By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA wrestler Kevin Nash painted a bleak picture of the future of the business related to the number of legitimate stars being created in the wrestling business during an interview with Newsday.

Nash played the role of wise sage going in-depth into the wrestling business, his near-WWE jump, and TNA's current political turmoil in the highly-recommended interview.

Regarding the future of the business, Nash said he recently sat down with WWE stars Triple H and Shawn Michaels to toss around names of future stars. Nash says they included there aren't enough stars to keep the business going and potential future stars have too many injuries. He said it's "the biggest problem that I’ve seen in our business."

"We were kind of going through the rosters and saying who are the guys who are going to replace us. Which guys are going to replace us when we retire? And everybody through names around and there weren’t a whole lot of names of guys who we thought were going to replace us," Nash told Alfonso Castillo of Newsday.

Nash continued: "You look at a guy like Edge, and now he’s starting to realize – and, gosh, I don’t even know how old he is but he I think he’s in his 30’s. And he’s getting to the point where he’s had a ton of injuries. John Cena has had a ton of injuries. With these guys, it’s almost [a question of] who can last."

Nash said it's true that promoters are at fault for not giving mid-card wrestlers their break and continually booking the type of Cena-Orton-Hunter combination of main events, but Nash said WWE and TNA break down TV ratings by the second to see when viewers are flipping channels.

"And when they see that a certain guy goes out there week in and week out and every time he goes out there the numbers drop – I mean, they run this as a business," Nash said. "Basically, we’re just sports entertainers. And when you get older, you get smarter. You’re able to tell a story. You actually get better at your craft as you do an actor."

Nash said his concern extends to the mindset of today's younger wrestlers. He said he's watched wrestlers take too many bumps warming up when the cameras aren't even rolling. Nash said he might be old-school in that he doesn't "practice" before performing in the ring, but he sees younger wrestlers setting themselves up for a short lifespan in the ring.

"The business has changed so much. … Guys actually go over matches in the ring and actually take bumps," Nash said. "I remember I sat there one day and watched guys practicing moonsaults. I thought to myself, 'Oh my God. Do you realize how many of those you have in your body in your life? And you just gave away nine of them for free.' It’s a different group of guys. It’s a different era."

Caldwell's Analysis: We'll break down Nash's interview in a few different parts, but I started with his philosophy on the current state of the wrestling business because many of Nash's smaller points in the interview all point back to his bleak picture of what the business will look like five-to-ten years from now when the Mafia isn't wrestling, DX has done its eighth high school reunion, and Cena, Edge, Punk, and Orton are breaking down (or already broken down) physically.

I believe this gets to the theme from the past few months that the Raw brand is failing to develop new stars. Most, if not all, of today's current stars started elsewhere and then came to Raw. Cena was Smackdown. Swagger and Bourne were ECW. MVP was Smackdown. Miz was ECW. Kofi was ECW. DiBiase and Rhodes would be stars if they started on Smackdown and moved to Raw.

The Raw brand, as the flagship of the wrestling business, needs to be a place for new stars to develop. But, that's not the case. Instead, Miz was fed to Cena, Swagger, Bourne, and MVP are stuck in a mid-card program without any juice, DiBiase & Rhodes will be fed to the DX lions at Summerslam, and Kofi is the secondary singles champion without a program other than being fed to Big Show on a bi-weekly basis.

Last night on Jimmy Fallon, Triple H had a chance to put over DiBiase & Rhodes on national TV. Instead, he buried them in a half-shoot/half-storyline statement. That epitomized the Raw brand in a nutshell. The Raw brand is where future stars go to lose their luster. Unless a drastic change occurs, the bill will come due five-to-ten years from now.

We suggest these recent related articles...

TV RATINGS: TNA Impact & ROH TV viewership - Week 19 on Dest. America - Impact surges post-BFG, ROH draws big audience

TV WRESTLING VIEWERSHIP - Week of Sept. 28: Full Break Down of last week's Pro Wrestling TV with DVR viewing

TNA NEWS: TNA announces TV tapings on January U.K. Tour