TNA's problem

I sat down to watch Impact yesterday from my DVR. I only really got up to the non-title Suicide/Bashir match before I started having problems with the DVR and just quit watching it. From watching last week's show and the intro to this week's show, it just struck me how disorganized and all over the place the booking was. The internal inconsistencies are glaring.

Last week, the focal point of the show was that the Main Event Mafia was trying to get Sting to rejoin them, to apologize to him and get him to come back despite all the crap Kurt Angle has put him through in the last month. Sting was hesitant, and he didn't seem like he was going to be go back with them easily when Mick Foley interrupted them and made the match with Samoa Joe that closed the show.

So this week, Sting comes out with the Mafia firmly entrenched around his side. Okay, for a promotion that relies so heavily on the backstage segment, where was the segment letting us know that Sting was back with the Mafia? If that wasn't the case, and they talked behind closed doors, then where were the announcers telling us that Sting was back with the Mafia, or at the very least, their shock that Sting was in tow?

To make matters worse, the Motor City Machine Guns inexplicably interrupted the opening segment with the Mafia and Triple J... err, I mean Jeff Jarrett and said that they'd gladly take on Mick Foley for... get this, something that happened six months ago.

In one breath, TNA is expecting their audience to forget what they saw last week and just accept that Sting was back with the Mafia, no questions asked on his behalf. In another, they want you to remember that the MCMGs were humiliated by Mick Foley six months ago and have been waiting for this long to get their revenge. You see the lack of internal consistency, right?

This is the problem with any Vince Russo-booked organization. There is no internal consistency. Even with Vince McMahon and the rest of the WWE braintrust as a filter, Russo's illogical whims still slipped down into the rest of the company's programming. It's like you need to have ADHD to get his booking. Thankfully, back in those days, he had megahot stars like Austin and Rock to lean on and not drive people away.

Now, with TNA, what does he have? A group of guys whose best years came years before in companies like WCW and the WWE, and a bunch of "nobodies" as the Main Event Mafia would have us believe. I hate using the term nobodies to refer to guys who haven't made it in the business, but it looks to me that their promos are more shoot than work. I mean, what else would be the explanation for AJ Styles to refuse leadership of Team Originals in Lethal Lockdown?

"Oh Jeff, I can't do this because I know I'll let you down, but under your leadership, I won't let you down! Just give me a chance to be your subordinate, Jeff! I'm nobody without you! The Mafia's right to question me!"

Okay, those weren't the exact words, but that's what he was screaming to me without saying that exact thing. Really, if I were Vince McMahon, I wouldn't be trembling in my Italian loafers either.

TNA is in bad shape right now from a booking standpoint, and the ratings and buyrates reflect that. I'm not sure many people would like to watch a show where the stories change from week to week, where characters aren't consistent and where random things happen just for the sake of having a swerve. A good 85% of their problems can be fixed by realizing that it's not 1998 anymore and kicking Vince Russo to the curb.

Who's the fix? It's really not clear at this point other than the fact that the booking should be more logical and more competition based. It's amazing what a little internal consistency can do for the program though. Look at the WWE. It took them a few years to get out of Russo's influence, but right now, they can at least give you a reason for everything that happens. It's not a good reason all the time. They still mix up their face and heel roles at times. Some of the characters they introduce are just dreadful. However, everything happens for a reason. The past is embraced, not forgotten or conveniently remembered at random points. There's a healthy mix of past and future that combines to put emphasis on the present. I don't see where that happens at all in TNA.

And that's why the WWE is far and ahead the market leader, while TNA is floundering.