The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
The February iMPACT Report Card
The Kingfish Arnie Katz presents his February promotion report card for the good folks at TNA.
Things continue to run hot and cold in TNA. The company set rating’s records, but there’s also some fan dissatisfaction.
Here’s how I rate the show’s performance in key areas:
Talent Pool
Rhino is the major addition and Chris Harris is the most recent subtraction from the TNA roster. That’s pretty much a wash, though Harris is probably better-suited to work in WWE than Rhino was/
Grade: B
In-Ring Action
One nice thing about inconsistency is that, if you don’t like what’s happening, all you have to do is wait a month. Last month had too many cluster shmazz-type matches. Now, the pendulum has swung back to a singles and traditional tag team matches.,
It would be overreaching to have expected ODB-Awesome Kong to be as good as Gail Kim-Awesome Kong, but they have had some very entertaining fights.
Grade: A-
Booking & Dramatics
As always, the storylines including both successes and failures, The AJ Styles story has morphed into something less embarrassing for the Phenomenal One, but there are still a bunch of guys battling over alcohol and TNA may have botched the chance to make Tomko into a genuine star,.
The Samoa Joe contract talks are amusing, largely due to Jim Cornette’s antics, but the whole thing is essentially meaningless. The only thing that would make it more than an overly prolonged contract signing is if Joe left TNA for six months and I can’t believe anyone would want that. Besides, how would that add to the show>
TNA appears to be revving up something different for Abyss, based on him removing his mask as he stepped out of the arena. It would be refreshing to see him do something a little different than what he has been doing for about the last 18 months.
Jeremy Borash has done a nice job in the Angle Alliance plot, but this one needs to come to a conclusion. It may actually have diminished both Christian Cage and Angle, because the confrontation has degenerated into a lengthy stalemate.,
Grade: C
Announcing
Scott Hudson is a real professional wrestling announcer and you can’t add too many of them to your show, He may come in handy if rumored plans for a Knockout show materialize and he reduces the workload on Jeremy Borash and Crystal in the backstage segments,
Grade: B-
Star Power
The recent shows, while good in themselves, have tended to dim the luster of TNA’s biggest stars. The comedic element of the Angle Alliance story doesn’t boost Kurt’s stock, because he is often made to look dopey. Booker T has also suffered, because Roode doesn’t have high enough status to fight him as an equal.
The crowd really got into Rhino when he returned at Against All Odds. Let’s see how long it takes TNA to dissipate the heat.
Grade: C+
Overall
TNA is a paradox. The shows are great as long as you don’t think too much about what you are seeing. The bookers come up with a lot of ideas; maybe they need to have a resident may-sayer or something. Not every idea is a good idea and knowing when not to do something is just as important as knowing when to do something.
Grade: B-
That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising daily wrestling column.
– Arnie Katz
Crossfire4@cox.net
(2/20/08)
This is column number 35 in a row in the current daily series.
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