Danials & Samoz Joe

Question
QUESTION: Hello again,

Whats actually going on with Samoa Joe and what happened to Chris Danials which resulted in firing from Job?

In my opinion, Chris Danials is also responsible for what happened to him, to some extent. He was quite a senior wrestler of TNA but after reaching at certain seniority level, person shall act like senior and care for his position. I mean if you are senior wrestler and once you left the company then you shall rejoin in the same capacity....not becoming a CURRY MAN standing with Shark boy. Then you again left....and instead of encashing your own name, you rejoin with SUICIDE gimmick. OK....Kazarian came and hold Suicide spot and you again hit the show as a main eventer, beating Main Event Mafia (MEM) with finally your own name "Danials". But instead of remaining at Main eventer level, you got invovled in "X-Division" level matches. Does this guy has any credibility....he is so dumb that after passing almost a decade in one organization, he can not retain his level....thats why even after competing in 3-way match with Styles & Samoa Joe, he failed to get importance in the eyes of Hogan & Bischoff and got fired like a jobber.

For Samoa joe, it seems that Story liners have nothing for him for the last 2 years and repeating same stupid story line i.e. long absence, come back to ring with anger (on whome & why...? never know),beating every one, and leave. Same thing happened when he got beaten by MEM and came back with tattoo on cheek, and illogically joining them, it repeated when he Hogan arrived and he left and re-join, and now is off for few weeks and news is that soon he is going to arrive. There is no excitement for his coming back again because i know either he will be back with the same ridiculous repeated story line i.e. beating every one OR most probably will be the part of RIC FLAIR'S FORTUNE as there is no focus on individual wrestler in that group...but on whole group...
By the way, by the time i am writing this, Joe has come back and as predicted, not in a feud with any specific wrestler....angry as a whole.
This is my opinion...whats yours?

ANSWER: How are you doing Ahsen?

As a whole, TNA is very poorly ran, managed, and booked.  Christopher Daniels (who is not one of my more favorite wrestlers), is not as good as people make him out to be.  All he does is moves, he doesn't make anybody really care about him.  Because of this, TNA management try to move him around within different divisions.  Daniels really isn't cut out for American style wrestling (WWE or TNA).  Daniels really is cut out for the ultra wrestling fans of Ring of Honor or the Japanese market.  I don't think Daniels was fired because of his lack of importance, but because of his belief that he is more of a commodity then he really is.  

Samoa Joe will always have difficulties as long as he's in TNA.  Again, TNA is not a very competent company when it comes to booking their stars.  TNA doesn't really know what to do with Joe.  As a result, Joe comes in angry at the world, beats people up hoping to catch the fans imagination with a feud.  When the fans don't respond, they swerve the fans, then when that doesn't work, they give him a break.  Joe would be better served going to WWE, but he may not have the patience for waiting for WWE to make him into what they want.  

I hope this answers your questions.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Michael,
I agree that TNA currently is very much mis managed. Till last year their roster was small and so were their feuds and story lines. That was well enough that each feud got substantial TV time to create hype, thrill and drama among the audience. Feuds normally start and ended between 2 pay-per views, but same strategy can not be applied on current 70 superstars roster where most of them are already well known. I Give you number of example of their mismanagement:
It started with Team Hogan and Team Flair feud, where AJ Styles and Abyss were highlighted. Then in a very short span of time Abyss involved with Flair, then he turned on Hogan, then his story line turned towards RVD and ECW. It all happened in just past 6 months and neither of the story executed successfully.
AJ Styles, from World Title run, he just pushed one step down at "TV Champ". By the way, TNA has not yet finalizes his second major title in 3 years. First it was "Legend", then "Global" and now "Television" title. Another example of mismanagement.
Knock-outs Division OR rather "Beautiful People Division" for couple of months.Lets not talk about it, as i feel pity for the wrestlers like Roxxi or Daffeny who shed their blood for this company.
Beer Money and MMGs....Dixie Carter has been busy in highlighting their matches as these were happening first time. They fought number of times in a very recent past.
Brutas Magnus....3 Gimmicks in 2 years. First as Warrior/Knight, then part of British Invasion which further merged in World Elite, and now with Desmond Wolfe. Like Samoa Joe, it seems TNA have no story line for him.
RoB Terry....his matches were horrible with Jeff Hardy and others. I dont even remember that when he turned face, become champion, ended un-defeated streak, lost championship and what is he doing now. His storylines were never been given importance but he was awarded championships. Another mismanagement!
RVD's abandoned championship was quite a ridiculous story line, just because he had some clause in his contract that he would be paid on per appearance basis, resulted in ruining the whole stuff. Championship vacated and whole story line of Kurt Angle beating 10 contenders was switched. They should have considered the terms of contract while writing storylines for their roster.
Jeff hardy...i think he had done a biggest mistake by leaving WWE at this point of time where he was main eventer and world champion. Can any body named me any of his match since the joining of TNA which is memorable? infact his match with SAMOA Joe was also a mismanagement as the two are greatest wrestlers of new generation and before coming face 2 face the drama should be build-up, the hype created, storyline and feud well marketed and then give them spot in Pay-per View. a 10 minutes draw match was shameful. It was the same case which happened 13-14 years ago when two legends of wrestling collided first time in WCW i.e. Hogan and Bret Hart, but in weekly Nitro for few minutes match.
And the last example is of bringing back ECW guys, where Tommy Dreamer is very much average wrestler, Raven and Mick Foley are too old, Rhino already there for several years and God knows doing what, FBI and Stevie Richards the all time Jobbers. Except for Sabu who is still (despite having age factor) has the ability to entertain the crowd.
I have mentioned all this because, i am observing very sharply the reasons which are very much similar to WCW fall down. Dixie Carter is very much confident just on the basis of ratings, the method of which i dont know. I know one thing that if being an ordinary viewer, i can observe so many errors in their presentations, then expert like you and others, media, sponsors.....how can they ignore it. I also know one thing that WWE, despite being loosing interest among audience, sold out at huge level.Their routine presence in Raw and Smack Down exceeds 15,000-20,000 rather i mention pay-per view attendance. But TNA, forget about IMPACT, their Pay-per view attendance never exceed 5,000. their arenas are so small. So, i dont see this company running in a long run if it continued to act in a same mis-managed way.  

Answer
Good to talk to you again Ahsen.

You have hit the booking factor right on the head, TNA under Hogan and Bischoff is just like WCW of old.  I really feel that Bischoff feels he was held back in WCW by Turner Broadcasting and AOL Time Warner, so he's going to try to do what he thought was right in TNA and say, "Look, I was right all along".  

As far as contracts and booking working together, alot of times they don't.  WWE learned this a long time ago and now do more guaranteed contracts.  They don't do guaranteed money so much as they guarantee Pay Per View appearances and pay you a percentage of the PPV money.  So for that, the workers want to make the shows the best they can to make the PPV more profitable.  TNA does not have the financial backing of the WWE, so they pay per appearance.  This will cause alot of problems, especially if the workers are unhappy and can no longer take the mismanagement.  

In writing storylines, WCW and TNA have the right idea, but really miss the mark in booking.  Sometimes, you have to put two guys in the ring that are going to feud for a few minutes, but you have them do something like throw each other out of the ring and fight all the way to the back.  This will make the fans want to see more.  This is one example of interest booking.  WCW and TNA understand this, but don't know what to do once you build interest.  That's a good share of the reason why WWE hires writers (most of whom are not wrestlers) to build the story.  WCW and TNA use wrestlers and former wrestlers.  The wrestlers only think one way, wrestling.  WWE employs soap opera writers, comedy and sketch comedy writers, movie writers, and a few former wrestlers to make the story.  

I really feel that TNA will be better served if they quit trying to be anything but TNA.  They are never going to compete with WWE and they shouldn't try.  They should niche out their own crowds and entertain them.  When they learn that, then they will be successful.

Thanks for the question.