A WWE fan's views on how TNA can become a real threat.

[Davi323]

In the interests of total disclosure, I am a WWE fan, who used to watch TNA when it started, and then gave it up. I want TNA to succeed, because more wrestling on TV is better than less wrestling on TV. I watched World Class Championship Wrestling on ESPN, the NWA on Superstation TBS before it became WCW, then I watched both sides of the Monday Night Wars. I am not a simple WWE mark, who only watches WWE, simply because its the WWE. I want to be able to watch TNA, but right now, I just can't. It simply isn't good enough to draw me away from Raw. To be clear, this is NOT going to be a thread that simply attacks TNA for "sucking". These are, in my opinion, legitimate criticisms, that will also include possible solutions.

1. Stop attacking the WWE on television. It makes you come off as bitter. Every time Taz mocks Michael Cole, every time Hulk Hogan or Eric Bischoff delivers a jibe at Vince McMahon, it makes TNA look childish. Forgetting the fact that Taz made far more money announcing in the WWE than ever did wrestling for Paul Heyman, forgetting that Hulk Hogan wouldn't be standing in that TNA ring if not for Vince McMahon, forgetting that while Bischoff was successful with Nitro and WCW, that he then chose to work for Vince McMahon afterward, just stop doing it. Its juvenile. If you want to succeed in your own right, you can't do it by trying to drag the WWE down. You have to do it by building yourself up.

2. Stop signing every WWE reject, or stop trying to be WCW. TNA's roster is filled with former WWE wrestlers. Everyone knows they are former WWE wrestlers. We also know that most of them fit into one of two catagories: former megastars who are well past their primes (Foley, Nash, Hogan, etc) or WWE mid-carders who the WWE really isn't missing very much (Ken Anderson, Elijah Burke, Orlando Jordan, Matt Morgan, etc). When WCW did it, they got their WWE wrestlers when they were only slightly past their primes, and still could live off of their WWE reputations. Your Rick Rudes, Curt Hennigs, Randy Savages, etc. They still were relevant to the wrestling world. Matt Morgan simply doesn't matter. WCW overpaid to get wrestlers that while the WWE might not have needed on TV every week any more, but, maybe they didn't really want to see them go to WCW, but couldn't justify matching what WCW was willing to pay. A lot of WCW former WWE guys ditched the WWE for more money. TNA can't match Ted Turner's bucks, so you get stuck with the dregs, the wrestlers nobody really wants or cares about. If TNA is to succeed, you need to succeed with your own guys, not with Vince's castoffs. It worked for WCW, but, you don't have the financial resources to do what WCW did, and its time you acknowledged that.

3. This is related to point #2, a further explanation to why TNA needs to develop their own stars, rather than rely on former WWE guys...The former WWE guys are mercenaries. A lot of them signed with TNA just because the WWE released them, and didn't want them. Many of them would jump at the chance to leave TNA to go back to the WWE, if given the chance. How many of them are looking at what Christian did? Former WWE guy, was gone, came back to TNA rather than the WWE, and as soon as he was on top, he ditched TNA to go right back to the WWE, as soon as the WWE indicated they were interested. Do you really think that if the WWE decided they wanted their Mister Kennedy back, that Ken Anderson wouldn't ditch TNA at his first opportunity? Simply put, the WWE pays a lot better than TNA can afford to, and if given the chance, many of the ex-WWE wrestlers on TNA's rosters would go back to the WWE, if given the chance. That is why you need your own stars, stars who are 100% loyal to TNA, who have never been in the WWE.

4. Find better corporate sponsorship. The WWE is specifically geared towards wrestling. Panda Energy is not. How long can you expect Panda to support a company that is unrelated to what they do, a company that is either barely breaking even in costs, or actually costing them money? How long until the shareholders at Panda start viewing TNA as a financial liability that they should dump? How long before Panda's board members contact Vince, and ask how much it would take to get him to purchase TNA from them? TNA needs a much bigger corporate sponsor, one that can afford to spend the money to compete with the WWE. Ted Turner could afford to turn WCW into real competition, can anyone really say Panda Energy has that kind of dough?

5. Increase production values, NOW. Perception is reality. To TNA fans, TNA is the best thing ever. To a casual fan, they compare the glitz, the glamour of the WWE progamming to the dingy, poorly lit TNA programming, and they will assume the WWE is better. I understand that TNA fans will disagree with that notion, but, c'mon, you are hardly unbiased, are you? Step outside of your TNA box, as I am stepping outside of my WWE box. Look at your product from an outsider's standpoint. Casual fans see the titantron, they see the fireworks, they see the large arenas, and they understand that the WWE is the big time. TNA needs to duplicate that look if they want to be competitive. WCW started out with the bargain basement sets too...but, they learned, they adapted, and eventually, Nitro matched the WWE in production values, and THAT helped them win the MNW for the 86 or however many consecutive weeks it was. If TNA is unwilling to spend the cash to make the product look good, nobody is going to care how good the wrestling is. TNA fans might argue that as long as the wrestling is good, TNA will be competitive, but that is just a grand illusion on their part. Appearance is everything in the entertainment industry. And that is what TNA is. An entertainment company, just like the WWE. There are no "wrestling" companies anymore, they are just a highly specialized entertainment company. Vince McMahon got that concept. For TNA to compete, they have to understand that too.

6. Touring. You will never gain much of an audience until you tour like the WWE does, and as often as the WWE does. There in lies the problem though...some of your ex-WWE wrestlers enjoy the fact that they don't have to travel much in TNA, and if TNA toured more, they would find TNA less attractive. But, you need to tour in order to gain fans. Live shows MATTER. You can't hide in Orlando most of the time, RAW is live from a different arena, in a different state, every week. They build up fan bases by BEING THERE.

 

[psykohurricane]

In the interests of total disclosure, I am a WWE fan, who used to watch TNA when it started, and then gave it up. I want TNA to succeed, because more wrestling on TV is better than less wrestling on TV. I watched World Class Championship Wrestling on ESPN, the NWA on Superstation TBS before it became WCW, then I watched both sides of the Monday Night Wars. I am not a simple WWE mark, who only watches WWE, simply because its the WWE. I want to be able to watch TNA, but right now, I just can't. It simply isn't good enough to draw me away from Raw. To be clear, this is NOT going to be a thread that simply attacks TNA for "sucking". These are, in my opinion, legitimate criticisms, that will also include possible solutions.

1. Stop attacking the WWE on television. It makes you come off as bitter. Every time Taz mocks Michael Cole, every time Hulk Hogan or Eric Bischoff delivers a jibe at Vince McMahon, it makes TNA look childish. Forgetting the fact that Taz made far more money announcing in the WWE than ever did wrestling for Paul Heyman, forgetting that Hulk Hogan wouldn't be standing in that TNA ring if not for Vince McMahon, forgetting that while Bischoff was successful with Nitro and WCW, that he then chose to work for Vince McMahon afterward, just stop doing it. Its juvenile. If you want to succeed in your own right, you can't do it by trying to drag the WWE down. You have to do it by building yourself up.

2. Stop signing every WWE reject, or stop trying to be WCW. TNA's roster is filled with former WWE wrestlers. Everyone knows they are former WWE wrestlers. We also know that most of them fit into one of two catagories: former megastars who are well past their primes (Foley, Nash, Hogan, etc) or WWE mid-carders who the WWE really isn't missing very much (Ken Anderson, Elijah Burke, Orlando Jordan, Matt Morgan, etc). When WCW did it, they got their WWE wrestlers when they were only slightly past their primes, and still could live off of their WWE reputations. Your Rick Rudes, Curt Hennigs, Randy Savages, etc. They still were relevant to the wrestling world. Matt Morgan simply doesn't matter. WCW overpaid to get wrestlers that while the WWE might not have needed on TV every week any more, but, maybe they didn't really want to see them go to WCW, but couldn't justify matching what WCW was willing to pay. A lot of WCW former WWE guys ditched the WWE for more money. TNA can't match Ted Turner's bucks, so you get stuck with the dregs, the wrestlers nobody really wants or cares about. If TNA is to succeed, you need to succeed with your own guys, not with Vince's castoffs. It worked for WCW, but, you don't have the financial resources to do what WCW did, and its time you acknowledged that.

3. This is related to point #2, a further explanation to why TNA needs to develop their own stars, rather than rely on former WWE guys...The former WWE guys are mercenaries. A lot of them signed with TNA just because the WWE released them, and didn't want them. Many of them would jump at the chance to leave TNA to go back to the WWE, if given the chance. How many of them are looking at what Christian did? Former WWE guy, was gone, came back to TNA rather than the WWE, and as soon as he was on top, he ditched TNA to go right back to the WWE, as soon as the WWE indicated they were interested. Do you really think that if the WWE decided they wanted their Mister Kennedy back, that Ken Anderson wouldn't ditch TNA at his first opportunity? Simply put, the WWE pays a lot better than TNA can afford to, and if given the chance, many of the ex-WWE wrestlers on TNA's rosters would go back to the WWE, if given the chance. That is why you need your own stars, stars who are 100% loyal to TNA, who have never been in the WWE.

4. Find better corporate sponsorship. The WWE is specifically geared towards wrestling. Panda Energy is not. How long can you expect Panda to support a company that is unrelated to what they do, a company that is either barely breaking even in costs, or actually costing them money? How long until the shareholders at Panda start viewing TNA as a financial liability that they should dump? How long before Panda's board members contact Vince, and ask how much it would take to get him to purchase TNA from them? TNA needs a much bigger corporate sponsor, one that can afford to spend the money to compete with the WWE. Ted Turner could afford to turn WCW into real competition, can anyone really say Panda Energy has that kind of dough?

5. Increase production values, NOW. Perception is reality. To TNA fans, TNA is the best thing ever. To a casual fan, they compare the glitz, the glamour of the WWE progamming to the dingy, poorly lit TNA programming, and they will assume the WWE is better. I understand that TNA fans will disagree with that notion, but, c'mon, you are hardly unbiased, are you? Step outside of your TNA box, as I am stepping outside of my WWE box. Look at your product from an outsider's standpoint. Casual fans see the titantron, they see the fireworks, they see the large arenas, and they understand that the WWE is the big time. TNA needs to duplicate that look if they want to be competitive. WCW started out with the bargain basement sets too...but, they learned, they adapted, and eventually, Nitro matched the WWE in production values, and THAT helped them win the MNW for the 86 or however many consecutive weeks it was. If TNA is unwilling to spend the cash to make the product look good, nobody is going to care how good the wrestling is. TNA fans might argue that as long as the wrestling is good, TNA will be competitive, but that is just a grand illusion on their part. Appearance is everything in the entertainment industry. And that is what TNA is. An entertainment company, just like the WWE. There are no "wrestling" companies anymore, they are just a highly specialized entertainment company. Vince McMahon got that concept. For TNA to compete, they have to understand that too.

6. Touring. You will never gain much of an audience until you tour like the WWE does, and as often as the WWE does. There in lies the problem though...some of your ex-WWE wrestlers enjoy the fact that they don't have to travel much in TNA, and if TNA toured more, they would find TNA less attractive. But, you need to tour in order to gain fans. Live shows MATTER. You can't hide in Orlando most of the time, RAW is live from a different arena, in a different state, every week. They build up fan bases by BEING THERE.

Actually i completly agree with you on everything you said but you forgot to mention one small thing, Spike TV financial involvement in TNA. If it Wasn't for Spike TV, you would have guys Like Sting, Foley, Angle, Hogan and all these others megastars that TNA as right now. What would happen if TNA doesn'T delivers and when TNA's contract with Spike TV is up, they decided to not renew it. All theses megastars have to be paid and Panda energy does have that kind of money, from what i understand from an interview i read from Dixie carter, they don'T even have enough money to move out of the IMPACT zone and go on tour. So sure i'm like you on this, i want TNA to succeed because i was a fan of TNA since the very beginning but lately i just can stand them and i started to get into the WWE product a little more. But like i said, i want them to succeed but for them to succeed they have to make money and in their current situation, the only way they can make money is by getting great ratings because they don'T charge admission for the tv tapings or the PPV'S and they tour only 2 weeks out of the months. So let's hope TNA is able to turns things around and long at it from a casual fans perpective and see what they have to do to suceed because what they are doing right now isn't working.

 

[Schizophrenic]

Let me start this off by saying that I agree...and disagree. I am a huge TNA as well as a huge WWE fan. I want both to succeed as well. You make excellent points and I would just like to add my two cents on why I agree or don't with you views.

1. Stop attacking the WWE on television. It makes you come off as bitter. Every time Taz mocks Michael Cole, every time Hulk Hogan or Eric Bischoff delivers a jibe at Vince McMahon, it makes TNA look childish. Forgetting the fact that Taz made far more money announcing in the WWE than ever did wrestling for Paul Heyman, forgetting that Hulk Hogan wouldn't be standing in that TNA ring if not for Vince McMahon, forgetting that while Bischoff was successful with Nitro and WCW, that he then chose to work for Vince McMahon afterward, just stop doing it. Its juvenile. If you want to succeed in your own right, you can't do it by trying to drag the WWE down. You have to do it by building yourself up.

Agree with ya. Taking shot after shot at them is getting repetetive and dull. Although I do think the little quips at Cole by Tazz are hillarious. Cause who doesn't like to make fun of Michael Cole? The guy is a walking joke, even he knows that. The SS Cole being a "vintage ship" was funny as hell. Plus there is no denying that Tenay is a better wrestling commentator than Cole. Mike knows the moves and history, to Michael every big move is just that "A big move!". Yes we know that Michael but we would like to know the name of it as well.......VINTAGE! (am I worthy or RAW commentary yet?)

Stop signing every WWE reject, or stop trying to be WCW.

I agree to some extent because when you really look at TNA's roster it's almost half and half with more being guys they got without being in WWE. Sure guys like Jordan, Nastys and Venis are questionable. There are deffineatly better past stars to get to ge the guys over but oh well. Gotta deal with them as long as they are around. I have noticed calling people "WWE rejects" has gone down recently and thank god it has. You can't tell me for one second that someone in WWE (Laurantis I'm looking at you) is watchin TNA and thinking, "Why did I get rid of Elijah Burke?" The guy has completely transformed himself and is one of (if not THE) most over guy in TNA. The same ca be said for Desmond Wolfe. Yeah he failed the WWE's physical but remember, this is the company whose drug testing procedure involves a man looking at the divas naked from knee to chest while they pee to take the test. Who knows what part of the physical he failed anyway. Sure he had injuries in the past but has yet to hurt himself or his opponets in the ring.

This is related to point #2, a further explanation to why TNA needs to develop their own stars, rather than rely on former WWE guys...The former WWE guys are mercenaries

This I can agree with. I think right now TNA is in that transitional period so some name stars are needed to garner attention then allow the young, new guys to show what they can do and get the people hooked. Once TNA has been on Mondays and/or starts getting better rating and approval then I think we will see more new hme grown talent and top guys from the indies as opposed to the name guys since the new guys now will then be the name guys.

Increase production values, NOW.

I hear this alot and the biggest issue people seem to have is the Impact Zone itself. So I wouldn't chalk it up to production values as the camera footage and the way the matchs are presented are fine in my book. Hell WWE almost seems more dim in the ring than TNA at times. But I agree that getting out of The Impact Zone would greatly help and make the company look alot bigger than it actually may be. I am not going to say I agree with Sid's comments of the "wal Mart" mentally totally but I do think there are alot of people who instantly think "it's bigger, so it's gotta be better." and alot of the time that is not always the case. Hell look at the world today. For one company inparticular. Starbucks. They got so huge and everyone thought it was such a great company because ti was so big. Then people started to realize that the coffe wasn't that good, overpriced and was more about it's presentation than it's product. I'm not going to say that WWE is just like Starbucks but no one can tell mejust because WWE is a huge conglomerate that their shows are totally perfect %100 of the time. No one can. Bigger doesn't always mean better. It's up the viewer to decide but yes GET OUT OF ORLANDO!

 

[Morpheus101]

I've watched Impact a few times and I do like it, but in order to truly compete with WWE (which I would like it to do), I would like TNA to do the following:

1. Stating the obvious, but they really need to try to go for bigger arenas to generate more of an atmosphere. I don't know how feasible this would be.

2. Bring the lighting/pyros into the 21st century. TNA's whole lighting / effects still look like they're stuck in the mid-late 90's, kind of like WCW.

3. Too late now, but do not try to go head-to-head with WWE Raw on Monday nights. It's too early and it could prove to be a disaster for TNA. They should have stuck with Thursday night to continue to build up a fanbase, especially of people who generally watch WWE too and now have to choose between Raw or Impact (most will choose Raw).

4. The storylines are improving, but still seem very sketchy, half-assed and rushed. The character development really isn't there and it's often hard to figure out why X wrestler is attacking Y wrestler. Also (and for example), if you're going to turn Abyss back into a monster, at least do it gradually, or make it more believable.

5. The entrance music really needs a lot of improvement -- few TNA entrances really stand out.

6. TNA could also really capitalize on the fact that WWE has gone too "PG". In other words, TNA could have an "attitude" era of its own, which would really draw big, especially by those of us who are disillusioned with the "PG" era in WWE.

Those are just my .02 worth.

 

[Davi323]

1. Stating the obvious, but they really need to try to go for bigger arenas to generate more of an atmosphere. I don't know how feasible this would be.

And therein lies perhaps the biggest problem. No arena that seats the same number of fans that the WWE does is going to book a show that only draws 2,500 fans at best. From a business standpoint, why would they book TNA (at its current level) in a 15,000 seat arena, when they can only sell 20% of the available seats? I have been to a TNA house show, this past March. There were approximately 250 fans there, total. It was pathetic. Any large sized concert arena is going to ask themselves, why should they book TNA, when they can book a concert or something, and get a lot more ticket sales? TNA has to give those mid-to-large sized arena that the WWE uses a reason to book them. You can only do that by building up your fan base to the point that you will sell 10k plus tickets per event. But you can only build up the fan base to those levels by making new fans. How do you make new fans? By giving them a better show to watch than the WWE. You have to remember, by moving to Monday nights, they aren't just competing with the WWE. At least during the fall, they are now also competing with Monday Night Football as well. When you have a much bigger wrestling company that spends more on one show than you spend in a month, combined with the most popular sport in the United States, finding new viewers is not going to be easy at all. You can't really say that WCW did it, so can TNA, because they are two very different situations, with very different financial support. Just because WCW did it does NOT mean TNA can.

Sometimes (shoot, most of the time) I wonder if TNA is biting off way more than they can chew. Based on where they are at currently, I have to say yeah. This move to mondays could come back to bite them in the ass, big time. If this fails, I would even go as far as to say that this is it. If this doesn't work, TNA is done. Finished. They cannot go back to thursdays after this move, and expect Spike TV to continue to back them. Spike's interest is to get back at the WWE for leaving to go back to the USA network. If TNA cannot deliver that, Spike will dump them. If this doesn't work, TNA will most likely be forced to close down due to lack of financing. They are gambling everything on this.

 

[Morpheus101]

And therein lies perhaps the biggest problem. No arena that seats the same number of fans that the WWE does is going to book a show that only draws 2,500 fans at best. From a business standpoint, why would they book TNA (at its current level) in a 15,000 seat arena, when they can only sell 20% of the available seats? I have been to a TNA house show, this past March. There were approximately 250 fans there, total. It was pathetic. Any large sized concert arena is going to ask themselves, why should they book TNA, when they can book a concert or something, and get a lot more ticket sales? TNA has to give those mid-to-large sized arena that the WWE uses a reason to book them. You can only do that by building up your fan base to the point that you will sell 10k plus tickets per event. But you can only build up the fan base to those levels by making new fans. How do you make new fans? By giving them a better show to watch than the WWE. You have to remember, by moving to Monday nights, they aren't just competing with the WWE. At least during the fall, they are now also competing with Monday Night Football as well. When you have a much bigger wrestling company that spends more on one show than you spend in a month, combined with the most popular sport in the United States, finding new viewers is not going to be easy at all. You can't really say that WCW did it, so can TNA, because they are two very different situations, with very different financial support. Just because WCW did it does NOT mean TNA can.

Sometimes (shoot, most of the time) I wonder if TNA is biting off way more than they can chew. Based on where they are at currently, I have to say yeah. This move to mondays could come back to bite them in the ass, big time. If this fails, I would even go as far as to say that this is it. If this doesn't work, TNA is done. Finished. They cannot go back to thursdays after this move, and expect Spike TV to continue to back them. Spike's interest is to get back at the WWE for leaving to go back to the USA network. If TNA cannot deliver that, Spike will dump them. If this doesn't work, TNA will most likely be forced to close down due to lack of financing. They are gambling everything on this.

Fair points. They need to have the fanbase there in the first place to put bums on seats. That brings me back to my point about TNA making a huge mistake switching to Monday nights. At least if they continued to build on their fanbase by keeping Impact on Thursday nights, they might have a chance of filling some of those larger arenas. Unfortunately, switching to Monday nights will hurt TNA a lot. Few wrestling fans are going to choose Impact over Raw, while Impact and TNA in general are still in the "teething" stage. The switch was WAY too early....hopefully it won't prove to be the nail in the coffin for TNA, because I actually WANT the competition.

 

[subsouljah82]

im new to the iwc but as a fan of wrestling for my entire 27 years i have a few simple ideas that i think could help
1.just let guys like the pope have freedom with there interviews and let the mic skills do the rest like wwe did withe rock and austin
2.deffinatly go with edger content the way to compete at anything is to attack a weakness and wwe's major one right now is lose of the adult fan
3.one really good storyline can change anything in the wrestling buisness look at nwo,goldberg,stone cold and vince all it takes is a really well done storyline and character to catch on and u got the boost u need
4.dont be in a hurry to do anything work at a smart pace build one step at a time if u take on to much to fast the money may become a issue like it did for the crocketts