Reader comments and editor response on the media’s coverage of recent deaths, TNA’s live show

Send all feedback or mailbag questions to dotnetjason@gmail.com

I was watching Fox News and they did a big feature on Chase Tatum’s tragic death. Its always sad when someone passes away, but I was wondering why they didn't feature anything on Gary Hart's death? Why isn't his death important? Does this mean they will only mention a wrestling death if it has something to do with drugs?  

Thats not really fair to the fans or the industry. I doubt they would do this to another industry like basketball or acting. Just imagine the outrage this would get if they failed to mention the untimely passing of a great former NBA general manager, but then had no problem covering the death of a two-year CBA player that only appeared in a few games. This is not a knock on Tatum, but on the media. How do you as a journalist feel about this?    

Thanks for your time,
Robert

Powell replies: I haven’t seen the Tatum piece yet, but I’m not surprised it’s getting air time because of the painkiller connection. As far as Hart not being mentioned, this type of treatment is hardly limited to pro wrestling. Hall of Fame baseball players die and barely get mentioned on television, yet the media would jump all over the death of a minor league baseball player if his death were even remotely connected to steroids. Is it fair? Not to Hart, but pro wrestling has made itself an easy target for negative coverage.

***

Don’t know if you picked up on this or not, but Mike Tenay defiantly said to go to TNA’s website to vote for the Knockout’s Title match.  The kicker is I went to vote this morning (Friday) and there is the tiniest of disclaimers (if you actually stumble your way into the Live Impact page) that says the voting starts at 9 p.m. (ET) the  day of the show. How dumb is that? Just thought I’d throw that at you in case you hadn’t seen it yet.
 
Sam Robinson

Powell replies: Yes, that does seem foolish. I’m not sure why they’re waiting until the show starts to launch the voting since you’d think they’d want to create as much traffic as possible, but maybe there’s a method to their madness that I’m not aware of. If nothing else, I guess it’s encouraging to see them use Impact to drive traffic to their website. Now if only they would do away with those lame in-character interviews

***

I don't understand why TNA needs to endlessly hype their live show. This is exactly what's wrong with wrestling today. Too much is given away on free TV. The WrestleMania Rewind, Raw going three hours every 3-4 months, etc. TNA doesn't need to pull out the hyperbole and hype it as the biggest show of the year when they have a pay-per-view three weeks later. Taking the focus off of that for a 0.1 increase in ratings is completely pointless in the long run. What say you?

Rafael De La Rosa

Powell’s POV: First off, I want to point out that Rafael sent this letter before TNA started hyping the live Impact. His letter regards comments I’ve made about the lack of hype that TNA has given the show. I respectfully disagree, though, that TNA shouldn’t make a big fuss over the show.

If you’re going to go live in hopes of persuading the network to give you future live shows, then you should do everything within reason to pop a rating to convince them that it’s worth the extra production costs. I’m not suggesting that TNA give away all of their top matches and angles, but what’s the point of going live if you don’t make an effort to draw a better than average rating?