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

[tiger_rick]

 

 

I must say that I find it odd that the ratings are going down when the TV had been fine to good since Christmas.

Wasn't Nitro actually pretty decent in early 2001, whilst the ratings plummeted further? By that time the horse had well and truly fled the stable.

 

 

Very good analogy to be fair.

 

Matt Hardy has been ridiculously entertaining as World Champion.

 

Who is the target audience? If it's the "WWE are evil" type people they claim to be an alternative for, then a fat Matt Hardy looking a fucking state as World Champ while Samoa Joe and AJ Styles are in WWE is surely not any sort of a draw.

 

If the audience is WWE fans or ex-WWE fans then a fat Matt Hardy looking a fucking state as World Champ just screams small time.

 

What are TNA trying to be right now? Their TV is inoffensive and occasionally good but it doesn't showcase anyone the audience would be desperate to see except perhaps EC3. He's the only person on that show who is irreplaceable.

 

I've always wanted TNA to do well but they shit the bed long ago. WWE bores me rigid most weeks and I still find nothing of any value in Impact. It's a joke.

[PunkStep]

As much as TNA have been responsible for destroying their own promotion, the rise of NXT has knelt a massive death blow to the promotion in my view. TNA's big selling point was the fact that it was an alternative to WWE. Not a million miles away in terms of product, but enough for fans to buy into the fact that it was superior in-ring. The X division, Angle, Joe and Styles were the main reasons why people that were sick of WWE tuned into TNA.

 

Now those fans turn to NXT, instead. WWE have cleverly created their own 'competition' to an extent to reduce any need for people to watch TNA. NXT is where you go to watch the brilliant in-ring stuff, it's like an Indy wet dream with the talent they've had over the past 2-3 years. Not only that, but the reason to watch TNA also now exists on the main WWE roster anyway, with regards to the in-ring stuff. TNA are no longer an alternative product to whatever WWE put out, whether it's via their main brand or NXT brand.

Edited March 10, 2016 by PunkStep

[boytoy]

The only market I can think of that isn't really cornered by WWE, Lucha and NJPW is the 1998/99 Vince Russo tits and dick jokes market but...

a) They have tried it before without success

b) Their network is not likely to allow it

c) The world has moved on - who needs to watch wrestling for T and A and misogyny when we have pornhub and reddit instead?

 

Post above about TNA is spot on. NXT has killed any niche it once had. Plus, there is the added advantage of getting to watch your favourites end up on the WWE main roster - a progression that never really happen for TNA guys.

[Carbomb]

 

The only market I can think of that isn't really cornered by WWE, Lucha and NJPW is the 1998/99 Vince Russo tits and dick jokes market but...

a) They have tried it before without success

b) Their network is not likely to allow it

c) The world has moved on - who needs to watch wrestling for T and A and misogyny when we have pornhub and reddit instead?

 

Post above about TNA is spot on. NXT has killed any niche it once had. Plus, there is the added advantage of getting to watch your favourites end up on the WWE main roster - a progression that never really happen for TNA guys.

 

 

 

There's one potential market (or, rather, two, but both could be reached the same way) they could go for, but it would take a brave move out of a mindset they're very unlikely to leave: girls & gays.

 

DragonGate have become one of the most successful promotions in Japan by targeting young women, a demographic that had been pretty much untouched. The product features lots of athletic, decent-looking young lads, and a shitload of pop-culture aesthetics.

 

Obviously, if TNA were to do the same thing (which they wouldn't, because they're 1. too stupid and 2. too Southern), they'd have to gear it towards Western pop-culture, but the market is there: with all the girls and young women squeeing over the likes of 1D and Union J, there are probably others out there who'd do the same over the wrestling equivalent - guys like Jack Evans seem to already draw the female attention, so it wouldn't be a far jump. And the Pink Pound is pretty much in the same zone, if you think about it, so it wouldn't be too far a push to capitalise on the already-present homo-eroticism of wrestling anyway.

[garynysmon]

Some very good points about NXT/TNA which are undeniably true. While I realise how popular NXT is, its also the reason why I dislike the idea of it so much. Totally swimming against the tide, I despise the fact that WWE has such a large market share (90% if not more surely?) and just see NXT as stepping on the toes of the remaining 10%.

Great for WWE of course, can't blame them for that. They can even afford to run it at a loss to provide talent for the main roster. Doesn't mean I have to like it though.

Edited March 10, 2016 by garynysmon

[IANdrewDiceClay]

On a positive not, Mr Anderson is finally gone. A day without Mr Anderson is like a day without that rash on my bellend I had a few years ago.

[hitman619]

The bottom line has always been about the money thrown at the product, hence why WCW in its prime wiped the floor with the WWE/F. More money to put into production values, talent, venues and fundamentally TV networks, take the UK for instance, WWE programming for as long as I can remember has alway been pretty much available to a paying audience, through box office events and a large quantity of its programing going on premier channels such as sky sports, if I remember rightly when WWF first started airing events on sky they where shown on the movie channels as at the time they we're the only premium channels on the old analogue sky system.

 

When they dabbled with terrestrial TV channel 4 the costs of buying the content surely jeopardised the quality of what they could show hence the live delay and adverts.

 

And the fact that TNA since they first appeared on UK tv on the wrestling channel have always been available as free to Air they seriously can't be making hardly any money from the UK audience. If sky can show them all free of charge to anyone with challenge TV, in my honest opinion it's used as a gateway to show the UK audience that wrestling exists we give the small boys free but if you want to see the bigger stuff we have that too but you are gonna have to pay.

 

I really cannot see TNA lasting as much as I'd like there to be some genuine completion to the WWE, how they have lasted this long in all honesty is a miracle.

[garynysmon]

On a positive not, Mr Anderson is finally gone. A day without Mr Anderson is like a day without that rash on my bellend I had a few years ago.

 

Bet he was on a decent whack, yet he brought the square root of fuck all to the table. Not even name value.

Edited March 10, 2016 by garynysmon

[WyattSheepMask]

I mentioned the other day how TNA has been in business longer than WCW (as opposed to NWA/JCP) was, which is absolutely mind blowing. But it's been said for ages now, myself included, that it's on it last heartbeats yet it's still here because someone, be it Panda Energy or the TV networks giving a hand in production costs, keeps putting money into it. To use the Heyman content/distribution analogy, as long as they have a TV deal in some form it will continue to exist

[Dirty Eddie]

I haven't watched Impact or the PPVs on anything like a regular basis for over a year now. I've not watched anything from them in the last month and I probably only did a couple of Impact episodes in the 3 months before that. With that said; I'm still incredibly happy Mr Anderson has gone. Puffy-faced, lip-smacking, boring as fuck loser. Please don't go near any shows I actually watch. Thanks.

[ColinBollocks]

I fear he'll turn up in NXT or something. I don't have time for Lucha Underground, so hopefully he joins them instead.

[Dirty Eddie]

I fear he'll turn up in NXT or something. I don't have time for Lucha Underground, so hopefully he joins them instead.

You shut your filthy mouth.

 

 

...mouth.

[wrestleuk]

 

I must say that I find it odd that the ratings are going down when the TV had been fine to good since Christmas.

Wasn't Nitro actually pretty decent in early 2001, whilst the ratings plummeted further? By that time the horse had well and truly fled the stable.

Worryingly yes is the answer to that early 2001 nitro was probably the best it had been since mid 98 and they show was really good for about the last 3/4 months solid

[Sergio Mendacious]

I've said similar in the past, but I don't like that Mr. Anderson got set free from TNA — I don't watch TNA, it's nice to think of him being corralled there. Now who knows where I could run into him? He was unbearable a decade ago, I'm going to say he's no better at 40.

[CavemanLynn]

TNA don't have anyone good enough, smart enough, photogenic enough, or colourful enough to get on mainstream TV or radio and come across as a star attraction you have to see, in wrestling or otherwise.