By Richard Gardner, Torch specialist

TNA's long-suffering fans were subjected to another poorly booked show on Monday night. While the plethora of confusing match stipulations and nonsensical turns has been part of the booking strategy, Rob Terry taking an unprotected chair shot to the head - to the point of bleeding hardway - is inexcusable in this day and age.

TNA has the right strategy - promoting an adult-oriented product should allow them to target fans alienated by the WWE's PG programming. But the way this strategy has been implemented has been woeful. The scattergun approach of offensive segments that don't lead to anything comes across like a parody of '90s crash television.

While most of these booking strategies are only hazardous to wrestlers's credibility on TV, the propensity for booking mindless violence is alarming. The question isn't why the chair shot was scripted ahead of time, but if TNA's bookers are incredibly stupid or just indifferent towards the long-term health of the wrestlers.

I enjoyed the Original ECW as much as most wrestling fans during that era, but there has been so much research and empirical evidence on unprotected head trauma contributing to long-term mental problems. I cringe when thinking about the violence from the time. But, ECW started and finished before much of the research on the debilitating effects of concussions took place, and before the disturbing circumstances in which Chris Benoit took his life as well as the lives of his wife and child. What's TNA's excuse?

It's not as if there have not been further reminders since Benoit died. Chris Kanyon killed himself last week, and there were well-documented concussions during his wrestling career. Yet TNA had no qualms about booking another chair shot spot on Impact this week. It is laughable that TNA management has aspirations to compete with WWE when much of their show is filled with shock TV that doesn't lead to anything.

On a show where the women were involved in one of the most convoluted gimmick matches of all time (what is TNA's obsession with keys? Two matches with keys on the same show? I know this column is called "Key Moment of the Week," but this is ridiculous), where Orlando Jordan rubbed himself suggestively with lotion for no apparent reason, and where RVD was featured in the opening match, the use of an unprotected chair shot was easily the most offensive decision on Monday night.

WWE, to their credit, has spelled out that unprotected chair shots to the head are no longer acceptable. TNA must do the same, or run the risk of not only reinforcing the perception that they are stuck in the 1990s, but more importantly endangering the health of their wrestlers.

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