Expectations for TNA PPV's Going Forward

[LSN80]

I could post this in either PPV section, I suppose, but I think it's more relevant with TNA going to 4 PPV's this year. Yes, this isn't old news, as I'm well aware. However, after posting in the Sting vs. Bully Ray thread, and the direction the feud needs to head, I thought of what TNA needs to do to make me purchase what they're selling every 3 months.

On the whole, I've been a loyalist to both WWE and TNA in the past by purchasing every PPV, or going out with friends to watch them. But with the reduction of PPV's, my expectations have risen. With more time to build, the quality needs to improve. If the build improves, generally, the payoffs are more satisfying as well on the show. Personally, there are four things I'm looking for.

Proper Feuds: Perhaps it's sad, but I remember the go-home Impact for Turning Point 2011. Specifically, the "build" for the title match. As TNA was less then five minutes from going off the air, AJ Styles stormed the ring and challenged World Champion Booby Roode for the title at Turning Point. I was completely flabbergasted. How can you expect to sell a PPV to your audience when your main event is announced with five minutes left in your go-home show?

That's why I'm encouraged that we have a Sting/Bully Ray match made a month before the Slammiversary PPV. There's a story there to be told, and while they have to sell it, it's off to a good start.

That's what I'm looking for in every match. If it means you can only get six matches on the card, so be it. Obviously, selling the main event is the most important, but I want sold on the undercard as well. Even if the X Division is going to be a three-way spotfest, I want to know why they're fighting.

With only two hours of TV a week, it's hard to get everyone on TV each week, but 3 months between PPV's provide plenty of time to sell a feud. From the opener to the main event, each match should be built to a place where one is invested in a winner and a loser, not just the spectacle of the match.

Every Title Defended: Mickie James recently spoke to her frustration with TNA, and part of it was the existence of the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championships:

"Besides the X Division Championship, the female tag team championship is the only thing we have that nobody else has. I think our ladies’ division is so unique and so different that it gives you something else to fight for. I don’t know why they’re sitting around ODB and EY’s waists, and they’re not even defending them and nobody else is getting a shot at them. There’s no storyline; there’s nothing wrapped around them. They just kind of won the belts and that was it. Then we forgot about them."

If you want to sell the idea of being the best, what better way to do it then by using your existing titles? I can forgive a company for not having titles defended on TV if they have proper feuds built towards them for a PPV. However, the X Division champion hasn't been on TV in weeks. There's been virtually no mention made to the TV title, and Mickie James illustrated the problem with the Women's Tag Championships.

If you're not going to use them, get rid of them. Sometimes, less is more. But what better way to best use the titles, to determine the best in each division, then by having them defended on PPV?


Quality finishes: Heels cheat, and babyfaces are honorable. Most times, that's wrestling 101. However, one of the things that weighed down Bobby Roode's record-setting reign were the numerous cheap finishes. As a face, he showed he was plenty capable of beating quality opposition, and those skills don't go away suddenly when you turn heel.

The other problem this created was the need for rematch after rematch. James Storm, Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles, for example, got multiple shots at the title. That's passable with 10-12 PPV's a year. With 4, most matches should end feuds. Bully Ray, for example, can't get caught in the Scorpion only to have Aces and Eights storm the ring for the DQ. If they're going to move forward with Ray as champion, he needs to beat Sting in a way that doesn't necessitate the program continuing. I don't mind if he, or other heels, cheat to win. What's unacceptable at this point are purposeful DQ's, ties, or outs for the loser. Rematch clause if the champion loses? Sure.

But besides that, move on.

Meaningful matches: One of my biggest frustrations with both WWE and TNA on PPV are TV matches on PPV. Matches I could tune in to Raw or Impact to see. Granted, there's need for filler, but how do you truly culminate a feud with an 8-10 minute match? I suppose you can finish a feud with a squash, sure, but in order to tell the story that's been(hopefully) built for the past 3 months, you need time.

As I said before, I don't care if this means there are only 6 matches on the card. Lockdown failed for me in a way because had three matches in a row that went 8 minutes or less. How do you tell a cohesive story there, or develop a flow to the PPV?

Give me 2 matches of twenty minutes or more, 3 going ten-twenty, and 1-2 as filler under ten, and you've got a far more cohesive product. Those 20+ minute matches have a chance to be special, with the rest making the card flow. Wrestling companies in general need to be less concerned with getting everyone on their shows, and more concerned with making those who get on the shows make the time count.

Generally speaking, smaller cards with longer matches tend to do exactly that.

When you're putting on a show just every three months, said show should feel very special. Generating personal feuds with compelling storylines for high stakes that tell logical stories within the ring not only do exactly that, but are possible as well.

Thoughts?

Anything I missed that you're looking for from a quarterly PPV?

 

[Starkist]

I am surprised no one has posted in this thread yet. Anyway, my answer is going to be short, simple, and kind of sweet.

I agree with basically everything you (the OP), has stated. The main thing for me to want to buy a PPV is exposure. If TNA decides to put matches together one week from the show, then I would more than likely stream it vs buying it. People complain about the issue of TNA's terrible booking style. The lack of building matches, promoting them along with trying to gain the fans interest in the matches/PPV. If TNA can produce, which I hope they can, I would buy all 4 PPV's a year.

My one negative factor of buying a PPV is Hogan. Yes, I am not a complainer and cry baby about Hogan. Thing is, I was never a huge fan of him myself. I can tolerate him until a certain point. I just don't want to see him wrestle or ever hold the TNA WHC. If Hogan is on the card in a wrestling match, in which I don't think he will be, I just hope it is not the main event.

I hope TNA can produce and not let us down with the 4 PPV's a year.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

For me personally, it's hard to have high expectations going forward, at least the way things look right now.

As far as Mickie James' complaints in regards to the KO tag titles, I just don't really see it. The KO tag titles were created for...well I really don't know why because the KO division has never fielded very many teams to warrant the creation of the title. Ordinarily, I'd be tempted to say that the KO division isn't all that important, business wise, as women's wrestling as a whole has never drawn in the United States. However, the fact remains that segments featuring Knockouts have been frequently among the top drawing parts of Impact Wrestling. They're not blowing everything else out of the water, not by a long shot. Personally, I think it has more to do with the fact that the Knockouts are gorgeous women clad in revealing outfits than anything else. That's not to say that there aren't talented women on the TNA roster but, just my opinion, the Knockouts have the tits & ass factor in their favor. Men will pretty much always tune into watch hot, half naked women. I think the Knockout Division used to be pretty unique but now, it's only just a bit above the Divas in WWE. Right now, most of the Knockouts don't really have much in the way of characters or feuds you could sorta sink your teeth into, a lot like the Divas. Probably their biggest saving grace right now is that they're generally given more time for their matches than WWE gives the Divas.

This is just my opinion but there's just so very little of anything interesting happening in TNA right now that I just find myself not caring that ppvs are coming up. I'm sure there's plenty that some fans are into but it's just not blowing my skirt up. Take the tag team scene, for instance.

For pretty much this entire year, it's been Aries & Roode feuding with LAX 3.0 or Bad Influence. I couldn't give a shit about Chavo & Hernandez. Aries & Roode and Bad Influence are four talented guys but I'm just over their charm as a tag team. They've all wrestled so often that it just feels long and drawn out, though that's partially because there aren't any solidified teams on the roster at this point. And, just my opinion remember, I simply feel there's better use of Aries & Roode than their current roles have for them.

TNA's mid-card title scene is in shambles. The X Division consists of pairing three random wrestlers in what's usually a 4 to 5 minute spotfest without any degree of build, storyline or feuds. All the X Division guys are completely interchangeable that matter, somewhat, for however long their matches last. With the exception of ODB & EY as KO tag champs, Devon has to have a spot in TNA history as a champ that's done nothing as TV champ since he was given the strap. The mid-card is basically just guys roaming in limbo with little or nothing to do or focus on.

As for the main event picture, it's basically become the Hogan & Sting show again. I know people love Sting and rightly so, but I'm just over him in the role of TNA's knight in shining armor over & over again. I have little to no interest in Sting wrestling Bully Ray for the title.

Aces & Eights is history kind of repeating itself in TNA in which no other stories, feuds or wrestlers matter in the least unless they're under the Aces & Eights umbrella. I'm just over the group. Whatever interest I had in watching these bunch of scrubs went out the window months ago. Bully Ray's presence hasn't made the group any better as the group as a whole. Aside from Ray, the group is still booked to look like a bunch of nobodies. If anything, in my eyes, all TNA has done is made Aces & Eights look like dead weight that Ray is carrying around with him.

With several months in between ppvs, people were hoping that TNA would use the extra time to really work on the shows and make them feel like "must see" events. Frankly, they haven't done that at all this year. If anything, I kind of think that TNA has done something of the opposite because so many IW episodes come off as filler. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect every episode to be a barn burner or anything. It's just that way too many of them feel like placeholder shows in which nothing really happens or progresses.

I'm hoping things will turn around between now and Bound For Glory.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Better builds and better payoffs. It's as simple as that. I want to see quality, quality, quality and nothing but quality. You have the time advantage in your court now. You're no longer restricted by the industry standard of three-week build time per PPV, which means you can get back to the old school mentality of telling the story better. More time to tell stories means more details and a better opportunity to promote them ahead of time. The Sting/Bully Ray match is a prime example of that. It may not be ideal for everyone with Sting in another match for the World Title, but the story build to it now has weeks to develop, which can only pay dividends if it's actually given enough exposure to force fans to care about the outcome.

 

[Lowdown]

Better builds and better payoffs. It's as simple as that. I want to see quality, quality, quality and nothing but quality. You have the time advantage in your court now. You're no longer restricted by the industry standard of three-week build time per PPV, which means you can get back to the old school mentality of telling the story better. More time to tell stories means more details and a better opportunity to promote them ahead of time. The Sting/Bully Ray match is a prime example of that. It may not be ideal for everyone with Sting in another match for the World Title, but the story build to it now has weeks to develop, which can only pay dividends if it's actually given enough exposure to force fans to care about the outcome.

Exactly. Throw in the One Night Only PPV's that's similar to Saturday Night's Main Event, and you're talking damn near endless possibilities. This type of booking and thinking is what can separate a promotion from the flock. What's that saying, "what's old is new again".