By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Reading through Sports Illustrated's long-form story on TNA Wrestling's past, present, and future, focusing mainly on TNA president Dixie Carter, many of TNA's poor business philosophies and practices were exposed on a quote by quote basis.

One of the main issues is TNA's new Creative approach. Throughout the article, there is a sense of TNA, Carter, and wrestlers feeling the need to reinvent the wheel on how to present pro wrestling. In actuality, going back to the basics of wrestling storytelling will create the next wave of success in pro wrestling.

One example comes from A.J. Styles on how TNA can differentiate from WWE: "I think we have to think outside the wrestling box. That's the most important thing we need to do. Wrestling's been done a certain way for so long and I think if we can go outside that thinking and change the way we do things, storylines and what not, that will separate us from the WWE. We can't be like them - we have to be the alternative. We need to be something different."

It's the message TNA wants out there to support their Creative shift toward "reality bleeding into the fiction," but to be a true alternative to WWE right now, the approach is simple. Go back to the basics of what has always worked in pro wrestling.

Right now, WWE is stuck in a "reality bleeding into the fiction" universe centered on heel authority figures Triple H and Stephanie McMahon that has hurt PPV business, stunted TV ratings, and reduced the value of the wrestlers on the roster.

Yet, TNA decided to follow the same path by focusing on heel authority figure Dixie Carter and taking cameras "behind the scenes" to mix reality with fiction. The result has been Impact TV ratings in a slump, poor-to-average TV shows, and reduced value of the wrestlers on the roster.

After the experiment of taking Impact on the road did not work out, the self-preservationists in TNA decided the company needed a new direction, a new vision for the product to get them out of the TV ratings rut and signal another "new era" to shift the focus away from retreating to Orlando.

Instead of removing the junk that has bogged down the product as of late, TNA added more junk. Instead of putting the focus on the talent who are competing for glory, honor, and titles, the focus has been on miscast heel authority figure Dixie Carter.

Said Carter: "Going on the road to see if this is the thing that changes the whole feel and vibe of the show, if it works, you stick with it. I think we've learned a lot from this. We learned that the show has to be shaken up, not the venue."

Yes, the lesson was learned that it's not about the venue or being on the road to make people tune into the product. But, the "shake-up" is not more of the "reality bleeding into fiction." Rather, the shake-up is making the fiction and storytelling as strong as possible without mixing in reality for the sake of it. Draw from reality, yes, like Law & Order's "ripped from the headlines" approach, but tell the stories in the ecosystem that the stories exist without muddying the picture.

The fundamental business flaw comes from a dated, 1990s mentality that exposes a lot of what's wrong with TNA's philosophies: "Fans want to see things they think they aren't supposed to be seeing," Carter said.

That might be the case for a small percentage of the audience, but that business approach ran its course in the 1990s. C.M. Punk's "pipe bomb" promo in 2011 was the ultimate case study of whether it still works in the remnants of the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars. Punk's promo generated buzz, mainstream coverage, and elevated Punk's character, but business did not pick up. If that moment - seen as the ultimate "reality or fiction?" moment of the last 5-10 years - did not boost business over the long haul, then why does TNA think doing replicas of that will suddenly increase their business?

As I've written about throughout this year, wrestling's next sustainable business period will be when pro wrestling's top writers and decision-makers return to the fundamentals of wrestling storytelling that delivers compelling, strong faces and heels competing for titles and prestige in well-built-up, logical storylines and feuds that culminate with big matches on big stages.

That is the alternative to WWE, which has lost its way and TNA has followed. It doesn't matter if the audience knows it's a work or has "seen it all," tell them a good, logical story, suck them in with compelling stars, and pay it off in the ring.

Call in to discuss on today's PWTorch Livecast at 5:30 p.m. EST on PWTorchLivecast.com.

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