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

[steve rayson]

They should sign Chessman from AAA and pretend they still have Sting.

 

That sounds familiar

[The Cutting Edge]

Where's Austin Aries? is he gone? and a lesser extent Hernandez

 

There Roster is tiny these days, the guys on Impact must be there whole crew

[moofasa]

Aries tweeted yesterday.

"Got an unexpected but very welcome phone call"

(Not exact quote)

Got to be hinting at wwe but who knows.

[Statto]

Could be Jeff Wrestling?

 

That's a very likely destination for Sabin, too. Daniels & Kaz as well, obviously

[5pints]

There Roster is tiny these days, the guys on Impact must be there whole crew

 

Yet there's still no room for Kenny King to wrestle on Impact!

[Undefeated Steak]

Hypothetically speaking, what do posters on here think it would take for TNA to become a success? (I'm not talking about things like a Vince/Trump-type buyout.) Or is it too late?

[5pints]

Hypothetically speaking, what do posters on here think it would take for TNA to become a success? (I'm not talking about things like a Vince/Trump-type buyout.) Or is it too late?

 

Coherent storylines and a reasonable amount of time for wrestling on the PPV without run ins or screw jobs. If they get this right then they have something to build on.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Nah, its well past the point of no return. You would need an influx of a ridiculous amount of money and some new ideas and concepts to try and claw anything out in the current climate. You'd need financial backing they havent got and a way to market those ideas to an audience they dont have and pray it catches on. TNA is the secondary promotion, so if they gave you good storylines for a period, people still arent going to give a shit. Like the Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan thing. Those angles always work. And it did better than most angles, but TNA can only go so far with those soap opera storylines because everything has a ceiling. Their opportunity was missed when they had a roster of stars and top workers. Now they have neither. Their stars are gone and their good workers have been around forever and played heel or face for so long its hard to do anything with them. TNA would need a fresh coat of paint. They need to change the whole philosophy of their booking and spend a shit load of promoting this change. Every idea TNA has had involved an obvious flaw. Like going to Mondays and going head to head. They could have rode the Monday night thing out for a while if they'd have went 8-10. That was the only way they could have succeeded, because there might have been a chance the Raw audience would watch Impact from 8 as a lead in to Raw like on January 4 (still their biggest ever rating). Or like the time Jeff Hardy was drawing on the road and they turned him heel. Decisions like that are just mental. TNA never draw on the road and as soon as they do, you turn the person who is responsible heel? How does an idea like that make it past the drawing room?

 

TNA have never had the front man every promotion needs. Everyone has ideas, and nobody has a vision. Like they've booked week to week for the last 12 years. Everyone they brought in had to answer to Dixie Carter and had previous ties elsewhere. Hogan was there because he was going through a divorce and needed money until he was well off enough to go back to WWE. Bischoff was there to establish a relationship between his production company and Spike. Prichard was there because WWE didnt want him anymore. Dusty Rhodes was out of touch by the time he got the pen. Russo is Russo. Jarrett was great in a certain area of the promotion, but he was never going to take them past a certain level. There's never been a single vision in the company. Bischoff wanted rid of Russo, Russo wanted rid of Cornette, Nash wanted rid of Dusty, Konnan wanted rid of Jarrett. Nobody in creative ever seemed happy there. If you look at all the successful promotions, they had someone calling the shots and creating a promotion built around their vision. Like in 1996 when Bischoff was super motivated and was flying to Japan every weekend, negotiating deals with Mexico and surrounding himself with people like Zane Bresloff who knew the markets and how to draw and what gimmicks to use to make Nitro looking different (stuff like the Spring Break Outs and Nitro Parties). Or like Paul Heyman who was in charge of ECW and had a roster who would throw themselves in front of a bus for him. If he had more money, nobody would have ever left ECW. They had a mentality where they all thought they were better than WCW and the WWF. TNA never had this. They've always felt inferior to WWE, instead of billing themselves as different. When UFC started taking business away from WWE, WWE came out and said "we are two different entities, they arent taking our business". You dont sell for the competitions, no matter how far ahead of you they are. You need a frontman to tell the fanbase that they are better than everyone. I remember when I was a kid, Sting would be brought up in the playground. WCW may have been lightyears behind, but people knew Sting. Is there any PWI front covers with people dreaming about Magnus vs Randy Orton?

Edited April 12, 2014 by IANdrewDiceClay

[HeavyT]

Great post! TNA do seem a bit far gone... it's been a mad rollercoaster since Hogan and co joined but they seem like amateurs with some of their division making. I'd go as far as to say they'd be better off going off-air for a short time and coming back under a new name and starting fresh. Might not be viable but I can't see TNA as a brand growing anymore.

[King Pitcos]

Or like the time Jeff Hardy was drawing on the road and they turned him heel. Decisions like that are just mental. TNA never draw on the road and as soon as they do, you turn the person who is responsible heel? How does an idea like that make it past the drawing room?

Now you say that, it makes me think that the reason for TNA being such a failure is that it's all just fanwank/vanity booking rather than any kind of business sense behind it. If TNA had a John Cena, they'd turn him heel because someone on a forum wants him to turn heel. Shock value and "imagine if_____" ideas get done because nobody stops to think through the actual consequences. There's no more discipline to TNA's booking than there is to some fourteen year old writing out his fantasy federation.

[5pints]

There's definitely a 'It's wrestling, it doesn't have to make sense' attitude within TNA. Also, I believe they're afraid to end angles because it means they have to think of something new. For example; Ken Anderson Vs Samuel Shaw. We've had the pay off at Lockdown, why continue to drag this out any further?

[tiger_rick]

Loads of brilliant stuff

What are their ratings like these days? Generally over the past about 5 years they've never really moved much. No matter what they did, they seemed to always get something in the 0.9-1.1 range, occasionally higher or lower.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

TNA gets what it gets, but the demos are shockingly low these days, which reflects bad on the network. About a month or two ago TNA didnt even make the top 100 in the 18-49. More 18-49 years olds watch repeats of Dora the Explorer than TNA some weeks. 18-49 is the wrestling audience, so if you aren't attracting them its no wonder they get about 300 people for their house shows. TNA are probably done in September if Spike dont re-sign them.

[Arch Stanton]

It's reached the point for me where I'm just looking forward to them closing the shop now, which hopefully would mean that a couple of guys end up in WWE, while others might improve RoH or Global Force. All hope for them ever becoming a worthwhile promotion went down the swanny a long time ago.

[Surf Digby]

If you look at all the successful promotions, they had someone calling the shots and creating a promotion built around their vision.

This is exactly why TNA won't ever be top level. WWE has Vince at the top. He knows wrestling, so he knows what will work, what won't, and what is worth a risk as it might or might not. Dixie doesn't, and so she'll just take every idea pitched to her as though they're all as valid as each other.

 

More 18-49 years olds watch repeats of Dora the Explorer than TNA some weeks. 18-49 is the wrestling audience, so if you aren't attracting them its no wonder they get about 300 people for their house shows.

This needs emailing to TNA.