WNS Column: Wilds' War Cry: Why is it One Night Only?

Let us be honest folks: NXT was good but not great this week, Smackdown’s only good thing that stood out to me was a several year old joke about R-Truth not knowing where he was, and other than The Rock and Dean Ambrose, I am not sure what the hell I watched late Monday night.

“This is stu-pid!” Clap! Clap! Clap!

With that in mind, I think it is the perfect time to go off the rails a little bit and spend a whole article talking about TNA.

This week’s TNA Impact opened strong with Austin Aries versus Samoa Joe for the X-Division belt, and even though I already knew the outcome, these two always put on a good show. EC3 and Eric Young also supplied a good bout; and for the doubters, EC3 can wrestle. The final pearl of wisdom I got from their show this week was that, you do not mess with Team 3D. I cannot wait for the final match in this triple threat tag team series, and The Wolves need the win. My big complaint about TNA this week was the crowd. Dead does not even begin to describe them. By the time they were doing their “over-rated” chant, I thought they were referring to themselves, and even that lacked energy. I miss New York and their raucousness already.

In that case, allow me to talk to you folks about TNA’s recent One Night Only event, World Cup. Technically it is World Cup 2, but if you drop the international flair, the premise is the same. Actually, they should have just called it the TNA Cup or something to cut down on confusion, but that is not the point. The big point here is how well it works. The concept is simple, take four team captains and have them do a round robin pick-fest that will remind most viewers of being last at kickball. Keep the teams varied by requiring that two members form a tag team and that they must have at least one knockout and you have a concrete setup.  In the end, it all makes for an interesting and uncommon list of matches, and I am always a sucker for a good wrestling tournament. The team dynamics are part of the surprise also, but a one night event that does not affect on-going storylines means the victor can often be surprising.

The team of Mr. Anderson and Sanada was a fun mix that felt very different with the more recent storylines in TNA, and I wanted to say it was funny as well when the two stopped to DJ and dance respectively, but they may have taken the humor a bit too far. Was I the only one that popped for that triple rolling fireman’s carry though? Team captains Eric Young and Bobby Roode faced off in an awesome bout, with Young looking tremendously on point. Those are two damn good wrestlers. Kurt Angle took on Magnus in a match that was almost as good, and EC3 made a wonderful heel captain, but my favorite part was seeing Gunner and Bully Ray team up. It all wraps up with a decent five on five elimination match, and I guessed the winner wrong, so go watch it to find out. It was overall a very solid card, and kind of made me wish they did more stuff like that on their weekly show.

Although I would still recommend it, I did have some problems with World Cup. The team selection process could have been quicker, leaving more time for some of the shorter matches. Is it so much to ask for a little less talking and some more razzle dazzle? (By that, I think I mean computer graphics or something.) Also, am I the only one who is bothered by how loud the on-going matches are when JB is doing backstage interviews? It is distracting, and I am not sure if they lack better facilities or think the noise adds authenticity, but stop it. Speaking of noise, the crowd was dead at this event as well, so much so that the announcers make fun of one of their chants. I have complained about bad crowds enough though, so I will say that I like Tenay and Taz’s commentary, but it is way too obvious that they recorded it in post. That is bad enough, not wanting to pay to get your announcing team on location, but they feel more entertained by their own jokes than the in-ring action. They also get off subject some, but nowhere near as much as Cole and JBL. Even with these complaints though, this PPV was miles beyond whatever that thing I watched this week where women were breaking wine bottles over each other’s asses. That felt really weird to type that outside of a porno review… I want TNA to learn from this. They can make better programming if they pay attention to what is actually working. 

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Twitter: @StephenWilds

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