Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
TNA’s time on Destination America has come to an end, thankfully. Over their time on Destination America, there has been a lot of negative surrounding TNA. A number of people have left, the TNA schedule has been nonexistent, live events and television tapings were cancelled, live PPVs have been screwed up, pay has been late, and plenty more. Someone could write an entire article on all the terrible things that TNA and their talents have been through this past year. However, this is not that article. Instead, there have been moments of light in the darkness of 2015 for TNA, and below are a few highlights from TNA’s run on Destination America.
The Rise of the EC3: No character has been better crafted in the recent years of TNA than EC3, and it all culminated in June 2015 in what should have rightly been featured in the feature match of a major PPV. His grand, spotlight moment, however, culminated on the weekly TV broadcast and sets the record for one of the biggest (of many) ways Destination America screwed over TNA. Because his moment was tape delayed a week, the live energy surrounding his storyline was, unfortunately, damaged it a bit but still stands out as one of the best additions during TNA’s time with Destination America—even they couldn’t ruin this!
A quick recap of the storyline: EC3 began the year in a feud with Rockstar Spud, which could have been a poorly booked disaster. Instead, the rivalry led to a terrific hair vs hair match that helped to establish both EC3 and Spud as legitimate up and coming talents for TNA. EC3 then found himself in yet another well done feud with TNA mainstay Mr. Anderson. After the culminating match of the feud, EC3 was very clearly primed and ready to be TNA champ. The build for EC3 Vs Angle was excellent, and the finale should have, once again, occurred live on PPV, but that was out of TNA’s hands. EC3’s following feud with the Hardys helped to establish him as champ, and in a perfect world, would have culminated in him pinning Jeff to defend the title live in North Carolina. Instead, TNA ended up with an awkwardly booked three way main event for their biggest PPV “Bound For Glory”. However, out of the ashes of this match the EC3 character got to shine and that awkward Hardy three-way led us to some of the best programming for TNA recently - the World Title Series. TNA has a massive breakout star in EC3, on the level of only AJ Styles previously, and I hope TNA continues to book EC3 as such. If not, one could say that TNA would be in trouble (trouble, trouble, trouble)
New Blood Rising: Besides EC3, TNA has spent time and effort in establishing Bram, Rockstar Spud, Drew Galloway, Eli Drake, Robbie E, Jesse Godderz, Grado, The Wolves, The Dollhouse, and Sheera during their time on Destination America. TNA desperately needed to establish some new blood to fill the voids left from Joe, Low Ki, Kenny King, Austin Aries, Mickie James, James Storm, and Magnus leaving this year and I think they moved in the right direction on building up some new stars. Spud’s feud with EC3 culminated in an amazing match between the two and transformed Spud from a gazelle into a “freakin man”, to quote Spud. From that match TNA established Spud as a legitimate underdog the fans could root for. Galloway’s debut in Scotland and program with the BDC instantly established him in TNA. TNA further built on this momentum by having Galloway play a large role in the GFW invasion angle. I do think that TNA missed the boat on the feud between Galloway and Drake, hopefully they will revisit that feud in the near future as I think that feud only barely scratched the surface of Drake’s talent. Recent promos by Drake show EC3 isn’t the only TNA newcomer with the talent to justify a move up the roster quickly.
Hopefully, with his legal trouble behind him, Bram can continue to build on his body of work in 2015 to continue to improve and grow in 2016. The feud between Robbie E and Jesse was unfortunately cut short, but both workers did well in the World Title Series and hopefully they and TNA builds on this success in 2016. The Dollhouse was another terrific addition to TNA in 2015 and we saw some of the best mic work of Taryn’s career. Hopefully, the Dollhouse can continue to be entertaining following the retirement of Taryn and addition of Rebel. Throughout 2015, The Wolves showed that no matter who they were in the ring with, they could put on a strong match. This goes for singles matches as well. Hopefully, part of the move to Pop will include some much needed tag competition for The Wolves. Lastly, TNA found a formula to Sheera’s matches in his WTS match with Lashley and there is no reason for them to deviant from that formula. Sheera is best when he is brawling, and with TNA’s depth of brawlers there is no reason for TNA not to play to his strong suit and make him into something that he is not.
Heel Eric Young: As part of Team Canada and World Elite, Eric Young had previously been a heel. However, his run since becoming the “World Class Maniac” has been his best run as a heel to date. He’s mean, he’s nasty, he’s crazy, and he’s completely unapologetic about it. In the day and age of “cool heels”, EY is a throwback bad guy and that is something pro wrestling seriously needs right now. Honestly, given his previous runs as a heel in TNA, I was hesitant about a heel EY. However, over the course of his feud with Bobby Roode at the start of the run on Destination America EY really came into his own in his new role. With his feud with Kurt Angle in the middle of the year, EY took his new character to an even higher level. The “World Class Maniac” wanted to injure Kurt Angle and win the TNA title. He didn’t care if he had to lie, cheat, or be completely brutal to win the title. He was going to be TNA World Champion no matter what it took and he didn’t care if people liked him for it. Even in the feud with The Sarge, EY made what could have easily been a disaster into a semi-decent feud. As well, EY has been terrific in the World Title Series. His post-match promo after beating Tigre Uno was exactly what it needed to be. If TNA and EY can keep this character going, EY winning the World Title Series and being a dastardly heel champion could create a number of great opportunities.
Josh Mathews and The Pope: While I was bummed with how TNA quite unceremoniously removed Mike Tenay from the announce booth, and how Taz left the company in less than ideal standing, the pairing of Josh and Pope has been a really great change for us viewers. Largely, the problem with TNA’s previous announce team was not with Tenay, Taz clearly did not want to be there and this negatively impacted the fan experience. I distinctly remember the first week Josh announced Impact on his own following Taz’s departure and remember how much better of listening experience it was. Taz had taken to yelling, arguing with Josh, and being incredibly negative. It never felt like he was playing a heel, he seemed genuinely unhappy. Based on comments Taz has made since leaving TNA, and the way he left TNA, this seems to have been accurate. After a few weeks announcing on his own, Josh was joined by Al Snow. In my opinion, Josh and Al together were really fun and I actually thought Al would be the permanent replacement in the booth. Instead, TNA turned to The Pope. At first, the pairing was a bit awkward, but over time Josh and Pope have found their groove. Josh does a nice job focusing and announcing the matches, while Pope adds a lot of humor and personality to the broadcast. I think their strengths as a broadcast team really showed in the World Title Series, particularly the fun they had calling Spud Vs Gredo when Pope’s genuine appreciation of the comedy match could be felt. Overall, it is clear Josh and Pope are having fun in the booth, and that was not the case for Tenay and Taz. The last time I felt as a fan that Tenay and Taz were having fun was Bound for Glory 2014. Even then, that was the first time I felt they enjoyed what they were doing in months. Tenay and Taz were both fantastic broadcasters over their career, but there reached a point that it was simply better for everyone to move on. With that said, I anxiously await the time that Tenay is eventually inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame and hope Taz has success with his new broadcast career. Now, if TNA could just get rid of that silly looking blue screen announce booth.
More Wrestling: In my profession, I’m a numbers guy. Thanks to the fantastic Richard Trianfo and his “By the Numbers” column here on PWI every week, we can see that the amount of wrestling on Impact increased dramatically during TNA’s run on Destination America. TNA has moved from about 28 minutes of wrestling in a given episode of Impact to about 36 minutes of wrestling. That is an increase of about 30 percent more wrestling a week on Impact. As a wrestling fan, this is simply awesome. TNA has also added, on average, about a minute to each match aired. Both the increase overall in Impact and the per match minute increase is great for fans, but also is great for the TNA wrestlers to show their stuff.
Beyond an increase in the amount of wrestling on Impact, we’ve also been treated to some fantastic matches this past year. Some of the best matches, in my opinion, include EC3 Vs Spud from March 13th, the entire Wolves Vs Dirty Heels series, EC3 Vs Austin Aries from the World Title Series, Roode Vs Aries from Scotland, Angle and Lashley from London, Magnus Vs Storm from Slammiversary, Jesse Vs Robbie from Slammiversary, EC3 Vs Davey Richards from the World Title Series, EC3 Vs Anderson in May, the series of matches between Roode and Young, and the series between Young and Angle. I’m sure there are many more that I am forgetting.
While this is an article about the positives of TNA in 2015, it does stand out that there was disappointingly few Knockout, Tag and X-Division matches that jumped out, and this isn’t a knock on the talents in those divisions either. With so few Knockouts actively wrestling, storylines seemed to start and stop suddenly and fizzle out unexpectedly. This is additionally unfortunate as there is no lack of excellent female talent out there that TNA is trying out. Though, some much needed diversity was added to the Knockouts division during the Destination America run. Hopefully, in 2016 there is renewed focus on the Knockouts, Tag Titles, and the X-Division, which are three things TNA was built on.
Shedding Weight: At the start of 2015, TNA had far too much talent for the amount of television they produced. This led to a lot of great talent being underutilized. A lot of talent that left in 2015 fell into this category. If you don’t have enough airtime to properly use a talent, it does neither TNA nor the talent any good to keep them around. Further, TNA had a number of talents on their payroll that publicly were tearing down the company. Now, I fully endorse a talent’s right to speak their mind about their place of employment, but when talent is making it publicly known that they would much rather be a part of the problem than the solution for the company, this becomes a problematic distraction. TNA managed to cut some of this weight. Though, there are still at least two active talents that continue to tear the company down and take shots at TNA through social media. Neither of these talents are particularly useful to the company and their continued contracts are baffling to me. When a brand is going through a transition period all hands need to be on deck helping to build up, not tear down.
Jeff Jarrett Returns: It was unexpected and far too brief, but Jeff Jarrett got to come home and end his TNA run in proper fashion. JJ also managed to get a big rub for his new company on the way out. I was in Singapore the night JJ returned, so I did not get to see the event happen live. However, I was talking to my wife at the time, who was watching here in the states, and was incredibly excited by the unexpected twist. As someone who has watched TNA since The Asylum days, I always felt that JJ deserved the chance to come back and say goodbye to his baby and a terrible move by Destination America forced TNA and Dixie into a corner to where JJ became a viable solution to their problem. I also thought it was a nice touch that JJ was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame. In my opinion, Jeff, and his father Jerry, should have been the first two people inducted into the Hall of Fame. TNA has partially remedied this issue, and Jerry Jarrett should be inducted in 2016 to fully remedy it.
TNA Lives!: Most importantly from TNA’s time on Destination America, TNA has survived it and is moving on to a new television partner, Pop. From the start, Pop has demonstrated more commitment and enthusiasm for TNA than Destination America did in the entire TNA run on their network. As well, TNA clearly learned about how to partner with a network to promote their brand and what not to do during their time at Destination America. If TNA had died it would have been terrible for the wrestlers, the staff, wrestling fans, and wrestling as an industry. So while TNA took five or six steps back on Destination America, they continue to be in business and appear to have a new partner that understands and appreciates what pro wrestling is and what it brings to the table for a network. Hopefully, TNA gets back to touring more frequently as it would benefit their workers, their fans, and the promotion of their brand. Further, hopefully TNA can get back to taping only a few weeks in advance and not months in advance. Taping that far in advance may save TNA budget wise, but it hurts their product and fan interest in it. Regardless, once again TNA has proved their doubters wrong and survived 2015. They really need to stop having so many close brushes with death, it’s not healthy for the company, their wrestlers, and the fans.
Thanks for reading.
