Anyone think this is possible...?

[mrarmageddon]

Firstly I'm a huge TNA mark and haven't watched WWE in 7 years when they managed to turn me against wrestling until I started watching TNA in 2006.

TNA has been signing a lot of guys recently and I noticed a connection between them. After the failure of the Frontline (lets face it they sucked) TNA needs a decent rival for the MEM (who I think are great btw). Now they've had Team 3D talking about "Being on the Frontline's side as we know what it's like to build a company up...blah blah..ECW.. blah blah".

This got me thinking...Raven, Shane Douglas, Taz, Team 3D, Rhino, Stevie Richards all ECW legends, now add to that Bobby Lashley a champ in new ECW and then they are also trying out Elijah Burke and Shawn Spears. You have a whole bunch of guys from the old and new ECW.

Russo has always stated that he wanted to do a proper invasion angle (he wanted to do it again in his short return to WWE after they messed it up the first time). I'm wondering if they are going to have these guys combine with TNA's "originals" as a group of guys who are sick of these big stars coming in and stealing all the top spots etc.

Just think it'd be pretty awesome as it'd get over all the young guys in TNA, along with new young guys like Lashley and Burke while also giving guys like Rhino (who hasn't been on TV in months due to nothing from creative) something to do.

 

[Big J]

I hope that is where they go. I am a huge TNA fan and always watch every Thursday.

Shane Douglas and Raven have both attacked "originals" and they could form another group. I would have had them be revealed has part of joes nation of violence. I don't think joe is a good leader and Shane or Raven would have to be the leader.

According to reports, Taz isn't available until sometime in July, lots of time for building toward something.

Whatever TNA does is ALWAYS better than wwe.

 

[mrarmageddon]

Yeah well with their new taping schedule they have basically a month off now to write July's TV which will I'm guessing include Taz's debut. If they don't have them joining up with the frontline then a kind of "Extreme takeover" thing would be cool too. To really make them match up with the MEM they really need someone marquee to lead any potential rival faction (obviously RVD would be insanely perfect).

Just seeing Shane Douglas in bad shape makes me wonder why they'd bring him back unless it was part of something bigger. Not like an out of shape Franchise on his own is a ratings draw. Great to see Raven back in shape and in the old denim shorts and leather jacket, much better than in his kilt when he was overweight from his thyroid problem. He looks how we all remember him best =)

They also had Balls Mahoney and Brother Runt on for a guest spot few weeks back (am sure they'd jump at the chance to return) and isn't Tommy Dreamer's WWE contract almost up?

So yeah here's hoping they have something big planned, MEM is great but without a decent rival group the only option is for in-fighting between Sting and Angle which has been done already.

 

[scabooshmoo1]

i like the idea of all the old ecw guys joining forces to take on the mem. i think this could be a very lengthy feud with all sorts of differnt angles that could play out.. this would make me watch tna more

 

[flaboy]

i like tna and the fact that they let there stars do more than wwe allows theres and the fact that they are not hyped up on steroids but i also think that tna would not make it if they had not of signed all the old wwe stars that were let go or never made it because it seems that tna focuses around the old wwe stars more. i mean lets face it i would about 80 to 90 % of tna is old wwe even samoa joe and styles got their start in wwe. check it out. but yes some sort of an invasion angle would be great.

 

[Megadeth]

TNA tried this back in 02-03 I think with Raven, Sandman, New Jack, Justin Credible, and Saturn. The were originally called Team Extreme then changed it to Extreme Revolution. I'm not really sure on a lot of the details outside of that as I had very limited TV/internet during that time period and couldn't keep up with TNA as well as I would have liked. But I doubt TNA would acknowledge it on TV now if they were to form a group, kinda like the fact when Sting returned in 2006 they hyped it up as his first time back since WCW even though he had made sporadic appearances in TNA in 03-04.

 

[Spunky]

Wasn't this tried with SEX (sports entertainment xtreme)? That sucked balls.

But know I wouldn't like to see an invaison angle, As most of the invaders will be made up of people that are out of shape, Too old, Or flat out poor in the ring.

I also think that the MEM storyline should be scrapped sooner rather than later, It's become piss week, And has taken a completely different direction than what it started out to be.

 

[Heel?]

For me, TNA signing former ECW mainstays is just coincidental. I think TNA is just grabbing whoever...I like to call it "WCW Signing Syndrome" or, WSS.

Who knows if it makes sense to put an acronym in an acronym but...I just did it.

 

[The Infant Finite]

No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No No, No, No, NO!
I don't want to see this! The WWE has done quite enough to tarnish the memory of the beloved ECW. Vince Russo will only further soil it with his passe', half baked ideas. All of these men are in the dusk of they're careers and I'd rather not re-visit the land of extreme without Heyman anyway.


If they got Heyman in and actually had the wherewithall to make Heyman the head of booking/creative, then I would be okay with this idea, because Paul E. would do it right, hell he would change TNA as we know it and lord knows it NEEDS to be changed drastically. But that will never happen because Russo is Jarrett's "Boy" back there and god forbid you overlook friendships in the name of prosperity. I can appreciate loyalty and all but in the wrestling buisness, especially in a company such as this, if this guy is holding you back then you have to do something about it.


Anyhow back to this terrible ECW idea. We can't call team 3-D the Dudley boys, Shane Douglas and Taz haven't really wrestled effectively in years, Bobby Lashley DOES NOT FUCKING COUNT and TNA would find no effective way to make this work beyond the first few novelty weeks of the idea.
They need to find they're own storylines, not just re-hash old WCW (MEM) and old WWF (ECW Invasion) story lines.


This is TNA's biggest problem, they're lack of creativity. That coupled with nonsensical storylines and this absurd booking tendency of putting the older guys over while the young guys remain buried, will ultimately kill this company if they don't get the good sense to realize something has to change if they ever want to make any elevation past the perception of being a low grade, six sided WCW clone.

 

[StInGeR-HBK]

IMO, this would be awesomeness!!! What I would like to see though, would me the MEM joining forces with the Frontline to take on the ECW team that's trying to invade TNA. Now that Sting is the Godfather of the MEM it would make perfect sense. The Frontline group could finally get along with Sting saying that they finally learned the meaning of the word respect and that they need the MEM's help to avoid loosing everything they've worked so hard for. MEM gets what they want, RESPECT, and the Frontline will finally get recognized as the future of TNA! This would be insane!

 

[Monroe]

IMO this could easily work if booked well but there would be two big factors that would have to considered.

Taz and Raven.

Say what you will about Shane Douglas being the Franchise of ECW but anyone who remembers will tell you that Douglas was at his best being chased by Taz. And Taz was arguably at his best chasing Douglas for the World Championship. You would have to have those two men come together in a way that would rock the wrestling world, and honestly, do we believe that TNA is capable of doing this?

Raven is their pillar of support. Again, say what you want, but people really started caring about ECW while Raven was torturing the men he faced in the locker room. No need to rehash what he's done, it would come down to Raven and Taz leading these other men into a "war" with TNA. It would also take mainstays like Daniels and Styles jumping ship and "abandoning" TNA during it's time of need. Hell, truth be told, I would love to see Raven be the mastermind behind Eric Young and his recent turn on Double J.

Not because I don't believe Young can make it on his own, but because with Raven manipulating every little aspect of competition that TNA faces, it would simply get more bizarre and entertaining. We don't need 1000 COHOF matches, obviously, but Raven's character is considered one of the smartest in wrestling, therefore it would not be out of question for Raven to outsmart TNA and use their insecurities against them. (I.E. Young telling Double J. that he puts himself before his daughters. That is classic Raven.)

Also remember that when he was in ECW, Mick Foley himself became Raven's lackey. So if Raven were to unite a group to conquer TNA, he would already have sway (in theory) over the most powerful man in the company. Instantly putting a legit threat to the company. More so than anything the MEM Vs. Frontline angle produced.

Raven could also elude to selling the company to their "competitor" once he gets the job done, so that this "competitor" could maintain their monopoly on the wrestling business. If anyone remembers, back in the day when Raven was still with the WWE he praised the Hell out of Triple H going so far as to call him one of the best workers he'd ever seen, bar none. Alluding to this could easily draw fans in to the mindset that Raven, much like Hall and Nash did with the Invasion angle, were working for Vince. Honestly, if Vince was smart, he'd say Raven was.

And again, I say it comes down to how they reunite Taz and Douglas, and how they allow Raven to be used. If these men are downplayed then any angle involving them will go the same way. If these men are suddenly put onto the level of Sting, Angle, Nash, ect, then I believe people would not only care, but knowing the history of them, would consider them a real threat.

Unfortunately I don't believe any of the above will happen. I see Taz becoming Joe's mentor. I see Douglas getting used a bit, then lost in the shuffle, and most likely a small run for Raven and then a blackout on TNA creative's part as to what to do with him, ending with his release again.

But it's fun to speculate.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It's not going to work. TNA doesn't have the creativity to pull something like this off. The've brought in former WCW and/or WWE stars in the hopes of garnering bigger ratings and becoming a legitimate threat to the WWE and NONE of it has worked.

An Invasion angle with this crew, if that's what TNA has in mind, will only make them look extremely generic. An Invasion can really only be pulled off if the crowd believes that the Invaders are guys that can take out the current roster and make the product better. The WWE has spent the better part of a decade treating the old school ECW wrestlers as little more than jobbers. In fact, that's what most of them wound up becoming in the WWE before being told to hit the bricks. IF, and I'm saying IF, TNA had plans to bring in guys like Balls Mahoney, the Sandman, Brother Runt, Taz, Shane Douglas and others as some sort of "extreme" invasion or whatever, I'd laugh my ass off. Most of those guys are about a threatening as a cloudy day. Can you imagine those C-listers against guys like Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, etc.? While some of those guys on the TNA roster are over the hill, they could take those ECW bozos if they had one foot in the grave with the other one slipping. If an Invasion angle is what TNA creative is planning, it's going to flop.

 

[GameOver]

Been thinking that same thing since Stevie Richards joined a few months back.
Add Tazz and possibly Dreamer and bring back Balls and Spike and we might have something remotely interesting. Be far better than the MEM crap they've been drawing out

 

[mrarmageddon]

Whether it's what they're planning or not we'll need to see.

Good call on Foley, for some reason he didn't really pop into my head when i thought about ECW. But yeah they could have the world champ on their side.

I do agree they still need a big signing or a jump against TNA, not sure AJ is good enough on the mike to pull it off. One of the only good points of the alliance v WWF invasion was Austin's jump and heel turn as I thought he was awesome. Especially how he managed to get Angle so over by running away from him or getting intentionally disqualified etc.

Hopefully something big is in the works as I really enjoyed MEM for first few months but now it's getting a bit messed up and needs sorting out. Hope they stick with it though as a stable of nothing but world champs has great potential.