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Last night's TNA Impact was pretty boring the first hour.  Unlike a lot of people on wrestling boards who bash the show, I do enjoy TNA.  However, last night was awful.  How do I know?  I fell asleep in the first 20 minutes.

The show used to have a good number of wrestling segments.  But now they feel obligated just to talk and show re-runs of the previous week's segments.  I'm all for a good promo, but the number of promos has become ridiculous.  The first hour had ONE wrestling match and that didn't last long. There was a segment that looked like wrestling action, but it wasn't a bout and just was used to set up the following week's program.

Here's the thing.  Not every match needs a goddamn promo.  I've been saying things like this for a while.  And if you require a promo, do an inset during the wrestler's entrance.  If TNA is looking for a formula for producing their TV shows, here's my suggestion:

• 6 Wrestling matches.  3 matches per hour.  The last two matches need to go between 10-15 minutes minimal.
• 1 Major wrestling promo.  It should highlight the top feud or main event for the upcoming PPV.
  
• 1 segment focusing on a wrestler or tag team (the so called "Rough Cut" segments.

If a match requires a promo, then it should be no more than 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Again, if you can't get across your point in less than a minute, then there's no point speaking.  The only promo segment that should be allowed to go beyond a single minute is a major feud, a contract signing, a wrestler debut, the PPV's main event promo, or a spotlight on a wrestler that the company wants to heavily push.

I don't see what the difficulty is in terms of writing segments like this.  Go watch a Ted Dibiase interview from the 80's and see how he can cut a promo in about a minute.  That's a good standard.  If you can't say something concisely, you'll lose the audience's attention.

I think even the WWE makes far better use of their TV time.  Maybe move-for-move TNA might be better in terms of the cutting edge action (or as far as innovation goes), but the WWE has more matches, even though they might get repititve.  But that puts the WWE far ahead in terms of an edge in the wrestling aspect than TNA. 

Regardless, if TNA sees a consistent fall in the ratings, it's simply because they fail to retain the audience's attention span.  Forget the booking at this point.  They've got far bigger problems just trying to showcase their action.