10 Thoughts on TNA

Sorry, Daniels, I don’t have my other password at work, where I am so totally not writing about wrestling. At all.

Sorry about the two-week absence; between a brief hospital stay and my brand-new job, I’ve been distracted. All is right in the world now, so what better way to celebrate than by watching wrestling?

1- Isn’t that the best way to use BG James? A recognizable name and face, reasonably over if stale, who can be used to put over the headliner du jour? I think as TNA runs more and more shows outside of Orlando, guys like James will suddenly seem more useful, even if the uber-smart marks are sick to death of him.

2- My wife was surprised to see Daivari in a TNA ring, and I explained that he was actually a pretty decent wrestler. Her comment: “so they (WWE) brought in a wrestler to manage an actor (Hassan)? That’s Vince McMahon in a nutshell, isn’t it?” Hard to argue. By the way, this was a really fun match. More, please.

3- As a Western Canadian, it’s hard to get behind “Team International” in the X Cup. Daivari is American, and Tyson Dux is Ontarian, which is even worse. Damn you and your raging insanity, Teddy Hart, this was supposed to be your station in life.

4- It’s been said here before, but I love that TNA acknowledged Gail Kim winning the WWE Women’s Title in her first night. It *enhances* both TNA and Kim’s credibility, not vice versa. This was a really good video package on Gail, and it was nice to see Scott D’Amore and Pat “Simon Diamond” Kenney acting like normal guys for it.

5- Salinas is one of those women who on a given day either looks really good or really bad; there’s no in between with her. Tonight, she looked like a 40-year old drag queen. Just way, way, way, way, WAY too much makeup caked on there. She didn’t acquit herself too badly in the ring against Jackie, but she’s nowhere near the level of the top three faces; Gail, ODB and Tracy Brooks, and it shows.

6- Alex Kozlov’s dance and subsequent kick to Kaz’s head was, simply, brilliant. I’ll be damned if that wasn’t a fun little match. It takes a truly creative company to screw something like the X Cup up; you take 16 of the world’s best cruiserweights and tell them to go have good matches. How hard is that? Why can’t WWE, which could at the VERY least match the talent, pull something off like this every once in a while?

7- Damn, Frank Trigg really *does* look like Kurt Angle. Even more so than did/does Eric Angle. If Angle ever gets healthy again, and if Trigg is interested and takes to it (some mighty big ifs there, granted) that could be a fun tag team. Whether it’s with Trigg, or Tomko, or Tom Daniels, TNA should take a serious look; tag team wrestling could extend Angle’s career by a year or so, and his life by much longer.

8- I know we’re supposed to be sick of Team 3D, but I still dig their act. An *awesome* promo and a really good TV match. Brother Ray is the true heir to Mick Foley’s title as the hybrid hardcore/comedy performer who manages to maintain credibility in both…when he caught AJ’s boot and screamed “what are you gonna do NOW?” and then got CREAMED by the ensuing enziguiri, I laughed out loud. 3D may have been stale, but they’re by no means washed up.

9- Please tell me the Lethal/Dutt/Val saga doesn’t end with Val turning on Jay. No because I desperately want to see them together (although she would only get him more over), but because the swerve is both unnecessary and screamingly obvious. Bind and gag Russo if need be, but please don’t go there, TNA…it’s been done.

10- I wondered aloud a few weeks ago how I felt about Awesome Kong’s fan challenge, and I have decided: I don’t like it. When “fans” give Kong as much of a fight as did Gail and ODB, it just makes the “real” wrestlers look bad.

BONUS POINT: How much of a douchebag is Jesse Taylor? He must have done something truly bad to the “terrorized” women in that bar to get punted off the Ultimate Fighter finale, because the bar has been set fairly high on that show. As Forrest Griffin said, it’s hard to judge because worse things happen every day, but you get the sense Dana White was embarassed. You don’t piss Dana White off. It never goes well.