Sorry for the rant, but having watched a bunch of old Randy Savage promos from ICW/Memphis/early WWF reminded me of what wrestling is sorely lacking.
That's danger.
Randy Savage looked and acted like a legitimate psychopath. Even when he weighed only around 200 pounds, he looked and carried himself like a dangerous badass. Him and his family used to go on ICW and say that Memphis Wrestling was fake. But they were real. And he made you believe.
This business is being crippled on one end by a promoter (McMahon) who is always looking for the next Hulk Hogan & John Cena, and another company TNA looking to compete by doing the same things WCW did.
I think the answer is just in finding people who are believable. To me, guys like Davey Richards and The Briscoes fit the bill. Kurt Angle fits the bill. Bobby Roode fits the bill. Guys like AJ and Motor City Machine Guns are a little more flashy, but they fit the bill too, if only because their offense is so crisp.
But they don't even have to be good in the ring. In the early 1980s, the Road Warriors were just two musclebound, green stiffs at first. But in 1983, they went on TBS every Saturday and beat jobbers half to death, worked hard (even though they were limited), and were believable. And they stayed stars for 20 years. Years later, after the wrestling companies were even saying it was fake...Goldberg was presented as the same way in WCW, and people still talk about Goldberg.
Rob Terry is a big muscle guy, but there's nothing dangerous about him. There's nothing dangerous about Matt Morgan. There's nothing dangerous about Crimson, even when he's carrying a sledgehammer. There's nothing dangerous about Mr. Anderson. He's funny 30% of the time, but does the average guy think Anderson could win a real fight?
But that's all in how they are presented and directed. See Samoa Joe. When booked like a dangerous a**kicker, he's awesome. When he's not, he's just a fake fat guy walking around.
TNA or Impact Wrestling doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. They just need to produce a wrestling program for people who don't wanna see Saturday Night Live or Cartoons when they watch wrestling.