Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[ColinBollocks]

On the other hand, are TNA's ratings constant on Spike? If so, Viacom might want to take a punt and keep the show around. Alternatively, they let the TNA brand go, and Hogan and Bisch start a promotion from scratch in the timeslot.

They could rebrand the show and I doubt it would significantly decrease viewership. The one positive TNA have is their audience always finds them on a Thursday, no matter what. Them changing the name won't matter to their current steady audience.

 

Spike want TNA about to help increase their Bellator audience, at the very least. Wrestling has always been good for the channel.

[Loki]

This restructuring is to make them lean enough to stay on the road, right? So they'll probably run like this for 6 months, see if it works. If the numbers still don't add up, I could see them going back to a tv studio somewhere.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Big contracts and costs of going on the road is what is killing them. Until they sort them out, they will continue to bleed money. There's no way they will turn this around by staying on the road. It just depends how long TNA has really. Nobody has ever tried to buy TNA, but the general conscientious is that if the Carters get an offer for it, they'd have sold it by now. And if TNA get so far in the shit (which they are heading towards), Viacom will buy them like they bought Bellator, because they like wrestling on the network. All the signs are pointing to the thing being sold eventually. All the signs are there. Dixie wasn't even at Impact last week. As soon as they get off the road, I'd say thats when something might happen. Where do TNA go if they go off the road? They've burnt a bridge with Universal by just upping sticks with no notice. That building has been filled and they dont want them back. So where do you go? Also, will the Carters want to continue beating a dead horse? Spending $1.2 million a month on going on the road and getting absolutely nothing out of it would be the soul destroyer for me to flog it.

 

The wrestlers aren't getting paid on time either. Once you kill moral, its hard to go back. If AJ Styles is looking for options outside of the promotion, that says it all.

Edited September 3, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[garynysmon]

It's a shame really as we were all crying out for them to leave the Impact zone as a pretty good product was being brought down by that godawful crowd. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked at all.

Go for the Vegas crowd I say. Or even alternate between New York/Vegas/Florida for three month chunks. It's got to be better than half empty arenas and lots of black curtains as it is now.

[Dirty Eddie]

It's a shame really as we were all crying out for them to leave the Impact zone as a pretty good product was being brought down by that godawful crowd.

 

 

It's such a shame that the product has dropped off a fucking cliff at the exact same time they went on the road. Impact was great fun last year with loads of good matches and some fun angles being played out but the show is pretty dire at the moment. The last Impact was saved by some nice parings of wrestlers having good matches (loved Aries/Daniels). The storyline stuff and out of the ring bits were horrible though - with AJ and Hogan's waffle-a-thons taking the cake.

 

The fact that they fucked up the BFG tourney says it all really. If you can't write down some wrestler's names, pair them all up and spread it all over some TV tapings then you are a retard.

[garynysmon]

Yeah, can't argue with any of that really, my enthusiasm for the product has slipped downhill over the past few weeks.

I did read somewhere that some of the recent strange booking may be down to Bruce Pritchard's departure as even though he wasn't much kop as a talent guy, he was organised in a booking sense.

[JNLister]

Don't forget the problem is "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings", it's actually "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings because they don't sell enough tickets to the tapings." It's not like they were losing their arse when they taped Impact at UK tours each year.

[pgi86]

Btw, in case anyone cares, Zema Ion is making his return to TNA at this weekend's house show loop.

[Rob Lowe]

It's a shame really as we were all crying out for them to leave the Impact zone as a pretty good product was being brought down by that godawful crowd.

It doesnt help that they're doing shows in buildings they have no chance of selling out. Why are they still doing that? Every other promoter (that knows what they're doing) in the world would go to smaller buildings, especially when they can see ticket sales in advance. If it aint selling you cancel or scale down.

 

Early Raws and Nitros were in smaller buildings, even ECW managed to do a ppv from the shithole arena 15 years ago! Scale down the entrance way (which is ANOTHER thing that looks like a bad copy of WWE.) and go to smaller buildings.

 

Instead of paying Hogan $35k to do a pointless backstage skit, why not send him to the ticket booth so anyone that buys a ticket on release day can get a photo and handshake from him. He can promote it on the local radio station that morning too!

 

Ooh get me in there lads! They'll be in profit by thursday!

[Daaaaaad!]

Don't forget the problem is "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings", it's actually "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings because they don't sell enough tickets to the tapings." It's not like they were losing their arse when they taped Impact at UK tours each year.

On this note, have you seen the poster for the Maximum Impact VI tour?

 

 

Jesus Christ. 'Manik' is one of the top talent listed. Shocking behaviour.

[CTXRussomark]

Don't forget the problem is "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings", it's actually "they can't afford to go on the road for tapings because they don't sell enough tickets to the tapings." It's not like they were losing their arse when they taped Impact at UK tours each year.

On this note, have you seen the poster for the Maximum Impact VI tour?

 

 

Jesus Christ. 'Manik' is one of the top talent listed. Shocking behaviour.

I imagine those are the only guys they have under contract into next year, so are the only ones guaranteed to be there. Certainly Bully Ray, Storm, Roode, Joe and Magnus all signed deals fairly recently, so I assume the others are the same. Shocking line-up but at least they're being honest I suppose.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Shocking line-up but at least they're being honest I suppose.

Makes a change from advertising someone they know cant leave the country in an almost fraudulent attempt to raise ticket sales.

 

Interesting that Kurt Angle isn't advertised for this year, though. He's got a deal for a while. Makes you wonder if he'll be back by then. And if he isn't, he'll miss his own Hall of Fame induction. How odd.

 

They really could have tarted that poster up though. Samoa Joe is a big star by the standards of the non-ex WWE talent. People know and like him. Magnus is British, so dump him on there. And Roode isn't exactly a nobody. They could have had them on the poster. Manik and Gunner in big font is laughable. Nobody gives a shit about Gunner.

Edited September 3, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[PSF]

Kids like Manik though. I have an 11 year old brother who loves him. Pretty much just because he wears a mask i'm guessing, but i'm assuming thats why he's on there.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I dont think any group of people in significant numbers give a shit about Suicide. Shark Boy is more over than him. And he's rarely on.

[Professor Paul's Bin]

Manik is fucking tripe. I've been to the TNA Tour in 2010, 2011, 2012 and two shows this year. As it stands at the moment I'm gonna give the 2014 tour a miss. Can't really be arsed with it due to the bad few months TNA has had.