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For this week's Question of the Week, we asked Torch readers how much of a difference the addition of Booker T to the TNA roster will make on the company's business. You can still contribute! Click on the "Contact Us" link above and send me an email with your response.
To the responses...

Sam Robinson, Sykesville, MD: I am a huge Booker T fan, and have been since his Harlem Heat days, all the way through the King Bookah phase. That being said I’m a bit miffed he’s in TNA. I understand all the reasons for it and agree with nearly all of them. But I am also a huge fan of the X-Division and get upset every time they bring in another WWE cast off right to the main event picture. I know he deserves to be there, but so do a bunch of other guys, including A.J., Daniels, Joe and Killings. I guess Kaz deserves his shot too, but I’m not even sure about this one. Impact this week should be interesting to say the least (I don’t read the spoilers, I love the excitement of watching it “live”). I think Booker will have some great places and segments and matches in TNA, but I just have a feeling that they aren’t going to be done in the right times or places, but that can be said of most things TNA is doing these days. Oh well, here’s to Kaz winning the strap and the X-Division making a comeback.

Terry Bloxsom, Torch reader: Everyone already knows what the booking plan for Booker is, hot shot him straight to the world title picture. They will run Angle and his wife against Booker and his wife, and the fans will suffer from the boredom of set matches that are 3-year-old Smackdown mid-card matches. TNA has no concept of building up to anything anymore; they just try to book big shocks and then run it into the ground then go for the next big shock to boost up interest in their product. This is WCW/Russo booking at it's best. The sad thing is they decide to put Kaz over for a match that is clearly meaningless. While it could have been great to see the TNA World Title have a new dimension added to it by having Kaz get a run to see where they could go they are going to stick to the old standard of keeping the belt in the Jeff Jarrett fan club. That being the case, would not the better decision have been to put Cage over and build to a match where you're not sure who Styles and Tomko will side with adding some drama to the World Title match? I for one feel that the addition of Booker is not going to do anything for TNA beyond the first TV, and to sign Sharmell as well, shows that Dixie Carter has no real grasp of what will make her company reach the next level.

Matthew Alan Roberts of Lakewood, Ohio: No, Booker T and his no talent wife showing up in TNA will not improve TNA's business in the least. TNA already added on far bigger and more talented names such as Sting, Angle, and Christian who did not improve ratings or buy rates in the least, so there is no reason to believe a washed out mid-card comedy act like Booker is going to help business any (especially since Booker can not even do his comedy "King" gimmick any more). Booker T in his prime (which he is 7 years past) was no more than a good tag team wrestler and solid singles mid carder who got an undeserved affirmative action push in the dying days of WCW due to a discrimination law suit filed by Sonny Onoo and a few other minority workers. We all know what Booker is going to do because it is the same stuff he has been doing for the last 10 years (say "sucka" 20 times per show, spinaroonie, make his eyes bug out, wrestle his usual dull punch / kick style match, et cetera), we all know what Booker's no talent, annoying, wife is going to do (chew scenery with the other no talent, bimbo, wrestling wife, Karen Angle, in totally boring segments), and we have no interest in it.

By the way, I love how you liberals at the Torch (particularly head leftist Wade Keller) crucify Vince McMahon as the Satan who created drug use in wrestling, proclaim that John Cena must be on drugs unless he proves other wise to you (guilty until proven innocent), and kiss CNN ass despite their lack of truth and ethics (even your fellow McMahon/Cena haters like Meltzer were tougher on CNN than the Torch site has been). Then, TNA hires a convicted felon like Booker T who quit McMahon after being suspended for the second time (third strike would have gotten Booker fired any way) for substance abuse (which was caught by the Wellness Program that your site bashes without knowing anything about it) and the Torch does not have a negative thing to say about it. When are we going to get some truth is so called "wrestling journalism" about the huge drug problem in TNA and how TNA hires every abuser of illegal substances that McMahon fires (Test, Angle, Booker T, New Age Outlaws, Scott Hall, et cetera). As long as TNA ignores the health of its wrestlers (past and present), has no active and aggressive wellness policy (McMahon has 1 and it is working great despite Torch / CNN propaganda), and is a home for trustees of modern chemistry (not only Booker, but what about Johhny "Roids" Stambolli). I will not have any part of the bland product that TNA produces.

JC Reax: Considering I'm a conservative, we can't all be lumped together in the liberal category. In any event, the Torch has clearly documented TNA's history of drug problems dating back to the Wednesday Night PPV era. Bruce Mitchell has an outstanding column on this topic in the Mitchell library from a few years ago. We have documented this recently with the hires of many, many WWE cast-offs who have dealt with drug problems. Is TNA a drug rehab center for people WWE doesn't want to have on their books? That's how it appears quite often. It comes down to WWE having a policy that opens them up to criticism, whereas TNA has zero policy and only the illusion of a policy that allows them to fly under the radar unless they make a completely idiotic hire, such as when Congress was watching the wrestling business intently a few months ago.

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

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