Believe It or Not, Here are Four Reasons Why You Should Watch TNA Wrestlng by Corey Henson

Corey Henson and Troy go back.  Corey once worked at ADV, and he and Troy wrote for Newtype USA together before Corey came over to Shotgun.  Corey was one of the three original Best Shots members with Troy and The Rev. OJ Flow.  And when Troy became Newsarama's Blog@ Captain, Corey was part of that crew too.  His Shotgun rep is deep, and his knowledge of comics, anime and wrestling is large.  Ladies and gentlmen, Corey f'n Henson is back . . .

TNA Wrestling has been the laughing stock of professional wrestling for many years, and not without reason. Frankly, for much of its history, TNA has been completely unwatchable. As a matter of fact, I stopped watching TNA during the summer of 2009, and didn’t miss it for even a second. Recently, I decided to give Impact Wrestling another chance, and I was pleasantly surprised that the show had improved greatly while I wasn’t watching. In fact, I’d say that most weeks, TNA Impact Wrestling is a much better show than WWE Raw. If you’re a wrestling fan who’s been ignoring TNA, here is, in no particular order, a list of reasons why you may want to give the company a chance to make a positive impression.

1. THE RESURRECTION OF STING
TNA has a history of spending way too much time and money on middle-aged, washed-up wrestlers who ultimately do nothing to make positive contributions to TNA. Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan and others have all failed to live up to contracts with more zeroes than a New Jersey night club. At the opposite end of the spectrum there’s Sting, the 52-year old legend who’s turned down numerous opportunities to sign with the WWE for the sake of multiple runs in TNA. Sting’s TNA career hasn’t always been stellar, thanks to a combination of poor booking and Sting’s own diminishing abilities as an athlete. There was also a heel turn in 2008 that was hard to watch because Sting never seemed to fully commit himself to making it work. For the past year, however, Sting has been one of the highlights of TNA. Once again, he’s reinvented his character, swapping the Crow motif he developed in 1996 for a new persona that’s equal parts Frank Gorshin’s Riddler and Heath Ledger’s Joker. It sounds utterly ridiculous on paper, but in reality it’s quite awesome, because Sting is busting his ass to make it work both in and out of the ring. Most of all, he looks like he’s having fun again, and it’s a blast to watch. If these are indeed the waning days of his wrestling career, as it’s been rumored, then he’s definitely going out on a high note.