Welcome back to Throwing in the Towel! Continuing on my current thinking, I thought I’d tackle the subject of TNA again. Well actually, I should rephrase that. I had no intention of talking about TNA, but the need overcame me like a sweet Crimp in the night when I saw the feeble No Surrender PPV.

As much as I want to like TNA (and I really do mean that), I just don’t. The feeling TNA gives me, is one of over-whelming nausea, and a desire to find a jackhammer, with which to perforate my face

I desperately would like to enjoy it, for numerous reasons. They have a novel, experimental image with a Six-Sided Ring, that just oozes cool. They’ve supplied one of the best gimmick matches of recent years (Ultimate X).

TNA plays host to the finest Women’s division in mainstream Pro-Wrestling. The roster features some of the most exciting talents in the world (AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, LAX, Christian Cage, Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Tomko) in addition including some wonderful guest stars (Naruki Doi literally springs to mind). Also apparent, is their back-bone of beloved, established stars (Sting, Booker T, Mick Foley etc).

Hell, they’ve even got a video game, that’s supposedly outstanding (I’m way, waaayyy behind on gaming, chances are Jeff Jarrett will retire by the time I play this…).

But for every single positive that Jeff Jarrett’s plaything offers, there’s a half-a-dozen negatives. The creative minds behind TNA are ludicrously addicted to gimmick matches to the point where PPV cards often feature three, four, five, or MORE gimmicks (even their biggest star, Kurt Angle, openly criticises this insanity, in the only credible opinion he has in 2008).

They can’t get simple things right (look how the Rock ‘N’ Rave Infection are presented…if ever there was a gimmick that should have been easy to get over…), they’ve turned the hottest prospect in America (Joe), into as unlikeable a baby face as John Cena, speaking of Joe, look how horrible his title reign has been… they think breaking up LAX is a good idea, they’ve booked Scott Hall, their PPV voiceovers are both completely ridiculous and make absolutely no sense (they sound like Ben Stiller wrote them as a rib on WCW).

They employ Kip James, the longest build-up to a storyline they’ve offered all year, has involved Kevin Nash, the commentary team are somehow worse than Don West’s bizarre ties, they’re perpetually afraid of clean finishes, they have a PPV consisting ENTIRELY OF STEEL CAGE MATCHES (if you need the stupidity of this explained, you just aren’t on the same page as me at all, fret not…), they booked Styles into a rubbish MMA match at the last PPV, that was booed viciously (how you can get it so wrong with that guy…), Slick Johnson, who’s a referee, wears shorts.

And of course, in one of the most despicable things I’ve ever seen in wrestling, their newest heel has entrance music that encompasses the sounds of planes crashing.

TNA are so bad, that my wonderful girl-riend, who’s a very casual wrestling fan at best, and who will happily tolerate Ring of Honor, thinks TNA looks CHEAP, and is a WWE wannabe. Oh, and she hates the voiceover guy too.

And then TNA produced something truly astonishing…. Something no one else did in fact, something of a rarity in today’s WWE -led climate of Poop-jokes and burying the mid-card…. The perfect Baby face Promo.

Yeps, this one had it all. Why was it so impressive?

1. It opened the show. A big PPV, that people were hyped for. You want a guy to get cheered, you feature him as the first person to walk out through the curtain, because traditionally, the first star that people see gets a cheap pop.

2. The performer in question milked the audience expertly following the cheers from his adoring fans. He paused before speaking, and looked at them, flabbergasted at the response, and showing his “thanks”. Hulk Hogan’s an expert at this. Triple H does it sometimes too, but it doesn’t always work for him.

3. He announced how great it was to be in Canada. Cheap pop, Foley style.

4. He was in Canada and praised Bret Hart. That guarantees at least seven years of cheering and baby face reaction.

5. The promo’s content stood up for noble issues, such as respect, and hard-work, and “being a man”.

Sting - a heel - cut the perfect babyface promo at No Surrender

6. Members of the TNA roster were ostracised, but ONLY the disrespectful ones. A heel tends to be so single-minded, that they can delusionally justify whatever they say, no matter how unlikely. A Face only targets the bad, and acknowledges the talent of young guys. This promo followed that to the letter.

7. Sometimes, when it works, a great baby face promo touches on the truth, on reality. It contains a mixture of rasslin’ storyline, and insider commentary (that doesn’t alienate the audience). It works well when a good guy utters such material, because fans typically view such references as cool , and somewhat bad-ass (hey when heels cut such promo’s they tend to be cheered… see the NWO). In other words, it’s classical, but also modern.

Perfect stuff eh? Okay, so Sting’s delivery was oddly stilted (as If he completely forgot where he was going until the end), but it was on paper, right on the money, And it got over. Of course it did.

But Sting, the balloon cutting the promo, is supposed to be a heel.

I know that TNA (and in all probability, Vince Russo), are trying to offer a reality based sentiment with the Samoa Joe/Sting feud. And that means, shades of grey. That means black-and-white is out the window, and “post-modern”, blurring of the lines is all the rage.

That means it’s not simplistic, and old-fashioned, but (yawn), cutting edge.

But the fact is, that Joe is supposed to be the future of the company, is supposed to be standing up for what is right, and the fans are increasingly becoming hostile to him, because of the wonky booking.

Sting needs to be the heel outright, for the role he’s playing to succeed, otherwise there’s no heat, and no benefit at the end for Joe, and for his companions. It’s all there for TNA too. The heel feels he’s justified. The fans can even see, and understand his logic, but they should not be supporting it at the expense of the baby face.

Sting should not have been allowed to cut the promo he did at No Surrender, it’s that simple.

And I still can’t enjoy TNA.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. I welcome any and all feedback and I can be contacted at www.myspace.com/michaelwrestlingetc or simply by emailing me at Michael@ifight365.com I look forward to hearing from you, and will be back soon!