125 Road to Wrestlemania XXX Runs Through Chicago We Have Another Fun Issue for Everybody This Week
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Cubed Circle Newsletter – 125 Road to WrestleMania XXX Runs Through Chicago We have another fun issue for everybody this week covering one of the best and most newsworthy RAWs of the year, another tremendous Shield/Wyatts match, Bryan Rose looks at the current state of TNA, Ben Carass reviews SmackDown and NXT, plus the ratings and much more! And with the lacklustre (that's being gracious) as usual preview out of the way I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys this week's newsletter! – Ryan Clingman, Cubed Circle Newsletter Editor Bryan Rose on the Current State of TNA TNA is in a funk right now, in case you've been living under a rock. House show numbers are down, people are leaving left and right and overall there’s just a sense of nothing going on in the promotion. After years of trying to be the top promotion in the United States, their new goal for 2014 is simply to survive. Haemorrhaging money for years, the move to live weekly impact taping proved to be too much of a burden as attendance numbers dwindled. Is there anything that can be done to turn things around? After 12 years of doing everything possible to oppose the WWE, what else can they do to gain momentum? Being sold back to Jarrett I think would have helped. At this point, Dixie Carter is probably the biggest nuisance to exist in TNA right now. She never learns from her mistakes. Ever. This goes back to Vince Russo, who was hired in 2007 to turn things around. Forgetting that Vince Russo had the worst pro wrestling television show of all time with Nitro back in 1999-2000, TNA’s storylines promptly went down the toilet. People who couldn't work a lick were hired, talented people were cut, and so many storylines and gimmicks were thrown around no one could keep up with what the hell was going on. “Fire Russo” chants were becoming increasingly common on TNA events. Dixie’s response? It wasn’t his problem. It was someone else's. This would be a continuing trend until Vince Russo left TNA in 2012. He wasn't fired or let go. He chose to leave. After years of horrific storylines and gimmicks, TNA started to sort of make sense again. The wrestling was kinda better, the storylines were less silly and more emphasis was put on, shockingly, wrestling. But in recent months, now we’re seeing Dixie Carter, who has turned heel, dominate the television with so many segments and silliness that it’s become incredibly grating. The assumption can be since TNA has let all the big stars go back to the WWE, she’s the main star now 1 and thus demands all the television time. That’s incredibly sad when you think about it. Also mind the fact that they’re doing the same thing WWE is doing right now (heel authority figures making a less than over star their world champion) and it’s even more sad. They just can’t do anything original- they have to keep seeing what WWE is doing, copy that and do an even worse job of building it up because they don’t have the right characters for the roles they are ;looking to fill. It’s pretty sad. So Dixie Carter remains a problem in TNA’s road to survival. She’s not helping in the least bit and seems as clueless as ever as to how to get people over or just knowing that something isn’t working. She’s a hindrance to the growth of the promotion and if she continues down this route, there probably won’t be a TNA pretty soon. Hold back, though. Jarrett was in talks to buy TNA, but those fell apart when Bob Carter demanded that Dixie Carter remained in the company with power and a role on television. Would things have been better with Jarrett at the helm? I don’t know, but think about this. Who was the one that brought Russo to TNA in the first place? It wasn't Dixie- it was Jarrett, because it was with Russo that Jarrett got his first big push in the WWF, then was pushed as a top star in WCW when they jumped ship together in 1999. So of course he was going to have an affinity for him, even if evidence suggested he couldn't get anything over. Even when Jerry Jarrett protested, Jeff chose Russo over his own father, which is pretty damn amazing. What are the chances that Russo would come working for Jarrett if they bought TNA, or if this new promotion they’re talking about comes fruition? Maybe he’s not even available. Rumors have been rampant the past few weeks that based on TNA’s recent product, littered with Russoisms that can be seen a mile away (less emphasis on wrestling, stupid segments, misogyny, etc.) It’s kind of amazing that the moral of the story in pro wrestling these last two decades is that no one learns from their mistakes. They repeat them over and over and over and over and over and over again because...hell if I know! Maybe they just feel that this time it’s gonna work out. But the problem with that thought process is that if it’s never worked out before, what are the chances it’s going to work this time? Zero, probably. Russo isn't the biggest threat, however- it’s WWE, and not for the reasons you think. At this point, WWE doesn’t see TNA as much of a threat at all, probably because their popularity is at an all time low and frankly, no one cares about TNA. But NXT is due to start taping even more in the future in Florida, where TNA plans to do most of their taping, plus their time slot is around the same time as Impact's Thursday night on Spike TV. Could this be a factor in a TNA ratings decline? Possibly- the largely hyped NXT ArRival show was a two hour special, competing with Impact on Spike, and Impacts numbers didn't come back that hot despite there being not much competition that night on television. It’s too early to tell if NXT will be a factor in TNA’s ratings, but how embarrassing is it that WWE’s developmental promotion is a big threat to TNA’s ratings at this point? Tells you how little TNA matters on the large scale. To top it all off, WWE’s television deals for all their programming ends this year, and they’re looking for big money since most of their revenue comes from television rights deals (that’s why there is so much WWE programming per week, and why Raw isn’t going back to 2 hours anytime soon, if ever). They are now openly negotiating with other conglomerates, and Viacom is totally a possible avenue that they may come across once more. Viacom, as we know, are the owners of Spike TV, who airs TNA Impact. Imagine if WWE were to sign with Spike once again. Do you think WWE would want to have Impact on the air? Nope. If WWE were to jump ship, they’d be in big trouble. Hell, if Smackdown were to move back to Thursdays, TNA would be in big trouble. 2 The only reason Imapact gets the same number every week is because WWE airs nothing on Thursdays. But that might change soon, and if so, TNA’s future won’t look so bright. Not that it does now- TNA’s future looks bleak no matter what side of you look at, whether it be creative or financially. Not that I want TNA to die like many seem to want - wrestling needs to be on wherever it can, because there aren't as many choices as there were back in 2001. Soon the only company with a major cable television deal in North America is going to be WWE, and does anyone really want that? I want TNA to succeed. I want people to have jobs, as well as for fans to have an alternative to WWE. But the direction TNA has been going for so long now isn't going to help matters. The one person left that’s hindering TNA’s progression is still there, and that’s going to be the hardest person to get rid of just because of the politics and nepotism involved. TNA will continue to decline in popularity over the next year as long as she is involved, but I am hoping for the best. Who knows what the future may bring six months from now- maybe something will change that will be a big benefit for TNA. Maybe something will come that will threaten its existence. But whatever the case might be, we need something like TNA, believe it or not, because without it WWE will have monopolized pro-wrestling in the United States. It might have already been for years now, but regardless it’s a dire situation for competition in the pro-wrestling business either way. WWE Monday Night RAW March 3rd 2014 Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois Overall Thoughts: This week's edition of RAW from the Allstate Arena, a building that has housed some of the best events in company history, once again delivered what will undoubtedly place as one of the best RAW shows of 2014. It was a heavily built show for many weeks, not so by the company, but rather due to the possibility of Punk making his return.