By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

For this week's Question of the Week, we asked Torch readers who should be the long-term TNA champion to carry the company. So far, responses have ranged from Kurt Angle to Matt Morgan, with readers going for my darkhorse "let's see what he can do in a singles run" pick of Hernandez. You can still contribute! Click on the "Contact Us" link above and send me an email with your response. To the responses...

Justin Ballard of Boston, Mass.: The person TNA should be built around as a long-term champion is Samoa Joe. Joe is by far the most popular guy in the company right now, and can have a good to great match with pretty much anyone. Beginning in 2005 it seemed like Joe was on track to be TNA’s breakout star. Unfortunately with the influx of former WWE and WCW talent, the company decided to shift the focus on former big-name stars instead of continuing to build and promote from within. Once Vince Russo signed on with the company, Joe’s push went down the drain. If TNA would put their focus back on creating new stars, Joe could be the Steve Austin of TNA. His fan support is already there, as is his in-ring talent. All he needs is a little help from creative ... and maybe some new wrestling trunks.

Cyr Fernandez of Jersey City, N.J.: There are so many good choices that you could go with. But there is really one good choice that stands out in my mind that would really work and would help differentiate TNA from WWE in the places that matter. That man would have to be... Christopher Daniels. While he's currently stuck in the morass that is the X Division, Daniels as champ would be a way to both raise the X Division's stock and give a man with insane workrate and character a chance to shine. Angle and Sting, to be honest, is getting played out, and we don't really need older stars at this rate taking the spotlight. TNA needs to separate itself from WWE, and using fresh stars it can promote is key. When Styles, Joe, and Daniels were the focus of the X Division, they lit it up, and the same could be said for a feud over the World Title. At the same time, it'd give reason for many X Division stars to try for the belt, or even have Triple X become a company-wide threat, between both the 'Heavyweight' division and the X Division. The matches are there too, with Styles and Joe in the mix still, fresh opponents like Cage and Abyss, even another dark horse candidate in Jay Lethal, who could break out by shaming Nash over the Black Machismo thing after seeing him beg for another chance at glory, especially after the crowd was behind him with a near win against Jarrett for the title many months ago. All it needs is TNA to push themselves where WWE can't compete. It raises Daniels' stock, it can raise the X Division's stock, and it shakes up a product in need of serious creative change.

Jared Day, Torch reader: This is an easy choice, Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe should be the TNA Champion. He's younger than Sting, Kevin Nash, or Booker T and is more durable than Kurt Angle. Also, Kurt Angle hasn't been able to improve business. Should he still be featured? Yes, but I don't think that he's someone they can build around. Samoa Joe is someone who can go out and give good performances consistently with a variety of opponents. He can be a face or a heel. Also, Samoa Joe is fresh. Samoa Joe is someone that people haven't really seen a whole lot of. Samoa Joe put ROH on the map with his title reign and I think that he could do the same thing for TNA. When TNA continues to feature guys that are past their prime and have been around for awhile, they are not giving fans any reason to tune in. Everyone has seen Kurt Angle, Sting, Kevin Nash, Team 3D, VKM, and The Steiners, and they saw them when they were actually good. Obviously good storylines and wrestling is part of what makes a wrestling show successful, but it's also who the storylines are about. People tune in for good storylines involving good people. People watched WCW because they had to see the NWO and people watched WWF because they had to see Stone Cold and The Rock.

I think TNA could feature Samoa Joe in a way where people will tune in to see him. If people want to watch Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Team 3D or The Steiners, they can watch old tapes from when they were in their prime. If people want to see Samoa Joe, they have to tune in to TNA. Outside of people who saw him in ROH, Samoa Joe's prime exposure is from TNA. It's time for TNA to move on from WCW. People want new faces and new storylines. AJ Styles, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Homicide, Black Machismo, Senshi, and Samoa Joe are fresh wrestlers who people will tune in to see if you feature them correctly. TNA needs to set themselves apart from WWE and what better way to do that than to feature someone as unique as Samoa Joe. He has a more natural body type than the action figure wrestlers in WWE and he can actually wrestle. If TNA wants to improve their business and bring quality to their product, they should make Samoa Joe the TNA champion and build around him.

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