Thoughts on TNA Reaction
The debut of TNA Reaction as a weekly series airing after Impact could not have come on a better night. The innovative show began immediately after the big angle at the end of Impact, which saw bloody beat-downs of EV 2.0 and Rob Van Dam by Fortune and Abyss, respectively.
The documentary-style, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews gave a realistic feel to the chaotic situation at the Impact Zone. We saw RVD being taken out in an ambulance and other EV 2.0 members nursing their wounds and vowing vengeance, and we also heard from the guys behind the attacks and what their motives were.
Ever since the Monday Night Wars era, viewers have been taken behind the curtain and into the locker room, but Reaction takes it a step further. You really get that fly-on-the wall feeling in some of the scenes, such as the one in which Beer Money’s Robert Roode and James Storm were discussing what happened and where things are headed. During their conversation, Storm’s cell phone rang and it supposedly was Ric Flair. Storm answered it and said, “Yes sir, by any means necessary.”
In addition to the attention given to the main angle, TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns were shown discussing their big win over Beer Money in the best-of-five series and reflecting on their journey in TNA, and Angelina Love, Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne all talked about their issues.
What I really like about Reaction is that the talent (with the exception of Abyss) comes off like real people speaking from the heart rather than characters reading from a script. Kurt Angle was especially good at giving a shoot-style interview while still not breaking kayfabe. Even though he is a babyface, when Angle was discussing the Fortune-EV 2.0 feud, he said that the former ECW crew popped ratings and probably significantly increased pay-per-view buys, but that they shouldn’t be around long term. He said he’d rather see a TNA group such as Fortune succeed.
As much as I enjoyed the show, however, it felt like an hour was too long. After two hours of Impact and three hours of wrestling if you watched WWE Superstars, Reaction would be more effective as a 30-minute show, especially considering that there is not going be a huge angle to feature every time like there was this week.
One thing about the program that bothered me right off the bat was that after Mike Tenay had ended Impact by saying that Fortune obviously is Abyss’ “They,” Reaction featured guys such as Angle and Mr. Anderson questioning whether “They” only exist in Abyss’ mind. If Fortune really is “They,” I’m interested to hear how Abyss went from being a Hulkamaniac who hated Flair to suddenly taking orders from him.
On a side note, I like the new voice-over guy TNA is using, as I always thought the James Earl Jones-sounding guy was too over-the-top.
Comments
I thought the show was superb. I have not followed TNA very closely until recently and thought the show really did add some edge to the huge angle of the night and I thought the "feel" of it backstage was just outstanding. An hour may turn out to be a little long, but I suppose that will depend on what they do with the show.
Posted by: Brendan | August 14, 2010 6:30 PM
Good Impact made special by Abyss in my view, his bumps made the show standout. I lost respect for RVD because he plays the role of hardcore hero but he wanted no part of that barbed wire.
As far as reaction, its more TNA so I'm okay with it but the show comes off as fake to me to be honest. I'm okay with behind the scenes stuff, but this is fake behind the scenes stuff, because the characters are still in their roles so I just find the whole thing weird but mostly fakey.
For this show to succeed I think the storylines and acting need to be taken up a notch, and by working at making this show entertaining it could lead to better Impact. If not this just goes down as some reality TV clowny stuff in my view. I mean imagine if the storylines on impact totally blow, then imagine how much this show will blow, for a full hour.
Also they could use reaction to play some of Xplosion matches in documentary style. This would make sure people don't get confused because they missed some stuff like when Sarita and Taylor wild turned on each other. This could also let a few other TNA stars get some TV time. I mean it's a full hour, they gotta do something with it or it will get boring.
Posted by: Lorenzo | August 14, 2010 10:49 PM
I really think that this show would be 10 times better if it was on say, Monday or Tuesday.
First it makes it more believable because they would have a "few days" to interview and do the voice overs (yes I know that everything is taped at the same time, but we are supposed to believe that shows are taped at different times)
Second, I agree that, considering the change of content, 3 hours if too much (I would be singing a different tune if this was a 3rd hour of iMPACT every night, but it's not)
In the end, I think this will be a great addition to the TNA roster of shows, now if only Spike would start showing Explosion, especially considering all of the story lines being played out on that show.
Posted by: Jesse | August 15, 2010 2:02 AM