When did Promotion become a dirty word?

Posted in Xtremeview by Jack at 10:19, May 21 2010

The Xtreme View by Jason Simmons

Does anyone know what many people used to call Vince McMahon back in the 1980's? They used to call him a promoter not a Chairman. When Wrestlemania happened the reason it was so successful wasn't because Vince McMahon just ran a show they actually promoted the crap out of this show. Now over the past couple of years the idea of promoting an event much like Wrestlemania seems to have become a bad thing. Why would you possibly want to make sure you get the bang for you buck for an event your running? Of course as bad as WWE can be at times no one tops the out right stupidity of TNA Wrestling's advertising and promotional staff.

The pinnacle of this crap was last night on Impact. Yeah I know I'll save a lot of you the time and I'm just blindly attacking TNA for no reason. Regardless I do have a reason and that reason is while last night's show was good pushing great in terms of entertainment do you know what's missing? The freaking money! The buyrates! Or at least a rating! Last night TNA probably caused themselves to lose at least a Million Dollars in possible money they could of drawn with the correct promotion of these matches. Especially in the middle of a ratings battle where TNA is getting its ass handed to them on a weekly basis.

You have Jeff Hardy verses Rob Van Dam who haven't had a straight up match since probably 2001 and the promotion for this match? A tweet and a post on a website the day of. Now two of the most famous high flyers in the history of wrestling going at it on Free Television especially for the first time in almost a decade should be something to talk about. Especially when you have Jeff Hardy who has a huge fanbase and this time last year was fighting for the WWE Championship. You also have Rob Van Dam who again has a big fanbase with the right promotion this match should at least drawn you a good buyrate if not at least a good rating. However you rushed it and you likely didn't make anything.

Then you have a World Title Match with as AJ Styles recently claimed the longest running TNA Champion ever himself vs. Rob Van Dam. The promotion for this match? None! There wasn't a tweet, a commercial, or even a newspaper ad talking about this match up. Worst part is this match is an Internet dream match you have Styles taking on Rob Van Dam and you don't even mention it? Come on! Have a little commonsense you sit there and wonder why your getting your ass kicked every Monday then you don't even bother to promote the dream match? Hell I'm pretty sure you could of even gotten a great buyrate off a well promoted showdown between these two. However what did you get? Likely nothing not a dime, extra rating, or even an extra fan.

Now last night is the prime example of being a minor league joke that TNA is. You have The New York Mets vs. the Chicago Cubs on ESPN. You have The Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Chicago Bulls on TNT. Finally you had WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network and with all of this competition what did TNA promote? Nothing you had none of this really mentioned and you wonder why your pulling .6 ratings some weeks? Think about what two weeks of proper build up could have accomplished. Or better yet think about what a full month of build up to a Pay Per View could have drawn. However you gave away two profitable matches for absolutely nothing. Brilliant TNA, just Brilliant.

Also for all though people who are going to claim why not just enjoy the show does June 1998 from the Georgia Dome mean anything to you? You read or watch any product based on the death of WCW that match between Hogan and Goldberg is usually brought up for the stupidity of throwing away millions of dollars for a one night pop in the ratings. Worst is TNA didn't even do this for the pop in the ratings! At least WCW got a one night victory TNA didn't even promote these matches. When WCW announced the match on Thunder at least you had some promotion on television on TNA you didn't get any of this. So again what's missing? The money and the ratings however congrats TNA you had a good show but at what price?

I'm Jason "Xtremefalls" Simmons and that's my opinion