Who's running the Asylum that is TNA?

Earlier this week, I posted a rant on the Potsy and the Turd Facebook page because I was flabbergasted at the disregard of BIG EVENT Title changes in wrestling.

There was once a time where the champion losing on free TV was looked at as shock value, but times have changed. TNA having Eric Young retain at the PPV only to lose four days later (on a show where apparently all the talent had to wrestle twice), was disrespectful to those that paid for the PPV, and they should speak out as such.

Or was it that so few people watched the PPV that they didn't actually affect their fans either way?

Here's the deal, folks. We watch the weekly TV to get the story, and we watch the PPV (or "Special Event" as WWE is calling them now) for the payoff, or the screwing of the payoff to continue the story. We don't watch on the free TV to see the world championship disrespected, even if you attempt to tell us it's for the story. It isn't, it's for ratings, plain and simple, and when you play to just get a .10 increase, you will fail more than you will succeed.

WWE's long term book rarely goes the way they want it to anymore, but at least they lay plans out that look like they have a method to the madness.

TNA's spotty, on the fly booking has them never creating a hero or a villain because they flip flop so often, that you only get behind someone because of their talent, which isn't displayed nearly enough.

That's not even the full on of my problem with them. Recently brought back MVP was part of a match where if his team won, he had control over wrestling operations. Shortly thereafter, Dixie Carter is "in charge" again, and that gives us TWO heel authority figures that alsp hate each other. Does that mean one is even MORE heel than the other? Who knows? Its sketchy booking, even worse follow thru and the payoffs are inconsistent from it, which is why the program suffers.

Too bad, too, because I really want to see Bully Ray put Dixie through a table.

Is WWE in crisis mode?

Working for a company that does everything for Wall Street (the opinions of this blog post are of the contributer, and not of the company he works for), it seems that Pro Wrestling's staple house has really begun doing the same. Eleven people were cut from the roster, (though Teddy Long's contract expired, and was not renewed, he is lumped into this, erroneously) and it seems more may be on the way. This isn't anything new with the WWE, they used to cut underperforming talent after Wrestlemania all the time, yet this year, after a few years of not really seeing it, it's back, and with a vengeance. The problem is that WWE overshot, and underdelivered...because they are only caring about their shareholders, and not the people who want to be catered to with product they actually want to watch. I've been skimming the program for about two months, after the lead up to Wrestlemania had me watching and believing the company was finally making decisions that got fans interested in the product. Unfortunately, their champion after WM was injured, and as such, needed much deserved time off, to go with his much required neck surgery. The stock price is now back to where it had been for the previous 5 years, however, there was that 6 month window where they beat their chests, told investors they'd triple their TV contract, and get a million viewers on the network (WWE Network is like a Netflix for wrestling fans), however, they failed to deliver on both counts. Now, they have to live with the decisions and consequences. Here's the real problem. They are attempting to gain viewers who've left their product with the network, and they have no interest. They attempt to gain younger viewers with the same stale old gimmicks (ring names, attire, and personalities of the wrestlers), all the while, they have made their programs mostly unwatchable, and have turned away from building 5 feuds in which a Pay-Per-View or Special Event is based around. They develop 2, at most, and throw the rest together at the last minute. In my humbled opinion, the WWE will be fine, as long as they take a realistic approach to their fans, the business, and do what we all want them to...deliver the goods on the product. When they get back to a more standardized accounting, and trim the fat we don't want to watch on RAW (I'm looking at you, Adam Rose), we'll all be better off for it, the fans, the show, and the whole WWE Universe. The cuts aren't anything new, they're timely, expected, and give the talents who seize the opportunity a better chance to do something, especially if they were given serious exposure, like Brodus Clay (remember all the "mama's" dancing at Wrestlemania a few years back?).

Blur...ring the lines between trailer and gameplay...

So one of my biggest problems with what we see when a game first gets announced is the trailer. Not because it doesn't look gorgeous, or it doesn't give enough plot (Watchdogs), but mostly because it isn't indicative of what the final product looks like.

I spoke on this topic on our 6/10 podcast (available at soundcloud.com/RobPotsy), as I was discussing EA and I was applauding them for every game they showed at E3 2014 was either on the Ignite or Frostbite engines, and the footage was all in game.

Bioware, an EA studio since Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite developers. I play every game they make, am normally enamored by them, and will typically get a second play through in. However, up until Dragon Age Inquisition, they always used BLUR studio to develop their trailers. As gorgeous as they were, they never allowed you to see what you would be playing, and often times, I'd be disappointed by what the visuals ultimately would be after seeing such beautiful footage to get my appetite whetted. Dragon Age Inquisition changed this from it's on screen debut, short ng off Frostbite 3 in all of it's glory and showing two things: the first was that Bioware was doing the trailers themselves and the second was that they trusted the visual integrity of Frostbite enough to not spend the money on BLUR.

Don't get me wrong, I watched a 7 minute sizzle trailer from BLUR that showed what the studio was capable of, and would throw money at them to develop a 2 hour Mass Effect MOVIE so that it was done right...they are THAT good. I just don't want to think a game looks like their work, only to find out it looks like World Of Warcraft.

The engines are powerful enough. When you see Kojima's trailer for The Phantom Pain, it's all from the FOX engine. Battlefield, Call of Duty, and all of EAs games now shown from the in game footage...yet, for some reason, Batman, Halo and countless others are still animated trailers from outside sources.

Trust your source material, folks...it's what made us all trust Naughty Dog so much. Give us gameplay from the first real trailer going forward, we deserve it...and so does the hard work of the folks working on it.