TNA without Jeff Jarrett

God · 09-04-2009, 03:11 PM

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know something about the Jeff Jarrett/TNA situation. In short, Jarrett was more or less the head booker, now he's not. Most of you already knew that I'm sure. Dutch Mantell has also been released leaving Vince Russo as the only recognizable name on the creative team.

Russo has booked the past couple of months more or less with no-one filtering him. Prior to Jarrett being removed from power, the focus of TNA was 90% Main Event Mafia/Jeff Jarrett/Mick Foley, 5% Knockouts, 5% Rest. With Jarrett gone, it seems to have changed a lot. On the most recent edition of iMPACT!, Booker T and Scott Steiner had a short backstage segment and a run in to aid the World Elite. Kevin Nash had a backstage promo with Lauren. Kurt Angle has a few short segments regarding Matt Morgan before joining Taz and Mike Tenay on commentary for the Styles/Williams match. Mick Foley didnt even appear. The show ended with James Storm, Robert Roode, AJ Styles, Hernandez, Eric Young, Kiyoshi, Brutus Magnus, Doug Williams, Rob Terry, Sheik Abdul Bashir, Team 3D, Booker T and Scott Steiner. Excluding the last three on that list, it's not a big tunaround, it's a massive turnaround. Nine out of those fourteen can be counted as TNA guys.

The older guys are being cut down on while the younger guys (And Daniels) are being pushed much more. The X-Division is being acknowledged once again with Joe holding the belt and feuding with Daniels, Suicide feuding with Dinero and even the Machine Guns with their new gimmick. The Knockouts are getting more TV time with the introduction of Tag titles and the no hopers (Jesse Neal step forward) are being written out, even if only temperarily.

With all those changes in such a short period of time, where do you stand on the current TNA creative team vs. the previous TNA creative team? Is TNA better or worse than it was this time last year? Is it going to keep changing?

Gouldinho · 09-04-2009, 03:25 PM

Surprisingly he hasnt really been missed. The last few weeks have been great. I dont think last night was great but it was still pretty decent. Im enjoying TNA lately, its the only wrestling programme i go out of my way to watch. In regards to Jarrett yes it probably has been better in his absence.

Mr. Kennedy · 09-04-2009, 03:42 PM

It's been the same really, no better and no worse.

-3:16- · 09-04-2009, 06:38 PM

^How is it the same? With the new booking we've seen a lot more fresh talent being pushed to the top, guys like Hernandez, EY, World Elite, Machine Guns, British Invasion, etc are getting credible air time. Even AJ, Joe and Daniels are finally getting treated seriously again. Sure, they have their bad share of shit, but the product's not even cringe worthy anymore.

They've really grown on me in recent weeks. I wouldn't pinpoint Jarrett as being the cause, nonetheless, I guess there pretty much has been an improvement.

God · 09-04-2009, 07:08 PM

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Originally Posted by -3:16-
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I wouldn't pinpoint Jarrett as being the cause, nonetheless, I guess there pretty much has been an improvement.

I'm not putting it all on Jarrett, just most of it. Mantell takes some of the blame aswell. It's not exactly a coincidance that when Jarrett and Mantell are taken out, the show suddenly gets better.

Mr. Kennedy · 09-04-2009, 07:10 PM

In terms of quality it has been the same. Fresh faces, but overall quality is about the same. If you are a fan of the X Division, you might think its worse since the X Division has become TNA's equivalent of WWE's tag team division (meaning they don't give a crap about it and treat it as an after thought).

RobyD · 09-04-2009, 09:53 PM

Well it's really hard to say who exactly made the product better, since we lost Jarrett and Mantel around the same time, but one of them leaving certainly did. Oddly enough, an unfiltered Russo, Cornett and D'Amore has worked wonders. The product has been better, whether it was Jarret or Mantel.

expensivepants · 09-04-2009, 11:02 PM

With Jarrett, Impact was just blah and mediocre all the time. With Russo, it's hit and miss: there is a bigger risk of outright lameness (e.g. the first post-Jarrett episode), BUT also an increased chance of being really good. So far the balance has been much more on the good side IMO, with yesterday's episode driving home the point.

Veritas · 09-22-2009, 10:45 PM

With Jeff Jarett being gone I believe TNA has made some progress but they still have a long way to go to be anything but "decent". They need to add more matches and make those matches longer rather than spending half or mroe of the show on "segments."