4 Ups And Downs From This Week's TNA Impact Wrestling (Jan 25)

DOWNS

4. Ongoing Production Issues

You have to give Impact credit where credit is due. They are trying new things and desperately trying to differentiate themselves from other products on the market. But it feels like at the moment they are throwing everything at the wall with their production and just seeing what sticks. The Impact production crew would be better to target their focus on certain areas really well, rather than simply having a variety of things going on. This week we saw the expected (but still horrible nonetheless) continuation of the pitch black audience lighting which poses the question €“ if you€™re going to do the show taping in somewhere as beautiful and iconic as the Manhattan Centre, then why on earth would you do it in the pitch black? Watching Impact at the moment is kind of like watching pre-Eric Bischoff WCW shows from the 1980s, or like watching a slightly more expensive than usual indie show. Impact doesn€™t need to even think about matching WWE, but they would do VERY well to heed some lessons from Lucha Underground and put a really strong emphasis on lighting, and figure out how to use an intimate audience to their advantage, rather than being embarrassed that it€™s small. We also saw the continuation of the picture in picture thing that really they just need to cut out. At certain times the action will cut to a screen with two picture in picture screens. One is rectangular and shows live action, while the other is a six sided ring with Josh Matthews and Taz squeezed into it. The aspect ratios are all wrong for these, it€™s a waste of screen space and it looks very, very cheap €“ in fact it looks kind of like somebody on YouTube showing off samples from their new video editing software. It€™s confusing and distracting, and isn€™t the kind of differentiation that Impact should be focusing on at this stage of the game. Oh€and speaking of confusing€.