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

[PunkStep]

 

14 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Lucha Underground is the sort of model I'd look for, but less adult and violent, to appeal to a broader audience. A show produced as a TV show first and a wrestling show second, rather than just pointing a camera on a wrestling ring for two hours.

Although it was a TV drama rather than wrestling show/promotion, I think there is something to learn from GLOW. Ok aside from the controversial 80s racist stereotype gimmicks, I can see that kind of 'back to basics' format doing quite well with larger than life characters, not taking themselves too seriously etc. A massive emphasis on characters above anything else. Something that isn't a million miles away from the WOS special, which I think could have some appeal.

[BomberPat]

23 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

 

Although it was a TV drama rather than wrestling show/promotion, I think there is something to learn from GLOW. Ok aside from the controversial 80s racist stereotype gimmicks, I can see that kind of 'back to basics' format doing quite well with larger than life characters, not taking themselves too seriously etc. A massive emphasis on characters above anything else. Something that isn't a million miles away from the WOS special, which I think could have some appeal.

Absolutely. I wouldn't use the WOS special as an example - I think, actually, that show suffered too much from trying to be all things to all men; possibly through being a pilot, but they went with convoluted angles, and this weird mix of prime-time ITV but also trying to play to long-term fans. A lot of feedback I saw at the time was people who felt annoyed that they tuned in for "the return of British wrestling", yet were confronted with the voice of Jim Ross, and a show full of "American-style" promos, and a pointless authority figure role. I had my problems with the booking, personally, but I think in a broader sense the biggest problems were all about presentation.

If it were up to me, I'd have packaged that show to look more like a cheesy, glitzy ITV production and less like a conventional wrestling show. The best parts were the video packages about classic World of Sport, and I think they should have incorporated them better into the current product - maybe having Mark Rocco manage Zack Gibson for his match, something like that, to create continuity between old and new, and to flesh out characters that we were only given the briefest summary of.

 

Something like the original series of GLOW would be great, though - easily definable, almost cartoonish characters, with logical reasons to fight each other, spaced out with skits and storylines, and absolutely no pretence that this is anything other than a fun little show. You can do continuous, long-running storylines, or just treat it as a Saturday morning cartoon, like a live action Masters Of The Universe, where you have your easily recognisable goodies and baddies, they're going to fight each other every week, the only question is what's the reason this time. If you immediately let the audience know that you're in on the joke, you break down that huge "it's all fake, though, isn't it?" barrier, and you're more likely to pull in new fans, in my opinion. Again, could something like that compete with WWE in any material fashion? I don't know. But I think a format like that would have a better shot at getting the media backing to give themselves the opportunity than a conventional wrestling promotion ever will again.

Edited December 7, 2017 by BomberPat

[simonworden]

I think really whatever breaks the mould again in wrestling has to fit in with the youth of today and how they see the world. Someone said a long time ago on here, things will need to be snappy as these days, kids are used to watching clips 10 minutes or less . Less and less people have the time or patience for 2/3 hour shows a week

I started to think a while ago that YouTube videos could become the main medium with everything divided up and released over time so nothing is too big a chunk to sit through (this was before the revenue cut). Maybe 2 videos released a day moving 1 or 2 stories forward. You might need TV too but really it needs to be a quicker show 20-60 minutes. I reckon 45 would be good 2 10 minute matches a few segments and possibly a 2 minute squash job done.

I'd prefer to see a TV style smaller character focus. Have a main cast who do their shit some side characters and the treat rest like bit players extras. If they catch on shuffle the card. One reason the walking dead has gone down hill for me is too many minor characters being focussed on. 

Apart from that just shifting how, when and where wrestling is filmed.would help freshen it up for me.

[Merzbow]

Minecraft wrestling hosted by a swede who screeches and dresses as Hitler, that's your youth demographic sorted.

[FourtyTwo]

Wrestling, generally, needs more jobbers (minor, bit part characters who don't need a focus to seem relevant).

If you build everyone up that they matter, then someone loses when they lose.  If a jobber loses, it doesn't matter.

Completely irrelevant to TNA, but then TNA is now pretty irrelevant to wrestling!

[BomberPat]

The YouTube point is an interesting one - wrestling is producing 2-3 hour TV shows at a time when people won't sit through a 30 second ad to watch a 3 minute Youtube video.

I think an hour is the perfect length for a wrestling TV show, but there's no reason it can't be done well in 30-45 minutes, with the right presentation and production.

[FourtyTwo]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

The YouTube point is an interesting one - wrestling is producing 2-3 hour TV shows at a time when people won't sit through a 30 second ad to watch a 3 minute Youtube video.

I think an hour is the perfect length for a wrestling TV show, but there's no reason it can't be done well in 30-45 minutes, with the right presentation and production.

I think you would actually get more engagement in the product if you did an hour show that was on 4 or 5 nights a week, than you would doing a three hour show and a two hour show.

Millions sit through Eastenders / Corrie multiple times a week, but if you chucked it out there as one programme, I doubt it would do the same numbers.

[garynysmon]

22 hours ago, PunkStep said:

I really don't see why Jericho or anyone of note or value would bother getting involved with Impact these days. Up to a couple of years ago, sure. But now- what's the point? They are sadly nothing more than a glorified indy show with a little TV deal. They were *the* place to be if you were a former WWE/ECW/WCW guy without a contract at Stamford or if you were an exciting indy talent that WWE didn't see anything in. Their in-ring product was much more exciting than WWE's for many years.

Now it no longer has that appeal. WWE hoovers up the best indy talent and the ones they don't bother with (along with former WWE guys) wrestle for a combination of ROH, New Japan and the top indy (inc British) promotions instead. Their appeal of having the best in-ring talent is now covered by everyone else- those already mentioned plus WWE and NXT.

 

I think you've answered your own question there. Is there a bigger challenge in wrestling than getting some buzz around Impact again? I can see why it would appeal, plus there's the Canadian aspect.

[Your Fight Site]

1 hour ago, FourtyTwo said:

I think you would actually get more engagement in the product if you did an hour show that was on 4 or 5 nights a week, than you would doing a three hour show and a two hour show.

Millions sit through Eastenders / Corrie multiple times a week, but if you chucked it out there as one programme, I doubt it would do the same numbers.

Weekday wrestling shows, with a Saturday omnibus. Can’t be any worse than Hollyoaks!

[Jazzy G]

Interviews, squash matches, hype packages for the guys and to build to quarterly/bi-monthly PPVs wold be just fine by me. Whether it be 30 minutes nightly or a couple of nights a week, or even just an hour-long weekly show. NXT follows that model, and because the "name guys" are generally kept apart it means more when they wrestle at TakeOver or on the occasional episode they happen on. TNA was guilty of the opposite a few years ago where the opponents for PPV would be trading wins in 2-3 minute matches every week on iMPACT, then you'd be expected to stump up for a PPV in the belief that the same people would suddenly be upping their game and going 20-30 minutes.

[Sphinx]

17 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

Weekday wrestling shows, with a Saturday omnibus. Can’t be any worse than Hollyoaks!

Those italics grate on me every time. 

[Gus Mears]

I've been off work ill and, for my sins, decided to watch some circa 2008 TNA.

Highlights have been Booker T not giving a fuck at all and a pair of unbelivably wonderful catchphrases. First, Kevin Nash inexplicably decided to start ending interviews by saying "Stay wet" for several weeks. He also did a promo with a plus size woman on his lap which included the phrase: "any man can be with a ten, but the mark of a true swordsman is being able to fence with a lady like this".

This was possibly superseded by Kip James announcing before a match with Awesome Kong that he was: "Going to be Kippin' it real".

Edited December 8, 2017 by Gus Mears

[tiger_rick]

On 07/12/2017 at 1:30 PM, BomberPat said:

The YouTube point is an interesting one - wrestling is producing 2-3 hour TV shows at a time when people won't sit through a 30 second ad to watch a 3 minute Youtube video.

I think an hour is the perfect length for a wrestling TV show, but there's no reason it can't be done well in 30-45 minutes, with the right presentation and production.

I think this stuff is overplayed. My kids and lots of others we know will sit for hours watching YouTube videos. Movies are still incredibly popular. Live sport is popular.

Things are definitely changing in terms of TV and it opens up great possibilities but their business is dependent on the TV deals and the TV isn't anywhere near as engaging as a movie or live sport. It's not even as engaging as watching YouTube videos for a couple of hours.

It's too formulaic. The characters are ill-defined and don't develop. They don't use 1/5 of the tools they themselves have used in the past to present wrestling.

This smacks a little bit of them moving away from PPV and blaming the concept instead of their inability to book them. 

Edited December 9, 2017 by tiger_rick

[Egg Shen]

Jericho's podcast with Callis and Tuggles is now up, they sound like they know what they are doing.

[Love-Wilcox]

On 10/12/2017 at 2:33 PM, Egg Shen said:

Jericho's podcast with Callis and Tuggles is now up, they sound like they know what they are doing.

Listened to this last night. I’m not expecting a radical change over night but, for the first time in five or six years, I’m actually pretty optimistic about Impact’s future.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Love-Wilcox