TNA's O's And NO's For 2006

SUBMITTED BY 'THE HITMAN' BRIAN PLUNKETT

At the beginning of 2005, TNA was still incredibly small scale. Their only weekly show was on a satellite channel, so if you had cable and no channel that carried the syndicated "Xplosion", you were out of luck. I'll tell you first hand, it sucked.

However, at the beginning of 2006, things had changed for TNA. They had landed a spot on Spike TV, every Saturday night at 11 PM. They were taking baby steps towards greatness, and they continue to as 2006 comes to a close. However, for everything they've done right, they've also done a lot of things to show that they're a young company.

Here are my O's and NO's for TNA in 2006:

Tha O's:

First and foremost, moving to Thursday, and then moving to prime time. Slowly getting into better timeslots always helps.

Not giving Samoa Joe the title. In hindsight, I actually now agree with slowly building his character instead of giving him the title right away. He can put on a truly great show without having to have the NWA Heavyweight Championship, so why not showcase him as a guy who's slowly climbing the mountain instead of putting the belt on him immediately, a la Brock Lesnar?

I do agree with giving him a run with the X-Division Title right away, though. Having him compete with the high-flyers helped show that he wasn't one of the stereotypical powerhouse musclemen that you might figure he is at first glance.

Giving Christian Cage the title. There were two benefits to this. Firstly, TNA gained a lot of attention from fans because of how many people liked Christian in WWE, even though he was a heel. Secondly, it gained a lot of attention from disgruntled superstars in WWE. Don't be surprised if you see more WWE guys jumping ship within the next few years.

Giving Abyss the title. I admit it, I have seen the light. He is a good wrestler for someone his size, and a guy like him can be a legitimate top heel if they would just get Sting the hell away from him.

Signing Kurt Angle. When the news of this broke last September, many people called TNA irresponsible for pursuing him. However, so far, it seems like TNA has been very responsible, as far as booking Angle goes. He wrestles only two or three times a month, and for the times that he does that aren't on pay-per-view, they seem to keep his bumps to a minimum.

Take it slow and easy with Kurt, and he'll be able to be a flag-bearer for TNA for years to come.

The pay-per-views. Two Ultimate X matches, Lethal Lockdown, Six Sides of Steel at Bound For Glory, Joe vs. Angle, Monster's Ball, King Of The Mountain...almost every pay-per-view that TNA came out with this year can be argued that they were instant classics.

Kevin Nash. Having him around in a non-wrestling role was a very good call by TNA, as he has given the X-Division a boost in the arm. The Gauntlet match at BFG was a great match, and his commentary was gold. Now, the PCS is hugely popular. As a wrestler, he seems prome to injury, but just as an on-air personality, he's money.

Tha NO's:

Scott Steiner. Can anyone tell me why they even bothered bringing him back? I don't think he won a single match the entire time he was in TNA. Having Jarrett constantly on the TV was bad enough. Having Steiner right next to him made it worse.

The many storylines involving Larry Zbyzko. Remember the whole storyline at the beginning of the year when the "tape" was brought up multiple times every week? What came of it? The story just disappeared after three months and we never heard anything about it again. Wow, what a great payoff for such a long buildup. The only good storyline he was involved in was the "Don't Fire Eric" storyline.

Keeping Raven around. They were gonna release him because he wanted more money than he was worth. TNA should have let him walk. They've done next to nothing with him this year other than take up roster space and waste money. As far as the "Serotonin" storyline that he's involved in right now - the past has taught us that this angle will peter out just based on who it involves.

The James Gang/VKM. I didn't mind the James Gang as much as I do VKM, but neither are that great. They never did get a push with either gimmick, and now all they do is waste TV time. I'm starting to wonder if one of them is injured, and that's why they aren't ever wrestling, even in squash matches.

Don West. I honestly believe that Tenay wouldn't be as bad if he had a better color commentator. I'm sure that West is a great guy in real life, but he really sucks at calling wrestling, and TNA needs to hand him the old pink slip.

Some people may argue that having Sting be in the title picture is a "NO", but I disagree. If you think about it, the only guy that has truly jobbed to him is Jeff Jarrett. He helped put Christian Cage and Abyss over, and was able to get the nostalgic title run he wanted. Whether or not that counts as an "O" is up to you.

The O's are starting to outweigh the NO's in TNA, which means they're going in the right direction. They may need to take baby steps to get there, but it seems that they are headed in the right direction. I look forward to the product that TNA will put out in 2007.

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