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

[Jaffa]

So what you are saying is he should have been happy where he was, regardless of the opportunities he could have been presented with, of which he had many to advance his own career many times over and provide a living for his family for the rest of his life.

 

No. I'm just saying you can't blame the guy for staying if he was able to provide for his family and his spot was secure. He had a nice contract with TNA and was one of their bigger names. In WWE he could work his way up yet would always be expendable, with TNA they're always more likely to want to keep him as they don't have the big names or the ease of creating them that WWE do. I never said he shouldn't have taken the opportunities when they came up, just that it's understandable why he didn't.

I don't think anybody would dispute that. The point you seem to have missed is that he shouldn't moan about his decision or others who made a different one.

[Professor Paul's Bin]

I'd have preferred to hear Alex Shelley, Low-Ki, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Petey, Eric Young, Doug Williams and then him to mention the likes of Monty Brown, Lance Hoyt, Magnus and other homegrown stars. I assume this may have been problematic to who is actually in the good books with TNA which is no doubt a small amount of ex-wrestlers. Vice versa to.

 

Why would he have mentioned current TNA stars when the promo was specifically about wrestlers being fired?

 

I was more or less on about mentioning who've helped TNA and who deserve to be there. After AJ mentioning the ex-wwe guys taking a 2 year vacation when getting signed for TNA.

[LEGIT]

What do TNA do? Their product is the pits, IMO. And their cash-strapped. I'd take it back to basics, as boring as that sounds.

 

There's far too many pipe bombs, invasions, "groundbreaking" moments that go nowhere. Good wrestlers are out there performing like their in Jersey Shore. Aye, wrestling is all about drama and storylines. But it's like the most awful soap opera. Cheesy contrived promos and angles. Fuck off. It's been going on for years as well. Just wrestle, cheat, boast, attack, double-team, rematch. Have Bully Ray cut seething promos. Have AJ working his ass off. Use stipulations sparingly and sensibly. Cut back the crap and use who and what you have to their strengths. Stop and think about where you are going with storylines. Don't just do things for the sake of a reaction. And stop trying to take over the world. Put on a good show that the audience enjoys. There's a start.

[Dr.PeterVenkman]

I watched that AJ/Dixie promo, didn't think she was that bad for someone who's isn't a professional at all, the problem with that of course is that she shouldn't be out there cutting promos because she isn't a professional

 

To be fair I don't watch TNA outside of the odd Youtube clip but I used to like Impact when it was an hour, I know it can't happen because obviously Spike wouldn't let it but if they did cut down on all the stables bollocks and it was an hour I'd probably give it a watch

 

Not that they should cater their product to just me of course, actually fuck it they should

[Devon Malcolm]

I watched this on YouTube to see what all the fuss was about. It's the first time I've watched a whole TNA segment since that match between Hulk Hogan and Sting a couple of years ago at Bound For Glory.

 

I thought it was absolutely embarrassing. AJ Styles is still dreadful on the mic and he looks like he'll be making his bed under a pile of Metros tonight. Dixie was absolutely terrible although I liked the bit where she told the crowd "No, wait, hang on!" even though nobody actually cared what she was saying and nobody could be arsed objecting. It was like she realised she was supposed to be the heel a few minutes in and tried a desperate attempt to drum up some heat. And failed.

 

It was a terrible attempt at apeing the CM Punk WWE thing, but the problem is that AJ isn't CM Punk, Dixie isn't Vince McMahon and TNA doesn't understand what made those segments so great in the first place.

[Loki]

Everything I hate about wrestling was in this promo. Its the same shit I used to watch back in 2000. I dont want to watch old WCW 2000 re-runs anymore.

 

I reckon you should take a break from watching, Ian. Your rage each week, whilst amusing, probably isn't healthy. Just stop watching until something happens that piques your interest, that's what I'm doing. GTA5 is out, who has time for wrestling?

[Maverick]

I can't wait for Ian's Death of TNA book, would only have to go trough and edit his posts on here and it'd make pretty good reading.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I reckon you should take a break from watching, Ian. Your rage each week, whilst amusing, probably isn't healthy. Just stop watching until something happens that piques your interest, that's what I'm doing. GTA5 is out, who has time for wrestling?

It shows weakness to give up so late in the game. I can't give up when so much madness is going on. TNA is more must watch than its ever been because its so news worth. And GTA peaked when you could put the PSOne disc into a CD player and hear the "found their women scary, because they were big and hairy" song.

Edited September 21, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Ian's posts in here are the best thing about TNA these days, especially that 'golden carrots' one from a while back. Their ability in fucking everything up makes for quite fascinating reading.

 

Gonna have to check out that 'shoot' on youtube now, the first one from AJ didn't disappoint.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Jerry Jarrett's had his say on TNA recently.

On Dixie's non-wrestling background and how that effects her running a wrestling company:

You've got to have an unabiding respect for the business or it's impossible to be successful. When I was in the wrestling business, me and the wrestling business were intertwined. I ate it, slept it, dreamt it. The wrestling business was my mistress. Dixie saw her first match after she had ownership, I think and I know for a fact she has little regard for the tradition or the history of the business. So, if you don't know what brought you to the dance, how are you supposed to learn from it and build on it. After all this years, it's pretty obvious that I'm right. TNA today is as closed to being a non factor in the business as you can get.

Thoughts on TNA's focus on Ex-WWE talents:

That's one of the mistakes they made. They can't seem to get past the fact that when you bring in guys that WWE has let go, fans are going to see them as yesterday's soup. But of course you have to have someone who knows how to cultivate and create talent otherwise you have no choice but to use whoever's available, thats named talent. It's pretty obvious that they don't have anybody that knows how to create talent. I'm guessing, because I haven't seen the show in 2-3 years, but I'm sure there's talent there that could be superstars. Truth, Ron Killings was in TNA and then you saw when he went to WWE how Vince made him into a superstar. In the wrestling business, it's really not any secret, it's understanding that if you're making a movie. what are the ingredients you need? A compelling storyline, a great producer/director and great talent. You mix those ingredients and you get great cinema. But if you take this great star or talent and put him in a stinking movie with a stinking producer director, what do you get? and the wrestling business is a dance between the promoter or booker or writer and the talent. They have to be on the same page and they both have to be good.

TNA's future:

I am amazed, because when I was there, Bob Carter called me at least two to three times a week and said "I can't lose any more money, Jerry" and I said "You're needing to talk to your daughter, not to me. She's running the place"So I'm amazed that they are in business. I think at this point, it'safe to say that TNA will continue to be subsidized by Bob Carter until he dies. Then I think TNA will go the way of ECW and the territory days.

[Loki]

Bellator tours around, putting on a live show every week. Would it be possible for TNA to share that tour? The sizes of venue look better for TNA right now, they could share production and travel.

 

Just a thought.

[Maverick]

Would the MMA fans want to have to sit through the fake wrestling though? An interesting idea but it would be like two musical acts from similar but different genres with different fanbases touring together. Some MMA fans wouldn't want to watch TNA and vice versa.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

As well as what Maverick said, its a pain in the arse to tape two wrestling shows in a single night. There's no chance they'd be able to co-promote a MMA and wrestling event. You only have to look at how knackered the fans (who haven't left) are in the second taping of Impact. Adding to that, its not Viacom or Spike's job to lift TNA up from its current mess. Spike owns Bellator. It doesn't own TNA. So its up to the Carter family to relocate the shows. Besides where would you put the ring?

 

Its doubtful they will go to Las Vegas, judging by some of the stuff coming out about it. Jason Powell (the guy with the sources in TNA) was saying they've looked into running the Orleans Hotel & Casino, but they've found that generally people wont do and watching it weekly and that would die a death. That area doesn't attract tourists to their events like Orlando did. Adding to that, only Mike Tenay and Kenny King live in Vegas, so you'd be still flying loads of people out from Florida, where most of them live. TNA's first choice is to go back to Orlando somewhere, even if its not the Impact Zone. WWE have been in talks with Universal about setting up a physical Hall of Fame, so WWE may have exclusively on Universal Studios at the minute. That's if Universal want them back. The old Fairgrounds in Nashville is also an option, but that place looks like the building is run through 8 quid on the electric key. Its hard to see how you make that place look good. They've got until about March to sort it out, which is a positive I suppose. Other stuff going about is that they are proper steadying the ship in 2014. I dont think the Carters see TNA as having any legs anymore, so have decided to try and get it into a position where they are losing as little money as possible for people who want to potentially buy them. And if that means taping months worth of TV like WCW used to do, they could do that. Dropping the remaining four PPVs (or at least 3) wouldn't be shocking either, to just make them a TV product and thats it.

 

I forgot where I heard it, but someone on a podcast was talking about the idea of filming 6 months worth of Impact in early 2014 and telling the roster to come back in a few months to film the rest of it. Like Ring Ka King did. Where you film it like a series. It probably wouldn't make it very exciting, and people could read half a years worth of spoilers, but it would be much cheaper and it probably wouldn't hurt ratings. The danger of that is losing a lot of talent, because they aren't going to be twiddling their thumbs all year waiting for TNA to call them back. But most of the big contracts might be long gone by March.

Edited September 21, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Doctor Whos Next]

I do really think that was a terrible promo last night from Dixie. She's better used in a Jack Tunney sort of role where you stick her behind the desk, or on the interview stage, and she makes proclaimations.

 

Vince McMahon worked well as a heel authority figure because he had a lot of natural heat from the screwjob, and had been around the business for ages by that point.

 

Bischoff worked as a heel authority figure in '96 because the "Old" WCW that the NWO were trying to tear down was an anologue to WCW trying to bury the WWF, so he could translate some of that smugness that seems to define him.

 

And both fellas are probably knobheads in real life anyway, so its easy to translate that.

 

Every other wrestling exec that has been on screen as a heel has just been terrible.

 

You need to build up the chases for the championships more. Let the wreslters be wreslters, not bad actors pretending they are pretending to be wrestlers.

[garynysmon]

Dixie didn't come over quite as badly as I thought she would. In fact, the whole angle wasn't horiffic as I'd expected, but like most others, my expectations were on the floor to begin with.

I'm quite interested to see where they're going with this to be honest. God knows they need a boost before Bound for Glory as the buyrate will be embarassingly low even by TNA standards at this rate.