What can TNA realistically do to improve their rating ?

[RancidPunx]

TNA drives me crazy at times. I would love for them to be successful and be a legitimate competitor to the WWE. But it seems whatever they do they are stuck in pretty much the same spot and tv rating which hovers around 1.0 domestically.

 

What can TNA do to get this rating to a 2.0, let's try and be somewhat practical and realistic here?

If you were in charge?

 

Would you cut Hogan and spend the cash on younger indie talent?

Would you bring in a celeb and try and get national publicity?

Would you spend whatever profit you have on tv advertising?

Would you produce a reality show and hope it stimulates interest ala the first Ultimate Fighter?

Would you try and market the Knock-outs differently to try and appeal to a new demographic?

Would you sack the booking team?

 

Would love to see a lively intelligent discussion on this.........i am badly stoned as it is and have another bad boy rolled and ready to go.

 

Have at it !

[Daaaaaad!]

I'd make wrestling way more popular, then the ratings would hit a good 4.0.

 

TNA are as far as they're going to get at the moment. Barring a major change in pop culture, there's no wrestling 'boom' period coming any time soon and that's what it would take for them to lift their rating, in my opinion.

 

Also drugs are illegal and not cool.

[LaGoosh]

I don't think there is anything they can do product wise. It's more about just getting the word out, advertising, promoting and trying to cross over to the mainstream. There's only so many wrestling fans out there. The hardcore fans who already know about TNA and either watch it or don't, and the casual WWE fan who isn't aware of it's exsistance.

 

And with their being a billion hours of WWE TV per week already, I think the average wrestling fan couldn't be bothered to add 2 hours of TNA to that too.

[MoistVaj]

I'd put the strap on Hogan & have a 'farewell' Hulkamania tour.

[Sexy Dad]

Stay on the road, visit more cities and hope the new punters at shows tune in on the following weeks. As far as the roster, presentation and booking goes at the minute I'd say they are doing a good job. A bit more advertising wouldn't hurt actually, cut Mr Anderson and there is a bit more money freed up for that.

[RancidPunx]

Stay on the road, visit more cities and hope the new punters at shows tune in on the following weeks. As far as the roster, presentation and booking goes at the minute I'd say they are doing a good job. A bit more advertising wouldn't hurt actually, cut Mr Anderson and there is a bit more money freed up for that.

 

 

Who else would you cut and who would you bring in that's affordable and available and likely to boost ratings?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Outside being given an astronomical amount of money to put into it, there is nothing they can do. They will be around the 1.0 region until Spike or Panda pulls the plug on it. The name value they have is tainted with the average wrestling fan and they aren't on the radar of the casual fan, so they are in that position where they have the same people watching it every week and are unwilling to spend any money on them outside of watching it for free on TV. If you have 1.5 million people watching and only 6,000 of them buy your pay-per-views then something internally is wrong. And they do so poorly on it road for the roster they have. You can only enjoy TNA for what it is these days. But they really should stop dipping into their play book. They'll always do the nWo angle once a year, they will always do a power struggle angle between the general manager characters. TNA seems to do the same storylines with different characters every year, which gets tiresome. Samoa Joe is still around. Matt Morgan is still there. Sting is still getting title shots every other pay-per-view. Nothing really charges. Al Snow might be the worst head of talent relations in wrestling history as well. Fuck knows where he finds some of these wrestlers that show up every few weeks.

 

WWE are the market leader. They pretty much are the market. And the business isn't hot anymore. There are so many different things on telly to watch these days, that there probably isn't a place in the WWE fans schedule to watch another wrestling show.

[RancidPunx]

Outside being given an astronomical amount of money to put into it, there is nothing they can do. They will be around the 1.0 region until Spike or Panda pulls the plug on it. The name value they have is tainted with the average wrestling fan and they aren't on the radar of the casual fan, so they are in that position where they have the same people watching it every week and are unwilling to spend any money on them outside of watching it for free on TV. If you have 1.5 million people watching and only 6,000 of them buy your pay-per-views then something internally is wrong. And they do so poorly on it road for the roster they have. You can only enjoy TNA for what it is these days. But they really should stop dipping into their play book. They'll always do the nWo angle once a year, they will always do a power struggle angle between the general manager characters. TNA seems to do the same storylines with different characters every year, which gets tiresome. Samoa Joe is still around. Matt Morgan is still there. Sting is still getting title shots every other pay-per-view. Nothing really charges. Al Snow might be the worst head of talent relations in wrestling history as well. Fuck knows where he finds some of these wrestlers that show up every few weeks.

 

WWE are the market leader. They pretty much are the market. And the business isn't hot anymore. There are so many different things on telly to watch these days, that there probably isn't a place in the WWE fans schedule to watch another wrestling show.

 

 

Good points, well made.

 

 

Bad boy number has been smoked btw..

 

 

 

 

Who is actually booking these days?

 

Brother Love?

[King Pitcos]

And with their being a billion hours of WWE TV per week already, I think the average wrestling fan couldn't be bothered to add 2 hours of TNA to that too.

That plays a big part, I think. I'll always watch Raw and I've only missed Smackdown maybe five or ten times in the last five years, but even that's a struggle now. I like the idea of Main Event and Saturday Morning Slam, but almost never watch them. No interest whatsoever in Superstars and NXT. If WWE was so hot that I was left craving more wrestling, I'd watch TNA. As it is, I find myself fast-forwarding through about 60-70% of WWE's B-show, and that's a promotion I've been watching for over twenty years. At nearly thirty, it takes more to hook me than it did as a kid. I just haven't got the patience or desire to sit through enough episodes of TNA to get attached to the company, stories and wrestlers.

[Vamp]

I don't think signing anyone would make much different to be honest. Hogan's had a bit of an impact, but that's because he's already a brand in himself, I'm not sure if there's anyone else out there who you could say the same thing about. There's not even real stars in the WWE these days, bar Cena and The Rock when he's kicking about, the WWE sells itself as a brand, and TNA just can't compete on that game. They should keep their talent ticking over obviously, but that's not going to give them the big leap up.

 

I wouldn't cut Hogan either, Hogan's not there for the ratings, he's there for brand credibility. Hogan's a name you can whack out and some aging executive has probably heard of him.

 

Even if they get their product out there even more there's the problem Ian identified. The audience that are wrestling fans that aren't watching TNA are probably watching the WWE and they've got brand loyalty to that product, and there's so bloody much of it that I can't see it being easy to get them to look at something else.

 

It won't make an ounce of real difference but if I were them I'd be tempted to try and get a decent one hour TV slot. Obviously it doesn't work like that in real life, you just can't get an hour on TV. But if it were, I'd get an hour TV slot and load it up with my top stars, big angles and short matches. There's three bloody hours of the major WWE show each week. An hour long A-show would be something different. But in saying that I'm swayed that way just because I think an hour's the right time for a wrestling TV show.

[RancidPunx]

One point i am surprised no has mentioned is targeting ethnic minority demos by promoting ethnic minority stars.

 

Wasn't Rey Jr. pulling massive numbers among latinos in america at one point on Smackdown?

 

If a really good black role model that was booked strongly brought in a slightly different audience then surely it's worth a gamble?

 

What's wrestling's official demo, 18-34 year old white males from a lower income family?

 

 

 

Bad boy no: 3 has been polished off now btw.....I'm off for a few Pringles.

[PowerButchi]

Honestly? I think there's nothing they can do. WWE can put out shite at times and still get by because their brand is so strong. TNA don't have, and I don't think ever will have, that strength. Also, they have a history of burning the fans whenever something's getting good and so they're going to leave and not come back.

 

I think for them they should just be happy being profitable as I don't see them ever getting a rating like Jan 4th ever again, no matter what they do.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

TNA's biggest chance was in 2006. They signed Kurt Angle who was still a giant name, Samoa Joe was super hot coming off his feud with Scott Steiner, LAX had a lot of momentum and you had a young roster who they pushed way to late. I remember how hot that period was. If you'd have built Joe vs Angle over the course of a year, they'd have done great business. They did 60,000 buys with one months build. People were into it. But they murdered the value of it, in 6 weeks. In 2006, you had a younger AJ Styles, a younger Bobby Roode, a younger Kazarian, a younger Christopher Daniels, a younger James Storm, a younger Austin Aries, a younger Low Ki. You had Sabin and Shelley who were awesome at the time. They had Abyss, who has proven somebody wasn't using him correctly. Their roster was fresh, young and the audience hadn't seen them in every scenario and every role. They had good talkers as well. Cornette was still pretty good at the time. Dutch was there. Why didn't they use him? And most of the current WWE roster was still up for grabs during a time when WWE was looking for bodybuilders and freaks. They could have had Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Ohno, PAC and people like that. They could have gobbled up a load of young workers. But instead they hired Vince Russo and the Bashem Brothers. Ah, well.

 

That's the thing about TNA right now. We've seen Roode, AJ, Storm, Bully Ray, Sting, Joe and all the rest of them do every single character. Its a struggle to care about what the regulars do on the show because they've done it so many times.

 

Wasn't Rey Jr. pulling massive numbers among latinos in america at one point on Smackdown?

 

If a really good black role model that was booked strongly brought in a slightly different audience then surely it's worth a gamble?

 

What's wrestling's official demo, 18-34 year old white males from a lower income family?

Yeah, he does that in WWE. Jeff Hardy was a massive name in 2009, but he didn't duplicate it in TNA. You have to be put in a position to draw.

[RancidPunx]

Honestly? I think there's nothing they can do. WWE can put out shite at times and still get by because their brand is so strong. TNA don't have, and I don't think ever will have, that strength. Also, they have a history of burning the fans whenever something's getting good and so they're going to leave and not come back.

 

I think for them they should just be happy being profitable as I don't see them ever getting a rating like Jan 4th ever again, no matter what they do.

 

 

That was a 1.5 no?

[Arch Stanton]

Bad boy no: 3 has been polished off now btw.....I'm off for a few Pringles.

This just made me think of that Bad Boy Wrestling thread from a few years ago.