They Actually Got Me Back

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

Every 6 months or so I give TNA a chance again, meaning I watch one episode of Impact. Over the past 5 years, that meant that I would only watch Impact twice a year because I thought it was awful. But since the Final Deletion, I've checked in on the show much more often.

And I think they actually have me looking forward to their shows now, which is really hard to believe. I was one of many who has been predicting TNA's demise for years and was thoroughly unimpressed w/ the Creative direction of the company.

The mass exodus of Joe, Roode, Styles, and Aries to WWE/NXT, has actually been a POSITIVE. Because the guys who are now taking up the TV time that would have gone to those "originals" are taking full advantage of the opportunity.

I never heard of Eli Drake a month ago, and now I think he is one of the most entertaining characters in the BUSINESS. His promos are like a Stone Cold/Mr. Kennedy hybrid but its his own style. The guy is gold. Matt Hardy's character is bananas. Lashley can put a sentence together now and he is so much better overall now than what we saw 10 years ago or whatever it was in WWE. Theres more, I'm not going to break down the entire roster.

I just hope that the ratings get high enough that when their contract with POP is up, they will be offered a new deal by a bigger/better channel.

The fact that Corgan is in charge of the creative direction of the show now gives me much more confidence that they won't push me away after drawing me back in for the first time since the Main Event Mafia days.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Yeah, I've been saying to KB for months now, what TNA is getting right they're getting incredibly right. Of course, the reverse of that is also true. What they're getting wrong they're getting really wrong, but these days there's a lot more right than wrong.

Glad to see you're a fan again. They need all the eyes they can get again.

 

[filthyanimalz]

I couldn't agree more as much as I think Roode, EY, AJ, Aries and Joe were awesome. The product seems a lot more fresh now and guys like Galloway, The Hardys, Lashley, The Miracle, Moose, Aron Rex, Decay and E-Li-Drake! are far more entertaining, coupled with better storytelling from creative and TNA is better than it has been for a long time. Long live TNA!!!

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I want to get pulled back in badly, as I find myself getting very bored with a lot of WWE's content. In my opinion though, there are a few things that still really kill TNA for me, and most of it is production based. Some they can easily fix, some they can't.

1.) 6 Sided Ring. I HATE it. Wrestling takes places in a square. It's nothing to do with WWE, it's a lifetime of watching it from every company that's ever existed. This isn't something clever or unique, it's actually distracting, and makes me feel like I'm not watching real pro wrestling, it makes everything feel like a gimmick.

2.) The crowds. They don't pop for anything, Sandow should've blown the roof off, instead it's this odd hybrid of super marks, and random people that wander in from the heat of the theme park looking for free entertainment. They've got to do something, maybe go outside the NXT Full Sail tapings and give out free tickets or flyers or something? They have to get REAL wrestling fans in, because the energy translates through TV, think of a match like Rock/Hogan, on mute that match is crap, with that crowd it's one of the greatest moments in Wrestlemania history.

3.) The fact that so much is taped in advance. I get this is just the reality of TV budgets and I know NXT and Lucha Underground do the same thing, but when it's in the same venue with the same crowds, and you know what you're watching was filmed 2 or 3 months ago, and despite your best efforts to avoid spoilers you still see headlines like "TNA CHAMPIONSHIP CHANGES HANDS!" or "MAJOR RETURN AT TNA TAPINGS!" even if you don't know the specifics, it's like watching a movie and hearing a main character dies at the end. For me this hurts a lot of the excitement surrounding the show, and kills the must see vibe of live TV.

I have other little nitpicky things, I wish their music was better (because CFO$ are absolutely killing it with the NXT themes lately), I'd love for them to lose the name TNA, I'd like to see them have talent exchanges with other companies, etc. But really if they could just get those three things I mentioned tweaked a little, especially the first two, the TV product is starting to get good enough again that my interest is rekindling.

 

[ShinChan]

I had left watching TNA after Hulk Hogan and others started comin' there.

What made me tune into TNA was the presence of AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Alex Shelley, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe and Austin Aries. I liked Roode also.

Before 2015, I started watching it once in a month or so. EC3 and Gunner impressed me. Then came one of my favorites in Drew Galloway. I started watching it more often. Then I left watching when GFW invasion happened.

Now came Aron Rex which has made me a permanent viewer of TNA. I am going to watch it for him, Drew, Ethan, Jessie & Lashley. Addition of Cody would be great.