The TNA Self Destruction Thread

[NEWM]

There have been millions of times they've done it, the absolute buffoons, but which one did you like best? Chapter 1 of the tale is always the greatest thing you've ever seen, but then it completely collapses and you decide to never watch wrestling again.

 

I'm going to go with the Main Event Mafia story. Starting off as a group of pissed off headliners, dealing out beatings based on the tweener Sting's ethos of the young kids playing their Game Boy Colours backstage instead of watching some fucking tapes and actually getting good at wrestling. All the while, a simmering tension from underneath existed with verbal frontman Kurt Angle, which should ultimately lead to Sting turning back face and making nice with the best of the TNA Frontline, finally endorsing them as having respect after all, being decent kids, and joining them for great fights against the self-serving heels which ultimately lead to all the TNA guys getting meaningful wins over the legends.

 

End results are that the angle proves too fucking TRUE! The MEM are brilliant at getting over compared to Da Midcard Movez Krew, so TNA books the Frontline to never ever win EVER, turns Sting face anyway but just has him and Angle feud for the belt ignoring everybody else in the story, then give all the heels all the belts, stick Taz and a fucking disgustingly out-of-place Samoa Joe in with the big lads and have them all steadily drift apart with zero explanation. The only saving grace being a funny angle down the road where Scotty Steiner is doing MEM business in his own mind, wearing the gear and all sorts. Not the first, not the last, but a fucking mighty comedown from those first few weeks.

 

From this:

 

 

To this:

 

 

I nearly posted another one here just because about 6 more popped in my head all at once, but I'll let others do a better job on those.

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

Whenever they said a former WWE world title holder was coming over and it was someone who once held the European title or something.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Benoit and Guerrero pretty much killed TNA off. When they kicked off it was supposed to be the alternative (if you ignore the shite booking team of course). "WWE has the shitty bodybuilders, we have the fast paced style". There was a time when WWE wouldnt have looked twice at Daniel Bryan, PAC, Antonio Cesaro, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. Now WWE basically snap up every name on the indy scene who has potential and TNA are left with people like Joey Ryan and Christian York. TNA's talent roster is roster weak at the minute.

[Slapnut]

I'm going with Bobby Roode's loss at Bound For Glory last year. I know he still did pretty fucking well from it, but it was so frustrating seeing him lose after such a fiery babyface build-up.

showed he had all the tools to take the ball and run with it as a face, so it was mind-boggling when they had him lose.

 

s which is sensational looking back. I hope he turns face again eventually.

 

Immortal was a big letdown for me as well. It started off strong with big names like Hogan, Jeff Hardy, Flair and Jeff Jarrett, but at one point it seemed to just be made up of nobodies like Gunner, Rob Terry and Bully Ray who, at the time, had just split up from Devon and hadn't proved how good he could be. The pay-off with Hogan at Bound For Glory was lovely, but for a faction that was all about power, people like Abyss and Murphy just couldn't cut the mustard.

[ShortOrderCook]

There was one point where it really felt like they missed the boat on making Tomko a super-over mega-face. But they swerved it and he turned heel even though he was already heel. Or something like that. In hindsight there probably wasn't a boat to begin with.

[air_raid]

When Hogan announced they were bringing in a major player who could "change the game" and said "this guy could literally just walk in here, and just take the World Heavyweight title" and it turned out to be Kennedy. That made TNA look small potatoes and Hogan look an idiot.

 

Anything where they tried to take potshots at WWE, making them look sad and desperate. VKM being the worst.

[spotlightmagnet1]

Desmond Wolfe. I know it might all be TNA's fault but in the short time he was there he went from the main event feud with Angle to bumping for Abyss so Flair could fall into the hole in the ring. London Brawling also looked to be kick ass but then he was gone.

 

I think things have gotten slightly better, but the one thing the Hogan regime seem to not do well is the X Division. They quickly bring in a load of new talent for the run up to Destination X and then forget about it. RVD having the title shows how much apathy they have. RVD blatantly doesn't care, should've kept it on Ion, at least he showed alot of personality and gave a damn.

[Your Fight Site]

Desmond Wolfe.

Yes.

 

Also, this Aces & Eights thing seems to have gone on for an age now, with no real progression other than one getting unmasked every other week and it ending up being some former WWE mid-carder.

[UK Kat Von D]

They have dropped the ball with numerous wrestlers. Samoa Joe, Monty Brown, Hernendez, Matt Morgan and Tomko all spring to mind. TNA seem great at pushing people only to struggle when it comes to pulling the trigger or keeping their momentum going. The problem is these wrestlers don't have the tools to bounce back. Once they get that stigma of being shit it sticks with them (usually because they are.) They have fucked up at times with guys like AJ and Angle sure, but they are so good they bounce back and the fans forgive it. They guys who need protecting just can't rely on TNA to do that.

[Heartbreak Kid]

How about the LAX angle. At one time it was the hottest thing going. Also, the Kevin Nash vs X Division Size matters feud feud was excellent until they botched it up.

[Accident Prone]

The conversion to the 6-sided ring was the best move they ever did. It made every PPV a must see, no matter how lackluster it seemed, because the ring offered more room for crazy shit to go down. I have never been emotionally invested in a TNA storyline, i only watched for the X-Division going balls to the wall in that glorious ring. Its what set it apart from the competition.

 

Now, we're back to a regular ring (thanks Hulk!) and the X-Division is basically a sham compared to the 04-07 glory days. Yes, this opinion is nothing new and it's a very regular one amongst fans but that doesn't mean that it holds no clout.

[Vamp]

I thought TNA used the six sided ring for television shows as well as PPVs?

[Magnum]

The thing with TNA fuck-ups is that, although they tend to go against wrestling booking logic, I usually end up really enjoying what comes out of them. I thought the MEM were class, because I've always been a fan of dominant heel stables, and for me it only really started to go tits-up with them entertainment-wise when Fat Joe and Tazz jumped on the bandwagon. Ditto Bobby Roode's Bound for Glory flop; although it was indisputably a shit way to end a PPV you've been building for months, Bobby Roode was born to play an arrogant, heel world champion. He's so much more suited to that role than the everyman babyface he'd been playing leading up to the event, over as he was.

 

In terms of fucking up long-term storylines like that, WWE annoys me far more than TNA. WWE tend to cling to the status quo like a comfort blanket when any new act or angle starts to get over, whereas TNA at least tend to change direction every once in a while, even if it's not the direction everyone wanted or expected. What TNA tend to annoy me most with is their incredibly small-time pay-offs to 'surprise' angles: having Eric Young as the mystery partner in a main event tag match, or Chris Harris in a King of the Mountain match. The latest one is D-Von in Aces & Eights. To be fair, they booked themselves into a corner with the storyline months ago, but there still had to be umpteen options preferable to unveiling fucking D-Von as the de facto leader of the stable. Once you do that, you may as well have had Savio Vega at the head of a heel stable for all the main event aura it's going to have left.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The conversion to the 6-sided ring was the best move they ever did. It made every PPV a must see, no matter how lackluster it seemed, because the ring offered more room for crazy shit to go down. I have never been emotionally invested in a TNA storyline, i only watched for the X-Division going balls to the wall in that glorious ring. Its what set it apart from the competition.

 

Now, we're back to a regular ring (thanks Hulk!) and the X-Division is basically a sham compared to the 04-07 glory days. Yes, this opinion is nothing new and it's a very regular one amongst fans but that doesn't mean that it holds no clout.

Its a ring! Why would anyone watch wrestling for the shape of a ring? TNA was shite with the six sided ring and it wasn't like it made it better or worse.

[spotlightmagnet1]

The conversion to the 6-sided ring was the best move they ever did. It made every PPV a must see, no matter how lackluster it seemed, because the ring offered more room for crazy shit to go down. I have never been emotionally invested in a TNA storyline, i only watched for the X-Division going balls to the wall in that glorious ring. Its what set it apart from the competition.

 

Now, we're back to a regular ring (thanks Hulk!) and the X-Division is basically a sham compared to the 04-07 glory days. Yes, this opinion is nothing new and it's a very regular one amongst fans but that doesn't mean that it holds no clout.

Its a ring! Why would anyone watch wrestling for the shape of a ring? TNA was shite with the six sided ring and it wasn't like it made it better or worse.

 

You'd be surprised. Honestly, I love wrestling in rings with gold/yellow ropes. Don't know why it just feels right. The six sided ring was a bit of a headache in terms of where tag team partners should be but the whole set up they had screamed unique and different brand. Personally, I'd rather they kept those cool 'space vault' entrance ways than the six sided ring but hey ho.