Rant #1,694: The Night Pop TV Went ... Pop

My second warning of the week: THIS IS NOT A SPORTS STORY, THIS IS NOT A SPORTS STORY!

Last night was an odd one indeed.

It took me forever to get home from work, made all the more frustrating because I had a late appointment to see my doctor as part of my routine checkup.

I had already been canceled once, and I wanted to get this over with, once and for all, last night.

Well, as I said, it took me forever to get home--a police action on the side of the road near where I live stalled all drivers on my route--and when I finally got home, my wife told me that the doctor called, and I was canceled yet again.

OK, so I had a free night. I wasn't too happy, but what am I supposed to do? I will have to make another appointment.

Then, as the night wore on, it got to the time that TNA Wrestling is on Pop TV, the former TV Guide Channel, which is trying, desperately, to paint itself as a pay-TV powerhouse, but right now, is simply as negligible as TV Guide, the magazine, in today's channel-crazy society.

TNA is the second most popular wrestling entity behind WWE, which is like saying the local TV guide you got in your newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s played second fiddle to the original TV Guide.

WWE is mammoth; TNA stays around as a niche wrestling group, which doesn't make it bad, but it really cannot compete with WWE.

Thus, any foulups on its part become huge, because they cannot afford any ... and yesterday was as big a foulup as any I have seen on television in years.

One of their big pay per views is Slammiversary, and a new champion was crowned that night, former WWE star Bobby Lashley, who, coincidently, beat another former WWE star, Drew Galloway, for the title.

The show even got some mainstream buzz because the Hardy Boys--yes, former WWE stars--were going one on one against each other, and Matt and Jeff have great star power, no matter what group they wrestle for, and brother versus brother is news.

And they were supposed to announce their latest inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame, referee Earl Hebner, yet another WWE alum.

Anyway, TNA was supposed to have a live, 9 pm to 11 pm show to highlight Slammiversary and everything that happened at that pay per view, and my son and I turned on the TV a little before that hour, anticipating the show.

What we originally got was a black, blank screen--we thought it was our TV's fault at first--and then you could see that Pop TV tried to go to the live feed from Orlando, but it just would not sync up properly.

They then went to a loop of commercials, playing the same five or six commercials over and over, ads promoting their shows, including TNA.

They then showed a succession of standard commercials, and then back to the Pop TV commercials.

My son even checked his own TV, which is on Verizon--we were watching the supposed show on Dish Network--and alas, it was the same thing.

They then hooked up with Orlando, but the video and audio were completely out of sync, and after two or three minutes, they again left TNA and ran commercials.

This was getting onto 10 p.m., and I had had enough, and I went to bed.

I don't know if the show ever ran. I went to the TNA website, and there was no mention of the problem, nor was it mentioned at Pop TV's site. I have yet to go onto social media, so I don't know if there was any reaction there.

However, for a fledgling TV network like Pop TV to have such a cock up is really reprehensible. At no time during the hour or so that I watched this travesty did they ever put up a crawl on the screen saying that they were having "Technical Difficulties" to alert viewers, they just kept on going with ads and nothing else.

And for TNA to be a participant in such a mess, well, it can't help them win over viewers as they try to build their reputation with wrestling fans.

I have no idea what happened, I don't know if they fixed the problems for the second half of the show, all I know is that I have to chalk it up to a wasted hour of my life, I guess.

Yes, Pop TV went pop last night, at the expense of the viewers, who should have at least been warned that the network was having problems, rather than simply running the same ads over and over.

Sure, pro wrestling is phony, but last night's travesty was as real as real could be.

P.S.: From what I have gotten off social media, Pop finally got their act together by 11 p.m., and broadcast TNA--the now recorded show--at this time, with no explanation at all about what happened earlier on during its regularly scheduled time. What a screw-up!