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A Fan’s Notes – On TNA Genesis

By Michael O'Mahony - January 18, 2010 | Email the author

“We want six sides!”

Probably not what you want to hear if you’re Hulk Hogan and you’re trying to introduce yet another change to the uncertain world of TNA. The promotion’s return to a more traditional ring was met with what was ultimately only token resistance from some of its more vocal fans. More telling was Hogan’s reaction, which pointed to a fundamental problem with this whole Hogan/Bischoff era they’re foisting on us. Everything about Hogan – from the way he has presented himself on TV to his unbelievably obnoxious autobiography – reeks of wanting to be a babyface both in and out of kayfabe. Problem is, he has allied himself with a natural heel like Bischoff (who is simply unable to wear the white hat because he’s a bastard) and a group of guys in the NWO (I can’t bring myself to call them ‘The Band’) who are coasting on the tiny amount of goodwill their few years of being the hottest thing in wrestling still affords them and don’t seem to realize that their stale tweener act doesn’t fly anymore.

So Hogan was booed and he reacted poorly, essentially telling the fans to deal with it and shut up. Hardly the response of a man promising to give TNA’s audience what it wants. In fact, wasn’t it more in keeping with the behavior of a selfish and closed-minded egomaniac?

The Amazing Red Vs. Brian Kendrick
The opening contest was another misstep for TNA, who have clearly overestimated the appeal of surprise performers showing up. If you’re Brian Kendrick, maybe it’s all about a decent paycheck, because debuting here only to lose in a poor example of what the X Division is usually all about is doing nothing for an already battered reputation. If you’re Red, well, this is probably about as good as it’s going to get for you. It’s sad, really. You’ve got to wonder how this match would have gone two or three years ago.

Sean Morley Vs. Daniels
Not bad as far as actual one-on-one wrestling matches go, but what was the point? Why is this on the PPV while Samoa Joe sits at home? It also demonstrated that TNA’s core fanbase isn’t just going to accept rehashed gimmicks being shoved down their throats. Morley was the babyface here, but you couldn’t tell from the crowd, which was pro-Daniels pretty much all the way. This guy main evented the last pay-per-view, now he’s losing to an Attitude Era reject whose signature skill is being a great midcard talent that can elevate young guys and help them develop. I don’t get it.

ODB Vs. Tara
I’m puzzled as to how this ended up being the top feud in the division. Tara always works hard and that’s absolutely commendable, but there are better and brighter homegrown female stars they could be using to carry the Knockouts. I’m pleased that she won by two straight falls, though, if only because it may mean a major change for the horrendous ODB gimmick, which is currently the worst thing on any wrestling show, closely followed by the demeaning commentary of Tenay and Tazz, who are doing a great job of making this division sound like a couple of frat guys watching Girls Gone Wild.

Lastly, putting over Brooke Hogan and Joey Fatone in the front row is only slightly less offensive than spitting in my drink. For that alone, TNA can fuck off.

Anyway…

The British Invasion Vs. Hernadez and Morgan
Nothing wrong with this. Monster tag team goes over obnoxious heels. Nicely paced and well-executed. But boy, that Kurt Angle sure rubbed Morgan all the way to the main event, didn’t he?

Desmond Wolfe Vs. The Pope
Wolfe’s new attire and accompanying female is all a bit random, but hopefully it shows they care about him. Pope comes off a very Rock-esque promo earlier in the night with a decent showing against a rampant Wolfe. A little lacking in chemistry at times, but still the match of the night. Right result, both guys look like future stars.

Beer Money Vs. Nash and Waltman-Pac
I was ready to shit all over this, and then they surprised me. Decent match from all concerned, with Waltman the MVP (as in the guy that did the best work, not the overrated midcarder benefiting from WWE‘s affirmative action program). Beer Money looked great, and even Nash was suitably hoss-like. Weird and crappy Russo ending, but the right team won and it didn’t look like a fluke. That’s two in a row.

Abyss Vs. Mr. Anderson
Give Anderson a microphone and he’s a superstar. The opening two minutes of his TNA debut was as impactful as you could want with a great little promo that made him look like a player. Then he got in the ring and it just sucked. There was no chemistry between Anderson and Abyss at all, and the fans didn’t know what to make of the newcomer until he showed his heelish true colors towards the end of the match, finally breaking out the brass knucks (of all things) for an old school heel win. Everybody has bad matches, but Anderson can ill afford too many outings like that one. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for the sweet mic-work, but he has a lot to do before he wins over his critics.

AJ Styles Vs. Kurt Angle
For a show that started with Hogan saying he wasn’t afraid to put the wrestling back into sports entertainment, a gigantic screwjob finish where your number one face turns heel with the now utterly meaningless endorsement of Ric Flair is…well…a strange way to end the first PPV of a new era, to say the least. Angle and AJ put on a decent enough match, but there was nothing to raise it above the level of the other two in the series, and the finish basically rendered all that good work null and void. Again, I don’t get it.

In the end, Genesis as a show was more weird than bad. It had an anemic, thrown-together feel about it, and seemed somehow less important than the last two episodes of Impact. There was a real lack of structure apparent, and the jarring opposition between what they promised us and what we saw means that this isn’t a show TNA is going to want to boast about. They will, though, and that’s a cause for concern. They still have time to check their progress and take note of fan feedback, but it appears as though the people that matter are only willing to listen to positives. Hogan’s loss of control on the show-opening promo said all that needs to be said for TNA right now, and if that doesn’t change, the promotion is going to go all kinds of downhill.

Comments

TNA backed itself into a corner as far as this PPV goes. They hit the reset button on January 4th (metaphorically speaking), and made that show more about “special” appearances and surprises than setting up angles and matches for a PPV 13 days away. As a result, they essentially had to scramble and throw together a card in one week. Let’s summarize that: the first PPV of the new era was thrown together in essentially one week’s time.

I’ll reserve judgment on AJ’s heel turn until I see where it goes, but my first impression of it is not good. AJ’s character and wrestling style do not lend themselves to playing the heel. The TNA fans don’t want to boo him. And I’m not sure the association with Flair does anything for him. The guy is the current Heavyweight Champion and the only person to have held every belt in the promotion, so it’s not like he needs something to get himself “over the hump”.

I almost bought this PPV, largely out of curiosity. After reading most of the reviews, I’m really glad I didn’t.

Posted by Ricardo Rochetti | January 18, 2010, 8:42 am
Does anyone in TNA have a clue?

It’s simple…it’s about the “Good Guys” and the “Bad Guys” and we, the audience, are supposed to cheer for one and boo the other!

When you refuse to define which is which…or when the audience clearly rejects your definition of who is the face and who is the heel, it’s a sign that you have a BAD SHOW!

Posted by Pete | January 18, 2010, 11:58 am
This show actually beat my expectations, admittedly they weren’t high but they weren’t rock bottom either. It started out bad, I miss the six-sided ring and clearly the Impact Zone fans shared that sentiment, and Hogan didn’t handle it well at all.

I was happy to see Kendrick as the mystery opponent but he didn’t bring his A game and by the end of the match I was happy Red retained.

Daniels vs. Morley was a disgrace. The match wasn’t bad but it was slow and plodding and the wrong guy went over, big time.

ODB vs. Tara was boring, as expected. Tara hit her finish nicely and there were no major botches, but that’s about the only nice thing I can say about this match. Hopefully they won’t match these two up again as they have zero chemistry in the ring yet they pair them up often.

I was hoping Beer Money or the MCMG would be the ones to eventually dethrone the Invasion but I’ve got nothing against Morgan and Hernandez and it was a decent match.

Wolfe vs. Pope was really good, a bit slow but more slow because of the psychology of the match as opposed to slow because one guy couldn’t keep up, as displayed in Morley’s match earlier. Nice to see Wolfe go over, and a valet could be a nice addition for him, although they had no interaction other than the intro and they didn’t even mention her name.

Beer Money did a great job carrying their opponents to a watchable match, and wonder of wonders, went over in the process. Nice. Now get rid of “the Band” by the next PPV. Please.

Good to see Anderson back, the match was underwhelming as Abyss does best in hardcore matches and Anderson isn’t one to carry somebody, but not terrible either. Respectable debut, hopefully they’ll find someone better to match him up with next. Maybe he can go over Morley (after please God they let Daniels get his win back.)

I really liked the main event. Flair interfering was unexpected, perhaps a bit unwelcome but I’m willing to give it a chance to see if this sort of finish can be a once in awhile surprise rather than an every single main event, WCW/TNA under Jarrett-style trainwreck.

AJ could benefit greatly from Flair as a mouthpiece, and its about damn time Flair transistioned to a role as a manager.

However, who does AJ face next? A rematch is off the table, Anderson is a heel, Wolfe is a heel, Daniels is a heel, Lashley is a heel, Abyss and Pope just lost. I guess they can go with Joe as he’s sort of a tweener.

Posted by incognito | January 18, 2010, 2:46 pm
What the sh!t is wrong with you people? Are your lives so sad that you have to bash all over TNA! Seriously at least they are trying. WWE puts on the same boring show every week. At least TNA is trying to pull out surprises and interesting storylines. Do you want TNA to go out of buisness so WWE can shove their lame ass G rated show down our throats with nothing else to watch? Keep hating losers.. Then you can watch your kids wrestling show and cheer on the leprichans and super heros! ra ra!!

Posted by Brian | January 18, 2010, 4:34 pm
After seeing a few reviews, it’s nice to see someone that can actually give context and subtlety. Very few things are purely good or purely bad. Genesis, like Michael, Ricardo, and incognito stated, was TNA venturing with a lot of variables. Yes, not everything worked, but some things went very well. TNA needed to produce this PPV. The need was not to solely blow away the audience, but to provide a barometer for those in control of TNA to figure out how to best utilize the newly morphed roster of TNA. This is just the start of a whole new arc in TNA’s history. Whether it ends good or bad is still up to TNA.

Posted by Anthony | January 18, 2010, 5:25 pm
Well, resorting to insults when you don’t have an intelligent argument is always an option . . .

I don’t want TNA to go out of business. Just the opposite, actually. I honestly believe that competition, generally speaking, is good for the product. And there are a lot of performers in TNA that I enjoy watching, and would like to be able to continue watching. And yes, at least TNA is trying to go on a different direction (different for TNA . . . not entirely different for Nitro). But just because they are trying to do something different, doesn’t mean everything is going to be good. And sorry to say, like Anthony said, “not everything worked.” As with AJ’s heel turn, I am reserving ultimate judgment on TNA’s new direction, as it’s only been 2 weeks, but so far, I haven’t enjoyed the programming resulting from it.

Posted by Ricardo Rochetti | January 18, 2010, 5:39 pm
What happened to Scott Hall?????

Posted by alwaysnutz17 | January 18, 2010, 8:29 pm
I’ve been the first one to say that I believe this experiment is going to fail. But there’s a world of difference between seeing that as the inevitable end result and actively wanting it to occur. TNA has many of the ingredients for the sports entertainment show I WANT to see on my TV. Samoa Joe and Desmond Wolfe are my favorite two performers currently on television, and TNA is in a far stronger position to execute something I’d really like to see, that being somebody getting a women’s division right. I’m a huge fan of well-executed female wrestling that pushes ability over looks (though good looks never hurt), and it’s not something you see too often in the US.

When I pour scorn on the product, it’s because of dumb bullshit like the power struggle angle and the fact that they actually signed the Nasty Boys.

You’ll see my natural cynicism in just about everything I write about wrestling, but you’ll never see me shit on something just because it’s TNA or whatever. I’d have no reason to watch wrestling if I didn’t want it to be good.

Posted by Michael O'Mahony | January 19, 2010, 12:09 am
NWO 4LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by tony zanella | January 21, 2010, 9:02 pm
HULK HOGAN & THE NWO ON TOP, FOR 96 WEEKS!!! NOT WWE.

Posted by tony zanella | January 21, 2010, 9:10 pm
i thought it was 84 – 86

Posted by Jamal | January 21, 2010, 9:49 pm
Hulk Hogan and his nWo crew(of XPac,Scott Hall,Bischoff,and the Nasty Boys)are only driving TNA to become another WCW(and onto facing a much similar fate),since it’s unfortunately headed in that same exact direction. :( :(

I certainly miss the days when TNA was first on the air,with Sabu,The Sandman,and Jerry Lynn bringing on one exciting match after another,even if it didn’t matter if Jeff Jarrett was always TNA’s World Heavyweight Champion.

Posted by Steven Millan | January 29, 2010, 10:45 pm

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