Can TNA Keep the Momentum?

[HonkyDong Man]

Slammiversary 2012. Really enjoyed it. AA is pure gold. It seemed like everybody involded was motivated. The record-selling crowd. Everything.

And now the live Impact shows.

Can TNA keep the momentum? To me it seems like they're on a roll. Can/will it last? As a wrestling fan I hope so.

What do you, the distinguished members of this board think? Can Dixie & Co. keep the momentum going?

 

[Danger Burger]

Dont you know the rules man? You cant ask questions about TNA and expect serious answers.

I can only hope they keep the momentum going, i'm in a position where wwe is off the cards and i'm on a TNA only diet for the summer.... They put on quality shows, and are alot more consistant lately so i'm hoping they keep it up at the very least!

 

[Miro_A12004]

TNA is not half bad to be honest, an hour into the show and they have had more wrestling time than RAW has had in the past two weeks. They should move outside this shitty Impact zone ASAP, they can sell out arenas in the 3000-5000 range easily.

Obviously, their house show attendances is quite low, but house show sales are different to television tapings, they sold about 3000 the last few times they went on the road with Impact and their marketing is abysmal to say the least, by all accounts.

Last September when I was at the US, New England to be exact, whenever there was RAW on air, they would remind you about the tickets available for the November 15th show at the TD Garden, TNA had a show in the next town to where I stayed, and I could swear, I didn't see one advertisement telling me there was a show next town, not on TV, not on Radio, nothing.

A live show would sell and open newer markets to them, I am not saying that they will sell out MSG, but arenas on college campuses are mostly about 6000-8000 which if you take the space occupied by the set and the production team would make its capacity about half of this which I think with some advertising can be sold out, especially as I mentioned, the show will be live and on television.

Obviously, there are portions of the show I don't like, portraying the backstage segments as reality television while good in principle could be done a whole lot better, they need to work on their production and making three title matches after such a huge PPV is a mistake. On the other side, there is a lot of action in the show and the storytelling is good, they improved massively since the last time I saw them and obviously no Vince Russo helped but they need to focus more on building towards the PPVs (which I think they should decrease the number of the PPVs they do to just 6 and better if four) and less on focusing on the ratings as I feel they are so Television oriented. Production as I said needs improving, but then again, RAW's production compared to Nitro's was shit but since RAW was a much better show, no one cared about the production '98 & '99.

The live factor is good, but they also need to advertise more, Roode, Storm, Styles, Daniels, they need to make them feel like stars, put them with Hulk, Angle, Sting on talk shows, radio appearances, etc, a lot of people don't even know what is even TNA because they rarely advertise their shows or their stars.

 

[dtroppe]

I guess I will be the first to state my confusion. I did not know TNA had picked up momentum. I thought the ratings came in low? If in fact there is momentum I think that is great for TNA and great for the wrestling business in general. I streamed the PPV but stopped after a while because I find the product a bit too corny and I dont think the wrestlers look like pro wrestlers. My opinion does not matter though- like I said if it picks up its good for business in general. I think most wrestling fans right now would like to see both TNA and WWE put out a better program.

 

[Freebirdfan]

Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, etc, etc....don't look like pro wrestlers? !!! If they do not look like pro wrestlers; then I sure don't know what a pro wrestler is supposed to look like!......Santino maybe? I don't know what you are looking for in a pro wrestler!

 

[dtroppe]

Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, etc, etc....don't look like pro wrestlers? !!! If they do not look like pro wrestlers; then I sure don't know what a pro wrestler is supposed to look like!......Santino maybe? I don't know what you are looking for in a pro wrestler!

Come on man, AJ Styles looks nothing like a pro wrestler. He is small. Angle and Roode look like wrestlers, TNA does have some gusy that look big and in shape but a lot of their guys are small. Big guys draw and they are fun to watch- and most of the wrestling audience agrees with that opinion, hence the popularity of Hogan, Warrior, Rock, SCSA, Goldburg, Batista, Cena, Brock Lesner, Nash, Hall, Savage, Andre, Sting, the Road Warriors, the list goes on and on.

 

[Freebirdfan]

Not all wrestlers have to be big. AJ is a high flyer like Jeff Hardy. Both have proven that they can handle themselves in a ring with bigger guys.

It may be old-school talk here but Nick Bockwinkel, Ric Flair, Dory Funk Jr., and Bret Hart weren't all that big, but have certainly made their mark in pro wrestling.

 

[Fansince1992]

Come on man, AJ Styles looks nothing like a pro wrestler. He is small.

The Best Pro-Wrestler in the world today is small. Daniel Bryan. Watch his match with Sheamus at Extreme Rules for Evidence. This is coming from a John Cena Mark

 

[dtroppe]

It may be old-school talk here but Nick Bockwinkel, Ric Flair, Dory Funk Jr., and Bret Hart weren't all that big, but have certainly made their mark in pro wrestling.

You are correct to say many smaller guys have made a large impact- Guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels are great examples- they probably weighed 220 pounds (Hart) and 200 pounds (HBK) in real weight-at their prime- but their physiques were def well defined and muscular. Also Dory Funk Jr was not a muscular man- but make no mistake he was tall and wide-I have met him many times and even in his old age he much much larger than an average man. Also we should point out guys like Ric Flair and Mic Foley- both huge additions to pro wrestling. But the truth is the biggest names in the BIZ are big guys. My point was that to me a lot of the TNA roster to not look like pro-wrestlers. I admit thats my opinion and I also admit that a roster needs high flyers and technical wrestlers to help carry the big boys through a match.

 

[waylon p]

Nearly without exception, the very large wrestlers are subpar and/or boring. Nearly all wrestlers, even the "little guys" are average height or larger. Start naming guys 6'4" or larger who were extremely good in the ring. I am sure you can name a few, but I doubt you will run out of fingers before you run out of names. But that discussion does not belong here, anyway. Perhaps a WWE fan who comes to TNA forums for no other reason than to troll would say the sort of things that would derail this thread into a discussion of whether or not TNA wrestlers are too small, but I doubt anyone else would.

As far as the momentum mentioned in the OP and it's connection to ratings is concerned, I feel that Impact has been getting a bit better every week. This concern about ratings misses the point. There is unlikely to be a ratings jump in the short term on any wrestling show that means anything. True ratings increases happen after months of delivering what folks want to see, longer, if it is not promoted well and folks have to spread the news by word of mouth.

If TNA wants a real ratings boost that is sustainable, they must continue to improve the show, without regard to ratings unless there is a sustained increase or decrease of significance.

The short answer is yes. They can sustain the momentum, if they make the right moves. I have been very happy with the improvement, and would like It to continue. They key is to continue to put out the best TV they can. Do not try to compete with WWE; they are a video game company who also makes (really good) PPVs on a regular basis. Raw and Smackdown are merely extremely long commercials for the products that WWE focus on.

TNA is a wrestling company who makes a superior television show, and occasionally a really good PPV. This should be the focus. The only attention TNA should pay to The 'E is who has been "future endeavored.". The tradition of hiring people who once worked for other promotions is an ages old tradition, and it is how Vince created the powerhouse he now runs. "WWE rejects" is a silly term

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

I guess I will be the first to state my confusion. I did not know TNA had picked up momentum. I thought the ratings came in low?

Well I don't think the OP meant ratings, he meant the product quality. Impact has been getting better and better and it's a shame the ratings don't reflect that.

 

[suffolkspur]

Well I don't think the OP meant ratings, he meant the product quality. Impact has been getting better and better and it's a shame the ratings don't reflect that.

Agree with this.

This is the key with TNA. They have to keep putting out the level of shows that they have been recently. There is going to be no quick fix to getting an increase in the ratings in the US. There never was. If they keep putting out a quality product which impresses people word of mouth will soon spread and if people who previously have been disenchanted with the product or turned away completely give it a chance now you would hope they would get hooked back in.

The ball is in TNA's court though. Consistent quality shows is all important. Im a TNA fan but i know all too well that previous spikes in quality TV has been followed more often than not by generally mundane programming.

 

[The Real Babyface]

Since Hogan made that deal with Austin Aries about the world heavyweight championship and those mystery attackers attacked Sting, the momentum has been growing larger and larger. I know they can keep their momentum high for a long period of time because they have done this in TNA's earlier years. I hope they do because I'm starting to enjoy TNA events more and more.

 

[HBsam31]

I really hope they do keep it going. This is the most I have enjoyed Impact since it has been on Spike Tv, and it will only better wrestling as a whole if they can keep it going. I am sure they will have a few stutter steps, but with the way things have been going I see no reason why they would lose this momentum they have going.

 

[IT Factor]

As long as TNA keeps the live Impact, I believe they can keep the momentum going. They need to stick with keeping new faces in the main events along with stacking their shows with alot of great matches. The only thing missing is changing venues on a weekly basis. That's what WCW did when they started becoming serious competition for WWF[WWE]. Although TNA has a long way to go before they can become competition, I do believe that'd be a nice first step towards that goal.

 

[braveh]

God I hope and pray that it will. Raw is now the CM Punk and Daniel Bryan show - two wrestlers that are so full of themselves.

I hope that they can get rid of Hogan and Flair's contracts and get some new high profile names. Maybe they could get Tito Ortiz (just off the top of my head) or someone like that who will bring in a new audience.