TNA Genesis PPV thoughts

I have to give TNA Wrestling credit: They've finally made a good call with their pay-per-view system.

After years of doing one card a month despite the fact that only about three sold enough to do a reasonable profit, TNA is cutting down to four legitimate PPV cards a year.

In order to seemingly meet their PPV contractual demands, they are also doing seven taped $15 cards. Incredibly, this too is not a stupid idea.

For one, if they sell horribly, they can be dropped in the next negotiation. But in practice, cards that showcase the tag division, X Division, Knockouts, etc. are a good way to showcase talent.

There are two really big benefits that also need to be considered. One is that taped cards can be purchased throughout the month without the results being anymore spoiled than the first airing. Once they're out of the PPV rotation, Spike could air them as TNA specials to help push the company as well.

The other is that these shows take place OUTSIDE TNA's storylines. This means that TNA can take booking risks they wouldn't normally take and give an element of uncertainty to cards, which will be especially handy in the card that revives the Ultimate X Cup and creates a new World Cup of Wrestling.

But while the non-canon cards actually have me interested in gimmick PPVs where the canon WWE gimmick cards upset me, TNA's first canon "Big Four" card was... disappointing.

[PLEASE note I am only basing this off of the way TNA has sold the card and the booking decisions of the matches. I have NOT watched the card in its entirety and can not judge the card on its overall quality because of it. This is merely my thoughts on what they tried to accomplish from a detached perspective.]

This might as well have been described as "The Card Where the Buck was Passed to 'Later On.'" No titles changed hands and no real storylines were advanced, but most importantly, it felt like a constant commercial for the future.

If you're cutting down to only four cards a year and increasing the price on all four, then you'd better make those cards 'must-see' events. I realize that TNA was still escaping the one-a-month cycle, but the whole card may as well have been simulated in GM Mode of the old "SmackDown vs. Raw" series.

There was a gauntlet match for a Knockouts Title shot in the future, a match for a World title shot at the end of the month, and even a match to determine an X Division challenger for later in the night. I get looking toward the future, but you're not really giving these matches a 'must-see' feel to them.

Joseph Park had a non-title clash with TV champ Devon that advanced nothing and really makes you wonder if they have a plan for when they're going to reveal him as Abyss. Samoa Joe and Mr Anderson had... a match. Oh, and Sting faced Doc in a match that was hyped for weeks and accomplished, you guessed it, nothing of consequence.

Only the World Tag Title and World Title had matches that had an urgent feel (fitting they opened and closed the show). The tag title match had a finish that made sense but has left me wondering exactly who is going to be left to feud with Chavo and Hernandez in this division.

The World Title match was the only match I've seen (I work Sundays so can only watch matches when I have access to taped versions. I usually only sit through the main events, MOTN and any match over an average of 3.25 stars, and this was the only match that met any of the categories), and it was really good, although they rushed the second fall to come too close to the first.

I honestly am not a Jeff Hardy as champ fan, but he's at least made the main events entertaining. So in conclusion, Lockdown's build better set up some real conclusions after that.

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