PWTorch's Wade Keller rants on TNA fans (A worthwile read).

There are several things about TNA fans in St. Louis last night that drove me a bit nuts.

If the TNA fans want to be taken seriously when they express approval or disapproval of the product, they have to get their facts straight, be consistent from minute to minute, and not be so easy to forgive when they're thrown a meaningless stunt bump.

In her interview with the UK Sun this weekend, Dixie Carter, in her nice way, mocked the fans for chanting "Holy sh--!" and "T-N-A" just two minutes after chanting "Fye-errrr Rooo-sooo!" at the last PPV.

TNA fans have been misled, either through faulty assumptions or faulty reporting elsewhere, that the TNA product they are watching has much of anything to do with Vince Russo. Chanting "Fire Russo" at a TNA event is the equivalent of chanting "Fire Gewirtz" or "Fire Lagana" at Raw. This shouldn't be breaking news, but only PWTorch Newsletter readers have been told this in the past several months.

The anti-Russo people out for his spot on the booking committee have been doing a good job spreading anti-Russo propaganda for months, hoping the heat clears the way for their insertion or return to the booking committee. Russo, if he had control, might make the product even worse. Maybe it's taking a ton of effort by those with power and influence to keep him from making things worse. Or maybe he'd make it better. But what you see now is not a Russso product.

Just as in WWE where it's Vince McMahon's show, in TNA it's Jeff Jarrett's show. He's the primary booker with 80 percent influence over the final product, with another 15 percent going to Dutch Mantel, and 5 percent from Russo.

Since Russo's arrival, Jarrett has set the course for the direction for major storylines. He books the PPV line-ups, he's behind the gimmick-crazy format (which long-preceded Russo's arrival late last year), he's behind the convoluted finishes (which long-preceded Russo)... it's his product. At booking meetings, he's presented Russo with what he wants and it's Russo's job to do the grunt work of formatting it into a script. Russo can't say this outloud because he'd be implicating his boss, so he sits back and takes it. Good for Dixie to stand up for him in the UK Sun interview.

But Dixie isn't going to take the vocal "smart fans" (an old-s-tyleterm that is used derisively within wrestling to mock fans who think they know more than they do) seriously if they can't even get their facts straight.

Secondly, quit chanting "This is awesome!" at a big spot that makes no sense, has no impact, is something we've seen all too often before, and involves a near-death experience for a wrestler for zero purpose in the match - especially when it's thrown on the card by Jarrett to try to distract from the fact that he's not doing anything on his own worthy of pops or praise.

Last night, the fans rightfully booed the fiascos that were the blindfold match (among the ten worst matches I've ever seen for a number of reasons) and the electrified cage match. But then, minutes later, the fans chanted "This is awesome" at the latest stunt by S-tyles - a stunt which meant nothing in the context of the match - and another thumbtacks spot. This crap is not good for TNA or wrestling, and fans who are smart enough to see the disasters that preceded it shouldn't be so easy to "pop" for the latest stupid, dangerous, or meaningless stunt. It's easy to get wrapped up in the moment live, but it's unbecoming of any respect by those in power when that's what you're popping for.

S-tyles risked his well-being, and for what? First of all, TNA's production crew couldn't be bothered to get the camera shot right even though they knew it was coming. Second, it looks totally fake since he just happened to get knocked off the cage right above where a bunch of wrestlers had congregated and happened to be ready to catch him. Third, the huge bump had no bearing on the match or the fallout from the match. It was thrown into the match like a biscuit tossed to a dog who's been otherwise neglected and abused all day. And the St. Louis fans snapped up the biscuit, wagged their tails, and embarrassed themselves in front of TNA management by showing how "easy" they are.

The point of the match was to establish a new no. 1 title contender and to see if Jarrett could be trusted. When the match was over, Jarrett had just given Sting the title shot (proving from a storyline standpoint that he "could be trusted after all," but also devilishly sending the message to fans that he could have won the match and thus was the top star of the match). On camera after the match, Joe and Sting appreciated Jarrett's move; Angle seemed upset (and we don't, yet, know why). But S-tyles's bump? It's already part of TNA history, except for the highlight clips of it on Impact later this week.

The stunt bump S-tyles took is meant to appeal to bloodthirsty, stunt-seeking fans who get off on seeing a talented wrestler - whose craft is being completely underutilized by an inept booking team - risk his well-being for a five second adrenaline rush that means nothing otherwise within the stories TNA is telling.

Jarrett gets the spotlight on him after doing almost nothing. He's the last in the match. He throws a couple dropkicks, yanks down a couple weapons, and books himself in the glory spot of magnanimously handing Sting the win he himself earned for his team. S-tyles? He gets to be the stunt man who takes a risky dive for no reason other than try to prop up a promotion that is being built around a wrestler who made his triumphant, heavily-hyped return to PPV only to be met by complete silence.

If the TNA fans knew their stuff and weren't chanting "Fire Russo" instead of "Fire Jarrett" or a more generic "This sh-- sucks" chant, and if they weren't so easy to forgive whenever a completely underutilized talent is used as a human sacrifice to distract from the fact that Jarrett has booked himself into a glory spot with little or no effort or skill being required on his part, then maybe Dixie would consider the silence in the arena when Jarrett's music stopped and he was cleaning house in the ring as a sign of something - like, what everyone has been saying for years - which is Jarrett is not a top level act and he's holding the company back with shoddy, self-serving booking that Dixie is simply not experienced or savvy enough to detect. Instead, Dixie can write it off as finicky fans who are unpredictable and uninformed.

TNA fans, if you want a better product, stop popping for meaningless stunt bumps and get your facts straight about who's to blame for what you personally don't like.

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_20018.shtml

Good read. TNA fans either don't seem to know their priorities or where they stand with TNA, or most of the fans are chanting along with the ones who actually have opinions.

However, I refuse to believe that Russo only has a small influence on the booking committee. Russo and Jarrett are very close as friends and even Jarrett's main event Status in WCW emphasised that.

This propaganda message that TNA employees spreading around about Russo also sounds farfetched. It's not a conspiriacy from within the reichstag it's one place on a committee. He spoke the truth about the fans though.

Good read. TNA fans either don't seem to know their priorities or where they stand with TNA, or most of the fans are chanting along with the ones who actually have opinions.

Total-KO

the only storylines i know that Russo has done has been VKM vs. Christy Hemme, Seratonin, and i think Storm vs. Harris and one going blind. other than that (which i guess isn't much left) is all Jarret/Mantell

but i was actually thinking about this last night when Chicago_Nut and i were talking on msn how the crowd was silent for Jarret with no booes. they need to book a ppv in Chicago or New York and have those crowds deafen the place with "F*** this Booking" or "Fire Jarret" or like Keller said, "This Sh** Sucks"

[QUOTE="Total-KO"]

Good read. TNA fans either don't seem to know their priorities or where they stand with TNA, or most of the fans are chanting along with the ones who actually have opinions.

sephy37

but i was actually thinking about this last night when Chicago_Nut and i were talking on msn how the crowd was silent for Jarret with no booes. they need to book a ppv in Chicago or New York and have those crowds deafen the place with "F*** this Booking" or "Fire Jarret" or like Keller said, "This Sh** Sucks"

Easily the best idea in the history of mankind. I would love to see that happen.

Hell, maybe put one in the Ballroom and try to start another "ECW" chant with the Dudl.....er, Team 3D.

i have to dissagree with some of the 'rant'. basicly he's saying that if one or 2 matches suck, the fans cant enjoy the rest of the show? yes the blindfold match (what i seen of it) sucked. and the idea of an electrified cage was retarded, wich the fans new was BS. but if something cool happens in the middle of the ESC, we cant cheer for it? if i remember right, when, i think it was hernandez (the big guy of LAX,), dove from the corner of the cage onto everyone, people started a "THAT was awesome" chant.  

as for the angle/styles bump. either angle or styles (im thinking angle) fliped the other off in the match a few times before they went up top. aparently those 2 didn't/don't like each other. i havnt really been paying alot of attention the the storylines lately. but if you had 2 opponents who hated eachother, and one threw the other off of the top of a cage, im pretty sure that most people would think "damn, he really does not like that guy. i meen, to throw him off of a cage like that, and possibly trying to kill him".  

PWINsider.com's Mike Johnson writes on "Fire Russo."  Again, worthwile to read: 

In the last 48 hours, there have been some in TNA upset about the "Fire Russo" chants in St. Louis. I don't believe they are seeing the big picture though. In my opinion. those chants were not being aimed at Russo personally, but instead are the creation of a new word for the wrestling vocabulary. Anyone within TNA who dilutes it into a personal issue against Russo is clouding the meaning behind the chant, which is fans are rejecting what they don't like about aspects of the TNA product. They could have just as easily chanted, "This is stupid", which would have looked even worse for the company.

So why are fans taking Russo's name and using it? Quite simply, whether anyone likes to admit it or not within TNA, that name is now synonymous with the term some online refer to as "Wrestlecrap" Fair or not to Russo personally in 2007, when you put the WCW title on yourself, have pinata on a pole matches, create the term "David Arquette World champion", book miscarriages, and other goofy antics in an attempt to create edgy "Crash TV", no true diehard wrestling fan is going to forgive and forget, not when they see those aspects in a company they are trying to support.

It's those same diehard fans that are watching and that are coming to TNA's shows. Whether Russo has found his spirituality or not is not the issue. Whether he's a "new man" or not is not the issue. The issue is that there are things in TNA that aren't clicking creatively to fans that actually cares and follow the product. Much like a sports team that blows a big moment, fans are booing and rejecting what they are being presented at times because they don't like it. Thus, Russo's name has now evolved to something past just the name of a writer for the company. It's a rally cry for things fans don't like about TNA. Fair or not to Russo, that is the reality.

That said, Russo is only part of the TNA creative picture. If anything, Jeff Jarrett should be the one who receives the majority of praise or blame for the TNA product; it's his department to head creative). TNA fans see Russo as an easy way to voice their frustrations about the product. I don't think they want TNA to fire Russo (well, to be fair, some of them probably do) as much as they want TNA to give them the product that TNA themselves claim to be, an alternative wrestling product that focuses on wrestling.

Those fans want good, hard hitting, athletic, smart, sometimes violent wrestling and TNA can no longer claim that the problems are exclusive to jaded, smart fans in Orlando who get into TNA events for free. TNA need to realize that the audience that is following their product are smart, sometimes jaded fans who want to see the product they desire. It's up to TNA to acknowledge that and promote it to them, while finding ways to expand their company's audience in the process. It's not TNA's job to keep telling the most vocal members of their audience they are wrong, because if they do, at some point, those fans will give up and stop caring.

In the old Mid-South territory, Bill Watts once got upset because then-booker Ernie Ladd kept coming up with reasons not to push the Junkyard Dog. Ladd would point out all of JYD's weaknesses and why he shouldn't be pushed. Watts wouldn't care. JYD was the man and that was the bottom line. It was Ladd's job to book him at his strongest and make money, not undercut that. Ladd did, and the territory exploded. Like Ladd then and TNA now, it needs to be about what's best for the company.

It's TNA's job to find out what the audience wants and produce that product. If these fans are watching (and caring) about TNA, they obviously don't want to see another WWE product. There are already three WWE brands out there for the choosing. If they wanted that product, they wouldn't bother with TNA. They want strong, athletic, logical, fun professional wrestling. That's what they hope for when they watch TNA and that's what they complain they don't get when they chant.

Firing Vince Russo is not the magic answer to the situation and deep down, the fans chanting it know it too. They aren't calling for Russo to be thrown off the Destination X scaffold headfirst. They are saying that want the product improved.

If TNA isn't willing to try and do that - if TNA instead decides they are going to tell the fans that the fans don't know what they want and TNA does, TNA may as well keep rowing their boat in the circles because they will get nowhere fast.

If a movie studio makes millions making romantic comedies, and pennies producing big budget horror films, they will listen to their audience and kill the horror movies to focus on what their audience wants to see. TNA needs to have the foresight to see that for their own company and try and evolve their product for the better.

It's time for TNA to stop undercutting themselves as a product. They need to look at Lockdown and see what their strengths and weaknesses are and make the product stronger in doing so.

There are some in the company content (for now) with a 1.0 on SpikeTV and PPV buys that are (allegedly) up and merchandise sales that (definitely) are up and use that as reasoning as to why they shouldn't mess with the current formula.

TNA needs to not be so concerned with the "Fire Russo" chant, but instead with how they can see the message behind it and use that criticism to improve their own product from an in-house standpoint so the current formula improves and hopefully, brings more revenue with that improvement.

If I was TNA, I'd be more concerned about the potential for the day coming where those Russo chants (and other chants voicing their opinion on the product) stop, because that means those fans no longer care, and are no longer there to even win back over. When you lose the diehard fans, who live and die for their pro wrestling, you are not heading in the right direction, short or long-term.

http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=23957&p=1