IMPACT WRESTLING CAMPAIGN FARCE

TNA Wrestling is again trying to push the reset button and re-brand its product. TNA is a company that has shunned its wrestlers and wrestling for much of the past two years and yet the company has decided to take a stance against WWE's name change in branding its own product and identity. The problem for TNA and its shortsighted and uninformed decision makers is that WWE has over 60 years worth of wrestling promotion and branding behind them. Therefore WWE could change its name to Actors and Actresses in Entertainment and people all over the world would still know that they are a wrestling promotion.

The power of WWE is that the mainstream world knows exactly who and what they are but this name change has the small yet vocal internet wrestling community in an uproar. The idea that the initials WWE doesn't stand for wrestling is absolutely preposterous. WWE is wrestling in the eyes of the world no matter if the long form World Wrestling Entertainment is used or WWE, both names and it's logo is synonymous with wrestling. For WWE to allude that the initials will somehow benefit them and separate their identity from wrestling is a miscalculation. The same can be said of the IWC who takes this name change as a slap in the face as if the initials WWE doesn't mean World Wrestling Entertainment. Since WWF got the F out the WWF was re-branded WWE across the globe. This name change is negligible. Who would complain if the World Wrestling Federation changed its name to WWF?   

Columbia Broadcasting Systems changed it's name to CBS. Did viewers reject CBS because they rebranded their long form name? Does that mean they are no longer a broadcasting network? Did the name change alter the fundamental aspects of their product and business? Of course it didn't because Columbia Broadcasting Systems will still be a network of TV stations no matter the name and everyone in America already knew what they were just like World Wrestling Entertainment. Bottom line here is WWE is still wrestling and will be seen as wrestling so long as there are wrestlers that wrestle in their rings and on their TV.

The same cannot be said of TNA who launched a Wrestling Matters Again farce of a campaign aimed to lure the millions mainstream viewers WWE is going to lose by changing its company name to the three inititals it has branded since the change from WWF in 2002. TNA has produced 30 second spots featuring several wrestlers basically rehashing the same talking points TNA has always used in comparing themselves with WWE. Cliche's like "I am wrestling" and "this is my life" are tossed around with no real meaning or emotion behind it. RVD spews some line about "real athleticism with real emotion" when the IWC knows he's only in TNA because he can smoke weed without being fined for it and therein lies another problem for TNA.

Any campaign should be launched with the purpose of attracting the most casual fans and new viewers possible. TNA seems to have launched this campaign directly at those with the knowledge of the WWE name change and is offended by it. That is a very small segment of viewers. These viewers also know that TNA would be hard pressed to produce any evidence that they are a wrestling promotion in the past two years. These viewers know about Jeff Hardy, they know TNA took Kurt Angle, a wrestler that once had mainstream marketability, and turned him into a joke that can't draw a dime or cut a money promo anymore. By the end of the summer, more people in the world will know that Kharma is a bad ass Diva than people know that Kurt Angle still wrestles and he does for TNA. These are viewers that keep Kurt Angle on mute until the bell rings then cringe and worry with every bump while asking ourselves why is he still wrestling? TNA has helped turn Kurt Angle matches into witnessing very real pain which is not entertainment or wrestling.

TNA has no credit with any viewers anywhere on the planet and yet they actually think they can create a campaign to siphon WWE viewers. They have succeeded in creating a one last chance viewing for this coming Thursday Night. If this show fails to feature the X-Division, if it fails to put Hogan and Bischoff in the background, if it fails to feel fresh and new then this is just like January 4th 2010 and all the other restarts in this company's short history. This campaign feels like a joke and soon it either will be cemented as one or TNA will have departed from the only thing synonymous with it's three initials; FAILURE.