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I was anticipating the TNA Impact show for 2008-10-23 because it was a live event, being broadcast outside of their typical Florida area.  Being in Vegas meant the potential to demonstrate their talent.  Instead, the show ended up to be mostly talk.

Most of the show consisted of promos sliding into promos. Worse yet, most of the promos went nowhere, just empty air.  The wrestling that made it was far too short to be memorable for a live event.  The two most significant matches on the card were the X-Division title match and the Knockouts title match.  Neither got more than a few minutes, not even reaching the 5 minute mark.

Back in WCW's prime days, Nitro was able to fully use 2 hours by broadcasting a fair number of matches, with the occasional "long" match that stretched 8-10 minutes.  There were promos thrown in, but the fact that they had numerous matches differentiated them clearly from WWE at the time.

At this point, TNA no longer is broadcasting matches, but just pointless talk segments that lead nowhere.  I know that the promos are supposed to promote the matches and I know that they also are used to promote and enhance the characters.  But at this stage, the same people are talking, saying redundant things week to week and not improving on their character one bit. 

I think that not everyone should be talking all the time.  Promos should be exclusively used for the main event people and upcoming characters, at least in terms of week-to-week consistency.  Other people should sporadically receive promos that last no more than 1 minute per person/tag team/group.  This forces everyone to be concise and nail down their points without sounding forced or losing their audience.

Considering that a show last roughly 40-45 minutes (after commercials), you can break that down into 3-4 segments.  2-3 wrestling segments, with a potential long match at the end of the hour.  Add in one minute promos for the PPV.  The last segment should be the long match that hypes the PPV, the selling point for the PPV, or an angle enhancement that leads to the following week (or next hour).  The first 10 minutes should either be composed of a fast paced opening match or a main eventer/large angle to get people warmed up and setup the theme.

Right now, TNA's writing/scripting is a complete mess.  They really try too hard in putting together shows, when they can use a simple formula like Nitro and Raw to define their TV segments.  They need to re-establish themselves as a pure brand of pro-wrestling, considering that McMahon himself apparently admitted to wanting his company to become pure entertainment.  It's so easy for TNA to promote themselves as a pure pro-wrestling company, but for whatever reason (Russo), they've completely foregone that direction in a clear attempt to emulate the WWE.  Considering that ratings have been absolutely stagnant since Russo's re-arrival, the people at TNA need to re-evaluate themselves, the company and the brand that they want to establish.