Falls Count Anywhere

05/25/2010

To mock him, I'd have to understand him.

Wrestling has had a couple of significant deaths lately, most important of them all being Kenji Shibuya. He was a Bay Area Institution, one of the few remaining links to the days when the Cow Palace was the hottest wrestling arena in the world.

Shibuya was among the best bad guys in the world, played all over the world and was a major star. He feuded with everyone from Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson to Black Gordman and Pepper Gomez. He was a huge star and one of the best sneaky Japanese heels of all time. It would be fair to say that Shibuya, Gomez, Stevens and Patterson were the four biggest players in the Shire territory in the days when it was so hot.

In a bit of news that should shock no one who has been paying attention, Scott Hall got himself arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He got drunk, made rude comments, threw a few punches, resisted arrest, and that was that. The strange thing is that he may have actually surpassed Nick Nolte as having the world’s creepiest mugshot.

There are questions being raised, including by two people involved with the day-to-day running of TNA, that there is a serious danger of TNA slowing down operations. While there’s no way that TNA will fold in the near-term, the deal with SpikeTV seems to be the only thing that really keeps them alive, and there is a question as to how long they can keep doing house shows and even monthly PPVs.

There will certainly be serious cuts, many of which will come from waiting for contracts to come up and not be renewed. One name that has come up, but will likely return, is Kurt Angle. He’s pretty well-paid, and that’s what they need to get rid of right now. However, Kurt is seen as an important part of the equation for TNA right now, but the money is probably going to have to be cut-back.

Of course, the real problems are Hulk Hogan & Co.’s contracts that are huge and have not helped TNA gain audience, and the booking. They need to make changes, and they seem to know it but are unwilling to make the changes for some reason.

Rumors have Russo on the chopping block, but only if they can get Jim Ross in to run the creative, which seems unlikely. There are a lot of people who are completely unhappy with the direction things are going, and there have been people who are rather loudly talking about going away. It’s also a place of incredibly low morale.

On the up-side, the numbers since TNA returned to Thursday haven’t gone back to the pre-Monday Night Disaster, but they’re back up to a .9 rating. That would say that they can probably get back to doing 1.1 or 1.2 when most of the first-run television is gone to hibernate until September. That’s a good thing, and it should help Spike keep them around.

If Spike were to dump TNA, they would have to get a new network almost immediately, and there ain’t many options. There is a great sense that TNA is a listing ship, that it can be righted with the right changes. Others are saying it’s sinking. We’ll see which is correct.

That’s all for this edition!

Chris Garcia