#August1stWarning: Where It Went Wrong

SO....tonight was the huge reveal for the August 1st Warning and needless to say, it was a letdown. A huge one. I'm not that surprised by it either. They could of ran with this, they could of had it be a wrestler not under contract (or even the top guy in OVW, whoever it is) who was tired of seeing all the stupid shit that was happening on a weekly basis. But no, they decided to release one video and then say "hey guys, if you want to see the 2nd one, get THIS one to 250,000 views." For one, why were they promoting an outsider that was "threatening" the company? For two, they should of never even given a deadline to release the next video (which they ended up doing anyway and they only had at least 210,000+ views), that was stupid enough alone on their part. To make it worse, they had the masked voice say he wasnt Jericho or Batista, or guys like that. What was the point of saying that? Everyone had a general idea that it wasnt going to be EITHER of those guys, they're too loyal to WWE.

The rumors ive been reading were Low-Ki, Shelton Benjamin, Hardcore Holly of all people (he isnt a big enough name to warrant videos threatening people though), Adam Pearce and so on. None of those guys showed up tonight. Instead we got:

Tito...fucking...Ortiz.

I ask you, the loyal TNA fans that may be on here...who does this really benefit? It just so happens that Ortiz is behind the #August1stWarning stuff after Bellator announced that its Rampage/Tito at the PPV in October. So not only does it kill the speculation that Rampage will be wrestling at Bound for Glory, but it kills the thought that he was going to turn on Angle and the Main Event Mafia to set up that feud further (because you know, that face to face confrontation only for them to be buddies really got the juices going). This doesn't benefit TNA whatsoever. Rampage and Tito along with King Mo, none of these guys will be wrestling in the near future. Not any single one of them. Take away the fact that yeah, it's Spike's money that got them signed, but these guys are taking up roster spots that should be used for guys who will actually be wrestling on a weekly basis.

Bellator is making out like a bandit with this. Free promotion for a PPV fight months from now on another program? Sign me up. The downside to this though? The MMA crowd doesn't care. They already see pro wrestling as fake and stupid, so why on earth would they tune in to Impact to see these guys cut fake promos? Why would you use a wrestling platform to help build a fight that years ago people would probably want to see? Rampage is past his prime and Tito is coming out of retirement, the only ones that would want to see this are the diehard MMA fans that like a good feud.

At the end of the day, Dixie Carter is a moron for agreeing to this. TNA isnt getting any exposure from this (maybe, just MAYBE during the Bellator tournaments but i doubt it), hell, SpikeTV doesnt even advertise Impact during the rest of the week. It doesnt look good on a company who just released a dozen employees due to budget cuts, only for them to turn around and agree to front half the bill for a washed up, retired MMA fighter.

I agree with everything you said. I have no faith in TNA anymore.

The most ironic thing about this whole reveal is that Ortiz's signature is digging the grave.

Viacom who runs Spike, also owns a majority share of Bellator. As Bellator tries to transition into PPV, they realize that their champions don't have the name value of those in the UFC. So what do they do? They have Ortiz and Rampage (who are a combined 1-9 in their last combined ten fights) headline the PPV for Bellator. It's an ambitious move, but I think Viacom is starting to realize the Bellator $$$ isn't on free tv, but on PPV. Even if the PPV does terrible numbers, its progress. The issue is that for some reason, nothing on Spike (including Bellator) seems to be advertised anywhere else. You never see Impact or Bellator commercials on other channels. Instead of advertising elsewhere, they just got lazy and cross-advertised.

What I think will be interesting is if the fight doesn't happen. Rampage and Ortiz have a tendency of getting hurt, making excuses, and finding reasons to pull out of fights. Injuries in training do happen often, so what does TNA do if the fight gets delayed/cancelled between Ortiz/Jackson? It'll put everyone in an even stickier situation.

Personality stand point and stuff. I think really these are both guys who could of had big future in Wrestling in their prime. Now that they are older I think if they made the decision to be TNA and focus on being a wrestler their could be a future. Sadly that ain't the case mark the second time Tito Oritz been in TNA. I ain't sure even mma style or ablity would translate well into the wrestling ring. I mean I ain't sure if they got a background like Kurt Angle,Lesnar,etc who were wrestlers first I don't know those twos background on that.