By Captain Scarlet
The late 90’s crash TV booking style of Vince Russo brought massive ratings to the WWE, helped make huge stars and destroy WCW. The audience loved it because it was very different to what had come before in the WWF while being even more edgy and exciting than WCW (who had also squeezed the nWo storyline dry) bringing in new viewers. HOWEVER, this style of booking also had its downsides. With constant face and heel turns, ‘shocking’ storylines and ‘edgy’ surprises, the audience became burnt out. Eventually, the crash TV style of booking became the new norm, the new boring.
Both long term and short term booking styles have their downsides and upsides. Both can improve the product when used properly, but can also lead to short or long term problems. TNA has shown itself willing to change the product when it feels that it is necessary, but has yet to find a natural balance between having an exciting weekly show while pushing its stars over a longer term. It has proved it can do both, it just needs to find both at the same time.
Recently TNA has been shedding talent, releasing several developmental wrestlers, some bigger names and some high profile backstage names. This is most likely down to them needing to reduce expenditure as a result of going on the road, but also has its roots in having such a bloated roster. With so many wrestlers on its books, TNA has had trouble consistently pushing talent, especially young talent. They get lost in the crowd, disappearing for weeks at a time, unable to get enough airtime to show what they can do (not helped by TNA only having the two hours a week).
With the reduction in roster size comes new opportunities for talent to come in and show what they can do, this will help freshen up the company, give guys new people to feud with and help the show creatively. They won’t be able to sign too many new guys (for financial and creative reasons) so they’ll have to pick and choose VERY carefully who they sign. They also need to keep using the older, popular talent in order to keep fans interested.
TNA in reality needs to find a booking balance (see what I did there!). One that balances longer term stability without creating a boring product AND short term exciting shocks without burning out the audience. One that pushes young talent consistently, while keeping the older guys prominent and keeping or getting both over. It’s a very hard job, one that neither TNA or WWE has successfully managed so far. However, with the changes TNA has made recently backstage, in talent and the rumours of who they want to sign in the future, it seems they are determined to promote new talent. Hopefully they can find a good balance and continue TNA’s growth, either way we are entering ANOTHER new phase for TNA, one that looks to be just as exciting/worrying as the last few dozen.
