, with an average roster age of 33.6 years old. ECW has veterans like Christian, Regal, and Dreamer, but their young guys aren't so young. Yoshi Tatsu, Tyler Reks, Ezekiel Jackson, and Vladimir Kozlov are all in their 30s, leading to the "veteran" presence of ECW when you look at the numbers.
It's hard to tell which show has the most "stars of tomorrow," but we can look at just how many roster members are still younger than 30. Raw leads the way here, as exactly half of their male superstars have yet to hit that milestone age. Smackdown is next at 37.5 percent under 30 years old, followed by TNA (30.8 percent), and then ECW (23.1 percent). On the other end of the spectrum, we have the 40-plus club. One out of every five TNA wrestlers (20.5 percent) are over 40 years old, while 16.9 percent of WWE's roster has hit the big four-zero.
Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd who, contrary to popular belief, does have a social life. Feedback is welcome as comments, suggestions and questions can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.
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