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

[FLips]

It's all well and good to say that, but what would such a promotion consist of? Hardcore matches and blood? Storylines for midcarders? TNA does both of those things, albeit TNA does both of those things.

 

Most of the things in WWE that people cried over the last decade are now being done by WWE -- there's a cruiserweight from the indies with both World titles who just beat Triple H clean, and the shows are full of matches that last forever, usually involving at least one or two flips and jumps out of the ring. Ex-ROH wrestlers are heavily featured. Short of CM Punk winning every main event and being champion forever, I don't know what a second company could do that would appeal to people looking for an "alternative" to WWE that doesn't already exist. Anyone who is a wrestling fan and anti-WWE is (a penis and) already aware of the indie/Chinese promotions now, and anyone who is a wrestling fan and likes WWE has about five or six hours of that a week. There's just no obvious gap in the market.

 

You've kinda hit the nail on the head there though. WWE is giving fans some of what TNA was offering as the "alternative" except WWE know how to make stars and promote big time matches when they want to. TNA had the tools and fans were crying out for them to use them, but they found ways time and time again to fuck it up. By this point, WWE has absorbed their niche in the market and done it better, so TNA is worthless now and there is no gap left for them to fill.

[Arch Stanton]

Yeah, you're right. There is not a gap in the market as such, but WWE's popularity and even TNA's ratings suggest that market is big enough to support more than one promotion on national TV. There are tonnes of WWE fans out there that watch Raw religiously but can't be arsed to watch SmackDown or any of the other shows that WWE offer, because it's just more of the same, but they could easily be tempted into watching another hour of something different if it was out there and if it was any good. I don't know what the answer is, but I think that the standard alternatives you mentioned are non-starters, something far more creative, far less 'safe' is needed. It's a big ask.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Its arguable if there has ever been a gap in the market if you don't have significant backing. You need the money, and if you have it you can at least dig enough to find a gap. America is a big place though. That's why I dont get why nobody tries to run a southern style promotion. Look at the Country music business. They have singers none of us have ever heard of selling millions of records. Those people don't stream anything. They are still buying CDs and stuff. Its going to take something where the promotion aims at a certain market. Like you aim solely towards kids and get a show on at 7pm on Nickelodeon and cross promote with Rugrats and Sister Sister (aging myself there a bit). Where the wrestling show is essentially apart of the Nik schedule and kids and teens who are into it are familiar with the cast of characters. The convention way of hiring a bunch of wrestlers and putting on shows isn't going to work. You aren't making AJ Styles a star in 2014 by pretty much putting on a TNA show. Or I remember Court Bauer's idea of starting a promotion where it was targeted towards the Tony Hawk/Jackass crowd that was popular in the early 2000s. He was planning on doing pretty much a gritty, well lit show, with hip hop music and fans with glow sticks and a bunch of athletic mentals doing crazy moves and stuff like that at 11 o'clock after Raw and targeting it to a college demographic. For me an alternative has to be just that. Not necessarily from a wrestling point of view, but from a presentation standpoint. TNA never did this. The shows start with a 15 minute promo (like Raw), you get a load of backstage skits (like Raw), you get the top of the 2nd hour promo (like Raw), you have the authority figure (like Raw). Its a mini-version of Raw. You are never going to compete with WWE, but you could take some of the market share. There are still 6000 people who buy TNA's PPVs. There must be more mad cunts out there like them.

 

That's why I sort of get what Jarrett's trying to do. If he's doing the reality show before airing the wrestling show, maybe the reality show with catch on with the CMT crowd and you wont have to establish the workers half as much, like when TNA first started up. Probably not, but its a better idea than debuting a show cold on a Wednesday or something.

 

Or maybe I'm talking shit and there's no way. But nobody has even tried to corner the market. They only wanted to copy the market. WWE is only thriving because they grow and keep looking for new ways to keep strengthening. They wouldnt be doing so well if they stuck with their 2006 model. But TNA has stuck with their formula and they were never a success with it. TNA has spent millions and they are close to folding. And all they wanted to be was WWE, when the things that they drew with (on the rare occasions they did) were always something different. Like Samoa Joe. He's no Steve Austin, but at that level he was such an attraction. 60,000 people in the US paid $40 to watch him wrestle Kurt Angle. TNA couldn't get 60,000 if you put it up for free on a stream in 2014. He should have been a star for them. But now he's just a fat bloke rolling around with Magnus. TNA have been a failure because they failed. It wasn't because the opportunity didnt present itself.

Edited April 13, 2014 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Quentin]

I think you'd have an impossible task trying to create an alternative to WWE. You can't just upstart something like that. It's like going up against Coca Cola or McDonalds at this stage. This isn't at all like a WCW that came with a history and people who were raised on the notion that it was better just because of their postcode basically. WCW was the last territory that WWE needed to knock out of business and they hung in there so long primarily because they already had some credible stars who people identified with the company while there was still a shred of doubt as to who the number one company was. Now you've got an uphill struggle to create stars in what people know for sure to be the 2nd best company and anyone they pick up who already have a bit of name value are only there because WWE had no use for them. Like someone said, WWE now covers every corner of the market and they have all the best people too. It's not all that different to the territory days, only it speaks volumes that they've never made a serious play for any TNA guys.

[LWOLeN]

Whenever WWE does well, TNA is always screwed.

 

After wacthing an OK RAW, a good SmackDown and fun NXT episode....I am really not bothered anymore to watch TNA.

This week I only watched it due to the news of EY

Edited April 14, 2014 by LWOLeN

[gold76]

I like EY

 

He can work

 

He was good as the leader of world elite

 

And great in that wee mini brawl with x-pac

 

Hell I remember him being put over hugely by Hogan as being underated.

 

He's a good hand, but instead of the slow build, they did it all in one night which makes them look like a right bunch of divots.

 

I'm sure this will be added to the worst of Tna wiki style page which made for fabulous reading..

[Chris B]

I was just wondering if they've ever done a serious Samoa Joe vs Jeff Hardy feud. I don't think they actually have, but they've spunked the match away a bunch of times. How do you take a match like that, that you'd expect could draw something at least, and make it meaningless?

[Duke]

Whenever WWE does well, TNA is always screwed.

 

After wacthing an OK RAW, a good SmackDown and fun NXT episode....I am really not bothered anymore to watch TNA.

This week I only watched it due to the news of EY

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Magnus was the worst champion in years for any promotion. Even by TNA's standards. When you are tapping out to Eddie Edwards and Edwards then cuts a promo afterwards playing down the victory because Magnus is a "paper champion", it tells you all you need to know about the mentality. Magnus isn't a very good wrestler, but he looks good and talks good, so you really needed to protect him. And they didn't do it. At least he did his bit, which is all you can ask.

[Loki]

I just want to see Bobby Roode, James Storm, Bully Ray, Daniels and Kazarian, without having to watch TNA.

 

If Jarrett can get them on telly, great - otherwise I'm hoping they'll finally get to WWE.

[hitman89762000]

Dont know if its been mentioned in the last few pages but storms signed a new contract with tna.

[Devon Malcolm]

I watched Impact for the first time in years the other night. It was fucking terrible. Even The Beautiful People were crap although their outfits were nice. Who was the bloke who beat Mr. Kennedy (who is even worse than I remember)? He was alright. Magnus was crap. Abyss was worse. Why have Spike still got this on telly?

 

Eric Young's the world champion now? Amazing.

[CracktonMoj]

TNA have been a failure because they failed. It wasn't because the opportunity didnt present itself.

 

This. There have been times where TNA have legitimately been producing a more compelling product than WWE. These times tended to correspond with WWE booking being in full @CrankyVince mode, while TNA was being booked by Dutch Mantel or Dusty Rhodes or whoever instead of Vince Russo.

 

But it never lasted, and now the perception is that TNA has been irredeemably dire for twelve years. Which is unfair, but shows how badly they've damaged themselves.

[ColinBollocks]

Heyman was on Austin's podcast saying when he was talking to TNA about running it for them they were $70-90M in the hole. That's mental if it's true. What a waste of time.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

They were $30 million on their arse by 2005, so its not the silliest idea that they'd have lost $90m by 2010.