Brooke Returns To TNA

Brooke Adams (Tessmacher) left TNA in 2015. She had a baby last year. She has gotten back in great shape in a quick time. She has now returned to TNA.

Back when Brooke left TNA, I looked at whether the WWE should want her back. Now that she is back in TNA, is that a good move? I think so. TNA's women's roster isn't in as terrible a position as the WWE's, which is spread thin due to the brand split. But it doesn't hurt to bring back a former TNA KO Champion. It also does not hurt to being in someone with wrestling experience that also offers more than just that. Someone like Maria may have an appealing look, but she is not a great wrestler and giving her a title run last year wasn't exactly a move to help TNA keep pace with the WWE's women's revolution. Brooke is at least someone with more wrestling credibility, which should help.

You can also consider whether she should be the centerpiece for TNA's women's division. I have been saying for a while now that TNA should move on from Gail Kim. Look for someone younger and that has the potential to be more over than Gail Kim. Some fans say that wrestling doesn't have mainstream attention anymore. Well, when you make a whole bunch of decisions that only cater to wrestling fans and build stars out of people that lack mass appeal, you're not going to maintain a large fanbase. I think Brooke would be a great candidate to push as the top star for a few years.

Is TNA likely to do it? Probably not. Of course, there is a new regime in the company. Things might be handled differently, much how things are being handled differently in the WWE these days after years of fans complaining. Until change does pop up, however, I would expect Brooke to just be in the rotation for TNA's women's division. As long as Gail Kim remains, overall big storylines will still revolve around her.

Angelina Love is also coming back. Much like Velvet Sky, she is someone that always comes and goes in TNA. That is one of the reasons I did not spend as much time talking about her as Brooke today. Other reason, she is a little older than Brooke. She has also held the KO title as many times as Gail Kim. When you are talking about the future centerpiece, I would look for someone younger and fresher than that. Of course, Angelina has wrestling credibility and a history in TNA, so having her back too is not bad.

Maxine Leaves WWE; Angelina Leaves TNA

She was my favorite from NXT, but it looks like Maxine is done with the WWE. I think she had some potential. Obviously, the WWE was not doing much with her for a while now. That is to say, not on the two major shows. Should she have waited it out? Considering that the diva division is currently in a dark period, waiting it out may have led to her getting some kind of angle on Raw or Smackdown sooner or later. However, this dark period isn't as productive as the one you had after Sable left, so the WWE still might have wasted Maxine.

Was anything of value lost? My personal bias aside, nothing of value was lost with Maxine leaving. I hope that doesn't come off as sounding rude. She had not become one of the most over divas in the company, she was not involved in anything too important, and her future really did not look too bright in this current messy diva division. I'm sad to see her go, but that is just another loss for the WWE that will not lead to them changing how they do things.

Angelina Love has left TNA. TNA was not doing much with her for a long time now. She was a multiple time Knockout's Champion and instrumental in the history of the division. TNA's inability to use her right over the last few months is another example of my point that TNA cannot keep the ball rolling properly for a lot of their workers. This is what damages them when it comes to creating draws. Angelina Love had a run as top face of the division in 2010, before Mickie James came in. After Mickie came in, they did not immediately kill Angelina off. She still had a storyline involving Winter going on. This eventually led to her winning the tag titles. They still kept the ball rolling, but it did not last. How hard could it have been to just book her in some relevant matches more often this year?

Was anything of value lost? On the one hand, Angelina Love has a great history in the division. On the other hand, they were wasting her. They have a lot of other women to use. I still think she has more value than some of these other women, but it was her choice to leave. If TNA is unable to start coming up with more storylines for their women that need it the most, they will be losing a lot more soon.

Telling Too Many Stories In The Ring

TNA continues with the same booking scheme when it comes to the title reign of Mickie James. She faces off against two heels, gets beaten down, the heels start to break up, Mickie overcomes. There are even more heel pairings on the sidelines for TNA to continue this.

This is all holding Mickie James back, in my opinion. Not just her character, but also potential match quality. Match quality is not determined by how good an individual wrestler is alone. Who are they going against? How much time is given to the match? Is there any story the workers must tell that may take away from overall match quality? People may not understand what I mean by that last one. Let me give an example from this past Raw, just to also show that TNA is not the only company that does this. Remember that CM Punk vs. Kane match? It was definitely not match of the night. It was not a botchfest or full of sloppy or awkward spots, but it was not that awesome. Why is that? CM Punk is definitely a strong worker in the ring. That is an understatement. Kane is no slouch. In fact, he dominated most of the action. The match was not given too much time, but I have seen shorter matches in the WWE that were more exciting. The match suffered in quality because of the story being told. Not just the finish, which consisted of CM Punk walking out to sell the idea that he couldn't handle Kane and didn't even need to win this match, since he would be leaving the WWE and already had his title shot. The way they were able to get to that finish was through the story of the match itself. As I said, Kane dominated. That created the whole story of the match, from the start, through the bulk of the action, and to the finish.

Back to Mickie James. Go back to her recent match with Winter. They fought all the way from the backstage area to the ring. Just when the action was getting hot in the ring, Angelina interferes, Winter wins, and that is all. Two problems here. First, not enough time given to the match. Second, the story between Angelina and Winter influenced match quality. Let me go back and correct myself. Angelina getting involved really is no big deal. Storyline has to get furthered. The real thing I do not like was how short the action was. Nevertheless, both of these factors still had a major influence over the match you saw last week. Given more time and a cleaner finish, you may have had a better match. I strongly believe that.

This week, 6-person elimination tag. Let me give TNA some credit. If that was a WWE diva match featuring many women, the majority of women would not have even seen any legal time in the ring. I have even seen some 2-on-2 diva matches where at least one woman was never tagged in at all. Miss T., Tara, Mickie James, Madison Rayne, Angelina Love, and Winter all saw some time in the ring. There you see a little trouble right away. First, Miss T. and Madison are not the greatest workers in the ring. They did not do too much wrestling, but that still impacts the match. Second, given the amount of time the match was given, having so many women also impacted the action. Did each woman really get to show their best? Or just a few spots and storytelling each? After Miss T. and Tara were eliminated, then the real storytelling took over this match. Angelina and Winter turned on Madison, unhappy that she stole a pin. They let Mickie eliminate her. Winter and Angelina then teamed up on Mickie for the rest of the match, having her beat at one point. But Winter refused to let Angelina get the pin. Mickie managed to recover and beat Angelina, then Winter. Mickie eliminated all three heels. As a Mickie James fan, excellent! But I can understand how many would not like this. You tune in for total-nonstop action, but you get storyline advancement in the ring taking the place of wrestling action.

Of course, only a moron, or the average pro wrestling critic, would blame Mickie James for this. Since I would like to believe I'm more of an analyst than a critic, I understand more that there are some things that are just out of her hands. Match time? Advancing the storyline TNA is pushing? She's doing what she has to. One way to fix this would be to give more time for actual promos. Separate wrestling from storyline development more. That would improve KO matches a lot more. Of course, I am still waiting for TNA to develop better storylines for Mickie James. Take better advantage of that charisma she has.