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

[AshC]

They had a web show as well, but essentially, yes.

[pgi86]

Would a promotion work if it was purely based around tv?

 

Did that MTV Xwrestling or whatever it was called run under that concept?

 

Yes, as was Jarrett's Ring Ka King in India. Neither promotion lasted past the first season. That's not to say it can't be done. It probably can. I guess it all depends on how much the TV network is willing to pay them for the show. If it's enough to where they can stay in the black and perhaps even make a little bit of profit then I don't see why it can't work. Especially if it's done in seasons. But obviously, being able to maintain and grow the audience would be crucial too. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin of both WSX and RKK. Both started off very strong viewership-wise but couldn't maintain their audience (and in the case of WSX the network stopped giving a crap half way through the season, though at that point half the initial audience was already gone anyway).

Edited January 15, 2014 by pgi86

[quote the raven]

Why do TNA always do this? Just tell us who they are so we might actually watch the show? If its Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards who watching is going to give a shit when they walk out? Just build the fuckers up and we might actually anticipate their arrival. They did the same thing a few months back and it was Trent Barretta and Petey Williams who were there for a set of tapings and fucked off again. Or like the time Mark Haskins debuted and they pretty much killed his TNA career by debuting him as a surprise appearance. Nobody took to him because nobody knew him enough to be surprised when he showed up.

 

 

This hits the nail on the head.

 

The new signings are bound to be indy guys, that 2/3rds of people watching have never heard of.

[tiger_rick]

Would a promotion work if it was purely based around tv?

It could if the TV deal was big enough to cover all of the costs. Then you could look at other ways to make money from the web, advertising, ticket sales and semi regular supershows or PPV's.

 

Rather than have a house show, tv show and PPV show circuit, just run a tv show every week on the road. All storylines etc start and end on telly. And you have the majority of your roster on non-exclusive contracts so they can go work on other indys.

That would make sense as long as you covered yourself should WWE come calling. If you're not directly competing, it could be worth trying to work with WWE so that you feed them TV ready talent for a fee.

[KingOfMetal]

Why do TNA always do this? Just tell us who they are so we might actually watch the show? If its Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards who watching is going to give a shit when they walk out? Just build the fuckers up and we might actually anticipate their arrival. They did the same thing a few months back and it was Trent Barretta and Petey Williams who were there for a set of tapings and fucked off again. Or like the time Mark Haskins debuted and they pretty much killed his TNA career by debuting him as a surprise appearance. Nobody took to him because nobody knew him enough to be surprised when he showed up.

 

 

This hits the nail on the head.

 

The new signings are bound to be indy guys, that 2/3rds of people watching have never heard of.

 

and who the big boys have just said 'thanks, but no thanks' to

[King Pitcos]

It seems like TV-only wrestling could work, but I'm not sure it ever has? Wrestling has always been cheap, year-round product for a TV station. For a wrestling company, you get TV money on top of your box office. As TNA has shown, if you don't do it properly, you're losing millions a year. As said above, the wrestling TV shows that have been shot in seasons like proper telly haven't lasted.

[Loki]

Yeah, I think seasons is a bit of a killer - it should be more like a weekly soap.

 

Contract-wise, it can be similar to how it was for TNA a few years ago, where your guys can't appear on another tv show or DVD (without permission) but can do indy shows.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

TNA should have done much better than it has. It was never a case of them hitting the wall and never being able to jump over it. Its not like TNA started on Spike and died a death. They grew an audience and then ran them off. I mean Angle and Joe did 60,000 buys the same month as WrestleMania 24. That was a huge deal. The idea that 60,000 people would pay $40 to see TNA in 2014 is so unthinkable, its shocking. They had a direction staring them in the face several times over the years, but they never ran with it. Just decided to hot shot instead of build or hire Vince Russo instead of Goldberg, during a time when a Goldberg vs Samoa Joe match would have actually set people into a meltdown. Its seems stupid to think now, but Goldberg vs Joe was a super dream match. And Joe was undefeated and Goldberg had signed a 90 day contract with Spike and he seemed interested to do TNA, so of course they bring in Russo. Who Goldberg credits for killing whatever passion he had for wrestling. They had a buzz and momentum at one point, but never had a clue how to exploit that momentum, however obvious it seemed.

 

Competing with WWE will never happen. Unless Bill Gates or Roman Abramovich decides to start up. But if you get TV and you get stars names (the likes of Kurt Angle, John Morrison, Carlito, MVP, AJ Styles and those guys who have been touted) you will get an audience. Getting 900,000-1 million viewers wouldn't be much problem in a good time slot (especially if they essentially take over TNA's timeslot on Spike). The problem would be getting people to pay for what you are selling. You'd have to capture the audiences imagination somehow. Whether that is through promoting a different style all together to the norm or gearing the promotion towards a certain audience. TNA should simply not be doing this badly. Its almost shocking how bad they are doing. Its almost like they've blatantly sabotaged their business. They went on Monday nights, so instead of having an unopposed hour they go 9pm to 9pm with Raw and get killed. They got on the road so instead of starting off with smaller but good looking venues, they pay thousands and thousands on rent for buildings that WWE dont even sell out. Its almost like TNA wanted their dick to be the same size as WWE's even if it was flaccid. Jeff Hardy was drawing on the road. Like actually drawing real people to their house shows, fresh off WWE TV. He was legit the only draw they had. So they turned him heel. Why not? They allowed Don West to leave and immediately their business at house shows suffered. He's a bloke who's salesmanship is so famous Will Ferrell took the piss out of him on SNL. They were raking it in at the house shows and he left because he felt underpaid and undervalued. Their video game license died, their toy line is on its arse. TNA just cant have nice things. TNA is proof that there are areas where you can draw in the business. Just dont have a band of jokers running it.

 

I think if Jarrett's group has a good TV writer in mind, he assembles a team together who aren't mental and gets a good roster who captures the imagination of people who have given up on TNA and want something different to WWE, they could grab a bit of the market share for sure. Not being called fucking TNA is a good start.

Edited January 15, 2014 by IANdrewDiceClay

[ColinBollocks]

Great points.

 

You would hope that even if Jarrett and co started out as a TV-only company, they can create a product that manages to hook their TV audience into investing money into all the revenue streams that can come with big time wrestling. You also hope Vince Russo has lost Double J's number.

[buba3d]

what show is on challenge tonight, says something on the epg that its new tna ppv 2014

[JNLister]

Hardcore Justice -- it's the first of this year's taped PPV shows.

[wrestlingmad]

Hardcore Justice -- it's the first of this year's taped PPV shows.

Oh fantastic. It's meant to be decent, in all fairness. Shall be catching this one.

 

Also, just purchased tickets for Wembley. It should be carnage! bring it on.

[pgi86]

Well, that's a bit odd. This Hardcore Justice PPV isn't airing in the States until April.

Edited January 15, 2014 by pgi86

[pgi86]

So, yeah. It looks like it's official. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards have indeed signed with TNA and are debuting tomorrow. After promising a hint if she got 1000 retweets, Dixie just posted a note with the guys' initials on it.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Someone should tell her that just because they run in front of 300 people doesn't mean her audience have a club who this pair are. Austin Aries and Low Ki had been on their TV years prior and even they got advertised in advance on the off chance people were expecting a bit more. Just fucking tell us in advance who they are. That isn't hard to do. All they had to do last week was get some footage of them and announce they were on the show. And then let them do their thing. Its just so mind numbing.

 

The hint should have been "it's not John Morrison, its not MVP, its not Carlito, its not Alex Shelley, its two blokes who did jobs on NXT last month and who were deemed not worthy of signing to $750 a week deals". At least we'd have lowered our standards somewhat for this secret surprise she's promising.

Edited January 15, 2014 by IANdrewDiceClay