In the middle of January, Total Nonstop Action announced that they were expanding their Gut Check Challenge, and opening it up to the fans to decide (as the official press release put it) the “one previous ‘TNA Gut Check’ participant who is most deserving of appearing on IMPACT WRESTLING’s ‘TNA Gut Check’ segment on Spike TV.” The polls would feature the names of every wrestler who had taken part in a previous Gut Check seminar/try out. Each person would have their own profile page that featured a picture, their full shoot name, age, occupation, home town and where the GC was located that they took part in. At first, the polls were slated to open at midnight on January 18th; then the time was pushed back to the afternoon of Saturday, January 19th; then to the evening of the 19th; and finally, the polls officially opened on Monday January 21st. This was made all the more confusing as TwitPolls started to circulate for each bracket prior to the 21st. Despite being able to vote on these polls, we were told that the votes wouldn’t count until Monday. Then, suddenly, they would count. Terribly confusing, right? That turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
When all the polls were released, a careful study showed that there were two names that had already signed and debuted with WWE down in NXT (Mercedes KV, now Sasha Banks; Davina Rose, now Bayley). One, Chasyn Rance, is a registered sex offender, having been convicted of having sex with an underage girl. All of them had one thing in common: they were all listed under their real names, not their better-known wrestling monikers. This caused quite a controversy among fans and those listed on the polls. I talked to a few of the people listed and all of them confirmed they had not been asked nor had they given permission for their personal names to be put up on the site. Some of them rolled with it, such as Mia Svensson, LuFisto and Sugar Dunkerton. Others, such as Courtney Rush, were furious and let people know publicly that they did not want fans to vote for them, and wanted TNA to remove their information. Despite the criticism and the backlash, TNA left the polls as they were.
Then, in the first week of February it got worse. A glitch in the website occurred that made it possible to vote multiple times instead of just once. Some people it impacted badly – LuFisto went from having a wide lead in her bracket to dropping back to fifth place. TNA announced that they knew about the glitch but decided to let the voting go on. At this point, even those that had reservations with the polls but wanted to win a GutCheck spot anyways, such as Athena, announced they were wiping their hands of the contest and did not want fans to vote for them. As more and more backlash mounted, TNA finally issued a statement on their website:
“In January, we launched the Gut Check Challenge as an online competition to give many independent wrestling stars a chance to showcase their talents and potentially earn a spot on the IMPACT WRESTLING roster.
However, due to a number of issues with the voting – and in fairness to all the competitors – we have decided to suspend the Gut Check Challenge.
We will be re-launching the contest in the near future with a new voting system that will eliminate the voting issues. Stay tuned to our website for updates – and thank you for your continued support of TNA and IMPACT WRESTLING.”
So far, the contest has not been re-launched as of yet, but if/when it does, will there be anyone left to take it seriously? What could be done to streamline this process if TNA truly wants fan feedback?
For starters, ditch the real names. Kayfabe is still alive, despite the internet being a beehive of personal information – some wrestlers prefer their privacy be respected, and some fans prefer to not know. Besides, a fan is more likely to know who Sugar Dunkerton is rather than Carl Wilson. Ditch the age and the occupation. Instead, list how many years they’ve been in wrestling, various nicknames and accomplishments. TNA might be loathe to acknowledge other promotions and companies (although they have no qualms in mentioning WWE…), but for casual fans it would be good to give us a feel for who this person is and why they deserve our vote. Not every TNA fan is going to know who these folks are after all.
When posting the polls, don’t try and mesh so many names together. It would mean more polls than before, but shorter lists make it easier to find those we want to vote for. If another glitch occurs, fix it immediately. Also, make sure that previous Gut Check participants still want to be included, or are eligible – it hardly made sense to have people on there who are already employed with WWE.
On a personal note, while I like the fact that TNA seemingly wants fans to have a say in who the next Gut Check participant should be, considering the contest’s history so far it hardly seems like a good way for wrestlers to become part of the company. Of the previous GC winners, only Christian York has appeared regularly. Sam Shaw, Alex Silva and Taeler Hendrix have only been seen once or twice since their wins. Meanwhile, the person that lost, Joey Ryan, has appeared frequently and was part of a storyline that stemmed from his loss. That destroyed any shred of fans considering this as a legitimate contest.
What if someone that isn’t exactly what TNA is looking for wins the fan polling? Take LuFisto. I wrote this blog after her Gut Check tryout last year ( http://thedangerousqueen.blogspot.com/2012/06/wrestling-matters-in-impact-wrestling.html ), and in it I wrote word for word what Al Snow had to say after they played her tryout promo on “TNA Today.” The fact that he thinks and uses Sable as his best example for what a woman in wrestling has to be able to do is pathetic. So what makes anyone think that if LuFisto were to win the poll voting that TNA would actually grant her a GC spot on television? Would they abide by the fan votes or try to rig the polling? Somehow I’m not hopeful – and there are a few people like her that want to be part of the company and honestly should not have to go through all this nonsense.
All in all, TNA once again took a good idea and turned it into a disaster. This fiasco impacted (no pun intended) people who, for all it’s faults, genuinely want to work for them – it took their hopes and efforts and twisted them inside out. For the men and women involved who still want to be signed, I sincerely hope that if this contest is restarted, it is streamlined and legitimate. May the best person win and become a part of the company.