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

[Philjax]

Don't be. I've been fooled too many times.

As long as Alberto is around and THAT X-division/womens division roster, the product remains unwatchable.

[Ambulance Chaser]

Yeah unless they have 500 million or a magic wand it's in the shitter. It's as bad now as I've seen it, Eli Drake is absolutely dreadful, he is beyond mid card indie, his fucking gear isn't even consistent which really bugs me, looks like he forgot his stuff and got changed in lost property, fucking macho man wrist tape on just one hand, one elbow pad, shit facial hair. Morrison is the worst promo in the business. Lashley is the only ace in the pack and he is stuck in this MMA vs TNA feud that's been going on roughly 14 years. The commentary is the worst in Wrestling, Borash has zero range in his voice, he sounds the same as he does ordering a Chinese as when someone gets slammed on thumb tacks, it's terrible.

It's got too much of a stink on it I'm afraid.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Ambulance Chaser

[Egg Shen]

Whilst i aint currently watching to make an argument about what you've said, ive always liked what Eli Drake has done in TNA.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Budget isn't everything. Being smarter with how they spend the money and a compelling product should see them good for a while.
Naively, perhaps, I am remaining optimistic.

[Philjax]

It's not about money. The NWA is already better, with a three man roster and a bunch of camcorder video footage!

When i'm more excited about a 53 year old man who can barely wrestle, the prospect of Jack Swagger turning up, and Magnus as the champ for most of 2018 you know they've got a problem.

I can't get on board with anyone, and it will continue, who thinks money can be made from Del Rio, Sonjay Dutt, Sienna, Abyss and various recycled indy talent that they've tried with time and time again.

On the subject of Magnus, I was sad when I heard he'd won the belt, but then I saw this and realized there's a fair bit of mileage in having him be an annoyingly hard to defeat wanker heel:

 

I'm still not sure why they did the change on a CZW show though.

[Rosler28]

Didn't even know the nwa was still going. Good to see a Brit with the belt though

[garynysmon]

3 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Budget isn't everything. Being smarter with how they spend the money and a compelling product should see them good for a while.
Naively, perhaps, I am remaining optimistic.

I keep doing this to myself, but I'm stopping short this time. I'll see how it plays out.

I wouldn't rule out a Jericho appearance though, especially if they hold some tapings in Winnipeg sometime this year. 

Personally, I fear that D'Amore and Callis are of the modern wrestling (aka Indy wank) mould and it will become NJPW-lite instead of WWE-lite.

I quite like Eli Drake, he's good on the mic and a bit old school in that regard. I give much less of a shit about workrate than most fans though, which puts me in the minority I know.  

I also like what they're doing with the NWA. Without a TV deal, I can certainly see some kind of relationship developing with Impact though. Billy Corgan seemed to be making some noises in that direction recently.

Edited December 13, 2017 by garynysmon

[tiger_rick]

23 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

I quite like Eli Drake, he's good on the mic and a bit old school in that regard. I give much less of a shit about workrate than most fans though, which puts me in the minority I know.  

I've never once looked at Drake and thought workrate was the biggest problem. Sure, he's a shitarse, but Alberto Del Rio has more charisma in his little finger than Drake and he's fucking Alberto Del Rio.

[Really Big Shoe]

I quite like Eli too. He's very much a knockoff of The Rock but at least it seems he's trying and into what he's doing. I disagree he lacks charisma too. He's not overly charismatic but in fairness Drake actually cuts a good promo IMO and he's someone if he had a "Austin" to match up against that could make for some fun TV. EC3 I find way more charismatic than ADR. He's someone who I think would be an ideal addition to SmackDown. They could do a fun bit with D-Bry like a "don't I know you" type of deal. 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Getting away from specific Wrestlers, to me the root of the problem is they just aren't cool, it's not THE place to be, in fact it's miles from it. That is what I meant when I said 500 million to spare, they need an injection of something that makes people go "Jesus I didn't see that coming". Everything they do and everybody they have is so vanilla.

New Japan is cool, ROH has the Bullet Club and Cody which have given them a shot in the arm, companies like PWG attract bloody Hollywood celebs and MMA fighters, the British scene is bubbling, all these places just frankly take the piss out of TNA in terms of buzz and cool factor. Unless they can pay the money that attracts a mega star I don't see how it changes, they will keep guys like OVE in a job and fans will look at them and think "those guys look homeless why would I watch". No stars, no reason to watch.

[Undefeated Steak]

24 minutes ago, Ambulance Chaser said:

Getting away from specific Wrestlers, to me the root of the problem is they just aren't cool, it's not THE place to be, in fact it's miles from it.

Can't agree more, there's just no buzz about TNA anymore and there hasn't been for years. It's not easy to build a buzz around a promotion but Lucha Underground, NXT and NJPW (+ countless UK indies) have all managed it over the past half decade. Up until the late 00's, TNA seemed like it was on the verge of becoming something special. I still remember non-wrestling mates/lapsed fans talking about TNA in a positive way. Memory might be playing up a bit, but I think it all ended around the time of that January 4th show where Flair, Jeff Hardy and every turned up. It's been naff from then on. 

Since that period, WWE have really cornered the market when it comes to pushing 'better wrestling' and the smaller guys. Since Punk and Bryan came along, and with NXT, WWE have consistently put out the 'best wrestling' in the US, to the point where the novelty has worn off and you could argue they've squeezed the orange dry on that (to paraphrase a poster from here a while back).

I don't know what TNA can really do to stand out, and I'd argue it would be as hard as it's ever been now to really try and compete with WWE. At least when WCW/WWF were booming in the late 90's there was so much interest in wrestling that you'd be able to make a living picking up the crumbs.

The only thing I can think of is by trying to bring a NJPW style product to the US but I can't see that taking off, and even if it did, I doubt it'd be profitable. They're fucked on US soil, I reckon. 

[iMPACt!]

Does TNA even make a profit for Anthem these days? An average of 240,000 viewers watching in the entire US hardly would result in decent ticket or merchandise sales to justify all the production costs, contracts etc. It's time to sell the library to the WWE and wind the thing down. 

[Rob Lowe]

1 hour ago, iMPACt! said:

Does TNA even make a profit for Anthem these days?

Apart from a highly dubious claim of profit in the late 2000's, I don't think they've made profit for anyone.

Bizarrely terrible investment. I think people (with money) just hang around for years and years and eventually get sucked in.

[Snitsky's back acne]

Is it a tax write off or something?

 

[garynysmon]

They own a TV channel specialising in Wrestling and combat sports, so not all that baffling is it?