TNA Wrestling has recently introduced a new catchphrase, 'Cross The Line'. It isn't meant to just be catchy, however. 'Cross The Line' is also a booking policy with major ramifications on the TNA wrestling product and perhaps the rest of professional wrestling as well.
In professional wrestling, we are used to seeing clear cut faces and heels, also known as 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. However, due to the beliefs of TNA Wrestling head booker Vince Russo, the line between good and bad in professional wrestling has become blurred. There are very few actual good or bad guys left in TNA, often times there are many 'tweeners', wrestlers that have both likable and dislikable characteristics. Vince Russo believes that this follows real life - there are no (or at least very few) truly 'good' or 'evil' people, most fall somewhere in between.
The benefit of this booking strategy is that you are left more open in what feuds you are able to set up. Normally when you wanted to book a program between two heels you would have to turn one face, or the crowd wouldn't know who to cheer for. When professional wrestlers are cast as real people, fans who have watched over time can choose which qualities they like about a certain wrestler in order to cheer for them - perhaps because they like the way that they talk or wrestle - rather than simply following whoever the storyline dictates they should cheer for.
The primary detriment of this type of booking is that people really aren't used to it. Wrestling fans aren't used to having to choose who they want to cheer for and who they want to boo - they are normally simply told who they should be rooting for. Vince Russo's 'Cross The Line' booking can be overwhelming to those who are used to the old school book-by-numbers formula. I can definitely see some fans being disillusioned and turning off the television, simply because they can't follow what's going on or identify with the characters.
It must be kept in mind however that this is an entirely different approach to professional wrestling! This booking style is essentially trying to reinvent the business of wrestling, or more specifically how it is perceived. And in several ways, it follows the trends that we have seen over the last decade in professional wrestling. Case in point - John Cena, arguably WWE's top face or 'good guy', regularly gets booed at events. This is quite a remarkable phenomenon and shows that more and more fans are starting to wake up to the nature of 'the business'. Instead of simply eating up whatever the pro wrestling organizations decide to feed them, fans are choosing who they like and dislike based not on storylines or kayfaybe, but on characteristics of the wrestlers themselves.
TNA Wrestling's 'Cross The Line' policy is a bold step not in a completely new direction, but in the direction that the fanbase is already headed. If this policy catches on, then TNA could soon be the top wrestling company in the business. All that they need to do is tie together their realistic characters with realistic storylines and realistic wrestling, and pretty soon WWE will be seen for the cartoon sideshow that it is.
TNA Impact can be seen every Thursday night at 9 PM on SpikeTV. Cross the line.
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