After the hype, a letdown (TNA's mystery wasn't a mystery after all)

For the last week, TNA (Total Non-stop Action) Wrestling had hyped a video sent by an "anonymous" party who promised he'd be present for Impact Wrestling on August 1, with the show originating from Wichita Falls, Texas. We were led to believe it would be some sort of major player. In the end, the creative team laid another egg.

The shared Figure Four Weekly/Wrestling Observer website actually had provided a clue, whether they realized it or not, by running a poll regarding a rumored mixed martial arts (MMA) fight between Tito Ortiz and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. "Rampage" had recently signed with TNA. Ortiz has been associated with TNA in the past, and, wouldn't ya know, he returned to the fold on Thursday night, appearing at the end of the Impact broadcast. The cameras repeatedly went back & forth between Jackson & Ortiz, confirming that the hype of "#August1Warning" was just a facade. More established wrestlers, such as former NWA champion Adam Pearce and former WWE champion-turned-actor/MMA fighter Dave Bautista ("The Man With The Iron Fists"), had denied having anything to do with the videos. That should've made solving the mystery that much clearer, but, as has been documented here and elsewhere in the past, TNA's creative staff isn't exactly comprised of Rhodes scholars. Given the company's recent personnel cuts due to financial concerns, one wonders just who is actually in charge of TNA's creative team now, since Bruce Prichard was recently dismissed.

TNA's been struggling all along to improve their television ratings after nearly 8 years on Spike TV, but, as usual, their creative staff keeps fumbling the ball. And that would be appropriate since pre-season football starts Sunday with the NFL Hall of Fame game. Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and everyone else in the decision-making department at TNA should've known better than to try something this lame. It's not even worth handing out Weasel ears or Dunce Caps, so we won't. If anyone deserves them, it'd be the TV viewers lured in, thinking that someone else was coming in that would add marquee value. While Tito Ortiz is still a marquee name in MMA, even though he hasn't fought in a while, he doesn't add anything that the over-the-hill retreads TNA already has haven't already added. Which is to say, nothing.