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

[buba3d]

deleted

Edited May 24, 2013 by buba3d

[WWWYKI]

 

I was at the Impact shows yesterday and those photos aren't a fair representation of the crowd. The camera side, although not sold out, was quite full. The sides were pretty busy as well. The arena were late letting people in so the crowd literally only filled up as the show started. Those photos were definitely taken to make the arena look like a poor turn out, when in actual fact it wasn't bad considering less than 6 months ago they were in universal studios drawing 900 max for a free show.

[King Pitcos]

And by the looks of it, in less than six months they might be back there.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

when in actual fact it wasn't bad considering less than 6 months ago they were in universal studios drawing 900 max for a free show.

It is. In terms of money, the Impact Zone was a safe haven. Free rent and in an area where most of the wrestlers lived, so they just came themselves. The SunDome is a 10,000 seat arena. They've been hiring these 10,000 seat venues and only getting 2-3000 people in there (including papering). You can't sustain that as a profitable venture. The rent on the building, the advance, the promotion, shipping the equipment to and from the building. It costs TNA $700,000 a fortnight to produce these tapings. Spending $700,000, you are pretty much sticking your neck out to lose money, but you would want to at least earn a bit of that back. Going to smaller venues would have more upside than renting venues you have no hope of getting near filling. You don't want to cripple your company just for a vanity project of saying "we run arenas".

Edited May 25, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Loki]

It's a learning curve, hopefully. Impact hasn't always been in arenas of that size, has it? Some of the shows look like they're in smaller arenas than that.

 

Crowds of 3,000 in a smaller arena would look fine, and as you said earlier Ian there are well established wrestling venues of that size out there.

[ColinBollocks]

In positive TNA news, their rating went up 31% (1.28M overall). Last week they were up against the NBA play-offs and did awful. They're moving back to 9PM next week too.

[Ant]

In many ways TNA reminds me of WCW. Stranger things have happened than them coming good. It probably just won't happen any time soon.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Saw this one another forum, but Chris Benoit showed up in the crowd on Impact this week

[Loki]

In many ways TNA reminds me of WCW. Stranger things have happened than them coming good. It probably just won't happen any time soon.

 

What would you classify as "coming good" though. A primetime slot on a major network? Producing an entertaining product year in and year out? Putting together a roster that is, at least, competitive with WWE? Not going out of business? I honestly don't know what more people want from them sometimes. They will never be as big as WWE, there's just no market for it. There's barely a market for one WWE, let alone two.

 

TNA have now been in business for longer than ECW, and nearly as long as WCW, and look in no real danger of disappearing any time soon. That in itself is a massive achievement. As Ian says, this attempt to get out on the road may fail; if so they'll just fall back to the Impact Zone or something similar. At least they're trying.

 

There seems to be this idea floating around the internet that they're somehow missing a trick. Apart from improving the house show circuit and getting PPV numbers back up, I think they've pretty much carved out as much of a niche as it's possible to do in wrestling nowadays. It's a company that produces an entertaining tv show with some big stars, some good wrestling and some hot girls, provides a payday for loads of people and helps keep our great sport going. Try and relax and enjoy it.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Loki

[NorthSeaTiger]

Saw this one another forum, but Chris Benoit showed up in the crowd on Impact this week

 

Jesus! She better not hang about any TV sets. Wouldn't want the cable ending up in the wrong place!

[Ant]

In many ways TNA reminds me of WCW. Stranger things have happened than them coming good. It probably just won't happen any time soon.

 

What would you classify as "coming good" though. A primetime slot on a major network? Producing an entertaining product year in and year out? Putting together a roster that is, at least, competitive with WWE? Not going out of business? I honestly don't know what more people want from them sometimes. They will never be as big as WWE, there's just no market for it. There's barely a market for one WWE, let alone two.

 

TNA have now been in business for longer than ECW, and nearly as long as WCW, and look in no real danger of disappearing any time soon. That in itself is a massive achievement. As Ian says, this attempt to get out on the road may fail; if so they'll just fall back to the Impact Zone or something similar. At least they're trying.

 

There seems to be this idea floating around the internet that they're somehow missing a trick. Apart from improving the house show circuit and getting PPV numbers back up, I think they've pretty much carved out as much of a niche as it's possible to do in wrestling nowadays. It's a company that produces an entertaining tv show with some big stars, some good wrestling and some hot girls, provides a payday for loads of people and helps keep our great sport going. Try and relax and enjoy it.

 

Coming good = competing with and on occasion beating WWE in the ratings and live attendance stakes.

 

I totally agree that many fans get caught up in how well things are going from a business perspective, or querying why someone is misused when they were so over in the high school gyms.

 

For me I try not to give a monkeys and enjoy the product. In the same way I couldn't have cared less that WCW was drawing 300 fans when I was getting to see Lord Steven Regal tear it up with Ricky Steamboat.

[pgi86]

So, Dixie just tweeted this: "And the ink is just drying on a BIG free agent that will rock #ImpactLIVE on @SpikeTV. Tune in & join us on this summer adventure."

 

Any guesses? Someone new? Or just RVD signing a new contract?

Edited May 30, 2013 by pgi86

[Gagnam Style]

The Rock, Rock N Roll Express, Rocky Johnson, but seriously probably some ex WWE developmental guy or ex WCW star.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I've heard the person is planning on Franchising some ass on Sunday.

[chiefdave]

So, Dixie just tweeted this: "And the ink is just drying on a BIG free agent that will rock #ImpactLIVE on @SpikeTV. Tune in & join us on this summer adventure."

 

Any guesses? Someone new? Or just RVD signing a new contract?

 

Have I totally imagined this or did Dixie imply a while back that Orton would be coming in after Mania? Obviously not him as he'd be getting buried on TV every week if he was running his contract down.

 

I understand the need to hype things up but the way they do it leads to a huge disappointment 99% of the time.