NWA: Total Nonstop Action

Why the praise? Are wrestling fans this desperate for an alternative to the down right insulting WWE product? Just like WCW, the fed that TNA has a terrible time not looking and sounding just like, the production values, announcing and cheese totally overshadow the talent. It's seriously like watching WCW Thunder week end and week out.

However, this fed has a lot of good points. Most X-Division matches, while complete spotfests, are good and exciting... thanks entirely to the talent and no one else. They say the tag team cage match from a few weeks back is looking like the Match of the Year, but that's BS. Anybody can mat wrestle for five minutes then randomly jump off a cage for ten more.

One thing I do like about this promotion is that the main event matches often are better and more exciting than the undercard, something that's hardly ever been seen. Raven's the only reason to watch... he makes it believable, even overtop of Don West's rambling.

2/10 for a promotion, 8/10 for the talent.

TNA is the best wrestling in the industry now. I'm not talking about money and big stars like the WWE. WWE has money and fame, but do they have talent? John Bradshaw Layfield is a main star, a champion. Come on. Seriously, the guy can't put on a match without putting me to sleep. Oh, and the Undertaker is facing JBL. BORING. WWE has HANDFULS of boring stars and story lines. I watched RAW last night and it was the worst ever. A 20 minute diva storyline, Jericho vs. Edge with a stupid ending, a bunch of Evolution segments, Williams Regal vs. Ric Flair which was boring as hell, and a wedding. Wow, 1, 2. 2 matches. Pathetic. 2 matches on their Flagship show. That's truly sad. WWE is boring. Their gimmicks, story lines, and top stars are boring.

Now TNA, that's where it's at. Sure, they don't have stardom. Who cares? I mean, I would much rather watch Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles then Undertaker vs. JBL. TNA has fast paced action with the top indy stars. Everyone dislikes it because the stars aren't well known. Who gives a rats ass if they aren't well known? I see a bunch of Mordecai and Luther bandwagoners, are they well known? I didn't think so.

TNA has the top stars in the indy scene today: AJ Styles, CM Punk, "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Jeff Hardy, Raven. WWE has top stars, but can they use them right? Only the sloppy ones. I mean Chris Jericho is an UPPER MIDCARDER for crying out loud. An UPPER MIDCARDER! He at least deserves to be a main eventer, come on!

I watch Impact and Xplosion every week. And to tell you the truth, I enjoy XPLOSION, that's right, it's TNA's version of Heat, more then RAW. Xplosion is better then RAW. A few recaps, lots of fast paced matches, packaged into one hour. It's great.

The PPVs, well they won't be there for long. I know, 10 bucks for a 2 hour event isn't that great. It isn't. I admit, I couldn't afford it every week. But it blew me away all the time and it was 10x better then RAW. But guys, don't worry. These PPVs will be GONE September 8th.

Soon, TNA will compete with WWE. And in my eyes, they are going to win. If fans want to be fanboys and decide Undertaker and JBL are good wrestlers, then WWE might slide through. But once people watch TNA, they get blown away. I know a few people that hated it. They never watched it. Once they did, they loved it and watch it every week.

~~Viva La TNA~~

IMO, NWA: TNA is the best wrestling you can watch in America. Plain and simple. WWE RAW is just an awful show. In the last couple of years the best episodes of RAW have been average shows. And most shows have been just horrible. WWE SmackDown on the other hand has some fantastic wrestling. Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, etc. All great wrestlers. But the show suffers from too much McMahons. Vince really does think that the people would rather see him and his daughter than actual wrestling. And on top of that some of the best talent is so under used it's almost criminal. Zach Gowen didn't wrestle for months, Spanky and Ultimo Dragon never get to wrestle on the main show. Matt Hardy can't get a steady push to save his life, etc.

So if you're sick of all that as I am you'll want to check out NWA: TNA. This show is just fantastic. You know you'll recognize a lot of people even if you've never seen TNA before. Road Dogg (who now goes under the name BG James), Konnan, K Kwik (now known as Ron Killings), D'Lo Brown, Raven, Crash Holly (now known as Mad Mikey) and Jeff Jarrett are all on often. Then there are some of the hottest talent in the indy scene today. AJ Styles, Chris Daniles, Elix Skipper, Jerry Lynn, America's Most Wanted, Chris Sabin. These guys are all fantastic wrestlers and bust their asses each week.

Now a lot of you might think $9.99 a week is a lot to ask for wrestling, but think about it. A month's worth of TNA shows costs as much as one WWE PPV. And you get 5 more hours. What would you be missing by not ordering the next WWE PPV? Remember Backlash of 2003? Bad Blood? Would you really have been sad not to see those shows?

When NWA is on top of its game, delivering exciting, innovative, high-flying wrestling action the casual wrestling fan (WWE) has never seen before, NWA TNA looks absolutely stellar. When NWA is struggling, segments can be just brutal.

Make no mistake about it, this promotion has talent. With breakout stars like A.J. Styles, the S.A.T., and Lo Ki, and more established talent like Jeff Jarrett and Ken Shamrock, this product can certainly deliver in the wrestling department. For example, a recent 6-man tag match witnessed one SAT member perform a Boston crab on Shark Boy. Then, another SAT member threw Shark's partner, Slim Jay, face down onto the mat right under the Boston crab. The second SAT then proceeded to place his back against the upside down body of Shark Boy and execute a camel clutch on Slim Jay. Then, the third and final member of the SAT, the Amazing Red, finished the display off with a drop kick to Slim Jay's head. As convoluted as that may read, moves like these are truly sights to behold.

While a typical NWA superstar could make Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy look tame by comparison, the one area where the show could use some improvement is in production. Some of the backstage vignettes come off looking somewhat bush-league and lack the polish and efficiency of the WWE. Thankfully, these shortcomings do not detract significantly from the quality of the product.

Overall though, if you like professional wrestling for exciting in ring action, NWA is definitely the place to spend your Wednesday night. In my view, this is the place wrestling is going in the future, and I can't wait.

I recently had the chance to attend the TNA tapings live. I have never seen such intensity in a two-hour Pay-Per-View. All of the matches were worked perfectly, and the crowd was into each one from start to finish. These athletes bust their asses just for the sake of entertainment. It's pretty obvious that they don't do it for money, because you really can't make much working TNA shows. (Sure, they sell a lot of tickets and their PPVs are ordered by many, but each person barely gets over 3k per month.)

TNA consists of many types of athletes, such as fresh new talents (Chris Sabin, Michael Shane, A.J. Styles) and veterans who have been in the business for years (Shane Douglas, Jerry Lynn, Raven). The PPVs have weekly X-Division matches which consist of high-flying and technical moves. These people really put their body on the line. I have never personally seen such non-stop action in my life. Even my parents (who have never been fans of wrestling) enjoyed it!

If you are having doubts about paying the tiny debt of $10 a week to order this, do it. It's really worth the money you're paying. Most of WWE's PPVs these days don't even come close to being worth $30. If you don't order this, you will miss a whole lot. If you want to see actual wrestling, order TNA. If you're tired of never-ending story lines and want to watch some actual wrestling, order TNA. Some weeks the matches might be a little off, but you will have spent your $10 in a good, entertaining way.