Mike Rickard
Rickard’s Ramblings: Double Elimination Chamber, Mike Adamle, Todd Grisham, TNA Impact Goes Live, TNA Knockouts Get Their Own Show?
By "Realtime" Mike Rickard
Feb 4, 2008 - 12:03 PM

After a long week in court, there’s nothing like rambling on about the latest happenings in the wild and wacky world of professional wrestling.   Help me wind down from lawyer mode to smark mode as I ask a few questions of you, the intelligent wrestling fan.

CROSS EXAMINATION

1.      What was more shocking, the Giants winning the Superbowl or the return of John Cena at the Royal Rumble?

2.      What’s crazier, TNA Lockdown with all cage matches or WWE No Way Out with two Elimination Chamber matches?  

3.      How long before Bobby Lashley is back in the WWE?  

4.       Does Raw have a tag team division any more?

5.       When did a boot to the head become more deadly than a piledriver?

Double Your Pleasure:   While I’m a fan of the Elimination Chamber, I don’t know what the heck the WWE is thinking putting TWO Elimination Chamber matches on in one pay-per-view.   The whole idea behind gimmick matches is that you save them to keep them special (which the WWE has done a good job of doing both with Hell in the Cell and the Elimination Chamber).   By putting the match on twice, you run the risk of cheapening it.   The WWE booking team really has their work cut out for them with this pay-per-view.   Each Chamber match has to be booked very differently or the fans are going to be disappointed.  

Mike Adamle:   Zah’s latest masterpiece included a look at the WWE’s latest train wreck, Mike Adamle.   While a lot of people are calling for his head, I’m not ready to drop him just yet (of course, knowing my luck, this column will go up and the WWE will announce they wish Adamle well on all his future endeavors).  

Here’s my take on things.   Adamle comes from a strong sports and sports entertainment background ( NFL, XFL, American Gladiators) but he really seems like a fish out of water.   It’s like seeing James Lipton hosting the AVN Awards.   I don’t think Adamle is as bad as people are saying, I just don’t think he’s had time to adjust to the WWE style.   Give him time and he might be very good.   The WWE really could use a guy at ringside doing interviews.   I think it would give wrestlers a chance to get some exposure out of the ring if they started doing interviews before or after the matches (including the occasional run-in).   Yes, the WWE does it from time to time with Todd Grisham backstage but it doesn’t hurt to change things up with a ringside interview every now and then.   I’d much rather see these interviews than sub-par backstage skits or video of someone walking to the ring.

Todd Grisham: Speaking of backstage interviews, I don’t understand all the hate for Todd Grisham.   He does a good job interviewing the wrestlers, he’s got lots of potential as a play-by-play announcer, and he’s got a professional demeanor.   When I hear people complain about Grisham, it’s not that he’s bad at what he does so much as people saying things like “He’s a tool” or “what a loser” based on how the WWE makes him out to be.   That’s not Grisham’s fault, that’s the WWE’s fault.   It’s a fault they’ve had with announcers ever since the Attitude Era.     It reminds me of Kevin Kelly.   Kelly is a walking encyclopedia of wrestling information and one very bright guy (check out his audios at Club WWI if you don’t believe me).   He was a good interview guy in the WWF until they started putting him in situations where he looked like a clown.   Why would you demean your announcers for a cheap laugh?   Same thing applies to Grisham.   Why do you need to make your backstage guy look like a dweeb?   Create a character to fill that role such as the WWE did with Jamison back when Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan hosted Prime Time Wrestling (the WWF’s Monday night show before the debut of Raw).   Jamison was this nerdy looking guy that would appear whenever Heenan someone to make fun of.  

TNA Impact Going Live?   There’s a lot of buzz that Impact is going to be live sometime in the near future.   The current rumor is that TNA will tape a live show on Thursday and a taped show the next Friday, meaning Impact will be live every other week.   It should be interesting because while TNA used to do live two hour pay-per-views every other week, there is a difference between doing that and doing a live show on a network.   A live show on a network has somewhat different demands due to commercial breaks and such.   Will it be the move that boosts Impact’s ratings (currently at around 1.2)?   I doubt it but you never know.   TNA does deserve credit for maintaining Impact’s ratings since the move from one to two hours.   I think it shows the company has a core of fans who enjoy the product and are looking for more of it.   The question then becomes; how do you maintain this loyal core and grow your audience without offending the core fans?  That’s the real question that TNA needs to solve.

TNA Knockouts Hour?   Another rumor is that TNA is going to launch a one hour show featuring the TNA Knockouts i.e. its women’s division.  Apparently, the segments with the TNA Knockouts are consistently high in the ratings and TNA is seriously considering a show around their women’s division.  If this happens, this will be unprecedented as I cannot recall a major wrestling company in the United States running a separate show for its women’s division.  Sure, there have been shows like the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and other all-women’s promotions but never run that was a spin-off of a major wrestling organization.  Will it succeed?  I think the show will have its work cut out for it given the track record of organizations like GLOW.  At the same time, Spike TV is obviously happy with the ratings the women’s matches have been doing and they’d be willing to support a show that draws around 1.0 to 1.2.  TNA has a good women’s roster and there are lots of talented female wrestlers out there waiting to be signed (as long as they’re looking for more than just looks).  This is interesting.  I don’t think the show will be a major success but if it is, it could be revolutionary for the business.  Imagine if the Knockouts show starts doing far better than Impact ?