How would you "fix" TNA?

[Decimate]

TNA at it's very best would have been during Immortal - I mean roster wise too
Back when RVD, Dreamer, Kaz, Daniels, Jarrett, AJ, Sting, The Pope, Crimson, Morgan, MCMG, Ink Inc, Jay Lethal really didn't give a **** for Hulk but really liked Bitchoff. TNA will never be where they once were and I think they should fold

 

[nobbyiscool]

TNA at it's very best would have been during Immortal - I mean roster wise too
Back when RVD, Dreamer, Kaz, Daniels, Jarrett, AJ, Sting, The Pope, Crimson, Morgan, MCMG, Ink Inc, Jay Lethal really didn't give a **** for Hulk but really liked Bitchoff. TNA will never be where they once were and I think they should fold

I think that shows that you haven't been watching TNA for that long.

Also, mentioning Crimson, Ink Inc and RVD (who Stevie Wonder could see didn't give a shit in TNA) - lol

 

[Decimate]

I think that shows that you haven't been watching TNA for that long.

Also, mentioning Crimson, Ink Inc and RVD (who Stevie Wonder could see didn't give a shit in TNA) - lol

I only started watching it a few months before original MEM.

 

[nobbyiscool]

I only started watching it a few months before original MEM.

Fair enough - but why comment with authority about when TNA was at its best when you didn't see it at it's best?

There's no way that TNA would've survived to MEM/Immortal/whatever shit came in the Bischoff-Hogan era without first being a wrestling company that wrestling fans watched and enjoyed.

Get No Surrender 2005, and watch every PPV up until about January 2007. Unfortunately you'll miss a heap of cracking stuff that they used to put on Impact at the time - but if you watch that 14 month period of TNA, you've seen just about everything good that they ever did.

I try not to be a TNA basher - in fact there were a couple of months after Slammiversary where I was back watching it nearly every week. But this thread exists because the company moved so far away from what made it successful. They weren't making money like WWE were - but in the mid-00s they had a semblance of a PPV business, they had the bones of a live event business, and they were an alternative that wrestling fans enjoyed. They could've been a very successful alternative. And they pissed it away because they wanted to be WWE, thinking they could become that by imitating WWE.

They've shown this year that when they let the talent go out there and tell their stories and wrestle their matches, they have a damn fine product. But they refused to give fans what they wanted... and rather than being WWE-lite, the end result is the most over-glorified indy fed you've ever seen come 1 January 2015.

Which is why the answer to this thread is that you can't fix TNA. I hate saying that, because competition is good for wrestling, and because there are people working for TNA that rely on the company to put food on their table. But this company is so far beyond salvageable due to the last 6 years worth filthy stank on it.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

What I don't like is the uncensored and undiluted joy and excitement a lot of people have while standing near TNA's hospital bed. The life support is on and TNA is still breathing and yet too many people are so very very pumped for the so-called death of the company.

I've gotten more out of TNA per hour than I have out of WWE this year. Even with all the stupid Dixie crap.

 

[Damon_3388]

I've gotten more out of TNA per hour than I have out of WWE this year. Even with all the stupid Dixie crap.

To be honest, I'd say the same. Particularly during Magnus' title reign earlier in the year, Impact was really good.

 

[Decimate]

Fair enough - but why comment with authority about when TNA was at its best when you didn't see it at it's best?

There's no way that TNA would've survived to MEM/Immortal/whatever shit came in the Bischoff-Hogan era without first being a wrestling company that wrestling fans watched and enjoyed.

Get No Surrender 2005, and watch every PPV up until about January 2007. Unfortunately you'll miss a heap of cracking stuff that they used to put on Impact at the time - but if you watch that 14 month period of TNA, you've seen just about everything good that they ever did.

I try not to be a TNA basher - in fact there were a couple of months after Slammiversary where I was back watching it nearly every week. But this thread exists because the company moved so far away from what made it successful. They weren't making money like WWE were - but in the mid-00s they had a semblance of a PPV business, they had the bones of a live event business, and they were an alternative that wrestling fans enjoyed. They could've been a very successful alternative. And they pissed it away because they wanted to be WWE, thinking they could become that by imitating WWE.

They've shown this year that when they let the talent go out there and tell their stories and wrestle their matches, they have a damn fine product. But they refused to give fans what they wanted... and rather than being WWE-lite, the end result is the most over-glorified indy fed you've ever seen come 1 January 2015.

Which is why the answer to this thread is that you can't fix TNA. I hate saying that, because competition is good for wrestling, and because there are people working for TNA that rely on the company to put food on their table. But this company is so far beyond salvageable due to the last 6 years worth filthy stank on it.

A company under Dixie will never succeed that is the biggest problem

 

[nobbyiscool]

I've gotten more out of TNA per hour than I have out of WWE this year. Even with all the stupid Dixie crap.

I couldn't possibly agree with that - the tv from before Lockdown up to Slammiversary was damn near unwatchable. It was "so bad it makes me angry" terrible.

As I said, the Pennsylvania and New York tapings that followed Slammiversary were great. But 3 months of very good-to-great tv doesn't make up for the rest of the year.

Also, NXT is still part of WWE, so factoring that in I'd say that WWE has still provided me more fun and enjoyment than TNA this year.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

You don't have to agree with that. I just felt like more was accomplished story-wise in TNA than there was on a regular basis in WWE.

That's the sort of thing you can't claim to connect NXT with WWE.

While I sound like a TNA fanboy (which apparently is a sin but fingers are being pointed away from here), I believe it's because of so much lost potential. Which is also WWE's problem. They each have their own management and creative issues. WWE just has the bankroll and facilities which is why they get away with so much more.

 

[Damon_3388]

A company under Dixie will never succeed that is the biggest problem

She (or more accurately, her family's money) is probably the main reason why TNA is still alive.

 

[Decimate]

She (or more accurately, her family's money) is probably the main reason why TNA is still alive.

Sounds like a waste of money. Most of them should just join Dreamers promotion.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Sounds like a waste of money. Most of them should just join Dreamers promotion.

It's hard to believe these guys haven't already quit their guaranteed contracts en masse to instead partake in garbage wrestling for 75 bucks a night.

Yes, TNA has sucked for 90% of the last 3 years. But if you're going to join a forum and contribute to a discussion about wrestling, you should try and understand wrestling, and try to stop being such a mark.

And maybe appreciate the fact that for you this is just entertainment - for them it's their livelihood, and food on their kids table.

 

[Damon_3388]

Sounds like a waste of money. Most of them should just join Dreamers promotion.

Shane Douglas' prospective new promotion actually sounds better from a worker's perspective TBH. Backed by a billionaire, offering health care and pension plans, etc. It's still yet to begin though, so Jeff Jarrett's Global Wrestling Federation presents an option too, especially for non-US workers, due to the various international affiliations.

Nobody is really going to quit a guaranteed contract though.

 

[Decimate]

It's hard to believe these guys haven't already quit their guaranteed contracts en masse to instead partake in garbage wrestling for 75 bucks a night.

Yes, TNA has sucked for 90% of the last 3 years. But if you're going to join a forum and contribute to a discussion about wrestling, you should try and understand wrestling, and try to stop being such a mark.

Company will be finished within a few years.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Shane Douglas' prospective new promotion actually sounds better from a worker's perspective TBH. Backed by a billionaire, offering health care and pension plans, etc. It's still yet to begin though, so Jeff Jarrett's Global Wrestling Federation presents an option too, especially for non-US workers, due to the various international affiliations.

Nobody is really going to quit a guaranteed contract though.

The problem is that no one is gong to trust Douglas again after the Hardcore Homecoming disaster. I haven't heard much about this project or about "it's billionaire" - but knowing the history of Shane Douglas, I'd be blown away if he ever gets another promotion off the ground.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Company will be finished within a few years.

Congratulations on the same original thought that people have been leveling at the company since 2004.

Congratulations also on the ground breaking prediction that they'll be finished in a few years when most people expect them to be finished by 1 January next year.

 

[Damon_3388]

The problem is that no one is gong to trust Douglas again after the Hardcore Homecoming disaster. I haven't heard much about this project or about "it's billionaire" - but knowing the history of Shane Douglas, I'd be blown away if he ever gets another promotion off the ground.

Having watching his recent Kayfabe Commentaries shoot, I'm pretty confident that the problems with that previous promotion weren't all his fault, and confident that he's an intelligent, level-headed guy who's probably got as much chance as anyone of making something a success with the right financial backing and control as anyone. The fact that he doesn't really need wrestling at this point (he's an educated guy who could easily be doing other stuff), but wants to be involved, says a lot for him too.

 

[nobbyiscool]

While I sound like a TNA fanboy (which apparently is a sin but fingers are being pointed away from here), I believe it's because of so much lost potential. Which is also WWE's problem. They each have their own management and creative issues. WWE just has the bankroll and facilities which is why they get away with so much more.

And I hope you've gleaned from my posts that I feel exactly the same way. I'm very hard on TNA, but it's not because I want them to die - I absolutely do not want that. As I said above, the tv from Slammiversary up until late August-early September was some of the best wrestling tv I've seen this year. It was everything that was good about the company, because when they just tell basic stories and let the wrestlers go, Impact is still a great wrestling show.

But the reason I'm hard on them is because of the unwatchable garbage we saw up until Slammiversary, and over the last couple of weeks as the lead up to BFG just became a confused clustermuck - during these periods we see everything that is bad about TNA, as they tell convoluted storylines, they mess up their booking, and we get shows full of talking.

And I'm hard on them because I've been watching the company since 2004. I watched through 2005-06 when their tv product was so far ahead of WWE it wasn't even funny, I ordered TNA pay per views when we started getting them (I think in 2006), and I genuinely thought Christian Cage and Kurt Angle would take this company mainstream. I cheered in 2007 when TNA announced they were going to tour Australia, I nearly wept when they cancelled that tour before actually booking anything... I know how much potential they had, and how good they were when they were trying to be different from WWE.

For pissing all that away having invested time, money and emotion into this company, I absolutely have a right to be hard on them and to be angry with them.

I don't defend the people that want people to lose their jobs, that want less wrestlers to have opportunities, and who think less wrestling is a good thing - but I have to think that if I hadn't have been watching TNA from 2004 - 2007, I would have no attachment to this company, and I probably wouldn't care whether it lived or died.

I've gotten more out of TNA per hour than I have out of WWE this year. Even with all the stupid Dixie crap.

Isn't ironic that when she was the directionless authority figure in the lead up to Slammiversary, it was (in my opinion) the worst that Impact has ever been.

And then around Slammiversary they found direction - Bully Ray was going to put them all, including Dixie, through a table. This was probably the biggest factor to the show's improvement. I don't mean Dixie's performance, I mean the creative direction that the company took with that storyline as the centrepiece.

Then after she went through the table was pretty much the moment they lost direction again, and Impact got rubbish again.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

They're sharing their flagship PPV with some Japanese company?!

Have TNA's ratings gone down the shitter or something?

 

[Cleavy]

They're sharing their flagship PPV with some Japanese company?!

Have TNA's ratings gone down the shitter or something?

1.1

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

They're sharing their flagship PPV with some Japanese company?!

Have TNA's ratings gone down the shitter or something?

Why does that sound horribly insensitive ...

 

[Cleavy]

"if you want lucha libres, go to Japan"

 

[Raymond Rougeau]

Carters needed to be silent investors no russo biscoff flair hogan and settle for being a modest 2nd tier company but they didn't do that lol

 

[Wild Kangaroo]

Hi Everyone,

I've been playing the TEW 2013 wrestling sim lately and it got me thinking pretty hard about what it would take to bring TNA either up a tier to compete with WWE, or if not up than my question would be how would you get it to have the same cult status it had in the 00's?

As someone who was a huge WCW and ECW fan as a young lad, than a huge TNA fan in the 00's and now has to resort to WWE or online streaming of indy feds and NJPW - I would love to see TNA regain the momentum they had previously.

I've put some of my thoughts below;

Roster

If TNA are serious about taking that next step-up, they need to sign some of the better up and coming indy stars around at the moment and give them a serious push. The question is do they go for that cult feel or do they sign the next 'pg' superstars?

I think they need to do a mixture of both and at the moment there is enough talent out there to do that (including some former WWE talent that have been gone long enough to repackage)

If I were TNA my roster overhaul would include signing the following guys:

Kevin Steen, Chris Hero, Carlito, Ted Dibiase Jr, The Briscoes, Paul London, Jimmy Jacobs, Roderick Strong, Davey Smith Jr.

I think this group have enough charisma and enough talent to really see the company grow significantally if they get the right push.

Cut The Crap!

The other side of the rostering I guess is to release the people who aren't going to be offering them anything of major importance in the next few years.

King Mo, Wes Brisco, Garett Bischoff, Sting, Bully Ray, Gunner, Jessie, Robbie E, Rob Terry and as much as I hate to say it.. Mr. Anderson.

I don't see any of these guys improving the TNA brand at the moment and keeping them will do more damage than good!

Bring Back the old ring!

This is something that made TNA unique and different, once this was lost it felt like TNA kind of lost their soul. It has to come back to prove they don't have to conform to mainstream requirements just to be up there and competitive.

Dixie needs an on-screen replacement

Last, but not least - Dixie needs to stay behind the scenes, we need someone with acting/mic ability, a reputation, the ability to be truly hated by fans and some charisma to be the on-screen GM/CEO of the business. I don't know where TNA could pluck someone like this from, but based on there needs I'd suggest one of the following:

Nigel McGuiness, Jim Cornette, Matt Striker, Joey Ryan or Stevie Richards.

Closing

I think TNA can definitely get back on top, but this is just my opinion on what is needed. I'm interested to hear everyone elses thoughts?

Cant repair, beyond repair. Shut it down.

 

[Wild Kangaroo]

Yeah, short-term gimmicky shit. Crimson and Matt Morgan didn't have that, but were still over with the TNA crowd.

TNA has a crowd and fans???