TNA Wrestling has evolved greatly this year with the deals signed with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.  Change of course will always cause those who are affected by it, in this case the fans, to resist change and/or criticize it.  This week in The Hawk's nest I will look at the changes made by TNA since January and also look at how the critics covered it.

TNA in a very short time has done what many said was impossible when WCW effectively went off the air in 2001, start up a national wrestling company from scratch and bring it to a level where it could compete with WWE.  In 2002 TNA Wrestling started off as a weekly pay per veiw and a completely different concept of not having a free show to promote pay per veiw buyrates, generated ad dollars, and push ticket sales, but instead the model was just to sell a weekly PPV that offered the wrestling fan something differnet.  Since then they have moved locations (originally was taped at the Nashville Fairgrounds), been bought out by an energy company, moved from PPV only to Fox Sports, then Spike, and in the fall of last year signed a deal with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to run things and change things, hopefully for the better. 

And wow have things changed.  From how the product is presented to the characters and personalities that are now part of the show.  Of course this has caused controversy, especially with other wrestling websites and those that write collums for those.  However, out of all the changes and additions two stick out as being the most talked about and complained about in all the changes, even more than the appearance of the Nasty Boyz. 

First was the addition of Bubba The Lovesponge.  For whatever reason the internet marks hate him with a passion with his involvement in TNA.  Some of it was due to his remarks regarding the media's overexposure to the Haiti disaster but even before that the so called insider websites were on the attack.  My question to them is why is it that big of deal?  Is it because storyline wise, the Nasty Boyz would have never made it in to the building without his help distracting security on the Jan 4 episode?  Is it because the read he was replacing Jeremy Borash?  Or is it because they wish they could have been the one that was elevated from "the wrestling media" to actually being a part of the show.  Bubba The Lovesponge should not be an issue however, for one, his on air time is very limited to where he's not taking someone elses "spot".  Secondly and most importantly, he is good for TNA.  Let me say that again, he is good for TNA.  Why?  Not because he is great at cutting a promo or even a good interveiwer, however he does have The Bubba Army.  The Bubba Army is a group of loyal listeners and others that will follow him to TNA, watch the show, buy T-shirts, etc.  Seth Godin, one of the greatest experts on marketing, refers this to building a tribe.  So in this respect TNA is hoping and should see results of expanding their tribe by bringing in members of "the Bubba Army".  Idealy this would work out where those in Bubba's "army" would tune in to watch Bubba and continue on to become loyal TNA fans as well.

The second major change since the beginning of the year was the end of the six-sided ring.  The complaints were so bad that at the PPV where Hogan debuted the new 4 sided ring that fans actually turned their backs on matches and started a chant of "We Want Six Sides".  I'm sorry but I think after a month of the standard ring that it is shown that the 6 sided ring was a minor part of the TNA product.  Also other than a few of the X-division members did anyone really utilize all 6 sides without looking uncomfortable?  Thankfully other than the annoying Bubba Army guy the 4 side vs 6 side debate seems to be over, especially now that they are establishing the new storylines and characters.

Now that I have analyzed other people's complaints of the changes in TNA, here is what I like as part of the new TNA:

1. Ok this may seem minor but it has bugged me for years since I have been watching TNA, backstage segments no longer have a human mic stand.  It always bugged me especially in some storylines that were for a lack of a better word more intimate (some of the Karen Angle/AJ Styles stuff from a couple years ago for an example), to have JB or Lauren holding a mic while AJ was trying to seduce Karen or vice versa.  It never really made sense.  This is one of the major improvements in the product.

2. I hate the ramp going up to the ring.  Didn't like it WCW and definitely don't like it here.

3. The move to Monday nights and fewer taped episodes.  This is a very good thing, as you could tell that guys were tired on the 3rd or 4th taped show in a row, plus they will now be able to use people more regularly and hopefully keep things in sync with real time such as when Eric Young lost the Global Title, he was still being refereed as the champ on a taped version of Impact.

4. Pushing of new talent.  The Pope could be a superstar and wouldn't be surprised to see him get the strap.

5. Nature Boy AJ Styles..I like a lot of things they are doing with this, I just hope they don't try to make him a carbon copy of Flair, such as they did with Charles Robinson in WCW.  The Figure 4 leglock by Styles doesn't bother me much as he executes the move well to the point it really looks like it is hurting his opponent.

6. Overbloated roster..not sure how they keep everyone on the roster especially with new additions coming in.  Unless the next plan is to add another show...

That is all for now, til next time...