Guest Hosts on Impact?

[Kenny Powers]

TNA President Dixie Carter hinted on her official Twitter page about having another guest booker for iMPACT! (as they did last night with "Super Dave") adding, "Billy Corgan/Smashing Pumpkins taking a break from recording to watch iMPACT tonight and sending me texts as this week's guest celebrity booker."

If this is true it looks like Impact will have celebrity guest "bookers" in the future. I really don't know how to feel about this. If it is on a weekly basis then its obviously a poor attempt to mimic Raw on the guest host concept. Super Dave was only on the show a few segments, but I don't think he added anything special to it. I guess they are trying to spark more interest in TNA but I really don't think its needed. I also don't think new viewers are going to tune in to Impact just because Billy Corgan or Super Dave is on there.

If it is on a weekly basis its not going to hurt TNA as long as they don't focus the entire show around the celebrity like Raw does. I don't think it's neccesarily going to help them any though. What are your thoughts? Should there be a guest host/booker on Impact, or should they leave it as it is?

 

[ABMorales787]

This is their idea of waging war? Imitating WWE's bad habits? Actually it doesn't sound so bad. Super Dave at least had a clue of what he was doing and didn't hide the fact that he didn't know much about the business. I loved his segment with JB about his Twitter page.

If Dixie wants guest hosts, at least she should make sure they'll make it work. Super Dave did a better job than 90% of Raw's host's, and if she can keep the focus away from them and just have them in small segments like this week then I can dare say that should this guest booker concept become reality, it could trump Raw. From a wrestling fans point of view at least.

 

[X]

I sincerely hope this is a one (or two rather) time thing, because if they start having a "guest booker/host" every week, I'm going to be extremely pissed at TNA. The guest hosts concept is one of the biggest complaints about the WWE product, and their idea of waging war is to rip off an already cliched and terrible idea?

This had better only be a one time thing, or I lost even more respect for Dixie Carter.



Sorry, I couldn't even say that with a straight face. I have zero respect for Dixie Carter, so I guess this would send it into the negative zone.

 

[Super Crazy]

I don't think TNA should start having guest hosts or guest bookers. In order to compete with the WWE they should not try to imitate what they are doing. TNA is supposed to be the alternative. It is not supposed to the be cheaper version.

TNA needs to keep doing what it is doing. It's storylines are pretty well and I really love their product. I would hate to see TNA become a small version of WWE with having guest hosts and other things like that.

 

[gtajoker01]

Here tna goes again trying to mock wwe. I know they are trying to get vince's attention but they arent going to get his attention if they kick it in high gear and this isnt the way to go. I know wcw did it and look what happened to them. Those are the reasons why i stopped watching tna i just got sick of them bragging and bringing up wwe all the time. they got alot of things to fix before they can go head to head with wwe. and they need to expand their company .

 

[ABMorales787]

They could give it a one time shot, but really, even if they can do it better than WWE, there's no need for it. They are fine without doing it. Not to mention, what guest host is Dixie talking about? The lead singer of Smashing Pumpkin? OK. But who else? Dana White? TNA had the right idea with Super Dave, but other than him, who else would head to TNA? The people that go to WWE go to endorse something. Its never because they are fans (With the exceptions of Shaq, Freddie Prinze JR. and a few others).

TNA may have the right idea like I said in my last post, but now that I think about it... Its unnecesary at this point and they don't exactly have the "star power" too pull a celeb in. I'm pretty sure Larry King was scratching his head thinking about where Hogan was going.

 

[yjoyafter]

I hope not. If they are going for the ratings idea then just look at raw. Getting Snoop dogg, Ozzy Osborne and a load of other a list celebrites to host Raw didnt work so i dont think super dave will, but what do i know.

 

[jaxx]

OMG..... I hope this is just a one time thing because if its not i am definitely done watching impact. The guest host thing is just plain lazy a... booking. If you want to have a special guest every once in awhile i'm fine with that. Every week i'm not fine with that. I thought TNA was suppose to be the alternative not a copy cat of what wwe does. If TNA wants to improve ratings and increase their fan base then fix whats really wrong, and thats booking and promoting the product. TNA is so frustrating, because wrestling fans want them to succeed but instead of moving forward they always find a way to move backwards. Until tna does three things.. 1. remove russo from booking 2. advertise advertise advertise 3. Present your product and your superstar athletes like they are the best thing on earth. They will ultimately fail, which i do not want to see.

 

[Suneeboy]

This would be a terrible thing for TNA if they have guest hosts. I loath the guest host concept on RAW and the guest host concept moving to TNA makes my stomach cringe. Plus it is a blatant rip off of what they are doing on RAW which is ALREADY an awful idea. Rip off an awful idea and it makes your idea look even worse. Please please please do not do this TNA. I love the show, don't fuck it up with a horrible gimmick. Don't be like the WWE please.

 

[sarg63]

TNA shouldn't have guest hosts. This has been and will continue to be a ratings killer for the WWE. A a fan, I miss the ongoing storyline that a regular GM brings to the table.

 

[CaptainZaltan]

Honestly, Super Dave on Impact this past thursday was literally painful to watch. Does anyone have any statistics on whether or not involving celebrities in wrestling actually increases ratings or buyrates? Because it seems to me that all the celebs do with the extra tv time is plug whatever garbage they are currently working on, and get fawned over by the talent (who probably enjoy putting over Z-list celebrities as much as I enjoy watching it).

To put this plainly, I watch wrestling to see wrestling. If I wanted to watch celebrity/guest star oriented programming, there are plenty of alternatives available that can do it better and with bigger stars. I dont believe that viewers of 'late night' or 'the daily show' would particularly enjoy having there program interrupted for a wrestling match, and I don't know why wrestling fans should be expected to enjoy having wrestling shows interrupted for celebrity interview segments. I stopped watching RAW for just this reason, and will do the same with Impact if this is implemented.

 

[TheBestThereNevaWas]

Wouldn't imitating your competition encourage people to watch your competitor instead for the original product? What would the guest hosts accomplish even if TNA does a better job? No one will still know about TNA because they don't advertise. Sounds like more money down the drain to me, or TNA is in desperation mode.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Does Super Dave qualify as a celebrity these days? Seriously, the last time I heard anything about this guy was back during the early 90s when he had a show on Fox. For me, the Raw guest host concept has been hit and miss. I've liked some shows and have despised some others. Rick Hatton is probably the worst host the show's had in my view. I know they pulled him out because they were in England but I'd never heard of the guy at all.

As for TNA, I hope this isn't going to be a weekly thing with them. I know that Super Dave was on TNA trying to pimp the lame ass show that he's got coming to Spike. A lot of complaints about the WWE on this forum regards the guest host idea. After all, if it's not one thing, it's going to be another. If TNA wants to be the "alternative" to the WWE, then doing a guest host concept on a weekly basis isn't the way to go. Just makes it look like a much cheaper version of WWE Raw.

 

[Randolph H]

I hate listening to the WWE Brain Washed Zombies. The idea of a guest host is nothing new to the Wrestling business. It has been in wrestling for a long time. Saying having a guest host is coping WWE, is just plain wrong!

TNA is not going to have a weekly guest host. It is going to be occasional guests and guest appearances. Nothing new to the business, even though Vinnie Mac pretends it is.

If you noticed the appearance of Super Dave, actually had a purpose. It was to promote his new show on the Spike network (which is Spike has invested alot in both shows). It really didn't interfere with the show. Maybe Vinnie Mac could take some notes on how use a guest host.

Billy Corgan / Smashing Pumpkins have used TNA to promote one of their songs in the past. I could see him using it to either promote a new song, album, or a new theme song for IMPACT / PPV.

 

[BradXXX]

I really hope they don't start using guest hosts. I hated most of the Super Dave stuff and thought the time could have been used much better. I would hate to see that be a staple of Impacts and it would definitely stop me from watching the show live. I'd have to record it so later I could fast forward through the bullshit.

Although one thing I found funny, during the X-Division match I thought Super Dave did a way better job of putting over Amazing Red and making him seem legit than Tenay or Taz ever have.

 

[heat28]

You all are right.imitating wwe with celebrity hosts will cheapen the product that they are desperately trying to build. And WCW went down this road and crashed severely Hell they had a DJ and Master P doing weekly programs.TNA should not go this road but instead think of other options that haven't been used yet instead of mimicking a tired Idea that vince/trump implemented.
The Best thing for TNA to do is well I don't know ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE EVENTS on any and every channel like WWE does only DO IT BETTER!!!!!

 

[Y2J420RKO420]

this would be horrible part of tnas problem is they have too much going on in two hours and adding a guest booker would only take away from the less than 45 mins of actual wrestling we get on impact. i think dixie should have never shown her face she is what will make the company fail cause she knows nothing and she acts like she has a chance against vince tna will never grow until they start getting things right i love tna this sunday will be the best ppv since summerslam. but no this is a horrible idea and its thoughtless if you wanna copy vince then be sure your going to do a better job than he did cause they both suck its stale in the wwe it wont work in tna. super dave made me puke it was horrible i glad he did not get much airtime

 

[wewanttables]

I had to wiki "Super Dave" to figure out who he was. TNA has helped promote other Spike programing in the past. They usually don't do as much with the promoting as they did with Super Dave. He came across as a lost. He should not have come out to the announce desk or done the lockerroom scene. Just mention his show a few more times so he doesn't need to speak.

Remember the Pope cutting a promo about Stacker a couple of weeks ago. That is what I would like/expect out of the Smashing Pumpkins. Sell their latest product or album, write a check and leave. The purpose should have nothing to do with TNA's ratings but rather its bottom line. It would be like having the Burger King Main Event of the evening. I wouldn't remember it in a couple of minutes but TNA doesn't have to raise the price of ppvs to raise income.

 

[finoj05]

I don't think this is going to be a weekly thing. The Super Dave thing was just to hype another Spike show.

I am guessing they are thinking about doing another celebrity booker to book one match a show in the future but not as a weekly thing.

 

[NSL]

One of the minor (of many) reasons I quit watching RAW, was because of the shitty "guest host" idea. It's not funny, and it takes away from the in-ring action, which is what TNA needs to bank on for ratings.

Super Dave hasn't been "cool" since 1992, at least, and his time on TV killed me. His voice was distracting, and his lack of humor killed Tenay and Taz at the announce table. I hope this was a "one and done", and TNA gets back to business. Obviously Foley will be written off for a week or two, but there's no need to have someone fill in.

 

[dbrdss]

NO NO NO NO. THE LAST THING I WANT TNA IS TO START COPYING THAT LOAD OF CRAP THE WWE CALLS RAW. For months now Raw has had guests hosts every week and most of them dont even watch the damn show. They dont know what they're doing, they dont know what the fans want and they are only on the show to promote their crappy merchandise.

I feel strongly about this.TNA is meant to be different from the WWE, getting these random losers to host TNA is a big mistake, and i for one will lose respect and interest for the company like i have for RAW.

This is why i am a Smackdown! fan.

THE FACE OF SMACKDOWN!

 

[Lancer]

Obviously, the Super Dave thing was most likely done at the request of Spike TV. Hey, whether we like it or not, TNA will do what it takes to make Spike happy and keep their show on the air.

I doubt that this will turn into a full-blown weekly thing. Unless Hogan decides he wants Ed Leslie, or Brian Knobbs, or that other guy in the Nasty Boys to be guest hosts. Other than that, hopefully it isn't likely to reoccur...

 

[absent]

A guest host/presenter of a TV show is one thing but a guest booker is almost something else entirely. I mean which direction are TNA heading in?

One week we've got Dixie Carter doing a "shoot" talent meeting with all the wrestlers happily sitting next to each other whilst the writers sit behind her, going a long way towards breaking the kayfabe TV illusion of how a wrestling company is run, and now the viewer is supposed to believe celebrities are gonna be booking matches? Either hide it or don't, you can't have both work.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

The guest host thing worked wonders for the WWE, and is one of the sole reasons the company managed to pull its ratings back up to the 3.0-4.0 level per week. The ratings were hitting the 2-range IIRC prior to the inception of this nonsense, and unfortunately, it worked.

The problem is, it masks the poor quality of the show itself overall every week, because people tune in simply to see see another celebrity, and not necessarily because the show itself is great – it's not, it's far from it, in fact.

Could the same thing work for TNA? Sure, but I'd rather they not even try it. They're certainly not going to get the caliber of celebrity that WWE gets, and the entire idea is a blatant rip-off of Vince's. Billy Corgan ≠ Bob Barker, and Super Dave ≠ Snoop Dogg, etc.

I'd rather TNA not just walk in the footprints of the WWE, because following someone else's footprints does one thing more than anything – always keeps you a step behind.

 

[johnbragg]

The guest host thing worked wonders for the WWE, and is one of the sole reasons the company managed to pull its ratings back up to the 3.0-4.0 level per week. The ratings were hitting the 2-range IIRC prior to the inception of this nonsense, and unfortunately, it worked.

No it didn't. http://www.gerweck.net/ratings.htm The first half of this year, RAW ratings never went below 3.23 and hit 4.1 for the last two weeks of February. The Donald Trump Show did a 4.5, but since then the ratings have topped out at 3.95 and bottomed at 3.1.

The numbers say that Guest Hosts haven't had a huge effect in WWE. And, as limited as the appeal of some WWE hosts have been (Bob Barker and Jeremy Piven have, shall we say, selective appeal to widely different fanbases), TNA hosts would be a whole other level of D-List. And TNA couldn't even fill the gaps with a huge roster of Legends eager to keep their standing alive. Think Jim Neidhart vs Ricky Steamboat.