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CALDWELL'S TAKE
CORNER CUBE MONDAY 2/11: Trying to maneuver through TNA's booking Feb 11, 2008 - 12:54:18 PM
Updated throughout the day from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.
Updated Monday, February 11
Another month. Another over-booked TNA PPV getting in the way of solid effort from the wrestlers. There are moments of hope, then TNA suddenly pulls the carpet out from under the show with the usual batch of overbooked run-ins, interference, and inconsistent rule applications.
Thinking back on this show, I'm reminded of the best films of all-time, "Shawshank Redemption", which I re-watched on Saturday night. The plot is that Tim Robbins's character is in jail serving a life sentence for murder. Morgan Freeman is also serving a life sentence, which put him in prison years before Robbins ever walked in. After decades in prison, Robbins tries to convince Freeman that there is hope, but Freeman tells him that hope is a dangerous thing that drives men crazy.
That hope is what seemingly drives TNA viewers to Impact every Thursday night and 2 percent of those same viewers to the PPVs once-a-month on Sunday nights. Hope that there will be a great pro wrestling match in the middle of the densely populated thickets of overbooking. Hope that this will be the month that TNA tosses the book out and just lets the wrestlers tell the stories in the ring.
But, last night was another show with lost hope. Oh, there were signs of an escape from the bonds of over-booking, but it's merely false hope if you look at how TNA's PPV are in the exact same spot as three and four years ago.
At the end of Shawshank Redemption, Robbins's character escapes prison through a secret hole that he spent most of his jail sentence carefully manufacturing every night. But, to reach freedom, he had to maneuver through tons and tons of human waste down a tiny drain that pressed his face close to the waste. The symbolism is what made the movie, as Robbins finally maneuvered down the 500 yards to freedom and ended up on the other side, out of prison. Robbins had hope when Freeman didn't.
As it relates to TNA, the hope is that eventually TNA is going to push and pull and crawl and force their way down that escape hole and reach the end of that 500 yard tunnel to freedom. That, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. That, maybe TNA can take us through this stretch of bad booking and show us what 2008 pro wrestling can be about with a roster of very hungry and very good wrestlers.
But, TNA seems to be stuck in the tunnel. They can't go the extra 500 yards to the end of the tunnel. It's dangerous on the outside. It's dangerous to re-think 2008 pro wrestling instead of settling for the same bad booking that was a trademark of the dying days of WCW.
Every PPV keeps them stuck in neutral. They're in the same spot in the tunnel - surrounded by crappy booking. They keep looking back. Back to Memphis in the '70s. Back to ECW in the '90s. Back to WCW at the very end of the whole deal in the early 2000s.
Morgan Freeman's character was stuck in jail for decades. He gave up hope because it was easier to stay in prison where things made sense; where life on the outside as a civilian again was a scary thought. Right now, things make sense for TNA in their current time machine. They're comfortable booking from eras that died long ago.
But, TNA has all the personnel to promote shows that fit today's wrestling marketplace. The problem is they just can't turn away from the past and look forward to 2008 - to the end of the tunnel - where there is freedom from debilitating booking.
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