TNA NEWS and DISCUSSION THREAD

[OSJ]

The gun could've been made of kryptonite, better safe than sorry!

 

And a bit of advice for the minority who object to the mocking of the TNA.

 

1. Grow a thicker skin, this is the Internetz.

2. Use the "Ignore" feature. I did, and within weeks the three people I had on ignore got themselves Johnny Cashed.

3. Marry Dixie Carter. You'll still be mocked for having a wife with an eye like that dude in Harry Potter, but at least you'll be rich.

[cool arrow]

Couldn't agree more with #2.  I only have one person on Ignore anymore, and I really wish people would stop quoting him.

[jaedmc]

I think we're covered on the advice guys, thanks. 

[EN090]

I'd like to point out that EC3/Rockstar Spud and killer Bobby Lashley are two of the best things in wrestling TV right now, certainly better than the majority of the nonsense that goes on Monday nights.

Some of the LOL TNA stuff should be directed to the WWE threads. A fucking wresting bunny is ten times worse than anything on TNA television in recent memory.

[evilwaldo]

The bunny is meant to be comedy while a good portion of TNA is not meant to be comedy.

[EN090]

Just because its meant to be comedy doesn't make good. Its dumb Vince McMahon comedy, cut out of the same mold as Katie Vick, foot fetishes, etc.

On another awesome note, EC3 and Robbie E have started their own podcast.

[jaedmc]

I don't know how often you go in the RAW threads, but there's a shit ton of complaining about how terrible every thing is. Except for Dean Ambrose, and even Dean has some booking moments that draws groans. TNA isn't all that different in this regard, as there's usually one or two actually interesting acts going in the middle of a shit storm. Bad Influence. A Double. Bully Ray. etc etc etc. So telling people to direct at the WWE is kind of pointless, when that company gets its fair share of shit AND...this is a TNA thread for discussing the good and bad of this particular company.

 

Gimme a good Lashley match to watch!

[EN090]

In all fairness Jae, this thread is more of a playground for people to come and clown around, with TNA being the main toy. There's people that come here for the sole purpose of taking a dump on TNA, saying that they're going out of business soon, and then leaving. That really doesn't happen in the WWE threads, when often times Raw should be subjected to TNA-level snark.

I thought Lashley's match with Aries was pretty good. He's never going to be a a Daniel Bryan-- I was referring more to the way he's being booked n portrayed. He's passable in the ring but I'd like to see him work a stiffer style ala Lesnar (which, of course, would lead to "TNA is copying WWE" crying).

[OSJ]

ENO90:

 

As the resident champion of fair play and all things sweetness and light, I shall try and control the snark... Most people wanted TNA to succeed, indeed, the rise of a legit #2 promotion would be the best thing in the world for WWE. Competition makes one stronger, that's a fact. The problem is that Dixie Carter is too arrogant to learn from her mistakes. They have a goodly amount of talent, (not as much as WWE, but certainly enough). However, they are fascinated by wheeling out has-beens, cast-offs and malcontents as though these guys are the next big thing. Tommy Dreamer? C'mon, Dreamer was barely passable twenty years ago. Broadus Clay? From all accounts he's a very nice man. There's lots of nice people who need jobs, it doesn't mean that you hire them and put them on tv. Dudleys? They were done, done, done, a decade ago.

 

Here's what they do right:

 

Talent. Plenty of younger guys that they should be pushing.

Production. They ain't WWE, but they are light years ahead of ROH.

 

Here's what they do wrong:

Lack of Talent - Bringing in various has-beens, cast-offs and malcontents. Angle has been passable, Christian (when he's not hurt) puts in yeoman's effort wherever he is, a damn good pick up, but they couldn't keep him.  Several major players need to go, Abyss is bloody awful, always has been. The Dudleys were stale ten years ago, Angle might die in the ring at any moment. Samoa Joe is fat and lazy. There was a point that I considered him the best in the world, but that was a long time and many cheeseburgers ago.

Horrible writing - There are probably fifty people on this board who could script a better wrestling program. Matter of fact, there are several of us that write professionally. It's not that hard to write an hour or two of TV and keep everyone busy doing something. Look at NXT as an example of how to do it.

On screen Authority Figure - This is the kiss of death for every mark-run promotion, the desire of the money mark to put themselves in the limelight. For every McMahon (and let's be real, all three worked very hard to do what they did, Linda being the only exception), 99% of money marks lack the physical ability, the charisma, the training, and any concept of how to get an angle across. Dixie Carter is one of the worst and I've seen a lot of inept promoters trying to be part of the show.

Imitating the competition, this is a move that is foredoomed to failure even when you occasionally are better. The perception (generally accurate) is that you lack the essentials to do anything different and therefore are a second-rate entity not meant to be taken seriously.

 

So why do we mock TNA? Because with all the time and money and all the expectations, they fail again and again to learn from their mistakes. The most venomous haters were the ones that originally had the highest hopes. It's like watching a six year old touching up a Steve Ditko original with a Sharpie, just bloody painful to watch.

[Overly Critical Man]

I don't know how often you go in the RAW threads, but there's a shit ton of complaining about how terrible every thing is. Except for Dean Ambrose, and even Dean has some booking moments that draws groans. TNA isn't all that different in this regard, as there's usually one or two actually interesting acts going in the middle of a shit storm. Bad Influence. A Double. Bully Ray. etc etc etc. So telling people to direct at the WWE is kind of pointless, when that company gets its fair share of shit AND...this is a TNA thread for discussing the good and bad of this particular company.

 

Gimme a good Lashley match to watch!

Lashley vs Aries and Lashley vs Hardy from the Manhattan shows were both pretty good. There were some horrific bumps in both.

[greenbat]

Wanna know why I shit on TNA? Cause it's a free motherfuckin country, that's why.

There's a laundry list I'd ex talent, notably Daniels, Kazarian and Styles who talk openly about creative going back and forth, New regimes not knowing who the franchise players were and burying them, talent being LATE ON PAY DURING THE HOLIDAYS! And then recently Dixie had the balls to say Styles made a big mistake, despite Styles saying a month before he already earned more than he would've if he resigned with TNA. Tl;dr they treat talent like shit despite all the talk about "providing a job". Right now all the talent is on a $1000 a, month downside, after taxes about $720, so pure poverty, and the company has to relax their stupid Fuckin appearance restrictions because if not the talent would starve to death. TNA is a BAD COMPANY FOR WRESTLERS! And the industry world be better without them. And as a mainstream company they still do regular bloodbath, Thumbtack matches and barbed wire (chair shors to the head?) Which I personally enjoy but not every week like they do, they create a "one upsmanship" that less to desensitized fans and injury.

The show itself is almost unwatchable BTW.

[jaedmc]

Whattya know, I LOVE horrific bumps.

[greenbat]

Oh I do too, I watch bjw regularly, deathmatch is my favorite style, but I know that it's not great for talent, as a mainstream company I can see it's irresponsible.

[OSJ]

Horrific bumps = good

Horrific writing = bad

[EN090]

ENO90:

As the resident champion of fair play and all things sweetness and light, I shall try and control the snark... Most people wanted TNA to succeed, indeed, the rise of a legit #2 promotion would be the best thing in the world for WWE. Competition makes one stronger, that's a fact. The problem is that Dixie Carter is too arrogant to learn from her mistakes. They have a goodly amount of talent, (not as much as WWE, but certainly enough). However, they are fascinated by wheeling out has-beens, cast-offs and malcontents as though these guys are the next big thing. Tommy Dreamer? C'mon, Dreamer was barely passable twenty years ago. Broadus Clay? From all accounts he's a very nice man. There's lots of nice people who need jobs, it doesn't mean that you hire them and put them on tv. Dudleys? They were done, done, done, a decade ago.

Here's what they do right:

Talent. Plenty of younger guys that they should be pushing.

Production. They ain't WWE, but they are light years ahead of ROH.

Here's what they do wrong:

Lack of Talent - Bringing in various has-beens, cast-offs and malcontents. Angle has been passable, Christian (when he's not hurt) puts in yeoman's effort wherever he is, a damn good pick up, but they couldn't keep him. Several major players need to go, Abyss is bloody awful, always has been. The Dudleys were stale ten years ago, Angle might die in the ring at any moment. Samoa Joe is fat and lazy. There was a point that I considered him the best in the world, but that was a long time and many cheeseburgers ago.

Horrible writing - There are probably fifty people on this board who could script a better wrestling program. Matter of fact, there are several of us that write professionally. It's not that hard to write an hour or two of TV and keep everyone busy doing something. Look at NXT as an example of how to do it.

On screen Authority Figure - This is the kiss of death for every mark-run promotion, the desire of the money mark to put themselves in the limelight. For every McMahon (and let's be real, all three worked very hard to do what they did, Linda being the only exception), 99% of money marks lack the physical ability, the charisma, the training, and any concept of how to get an angle across. Dixie Carter is one of the worst and I've seen a lot of inept promoters trying to be part of the show.

Imitating the competition, this is a move that is foredoomed to failure even when you occasionally are better. The perception (generally accurate) is that you lack the essentials to do anything different and therefore are a second-rate entity not meant to be taken seriously.

So why do we mock TNA? Because with all the time and money and all the expectations, they fail again and again to learn from their mistakes. The most venomous haters were the ones that originally had the highest hopes. It's like watching a six year old touching up a Steve Ditko original with a Sharpie, just bloody painful to watch.

Thanks for the well thought out post.

There's a lot of stuff in there that I agree with. I AGREE that Dixie Carter is inept and that the company will go nowhere as long as she is in charge.

I agree in general with the signing of WWE castoffs, although they shouldn't all be lumped together. Some would call EC3 a WWE castoff but in TNA, he's flourished Into a phenomenal performer. And his comedic timing is better any WWE-brand comedy that Vince and his writers come up with.

Where I disagree is this idea of "copying". Everything in wrestling is a copy of something else. The entire format of Raw for the last 15 years is a DIRECT ripoff of WCW Monday Nitro. The on-screen authority is a DIRECT ripoff of Eric Bischoff, who was the first to do it. If TNA came up with anything that resembled a WWE creation to the point that DX resembled the nWo, they'd be ripped mercilessly. WWE copied back then and they still copy to this day, and everyone seems to be fine with it.

As for the idea of TNA or anyone else being a legit number 2-- that ain't gonna happen without Ted Turner levels of money, regardless of the dumb mistakes they've made.

[EN090]

So the industry would be better without a company that provides workers a chance to get on TV and make SOME money. It would be better of they weren't around so wrestlers made NO money and didn't have a chance get on TV. Phenomenal logic.

And since its a free country, like you said, I think we can trust people to make their own decisions as to where they want to work.

[Ace]

There are other televised companies. The industry deserves a #2 company that isn't completely inept. TNA's death would do absolutely nothing to hurt the industry.

[EN090]

Whatever. Its a moot point cuz they ain't going out of business anyway.

On that note, I'm going to the bar. Night ya'll.

[greenbat]

So the industry would be better without a company that provides workers a chance to get on TV and make SOME money. It would be better of they weren't around so wrestlers made NO money and didn't have a chance get on TV. Phenomenal logic.

And since its a free country, like you said, I think we can trust people to make their own decisions as to where they want to work.

Yes, the industry would be better.

Because of the way they handled previous legal battles with the WWE the WWE, which is the goal of every worker, had no interest in touching anyone from the company. Kevin Sullivan keeps bringing up in his podcasts, WHO from TNA has ever gone to TNA and has anything resembling a career? TNA is a stink you well never wash away and if I were a talent that would keep me from ever wanting to go.

Companies lie ROH and DGUSSA happily release a talent once the big dogs cone sniffing and wish then luck, Dixie the Dipshit still thinks they're some kind of enviable organisation.

So yes, the industry would be better without TNA. seriously, who do they employ anyway? WWE castoffs, has beens, nowadays NXT rejects and then fuck wad hangerson like Abyss. James Storm and Eric Roode are great but they will never go beyond TNA. Roode was a free agent and couldn't get a tryout. If TNA didn't exist something would take it's place and do a better job of taking care of talent.

Dude, the knockouts had to stage a strike during one of those ONO ppvs because the pay was so embarrassing, ditto for some ECW talent during that awful ppv. Fuck man, isn't it obvious TNA low balls talent with the incentive of national tv which no one watches (yeah they have a million viewers but I'd argue half of them are watching for the train wreck abd main events usually peter out around 7-800k, sometimes lower).

TNA should die.

[nate]

It will. On its own time. But it will.

[cool arrow]

They've actually gotten better since giving Russo the boot.  But it's too little, too late.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Roode couldn't get a tryout as a free agent? When was this? I don't buy it, HHH and The Rock are both fans.

 

In terms of TNA guys who have made a decent career, I think Roode and Storm are prety good moneywise. Styles is IWGP Champion.

 

R-Truth has had a good career - he's mostly a jobber but he'll have made his money. Christian certainly used TNA to show he could be more than a midcard heel. CM Punk was in TNA.

 

Right now, there's probably only a few guys on the roster the WWE would consider worth signing - EC3, Robbie E, maybe Roode/Storm, maybe Bram (he's married to Charlotte after all). I don't really know what Kevin Sullivan's point is?

[Big Fresh]

Bram is married to Charlotte????

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Indeed. He was released from development for being charged with assault on a cop, but I think if Ric likes him, the marriage lasts and he doesn't fuck up then he's a good candidate to be resigned if only for Total Divas.

[TerjeRUN]

They've actually gotten better since giving Russo the boot.  But it's too little, too late.

 

Maybe. I've slagged TNA off more than most on this board but it's only because they frustrate me. I actually want them to pull through and get better.