By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Coming off a low point at Sunday night's Victory Road PPV, TNA made matters worse with a show-opening talking segment on Thursday's Impact featuring Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff (in the background), and Sting engaged in meaningless "behind-the-scenes" chatter and focusing on Jeff Hardy.

In a scripted setting designed to write off Jeff Hardy for the time-being and apparently set up a babyface return, TNA threw Jeff Hardy under the bus, in what came across as an attempt to get their message out that what happened at Victory Road wasn't their fault.

Instead of acknowledging that mistakes were made allowing Jeff Hardy to even appear on the PPV and mistakes were made bringing Hardy aboard in the first place, TNA used Sting and Hogan's opening promo exchange to place the blame squarely on Jeff Hardy.

Nevermind that TNA signed him while facing felony and misdemeanor drug possession charges, enabled him, continued to book him, and continued to feature him as a main event player despite warning signs. The enabler using a scripted promo to throw Hardy under the bus came across callous and unnecessary.

Secondly, the promo reinforced the notion that TNA's creative team is devoid of productive ideas. Besides Hardy, the main talking points in the opening segment were what happened in the past, politics in the back, "selling out buildings," what else happened in the past, who's taking up TV time, "main event players," who propped up the "wrestling business," "fooling the audience," what else happened in the past, wrestlers "competing for spots," etc.

No aspect of the opening promo positioned TNA to make money, and reinforced that TNA lacks a foundation for their stories to take on any meaning. It's a mish-mash of "insider" talk about what happened in the past and what's happening behind-the-scenes in TNA jammed into a storyline focused on power & control. But, without a foundation, the chatter is meaningless.

This was followed by Segment Two consisting of more "insider" talk involving Fortune's A.J. Styles, Brother Ray, and Eric Bischoff focused on "carrying the load," buddying up to Dixie Carter, politics behind-the-scenes, "drawing ratings," "making money," etc.

In actuality, TNA won't "make money" until they get away from talking about "making money," ratings, The Network, behind-the-scenes, and the past in these key promo exchanges.

The segment reinforced that TNA's creative effort is bankrupt and TNA lacks sustainable ideas to give the TV product a foundation to stand on. Despite the issues being obvious for several years - week-after-week - management continues to enable a self-destructive creative team. Thursday's opening segment was the latest example. Change is needed.

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