TNA Bound for Glory & the State of Pro-Wrestling

On Sunday, Total Non-Stop Wrestling, held their "Bound For Glory" pay per view and aside from very competent in ring action the big news was supposed to be that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff turned into "heel" or "bad guy" general managers ala Vince McMahon throughout most of the 90's and even into the Twenty-first Century.

The big surprise was that the baby-face who holds a very loyal and strong following with teens and even tweens, turned heel, "or bad guy".

I know that it's difficult to tell a new story in Pro-wrestling especially since it's been around since at least the turn of the 20'Th century. Pro-wrestling has had many of the exact same stories told and retold countless times, by countless promoters, both well known and unknown.

I'm not crazy about the way they pulled off the latest version of Hulk Hogan and company turning heel AGAIN and I'm a bit disappointed that it's yet another telling of the nWo story over a very short period of time.

In the past twenty years there must have been between three or four retelling of the exact same story, done exactly the same way with the exact same main characters.

I guess Jeff Hardy turning heel was a bit surprising but not enough so that it would make me say "holy S%^T" while on the edge of my seat. To me it's just a minor blip really.

Now maybe TNA have something planned for the future with this whole angle. I hope that they use this angle to put over the young talent. Knowing who is involved I'm pretty sure who will be buried on the card and who will once again be put over.

Maybe Eric Bischoff wanted a redo on the whole nWo angle and maybe he didn't have as much power as he thought he needed back in WCW to do it "right" the first time and maybe it will be different this time.

Honestly, I have my doubts about any of that being true or it being any different this time around.

I kind of wish I could have seen TNA's "Bound for Glory" pay per view through the eyes of a 15 year old fan who maybe didn't see the first two or three versions of the n W o angle. Maybe then I'd be better suited to judge this "angle."

The thing is that I've seen this exact same story played out so many times that at this point it's like painting by numbers. The main guy is Hogan and Bischoff and only the supporting cast has changed, slightly.

I want to like TNA and WWE, I really do. I don't even care if WWE calls it "Sports Entertainment." The wrestling business is suffering from the same problem that Hollywood is suffering from. They don't have any ideas and they aren't giving me a reason to care about any of the wrestlers/characters.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons I'm so sorry that Shawn Michaels isn't around and hasn't been around for over half a year. The thing about Michaels is the he was one of the last few guys who came up through the territory's and he learned his craft well from experience and veterans he worked who were on their way down the card.

I know many don't like Shawn Michaels but he was/is one hell of a performer who always gave it his all. He had the ability to make you feel all the same things that he, or rather his character, was feeling during his matches.

Maybe the answer for TNA and WWE is not more dangerous moves or bigger screens and fireworks. I think that they don't even need these gimics to put on a good and consistently well performing product. What they need is to make the audience or fans care about the characters.

There is a reason why Hogan is still around. No, he doesn't still "have it" but the hope is that whatever of "it" that is left in Hogan will rub off on the guys around him.

I mean Hogan was not bad, in his prime, at making you feel what he was "feeling" during a match. His match with Andre comes to mind or his match with Ultimate Warrior.

The same thing is true for Ric Flair, the guy was a master of making the fans feel the emotions that the characters in the ring are supposed to be experiencing. Flair was one of those guys who could wrestle against a push-broom and still make you feel what "he's feeling" in that match as well as what the push-broom is "feeling".

This is either an article or a lament, I'm not exactly sure which. I will continue to have both WWE and TNA on my TV but mostly as background noise. The reason is because I grew up and wrestling fan and I will probably die a wrestling fan.

I have a message, no, a request to both TNA and WWE and this is a request from the son of the "Reigning Cold War Champion of the World" Boris Korczak. Before anyone asks, yes, there really is a "Cold War Championship" belt and my father earned it the hard way.

Nevertheless I just want to say one thing to WWE and TNA; I've already met you half way as I want to care about the characters in the ring, is it too much to ask for you to simply provide wrestlers that are human and possible to relate to on an emotional level?

Superheroes and clowns and the UN-dead might be fun once in a while but give us more Shawn Michaels and Ric Flairs. Ones from the current generation who's passion for the business translates into great matches instead of the musclebound cardboard cutouts that are pretending to be wrestlers right now while what they are really hoping for is a huge breakout movie role.