A True Surprise...

[Killswitch1337]

If TNA likes to take ideas from WWE, ala 3/3/11, they really need to learn how to. They say the biggest surprise of the year, but most of you will agree, it fell short of the mark. Granted, they created a huge buzz, and thats all you may need to gain viewership, but when you constantly piss off the people that watch you're program, its not a good thing. If TNA truly wanted to create a surprise, im sure you would all agree that without annoucning, "hey, theres gonna be a surprise tonite" it would actually create an element of actual, honest to god, surprise. IMO, tonights RAW created the best surprise of the year, besides The Rock coming back(that was obviously the best surprise of the last few years). Evan Bourne, who has been ready for weeks, returned tonight to squash King Sheamus, whom bourne has had history with, setting up a potentially ME feud. Bourne returned without so much as an inkling from the IWC,as far as i know, to not only defeat, but as i have stated, squash, a huge ME superstar. Granted he was put through a table already.

Now, my question is, would you like to see TNA continue on their path of self-destruction, or should they actually (GASP) surprie us for a change. (maybe get rid of the bischoff/hogan regime) sorry, i had to put that there.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

I find it entertaining how people buy such advertising lines such as "Biggest surprise of the year" when TNA does it, but never when WWE does it.

How many products out there claim they're better than the rest. How many products claim to be something, when they're not? How many times have you heard WWE commentators call the upcoming match "legendary", and it's far from that? WrestleMania is called all sorts of things, and in the last 3-4 years it has fallen flat on its face.

And in fact, this WAS the biggest surprise of the year. The year so far has been two months. Has TNA announced something more surprising than this? No. So blow me.

The frustration comes generally from WWE fans or TNA haters who were simply annoyed by the 3.31.11 video, or people who did see it coming and wished for the surprise to be bigger, and I understand both parties completely.

There was an amazing heat on TNA after the reveal of "they", yet the company still did fine, it didn't go under, the people who swore they'll never watch TNA again kept watching, and in the coming months TNA pulled some of its best ratings ever. People didn't remember it two weeks after it happened.

It was a surprise, it was controversial, and that usually gets on people's nerves. Not mine, I have a sense of humor and I won't doom the company to fail because of something that some laptop gangsters deemed to be "stupid".

And to answer your question - yes, I would love to see TNA continue on their "path of self-destruction". According to the IWC, TNA's been on that path since day one, yet it's still here.

 

[Decarow]

I see where you're coming from. How many times does TNA have to keep doing "The biggest surprise of the year!"? What's wrong with them is the same problem WCW had.. they are throwing too many curves. Just let things play out naturally for once.

The WWE is a lot better at surprises. They weren't trying to keep Jericho or Undertaker surprises. Each week they gave more clues. They kept silent about the Rock. Silent about Cena at RR08. Whenever they want a surprise, they don't say "hey! we have a surprise!" Sure, they announced that "Vince has an announcement", but not once did they say it'd be a surprise or change the landscape of sports entertainment as we know it. TNA is banking that announcing surprises will bring in more viewers. WWE knows that even MORE people will show up the next week that didn't watch the previous week, just to make sure they don't miss anything else.


And Zeven_Zion, TNA might still be here, but they aren't moving up either.

 

[Jay85]

Screw surprises, just be entertaining. TNA has a lot of talented wrestlers, they don't have to rely on swerves and "shocking" appearances. I get what they are trying to do; capitalize on people's curiosity, but they should just worry about using what they already have and building stronger storylines.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

I see where you're coming from. How many times does TNA have to keep doing "The biggest surprise of the year!"? What's wrong with them is the same problem WCW had.. they are throwing too many curves. Just let things play out naturally for once.

The WWE is a lot better at surprises. They weren't trying to keep Jericho or Undertaker surprises. Each week they gave more clues. They kept silent about the Rock. Silent about Cena at RR08. Whenever they want a surprise, they don't say "hey! we have a surprise!" Sure, they announced that "Vince has an announcement", but not once did they say it'd be a surprise or change the landscape of sports entertainment as we know it. TNA is banking that announcing surprises will bring in more viewers. WWE knows that even MORE people will show up the next week that didn't watch the previous week, just to make sure they don't miss anything else.


And Zeven_Zion, TNA might still be here, but they aren't moving up either.

In case you haven't noticed, the whole business isn't moving up.

And I do agree with your statement that WWE does the surprise thing better by simply not announcing it. It is something TNA should learn how to do, even though it's not quantum physics. Not saying there's a surprise makes it more shocking because you don't expect it, which is the definition of surprise. In today's world, if you announce there's a surprise people will start guessing or even over-hype whatever it is, leaving them disappointed. They read spoilers, they can look it up. Hell, I knew Nash and Booker were going to appear at the Rumble and I would've NEVER guessed it if I didn't read sites like WZ.

However, the problem with that method is that TNA needs to make people tune in and gain ratings, whereas WWE could safely exist with their constant 3.1-3.3 ratings for the next 20 years and they'll still make money off of the zombies. WWE can do a shocker for the sake of the shocker. None of WWE or TNA's shockers keep the ratings high for more than a couple of weeks.

The good/bad news is that the announcement they made didn't draw squat. It's bad news that it didn't work, and it's good news that it didn't work. Hopefully they'll learn a lesson from this and change it up.

But, I'm a fan, a viewer, and to me it would be much more enjoyable if TNA did more "secret" surprises.

 

[UltimateHitman]

I swear. Every time somebody points out how lackluster TNA is, somebody has to live in denial and get defensive. Defensiveness shows desperation, btw. Just sayin'...

It was ignorant and ridiculous. Because they do it all the time. They shove down your throat w/each minor, little thing that it's going to "change wrestling history" or be some super, spectacular surprise when it's not. It's like the boy who cried wolf. Eventually you stop listening and believing it.

I can't believe people are still going to say that Sting coming back is a big surprise. Holy crap, the guy that's re-signed countless times re-signed again. It might have been a nice achievement, but by no means a freakin' "surprise of the year".

They over promote and under achieve. You can promote yourself w/out sounding desperate for people to believe you. Like I said once before, the kid in the school cafeteria trying to be funny and yelling at everybody to "look at me, look at me, aren't I funny? Aren't I funny? This is funny!!" is by no means funny but annoying as fuck.

I'd like for somebody to say how many times the WWE has yelled about surprises, raising the bar, changing the history of the sport, changing the face of professional wrestling, yadda yadda yadda compared to TNA. Oh, that's right. They can't. Because WWE actually lets the product speak for itself w/maybe a side comment once or twice a year while TNA pulls it almost every week.

 

[Decarow]

In case you haven't noticed, the whole business isn't moving up.

And I do agree with your statement that WWE does the surprise thing better by simply not announcing it. It is something TNA should learn how to do, even though it's not quantum physics. Not saying there's a surprise makes it more shocking because you don't expect it, which is the definition of surprise. In today's world, if you announce there's a surprise people will start guessing or even over-hype whatever it is, leaving them disappointed. They read spoilers, they can look it up. Hell, I knew Nash and Booker were going to appear at the Rumble and I would've NEVER guessed it if I didn't read sites like WZ.

However, the problem with that method is that TNA needs to make people tune in and gain ratings, whereas WWE could safely exist with their constant 3.1-3.3 ratings for the next 20 years and they'll still make money off of the zombies. WWE can do a shocker for the sake of the shocker. None of WWE or TNA's shockers keep the ratings high for more than a couple of weeks.

TNA needs to attract an audience, and perhaps such an announcement can bring in potential viewers. If they simply brought whoever it is out, it will surely be a great moment, but that's about it.

But, I'm a fan, a viewer, and to me it would be much more enjoyable if TNA did more "secret" surprises.

I see your point. But think about it. Say Jericho joins TNA, for example. If he randomly runs in and interferes in a TNA Heavyweight Championship match without notice, wouldn't you tune in the next week? Or would you be more likely to tune in when TNA says they have another surprise, and you know it's just the return of Daivari? (again, just an example)

Announcing a surprise is good for a cheap few extra views for THAT week. It doesn't really affect the long term.

 

[jstroud14]

The biggest joke to me is that we are debating about this "shocking" moment, and it hasn't even happened yet!That's TNA's biggest problem-taped shows that won't really allow true shocking moments. And the overusage of "shocking" moments via social outlets, i.e., twitter, facebook, etc.., TNA could shine by being about wrestling, standout from WWE today, but they are doing exactly what the E wants them to do!!!

 

[Lucha-Libre is wrestling]

News flash, Breaking News from the impact-twitter-zone and maybe the biggest shocker of the year Jeremy Borash tweets to fan " I hope your whole family Dies." I hope this is just a gag cause not even WWE or WCW would had done something this tasteless during the Monday Night Wars. If its true Borash should be fired for it. TNA just loves to keep pouring it on with its surprises.

 

[ZasUpahKICK]

The video definitely wasn't as big as The Rock coming back so TNA fails lol But yeah I've been watching TNA since 2006 and I'm so disappointed now days.

 

[roethlisberger78]

Bad thing is, TNA cant really do surprises because they are taped a week to two weeks in advnace. So any secret that they would have would be known early. Unless they did the video part like they edited into the end of the show. Only problem is when they do that most fans already have a good idea of what is going to happen. I think if TNA is going to pull off something big they need to save it for a PPV and the only reason to promote this is a big secret/surprise is if its a superstar debuting, they shouldnt do this over a storyline change or shocker. Those to me just dont hold up to all the hype because everyone knows its all scripted so anything can happen.

All honestly thought I think TNA needs to slowy move into travling start getting a bigger fan base outside of Orlando and then after that takes off slowly move into running live shows on Thursday night. We all know and they know that running head to head Monday night will not work but whos to say it wouldnt on Thursdays once they started to travel a bit.??..?

 

[Jtrivera]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but I'm sure that a high point in tna's success was the main event mafia the gang warfare of the mafia and the uniting of the locker room got peoples blood pumping. I'd love to see something like that again and not this 3-3-11 crap it's like a spit in the face to the tna locker room. I liked tna for two reasons. 1 they were different from wwe... And 2 they had some good high flyers that got the spot light and it wasn't just always aj vs Kurt like wwe does cena vs orton. If tna goes back to this area they will get More views rather then going to the island of misfit wrestlers and getting hogan and Jeff and Matt.

 

[yellowdog22]

Wrestling fans want to be surprised but networks feel that they have to advertise/hype up these occasions. The biggest thing that any promoter can do is build up characters and create an atmosphere of "what will happen next?"

People will sit here and judge the Sting video but they have yet to see the evidence of the ratings staying the same or if they are spiked next week.

I think the biggest problem is that for the past few years is that TNA has had an identity crisis and they don't know what type of company they want to be. From the ridiculous Angle/Jarrett feud that is supposed to bleed into "reality" The problem is that the situation is so ridiculous to begin with that people know it's a put-on. Plus Ric Flair should know better than to bleed every fucking week because it takes away the importance of blood. The gimmicks are ridiculous as well, it's like a gimmick on a gimmick on a gimmick...

6 Things That Would Make TNA A Better Product

1. Concentrate on 3 Titles; The World, The Television and The Tag Titles.
2. Create programs that center solely on getting younger talent over.
3. Forget about the stipulations a bit from "Retirement" matches.
4. Create more variety among the wrestlers. One of my friends said, "Matt Hardy coming to TNA is stupid because TNA does not need another Matt Hardy.
5. Eliminate The General Manager Role and have someone more like a Jack Tunney that gets involved as needed.