TNA making strides to respectability each passing week
By Mr. Mal Occhio
Wrestlers Ramblings.com wrestling blogÂ
TNA’s pay-per-view tonight, entitled Turning Point, perhaps is the most-aptly named pay-per-view in the history of professional wrestling. For truly, Total Non-Stop Action is indeed rounding the bend to respectability, at least to the evil eye of Mr. Mal Occhio. Yes wrestling fans, six-sided monstrosity and all – TNA is fast-gaining another mark. How did they do it? A few things spring to mind . . .
First – I don’t know why, but I have always marked-out for Latino wrestlers. Perhaps it is the Luchador heart that beats behind my mask, but even those sans-hood have always garnered my attention. Hell – Eddie Guerrero will go down as one of my favorite wrestlers of all-time (God rest his soul). As a result, LAX caught my evil eye upon first glance. The heat the duo of Konnan-led grapplers (Homicide and Hernandez) get each time they enter the arena is impressive. They are being booked superbly and only grow more-threatening each time out. Their threats to burn an American flag has actually worked to invoke some real reaction amongst fans, and the veteran Konnan (working, albeit only in a speaking-role, on a degenerative hip that will soon require surgery) has always been entertaining on the mic. Here, he has really shined. Latin American Exchange makes me put down my crossword every time. Not a lot of things can do that these days in professional wrestling. Viva la raza!
Other factors contributing to this change-of-heart has to also include a mention of the always-impressive Samoa Joe, currently engaged in a feud/budding partnership with Kurt Angle; the A.J. Styles/Rhyno storyline; and even the Sting/Abyss developments – not to mention that Eric Young is hilarious. Throw in the amusing Kevin Nash-Alex Shelley/Jay Lethal/Austin Starr skits, the VKM would-be angle (do they really think the WWE will ever respond to this ridiculousness? Nonetheless, I still like to see what the former Billy Gunn and Road Dogg will say next) along with the usual assortment of hard-working X-division grapplers and what do you have? An hour of television that is getting more and more entertaining with each passing week. If Vince Russo is writing this stuff, to him Mr. Mal says, “Well done - just don’t go putting the world title strap on another actor, dig?�
If they could jettison more of their dead weight – Mike Tenay and Don West just don’t cut it as announcers, sorry, plus, does anyone really care if Tomko went back under the rock he was hiding under after his firing from the WWE? – perhaps 2007 will be the year the wrestling scene FINALLY gets another real player on a national stage again. For all those who have either given up on TNA or never given them a chance, the show is now on Thursday nights in primetime as well as Saturday night at 11 p.m. Do yourself a favor and dial it up. You may just be surprised at what they are building. I know I sure am.