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

1. Playing To Their Strengths...Finally

There are a lot of things to like about TNA, but in recent years, those plus points have been continually weighted down by a proliferation of nagging, sometimes infuriating, negatives. Now, with the Destination America deal, TNA appears to be playing to its strengths at long last. As a general rule, whenever the promotion attempts to compete with the might and mass media exposure of the WWE, it simply comes off as inferior and second rate. Towards the end of the Spike TV era, TNA couldn€™t seem to wash away the stench of the bargain bin. For just one example, just six days after short, bearded and likeably kooky underdog Daniel Bryan hoisted the WWE belt at WrestleMania XXX, short, bearded and likeably kooky underdog Eric Young lifted the TNA belt in Orlando, Florida. At this, even E.Y€™s most devoted fans had to facepalm a little. For years, fans have been saying that TNA should do everything in its power to come off as different to the WWE. Their product is cheaper, their houses are smaller and their appeal is narrower. However, these things are only handicaps if you look at them as such. In the immortal words of Punk magazine co-founder Legs McNeil, €œyou take the sh!t and celebrate it€. So, instead of seeing these things as negatives, TNA executives should be angling their product as scrappier, tougher and harder-edged than the WWE€™s. The venues should be presented as more €˜intimate€™ and €˜fan friendly€™ rather than €˜smaller€™ and they should market themselves as a show for wrestling fans, NOT snot-nosed, toy hungry little kids. Finally, new TNA seems to be doing just that. With the panoptic, handheld camera angles, the return of the six-sided rings and the continued promotion of great TNA talents like Austin Aries, Gunner (who really should be the company€™s next major star), Magnus, Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Kenny King, James Storm, Low Ki and others still, TNA is already a brand apart from the WWE...It just needs to realise and capitalise on this fact. Even with all the departures, TNA still boasts a truly world class talent roster and, as long as they work harder to produce quality storylines and continue to keep the wrestling to the forefront, TNA€™s product is still a strong one overall. Having said/written all that, there are a few areas that drastically need improvement...
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Contributor

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