By Chad Smart
@ChadSmart on Twitter
Sorry for lack of postings lately. Work has been crazy. Thankfully Kevin has picked up the slack.
Anyway, last night was TNA’s Hardcore Justice Pay Per View. Online criticism centered on the fact there were no hardcore style matches. Given how TNA tends to overuse gimmick matches, I was fine with there being no unnecessary stipulations in any of the matches. I ended up catching a replay of the show after getting home from a weekend in Las Vegas that included about 4 hours of sleep a night and a 7-hour car ride back to Los Angeles. Given my exhaustive state of mind and my general apathy to the show before it started, I found Hardcore Justice to be a typical TNA PPV. There was some good wrestling but nothing on the show had any emotional attachment. Most of the matches felt like the wrestlers were inserted into matches for the sake of having a match instead of having an actual reason for fighting. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
 |
| Photo from Impactwrestling.com |
One of TNA’s pet projects this year has been the mega-push of new star, Crimson. So far, Crimson is undefeated in TNA action. He currently holds the top spot in the Bound For Glory tournament. I am curious to see how far TNA takes his undefeated streak. The cynic in me says TNA management is trying to create the new Goldberg but I don’t think Crimson has caught on with the crowd the way Goldberg did.
I applaud TNA for trying to create a homegrown star, but I have concerns over what’s going to happen over the next two months. At Hardcore Justice, Crimson fought Rob Van Dam in a battle of the top two contenders in the BFG series. Before the match, Jerry Lynn announced he would be in RVD’s corner for no real reason. As soon as that was announced, I knew Lynn would somehow cost RVD the match. Jerry ended up interfering and getting Van Dam disqualified which resulted in Crimson getting 3 points and Van Dam losing 10 points. Again, my cynicism says this was done because RVD is a main event star and therefore cannot lose cleanly to Crimson. Of course, the ending of the match could also be leading to an extended feud between Lynn and Van Dam.
 |
| Photo from Impactwrestling.com |
Crimson winning by DQ makes me wonder what’s going to happen with the final of the tournament. The final is a 4-way match where first pin fall wins the match. That means Crimson could lose the match without actually losing. And even though he wouldn’t win the match, in the wrestling universe, TNA could still promote him as being undefeated because he has never been pinned. Not that I think fans really care about his unbeaten streak, but adding asterisks to his stats won’t help garner interest either.
 |
| Photo from: Impactwrestling.com |
The other scenario is Crimson ends up winning the tournament and goes on to Bound for Glory to challenge for the TNA World Title. At that point it’s either Crimson wins the title and TNA hopes and prays the fans accept him as champion, or he loses the match and looks like a choke artist who can’t win the big match. Personally, I think TNA is painting themselves into a corner. Maybe my lack of watching Impact on a regular basis is clouding my judgment. Perhaps Crimson is over huge with the fans and I just haven’t seen it. You tell me. If you are a loyal TNA viewer, do you think Crimson is ready to be champion?
No comments:
Post a Comment