TNA was cancelled by SPIKE TV...or was it?

While this will likely be an episode of POTSY AND THE TURD, Rob wanted to give his thoughts on this ahead of time to really let the information soak in.

With roughly two months left on their Spike TV television contract, news has been circulating all over the internet (from TMZ, to all the wrestling websites) that TNA Wrestling's contract with Spike would not be renewed, and this late in the game means shopping to another network is very difficult, because fall lineups are all but finalized.

The real question is, if they were not planning on making SOME kind of offer, wouldn't they have already stated publicly what would be in that time slot? Again, most channels are gearing up for the fall season, and need to be telling people when to watch a new show, or fear that it won't sell at all.

TNA is one of the few programs on Spike that garners a million viewers in it's first run broadcasts, so cancelling sounds like a bad move for both. However, without knowing what the production costs are per episode, nor knowing what the rights fees are to broadcast, this may simply be another deal where too much money is being spent to look like the competition, and not enough reward is coming back through the door.

My take on it is that I anticipate a deal being made, one that is more beneficial to the television station, since they hold all the weight when it comes to bargaining. They can tell the Carters that their product doesn't have a home, make them terminate the contract of workers they don't want employed, and even change their time slot to something more beneficial to them. Heck, with all the money they are reportedly losing, now would be the time for the Carters to consider just dumping the property and letting someone like Tommy Dreamer run it for Viacom, who would be a suitable buyer, considering they purchased Bellator.

In this situation, I would anticipate that a steady product with first run airing every week, if found to be profitable for Spike, who is aiming at an 18-45 male demographic, would end up signing a more appealing deal with someone they already have a good relationship with (besides the Russo hiring, apparently).

Ultimately, it's up to both sides to agree to continue, maybe with new terms to the deal, or go their seperate ways. If they choose the latter, I would hope that any unaired footage would be packaged and sold as online content, or sold to a company like ROH.

I'd just hate for there to be nowhere for some of these talents to go if WWE doesn't want them, especially with the looming budget cuts coming from them in the coming weeks.

-Potsy

WWE Missed a BIG opportunity last night with Ambrose 7-15-2014

So last night, RAW began with John Cena and Roman Reigns getting a little heated, and then Ambrose chimed in with "Let's get it together, win the match, and then worry about the PPV" face speech, before Kane, Orton and Rollins came into view and beat the hell out of Ambrose.

Ambrose was then "taken to the hospital," and not seen from again.  This is nothing new, and part of the storyline, but what differed was how the match ended at the end of the night, and it was a slap in the face of Ambrose, who could have blown the roof off the Richmond Coliseum. Here's all they would have had to do.

Instead of making Reigns and Cena look like superheroes versus the three eyed monster, they should have looked defeatable, hurt, and like they weren't just going to lose, but like the heels really were going to destroy them.  This would have made the main event at the PPV (Battleground) look that much stronger, would have made Orton OR Kane a serious threat to Cena's championship, and would have even added to the heat of Rollins.

But then...just as the show's about to go off the air with the heels dominating...Ambrose comes through the fans, grabs a chair and cleans house. This would have gotten the biggest pop of the night, solidified Ambrose as a true hero, and really added something to the Ambrose/Rollins match, too.

Why did WWE not do something that has worked so well in the past this time? They missed out on a golden opportunity here, and I for one, was very disappointed.

Potsy
7/15/2014

What would improve IMPACT?

TNA Impact wrestling has gone through a major facelift, now being a company that has very few of the talents it had just one year ago, missing the likes of Hulk Hogan, Rob Van Dam, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and others.  They have, however, brought in other talents to "freshen up" the product. They include MVP, Kenny King, Lashley, The Wolves among others. Interestingly, their ratings have remained right where they were.

What will it take to get them improved? Is it a talent? Is it a different feel for the product? Truth is, it's more of the latter than the former.

To make IMPACT a distinct alternative, it has to BE a distinct alternative. It isn't a talent that will make it better or worse, it's what's written, and how that is put on television.

IMPACT needs to be about the wrestling, and not about the story. Is it okay to have feuds? Yes. Is it okay to have talking segments? Sure...but not at the expense of WRESTLING. The visual needs to be different.

If WWE is labeled as SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT culminating in wrestling matches, then IMPACT needs to be about WRESTLING first, and the story second. It can't be about bringing in an ROH or a WWE guy, because they've proved, that won't work.

In the long run, to gain viewers, it can't be more of the same, as even WWE is seeing that with their network. A lot of different things have been tried, like having a specific TOP TEN contenders list, etc, and ultimately, what will make IMPACT improve is being different.

I want to watch two hours of wrestling some weeks, with very little entertainment.

A week late to the Party, the "Fire Remender" movement was a scam...but it's still time for someone else to write CAPTAIN AMERICA

So last week, I saw on at least one comic artist's Facebook page, that he was mentioning that with Falcon sleeping with Arnim Zola's daughter, that it was statutory rape, because the last time the character had been seen in the comics, she was 14. Remender went as far as to write into the sequence that the woman in question mentions that she had a certain kind of wine when she turned 23, and that's what leads to the festivities.

Rick Remender, writer on Captain America ever since Ed Brubaker signed his exclusive deal with IMAGE COMICS, lost me as a reader of the comic in the first six issues. While I'm fairly certain others jumped off with his crazy direction he took the book (Cap was sent to a dystopian future, had a son, and a face in his chest, etc), these latest shenanigans are ridiculous. The person who started the whole movement had unfounded information, and sounds like he just wants Remender off the book.

I stopped reading Captain America. It looks like others did, too, because now they are going to the "Who will replace Cap?" story. Again. And I'm sorry, didn't we just get past the ONE TIME we actually accepted someone else into the role, for real, and Marvel put Steve Rogers back into the role last time?

If Bucky, the Winter Soldier, wasn't man enough for the role, no one other than Steve Rogers is. But that isn't what this is about. If Marvel is attempting to get readers back by offering the same story with a different take on it, don't we think at some point, we don't buy in? Maybe it's just time to take Remender off the book, give it to Mark Waid or someone else, and let them have a turn? After all, it's what the distinguished competition is doing on the regular now. Gail Simone is leaving Batgirl. Latoure is leaving Green Arrow. Nicola Scott is leaving Earth 2 (I know she's an artist, but her work is amazing, and I'd put her on th enext major crossover book right now).

When sales dip, try something new, not rehashing an old story. If the team is good, the sales steady, and the stories matter in the canon. If the sales dip, prepare to cancel and relaunch. That IS today's comics world.

FLASH TV Pilot Episode Review, and whether you should give it a try in October.

DC Comics put the proverbial arrow through our comic loving minds with the hit show on the CW, ARROW. After the midpoint of season 2, that show really hit it's stride, understanding what had been confusing it since it began, what it wanted to be. ARROW did not want to be another SMALLVILLE, nor did we, as viewers, want it to be. For it to work properly, it had to be gritty, much like the Christopher Nolan BATMAN film franchise, while still being cheesy enough to gain a younger audience, and clever enough to keep us older comic readers entertained.

 With ARROW, I wasn't hooked after the full first season, but being a comic fan, and a big fan of the work of Manu Bennett after SPARTACUS, I stuck with it, watching the entire full season on Netflix, and then watching in two to three episode spurts until the midpoint, when a kid by the name of Barry Allen came to Starling City, looking to find the phenomena that was "The Arrow." It was the second episode that Barry appeared in, where everything changed. ARROW knew it had to be less "cheese and sex appeal," and be more about the inner demons and workings of the cast, and it all started to click. It was also when Oliver got his green mask that we had been waiting a while to see. And that, friends, is where FLASH begins.

 A bolt of lightning at the end of that episode, and we know where that was headed. We just didn't know it would take that long to get here.

 From this moment forth, there will be spoilers, because, well, to explain the feel of the program, you need to know what's happening. You, folks, have been warned. The episode starts out with a very young Barry, his mom and his dad, and shortly thereafter, we see the tragedy that engulfs Barry's very existence...the death of his mother, the incarceration of his father, and all the while, this young boy holds on to a "fantasy" of seeing a blurry man that was the murderer, and not his father. They touch upon this throughout the episode, and there are subtle tips of the hat, but nothing that really pushes towards obsession, unless you believe Officer Thawne (yes, fans of the comic should recognize it).

 We meet Detective Allen, his daughter and object of Barry's affection, Iris, and we even see that Barry's big brain helps solve cases when no one really wants to give him a chance. We see the distance from the police captain, and all the markings for soap opera drama, just like any CW show.

 All of this, including the first case you see them handling all takes place BEFORE the episode of ARROW, though they pass that off with a set of lines of dialogue only, and then we are back to the here and now, in a flash (yup, went there). Detective West is on the finish the case Barry gave him the key information for, it causes the death of an officer, and all the while, we are slow burning our way to the lightning bolt. And then, BAM, it hits.

Barry wakes up nine months later (cute, a hero being born), and his life is turned upside down. Some good (he had abs, and new abilities like fast healing), some not so good (Iris now has a love interest). He wakes up at S.T.A.R Labs, which is now decommissioned based on the particle accelerator that blew up, subsequently giving Barry his powers. Barry needs to tell everyone he's alive, so he leaves, heads to the police and Iris, and BOOM, we're all happy with a little drama. Thawne is now West's partner, we get the first Iris/Thawne/Barry moment, which will lead to tension throughout, and Barry finds out about West's former partner.

 Barry tests out his new powers in a terrible suit, and then finds out while talking to Iris that others have gotten powers, including a man thought dead, now turning out to be Weather Wizard, Clive Martin, which creates a tense "Get with the truth" moment between Barry and West. This also leads Barry to have a lash out moment with the Star Labs folk, with Barry once again being told, "You're just a boy that got struck by lightning..."

This is where the episode finally takes off, literally, as Barry runs ALL THE WAY (600 miles) to Starling City for the first cameo appearance of Stephen Amell. In wrestling terms, this is done for the fans to mark out, applaud, or just get giddy with him showing up, but there's a problem with this moment. Barry is a dorkly kid who uses words like "cool," when describing what's occurring, Oliver is not. So the whole thing comes across as more of a cheesy "keep your chin up and go get'm" moment that we wouldn't get from Oliver. He's more of a "If you want me to tell you what you should do, I can't. You got struck by lightning. Take it and do good, do nothing, or do evil. If you pick the third, I'll put arrow's in your knees..." And he comes across too nice. He even leaves in in a typical SPIDER-MAN fashion, rather than how we've grown accustomed, which I guess is to say, this show will be more with the heroics than vigilantism, which is something Arrow alludes to.

 I digress.

Finally, Barry gets his costume, which is fire retardant and friction safe, so take that, Reed Richards. He takes down the bad boy, and is finally told, because someone has a "come to your savior" moment, that everything he ever thought is true, not the load of malarkey we were all fed for years. And then it happens...in a moment where Geoff Johns had to write it himself, we get the first glimpse of someone knowing more than they are letting on, and giving us a glimpse of the future, in a moment that not only did that for the character, but broke the fourth wall and gave it to the viewers, as well. I won't spoil it, because it is a neat little segue.

I enjoyed the episode, but it did feel more like SMALLVILLE than it did ARROW. If you want a little more cheese than the grim and grit we are going to swallow with ARROW, I feel that this series has a lot of potential, and the speed running seems like an inexpensive enough special effect that we will get a little spoiled with powers in this show that we don't in ARROW. Finally, with all the little easter eggs (Ferris Air, anyone?), I'm pretty sure we'll see old HAL JORDAN show up at some point, and the anticipated crossover episodes (maybe mid-season finales) with the brother series, ARROW. This is definitely a little more light haearted, and having John Wesley Shipp as Barry's father adds to the Smallville feel even more, since they commonly brought in former Superman actors to play roles for the sake of nostalgia (and marking/geeking out).

I enjoyed it, and I always look for another reason to fire up the DVR...

Decompression and rising prices killing GOOD comics?

So this morning I got into a text discussion with a friend about whether or not to download upcoming new pilots for the fall season and whether or not this was frowned upon. We both agreed that this was okay, since they'll be on network TV (free TV) and I'll probably watch them in their full HD presentation anyway.

He however disagreed with the fact that I download comics now. If I fall in love with a story, I will purchase it (and spare no expense, since I own ABSOLUTE EDITIONS of my favorite books, etc).

For the purpose of this article, he said that since a book that he had been reading was now being cancelled so he was down about it and I figured he felt that it was partly due to the downloaders. I can't argue that probably had something to do with it, but with the push to digital, this was an inevitable reality...here are two more...

Yes, I will start with the movement to decompressed stories, limiting what your dollar amounts to. This had also led to people waiting until a book hits trade paperback status, which means it could already be cancelled before they ever read it.  The argument here is that by decompressing a story, you fail to hook your customer, and in essence, lose readers before you establish an audience that will petition for saving your title. 

If you continue to get bored with a book, in today's comic world, you also start placing your hard earned dollars to only those books that keep you entertained, because you have to be smart with your money.

Which is point #2. You see, when comics started the decompression act, they were still 1.99-2.50 a piece, and now they are somewhere in the 2.99-3.99 range, or 7.99 in extreme cases for one book. That's four books then, two or one now. You also are receiving twenty pages of book now instead of the old school 22, which may not seem like a lot, but the books didn't get smaller, they filled them with more ads. So they are making the money off the consumer, and the advertiser. This is how they male money, obviously, but I'd love to see a breakdown of where the publication costs / creative fees are for my favorite books, especially now. Sure, some artists are worth more, but there's another problem that isn't seen by the reader's eye.

The artists, as they move to digital artpads to quickly transfer the files rather than mailing them (which has led to numerous thieves over the years), the artists have no supplemental income, and thus charge more for their original drawings. I'm making an assumption, here, of course, though I guess I could ask Ryan Stegman or Brett Booth, two industry vets that I've known for years that would probably give me a straight answer.

Anyway, it isn't Bendis that is destroying comics (he is a cog in the machine and not THE machine), but these two items together...less substance for your money AND more money for the substance has probably turned more people off reading comics, thus causing cancellations, than downloading the books.

I'd like to hear a rebuttal to this statement. Again, downloading will have SOME negative effect on the industry, but not enough to cause the cancellation of "beloved titles..."

Finally, if Marvel and DC really wanted to save their titles, they'd make more mention of how close they were to being cancelled on social network sights, and give fans a chance to drudge up more readers...just a thought, though I guess it WOULD scare creative teams.

Til next time,

Potsy
Facebook.com/PotsyandtheTurd
Soundcloud.com/RobPotsy

Who was writing the 6/30/14 RAW?

Man, its been a while since I've marked out seriously for wrestling. Heck, when CM Punk had his gray "Best in the World" shirt was the last time I can remember buying the merch (though I gave serious consideration to the "I'm a Paul Heyman Guy" one, and not including the Cactus Jack "WANTED" shirt from his comedy show), but last night made me feel like I did when Steve Austin stunned Molly Holly.

It just seemed to click. Jack Swagger, a superior talent with a better manager went over. Dolph Ziggler went over. The Moz was in a compelling segment. And return, return, return...wow. This doesn't even go into the Rollins/RVD match or the overtime segment.

After the head writer was terminated a few weeks ago, I wondered if the product could get worse. Last night was the first time it looked like they didn't just go after two angles, but 6.

Even the audience knew they were watching something special. You should have a drinking game for how many "THIS IS AWESOME" chants broke out. There were some letdown segments (Nikki vs funkadactyls and Bo Dallas...) But overall, it seemed like the WWE was drinking the Twisted Tea they were pimping.

Anyway, take a bow, whoever you were that wrote that bad boy, I marked out, I put my hand over my heart, and I said "We the People..." Just like the 14000 fans in attendance.