Recently I had the pleasure of attending the TNA Maximum
Impact tour London tapings at Wembley arena and I can safely say that I
thoroughly enjoyed myself. Granted over three hours is a tad long to be sat
there watching wrestling but the action ranged from good to excellent and
Jeremy Borash along with So Cal Val did their best to keep fans entertained
during the mini intervals. Unfortunately the lasting impression coming away
from these tapings wasn’t any of the matches I had just seen or any of the wrestlers
I had just met but the thought that TNA are far better live than any episode of
Impact. Indeed I came away dreading what TNA will do to those tapings in
post-production and this week’s Impact confirmed those fears.
Now TNA have long been praised for their live shows but
since the move to Destination America it has become clear that TNA are making
an absolute mess of Impact with all the post production add ons, many of which
seem unnecessary. This week’s Impact was the first of the UK taping’s which took
place in Glasgow and while there was a reported 1500+ in attendance you would
never have guessed it from watching the show. Once again the audience was
darkened and the top tiers, assuming people were sat there, were not visible at
all. Why would you deliberately not make the crowd visible to the TV audience?
I understand TNA want to put more lighting and emphasis on the ring but to not
show one of your more larger crowds just doesn’t make sense.
Still at least those in attendance were up for the show with
loud chants and yet TNA still found a way to lessen the effect of that. The
fans at the Manhattan Centre didn’t seem to pop for any wrestler over the last
few weeks but this was not the case in Glasgow as both Kurt Angle and Austin
Aries seemed to receive good reactions. I say seemed because on both occasions
TNA went to the split screen so that we could see Taz and Josh Matthews talking
from the broom cupboard which I can only guess is the gateway to Narnia. So at
long last TNA have their stars getting the reactions they should but the
promotion feels it’s more important to show and hear the commentators and what
happened last week instead of the crowds pop. Could you imagine how bad it
would have looked when Triple H returned at MSG in 2002 if we could see JR and
the King on a split screen with JR rabbiting on about the previous week and
then WWE to show us a clip of the previous week’s events? No I am not comparing
the size of the pops but the reaction Angle got was still one of the loudest
TNA have received this year and they ruined it.
That wasn’t even the worst part of the post production gaffs
this week as during the main event Josh Mathews piped up with, “After Kurt
Angle stepped down as director of operations his first match back as an active
roster member was against Samoa Joe.” No it wasn’t! His first match was a
street fight against MVP which Josh Matthews commentated on. I appreciate he
hasn’t taken the time to learn TNA’s history but surely he can remember what he
has watched and spoken on? Also why did no one else point this mistake out to
him? Surely John Gaburick or Jeremy Borash must listen to what Taz and Josh say
before it goes out? Could they not have pointed it out to Josh and told him to
redo it or do they equally not care or is Josh untouchable as he once worked
for WWE? No matter what the reason it was a silly mistake which shouldn’t be
happening with the system TNA are using to get Impact out.
Remember this is just one week’s show it’s not covering the
other stuff we have seen over the past few weeks such as workers complaining
it’s cold backstage, pointless clips of messy dressing rooms, Taz and Josh
continually making mistakes or that TNA actually showed their world title being
picked out of a trash can on the floor. Don’t get me wrong I get that TNA are
trying to be different and as they said pull the curtain back but the reality
is that what are decent TV taping’s, the one I went to was very good, are being
destroyed but pointless post production stuff being added on and stupid mistakes
within those add on’s not being rectified.
Like most TNA fans I was optimistic about TNA debuting on
Destination America but the reality is that they are not going to progress
under this format. There is simply just too many holes in what they are producing
and while some would say that fans shouldn’t remember everything the point is
that if TNA don’t care enough about their own history then why should fans? As
for the pops being ruined by post production in wrestling perception is reality
and if TNA aren’t showing their stars get star reactions then they will cease
to be looked upon as stars and if TNA have no stars then why would anyone
watch?
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