http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1ZlVzYgp8#t=15m08s
If Vance Middle School can't put them over the top, nothing can!
That sounds like a guy from the WWE developmental name generator. Vance Middleschool!
As for TNA, Meltzer was talking about it on the last show, and basically they're ditching PPV completely and going into survival mode by attempting to cut everyone who won't take a $300 per show deal. So expect to see basically everyone but the tippy top guys cut loose when their contracts expire, and a lot more indy geeks used instead.
I hope that means they switch up their contracts so dudes can appear on any indy show. let 'em be on Ring of Honor. I'd love seeing what a fully giving a shit Samoa Joe could do in a company that treats him like a returning god. or Aries out in PWG, if I ever got around to watching it.
ReplyDeleteTNA is like that annoying terd that just won't flush. Even if they keep their heads afloat while in survival mode, what's the long term play? Tread water forever?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how feasible it is but the best play might be for them to shut it down and just start completely over, assuming the top level people still want to be in the business.
With guys like that shilling for them, they'll surely fill up the library. They might even have to move the show into the gymnasium.
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, they've also scored a gig at the historic McMinnville Civic Center.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IE088bv2Ek8/UqDIYbr9gxI/AAAAAAAAAtE/5r1luqhnLfQ/s1600/tnamcminnville.jpg
Things are finally looking up for TNA!
Kurt Angle deserved better than this. The man main evented WM, made Hogan tap out (back when it still meant something) and looked to be heading towards the "living legend" status that Shawn had at the time. He was just 37 years old when he left WWE, now he's 45 and probably finished soon.
ReplyDeleteHe should have been in that ring on Monday trying not to laugh while the crowd chanted for D-Bry, dammit! THAT'S WHERE HE BELONGS!!! Not at Vance Middle School...
TNA needs to stop ruining so much of their shit with second rate sports entertainment and Dixie Carter and put out a viable alternative to WWE with really good wrestling on television. See how much awesomeness they left on the table with the Turning Point show they just did.
ReplyDeleteI agree in that they should differentiate themselves from wwe in someway. There been trying to be wwe Jr for awhile, and it's just so stupid. They don't have the stars like wwe, they don't do "sports entertainment" or storytelling as well as wwe, so why would people watch.
ReplyDeleteDifferentiate yourselves somehow.
If a wrestling promotion folds, but nobody is watching to know it folds, does it really fold?
ReplyDeleteHuh, don't know, too busy watching WWE.
ReplyDeleteEverything was going fine until Eric and Hogan came in, once that happened, they started this slow death.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, given the name value of guys like Angle and Hardy (and even Bully or Joe and Roode etc.) who can still go, they ought to be able to at least get good enough ratings to stay alive if they'd just give us a good wrestling show that was worth devoting 2 hours a week to. Add 4-6 pay per views a year and they ought to be able to at least make money.
ReplyDeleteThey differentiate themselves by running shows in middle schools.
ReplyDeleteVince should buy TNA and let them reboot as WCW or so. But no Triple H as COO, but as independent as possible. This could be good for guys like Ziggler, Miz or Kingston. On the other side he can then use some fresh known faces like Angle or Hardy for the WWE. ;)
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea: If TNA is going into "survival mode," why don't they actually get somewhere with the fucking product instead of treading water with fucking everything forever?! I mean, look at what they're running out there right now:
ReplyDeleteA) A never ending shitty angle with Park/Abyss that has no resolution in sight and is wasting Abyss.
B) An interesting newcomer in EC3 that they're booking like David Flair and taking nowhere.
C) A knockouts division that they have no idea what to do with as we've seen every match they could put together already.
D) A world title tournament no one gives a shit about because it's been overshadowed by Angle/Roode and everyone knows is leading to a unification match with AJ.
If they'd actually put some of this shit in gear and mix it with giving their good workers time to entertain everybody, they might actually get somewhere. But they won't, because they're TNfuckingA.
is that an owen hart analogy? (dx's promo)
ReplyDeleteEc3 is one of the worst things I've ever seen on TV. I'm all for a wwe alternative but I hope TNA folds and we never see half that roster again
ReplyDeleteWhy does he need to buy TNA to reboot WCW?
ReplyDeleteEC3 could be decent stuff if they actually, ya know, gave it some material instead of just putting the same old boring shit on every single week for no particular reason. It's like they think everybody can't tell that he looks like a legit wrestler who can hold his own in the ring or something.
ReplyDeleteEric Darkstorm...wasent that one of the jobbers from Imaginary Wrestling Association?
ReplyDeleteTNA really should have used this whole bullshit "Styles steals the title" storyline as a chance to do a total re-boot. I mean, maybe they still could, but I think it's obvious that the tournament winner is gonna beat Styles, "unify" the titles, and then move on business as usual.
ReplyDeleteBut this should have been where they change EVERYTHING about the company. Get rid of that awful business-killing sex joke name and call it Impact Wrestling Federation. Dump all the WWE-lite aspects of their production— video screen, entrance packages, fancy graphics, announcers' table, in-ring promos— all the stuff that looks like a poor version of WWE. Instead, they should go to a total stripped down ECW-style that takes advantage of the fact that they have no money. Make it look low budget ON PURPOSE— wrestlers can enter through a chain-link fence entrance way or through the crowd. Start every show off with a match, and don't do ANY interviews inside the ring. The only talking their wrestlers should do in the ring is taunting someone after a beatdown— otherwise, they should 100% get rid of in-ring interview segments.
The mega-violence and crudeness of ECW should obviously be avoided, as that stuff is played out and can't work on a national level. But they should absolutely look to those shows for style pointers, and how to make low-budget seem cool.
Lastly, they have to pick 2-3 guys RIGHT NOW and absolutely build around them. Roode/Storm/Joe/Aries/Magnus--- pick 3-4 of those guys and build every single TV show around making them look like stars. Go a whole year without them losing a single match, make sure in every segment they appear they come off looking badass and cool. Spend some money and get them actual COOL ENTRANCE MUSIC. Whatever it takes, they need to pick a few guys (ideally 2 heels and 2 faces) and absolutely spend every waking second building them up, while looking for supplementary players underneath.
Unfortunately for them this is all to true
ReplyDeleteof course, the 'E's schedule might have killed him, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteWhat people who advocate TNA "starting over" or "rebooting" fail to take into account is that TNA has been around for over a decade. Only a handful of the guys who came in fairly recently are young, hungry and dynamic anymore and none of the can carry a televised wrestling company.
ReplyDeleteSamoa Joe is going to be 35 in March.
Austin Aries IS 35.
James Storm and Bobby Roode are 36.
Jeff Hardy is 36.
Mr. Anderson is 37 (and sucks).
Christopher Daniels is 43(!).
Kurt Angle is 45.
Sting is, like, 84.
These are not men you are going to reinvigorate, reinvent or see with a new "fire" in them. At those ages, they're going to be what they are forever, barring an unforeseen (and therefore unwise-to-bet-on) late career reinvention like Bully Ray or DDP.
What's the fix, then? Fire them and hire the current young, hungry and talented workers, hoping to build them into the stars of tomorrow? Sure, but anyone can do that.
The TNA/Impact name at this point is a joke. Let it die and let the younger guys make a name in a promotion that doesn't make people instinctively roll their eyes.
Isn't your last paragraph exactly what the "start over" camp is saying?
ReplyDeletei think he was daimon hellstrom's tag partner in 'son of satan'
ReplyDeletethe solution is simply: nekkid odb
ReplyDeleteYeah, but they seem to advocate TNA being the company to do it, which is a terrible idea.
ReplyDelete"Vince, I'm telling you, we should hold EVERY edition of Raw at a middle school!" -- Jerry Lawler
ReplyDeleteRight, but we're operating in a world in which TNA as a company exists and will continue to exist until the owners don't want it to exist anymore. So yeah, our suggestions/opinions will obviously be based on that premise.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the "young TNA stars" are far from actually young anymore. TNA totally misued them during the era when they should have been the cool new things in wrestling. That said:
A) Hogan was what, 32 when he got the WWF title and started Hulkamnia? Austin was 34 at Wrestlemania 14. So it's not like every big star has to break at 25 like The Rock. Most haven't.
B) Most wrestling fans still haven't actually seen that much Roode/Storm/Joe/Aries. The majority of wrestling fans haven't been watching TNA all this time. So if the company ever started putting on an awesome product, and did something with those guys that actually reinvented them and made them seem cool, there'd be a shit-ton of viewers who could theoretically switch over and say "Wow, this Samoa Joe guy is pretty awesome!" Unlikely that TNA the company would ever do anything right, of course, but I do think a perfect-world-complete-overhaul could work.
I don't use the term "Hero" very often, Buster. But with that joke, you may well be the greatest hero in the history of the world.
ReplyDeleteI'll work for $300 a night. But I need creative control over my character. And I need them to hire my friends. Can't turn out any worse than the last time they gave someone that deal...
ReplyDeletePudgy McNeckbeard calling Randy Hales a legendary promoter made me smile and realize I need a shave.
ReplyDeleteTNA : Where The Big Boys Play At A Middle School!
ReplyDeleteI was going to joke about them not even selling out a middle school without giving away free tickets for the kids, but then I remembered that that good looking English rassler Magnus is part of the show, and they could easily sell out a HIGH SCHOOL gym with that kind of star power, let alone a middle school gym.
ReplyDeleteWith TNA ditching PPV, I think they should start booking the show in a similiar way to NXT. Just book a solid wrestling show and not a WWE Lite show.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who doesn't really follow Ring of Honor or much TNA, could TNA's death be Ring of Honor's gain?
ReplyDeleteIf Dennis Haskins is not involved with this TNA may as well just fold.
ReplyDeleteDo it like the old TBS show - TNA is YOUR source for the best in national independent wrestling! Just write the reason for the constant arrivals and departures into the premise.
ReplyDelete