How Can TNA Improve On Constant Ratings?

[Shadow of Darkness]

Now Last Night i got a solid response from all,about WHY TNA SHOULD NOT GO TO MONDAY NIGHTS! So this brings me to a question about how can TNA improve its ratings...

now dont tell me that they need to go road every week, should do good production...etc. Etc. WE ALL know that, what i want is whether u people have some unique ideas. One thing that matters is TNA is not WCW. THEY DONT HAVE THE HISTORY AS WELL AS THE HUGE FAN FOLLOWING OF SOUTHERN STATES as NWA/WCW used to have. So what should they do? You can also give some totaly unique STORYLINE ideas that can turn the table like nWo Storyline did for WCW.

so give ur views guys.

 

[GameOver]

You answered it yourself, stop trying to be WWE and WCW, they are not gonna attain that for atleast a decade

Personally i think TNA 7yrs ago was pretty good, the in ring was great, the fueds and promo's were pretty good considering i didn't know who 90% of the guys were, but now it's mindless, the wrestling is repetitive, storylines go nowhere, no consistancy from one segment to another and it's like noone cares anymore

1) Spend some money on production values not on guys that won't get any more over or offer nothing to the product

2) STOP TAPING AT ORLANDO - need to tour Impact around the country

3) Get rid of Tazz on commentry - he's hopeless, suprised he knows how to breathe cause he certainly can't work out how to talk., hell even Don West was a better second and he sucked.

4) Consistancy. Start a fued/storyline and stick to it.

5) Stop with the "where wrestling matters" when clearly it doesn't for the most part.

6) Teach the talent how to act and use a mic or get rid of them. Alot of the acting/mic work is worse then bottom barrel.

7) Emphasise the XDivision as much as the World Title, that's what made them different from WWE.

8) Leave Spike TV, they don't house any other sports related programs do they? I don't know i don't live in the states. But here in Australia TNA moved to a sports only channel which fits it more. WWE gets Fox 8 all to there selves.

9) PPV's should be special, not over length Impact tapings. Which is all they seem to be.

10) Last but not least, stop with the endless tournaments to crown new contenders which leads to a go nowhere match at a PPV then start all over again. Tourny's should be special not every month
They have made some headways obviously in getting on the road and have atleast 1 advertising backer in the Insurance Company and trying to recreate attitude style programming which caters to the people that don't like the lameness of Cena era WWE.

Still not consistant enough and just seems like they are just throwing everything out there to see what sticks, but then when something does they don't stick with it, they scrap it

as for a storyline, with the current crew i don't think there's anything they can do that would be ground breaking and warrant people tuning in droves like Hogan turning heel, hell even Hogan turning face again did nothing.

 

[Xumer]

Not sure exactly what could be done now to fix/save TNA. They have to get rid of russo, hogan and bischoff. They aren't bringing anything to the table and they are sucking up millions of dollars that could be used better for the company.

 

[dman1373]

Not sure exactly what could be done now to fix/save TNA. They have to get rid of russo, hogan and bischoff. They aren't bringing anything to the table and they are sucking up millions of dollars that could be used better for the company.

biscoff is only in charge of the producing of the show and im not a tna fan, but the production value has gone up since he came. I remember when everyone used to complain about how shitty the camera angles are and blah blah blah, but then it stopped since bischoff came on board, so fire hogan and russo but not biscoff.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Before going into another big storyline that don't work, they should do the simple things right first.

First stick with what they are doing now with Roode as champ. The problem with TNA has always been throwing away ideas when they didn't feel that they worked. They pushed AJ in early 2010 and it's like Hogan got bored with it and then had RVD beat him and they abandonned the idea of AJ as top guy after this. They pushed The Pope and then stop pushing him rather quickly. Same with Mr. Anderson. When they push someone they should go all the way with it and give it time for people to adopt it. And if it works it can become a good word-of-mouth and people will come watch it. So in short, don't rush anything.

Seconly, make sure every main event is a hot one(whatever it is) and promote the Hell out of it. Promote it on the show before. And promote it during all throughout that very show also. They did that well one time and it was a throwaway match between RVD vs Angle a few months ago. The hype was great, the match was highly competitive. But they never repeated it for whatever reaons.

Thirdly, they could use legendary stars that would be hired for one week with each week being a different one. Just to make it an attraction like Nitro used to do.

Fourthly, choose a storyline and focus your attention to it. TNA has now more than a few storylines, Hardy/Sting vs Roode, Angle vs Storm, EB and his son, AJ vs Kaz. While I appreciate TNA having more than one feud, if we go back to the WWF attitude era, the concept was simple, it was all Austin vs McMahon. WWF knew what the fans wanted and they were given it to them in spades. There were a few others things like DX and Val Venis but more than half of the show was about Austin. You had Austin everywhere, all the time. You want something? We're gonna give it you see till you're dunk of it. If TNA has decided that Roode is their guy, that Roode vs Hardy is their feud then put all your stock in it. For the casual fans it's easy to recognize and for regular fans, they get what they want.

Fifth, the usual travel issue. Get Impact in the road on a permanent basis. And cut the "cast members" crap so that the reaction of the fans is genuine. It comes off better on tv.

Sixth, raise the entertainment level. Better set, better outfits, better characters, better promos, better entrances. Look at how wrestling use to do entrance for example Gangrel, best entrance ever, very entertaining and exciting. No more generic crap. Make sure all music is recognizable.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Just a few thoughts in no real order

1) Try to get off Spike. There was a time when Spike seemed like a good channel choice. It had the UFC, it had guy shows, it was rebranding its image, so lets gets some wrestling on there. Cut to a few years later and most of Spike is CSI from 8am until 4pm, then marathons of their original shows
2) Try to get away from using so many former WWE guys. Using a few is fine, especially to build up a good main event scene but they need homegrown talent in there eventually. They are starting to get there.
3) Get out of the Impact Zone and do tv shows elsewhere. Its hard to build a fan base when you tape a months worth of shows in 2 days in a back lot sound stage of a theme park. More fans=higher ratings
4) Stick with a damn name. It has been TNA, it has been Total Nonstop Action, its been TNA Impact!, now its Impact Wrestling
5) Stop doing those backstage segments where it looks like the cameraman is hiding in a dark corner filming people. Like a couple weeks ago they were following EY around while he was looking for ODB. Why did a camera guy feel the need to film that? It wasn't believable
6) Try to get a better announce team. Tazz just doesn't seem like he cares anymore.
7) Step up the value of some things. The entrances are so generic, hire a guy to produce some new stuff. You don't need Jim Johnson or John Williams but come on. The ring skirt is a bland color, even if its basically a billboard. Pay a little for wardrobe so not everyone is wearing a generic dbag shirt with skulls and daggers and iron crosses

 

[mlp420]

Fourthly, choose a storyline and focus your attention to it. TNA has now more than a few storylines, Hardy/Sting vs Roode, Angle vs Storm, EB and his son, AJ vs Kaz. While I appreciate TNA having more than one feud, if we go back to the WWF attitude era, the concept was simple, it was all Austin vs McMahon. WWF knew what the fans wanted and they were given it to them in spades. There were a few others things like DX and Val Venis but more than half of the show was about Austin. You had Austin everywhere, all the time. You want something? We're gonna give it you see till you're dunk of it. If TNA has decided that Roode is their guy, that Roode vs Hardy is their feud then put all your stock in it. For the casual fans it's easy to recognize and for regular fans, they get what they want.

Absolutely wrong. What you're asking for is exactly what's wrong with wrestling today. If you look back to the attitude era it wasn't all Austin all the time. That was the main focus, sure. But if you actually watch past shows in the attitude era it's mind blowing how much they fit into each show compared to today. They used to have at least 7-8 matches a week and sometimes they had 9 or 10 matches in one show. There were always a handful of story lines running every week.

Doing things the way you propose is very risky because you might alienate people who don't like Roode vs. Jeff Hardy because that's taking up most of the show. I know I didn't watch WWE in 98 for Stone Cold at all. I watched mainly for the Nation vs. DX stable war. Likewise, I may have been able to tolerate Cena's reigns of terror in 06-07 if there was some compelling things going on in the midcard around that time.

And another thing, a lot of fans on these boards tend to have this idea that being a casual fan means you're stupid or can't follow something if it's not simple. Not true at all. Wrestling is incredibly simple compared to other shows on TV. In my opinion, casual fans actually turn away from wrestling because the plots are too simple and predictable. Which brings me to answering OP's question.

The only way TNA (or WWE for that matter) is going to be able to improve on it's ratings is to break new ground. They have to find a way to expand the creative boundaries for wrestling, expand the way story lines are presented. Like ECW did in the mid 90s, and like WWF did in the late 90s. That's what they need to do. Nothing else is going to matter. That's what people on sites like this don't get. It doesn't matter who they push, or how much wrestling they have on a show, or how good the booking is. We've seen everything they could possibly give us in the current format.

 

[Xumer]

I don't entirely disagree that spiketv isn't the best network in the world but if TNA had better offers from better channels they would have left. WWE and UFC did. They are stuck on spike because there isn't really anywhere else to go.

 

[GameOver]

Absolutely wrong. What you're asking for is exactly what's wrong with wrestling today. If you look back to the attitude era it wasn't all Austin all the time. That was the main focus, sure. But if you actually watch past shows in the attitude era it's mind blowing how much they fit into each show compared to today. They used to have at least 7-8 matches a week and sometimes they had 9 or 10 matches in one show. There were always a handful of story lines running every week.

Doing things the way you propose is very risky because you might alienate people who don't like Roode vs. Jeff Hardy because that's taking up most of the show. I know I didn't watch WWE in 98 for Stone Cold at all. I watched mainly for the Nation vs. DX stable war. Likewise, I may have been able to tolerate Cena's reigns of terror in 06-07 if there was some compelling things going on in the midcard around that time.

And another thing, a lot of fans on these boards tend to have this idea that being a casual fan means you're stupid or can't follow something if it's not simple. Not true at all. Wrestling is incredibly simple compared to other shows on TV. In my opinion, casual fans actually turn away from wrestling because the plots are too simple and predictable. Which brings me to answering OP's question.

The only way TNA (or WWE for that matter) is going to be able to improve on it's ratings is to break new ground. They have to find a way to expand the creative boundaries for wrestling, expand the way story lines are presented. Like ECW did in the mid 90s, and like WWF did in the late 90s. That's what they need to do. Nothing else is going to matter. That's what people on sites like this don't get. It doesn't matter who they push, or how much wrestling they have on a show, or how good the booking is. We've seen everything they could possibly give us in the current format.

Agreed, what was great about the attitude era WWF was everyone was part of the show from Gillberg/Kai-en-tai (openers) to main event Austin/Taker/Triple H and Rock, and everyone got a shot to shine and they worked as a team to survive, sure Austin was the face of the company but he wasn't the sole focus of the whole show, just the main events.

Not to mention no style got a back seat aswell, you had Hardcore, you had great Tag Team matches, you had cruiserweights, awesome women and ontop of all that there was still the soap opera and filler material.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

You want to know what TNA really needs? ONE superstar that transcends the company. One big guy who is clearly the flagship wrestler on the program. Some people may not like Cena but they tune in to watch him win or get his ass kicked, either way they're watching. The PEOPLE make the promotion. Storylines and angles are only as good as the people carrying them out. Right now their most well known star is probably Kurt Angle. While he's one of the best ever, he's never really been a household name. The person they need may even already be on the roster, they might just not know it yet. But they need one guy that gets people (not just the fanboys) talking about TNA, then their popularity will increase. Which in turn increases profits, which then increases production values etc. WWE rode Austin to where they were, then they put on a solid show around him and cemented their spot. TNA needs to find the guy that can do something similar. I think they tried this with Jeff Hardy and it might've worked if it wasn't for Hogan and Bischoff trying to recreate Hogan's heel turn with him. Not to mention the drug shit.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

I am not going to do a list of things people think TNA needs to do, but rather mention the single entity they have and will expand on as they grow larger.

Time

No wrestling company can get to the top in a day, a week, or even multiple years. When you take a closer look at it how far has TNA come? In all honesty going from an asylum, and having the recognition of most independent wrestling companies in 2002, to being only second to WWE in national notoriety. Sure they are still miles behind WWE in popularity, but at least they managed to be the standout company of every Indy promotion trying to take the lost place of WCW as competition of WWE.

TNA needs the time to get more viewers, just a single push, title change, or tactic may temporarily change the ratings but it will never permanently affect them as a whole. Gradually over time TNA will grow and grow, as long as they maintain a decent to good product over a consistent period of time the ratings as well as everything else will improve. Do you think that WWE was an over night success? There is no guarantee on anything in wrestling but as long as they continue to be simply on air for years to come the ratings will rise. Think about it folks randomly tuning into wrestling on spike may or may not be impressed, still as long as they exist and don't devolve back into an independent company the increase will come naturally.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think there's a possibility that there really isn't anything that they can do. I don't mean that in a negative way, only in that they've already tried so many different ways to increase the general ratings of the show and none of it has worked. People know that it's out there but they're just not interested.

They've adopted familiar and well known storylines, such as the nWo inspired faction wars & corporate power struggle angles that they've done for such a long time. They've invested millions of dollars in bringing in some of the biggest names in the industry for the hopes that fans will tune in. They've brought in Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kurt Angle, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, Sting, Bubba Ray & Devon, and others. They've tried to basically recreate ECW for a while without actually being able to use or even say ECW in hopes of generating interest. They've gone the way of tits & ass segments, such as Lacey Von Erich's "striptease" segment, matches with lots of blood, promo segments with lots of cursing, and so on and so forth. All in all, none of it has really panned out in terms of ratings growth.

As someone else pointed out, and as others have pointed out numerous times over the years, TNA needs to develop its own identity. The majority of the past 5 years, TNA has been built around veterans that were big stars in WWE, WCW or both companies. They wanted to capitalize on the fame those wrestlers had made in the bigger companies and use it to increase their own audience size, often at the expense of the homegrown talent they've already had. In the past several months, however, TNA has moved more away from that line of thinking. They've been making the younger wrestlers, the homegrown talent the main focus of the company. Now, they're starting to do their own thing with their own guys just as WWE & WCW did before them.

And like those two companies, TNA is going to have to put in hard work, time, energy and dedication to get the job done. WWE wasn't always the huge mega force that it's become in wrestling. It took time, years in fact, for things to really just fall into place and for them to ultimately get to where they've gotten in the grand scheme of things.

I don't think there's going to be any quick & easy answer for TNA when it comes to audience growth. Sure, they'll pop a rating every now and again but they always wind up back drawing in the low 1s. It's good to see that they're FINALLY putting focus on their homegrown talent and that's what they should've been doing for a long time. And while people know that they're out there, they aren't ingrained into the public consciousness as the WWE is when it comes to wrestling.

 

[UnBEARaBULLfan]

The only thing that I could think of that would give them an immediate rise in the ratings is going live every week. Right now wrestling fans have the choice to read spoilers of what happens every week on Impact but if you go live than you take that option away and force people to tune in to see what is happening.

TNA has been putting on solid show of late combine that with them goin live I think it would help the rating increase, now I'm not sayin they would start getting 3.0 or higher but maybe it would help them get to that solid 2.0 and up.

 

[RIPRKO1005]

I'll make my suggestions to help short and sweet. These are just my opinion and im sure there are many counter points to them:

-Go live or at least go live more often
- Get the hell out of the impact zone
- Don't feature to much hogan or sting make it a huge deal when they're there
- Be unique! Do not try to be WWE!
- CHILL OUT ON THE SCREWY FINISHES!!!!