Pruett's Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling - Dixie Carter dominates the show, Sting turns power over to Hulk Hogan, TNA doesn't pay their wrestlers enough to keep their cars from being repossessed


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Pruett Editorials


Pruett's Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling - Dixie Carter dominates the show, Sting turns power over to Hulk Hogan, TNA doesn't pay their wrestlers enough to keep their cars from being repossessed
Mar 23, 2012 - 12:20 PM


By Will Pruett

- Starting the show with the entire ludicrous angle that ended Victory Road was such a poor choice from TNA. I covered that angle quite a bit in my Pruett's Pause on Victory Road and in the Dot Net Countdown, but I must mention once again how idiotic and tasteless it was. This was some sad work from TNA.

- What is the point of making Dixie Carter a TV character once again? She does not act well. She does not come off as particularly likable. She is simply a woman who has funded a company that is losing money as a vanity project. Congratulations to TNA for getting her back on TV as ratings fall, so she'll ignore the falling ratings.

- The Impact Zone fans are now changing like it is 2007. While this is better than the dead crowds they're known for, it still is not good. Stop chanting people. It bugs me.

- From the opening segment I have gathered that Sting is returning to being a full-time part-time wrestler and believes that Hulk Hogan should be the pointless authority figure that is only there for people to defy. That makes total sense to me.

- Anthony Nese and Kid Kash are so important to the X Division that they don't even receive entrances in their opening match/X Division title match. They must be top contenders! What exactly did these guys that haven't been on TV in a few months do to earn this shot? TNA could at least cite their performances on live events as reasoning for this.

- Bully Ray beat up the four wrestlers that I am assuming currently make up the entire X Division. Didn't they do a Team 3D vs. X Division angle sometime in 2007? What was the point of making an entire division look bad? Sure, Bully Ray needed his heat back, but there are far more meaningless wrestlers he could have assaulted.

- I'm fine with an Austin Aries vs. Bully Ray feud, but I'm not down with how TNA got there.

- Turning Austin Aries babyface at this point is a little depressing to me. TNA is losing an opportunity to make a babyface star on his level and instead is choosing to pick a lesser heel to (presumably) go against a newly turned babyface in Aries. Austin Aries turning now feels like a poor choice.

- Speaking of meaningless wrestlers, Mexican America is back on television. The most xenophobic act in wrestling apparently does not get paid enough by TNA to make their car payments on an old multi-colored car. Along with a top star needing to pay cash for his car insurance, this makes TNA look extraordinarily bush-league.

- If I wanted to watch Repo Games, I would watch Repo Games. This is not like "The Price Is Raw" from 2009 which was a classic. This was stupid pandering.

- Eric Young as a Knockout's Tag Team Champion is Pretty dumb. I know that it could turn out to be funny, but I don't see how this does not further bury the TNA Knockout's Division.

- TNA security is there to make sure that two men on equal footing (Crimson and Matt Morgan) cannot fight backstage. Where were these guys when Dixie Carter was being assaulted on Sunday? Is security solely funded by Spike TV and therefore they don't show up to pay-per-views?

- Crimson and Matt Morgan have not magically become better wrestlers. Their matches together have a 97% chance of being bad.

- The Joseph Parks character continues to entertain me. The payoff might be awful, but for now I am enjoying it.

- The video package for James Storm and Robert Roode told a story that TNA has not told on any other part of their show. I hope that these features continue through the pay-per-view and that Storm and Roode begin to work these segments into promos as well.

- James Storm as an every-man character works really well. His promo on this show was part of the process of connecting him with the fans and letting them get to know him. It is so important for fans to be deeply connected with Storm for the moment they hope to create at Lockdown to work.

- Robert Roode's lawyer was fairly entertaining. It is amazing how even lawyers around professional wrestling know to cut promos to the hard camera. I don't like the idea of Roode avoiding the show for weeks at a time, simply because he needs to be a part of this Lockdown build.

- It is odd to build Roode into this huge match with Storm and attach this Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan and Sting angle to it. They are overshadowing the actual match participants and making Storm the fourth most important babyface in the match.

- "What hooked me into staying tuned to the show? The announcement of a Garett Bischoff match." This is something no one will ever say.

- What is worse than a Garett Bischoff segment? That would have to be a Gunner and Garret Bischoff segment. Is there anything good that TNA planned to do tonight?

- I love the Samoa Joe and Magnus team and the way that they have been allowed to get over. I do wonder why TNA would have their babyface tag team champions have to use outside interference or partners hitting each other to win on a consistent basis. The Repo Man guy portion of that match was just silly.

- Why wouldn't James Storm just take two one-on-one matches? I know TNA wants to make him look tough, but why do so at the expense of two guys that could easily feud with him in the future in Kazarian and Christopher Daniels. When it takes only three minutes or beat both of those men, why would they be a challenge in the future?

- I'm going to guess and say that the ratings slide coming out of the last set of tapings is somehow being attributed to a lack of Hulk Hogan and authority figure drama. The end of the show was disappointing. It is neat that Hogan gets a big pop in the Impact Zone, but much like in 2002, watching Hogan pops on TV is not entertaining.

- Dixie Carter is at every TNA show on TV, so why can't she run the match-making part of the show? Is there anything keeping her from doing this? She's sitting next to guys from other Spike TV shows constantly, can't she just make matches via text messages from there?

- Nothing about this show made me want to watch TNA next week.

This was such a bad show. I try to be as positive as possible about this company, but nothing made me want to keep watching this show. The authority figure drama was headache inducing. Every match had an odd and disappointing ending. Two entire divisions of wrestlers were made to look meaningless. This was the biggest step back for TNA since the atrocious Thanksgiving episode.

I don't have a problem with Hulk Hogan returning to TV, but I do have a problem with Hogan, Sting and Dixie all looking more important than the lead babyface going into a major pay-per-view.

Let's do some good old fashioned talking about this show! Feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.

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