I feel sorry for anyone who paid $29.95 for TNA’s Turning Point pay-per-view last night.
In what should have come as a shock to no one – except perhaps to the people who run TNA – Scott Hall was a no-show. The advertised main event had been built around Hall and Nash reuniting as partners in a six-man tag match, but mid-card comedy wrestler Eric Young ended up taking Hall’s place in the match.
According to wrestlingobserver.com, Hall called TNA and said that he had food poisoning. Maybe he did. But he doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt because the former Wolfpac member has cried wolf too often.
I’ve lost count of how many chances Hall has squandered. Yet despite his track record, TNA still decided to not only do business with him, but to make him a focal point of the pay-per-view.
Nash’s track record isn’t exactly sparkling, either. He has a history of no-showing pay-per-views – especially when he is scheduled to lose – yet those who run TNA keep bringing him back even though he has burned them. How many times can the same people keep getting fooled?
The problems with the direction of the company are glaring, and it bears repeating that the similarities between TNA and WCW in its dying days are many.
It’s ironic that this show was called Turning Point, because I think it was one for TNA. I don’t see how anyone could have any confidence in the product after last night’s debacle. In fact, if anyone paid for this show and feels like they got their money’s worth, I’d love to hear from you.
Not only was Hall a no-show, but TNA also failed to deliver on its Feast or Fired match. Like a lot of TNA matches, the stipulations were nonsensical, but if the company is asking you to pay your hard-earned money to see this nonsense, the least it can do is let it play out to a conclusion on the pay-per-view.
Last night, however, after four wrestlers in the bout retrieved suitcases – there supposedly were contracts for title shots in three of them and a pink slip in the other – TNA told viewers that they would have to watch Impact on Thursday to find out the contents of the suitcases. With that decision alone, TNA made chumps out of everyone who paid for this show.
TNA’s worst move of the night was having Samoa Joe, who was scheduled to team with Hall and Nash in the main event, cut an impassioned “shoot” promo. He ripped the old guys like Hall and Nash who come to TNA for the money and praised the young guys who work hard. From the reports I have read, the crowd couldn’t have cared less about this.
The whole scene was very reminiscent of WCW’s Bash at The Beach show in 2000, when Vince Russo cut a “shoot” promo on Hulk Hogan for “The Hulkster’s” refusal to lose to Jeff Jarrett. I was working for WCW then and was in the crowd that night in Daytona, Fla. I remember the people sitting around me having no idea what was going on. The idea is to entertain people, not confuse them. The insider stuff is lost on casual fans, and without casual fans, the company can’t expand its audience.
Doing “worked shoots” and making backstage politics part of story lines was cutting edge in 1997. By 2000, it already had become passé, but seven years after that, Russo still hasn’t learned. Russo is so in love with swerving the audience that fans don’t know what to believe anymore, and many are past the point of caring.
As bad as it is that Hall was a no-show, it would be even worse if his absence was scripted as part of yet another young guys vs. old stars angle (basically copying Russo’s New Blood vs. Millionaires Club story line in WCW that flopped in 2000).
If the whole thing wasn’t scripted, then TNA got what it deserved for doing business with someone like Hall. And if fans keep paying $29.95 for this product, then they will be getting what they deserve as well.
