Scott--
So I guess luchadores are doing more than just sitting in their hotel rooms playing Playstation games. http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/narcos-anonymous
best,
Dan E.
Guess we know where Del Rio got that big house and servants he was always bragging about.
It's the longest death rattle in history. I don't know how Dixie convinced DA to get in the wrestling ring (pun intended), but I don't see them lasting past this deal.
ReplyDeleteTNA is more akin to Lucha Underground than WWE now: they're a TV show, not a touring live wrestling promotion. That's absolutely fine, so it's good that they're getting with the program.
ReplyDeleteTna totally not available.
ReplyDeleteSo does this mean they are only airing what they have already taped, then they're done, or that they taped enough and don't need tapings in April? Suckas gotta know, Tony!
ReplyDeleteDescribes my dating life T_T
ReplyDeleteTna was never meant to be an acronym. It was just a hip spelling they tried to give Mike Tenay.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great article. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteGiven Vince's shameless racial stereotyping, a Mexican Crime Lord character could do well. What's ArribaMan up to these days?
I wonder if any vets caught that "no gaming, you millennials" shit from the higher ups; I remember Stevie Richards saying Kane was such a big gamer, he'd always bring his XBOX on the road with him whenever they traveled together.
ReplyDeleteSo how pissed should DA (Dead on Arrival) be that TNA stops giving them newcontent just three months into the deal?
ReplyDeleteBy the time they're done, TNA will have $25 a night Indy guys working the shows. "This week, Tom the Destroyer takes on LL Cool Billy"
ReplyDeleteThey're getting with the programming by not producing new content?
ReplyDeleteNo, they're getting with the programming with understanding they're not really a wrestling promotion. Running high school gyms and 90% empty baseball stadiums did more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteThey are producing new content. They're probably tape 2 months of TV at the Impact tapings this weekend and that's why they don't need to film more in April.
They usually tape 2 episodes of Impact a night, and they have four nights schedule over the next four days. That should give them enough material to get them through mid-May. Makes sense they're not taping in April then.
ReplyDeleteWhat pun?
ReplyDeleteI watched last week's episode of Impact and really enjoyed it. Drew Galloway seems pretty money. I could do without MVP taking up mic-time, especially when Kenny King is also in the BDC. I had never seen anything King had done before, but he is really great on the mic, isn't he? That guy should be the leader of the BDC based off mic presence alone.
ReplyDeleteEC3 is really as great as everyone said he is, and I'm loving the storyline with him and Spud. I really don't care all that much about the TNA World Championship. I'm sure an Angle vs. Lashley match will be decent, but I'm honestly more interested in some of the undercard guys. That was my first time seeing the Wolves, and I'm really interested in seeing them defend the titles against the Hardys.
If they can just keep this as a TV show a la Lucha Underground, I would hope they could hang around. Their booking seems to not be as ridiculous these days, and the talent roster seems pretty strong.
Don't talk crazy. Of all the things that genuinely signaled bad things for TNA, this moment of planned fiscal responsibility is surely the most damning.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, losing AJ and lying about Russo will be on their death certificate. This is actually an intelligent move.
I just hope it's not too late.
TNA is a television show these days. As long as they have a new episode of Impact every week, they're happy. The weird thing is, even with shows taped months ahead, no PPV's, no house shows etc., Impact is still usually way better than RAW.
ReplyDeleteI like to think The Undertaker thinks a Nes is cutting edge technology.
ReplyDeleteHonest question: how have they not folded yet?
ReplyDelete"Now I know what you are thinking, Enrico is a girl's name."
ReplyDelete"No it isn't."
"No pun intended."
"What pun is that?"
Stubborn owner with dispensable income?
ReplyDeleteI could have sworn ADR's debut vignettes implied he was a drug dealer
ReplyDeleteNah I'm sure he constantly plays Royal Rumble on the SNES.
ReplyDeleteI remember that, Kane was big on playing that terrible Raw game for the Xbox.
ReplyDeleteWell, that is the only way a Mexican could amass any money. Carlos Slim? Just another narco.
ReplyDeleteDrew Galloway is the goddam truth. His recent work in EVOLVE is mind blowing. I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys wrestling to watch his matches with Roderick Strong. Gabe has put one or two on YouTube for free.
ReplyDeleteKenny King was pretty great on the mic way back when he was working in FIP. He kinda took a step backward in ROH, but he was paired with Rhett Titus, and that's a mighty challenge. King's best work came when he and Titus were in a makeshift stable with Aries. King plays off Aries's cockiness well. I would like to see them work
The Wolves are one of the best tag teams in the world, so if you already enjoyed their work, you're in for a good time. They're a bit hate-em-or-love-em largely based on Davey Richards. Richards has a bad habit of not selling in matches sometimes. Eddie Edwards is pretty much universally loved except by people who don't like strong style at all.
There are a lot of great wrestlers in TNA right now and I hope you continue to enjoy it.
I have nothing for or against TNA. I'm finding myself very much a fan of EVOLVE right now and I hope TNA continues to let Drew Galloway work both companies. Davey Richards and Austin Aries are both working with Gabe again, so I'm really hoping TNA allows their wrestlers to continue to take outside bookings while they're on a reduced taping schedule. My only horse in the race is I want as many good quality wrestling options as I can have.
ReplyDeleteTNA has to let him work both. TNA is probably only going to end up running 20-25 events total this year. A guy has to eat.
ReplyDeleteTNA is dead, long live TNA!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but that's not really saying much.
ReplyDeleteI'm being 100% serious when I say I am amazed that TNA is even still operating today.
ReplyDeleteThanks, man! I hope I do too. Appreciate all the insight.
ReplyDeletePretty fitting for TNA, the company that never learned, to not be granted a swift death like WCW, but rather deteriorate and deteriorate until it's nothing but a shambling zombified corpse, limping on to eventually self-destruct in complete anonymity.
ReplyDeleteIt's impossible to be otherwise. This was a company that has been left for dead at least four or five times in its history.
ReplyDeleteI don't think WCW's death was really that swift, to be honest, but I get what you mean.
ReplyDeleteUp until now the saddest demise was the AWA, but I think TNA will go on to beat them, if for no other reason than how long it takes to finally die.
ReplyDeleteIt does make me wonder what would have to happen for it to finally go under.
ReplyDeleteI think World Class is sadder. It didn't just destroy a promotion, it took an entire family down with it.
ReplyDeleteNo TV deal is what I think would kill them (although they survived the six months between Fox Sports canceling them and Spike picking them up)
ReplyDeleteI just want to second what he said about the Wolves. Eddie is great, Richards is an asshole.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Wolves match is still against the Forever Hooligans at All star extravaganza 5. Eddie worked face while Davey turned heel for one night yelling (I hate hockey and fuck canada) eddie was doing a whole bit outside where he shook his head and went around apologizing to everyone in the audience while Davey heeled it up in the ring. It was hilarious.
AWA and World Class at least both achieved genuine success before the decline set in. That's what makes TNAs situation so pitiful.
ReplyDeleteThere are worse ideas than taking that original Razor Ramon idea and refining it into a Mexican drug lord gimmick, right? This might work.
ReplyDeleteHoo boy. I wouldn't want to be whoever reported that.
ReplyDeleteThink he played as himself? Also love the name.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy how many guys TNA has been signing to contracts in the last few weeks when they don't seem to have any long-term plan ahead of them. What is happening here?
ReplyDeletePatented the Slim Jimenez. Duh.
ReplyDeleteExcept it's not even close to PG for the character to work.
ReplyDeleteThey have tv deals in multiple countries, they have 4 wrestlers and film a years worth of tv at every taping. If TNA still aren't making money then they should just quit right fucking now. They should just do iPPV's and sell DVD's through Smart Mark.
ReplyDeleteI keep imagining that at every TNA news report, R.D. Reynolds is eagerly checking to see if he can finally get to work on Life and Death of TNA book.
ReplyDeleteI know he has issues and likely won't be touched, but I'd love to see Angle back in WWE even on a short term deal
ReplyDeleteTNA is the equivalent of a paralyzed vegetable.
ReplyDeleteThought Lucha Underground is actually backed by a real wrestling promotion in AAA while TNA seems to just be giving up
ReplyDeleteWCW was pretty swift, in terms of the fall.
ReplyDeleteMarch 99: 1.0 buyrates, 5.0 tv ratings
March 00: 0.2 buyrates, 2.5 tv ratings
March 01: out of business
Depends on what your definition of "swift" is, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI consider WCW's descent to start from July 1998, which was the last time Nitro beat RAW (Goldberg/Hogan). It was all downhill from there.
EVERYTHING IS FINE.
ReplyDeleteI assume he's written all of it but the final chapter.
ReplyDeleteThey should just go ahead and knock out 52 tapings this weekend. Save some money and they shouldn't have any problem with continuity of stories since everyone is right there.
ReplyDeleteJeez, I say that and I'm Mussolini. Scott says it and...
ReplyDeleteIts just really hard to put on a show that fans can engage with, and be enthusiastic about, when you tape so infrequently. You have to build to something and it's hard to tape chronologically and have your best blow-off stuff be at the end of a 4+ hour TV taping. If you tape your big stuff earlier then you risk the crowd being confused and not as hot as they could. Even NXT wouldn't be as well received if their shows didn't build to their blow-away 2 hour specials.
TNA cancelling a TV taping may be fiscally responsible, but it's a sign that their upcoming shows for awhile may be patchwork affairs. They need to be building back up, but it just feels like they're struggling.
It would probably be like when they tried to give Tajiri the Yakuza gimmick,and he suggested just how bad of an idea that might be.
ReplyDeleteWell, good luck to them. Hope the plan works out better for them than it did for the AWA, GLOW, POWW, the AWF, Wrestling Society X, etc., etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteI wonder nowadays what my teachers thought when I was a kid and drawing razorblades on my notebooks. Lucky I didnt get CPS called on my parents. Maybe my teachers had all seen Scarface.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard that one, but I'd have been terrified to have that gimmick.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, the suggestion was that he was a rich kid whose money may not have been entirely legit. But not an outright cartel guy.
ReplyDeletePublic school? I'd guess they just didn't give a shit.
ReplyDeleteI...think Scott mentioned it in one of his books. They suggested it, and he had to explain just how fucked he might be when he went home, or if they toured in Japan.
ReplyDeleteThey'd have to be men. They Couldn't let it slide.
ReplyDeleteLol all we had in my area was public school. Not that im casting aspersions but that reminded me of a thought I was having just today about how wrestling transcends class lines and not all fans came fdom the same background I did: when I hear guys on here talk about nagging their parents into getting them PPVs every month. I mean, we did ok, I never went without, but I couldn't even imagine my mom and stepdad ever paying extra so I could watch a TV show. They heavily implied that I was pushing it to even have cable.
ReplyDeleteOh I'm from that same background. Public school and all. My teachers definitely didn't care.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a perfect way to play that match. It made sense, too, since even at the height of his feel powers, Steen was a face in Canada and the Canadian crowd had a party when Steen beat Richards for the title.
ReplyDeleteIt's all timing. If he does that post-Columbine, he's forced to go to therapy.
ReplyDelete(Does not know when Murph graduated.)
Kendra Lust.
ReplyDelete... wait, this isn't a Cena post.
Mary Carey.
Total Nonstop Action? I think it was, the problem was the choice of words. And the failure to change... EVER.
ReplyDeleteNitro beat Raw in October 1998 as well with the replay of the Goldberg/DDP Halloween Havoc match.
ReplyDeleteAre there any that vegetables aren't paralyzed?
ReplyDeleteI don't see my broccoli getting up and walking away anytime soon.
I'm sorry you couldn't appreciate the joke. I'll try harder next time.
ReplyDeleteNOSAWA was caught smuggling drug in japan after a tour of Mexico
ReplyDeleteAll I got is a mexican jumping bean. In pretty sure that grows into something vegetable related. Although I dont think thata what kenola was talking about though.
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding the Yakuza are an accepted part of Japanese culture. People generally know who in the community is connected and they take in the stray youths who have no other place to go.
ReplyDeleteIt's...weird but I still don't think they'd take to civies imitating them on TV. They are still gangsters.
When I first saw the ADR vignettes I thought it was adverts for some politician.
ReplyDeleteI believe they're accepted as well. Doesn't mean they want someone running around on TV pretending to be one of them. Very disrespectful if not played absolutely perfectly... And look who we're talking about here.
ReplyDeleteDino Bravo was "caught" smuggling cigarettes into Canada.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Sabu once do a suicide dive right into the Yakuza section of the audience after being explicitly told not to?
ReplyDeleteI believe he was 'caught' not 'paying taxes'
ReplyDeleteI think so. And I bet it took some serious 'persuasion' by his uncle or someone else to get him out of it.
ReplyDeleteI mean...wrestlers travel a lot, they don't make GREAT money but they rub elbows with true superstars. It would not surprise me if a couple of them were doing something else on the side. They certainly consume enough product to have a connection to the cartels.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, it was a great game.
ReplyDeleteI heard he locked himself in the locker room until they left and he GTFO'd out of the region soon after.
ReplyDeletePeople who reference "Rat Race" are the best people.
ReplyDeleteThey've got a really good tv show now, with a good cast of wrestlers and good booking too. it's hardly giving up.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who's a wrestling fan, TNA for me has been the most entertaining weekly wrestling show by far this past year. I like Lucha Underground for the matches, but TNA's booking and characters far surpass it. WWE's product is terrible.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder why wrestling fans put so much into company business and downplay the actual finished product.
It's the evolution of a wrestling fan. It's no different than a "regular" sports fan who follows the trades, draft picks, scouting reports, spring training, changes in coaching staffs, etc. What happens behind the scenes affects what you see on TV. When a team always wins you maybe don't care, but if they lose you become curious as to why. When a company like TNA has for years put on a TV product that was confusing, inconsistent in quality & continuity, and frankly outright bad at times, the only way you can understand it is to look behind the curtain.
ReplyDeleteWell once again, I've been watching it for the past year and think the product is great. The booking is smart, the characters are given chances to develop, etc.
ReplyDeleteSure it's interesting to look at the backstage stuff, but I don't seem to gleefully revel in bad backstage TNA news like some people do and use it as an excuse to dismiss the onscreen product.
Crippled my thumb button mashing on the grapples.
ReplyDeleteWell here's the thing--and it's great that you feel they've put on a good show and enjoyed it--but that's not the case for everyone. The sad fact (not opinion--fact) is that they were cancelled by Spike. This is a promotion that was RIP dead until they signed their new TV deal. Even now they are barely on life support. It is hard to ignore that when a company is in such dire financial situation. It affects what we see, when months of storylines have all be shot in a night, when wrestlers can't make a living there and leave the company, when injuries happen after matches that haven't even been aired yet. These are hallmarks of companies that have gone out of business. You may see it as glee, but it's really more disgust & disappointment that the company still exists: not because of those shows you feel have been good, but because of a narcissistic owner willing to throw away other people's money.
ReplyDeleteWe're all fans. We just want to be able to enjoy it. It's hard to know the state of TNA and just go with the flow week to week, especially now that they're literally unwatchable to half their former viewers.