TNA's Story Line Obsession

[Judah's Lion]

is it possible to agree with both Rayne and Zeven? i'll try.

Rayne is absolutely right. there is nothing new under the sun. that's not even an original thought. it's in the Bible, after all. every story is a recycle, reuse, rehash, etc.

Zeven is absolutely right. it's all about delivery. the best storylines in the world can be dropped before they even have a chance to succeed if the initial delivery bombs.

as to the specific storylines mentioned by the OP, there's some merit to the observation and even any mild irritation that may or may not be experienced. undefeated streaks get done a lot. several that come to mind immediately and in no particular order: Mr. Perfect, Goldberg, Tatanka, Umaga, Bobby Lashley, D-Lo Brown (yep! D-Lo freaking Brown, in the WWE no less), Undertaker, Kane, Crimson, and Ryback. invading factions? yeah, got those too. nWo, Nexxus, Corre, Aces and Eights, Ministry of Darkness (to an extent with the abducting superstars deal), and i'm sure several others.

so there are some that seem to be especially repetitive. back to Rayne's point. why reinvent the wheel? if it ain't broke, don't fix it. and then back to Zeven's point. the reason we hate these storylines repeating is not because we hate the story, per se, but perhaps just the delivery of it. i'm looking at you undefeated D-Lo Brown and the Corre.

[Hugh G. Rection]

Originally Posted by Spinebreaker

Pretty much, yeah. To be fair, Angle's angle (hehe) was a little different, it wasn't the 'unbeatable freak' dominating everybody. It was Angle, defeating everyone because he's a technical specialist, so it was different.

So....a regular push then? Most wrestlers get pushed at sopme point or another, and during a push they tend not to lose.

I think the only complaint I somewhat agree with is the invading factiion storyline, but I personally am a fan of most invading factions, hehe. Immortal completely sucked, but I enjoy Aces & Eights since Bully has taken taken the reigns.

Once the Aces are gone, I expect we will not see a faction for a long time to come.

Other than that, I don't think TNA are obsessed with any particular storylines.

The instance you referred to with the tag teams, I can remember it happening with MCMG and Beer Money, when did it happen with 3D? I don't remember but I'll assume it was in 2009-10?

[Kliq69]

The problem with all of it boils down to one simple concept. Wrestling shows should not be written, they should be booked.

Writers, in general, come up with characters and plots and then people are found to be those characters and work within those plots.

Bookers, in general, already have people to work with and devise characters and angles that specifically work with those people.

Too often now, wrestlers are being forced into rolls that don't fit them, into angles that don't suit them, and fail as a result. It used to be bookers took a look at their roster (and available talent) and came up with gimmicks and angles specifically created to maximize that specific wrestler's potential.

Since the switch from booking teams to writing teams making up the creative process, they've over-complicated an already complicated process by trying to force these guys into roles they weren't suited for to begin with. If they want to run wrestling like it's just another television show, it won't work. The live crowd, one-take action sequences (matches), constantly changing venues, etc makes it impossible to successfully create compelling, logical, episodic television on a weekly basis because there are too many variables to contend with.

The only way that wrestling as a television show would work best with a writing team instead of a booking team is if you were going to get rid of the paying audience, the one-take action, the changing venues and instead created a 100% controlled environment in which to create the process. There would be no messed up finishes, no botches in matches, no losing momentum because you failed to lift someone at the right time, no screw-ups on the mic, every promo or segment would be shot multiple times until the delivery and execution are perfect. If they want the same results as other television programs, then they should modify their format to be like other television programs. If not, then going back to how the creative process used to work before television writers got involved might be the best step going forward.

[New Hot Fed]

I don't know why booking teams have these obsessions to always re-do stuff but it's a sad thing. And I don't think it's because "everything has been done" so they recycle. Just look at how well TNA was doing in 2012 with the whole run of Bobby Roode as champ. It was nice to see cause TNA has never really done a real monster heel champ run, even for faces for that matter and it was executed well, people praised it all around the wrestling World, even The Rock sent a tweet to Bobby Roode saying he liked his work. And the whole way TNA was booking their show was executed well, Bully was well booked during this period, so was Aries as the X champion, especially James Storm. The stories were simple but well done and TNA completly cut the fat around that period, making the least mistakes possible and they were not a lot of annoyance watching the shows fo wrestlers that didn't fit. Then Roode lost the belt.

Now in my opinion the first real mistake they made was in turning Aries face (even if he was over) and him beating Roode cause it screwed up the whole thing between Roode and Storm and they should have let the fans savour Aries a little more before changing him. It's like what the WWF did with Austin: they did not made him champ the first time he became popular, Vince gave him a whole built first. But that could be salvagable.

No the true blunder was that when Impact was a well-oiled machine and everything was doing smoothly they had another invading group attacking TNA wrestlers. And they did it just cause they could too. As we have seen recently, they did not really have a plan. They just decided to throw some guys with masks outthere to attack Sting, to just get a reaction cause it was he first live Impact and they wanted to surprise people. And then when people got excited they had to further develop the storyline and that's when the problem occured cause they didn't have stars like when the nWo occured. Nevermind how Aces & 8s evolved into something people liked or not, the fact is, TNA for the most part was a well-run product that finally had their shit together without doing groups and for whatever reasons, they had to do it again.

In retrospect it feels like the booking team got greedy cause things were doing so well. But they should have kept doing what they were doing. It's like the racer who has the talent but before the finishing line keeps throwing the race cause he doesn't feel worthy. It's like TNA was not confident enough in their abilities to just push individual wrestlers and slowly building vendettas between guys like they had done with Storm and Roode, they had to throw a group outthere for other wrestlers to fight against. I know it's far simpler to do that when you have many wrestlers but I think it's better building individual feuds in my opinion. Cause for example instead of Mr. Anderson joining Aces & 8s to have him something to do, why not have Mr. Anderson appear after BFG and challenge Hardy after he won the TNA belt? Simple enough booking but it would have been much better for Anderson. Have Anderson go after Hardy all the time and get under his skin so that finally Hardy give him a title shot. Just a thing betwen two guys but it could become epic. I would prefered having Knox and DOC appearing together as new wrestlers for a new big and mean tag team than as namless jobbers in a group. But instead you have them do the A/8 invasion, everybody is thrown into the mix and it's like nobody really matters. Doing this guy vs this guy is so more organic yet it feels like TNA bookers got weak in the knees for whatever reasons like it's too difficult for them and said "ah screw it, we'll just focus on the group from now on". Cause it worked so well with THEY and Immortal. lol

[TheMaskedNewton]

Originally Posted by New Hot Fed

I don't know why booking teams have these obsessions to always re-do stuff but it's a sad thing. And I don't think it's because "everything has been done" so they recycle. Just look at how well TNA was doing in 2012 with the whole run of Bobby Roode as champ. It was nice to see cause TNA has never really done a real monster heel champ run, even for faces for that matter and it was executed well, people praised it all around the wrestling World, even The Rock sent a tweet to Bobby Roode saying he liked his work. And the whole way TNA was booking their show was executed well, Bully was well booked during this period, so was Aries as the X champion, especially James Storm. The stories were simple but well done and TNA completly cut the fat around that period, making the least mistakes possible and they were not a lot of annoyance watching the shows fo wrestlers that didn't fit. Then Roode lost the belt.

Now in my opinion the first real mistake they made was in turning Aries face (even if he was over) and him beating Roode cause it screwed up the whole thing between Roode and Storm and they should have let the fans savour Aries a little more before changing him. It's like what the WWF did with Austin: they did not made him champ the first time he became popular, Vince gave him a whole built first. But that could be salvagable.

No the true blunder was that when Impact was a well-oiled machine and everything was doing smoothly they had another invading group attacking TNA wrestlers. And they did it just cause they could too. As we have seen recently, they did not really have a plan. They just decided to throw some guys with masks outthere to attack Sting, to just get a reaction cause it was he first live Impact and they wanted to surprise people. And then when people got excited they had to further develop the storyline and that's when the problem occured cause they didn't have stars like when the nWo occured. Nevermind how Aces & 8s evolved into something people liked or not, the fact is, TNA for the most part was a well-run product that finally had their shit together without doing groups and for whatever reasons, they had to do it again.

In retrospect it feels like the booking team got greedy cause things were doing so well. But they should have kept doing what they were doing. It's like the racer who has the talent but before the finishing line keeps throwing the race cause he doesn't feel worthy. It's like TNA was not confident enough in their abilities to just push individual wrestlers and slowly building vendettas between guys like they had done with Storm and Roode, they had to throw a group outthere for other wrestlers to fight against. I know it's far simpler to do that when you have many wrestlers but I think it's better building individual feuds in my opinion. Cause for example instead of Mr. Anderson joining Aces & 8s to have him something to do, why not have Mr. Anderson appear after BFG and challenge Hardy after he won the TNA belt? Simple enough booking but it would have been much better for Anderson. Have Anderson go after Hardy all the time and get under his skin so that finally Hardy give him a title shot. Just a thing betwen two guys but it could become epic. I would prefered having Knox and DOC appearing together as new wrestlers for a new big and mean tag team than as namless jobbers in a group. But instead you have them do the A/8 invasion, everybody is thrown into the mix and it's like nobody really matters. Doing this guy vs this guy is so more organic yet it feels like TNA bookers got weak in the knees for whatever reasons like it's too difficult for them and said "ah screw it, we'll just focus on the group from now on". Cause it worked so well with THEY and Immortal. lol

It's not like the Aces & Eights has failed miserably. Bully Ray has been booked really well all these time and he absolutely shines as the leader of the group.

But I actually agree with you. That's what I thought when they first introduced the masked faction and that's what I feel now, even if I like what I see. They were doing everything right. Wrestlers were over. Almost everyone had a reason to be there. They didn't need a group. They didn't neEd Aces n Eights. Now, we will have to wait for about a year before this group is dead.