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

[Mr.E]

As with the above, a good example is AJ styles.

 

When AJ left TNA over a pay dispute, we all knew he was good, but i honestly thought he was tarnished by TNA, and would suffer the doom of surfing the indys for the rest of this life. Short time later, he debuts in NJPW, has the best year of his life......THEN signs with WWE to cap it off.

 

I'm not saying that'd happen with all the TNA talent, but it seems like if there ever was a good time to get out, its now. Indy wrestling is pretty big in the US and UK at the moment, and some, (and i mean like a very select few) could end up in WWE if they played their cards right.

 

A lot of people want TNA to fold, not because its like "LOLS TNA" it because we're all tired of opening up a report, reading something that makes us all groan, and then there is a reboot/mild re-brand/"BIG ANNOUNCEMENT"/other pointless shite that doesn't actually mean anything for TNA.

[Mr_Danger]

How come Bobby Roode has never made the step up? You'd imagine HHH would love him with him being a bit more old school with his look and style. He's great on the mic and connects as a face and as a heel. I know he might be a bit vanilla in WWE but even if he ended up as the new Curtis Axel he'd probably make more dough than he does now. It's a shame because he's one of the only guys who can tempt me to watch that shite.

[Benno]

Its a news story in itself that TNA's ratings have dipped to the point they're so difficult to analyse statistically.

 

I know Nielsen is an industry standard and there's not much else to use but it's been painful seeing news sites (and WrestleUK) make big stories out of the fluctuation of TNAs' miniscule ratings, similair to the constantly in flux ROH ratings when they were both on Destination America.

 

Obviously it's fair enough when there are big changes or there's a pattern, but you'd get much better context if Meltzer could just say, "Yeah, 4 more Nielson households tuned in this week, as opposed to last week when 2 of them were on their holidays."

Edited March 3, 2016 by Benno

[Mr.E]

How come Bobby Roode has never made the step up? You'd imagine HHH would love him with him being a bit more old school with his look and style. He's great on the mic and connects as a face and as a heel. I know he might be a bit vanilla in WWE but even if he ended up as the new Curtis Axel he'd probably make more dough than he does now. It's a shame because he's one of the only guys who can tempt me to watch that shite.

Ive always thought Roode would be a great Triple H 2.0, but I'm not sure if he's been offered deals in the past.

 

With James storm resigning with TNA, I see it was more about money, but is it worth taking a shot with NXT/WWE or basically getting paid to work for a shit company? I know the answer it probably the latter, but thats only a bad thing for TNA, having somebody on staff who most likely is only their for the money.

[Philjax]

I think with the respect that Booby Roode commands from even non regular viewers (right?) the best option right now would probably be to put the belt on him and let him run with it for the rest of the year. Keep him face, base all his defences against other faces on actual competition (like no turns when he inevitably faces James Storm). At least people could rely on the fact you're going to get a decent title defence 1-2 times a month. This is not likely with Matt Hardy and all the unclean finishes. Bring in some outsiders for one-offs. Roode Vs Vader or Sabu would be something different regardless of their shape. Hopefully by new year they will have elevated the likes of Eli Drake and Crazzy Steve and hope to hell they can find some BRAND NEW talent, not more released WWE guys.

 

And sign some actual attractive talented women for the Knockouts division. Pretty much ANY of the ones who keep turning up on NXT but aren't under exclusive contracts yet.

[Linus]

The issue isn't the talent so much, it's what they do with it. They just do Pro-Wrestling 101, WWE-lite, instead of finding a new way to present wrestling to the audience.

[Philjax]

Thing is Lucha have already done that and you cant just copy them. It's not like they're setting the Nielsens alight either. There's nothing really wrong with copying the WWE template, you just cant half arse it. The thing that sets WWE apart from EVERYTHING is the production values. No doubt. They say you cant polish a turd but most of the time thats exactly what WWE are doing. Shows can be boring as hell but it's always pretty to look at. It's one of the main appeals of NXT I think, the way it looks. When I was talking about the Styles/Nakamura match the other day this pretty much applied. I love puro but that match in the gigantic but very dark Tokyo Dome didn't work for me. Same match on a NXT special, I'd be cumming buckets about it. TNA cant live in the darkness so they probably need to come up with an idea aesthetically that covers for the fact they wrestle infront of 50 people. NXT has plenty of distractions in Full Sail. A video wall wherever they can fit it. Lucha does this by having it all take place in an entirely unique setting. Even Wrestling Society X knew this much. You wouldnt know it was 2016 looking at the Impact Zone.

[tiger_rick]

I think the issue is talent. TNA need at least one name that people will tune in for. Then they've got to present the best fucking show on the planet to keep that audience. But doing it without it doesn't matter. The wider audience doesn't give a shit about Kurt Angle or the Hardys anymore. They've nothing to offer TNA in a marketing sense. So the show can be as great as that troll guy keeps trying to tell us it is but it doesn't matter because no one is attending and no one is watching.

 

LU is in a similar predicament but at the very least, people are talking about LU. It's like a secret club you are pleased to belong to. TNA is a secret like your Uncle puts his willy in your bum and you're too afraid to tell anyone.

 

The problem for TNA is that WWE aren't making stars anymore. So there are no cast offs who'll make a jot of difference. Unless Vince cut loose John Cena Randy Savage style then TNA cannot ever be more than a marginal product on a station no-one knows about. That's just how it is. They had their shot at being WCW and blew it. Now they're not even ECW. I don't know what they are. No-one does.

[Mr_Danger]

"TNA is a secret like your uncle puts his willy in your bum and you're too afraid to tell anyone" needs to be the tag line for their next rebrand.

[WyattSheepMask]

While that Chas 'n Dave intro plays, obviously

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Kurt Angle did an interview with ESPN in the U.K. while he was there for the tour and claimed he suffered a concussion in his 1/29 match in Manchester, UK, with Drew Galloway, but still wrestled the next two nights against Bobby Roode and Bobby Lashley

 

Probably should have kept that one to himself.

[DJM]

 

48,000 people in TV ratings terms are represented by about 4 actual people, right? Lister should know the ratio if anyone does.

 

The precise number of Nielsen homes is secret, but between the ones who do diaries and the ones who have some form of electric meter, it's around 37,000 people, so one real viewer = around 8,000 viewers in the ratings.

 

Obviously that works fine when you're measuring shows with several million viewers. Not so much when you're dealing with smaller channels and small audiences.

 

So when Raw lost about 100,000 viewers for the third hour this week, that is actually only 13 people turning off/changing channels?

[uklaw]

I liken 2016 (so far) to the boy who cried wolf. In my very humble opinion, IMPACT has consistently been of a high quality, wrestling-wise, and mostly logical, storyline-wise but having been burned so many times in the past, very few watch or indeed want to know. For example, this thread only seems to pick up when some of the trainwreck elements of the company off-screen come into play.

 

And Sod's law will have it that if people (slowly) return to the product, as per the recommendation of people like Jason Powell and Mike Johnson, the booking team will panic and start throwing stuff against the wall again.

 

And I agree, I can see how the dark lighting can put people off. TNA, unlike other a lot of other brands, do it in such a way it simply looks like they can't afford the lighting or are trying to hide a poor crowd. Let's hope that is remedied somehow. One might argue that the best remedy is to get people to attend.

Edited March 9, 2016 by uklaw

[Undefeated Steak]

 

LU is in a similar predicament but at the very least, people are talking about LU. It's like a secret club you are pleased to belong to. TNA is a secret like your Uncle puts his willy in your bum and you're too afraid to tell anyone.

 

The non-WWE landscape summed up perfectly. 

[The British Bushwacker]

I hadn't seen TNA is a long time, flicked it on the other night to see Matt Hardy approaching the ring looking an absolute mess , has he been rocking the Shawn Michaels comeback hairstyle for a while? or is this a new thing