2. TNA Provides A Much-Needed Alternative To The WWE...
Lets get one thing straight; TNA will never be a major rival to WWE. However, the wrestling business needs more major league products if it is going to survive. TNA is the only other US-based product that even remotely fits that description. TNA is the only other place that a pro wrestler can go to get regular TV exposure, as well as a damn good payday. ROH is, of course, awesome, but they are still an indy league when all is said and done and the payoffs arent going to be as big because the funding just isnt there. Wrestling needs more products and more pluralism in its output. WWE has been the only game in town for far too long now and, as a result, wrestlings blood has grown thin. WWE, facing very little in the way of direct competition, simply coasts along most of the time. Their attitude appears to be WWE: watch our shows because you have no choice. The wild-eyed risk taking that made stars of Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle and others has been replaced by a dodgy, turgid play it safe mentality which sees John Cena perennially on top (and usually doing less jobs than the combined guest list for an entire series of The Jeremy Kyle Show). If TNA could stick around for a few years and build a more solid reputation, it could help energize the entire wrestling industry. Wrestling as an industry needs publicity, televised product and more options, both for wrestlers and fans. If TNA goes under, then, the wrestling business as a whole will be a lot poorer for it.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
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Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
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Latcho Drom,
- CQ
