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Impressed with TNA


rocky64

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A thought struck me about TNA when I was watching the Royal Rumble the other week.

 

I'm not sure how much it registers to people who watch WWE every week and catch all the PPVs, but to me (whose last full PPV watch was WrestleMania last year), whenever I watch a full show it really demonstrates how massive the scale of WWE is compared to TNA, or anything else. The production is just huge, it's astonishing.

 

Watch Edge's entrance from the Rumble. I don't care how into wrestling you are, you watch that, with the HD, the screens, the pyro, music, the big arenas, and it just screams "this guy is a BIG FUCKING DEAL". WWE can make guys look like megastars, and its video promos like the one for WrestleMania... we know nothing about it except that it's a must-see. The effort and money that can be put into making WWE look that immense ... TNA just cannot compete with it.

 

It doesn't really matter how impressive TNA may or may not be at the moment, I think the fact remains that if you're watching TNA, you're probably already into wrestling to some degree. Show a non-fan some TNA, and show them Edge's entrance from the Royal Rumble - give them the choice and I'm pretty confident they'd pick WWE every time.

 

This isn't a knock on TNA - Impact is a perfectly decent pick-up-and-watch show that you can quite happily drift in and out of. But they're never going to look like WWE's equal, no matter how good the matches or storylines are.

 

The solution would be to not try to be equals ... but then they'll never ever ever get above the average rating they've been getting for the last god-knows-how-long. Bit of a tough one, really.

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I think TNA are doing a pretty good job from what I've seen. If there wasn't so many other things on TV I want to watch I'd watch TNA each week as well as WWE. I don't have time for both, so WWE always wins.

 

I don't really see what they are doing so wrong for some people. They've been around 9 years now, which is as long as ECW was around, they've drawn bigger crowds than ECW ever did, run more international tours, done more PPVs, have a much better roster. I can't imagine they'll ever be at the level WCW was even when it was losing, but it could happen if they stick at it.

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This isn't a knock on TNA - Impact is a perfectly decent pick-up-and-watch show that you can quite happily drift in and out of.

I don't know how true that is. Whenever I watch Impact, I find the storylines and characters quite difficult to get into. Like those superhero comics where you need to have read a million different issues to understand the dynamics and characters involved. I don't know if it's that TNA doesn't explain the backstories well enough or if it's just me. It seems to me like the characters and rivalries on WWE (well, the characters that have anything to them, at least) are more well-defined by the video packages and commentators. But I'm saying that as a regular viewer. It could be exactly the same for new viewers as when I watch TNA.

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A thought struck me about TNA when I was watching the Royal Rumble the other week.

 

I'm not sure how much it registers to people who watch WWE every week and catch all the PPVs, but to me (whose last full PPV watch was WrestleMania last year), whenever I watch a full show it really demonstrates how massive the scale of WWE is compared to TNA, or anything else. The production is just huge, it's astonishing.

 

Watch Edge's entrance from the Rumble. I don't care how into wrestling you are, you watch that, with the HD, the screens, the pyro, music, the big arenas, and it just screams "this guy is a BIG FUCKING DEAL". WWE can make guys look like megastars, and its video promos like the one for WrestleMania... we know nothing about it except that it's a must-see. The effort and money that can be put into making WWE look that immense ... TNA just cannot compete with it.

 

It doesn't really matter how impressive TNA may or may not be at the moment, I think the fact remains that if you're watching TNA, you're probably already into wrestling to some degree. Show a non-fan some TNA, and show them Edge's entrance from the Royal Rumble - give them the choice and I'm pretty confident they'd pick WWE every time.

 

This isn't a knock on TNA - Impact is a perfectly decent pick-up-and-watch show that you can quite happily drift in and out of. But they're never going to look like WWE's equal, no matter how good the matches or storylines are.

 

The solution would be to not try to be equals ... but then they'll never ever ever get above the average rating they've been getting for the last god-knows-how-long. Bit of a tough one, really.

 

Superb post.

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If they're a sustainable company that are employing people and giving fans an alternative then does it really matter what their ratings are? That's what I've always thought. If they tried too hard to compete they'd probably end up going out of business.

 

My all-time favourite promotion was ECW. To people who loved that product it didn't matter that they weren't competing ratings/PPV wise. If anything that added to their charm, kind of like a band that you discover that you don't want to go 'mainstream'. Some bands forever stay at that cult level but that's just how their fans like it.

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If they're a sustainable company that are employing people and giving fans an alternative then does it really matter what their ratings are? That's what I've always thought. If they tried too hard to compete they'd probably end up going out of business.

 

Very true. In fact, they would have gone out of business under their money-losing weekly PPV model if Panda hadn't come along and had the patience to see it recover and become profitable eventually. But don't kid yourself, they wouldn't have gotten hold of Hogan or had a bash at opposing Raw if they didn't want to compete.

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There ratings are fine, especially for that Network. Smackdown's ratings aren't great either and they constantly have guys from Raw on their shows to help ratings and the USA Network is the most watched cable channel along with TNT & TBS apparently.

 

When Zuffa took over the UFC they had WWE style ring entrances but compared to the big budget Pride, they looked small time, so they scaled down and had the fighters walk through the crowd and it looked great, so maybe it's time for TNA to try another approach with their production, instead of being a cheap version of WWE or WCW from the 90's.

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This isn't a knock on TNA - Impact is a perfectly decent pick-up-and-watch show that you can quite happily drift in and out of.

I don't know how true that is. Whenever I watch Impact, I find the storylines and characters quite difficult to get into. Like those superhero comics where you need to have read a million different issues to understand the dynamics and characters involved. I don't know if it's that TNA doesn't explain the backstories well enough or if it's just me. It seems to me like the characters and rivalries on WWE (well, the characters that have anything to them, at least) are more well-defined by the video packages and commentators. But I'm saying that as a regular viewer. It could be exactly the same for new viewers as when I watch TNA.

 

I know what you mean, but I find I can watch it not really knowing the backstories - bit like reading comics, really - I can pick up the essentials as I go along and there's still some level of enjoyment to be had - granted, I'd get more out of it if I knew more, but who has the time, etc.

 

Plus it's quite fun if you only watch every so often to try and figure out how many times everybody's turned since the last time you watched.

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Don't know what the spoiler rules are with TNA these days, so just in case I'll put these in tags:

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

I watched some of Impact last night, the first time I have done so in months, it was horrific. Some random thoughts:

 

-There was much less wresling than WWE and more shitty skits, which is ironic considering they always try to pride themselves on being more wrestling than 'entertainment'

-What is a 'taped fist' match? I didn't stick around to see the match. Is it a street fight, but the competitors tape their fists? Pointless gimmick

-I hate backstage skits anyway, and have always hated the over-acted WWE ones. But the shakey-handcam 'filmed in secret' bacstage skits in TNA are abysmal

-Last time I watched TNA, The Pope was absolute gold and one of the most over superstars. Now he is a heel (which isn't necessarily a huge problem, though he was a very popular face) and even worse, is Bubba-Ray's running buddy?!?! How the fuck did they drop the ball with this one?

-D-Von looked fucking terrible. It took him a year to run to the ring and attack Bubba & Pope. Samoa Joe was only marginly quicker

-I watched a terrible triple threat feating Doug Williams (whom I love), Frankie Kazarian and one half of that horrible skinny tag team that lack both psychology and protein. It was so awfully choreographed and didn't flow. It was spot after spot with little logic or sense

-One positive, Mr Anderson came across really well in the in-ring segment with Jeff. He had a star aura about him for the first time that I'd seen, I'm guessing he's gotten over quite well there as a face then

 

Maybe I just happened to tune in for a shit 45 minutes (or however long I watched for), but judging from what I saw it's as bad as I've seen it. They had so much potential a year ago as well

 

[close spoiler]

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What sticks out to me is how weak Immortal are now Fortune have turned and the faces have got their shit together. The only guys who really matter are The Hardys and Jeff Jarrett, the rest are basically meaningless muscle. Things may have changed though on the episode leading into Against All Odds, I am only up to speed with what has aired on Challenge.

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