Should TNA stop trying to compete with the WWE?

[Savion83]

As long as Total Non-Stop Action (TNA) wrestling had a television deal PERIOD from having weekly pay per views for $10 that was the show to begin with. TNA (Dixie Carter and the Jarretts) has been set on trying to compete with the WWE. For some five years now TNA has openly declared war against the "big dog" (via CNN reporter after the Benoit tradgey) World Wrestling Entertainment i.e. the McMahon family (Plus HHH).

After the WWE signed former top TNA wrestler "the alpha male" Monty Brown (WWE Marcus Cor Von) TNA had to move things around backstage and in the ring talent wise. Jeff Jarrett dug a big hole for himself due to the "love triANGLE" between Kurt Angle and Kurt's then-wife and babymama Karen Angle. When Double J took business to something a little to personal with his co-workers ex. And we see what happens on Impact everytime we see Jeff Jarrett on screen.

Now Dixie Carter has gone as far as re-creating WCW 2.0 by hiring the legendary Hulk Hogan and the man who helped kill WCW, Eric Bischoff. Now half a year has pasted and there has been little to no process in TNA wrestling. So TNA are switching gears to the ECW route by bringing in Tommy Dreamer and STILL attemping to hire former front Paul E. Heyman (Dangerously). ECW 2.0? It's been done.

So the million question is...Should TNA still try to compete against the WWE?

TNA will always be number two (company that is!) in wrestling. The Ring Of Honor (ROH) knows it's place in position in the wrestling industry. And knows and doesn't try to compete with the WWE in anyway. So should TNA just fall back??

 

[justinsayne]

Yes and No, I think TNA should take a step back and just try to put forth the best product that they are capable of putting forth, build themselves up over the next few years, and then maybe they can start looking at competing with WWE, so in short I think for the time being they need to back off their mission to bring down WWE, but at some point if they get big enough then try to go head to head with WWE

 

[Soapguy]

I'd like to think that IF TNA were ever to compete with WWE it would be by not attempting to beat it at it's own game. There's already a WWE and it has the money and resources to do whatever it's attempting to do in a top notch manner. I highly doubt TNA can garner WWE-type resources/money.

Right now, though, WWE is alienating certain demographics with the various parts of their product. I think that if TNA were able to capitalize on those alienated demographics that it would be able to be serious competition with the "E". Some people want an anti-Cena, some people want an anti-Randy Orton, some people want anti-Divas pushed to the forefront, if TNA could provide that with great storylines/booking mixed in then. . . it might not surpass WWE, but it'd certainly do well enough to make McMahon turn his head. Whether TNA is actually capable of doing well or not is a completely different story. I think not, but I kinda hope I'm wrong.

 

[Decarow]

Great post. Honestly, I think TNA is just trying way to hard right now. Do I think they have potential to be a big player? Yes. But it's all up to the casual fans. The are conditioned that WWE is the only big wrestling promotion so they watch it. And of course WWE isn't going to say anything about TNA on air. Let's look at the TNA fan base. You have die-hard wrestling fans, UFC fans that saw the TNA commercials on Spike, and fans of dying wrestlers (Nash, Hall, Hogan, etc.) And the bringing ECW into this only fuels the fire. I'm sorry, but it's true. The X-Division was strong and honestly TNA could do without the ECW angle. You bring in a few nostalgic fans who get pissed when it's not EXACTLY like ECW was in the 90s. That's what's going to happen. I'm sorry TNA, go back to what you were a year ago and build more momentum before you try to jump into the deep water.

So my answer is I think they should stop trying to compete... for now. Business-wise, they don't have what it takes to beat even dent WWE yet. Give them time though, they might have the potential.

 

[Christian42]

I somewhat agree with this but there are a few points you need to understand. If there are two wrestling company's on cable television it is impossible not to compete. TNA knows that no matter what they do they will always be compared to WWE. Also ROH knows where they are and so do TNA but thats not in the same place. I believe that TNA are way ahead of ROH. ROH has wrestlers that in all seriousness should not be in the business period. Examples:
Necro Butcher
Prince Nana
Grizzly redwood
While TNA has bad wrestlers and bad entertainers that is all on the booking... everyone in TNA has potential to be great,the downside is there are too many wrestlers and not enough time. Plus once one of ROH's star get popular enough they hightail it out of there to WWE ot TNA, like CM Punk, Somoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and Desmond Wolf. I know ROHbots will groan and moan but its true.
Now when you talk about TNA giving up... they pretty much already did that when they moved back to thursdays. They knew they were no match for WWE and had to pull out... credit for trying unlike ROH who is not even a blip on WWE's Radar.
WWE, TNA and Roh are three totally different styles of entertainment... WWE focuses mostly on entertaining there fan with drama... one of the reasons such big characters like SCSA, the Rock and Hulk Hogan are such big stars. ROH is focused mostly on technical stuff which is why BD, CM Punk, Somoa Joe and Nigel Mcguiness (who all left) are the stars. TNA is lost and has no idea what they are... not fully technical, entertainment or any other thing.

 

[david703]

No TNA should not stop competing. WWE was so painful to watch before TNA started competing. However, TNA needs to understand that Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarret do not have a fraction of connections and networks that Vince Mcmahon has developed over his tenure. Neither do they have the money to promote as strongly as WWE right now. It would be like a mom and pop shop trying compete against Walmart. WcW was different because WcW had more money than WWE due to Ted Turner. So a few things need to happen.

1. Jarrett and Dixie need investors to put in more money so they can further promote there TNA product.

2. Look at the Ratings, when WWE is almost averaging a 4 while Impact is averaging a 1.0, then why TNA was trying to go head to head with WWE is beyond me. It took WcW almost 15 years to get to where WWE's ratings were and keep in mind again that WcW had a lot more money than WWE.

Finally Dixie Carter and Jarrett are simply not as intelligent as Vince Mcmahon. Vince has a huge amount of brand loyalty from the fans. I don't enjoy watching WWE a lot of times but I still will. I enjoy watching TNA more than WWE's wack PG version. However, once it was time to go head to head, Vince went with the guest hosts, brought back Brett Hart, had Shawn Michaels retirement, etc. He outsmarted TNA completely. Jarret getting with Angles ex-wife does not help build a relationship with ur star. Dixie and Jeff are not good business people, they are strong in putting on a wrestling show. They need someone with business acumen and wrestling knowledge to drive TNA forward.

 

[Aether13]

To me this is a yes and a no.

It's a yes because atm TNA isn't getting anywhere, sure they signed a coupe of WWE's OLD stars but their booking is still terrible and storylines are flipping every which way and it's a complete mess.

And on the flip side, no TNA shouldn't stop competing, once TNA fixes it's booking problems I feel it has the talent to mark up against WWE, which will cause WWE to make better booking, so then all of the fans win lol.

 

[Schizophrenic]

Should they stop competing with WWE? Yes and no. Of course youwant to be #1 and that should drive TNA to put on the best product they have but to constantly worry about WWE is something that should not be in TNA managment's minds. They need to forget about WWE and just concentrate on what they have to offer. They have young guys, a better tag division, chances to bring in international talent and women who can look sexy AND wrestle. These are their strengths and they need to focus on them. Above all they need to focus on something that WWe tends to forget sometimes. The Wrestling. TNA has a great talent roster of guys who are some of the best wrestlers in the world. They can even take an NWAish approach if they wanted. NWA was huge in the 80's and early 90's because they had the best wrestlers wrestling. The stories were easy to follow and they didn't spend 20 minutes at the start of every how talking. They got in the ring and busted ass. That's the show I would watch (and I do thanks to ROH). Should they stop thriving to be #1? Never. But should it be their only concern week in and week out to compare themselves to the WWE? No.

 

[Jimmy King]

No TNA should not stop competing with WWE. Even if they tried to, they're still in the same industry. Therefore, they'll always be competing even if its subconsciously.

And by the way mr historian (sarcasm) (((more subtle sarcasm for your love of parantheses))) eric bischoff did not kill WCW. Check the records next time and find out who really sent wcw down the drain. You'll probably be surprised to find out that it was vince russo, who's been with tna for years.

 

[Jimmy King]

No TNA should not stop competing with WWE. Even if they tried to, they're still in the same industry. Therefore, they'll always be competing even if its subconsciously.

And by the way mr historian (sarcasm) (((more subtle sarcasm for your love of parantheses))) eric bischoff did not kill WCW. Check the records next time and find out who really sent wcw down the drain. You'll probably be surprised to find out that it was vince russo, who's been with tna for years.

 

[Serious Jones]

They should be trying to compete with WWE, but in a realistic way. The best way for them to compete is to maintain their current audience while slowly gaining audience through marketing and quality programming. It's been said before: TNA needs to stop waiting for the messiah. If Hulk Hogan doesn't do much for ratings in the long run, then one wrestler returning won't get them to be a viable competitor to the WWE.

They need to market themselves as an alternative to the WWE. I know they already do, but they can do a much better job. There is a large portion of WWE fans that probably don't even know of TNA's existence. If they get their name out there as an alternative, people will at least check it out once to see if it's worth seeing. Once they improve their marketing, they have one more problem to address before they can realistically compete with WWE: the actual show's content.

TNA has had moderate success in getting people interested in tuning in once. Their problem lies with their inability to keep those people interested. TNA needs to consistently put on memorable, energetic shows. A fan will be interested for a short time if he sees Hulk Hogan on TNA. They'll probably stay interested longer if they see a bunch of guys flipping around and climbing toward a big X above the ring. TNA should focus on its true strength: not big names, big talent. Having performers give their all in exciting matches will keep viewers more than "oh, hey. That one guy from 10 years ago is talking."

Should TNA keep trying to compete with the WWE? Yes, but competing doesn't necessarily mean "trying to get higher ratings". TNA needs to compete by better marketing, as well as maintaining a niche of hardcore fans, and slowly but surely growing those fans.

 

[rondiesel2005]

TNA was verryyy stupid to switch to Monday when they did, i bet people tried to warn them that it was wayy too soon. So let me see They got Hogan, less than 2 months, they decided to move right away because they had all the key players. let’s see The Nasty boys?? jeff Hardy?? Scott Hall and X-pac?? Anderson?? this was enough guys to think "ok we got the key players let’s move to Monday because we got Hogan and bischoff and the ratings will be high”.. Did the ratings drop?? No it didn’t due to the fact that the booking and the directions of the storyline that was going. I also think it’s because people read online to see how TNA going to play out and what’s going to happen on the show, or if they don’t like what they read or their favorite wrestler not going to be there and forces faces not to watch it.

Also TNA needs to stop using storylines that WWE already did, look where it got TNA ratings didn’t improve. I am not a fan of ECW because I had a hard time watching it due to the fact they didn’t stay on tv or they will show their shows really late. If people had watch the rise and fall of ECW they would understand where Heyman stands. He may be a good promoter but come on, didn’t ya’ll watch or see how the company was running. I watch and heard they were getting sue numbers of times, but that didn’t stop them right?? They kept going and doing their thing, and didn’t not once pay attention to the money that was coming in and out. Now they want to recreate something that didn’t last too long and bring guys that weren’t a fan draw. The way I saw it was that Stevie, Rhino and Raven were kept in the dark for so long TNA didn’t have a storyline or direction for those guys, and since signing Tommy Dreamer, they see it like “ok since we got Tommy dreamer, we going to bring Stevie, Rhino and Raven”

Another question fans might want to ask themselves is what happens after the whole ECW angle is finish?? They going to take out Stevie, Rhino and Raven?? Honestly TNA needs to do their own thing and stop recreating crap that isn’t going to last long.. besides they still haven’t improve on the booking of the matches

 

[Mr_billy]

They should stop outright trying to compete with WWE. Instead of attacks on the company and calling it competition, they should compete by trying to improve the product, and spent there energy at having the best product they can, that will bring the viewers, and create true competition by having the best quality product, instead of shock and awe, and buying talent.

 

[UFOcalling]

Originally Posted by Christian42:
If there are two wrestling company's on cable television it is impossible not to compete.

By far the best sentence I've read on this thread, and I couldn't have said it better myself. If TNA decided to "stop trying to compete with the WWE", they would have to completely fold the company and close up shop. It's literally IMPOSSIBLE to not compete with the WWE if you have a weekly pro-wrestling television show. That would be like Burger King not competing with McDonald's. It's simply not possible, because both companies sell the EXACT SAME PRODUCT. TNA would be stupid not to compete with WWE, and WWE would be stupid not to compete with TNA (or at least think of TNA as a possible threat in the future).

I think TNA has already admitted defeat, in a sense, since they moved Impact back to Thursdays. I think TNA television has been a LOT better in the past month than it's been since Hogan & Bischoff showed up, and I think a lot of that is due to TNA not caring as much about trying to "beat" the WWE. Maybe the switch back to Thursdays took a lot of pressure off TNA's creative team? I could be wrong, it's just a theory.

TNA should be focusing on the things that make them stand out from the WWE, and they seem to have been doing a pretty good job of that (especially lately). They've been doing a good job of having more adult-themed story lines (exploiting the TV-14 rating), showcasing more of the X-Division (not so much since the arrival of Hogan & Bischoff, but it's been better over the last couple of months), and having more extreme/violent matches (which they seem to be doing with Abyss & The ECW guys). I don't know if those things would qualify as "competing" or not, as it seems like the complete opposite of what the WWE is doing.

TNA also needs to do some things that the WWE is currently doing, such as: taking Impact "on the road" (stop having every Impact & PPV in Orlando), run Impact live again (as they did in the past, at least every other week), and start promoting themselves more. I honestly thought that TNA was "on their way" when they started to run advertising during Raw on USA. What ever happened to that? I don't see commercials for TNA at all anymore. They must run them sometime (I'm assuming on Spike?), but not nearly enough. I mentioned McDonald's before...they're the number one fast-food restaurant in the country, and they run ads all the time. Coincidence?

rant

Savion83 - as far as you saying that Eric Bischoff is responsible for WCW's demise...you couldn't be more wrong. I'm sick of people saying that WCW died because of Bischoff and/or Russo. The company "died" because of the AOL/Time-Warner Merger. Even if WCW had been beating WWF in the ratings at the time, it wouldn't have mattered. The fact is that the new "powers that be" didn't want a wrestling show. Case closed: the merger is what killed the company, not any person(s) working for the company at the time. If you remember correctly, Bischoff was the one trying to "save" the company from folding. He tried to buy the company before McMahon did, but once he realized there would be no TV time, he gave up.

People seem to focus on the negative too much. Bischoff is the man responsible for creating the WCW machine (Nitro). Bischoff is the man responsible for WCW's ENORMOUS success in the nineties. Bischoff is the man responsible for KICKING THE WWF'S ASS in the ratings for so long. Russo also deserves more credit than he gets, people forget what a HUGE role he played in the WWF in the mid to late-nineties. He's one of the main guys responsible for the WWF's "Attitude Era", and their return to glory after WCW kicked the shit out of them in the ratings for so long.

Are Bischoff and Russo past their prime? Maybe so. But you've got to give credit where credit is due, those two were only trying to help WCW towards the end. If you have to blame what ultimately killed WCW on an individual (or individuals), it boiled down to the greed of guys like Hogan & Nash. They weren't doing what was best for the company, they were doing what was best for themselves (padding their wallets, keeping young talent down & clutching to their "top spots").

/rant

If your company's goal isn't to provide the best product possible, you should give up all together. In my opinion, TNA is trying to do just that. If you think that's wrong, then you don't understand the way business works.

 

[rondiesel2005]

They should be trying to compete with WWE, but in a realistic way. The best way for them to compete is to maintain their current audience while slowly gaining audience through marketing and quality programming. It's been said before: TNA needs to stop waiting for the messiah. If Hulk Hogan doesn't do much for ratings in the long run, then one wrestler returning won't get them to be a viable competitor to the WWE.

They need to market themselves as an alternative to the WWE. I know they already do, but they can do a much better job. There is a large portion of WWE fans that probably don't even know of TNA's existence. If they get their name out there as an alternative, people will at least check it out once to see if it's worth seeing. Once they improve their marketing, they have one more problem to address before they can realistically compete with WWE: the actual show's content.

TNA has had moderate success in getting people interested in tuning in once. Their problem lies with their inability to keep those people interested. TNA needs to consistently put on memorable, energetic shows. A fan will be interested for a short time if he sees Hulk Hogan on TNA. They'll probably stay interested longer if they see a bunch of guys flipping around and climbing toward a big X above the ring. TNA should focus on its true strength: not big names, big talent. Having performers give their all in exciting matches will keep viewers more than "oh, hey. That one guy from 10 years ago is talking."

Should TNA keep trying to compete with the WWE? Yes, but competing doesn't necessarily mean "trying to get higher ratings". TNA needs to compete by better marketing, as well as maintaining a niche of hardcore fans, and slowly but surely growing those fans.

see what u saying is why TNA made that big jump from Thursday to Monday because Hogan is suppose to be a fan draw, soon to find out that he wasn't bringing the ratings up. and am sure u notice lately fans of TNA, the people who watched the show talking about they are not going to watch it any more because it's not the same as it was before

Also another reason why fans started to watch TNA is because its different, they had wrestlers doing all kinds of crazy stuff in the ring such as hi-flying off either top rope or off the cage that was different and so was the ring.. Now take away the 6 sided ring and what you get?? no more high flying like they use to just regular wrestling moves which points out why some of the fans beginning to fade away

 

[Kenny Powers]

TNA shouldn't compare themselves with WWE or even mention them as much as they have in the past, but they shouldn't just roll over and accept their role in the wrestling world. I believe that TNA is happy where it's at right now being the #2 organization. That doesn't mean they should sit around and not take chances. They probably failed at the Monday night wars but at least they had the balls to do it.

Where would other wrestling companies be if they didn't take risks or try to push the envelope? WWE wouldn't be in business today if Vince McMahon didn't have the "grapefruits" to take wrestling on a national level and turn it into a household name. So no TNA shouldn't stop trying to compete with WWE, but they should worry more about themselves then what WWE is doing.

 

[TheMix]

Competing is inevitable. I watch TNA and WWE religously. Always have. What brought me aboard the TNA ship is exactly what they need to capitalize on. THE YOUNGER TALENT. They go to mondays with Hogan and company which had me highly intrested but killed it trying to headline matches with Hogan. He is great, iconic, i love em but who wants to see him telegraph punches and move molassisly around the ring. And if i see Nash throw one more knee to da gut in the turnbuckle, ill puke. Then they got it goin. They give AJ the belt, bring in RVD, got Lethal doin the best comedy in the business rite now, and letting that high flying, buzzing tallent shine. Now what do they do? Bring in the past the prime ECW guys and try and make it go. Dont see it. And what the heck is Paul Heyman coveted so much for? Creative ideas? Give The Mix a call and i can get the ratings McMahons getting from storylines to production. Oh. ALOT of people turn the channel when they hear Tenay's terrible commentary. "Alex Shelly NAILS an insegury" is how i would have called it. Not..."Shelly connects with a...kick to the head" Awful.

 

[Steve Rogers]

Yes.
Even trying at this point is stupid.
Really worry about your product improving before you worry about competing with a company that can feature a leprechaun in Loony Toon skits and still be on top.

How bout I watch a TNA that has a consistent direction and say "Oh wow I know where there going with this" instead of saying "What the fuck is this rushed, infomercial looking product"

Tell me I am a WWE fan, because I am and my product can feature PG leprechaun skits and fart jokes, because they are still so far an away number 1. I want to see TNA succeed though they have soooo much potential to, I would love to see it happen.

 

[WarrenIronman]

Yes.
Even trying at this point is stupid.
Really worry about your product improving before you worry about competing with a company that can feature a leprechaun in Loony Toon skits and still be on top.

How bout I watch a TNA that has a consistent direction and say "Oh wow I know where there going with this" instead of saying "What the fuck is this rushed, infomercial looking product"

Tell me I am a WWE fan, because I am and my product can feature PG leprechaun skits and fart jokes, because they are still so far an away number 1. I want to see TNA succeed though they have soooo much potential to, I would love to see it happen.

Someone has already said this but when you have two things that are selling/giving you the excat same thing, there is gonna be competition. It's impossible not to call this a competition, one is gonna try and be better than the other.

 

[Steve Rogers]

Someone has already said this but when you have two things that are selling/giving you the excat same thing, there is gonna be competition. It's impossible not to call this a competition, one is gonna try and be better than the other.

I didn't bother to read it and I rather make it sound like its my own opinion rather then echoing one. People share opinions you know?
Plus the question was should TNA stop trying to compete with WWE, not should there be no competition. Obviously that is unavoidable.
TNA trying a Monday Night move failed. Thats an example of them trying to compete with the WWE. Which was my point.

 

[wushady]

In a way they are always going to be competing with WWE whether they're on Thursday or Monday night. In my opinion they should definitely stay on Thursdays and focus on their own product and not worry about what WWE is doing. They need to build their fan base and get more direction with their storylines and get better and marketing their product. If that ever happens then they could try the Monday night war again.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Should TNA stop trying to compete with the WWE? For the time being, my answer is yes. Dixie Carter wants TNA to be the #1 wrestling company in the world. Nothing wrong with that at all. But Dixie Carter wants it to happen yesterday. A little over a year ago was the first time that I started reading reports in which Dixie Carter openly said she wanted TNA to compete with the WWE. Maybe she'd been saying it before then, but that's when it caught my eye. Anyhow, TNA loaded up on some big named wrestling talent, particularly wrestling stars from the Attitude Era and eventually moved to Monday nights. Let's be honest, TNA's attempt at initiating a second Monday Night War was an embarassment. I'm not saying it to slam TNA, but that's the unfettered truth.

I've read posts in which people are clamoring for a return to the Attitude Era, but the Attitude Era has come and gone. TNA has attempted, to some degree, initiate it's own version of the Attitude Era over this year and it resulted in some of the worst shows TNA's ever produced both in terms of quality and viewers. Shock TV and cheap stunts designed to spike ratings aren't going to work for TNA. As much as they want it to be, it's not 1998 anymore. TNA has attempted to piggyback off of certain things that WWE and WCW have done in the past in order to build their company as fast as they can. And now, it looks as though they're trying to go ECW.

TNA is a company that lacks its own identity and TNA management continues to operate under the belief that they can bring in well known wrestlers into the company and get over on nostalgia. I know that some fans refer to TNA as an alternative to the WWE, that's all well and good, but it's not really true. It may have been at one time, but I can't see it that way now. TNA doesn't come across so much as an alternative as it does a cheap, second rate imitation constantly attempting to use the past to build the future.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Directly? Probably. As a byproduct? Absolutely not.

Just focus on being TNA – focus on being your own company with your own direction (that means get a direction) and worry about what comes of it later down the line when it's fiscally supported by market upswings and profit margins.

There's nothing wrong with having lofty goals, but there's plenty wrong with having lofty goals you want met yesterday when your company isn't really in a position to do so.