8 Great Ideas TNA Gave Up On
7. Gut Check
Gut Check was a way for TNA to present new talent to the world, and was the opportunity of a lifetime for the wrestlers themselves. At least that was the explanation we were given. At times, it seemed like a vanity project so that Bruce Prichard could get his face on TV and act like he was a BIG DEAL. But besides that, it was an intriguing concept!
Gut Check began as an indy wrestler showing up on Impact, and getting a shot against one of the veterans in the company. If they were impressive enough, they’d be offered a contract to become a member of the roster. The idea then quickly morphed into two indy wrestlers facing each other, with three judges ranking their performance after the match. The following week, we’d find out if the person they chose would land themselves a deal.
While there was some potential here, the execution of Gut Check was badly lacking. The matches were usually terrible, and they killed kayfabe a bit by having the winner not even matter. When Ivellise defeated Lei’D Tapa, it was Tapa who was given the contract. And how well did that work out?
The judges also had a terrible eye for talent. As mentioned before, Ivellise is quite over in Lucha Underground, and Brian Cage and Adam Pearce were overlooked contestants as well. They also said "no" to Joey Ryan, until the internet demanded he get another shot, and then they STILL didn’t do anything with him once he was hired! And to top it off, they picked Wes f***ing Brisco as the first guy to beat a veteran.
Okay, so now for the positives behind the concept! As we’ve seen in the CWC, all it takes is a few minutes to give us a reason to root for or against anyone. Just sit them down, have them talk about their life, and why they need this big win. It worked well for T.J. Perkins, Brian Kendrick and many others in WWE. You just need the right people to pull it off.
Gut Check should have been built as a way to bring in new talent, and if nothing else, keep promising wrestlers out of WWE’s developmental system. TNA failed spectacularly at this.
Imagine if they had made nice offers to guys like Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens to bring them in for the night, and then signed them to long-term deals. Right now their roster would be in a much better place, and they would have established a lot of goodwill with the indy community, and in turn, fans of indy wrestling.
You couldn’t do Gut Check every week, but if it was something that was done maybe once a month, it would give fans something to look forward to, and help keep the roster from becoming stale by constantly bringing in new names.