How Have TNA Gotten it So Right in 2012?

[Wald]

Granted we'll probably get a share of the 'TNA sux 4 eva' crowd in here, but for those of us actually watching Impact how do we think it has gone so right? Opinions are everywhere on every subject, but I doubt anyone could disagree that 2012 has seen a huge improvement in the direction of the company, I would argue that TNA has been far more entertaining than WWE on whole, and that they produced more satisfying TV and PPV this year. For those of us watching TNA for a while now the PPV part of that equation is probably the biggest shock. So where has it gone right? Here are a few thoughts I've had recently:

Using Legends in the right way: Hogan as a face GM is working wonders, it just is. He is giving the rub to guys like Storm and Aries by putting them over as the present and future of the business, he is letting Roode get the better of him in talking segments and he isn't taking up too much time on Impact. Kudos to Hogan for stepping back and up like this.

It helps that Sting is the only other guy left now too. For far too long TNA seemed like a place for Nash, Hogan, Flair etc. to go get a pay cheque. Now we have Hogan in an inactive role and Sting making less appearances, and when he has he has lost. Which leads to...

Better focus on their own talent: By that I mean non-WWE recognised talent. Aries and Roode are running with the ball at the top, Storm is picking up speed, Zema Ion, Joe, Styles, Daniels, Kazarian, Crimson and Magnus all have prominent positions on the show.

Building their own ideas: The X-Division is back in the spotlight again, Open Fight Night looks like it could be something good when the kinks get worked out, Gut Check is an interesting idea that they can work on, The BFG Series is more focussed this year and a lot better for it, things like this set them aside from the WWE and will interest new fans.

The belts: This is half hit and half miss. They've tried with the Knockouts title but they need a spark there like the Kim vs Kong feud to really ignite it. The tag division needs to be rebooted and the TV title is still a waste of time. That said the TNA World Title seems more important to the company than the WWE Title does to them, simply because the belt is seen as the highest spot in the company and is something everyone works towards. The new idea of the X Division champ getting a shot at Destination X each year is simply awesome, adds weight to that title right away and makes it the second most important belt to hold, so good job on that too.

Getting the most out of older talent: Hogan and Sting I've already touched on, but props go to Bully Ray for becoming the most entertaining heel in the wresting industry today, RVD for showing a flicker of interest again, Abyss for the Joseph Parks angle, Angle for continuing to be Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy for battling back from a very dark place.

 

[dtroppe]

Brother, I think you may be marking out. TNA may have made some good decisions this year, but they have also made a lot of God awful decisions. Case in point- a storyline between Styles and Dixie. This is pure shit as neither of them are any good on the mic, and soap opera love angles don't appeal to the majority of wrestling fans. Its dull. TNA generally runs awful storylines. You can't deny it. They use Garrett Bischoff and Brooke Hogan as on screen characters-it worse if they also use them as behind the scenes advisors. Finally TNA still has not build a major star. Don't misunderstand- Roode and Aries are doing a good job at the top of TNA- but that doesnt make them stars. Apart from the TNA fan base- no one knows who they are. No One. You can't say the same about Cena or HHH or Undertaker.

 

[blockanWo]

I totally agree with the OP.

This year has been a standout year in TNA. Sure, as the above poster has pointed out there have been some flaws. The Dixie/AJ Storyline leaves a rather bland taste in your mouth and I dont agree with Garrett and Brooke getting air time. However the positives greatly, GREATLY, outnumber the negatives.

Lets start with the titles.

In an era where titles change once every two months, Roode was the longest reigning TNA Champion giving it legitimacy. The Television Title, which was nothing more than a joke is slowly making its comeback.

The Tag Titles need work, their division has been depleted with the injury of the MCMG and Storm and Roode moving up in singles competition, but I can forgive the tag division being weak, in exchange for an exciting World Heavyweight picture.

The X Division. With new blood being injected into the Division with Destination X the division again will be filled with some new match ups.

Im not one to complain about "homegrown talent" because I think the notion is stupid. What im happy with is the use of younger talent. The veterans, are being use correctly, to help push the young guys. Which leads me to Bully Ray. He is the best heel in wrestling today. Period. He has been one of the most important people in TNA for the last 6 months +. His heat made Roode the heel he is today and his current storyline with Abyss is fantastic.

The live shows. A major step in the right direction. Make it full time and youre on a winner.

Overall, so far this year has been fantastic. Lets hope they continue.

 

[Wald]

Brother, I think you may be marking out. TNA may have made some good decisions this year, but they have also made a lot of God awful decisions. Case in point- a storyline between Styles and Dixie. This is pure shit as neither of them are any good on the mic, and soap opera love angles don't appeal to the majority of wrestling fans. Its dull. TNA generally runs awful storylines. You can't deny it. They use Garrett Bischoff and Brooke Hogan as on screen characters-it worse if they also use them as behind the scenes advisors. Finally TNA still has not build a major star. Don't misunderstand- Roode and Aries are doing a good job at the top of TNA- but that doesnt make them stars. Apart from the TNA fan base- no one knows who they are. No One. You can't say the same about Cena or HHH or Undertaker.

No dispute from me that the Styles - Dixie payoff/story was very poor, that said I think it allowed Daniels and Kazarian to shine so there is a silver lining in that turd. I doubt there has every been a wrestling company that hasn't got a few dud storylines on the go as well, as long as it's not the main focus of the show it's okay to have one or two poor ones running side by side with the good ones.

I honestly don't think Brooke has been so bad so far, she's a reverse Karen Jarrett and is rarely on TV so I wouldn't really use that as a stick to beat TNA with. If they start giving her loads of TV time, turn her into a Stephanie McMahon character and make her a focal point of main event storylines I'll come back to this, for now she's fine.

With Bischoff, they tried him out and have depushed him since then. Sure they shouldn't have pushed him so hard initially as he's too green, but they have at least had the sense to scale that back when they saw he wasn't getting a reaction.

 

[Fansince1992]

I'm a Pure WWE fan have been for 20 years. While WWE is still entertaining in the present day i would like to see it get better. TNA is slowly but surely rising. I Hope it continues. Can't see TNA competing with WWE for fanbase anytime soon, but if TNA continues to improve, both Companies can improve together. Would love to see some more Wrestling Wars like WWE and WCW had back in the day.

Seems like Austin Aries is a really loved guy at the moment by a lot of Wrestling fans. Beating Roode for the belt has sparked a lot of talk about him. Great move by TNA in my opinion, Aries deserves to be on top, lets see if he can become a good champion now, i think he will.

I know it will never happen but each year wouldn't it be great for the whole industry if the Champion from TNA faced the Champion from WWE. The belts could stay in thier respective companies but 1 champion could be labelled the undisputed Champion of Wrestling. This however could degrade the losing Champs title, but imagine a Punk vs Aries match, that would be summat i'd like to see.

 

[BigLuther]

They have been great this year. I hadn't watched TNA in about a year because last year it was so terrible and repetitive. Especially since going live, I have preferred watching it over WWE. Bobby Roode has really embraced his role as a top guy and it is really cool to see how he has changed since winning the world title. They've been using their young talent and their legends in all the right ways and it has been great to watch. That being said, I do think there are a couple areas they could improve on.

Firstly, I think the Knockouts Division has gotten stale. That used to be one of the best parts of the show when the BP was around and Madison was on top also. Now, it seems like they only have 4 girls and is almost comparable to WWE's weak women's division. I'd like to see them do what they're doing to the X Division now and bring in some brand new talent to help spice things up with the Knockouts.

Same thing goes for the tag team division. They used to have real, meaningful feuds over the belts (MGMT vs. Beer Money comes to mind) but they seem to have disappeared from any real importance jumping back and forth between random, thrown together teams. I know Daniels and Kazarian are still involved with AJ and may not be able to get into another angle for at least another month or so, but hopefully they can get some real teams established again to make the titles seem important again.

 

[MisterRob]

TNA certainly have not gotten it SO right in 2012.

For all the good TNA has done this year; good things such as Robert Roode's development and championship reign, James Storm becoming is own star, the World title becoming more interesting, Austin Aries having a breakout year, there's so many other things they've done poorly.

- The Knockouts division is forgettable now and seems to be just a prop for Brooke Hogan to be on television every week.

- Garrett Bischoff has had a greater push and more spotlight then a ton of far more deserving guys on the roster. 90% of the roster, in fact. Garrett Bischoff should not even be on television, let alone having such a prominent role over the time he's been there.

- Eric Young is one half of the Knockouts tag team champions.

- The Television championship is still forgettable, a wasted title that has had champions like Robbie E. and Devon. They've done nothing to bring that title more prestige or make it mean more over the course of 2012, it's still in the poor state it was before this year.

- The Tag team division is worse: They went from a good tag team division that was at least promising in it's teams, which was competitive and admired by the fans, to a division that's now short on teams and competition, that has basically been forgotten. Good job? Nope.

- The X division, minus Aries now, has just gone right back to the poor state it was before Aries was champion. Nothing gained and nothing improved.

So basically you have one good championship in the World title, but every other championship is either in the same poor state it was or WORSE then it was last year. Not to mention you have some bad storylines, you have Garrett Bischoff and Brooke Hogan. The ratings haven't changed or improved, either. So no, I really think the OP is wearing some rose colored glasses when he says TNA has done such a good job in 2012.

 

[sfury2005]

Brother, I think you may be marking out. TNA may have made some good decisions this year, but they have also made a lot of God awful decisions. Case in point- a storyline between Styles and Dixie. This is pure shit as neither of them are any good on the mic, and soap opera love angles don't appeal to the majority of wrestling fans. Its dull. TNA generally runs awful storylines. You can't deny it. They use Garrett Bischoff and Brooke Hogan as on screen characters-it worse if they also use them as behind the scenes advisors. Finally TNA still has not build a major star. Don't misunderstand- Roode and Aries are doing a good job at the top of TNA- but that doesnt make them stars. Apart from the TNA fan base- no one knows who they are. No One. You can't say the same about Cena or HHH or Undertaker.

I don't care what show you watch and in what ERA you watch it no promotion is perfect. I see WWE fans often calling for bringing back the Attitude ERA as if it was the best ever. I guess they don't remember the Katie Vick storyline about Necrophilia and should we forget Mark Henry having Mae Young as girlfriend and her giving birth to a hand. Of course we had the shockmaster in WCW and Cactus Jack lost in Cleveland and any angle including David Flair. I almost forgot to mention Mick Foley running around WWE talking to a stupid sock puppet.

The point is EVERY organization has their fair share of stupid storylines and many times those stupid storylines involve big stars like Kane and HHH in stories about having sex with dead people. And many times those stupid storylines happen at the same time as some really good storylines are happening.. We used to look past those stupid storylines and see the good that is going on but now when TNA is putting on some really good shows some people feel compelled to put them down over small things.

Had the actress done a better job acting in the Styles/Dixie angle it may have been viewed differently and it has really gotten good heat for Kaz and Daniels so the storyline has worked even though it was poorly executed.

 

[IT Factor]

There's not much to add here. TNA has done alot of things well this past year. They've put more focus on making their own stars World Champions, done a great job bringing back the X-Division, and have overall done better switching back live. There are some things they do wrong, obviously. The only area I see where TNA needs to improve on is defining the TV Title & Tag Team divisions. Once they do that, their shows will be so much more stacked quality-wise that WWE wouldn't be able to touch their in-ring stuff.

 

[Pera]

The Prichard era has been excellent so far. If only they had gotten rid of Russo earlier. They have come on in leaps and bounds since he left and the company is really starting to blossom. Unfortunately, being unanimously regarded as the better company in the USA at the moment by the IWC doesnt make the ratings any better. I really hope they start pulling some surprising ratings to reflect how good of an era this has been for TNA.

As a long time fan since the beginning, like a dad, I can say I'm very proud of everyone at the company, and I'm sure greater success and fame is right around the corner if they can remain consistent. Atta boy, TNA!

 

[Zeven_Zion]

The Prichard era has been excellent so far. If only they had gotten rid of Russo earlier. They have come on in leaps and bounds since he left and the company is really starting to blossom. Unfortunately, being unanimously regarded as the better company in the USA at the moment by the IWC doesnt make the ratings any better. I really hope they start pulling some surprising ratings to reflect how good of an era this has been for TNA.

As a long time fan since the beginning, like a dad, I can say I'm very proud of everyone at the company, and I'm sure greater success and fame is right around the corner if they can remain consistent. Atta boy, TNA!

At this point I have stopped caring for the shitty ratings. I find myself enjoying the product now in comparison to what they were doing before so as long as they're on the air and keep doing what they're doing now - it's all good.

And TNA didn't really "get" anything right this year. They just kept doing the same stuff they have for a while only refining it and shaping it nicely. I see progress over the last few years, quality wise, and I have no reason to believe it'll stop there.

Whether the ratings go up, down or remain the same shouldn't be a concern of ours. TNA is becoming an even greater product and as wrestling fans that's all we need at the end of the day.

The stubborn and delusional of the WWE fucks will realize it eventually, they're already starting.