garynysmon

9 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

Do you get the big 4 a couple of months later?

Yes, a month I think.

9 hours ago, mdh85 said:

Very, very, nearly bought Hard to Kill to watch after the fact this evening as I'm bored laid up in bed with Covid and there seemed to be a bit of a buzz about the event...was a big TNA fan from around 2006 until Hogoff ushered in the false dawn, and thought it might be fun to dip back in. But £20 on Triller is a bit rich for my blood for the C promotion. 

Anyone dip back in with this show and really enjoy it? I'd be happy to be swayed tbh.

Probably a cheaper option would be subbing to the Impact youtube channel and plonking £1.49 for Ultimate Insiders, giving you a month’s worth of upcoming episodes. They have Ospreay v Josh Alexander, Jordynne Grace v Trinity rematch and the MCMG’s and Okada teaming up in the last batch of tapings so probably worth that much at least.

TNA+, the streaming app, is £9.99 a month but contains weekly episodes, the archive and all monthly PLE’s (apart from the ‘big 4’).

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

I’m not saying it’s an issue to sign ex WWE, I’m saying it feels like they’ll sign anyone just because they’ve been there. Kozlov I mentioned, but what the hell did Dana Brooke show in her tenure to suggest she’d be an asset compared to anyone TNA already have access to?

I don’t think its fair to say they’ll sign ‘anyone’ ex-WWE, although some have certainly been more successful than others. Some have made it clear they don’t want to be there and floundered while others have made the most of the creative freedom to reinvent themselves.

We live in a world where even the talent now know that AEW has more wrestlers than Tony Khan knows what to do with. After that initial debut pop there’s at least a decent chance they’ll drop like a stone and potentially off tv. Probably an even easier, and certainly better paid gig than TNA.

Just as many on the TNA roster have come up straight from the indies/smaller promotions, although I suppose if you don’t follow Impact closely it may sound like they only sign ex-WWE as those are the signings that will gain more attention online.

While there have been some ex-WWE wrestlers who have cruised in without any intention of freshening up their act (I’m thinking Heath Slater for one), others have reinvented themselves for the better.

There are some who view working anywhere outside of WWE as beneath them. So they either brush a company like Impact away altogether, or are usually flushed out soon enough after a few tapings (such as the Iiconics/inspiration).

Others, such as Trinity, will come in and have a good, albeit short, run while waiting to go back to where they really want to be. You can argue if this is to the benefit or detriment of TNA really. (In fairness to Trinity she never once acted like she was ‘above’ TNA and was always hard working and did everything asked of her).

But someone like Fandango, who I’ve initially seen as a bit shit/pointless, went on to totally revamping their act. Dirty Dango’s “I’m better than you sad workrate bastards” schtick is now one of my favourite midcard acts. Kozlov looking cool as fuck can do anything in my book.

Steve Maclin is another who’s totally reinvented himself. Steve Cutler? 

Question marks remain over Nic Nemeth. Apparently he was asking for his release long before being let go, so who knows? A Dolph Ziggler, a veteran x2 WWE champion with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove could be a heck of a signing for TNA/New Japan.

I suppose that I’m in a very minority/strange position of hardly watching any WWE at all though, so anyone who started there post, say, 2012 will almost always be new to my eyes. I don’t think I’ve seen a Dana Brook match in my life, so everyone starts with a clean slate. (Yes, her name is shit).

I can‘t say that Hard to Kill blew my socks off or anything, and there were much stronger Impact PPVs in 2023. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to have loved seeing them perform on a platform closer to the one they deserve really.

There have been some genuinely strong shows/tapings in D’amore-led Impact which were massively let down by a poor looking venue/sparse crowd and/or no one really watching or talking about it.

I can’t emphasise enough how pleased I was to see them holding a show in a “proper arena” in front of a well attended and loud crowd. The Pearl wouldn’t have looked out of place for an AEW Dynamite taping. The wrestlers fucking deserve it tbh.

So while aspects of the show were clunky/messy and segments didn’t always run as smoothly as I’d have liked, I don’t mind that too much.

The general response, from what I can see, has been positive. It may not have been the best show they’ve ever done but getting more people talking about/paying attention to TNA and not completely shitting the bed at their big chance to make a first/second impression was crucial.

Not quite a sell out, but 1,800 is apparently the best Impact/TNA attendance in 8 years. Looked much better/brighter than usual, which is a massively positive sign.

The tunnels are back.

Not too sure of Nash’s contract status these days, nor do I expect it to happen, but how cool would it be for Big Sexy to help out his Paparazzi Productions mate in the main event?!

1 hour ago, JLM said:

They looked good in the match and there was briefly some chatter about them facing FTR in a proper tag match which I am very sad never amounted to anything. 

From memory I think FTR were feeding that narrative and teasing a match in each promotion, which would have been great, but it soon got overshadowed by CM Punk and amounted to nothing.

3 hours ago, JLM said:

The quote LaGoosh responded to was about TK inheriting his wealth. 
LaGoosh pointed out that most other modern wrestling promoters also inherited their wealth , so he’s no different in that regard. It was never suggested that there are no differences at all between Tony and other wrestling promoters. By listing any other differences which spring to mind, you are dunking upon a straw man. He’s just a straw boy from a straw family, and you must let him go. 

Its all subjective (and I'm sure his mam likes him), but no one else has managed to be quite so obnoxious about it imo.

To be a billionaire the odds are pretty strong that you're going to be a twat. There's a stronger chance your offspring are going to be even worse. He never really stood a chance.

But combine that with the worst kind of early 2000's ROH workrate perve, having no self awareness or filter at all on social media.... he really, really grates me. (Not that he will give a flying fuck of course).

He really should have taken the Vince McMahon example of posting nothing on Twitter. He'd be held in a much better light and knowledge of how much of a weirdo he is would be much less widespread.

There would always be (and to a degree there still is) a big constituency of fans simply thankful for him pumping millions of his family's money to create a big federation on national tv. It was so avoidable.

They've already sold 1,000 tickets for Hard to Kill and their Vegas shows tend to have a sizeable walk up crowd (probably comps to be fair), so you'd expect there to be around 1,500 there on Saturday. 

The Palms is a nice looking venue, so they'd have to totally shit the bed for it not to look nice and lit up on TV. 

Why can’t other Directors of Football argue about win and loss records of fake wrestling on social media?

Joe Kinnear would have been all over that.

Can’t be too many steps away from Herb Abrams territory by now.

18 hours ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

Wasn't this the guy who once made a statement online about Cancel Culture forcing "alphas being denied their rights to be alpha".

Yes. Yes it was. This man has a deeply weird sense of social logic.

I love the fact that Impact’s own wrestlers asked management to get him out of the play by position because he was so bad.

I don’t watch anywhere near enough of the big two to justify voting in any categories really (and its pointless nominating much TNA stuff), but I have to say Will Ospreay would be my men’s wrestler of the year.

Match of the year: Will Ospreay v Mike Bailey from Bound for Glory.

Funniest moment of the year: Tony Khan losing it on Twitter

4 hours ago, Loki said:

The TNA Impact! show is really worth catching this week, it's a compilation of great moments in TNA history, including the first ever TNA match (Styles, Lynn and Low Ki v Flying Elvises) and the first Kim-Kong match.

While clearly it makes sense to showcase classic TNA now, for a while now I’ve found the over reliance on archive material to be to the detriment of modern day weekly TV.

There was a point they had a terrible habbit of filling 10-15 minutes of the weekly TV show with ‘classic moment of the week’.  While maybe a good idea on paper, I always thought it made the current stuff look weak when you panned from a packed soundstage with the best sound and lighting featuring the biggest names of the day, to a dimly lit hall with nowhere near the star power.

Having a rich archive is a good thing but its not always a bright idea to remind your audience just how much better you used to be.

I’m incredibly nervous about the relaunch tbh. I think there are too many people expecting the TNA of old, which is impossible for many reasons.

This is TNA on Anthem/Impact Wrestling money, not Panda Energy money.

During TNA’s heyday, rising from the ashes of WCW, WWE was in a creative slump and wrestlers had nowhere else to go, WWE were only hiring a certain kind of talent so TNA could hire good workers relatively cheaply.

While I have no doubt that the budget will be bigger and the TV will look better post-January, I doubt it’ll be revolutionary.

Nowadays its a wrestler’s dream marketplace. There’s WWE, the ‘coca cola of wrestling’ and there’s AEW, owned by the geeky son of a billionaire who’s always looking to add to his roster of 140 odd wrestlers. Its an inflated marketplace, wrestlers can command big money.

Its well publicised that TNA (over?)stretched themselves to offer Punk and Ospreay $1m a year deals and it got them nothing but egg on their face. They’re a levereging tool to get a better offer from where they really want to go.

Five years ago that would have got you a lot, now it might get you a released WWE midcarder as long as AEW doesn’t want them.

Scott D’amore better have something big up his sleeve because “you’ll never believe who’s turning up” type claims raises expectation.

There is no one obvious other than Sasha Banks and her demands are in a different stratosphere.

Dolph Ziggler, days after appearing on New Japan, or Matt fucking Riddle, who’s signed with the wrong’un whisperer, Court Bauer, won’t cut it.

Now Trinity is apparently off to WWE and Deonna Purazzo has signed for AEW. Not the best look, on the eve of your big show, when you’re solely seen as a place to rehab careers only for wrestlers to leave the first chance they get.

TNA giving a fuck between November and January.

They dropped them from the main Channel 5 due to disappointing viewing figures didn’t they?

Mad to think that most kids would gave given their eye teeth to have WWF on free tv in the 90’s, yet by the time they finally got round to it the audience wasn’t there.

Given BT is a very niche channel, surely WWE’s television visibility hasn’t been this low since the explosion of the Premier League and everyone getting sky in 1992?

3 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her wrestle, is she any good? 

I saw her old man wrestle in Holyhead. That's good enough for me.

You know when Jeremy Borash told TNA to move to the UK?....

6 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Jericho's match tonight involves Jericho, Flair and Don Callis (fired from TNA because he sexually harassed Skarlet.) Someone probably needs to ask about this in the media scrum (not likely)

I don’t think he was ever officially fired by Impact but you don’t really leave an executive role with one promotion to become a basic on-screen talent elsewhere without an element of being pushed out (even if it is a bigger company).

I’d be lying if I claimed to have ever seen a match of theirs, but the Grizzled Young Vets have crossed the line.

4 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

That WWE settlement cheque being put "good" use.

Given its partially Saudi money then its pretty apt I suppose?

Riddle and Callihan both signing for MLW then.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/sami-callihan-work-agent-mlw?utm_source=TW-Fightful&utm_medium=Fightful Wrestling News&utm_campaign=dlvr.it
 

(On a personal level I’m chuffed as it keeps both away from TNA).

On 12/19/2023 at 9:29 PM, Merzbow said:

MLW is even more an island for nonces than AEW!

Sounds like Riddle has signed a proper deal with MLW. 

https://411mania.com/wrestling/court-bauer-mlw-talking-matt-riddle-fall/