In The Zone: Is 'Bound For Glory' Bound For Failure?
Posted by TWV Guest Columnists
on 10/19/2006
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Guest Column By Dan Hoffman
Maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't. This Sunday in Michigan, TNA (yeah, that company with the "never say die" attitude) will be putting on another Pay Per View event, but it's more then just another money making venture for a wrestling company; or is it?
If you were to ask any of the fans of this promotion about it, they would be quick to point out a number of matches on the card such as the Sting versus Jeff Jarrett Title versus Career match or the X-Division Title match between Chris Sabin and Senshi.
TNA has placed a number of slick looking videos like the following on their website:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm341V27DV8
They have recently cancelled a house show in Toledo, Ohio which, according to a number of sources, was done in hopes of boosting their attendance figures for both the upcoming fanfest and Bound for Glory itself. Smart move, guys. Ticking off a lot of fans will boost sales. Yup. Who was the marketing genius on that one?
The problem with the above items is two fold. You see, it's nice to create videos and place them on your website and TV show, but if only the loyal fanbase visits the site or watches the show, are those videos very effective?
What should have been done with those videos is they should have been placed on such channels as Cartoon Network, Sci Fi during ECW's commercial breaks, and even during the Detroit Tigers playoff games. Yes, it's an added expense, however, proper placement of the ads would have helped to create a larger audience who wanted tickets.
Having had conversations with wrestling talent who claim they know a lot of the talent in the TNA locker room, not everything is happy go lucky these days. Yes, TNA brought in Kurt Angle, however, the failure to place him in anything higher then an "Enforcer" role in the main event, where of course it's predictable that Sting will win the title and then attack Angle to setup a series of matches, is just lazy on TNA's behalf.
While it can be argued that you don't want to give away everything at once on one show, save Kurt for other matches, have the proper amount of time to build him up, and place him within TNA storylines; it can also be argued that this is TNA's Superbowl and will have the most impact on viewers, both new and old alike. Therefore, TNA should allow Angle to have a bigger place on the card perhaps even installing him as the referee for the match and thus making him a more important factor in the match.
Looking at the promotional time TNA has left, here is what they have announced on their website:
Thursday - The final countdown to the Pay-Per-View with "iMPACT!" on Spike TV at 11 PM EST.
Saturday Afternoon - The interaction fanfest.
Saturday Night - "The Road To Glory" special on Spike TV.
Sunday Night - Live On Pay-Per-View: "Bound For Glory."
Now if you were promoting this event and it was your "biggest" event of the year, would you not be promoting it a little heavier then what TNA is currently doing? This should have been done with ads placed in various sports media such as Sports illustrated and other outlets. I mean, it's their biggest event of the year and they rely on the energy of their lazy, spoon fed, pimple faced fan base with the only stroke they have being what they provide themselves with every Thursday night when Christy Hemme is on.
I have recently visited forums that were created by TNA's fans and even they state that, "hey, it's not my job to promote the show. I only have to watch it"
With that type of attitude, it's no wonder that as of this writing there are 316 tickets remaining to the fanfest and today is the last day you can purchase those online. Not a good sign for the fanfest and if you can't sell tickets to the event which serves to setup the main show, how will you sell tickets to the main show?
Some fans have created Banners such as:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j305/Canadian_Xtyne/tna2.jpg
If the TNA fans can create this, shouldn't TNA have done more? What would sell you on what TNA is referring to as their Superbowl? The plain truth is no matter how many times you tell people that competition is good for this sport and support Bound For Glory & TNA, most people are just too hard headed to give a crap about anything other then what they are used to or the 316 fanfest tickets would have been sold out months ago. TNA has to find a way to break through that barrier and make the average wrestling fan want to try their product and they only have two days left to do it.
Here's what TNA's own athletes have said about Bound For Glory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOppnJo8ttA
Sure, you have the Samoa Joe running in a interview again, but to the uninformed fan who has never witnessed a Samoa Joe match and doesn't know who he is, is he really that strong of a selling point?
Then you have what I consider the watered down version of Sting in the main event. The same man that has waged classic ring wars with the likes of "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and carried the WCW title on numerous occasions has been seemingly stuck in a rut in TNA. What has he done this last year?
What has he done in this last year to make the fans stand up and get behind him as their man to defeat Jarrett? A series of videos doesn't cut it here for a legend of Sting's status. We should have had some type of interaction between the two. Maybe even have the lights flash and Jarrett get paranoid, but there should have been more of a build up.
Is Bound For Glory bound for failure? It looks like it unless, and I have to be dreaming to even imagine this, TNA's fans will wake the hell up support TNA and make this show something special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm341V27DV8
I've said my piece. Now your turn. Will the TNA fans actually get off their asses and match the energy of say the WWE fans when they promote WrestleMania, or will TNA's biggest show of the year be their biggest failure?
Send feedback to
gbphoff@aol.com.
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