Character Developement in TNA

[Randolph H]

When Hogan and Bischoff came they were talking about Breathing Life into TNA's Characters. Well it appears that they are developing a couple of characters at the moment and leaving everyone else the same.

A.J. Styles has benefited greatly by Hogan, Bischoff, and Russo. Before he was coming off as a great in the ring guy but appeared to be a weak in his promos, interviews, and other segments. Now he appears that he is talking with more confidence and is strong. The past two shows it really came across on the camera.

Daniels on last nights show came off pretty cool. It was almost like his little segment came straight out of the WWF attitude era. The crowd really popped for the way he set up that beat down on Morely. I think they maybe trying to develop Daniels into a hybrid of the Attitude Era characters. I would like to see how they continue this. (BTW they are trying to put Morely over as a face, but the crowd was bored and unresponsive to him, if you watch the video closely you can tell that crowd noise was added to the tape because the crowd noise didnt match the video of the crowd. When Daniels came in and saved the segment that is when the crowd noise matched the video).

Samoa Joe's character hasnt seemed to have seen any growth lately. He is one the companies top names too. His match last night seemed very lackluster.

Eric Young had a half way decent character going and it worked for him as a heel. THE W.E. made him look weak because he couldnt win matches by himself. He is the Global Champion and he hasnt received any real air time in how long? The W.E. needs to be flushed and Eric needs to be pushed as a strong Mid Card Heel Champion. There is a diamond in the rough but the creative team needs to put more work into him.

Amazing Red, what happened to him? are they going to put anything creatively for him? He is the X-Division Champ.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I'm not sure if this is the intentions of your thread, but in terms of character development (and direction), I'm very worried about the direction of Samoa Joe. He's floating in no-mans land right now and isn't even close to the title picture for any of the belts, nor is he even involved in an even modest feud.

Granted, we're only two weeks into 2010, and have only had two episodes of iMPACT! and an upcoming PPV under Hogan & Bischoff, I can't help but feel a little worried that his character is going to need another injury write-off to refresh it, or yet another re-package to become relevant again. At the very least, he needs something to build off of, and losing to Desmond Wolfe before Wolfe heads into a PPV to face Pope isn't exactly my idea of a solid foundation.

I'm also very worried about where Eric Young is headed, as well. The Nash connection is quite obviously over now, and it's looking more and more like the World Elite is being scrapped seeing as they haven't even seen promo time, let alone TV time in a match, and they own two of the titles TNA boasts!

 

[13Time]

I think we gotta give Hogan and Uncle Eric some time before we can really make a judgement on what they are doing. It seems to me they are trying to make their main eventers, actual Stars. While I don't really care about the Nasty Boys or Morley I really like the new found focus being on Morgan, Hernandez, Wolfe, Pope, and AJ Styles. The past two weeks AJ Styles has shown more potential than he has since being in TNA. Besides the Angle/Styles match I'm really looking forward to Pope and Wolfe. That could easily be one of the best matches of the night. To close it up I guess what the formula I'm perceiving is 1. Establish your main eventers as soon as possible and see if the fans buy what your selling. 2. After you see who washes out establish your midcard. Joe and Eric I certainly hope will get their shot but they have to wait in line. If you look at the card for this Sunday you can clearly see they are trying to put the biggest names on the front line of their first ppv. However I wish Joe and Daniels had a spot on that card but they will get their turn.

 

[Decarow]

This is how I have observed TNA's character development over the past few years:

Randomly debut a former WWE, WCW, or ECW star to a huge ovation

Start them off on a big feud

Use them poorly because they are busy on the next old wrestler

 

[SpiralHands]

TNA does do a good job with chracter development, specially as of late, however they cannot make stars all at the same time. There are only certain people you can push and give TV/promo time to. But TNA doesnt do anything for the guys who are not involved in the pushes like Samoa Joe and Eric Young and I believe to certain extent Hernandez. He got a push towards main event level then they scrapped it and stuck him with Matt Morgan who also was on the recieving end of a massive push after "growing up" at Bound for Glory. But at least TNA is giving these two something to do! Samoa Joe I feel needs major repckaging again! Joe needs to go away, loss a lil bit of wieght, beefen up a bit take of the stupid shorts he wears now and come back super heel. Hes done it before he can easily do it again and if they dont want him in the main event picture at the moment, then make a fued between him and EY for mid card title!

 

[Schizophrenic]

I agree with ya on Daniels. He seems to be developing a character that's all about wrestling and not sports entertainment. I like it too. It's a character all wrestling fans can get behind at least a time or two. Who doesn't want to smack the hell out of a Doink The Clown (Face wise) or something along those lines.