At Slammiversary 2006, TNA pulled what many may feel was their dumbest move ever. Having Christian Cage as NWA World Champion proved to help the young company score the best ratings in their history. When Jeff Jarrett won the belt back, the entire TNA crowd littered the ring with garbage. Even I-a solid Jarrett fan-was shocked by the turn of events. However, if it’s done correctly, it may be the best move President Dixie Carter has ever made.
Though we are in the minority, there are some of us out there who like to see Jarrett as champion. He’s a solid performer, even if he can’t hit the big spots that most TNA wrestlers can. When Jeff won the belt, I jumped out of my chair in excitement. The man has solid charisma and the status as the most consistent heel in wrestling today. This alone has won me over for years.
So how does that make this a good move by TNA? Most of us Jarrett fans are rather loyal to the sport already. Even when Jarrett is not champ, we’ll probably still tune in every week. Whomever is champion is generally something that helps bring in the more casual fan.
TNA and Spike TV put forth a lot of money to get Sting to come to their show. And while this did not seem to do much for the ratings at first, they did start rising around February. This just happened to be when Sting became a mainstay and Cage became champion.
The question TNA officials and others must have been asking is who is responsible for the meteoric rise? Between Christian and Sting, who is making more people tune in? Perhaps TNA still really does not know.
However, TNA seems to be banking a lot on the Sting vs. Jarrett feud. It really is the strongest feud they have going at the moment. It is also their most expensive. Between Sting’s and Jarrett’s salaries, we can imagine a lot more money than most TNA wrestlers will ever see.
Does it seem right that this feud has to constantly play second fiddle to whatever Christian is up to? I think Cage may be the future of TNA. Many times I have hailed him as being the next Ric Flair. Still, not even TNA seems to want to put the focus squarely on him at the moment. It keeps going back to Sting and Jarrett.
TNA had to know that it was very dangerous to put the belt back on Jarrett. There is a strong possibility that doing this could alienate a lot of fans who are tired of seeing Jeff “hog” the belt. This may be why-even with a huge Jarrett vs. Sting feud brewing-TNA decided to put the title on Cage for a while. It was an opportunity to give the anti Jarrett fans a break while the main feud was worked on.
Sting vs. Jarrett is where the focus needs to be at the moment. It will only add intensity to this match up to have the World Heavyweight Championship involved. Jarrett needs to be the one holding the belt as well, because the feud would be over if Sting had it already. Then, the rest of Sting’s stay in TNA would be mediocre and unimportant.
TNA wants Bound For Glory to be their version of Wrestlemania. At the moment, though, it is just another pay per view. It does not even have the prestige of being the first pay per view in TNA’s history. As far as three hour events go, Victory Road is the first.
What would work the best for the company is to have the most built up match of the year take place and headline Bound for Glory. It will add intensity to the match up and add buy rates if the match is for the World Title. Sting needs to chase the title for a while to build up the intensity and add to his inevitable win at Bound for Glory.
I’ve taken a lot of heat from many people in my life for my comparing Jeff Jarrett to Ric Flair. Not surprisingly, most of this is from kids who are too young to have followed Flair through all of his career. I stand by my comparison, though. Throughout most of his career, Flair was a hated heel who many feel was “hogging” the World Title. Even Sting is channeling his previous feuds with Flair in his current one with Jarrett.
Regardless of all of this, though, I am going to do the same thing I did back in the 1980’s. Even when people were begging to get the belt off of Flair, I was hoping he would always hold it. Jarrett is now the closest thing we have to the “Nature Boy.” Christian may take this someday, after he makes another heel turn. For now, though, Jarrett is reminding me of why I loved wrestling so much. Because Jeff has the belt, we have a strong feud, a strong pay per view main event coming up, and until Sting wins the belt, a strong champion.
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