@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter
On Monday, TNA announced a new online voting system to determine future contenders for the Gut Check segment. As with most ideas TNA has had over their 10-year existence this one takes a good concept and botches it in the execution.
The
participants for Gut Check consideration are made up of wrestlers and at least
one announcer who have previously taken part in a local Gut Check tryout TNA
holds before house shows. On the Gut Check Challenge website, voting is broken down over 16 brackets. This is where my biggest complaint
comes into play.
There
are roughly 20 names to vote for in each bracket. With the exception of Lince
Dorado, all of the names are the wrestlers real names and not their wrestling
gimmick names. When I first looked at the list, I didn’t immediately recognize
anyone. It wasn’t until reading message boards and other wrestling blogs that
pointed out who certain wrestlers were that I realized I am familiar with about
15-20 of the participants. I can understand TNA not having guys use their
gimmick names on TV, (although I don’t think any of the televised Gut Check
competitors so far have used any name other than the one they’re “famous” for
using.) but when you want fans to vote don’t you think you’d want fans to know
the person from whom they’re voting. Would TNA set up a Best TNA Wrestler
contest and list the nominees as Terry Bollea, Steve Borden, Allen Jones,
Daniel Covell and James Cox?
In
each bracket, each name is a link to a mini-profile of the wrestler complete
with a video of a match. So technically if a fan was curious enough they could
spend the day clicking on names on familiarizing themselves with each
contestant. The downside is there are nearly 300 names to choose from. Who is
going to click on 300 names?
Perhaps it would have been better to only unveil one or two brackets a
week to avoid fan burnout. Maybe TNA is counting on the wrestlers to promote
this online vote to their fans and figure the fans will simply vote for their
favorite wrestler without looking at the other nominees so overloading them
with choices isn’t a big deal.
Another
point of contention is who is on the list and who isn’t. I know of at least
one wrestler who went through a local Gut Check seminar that isn’t on the list.
There could be a valid reason he was omitted. I don’t know the reason nor do I
know if there are other wrestlers who should be on the list but have been left
off for some reason. In addition there’s at least one name on the list, Chase
Stevens, who is a former TNA wrestler. Not only is he a former TNA wrestler,
he’s a former TNA Tag Team Champion. Then again, Christian York wrestled for
TNA in their early days and took part in a televised Gut Check so the precedent
has been set. Gut Check is more like The Voice than American Idol. What’s more
confusing is there’s one talent, Matt Polinsky, who is a NXT wrestler.
Apparently, the bio video mentioned he was a member of the NXT roster. (ED.
NOTE. Since typing this, Matt Polinsky’s name has been removed from the list of
names. Guess once people online pointed it out someone at TNA decided the name
shouldn’t be there.) How does
something like one of your competitors being signed to another company slip
through the cracks?
I
like the Gut Check concept. I like how TNA is giving fans the opportunity to
vote for who they want to see compete as there is a lot of great independent
talent out there who deserve to be seen on a bigger stage. I just feel TNA has
once again dropped the ball in how they handle new concepts.
Gut-checking Training Needs Analysis (TNA) involves reviewing initial findings to ensure they align with real organizational needs and priorities. Sound of Text This process combines instinct, experience, and stakeholder feedback to validate data accuracy and relevance.
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