411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction: Should Joe Hendry be the TNA World Champion?

Welcome back to the 411mania Wrestling Fact or Fiction. I’m your host Jake Chambers.

This week we’re back for the third and final match up in the first round of our semi-annual Larry Csonka Memorial Wrestling Fact or Fiction Tournament. And today we welcome Himanshu Doi for the first time to the column, our regular TNA Impact weekly reviewer. And we’re throwing him right into the fire against a returning champion from 2022 and old school TNA weekly reviewer, Steve Cook.

And today we’re talking all things TNA, a promotion many will remember Larry always championed – he even reviewed that era of the weird pre-taped PPV specials! That was true dedication.

Be sure to look for the poll at the end of this article to vote for who you think did the best job responding to the statements this week!

Participants were told to expect wrestling-related content, as well as possible statements on quantum physics, homemade pharmaceuticals, the Turtle Total Trip Theorem, pizza and hydroponics.

Statement #1: Joe Hendry should have won the TNA Championship at Bound for Glory.

Steve Cook: FICTION – It feels like Joe Hendry will be signed by WWE the second his TNA contract expires, which is a solid idea. He’s a good talent and has a world of potential that fits in with WWE’s presentation. I can see him being a mid-card talent on Raw or SmackDown pretty easily right now, with room for advancement.

All of that being said, I’ve seen enough of these Bound For Glory shows to know how it goes for people winning the TNA Championship there. Usually, they don’t escape the night with the strap. Had Joe Hendry won the championship, Frankie Kazarian would have cashed in his title shot and won right away. That’s usually how TNA operates. Instead, they kept the Nick Nemeth/John Layfield story going. I approve of this. Keep your long term storytelling going instead of doing something for a one-night pop.

Himanshu Doi: FICTION – I am a little torn on this. He’s undoubtedly the hottest star in the company, but I’m not sure he had been built to be in a position to be the top guy of the company. Maybe being the hottest star and being the top guy isn’t much of a difference for most, but personally I don’t think Bound For Glory was the time for him, and if it was going to be, maybe they should’ve told a different story leading up to it.

Statement #2:When you think of how impressive it was when WWF got to Wrestlemania XX, it is even more impressive that now there have been 20 Bound for Glory PPVs.

Steve Cook: FACT – I think sometimes we forget just how difficult it is for anything to last twenty years. WWE has had so many events last for multiple decades that we think anybody can do it. However, when you look back at wrestling history, some of the most well-remembered annual events didn’t make it twenty years. Starrcade, arguably the most beloved non-WWE annual extravaganza, made it eighteen years. WCW had fourteen Great American Bashes & twelve Halloween Havocs. The original incarnation of ECW didn’t even last ten years.

We all know that TNA has been close to going out of business on a number of occasions. They’ve had more ups & downs than just about any wrestling promotion out there. No matter what happens, TNA just keeps on going. Back when TNA held its first Bound For Glory show in 2005, nobody watching thought there would be twenty Bound For Glory events. Few probably thought that TNA would be holding any events twenty years later. Say what you will about the company, the fact that they’ve reached this accomplishment is impressive.

Himanshu Doi: FICTION – People often bring up how long TNA has been in business, and while I’m thankful that it is, Bound For Glory cannot be compared to WrestleMania. It is a much smaller show. OVW for example has been in business since 1993 but is never brought up in discussions like these. While TNA has been drawing good crowds as of late and I wouldn’t really say it’s the difference between “surviving” and “thriving”, but WrestleMania is a behemoth and is on a completely different stratosphere as compared to Bound For Glory.

Statement #3: In a year saturated with multi-person ladder matches on mainstream wrestling events, it was corny to main event Bound for Glory with another one instead of a TNA World Title match.

Steve Cook: FACT – I’m not sure how much Jake actually reads the little work I do here, but he might have asked this question just to wind me up because of my hatred for ladder matches for at least ten years now. Every single promotion has driven the ladder match into the ground and refuse to stop doing it because some people (especially the bookers of these promotions) like that sort of thing. If I ever have to watch another ladder match again, it’ll be too soon. It’s a stunt show that almost always leads to injuries and is either repetitive or stupid.

I get why TNA wanted to end their big show with the legendary Hardys winning instead of the finish they had planned for their World Championship match, so in that vacuum it absolutely makes sense. As an old man that hates ladder matches, I have to scream towards the cloud and tell it that I’m done with these things.

Himanshu Doi: FACT – I went with FACT, but I don’t have an issue with a multi-person ladder match main eventing the show per se. It’s just that it’s supposedly their biggest show of the year. You need to put on a card that is your biggest card of the year, either in terms of the matches, the participants or the feuds leading up to it, and the main event of the show should be the most important match on the card. If this was just any other PPV, I’d be fine with it, but with it being Bound For Glory, I don’t think the build up leading up to the match warranted it getting the main event spot. I get why they did it, they didn’t want to end the show leaving a sour taste in everybody’s mouths after Joe Hendry didn’t win the World Title, but I still don’t agree with it. Unfortunately, it feels like TNA themselves don’t treat Bound For Glory like their biggest show of the year.

¡SWITCH!

Statement #4: Pro-wrestling should evolve past constant pinfall attempts that take place after a wrestler uses a move that has never ended a match before.

Himanshu Doi: FICTION – From a logical standpoint, you should always be trying to get a pinfall throughout the match. If you waited until you hit your finisher to pin your opponent, but you ended up losing and never getting to hit it, you would be left ruing not taking advantage of all the opportunities throughout the match when you had the upper hand and could very well have turned into a three count. From a non-kayfabe standpoint, it just builds drama and tension in the match and I don’t see a reason why it should change.

Steve Cook: FICTION – I would have answered this question differently several years ago. I don’t care for the match style Jake is describing here that has become a common thing with every company. WWE, AEW, New Japan, *insert your favorite indy here*, they all do this same match. I’m not a fan, but one thing I’ve learned over the past couple of decades is to accept the fact that I’m not the person these feds are booking for. It’s all about the overall audience and what they’re buying into, not diehards like me that are impossible to please but keep coming back anyway.

Are the fans reacting? In most cases I’ve seen, they are. As long as the fans are buying into this particular match style, I don’t see a reason to change things. Of course, I encourage enterprising minds to seek new horizons and figure out what the next big thing will be. I still won’t blame the mainstream wrestlers for doing what the people want to see. It might be silly to me, but as long as the live crowds keep chanting “THIS IS AWESOME” and “FIGHT FOREVER”, I can’t blame wrestlers for going with it.

Statement #5: TNA’s Knockout division is as good now as it has ever been.

Himanshu Doi: FICTION – I would be surprised if anyone believes this. The Knockouts Division has two top talents in Jordynne Grace and Masha Slamovich. Dani Luna has great potential when it comes to the future. KiLynn King would be a much-needed boost to the division when she returns. But with Jordynne potentially leaving when her contract comes up next year, the Knockouts Division seems lacking in strong top talent. They also haven’t been very active in recruiting talent to prepare themselves for that, and with AEW and WWE expanding their programming and developmental efforts, TNA is going to find a hard time trying to get the most promising young talent to sign with them. They also lack the depth that the Knockouts Divisions of the past did.

Steve Cook: FICTION – Don’t get me wrong, today’s Knockouts are doing a great job making their division one of the highlights of TNA events. New champion Masha Slamovich has impressed since entering the company full-time in 2022. Jordynne Grace will go down as one of the most successful Knockouts in history. Spitfire has proven to be a solid team worthy of the tag championship. We’ve also seen some women from NXT come in to make their presence felt. Times are good for the Knockouts division.

Times have been even better in the past. Back in the early days we had the Gail Kim/Awesome Kong feud that changed mainstream women’s wrestling. The Beautiful People were a top act for years. Mickie James, Tara and others came over from WWE and got to show even more. Deonna Purrazzo, Chelsea Green, Traci Brooks, Taylor Wilde, the list of names goes on and on. Maybe today’s crop of talent will end up out-shining those that came before, but for now I have to side with the Knockouts of the past.

Statement #6: PCO, Moose and Eddie Edwards mean more to the history of TNA/IMPACT than AJ Styles, Sting and Abyss.

Himanshu Doi: FICTION – While it’s great that TNA has been able to secure the services of talent like Moose and Eddie Edwards for as long as they did and every company needs those mainstays, guys like AJ Styles, Sting and Abyss are synonymous with what are considered by most as the peak years of TNA when they had a lot more people watching them. That’s why it is going to be impossible for anyone on the roster right now to be considered equal to an AJ Styles even if they did have a longer tenure with TNA than AJ did.

Steve Cook: FICTION – I mean no disrespect to PCO, Moose or Eddie Edwards, who have all contributed in their own way to the legacy of TNA and are still there doing their thing. God bless them for it, and I hope they keep on keeping on. As an old head that saw the first TNA PPV shows and all of the early Impacts, there are few people more important to whatever early success TNA saw than AJ Styles. He was Mr. TNA for the first decade of the company’s existence. He was their best in-ring talent whenever he was there. If TNA was in the business of having Icons, AJ Styles was an Icon. He’ll be in their Hall of Fame soon after he retires, because that’s the way he wants it and he’s 100% right to want it that way.

Sting was an Icon before he arrived in TNA. His most important gift to the company was his name, which increased interest in TNA all across the world. They scored numerous TV deals in foreign countries because they had Sting, and network executives everywhere knew who Sting was. Sting’s TNA run largely went well, but even if it hadn’t, it was a positive for the company because he got a lot of new eyes on the product.

I’m not going to lie to you and say I was a huge Abyss fan. I got what he brought to the table, and everybody that knows him will tell you he’s an absolute saint. He was a huge part of TNA during his time there, and as much as I might have questioned the intelligence of a lot of stuff he did with the unnecessary blood & thumbtacks & whatnot, he got hired by WWE as a producer. So what the hell.

Maybe I’m biased as an older man, but the contributions of Styles, Sting & Abyss outweigh the contributions of PCO, Moose & Edwards from where I sit. Again, no disrespect to those guys, it’s just the fact that the other guys meant more.

Two great performances today, but who will move on to this year’s Larry Csonka Memorial Wrestling Fact or Fiction Tournament finals? Exercise your right to vote in the poll below!

Good luck and thanks to Himanshu Doi and Steve Cook for participating this week.

We don’t get as many columns from Steve as we would like these days, but when he drops a gem like his mock media scum with Mariah May we should all stop and take notice: https://411mania.com/wrestling/top-5-questions-for-mariah-may/

Meanwhile, Himanshu is here for you every week with the live TNA coverage and the full review right after: https://411mania.com/author/himanshud/

And you can follow both Steve and Himanshu on Twitter – highly recommended!

And the GoFundMe for Larry’s daughters is still active, please follow the link for more details: https://www.gofundme.com/f/larrymania-living-on-in-his-girls