wrestling / Columns

Looking at TNA’s Invasion Endgame

September 5, 2015 | Posted by Mike Hammerlock

TNA’s Invasion Endgame

Supposedly, after September 30, our eyeballs no longer will be able to fix their gaze on TNA’s Impact Wrestling program. The cancellation memo leaked months ago, the final installments of Impact on Destination America have been taped, no new tapings are planned. At least for the near term, it’s over for Impact.

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Yet last week TNA launched what would seem to be a major invasion storyline, led by TNA founder and current head of Global Force Wrestling, Jeff Jarrett. The past two weeks of Impact have featured Jarrett and a collection of GFW talents taking over the TNA ring. Jeff’s taking back what’s rightfully his. Not a bad story in a vacuum, but TNA isn’t in a vacuum. This is TNA’s grand farewell, at least for the time being. This is the angle that hopefully brings TNA back to our television screens.

Unfortunately it’s a rush job that’s generated minimal buzz. Done right, this is a long burn story. Dixie Carter should have turned to Jarrett in need (which happened, though it was done in a hasty fashion). Jarrett should have demonstrated his skills as a capable and visionary leader of TNA, secretly consolidating his power behind the scenes. Then, when he put all the pieces in place, he leads the GFW invasion. We get treachery and defections and new heroes and big battles that sway the tide. Potentially it’s huge. Granted, TNA doesn’t have that kind of time.

Instead what we’ve gotten is Jarrett having his grand plan foiled by master detective Drew Galloway inside a month. Galloway is from Scotland, so maybe that’s close enough to Scotland Yard. Yet Jarrett and the GFW stable wasn’t around long enough to generate anything like tension. We never got the sense that the battle lines were being drawn between the wrestlers. TNA vs. GFW hasn’t even enveloped the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Think about that. TNA’s main storyline and main belt aren’t close to being intertwined. It was premature orgasm storytelling – Look, there’s GFW! Invasion!

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It did lead to better ratings for this week’s show. No idea if TNA will sustain or build on those numbers during its final month on DA. An invasion, even hastily done, should generate some attention. So maybe it’s being used as a carrot to other networks to jump all over a wrestling program on a mini-hot streak. TNA and GFW would seem to be a bit of a twofer at the moment. Pick up one, get the other with the war between them already raging.

In the interim they can amp up the hostilities using social media. I don’t know how long TNA can operate as a fed without being on television, but a TNA-GFW war gives them an attention grabber while they’re largely out of sight. The worst thing TNA could do is go away and make no noise. Let’s be honest, there’s probably no good plan for what TNA is about to suffer. Daily online salvos punctuated by open hostilities at various live events might be the best way to make lemonade from all these lemons.

However, there is a more cynical way to view this. TNA is throwing an invasion up against the wall to help garner a few extra buys for Bound For Glory, which will happen on October 3. Once that’s done, there is no real plan other than some TNA talents work GFW live shows (which is already happening) and maybe some network swoops in for the rescue. Jarrett’s using this whole invasion to get a spotlight for GFW. If it helps TNA, fine. If it doesn’t, fine. In fact, if it doesn’t, it makes that much easier to book Bobby Roode for GFW shows.

We’ve seen this sort of haphazard approach from TNA numerous times in the past: Monday night Impact, taking Impact on the road, partnering with NJPW and AAA to gain international appeal. TNA has made a habit of dipping its toe in the water of some big ideas and then going no deeper. After you have an idea, you have to work to bring that idea to fruition. It can’t be an underpants gnomes construct where the step between steal underpants and profit is ??? Historically, TNA lacks the operational chops to execute a big idea, or even map out how to deliver on a big idea. Hard to believe they’ve got this GFW invasion planned down to the smallest detail.

Don’t take that as me being particularly harsh on TNA. The WWE tends to operate via the spitball principle and it famously botched an invasion storyline after it bought up WCW in 2001. If the GFW invasion of TNA leads to nothing but punchlines, that would be par for the course in the pro wrestling game. Part of the reason to watch this saga unfold is for the possibility that it could be a legendary disaster. It’s like having a front row to see Rome burn.

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And that brings me to the big point on this invasion: for better or worse, this is going to be major event in TNA history. It’s either the Hail Mary that failed or the stroke of genius that saved the company. When TNA found itself staring down the barrel of oblivion, a GFW invasion was the plan it drummed up. A legend will form around this choice. If TNA never makes it back to a national television deal, the taste left in our mouths will be the GFW invasion. It will be TNA’s epitaph, it’s “Rosebud.”

If TNA rallies and goes onto bigger things, this invasion will get a majority portion of the credit. It will be the storyline that changed the company’s fortunes. Jarrett might even be dubbed a genius if he can leverage his fledgling GFW to save TNA. Sure, that’s a longshot, but Jarrett has nothing to lose by casting himself as the potential savior of his former federation.