CALDWELL'S POLL ANALYSIS: Who should replace Jeff Jarrett as head booker if he's ousted from TNA?
By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor
TNA IN TURMOIL POLL: If Jeff Jarrett were removed by Dixie Carter as head of creative (booking), who would you most like to see replace him? Earlier this week, Paul Heyman ran away with the vote on who Torch readers would like to see head up TNA's creative effort if Jeff Jarrett is removed from power.
Heyman took 55 percent of our poll. He was clearly the majority vote-recipient, as his name has been in the news this week and he's been out of the wrestling business long enough to take a "look at the forest" without being inside the trees dealing with politics, creative headaches, deadlines, etc.
Heyman said he would "never" take the position, but Torch readers clearly believe he can take a roster full of dated WWE, WCW, and ECW wrestlers, plus a crop of young talent with untapped potential in TNA and turn the ship around after a disastrous Victory Road PPV.
Since Heyman is virtually out of the mix, let's turn to the second-most vote recipient. That is Jim Cornette, who received 19 percent of the vote. Cornette falls into that Eric Bischoff character of either being all the way in as head booker or not at all.
Cornette has been on-air authority figure in TNA for a few years and gives creative input from time-to-time, but has not been given an official booking role in TNA. The mean reason is that he would be butt heads with Vince Russo, who has a different vision of the TNA product than Cornette would in a head role. Cornette seems unlikely unless the entire booking team was scrapped and Cornette was given complete control.
So, who else do we have? Gabe Sapolsky came in third with eight percent of the vote. That's unlikely, as Sapolsky has many projects on his table, including VP/head booker for the DGUSA promotion debuting on Saturday.
Torch readers went next with "Other," which received six percent of the vote. When the top three potential bookers to replace Jeff Jarrett are highly unlikely candidates, you're left with "other."
"Other" would most-likely be Matt Conway, who is a relatively unknown TNA employee to the majority of wrestling fans. Matt is in charge of the TNA Home Video department and has been a creative consultant to Dutch Mantell and Vince Russo. Conway would be a likely choice to replace Jarrett, but Matt isn't a very "sexy" choice when readers are looking for something new and drastic to occur.
Is Kurt Angle the answer? More Torch readers picked Russo (5 percent) over Angle (4 percent), perhaps because Angle has zero experience booking pro wrestling. Angle has made a power play to take control creatively, but it would be a major risk for TNA to give creative control to Angle, who is unproven, has political cronies, and is still the company champion to where he can't make decisions without bias factoring in.
TNA doesn't have many "sexy" options who are available for the role if Jarrett is ousted. It will be interesting to see how things shake up or if they shake up at all.
Top Vote Recipients
Paul Heyman ... 55 percent
Jim Cornette ... 19 percent
Gabe Sapolsky ... 8 percent
"Someone Else" ... 6 percent
Vince Russo ... 5 percent
Kurt Angle ... 4 percent
Topic: Official Wrestling Thread "Finally ... a wrestling thread HAS COME BACK TO JPH!P!!!" (Read 419961 times)