New TNA: 5 Things That Work (And 5 That Don't)

2. The Ranking System

It€™s contentious among some fans, but a €˜star ranking€™ win/loss based system (not unlike the English Premier League table) is actually a pretty good idea. A wrestler that picks up a lot of successive wins can eventually challenge for a title, which allows the fans to emotionally engage with the outcomes of matches more. It also gives more of a reason for the wrestlers to be fighting in the first place, as well as adding an extra layer of fan anger at a run-in ending or €˜Dusty Finish€™. Of course, you can still give the champ free reign to challenge anybody he/she likes, which effectively allows the bookers and creative teams to have their cake and eat it too, which is always nice. New TNA doesn€™t quite have the system mentioned above, but they do appear to be implementing something similar and, by announcing the rankings of their wrestlers, they are bringing an interesting €˜mainstream sports€™ element to the shows, something that could be very effective indeed in gaining TNA a new audience.
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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. I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long! If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it). I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work. 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! Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?) Latcho Drom, - CQ