By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

During the three-hour drive home from San Antonio on Monday, I reflected on the audience at Lockdown on Sunday, which was a sample of the audience that consumes wrestling these days. It's the most-important element of what drives WWE and TNA all the way down to the independents, because no company is able to make money and stay in business unless fans spend money on the product.

PWTorch editor Wade Keller's new Take on the "This is Awesome!" and "TNA" chants was the final piece of the puzzle to put it all into perspective. (First, read Wade's Take here.)

As I watched people file into the Alamodome on Sunday, I noticed a lot of hold-overs from the Monday Night Wars as well as what appeared to be a typical WWE audience - families and kids. But, it went beyond than that. It wasn't 30 or 40-something non-wrestling fans whose kids dragged them to the show. It was fans who became fans in the Monday Night Wars of the mid-1990s who grew up, got married, and had kids that they brought to Lockdown.

The point is that for most of the adults in the audience, they are still watching wrestling as if it's still the 1990s, where it was cool to chant for the promotion or chant after big moves.

I'll insert this quick aside that TNA feeds into it, especially Hulk Hogan with his regular, eye-rolling ra-ra speeches that feeds the monster of people feeling it's cool to still chant a promotion's name.

Hogan's presence, along with Sting in TNA and The Rock in WWE also makes it seem like wrestling is still in the '90s. Sure, Rock is the best thing to happen to WWE business since Donald Trump put his hair on the line, but - along with Sting being the top TNA star last night at Lockdown - it sends the message that pro wrestling is still connected to the '90s. So, it's okay for fans to act like it's still the '90s.

Throw in a derivative invasion angle with a Xerox of a Xerox "outsider group" made up of NWO C-Team-level stars, and TNA is meeting fans right where they are. It donned on me last night during Lockdown that the heat on Aces & Eights is not because they're "threatening the very fabric of precious TNA," because the audience isn't so much invested in "TNA, the company," they just chant "TNA" because that's what you did in the '90s. Rather, it's that the derivative Aces & Eights group thinks so highly of themselves even though they're fake bikers nowhere near the level of a Hogan & Hall & Nash NWO group.

It's this interesting intersection of a majority of wrestling fans understanding that what they're seeing is a show, but also wanting to get wrapped up in the show, so they're willing to spend their money as long as they get to "have fun" and "play along" in the process. The baseline connection is that the product feels familiar to them, even two decades later.

It's why the audience trashed the ring last night - they wanted to play along with a swerve that flashed back to the Monday Night Wars and be part of a memorable spectacle that flashed back to Bash at the Beach '96 when Hogan joined the NWO. Bully Ray is not Hogan '96 in terms of equity built up for a massive turn or name-brand value, but that's not the point. It's a derivative. And, the audience is a derivative of the '90s audience that saw this happen for the first time. It's why TNA got the big heat and the big visual they wanted at the end of Lockdown because TNA met their largest-ever-audience right where they are.

The audience didn't know Christian York from Adam, but they were into the opening X Division match because it was a reminder of WCW's cool Cruiserweight Division in the 1990s. Despite zero story for Park vs. Ryan, they were into Joseph Park because of how campy he is and how much he owns that goofball character, because they wanted to play along.

TNA was created to fill a void left by WCW at the end of the Attitude Era. 11 years later, TNA continues to re-create those nostalgic feelings, just with different players (Brooke Hogan) mixed with the stars the audience is used to (Hulk Hogan).

The issue is whether they can ever reach a level of drawing big bucks on PPV and consistent live audiences, especially the next time they come to San Antonio. I don't see it happening in the short-term, at least not until they get their product in more markets by going on the road.

PWTorch columnist Bruce Mitchell captured it during WWE Week late last year when he described C.M. Punk's memorable promo on Smackdown as "medium heat that medium main-eventers get these days."

That's where wrestling is right now. For both WWE and TNA, their products are connected to the memories of the '90s. Sure, social media has been added, fans can tweet and tout instead of IM or chat, the technology has improved, and new stars have been introduced to keep the product updated and moving forward.

The key for wrestling to recycle itself is whether those kids who are coming to the shows with their 20 or 30-year-old parents who grew up with wrestling the '90s stay locked in with the product. Otherwise, the nostalgia trip for the Attitude Era fans only has so much traction until it, too, fades away with the memories.

But, TNA is trying to keep the memories alive. It's what drew the majority of the near-10,000 people to the Alamodome in San Antonio. The audience last night badly wanted to see the NWO knock-off group get their comeuppance, they wanted to chant what they chanted in the '90s, and they wanted to get caught up in the show.

The optimistic view for TNA is that they have new markets to reach after toiling in the Impact Zone for eight years. There are numerous fans out there who have not been able to be re-live their memories or get swept up in a familiar storyline they saw during the Attitude Era.

By the time TNA reaches a lot more markets in 12-24 months by taking Impact on the road, will they reach a point where the nostalgia turns into a deeper connection to the product as TNA introduces today's stars such as James Storm, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, and Samoa Joe, as well as new storylines? Where, it's not just pointing out Sting to your kid and saying, 'Hey, I saw Sting coming down from the rafters in '97.' But, instead, will they invest in the 2013/2014 stories?

That's my big question as TNA takes the next step in their company's growth plan. It will take a disciplined approach from the Creative Team to establish clear heels and faces with enough lead-time for the PPVs. But, Sunday night in San Antonio, TNA proved they can draw in an audience, they proved that hot crowds are out there for a Sunday night PPV, and they proved they can get big heat for a nostalgic Bash at the Beach moment. But, not until the "This is Awesome" and "TNA" chants go away and give way to pro-face and anti-heel reactions will they truly be on the cusp of drawing big money on a consistent basis.

It's a blessing and a curse for TNA. They can draw in an audience giving older wrestling fans a new memory to go with their old memories, but featuring Sting and Hogan in main event slots also reinforces the notion that it's still the '90s. Now that TNA has proven their business is sustainable, though, it's time to start pushing forward with an eye on a new era in the 2010s.

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