If you feel the same as I do about this week's Impact, I wouldn't blame you for thinking you were watching the wrong show.

Let's take Kurt Angle for starters. Ok, Kurt's a heel again. We get it. But why do "Angle Appreciation Night", less than a month after Vince McMahon was "blown up" on Raw after the 2nd "McMahon Appreciation Night"? Because TNA's creative team (Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel, & Vince Russo) doesn't have any original ideas right now. The object of this exercise was to get Kurt established as TNA's new arch-heel, replacing Christian Cage, who apparently was a fiscal disappointment at the box office as champion. Cage & his Christian Coalition (AJ Styles & Travis Tomko) fall back into the mid-card in order to feed Angle's ego. We've already seen Angle vs. Samoa Joe, but not with the championship at stake. After Victory Road, it will be about the TNA championship.

Rightfully, Joe should've had at least a short reign as NWA champion before TNA seceded from the NWA earlier this year, but Jarrett and co-owner Dixie Carter, starved for ratings, decided Angle would be the man to carry the ball after secession. Angle, however, has lost whatever novelty value he had left when he arrived 10 months ago. Now, it's the Same Old Kurt. "Angle Appreciation Night"? Some people would rather that Kurt just went away before he self-destructs.

Then, there's Abyss. The character's original appearance suggested an amalgam of Mankind and a pre-2003 Kane. After this week's Impact, the leather mask is gone, replaced with Sting face paint. Next week promises Abyss' 1st interview. Yes, he's going to talk. It took Kane 2 years before he was allowed to speak, using a voice box. 4 years and two mask variants later, Kane adopted his current appearance. Chris Park has cultivated the Abyss gimmick as a man-child-monster for 5 years, maybe longer, without having to say a word. It's safe to assume he's Sting's pet project. The rumored feud with former Wrestling Society X champion Ricky Banderas can't come soon enough. Those that opposed Abyss' unmasking believe that it took away much of the character's value. That might be true, but it's also possible that Park has gone as far as he can with Abyss, and that a new look gives him another opportunity to be the champion down the road. He only got a month as champ last year, which didn't make any sense, but then again, considering the creative team, what does?

The challenge to Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel, & Vince Russo is this. It's time those three, with their combined years of experience in the business, sat down and tried to create some new, adventurous storylines and ideas that have NEVER been tried before. No more copying WCW or WWE or even ECW. If they want to expand to 2 hours and compete directly with Raw (a losing proposition as of now), they have to be totally original. Jim Cornette talks about breaking the "glass ceiling". The first step is elevating guys like Chris Harris and James Storm, the former America's Most Wanted, who've been with TNA from Day 1, toward the main event. Harris faces Christian Cage and Storm is being matched against Rhino at Victory Road. As much as I've railed against Storm rarely jobbing on TV (because his gimmick is derivative of Sandman & Stone Cold Steve Austin, more likely an amalgam of both, and really isn't over because he's charismatically challenged), he needs a clean win here. Harris also has to go over.

By this time next year, if they're lucky, TNA could have fresh blood holding all of their titles to go along with their expanded programming. In order for this to happen, TNA has to realize that the viewers are a lot smarter than being given credit for. The viewers don't want Kurt Angle as champion. They fear for his health. There are those who believe Team 3D is still stale. They won't be the tag champs at the end of the month, but might get them back later on. TNA's fans will embrace "one of their own", i.e. Storm, Harris, or even another charismatically challenged heel, Robert Roode, as their standard bearer. Jarrett has to lose the mindset that he has to be the man on top to sell his company to network executives. There are rumors suggesting that he will somehow win the TNA title to start a program with Angle, whom he never faced in WWE.

And what of the persistent talk of Rob Van Dam or Chris Jericho going to TNA? I don't see either one going. RVD so much as said at a convention earlier this weekend that when he comes back it'll be with EITHER TNA or WWE. Jericho? WWE needs him NOW, and I'd not be surprised if he returned at Summerslam. TNA would only continue to plunge their homegrown stars down the ladder to accomodate the "names".

Bottom line? TNA has to reward the likes of Chris Harris, Robert Roode, Abyss, James Storm, and Chris Sabin for their loyalty sometime, and not ignore their contributions in favor of a steady stream of "quick fixes". It's time to stop trying to copy the other guys and do something different.