Eric Young Vs. MVP Is Not Going To Draw Big PPV Buys

TNA Slammiversary is this Sunday night, the main event is Eric Young Vs. MVP for the world title. Eric Young got his “good feel” moment two months ago when he defeated the “Paper” Champion Magnus. Really he won the title out of the blue and it would be hard to say that anyone could have predicted that he would be TNA Champion two months later. Everyone ragged on the fact that Magnus was champion and ratings did decline while being champion.

Courtesy of Impact Wrestling.com

Since Eric Young won the title the ratings have gone way, way down. The sad part is that since EY has been champion that ratings have dropped more down than Magnus did previously. Eric Young is a good wrestler, in fact a good promo guy. Nobody is pointing out that the guy cannot wrestle. When you have a character be portrayed as joke for the last ten years and then in one night have him become champion, then go on to expect the fan base that you have who have seen this guy be a joke for a decade become your world champion then turn him into a serious babyface is not realistic to think they will take him seriously and credible..

In the months, even weeks leading into his World Title run, he was a joke, he was in a program with Joe Park/ Abyss. Even in his promos he points out that he is not the brightest guy in the world, he points out his flaws and no positives about his character. In my view, a champion is suppose to be the top superstar in the company, he can out talk anyone, he can out wrestle anyone and can be the face of your company in the mainstream media. If he is straight out saying that he is none of those, then why the world is he your Champion?

Let’s take a moment, and direct our attention to MVP.

Courtesy of Impact Wrestling.com

MVP came in while TNA was overseas and was suppose to be this new breath of fresh air for TNA. He came in with a different attitude, for years in TNA you had almost every kind of General Manager or an “Authority” Figure. From Dusty Rhodes as a redneck, Jim Cornette, to that southern swang in Dixie Carter, to the dark man, the “Icon” Sting and then over the top “Hulkster” Hulk Hogan.

MVP with his swag, his hip hop based, spit flowin type promos that was different than what we have seen in the past. He came in, conquered and was on all of the babyfaces side while all the heels hated him. He was there for one or two segments in the show. He even competed in matches, he defeated Dixie Carter to “Gain” control of TNA at Lockdown. Then all of a sudden, he turns and is a heel. For one why would you go through everything (Drama) with Dixie Carter, have to win a match to gain control of TNA if you are just going to side with her? She wants to make a deal with you now and you are good with it. So why did we just waste two months worth of TV?

Back to Eric Young, he beat Magnus, Bobby Roode and faced the top stars in TNA on a weekly bases on TV. This leads to TNA going into a TV focus rather than a pay-per-view focus.

What do you Championships mean in Wrestling these days? A gold metal? A symbol? An achivement? In fact Championships are not what they were back in the day. When you order a PPV (WWE, TNA, UFC & Boxing) you want to see the champion defend his title, will he retain against a top challenger? Will he get beat and a huge upset will happen which makes the entire company change? That is what you get in a title match on PPV in my view.

When you have the champion defend his title every week, beat the top stars every week, how does it make it special to see him defend that title? Even more, why should I pay 30-40 bucks to see him defend it when I can see him defend it for free?

OK so there is your background of this big match. So you have MVP who is a heel authority figure, who can hire, fire, book and make all of the rest of the decision in the company, but cannot strip a champion of the title and put it on himself. I get it is wrestling, but when you want me to devote my time, once a week for two hours, I want to be entertained, I want to get lost in a story. If the story is not believable, I will not believe it, If I do not believe it, I will not be watching it and there is where the problem comes from this entire story.

Bottom Line: If you see that Eric Young is not drawing in TV ratings which is for free, and is actually making people change the channel when his segments are on, how can you expect them to pay to see him for this show, with him being in the main event of the show? I do not care how good the undercard is for a PPV, if the main event does make people want to see it then you will not get the same payoff that you would get if they do want to see it. Your main event is the main story in the company, it is what people want to see the most. If you expect positives out of this show, then you are lying to yourself.

Let’s say that MVP wins, what is next? EY can’t challenge for a rematch because MVP is the booker. Well what if they use his rematch clause in his contract, MVP makes it a No DQ match so his “Crew” Kenny King and Bobby Lashley comes down and cost EY the match.

We are seeing the same story play over and over, the past four years we get the same thing, over and over. MVP is going to be your next TNA World Champion, get ready for and used to it.

I get that there are TNA haters, there are TNA diehards, there are people who just complain about TNA for the hell of it. There are people who will defend this damn company to the bitter end. When you have seen this company go through so many changes in the last ten years that I have, you want the company to succeed, not fail.

TNA Slammiversary is being built as a big deal within TNA, but the matter of the fact is that they will not get a good turnout live or PPV buyrates. You can also guarantee that come Sunday night, you will have people crap all over this show.