Shadow of Darkness
Occasional Pre-Show
First of all sorry for the Long thread...but i had cover all the points...
In March 2011, TNA decided to start pushing younger talent and go in a more wrestling-oriented direction after the Victory Road Incident basically destroyed Immortal as a credible threat.
It was around that point when the push of Bobby Roode to the main event began and it was also around that point when Bully Ray powerbombed AJ Styles off a table, starting the Bully Ray VS AJ Styles feud that made Bully Ray a star. Roode defeated Ric Flair with a Fujiwara armbar in the Lethal Lockdown match. Meanwhile, Abyss won the X-Division Title to set up the Destination X all-X Division show. TNA redesigned their set and rebranded the show to Impact Wrestling, starting the "Wrestling Matters" campaign. The summer of 2011 was defined by the first Bound for Glory Series, where Roode and Storm became main eventers and by Austin Aries winning a contract at Destination X.
The transition was gradual and seamless to the point that most online fans didn't notice it at the time and continued with criticisms of TNA that were no longer valid for many months. On the day of Bound for Glory, the long-term plans were changed, as Bobby Roode lost to Kurt Angle in the main event after Hogan had given a cryptic interview earlier in the week about Roode not being ready to be champion. Apparently, Hogan and (probably) Pritchard changed Vince Russo's plans for Roode as the face champion (reminiscent of 1996 Shawn Michaels or 2004 Benoit) and Storm as the heel. Other than that, Russo's plans for Bound for Glory happened, including the obnoxious "Mary Sue" character of Velvet Sky finally winning the Knockouts Title in a horrible match. Then, the following Impact featured 7 minutes of wrestling and the Internet claimed that nothing had changed in TNA. But, on that show James Storm won the World Title in record time and Gail Kim debuted, signaling a new direction for the Knockouts and ending Velvet Sky's nightmarish reign before it even started. The tag division was also quickly reset as Mexican America dropped the belts to Crimson and Morgan and disappeared pretty much permanently from Impact.
The changes were already evident shortly after BFG if you knew where to look. But, it would take time for people to realize that TNA had changed for real. It really should have been apparent to everybody that this was a different TNA after Jeff Hardy failed to beat Roode for the title, which was a sign that TNA now prefers building for the long-term to a short-term ratings pop.
People say this wsa what Paul Heyman wanted to bring in TNA. Still, this is not Paul Heyman's plan for TNA. Instead of firing most of the roster, TNA kept most of the existing roster and just pushed the right guys on top. Instead of hiring a WWE reject who lost every match he ever had in WWE and having him squash the entire roster (Back then Heyman's plan involved signing Daniel Bryan, who was at that time fresh off losing every match on NXT and getting fired for choking an announcer with a tie and having him immediately beat everybody by submission in squash matches, offcourse Daniel Bryan is a big name now...but he was a mere jobber during that time), TNA pushed their homegrown talent as top stars. As much as I like Daniel Bryan (by the way, it was Gabe Sapolsky who said that Heyman wanted Bryan to squash the whole roster) and as much as I respect Heyman's past work as a booker, he would have been an awful choice to run TNA. Completely throwing out the roster and starting from scratch would have been a bad idea, especially given just how There was no need to throw out the entire roster and start from scratch. The success of the rebranding and the new creative team has proven just that.
Impact went from being a show that was trying to recreate the Attitude Era to a show reminiscent of early 2000s Smackdown, which fits the roster better. Vince Russo's style of booking was pretty much the only style that could have gotten a good show out of the WWF roster in 1998 and 1999, but it was out of place in TNA even if it was better for TV ratings. Pritchard and Lagana's style is perfect for early 2010s TNA just like Russo's style was perfect for late 1990s WWF and that is why Impact is so good right now. Pritchard and Lagana didn't really change the direction of TNA that much as the company was already largely heading in that direction before they came around, but the changes they did make have been mostly for the better.
One more thing... people bash Bischoff for pushing established stars, but it was Bischoff only who pushed GOLDBERG and DDP, two of the Biggest Home-grown stars of WCW. Bischoff was the man who managed the TNA Board of Members to fire Russo, and promote Prichard and sign Lagana. He is a genius when he has wrestling people around him (not Russo).
So, what do u people say...
In March 2011, TNA decided to start pushing younger talent and go in a more wrestling-oriented direction after the Victory Road Incident basically destroyed Immortal as a credible threat.

It was around that point when the push of Bobby Roode to the main event began and it was also around that point when Bully Ray powerbombed AJ Styles off a table, starting the Bully Ray VS AJ Styles feud that made Bully Ray a star. Roode defeated Ric Flair with a Fujiwara armbar in the Lethal Lockdown match. Meanwhile, Abyss won the X-Division Title to set up the Destination X all-X Division show. TNA redesigned their set and rebranded the show to Impact Wrestling, starting the "Wrestling Matters" campaign. The summer of 2011 was defined by the first Bound for Glory Series, where Roode and Storm became main eventers and by Austin Aries winning a contract at Destination X.
The transition was gradual and seamless to the point that most online fans didn't notice it at the time and continued with criticisms of TNA that were no longer valid for many months. On the day of Bound for Glory, the long-term plans were changed, as Bobby Roode lost to Kurt Angle in the main event after Hogan had given a cryptic interview earlier in the week about Roode not being ready to be champion. Apparently, Hogan and (probably) Pritchard changed Vince Russo's plans for Roode as the face champion (reminiscent of 1996 Shawn Michaels or 2004 Benoit) and Storm as the heel. Other than that, Russo's plans for Bound for Glory happened, including the obnoxious "Mary Sue" character of Velvet Sky finally winning the Knockouts Title in a horrible match. Then, the following Impact featured 7 minutes of wrestling and the Internet claimed that nothing had changed in TNA. But, on that show James Storm won the World Title in record time and Gail Kim debuted, signaling a new direction for the Knockouts and ending Velvet Sky's nightmarish reign before it even started. The tag division was also quickly reset as Mexican America dropped the belts to Crimson and Morgan and disappeared pretty much permanently from Impact.
The changes were already evident shortly after BFG if you knew where to look. But, it would take time for people to realize that TNA had changed for real. It really should have been apparent to everybody that this was a different TNA after Jeff Hardy failed to beat Roode for the title, which was a sign that TNA now prefers building for the long-term to a short-term ratings pop.
People say this wsa what Paul Heyman wanted to bring in TNA. Still, this is not Paul Heyman's plan for TNA. Instead of firing most of the roster, TNA kept most of the existing roster and just pushed the right guys on top. Instead of hiring a WWE reject who lost every match he ever had in WWE and having him squash the entire roster (Back then Heyman's plan involved signing Daniel Bryan, who was at that time fresh off losing every match on NXT and getting fired for choking an announcer with a tie and having him immediately beat everybody by submission in squash matches, offcourse Daniel Bryan is a big name now...but he was a mere jobber during that time), TNA pushed their homegrown talent as top stars. As much as I like Daniel Bryan (by the way, it was Gabe Sapolsky who said that Heyman wanted Bryan to squash the whole roster) and as much as I respect Heyman's past work as a booker, he would have been an awful choice to run TNA. Completely throwing out the roster and starting from scratch would have been a bad idea, especially given just how There was no need to throw out the entire roster and start from scratch. The success of the rebranding and the new creative team has proven just that.
Impact went from being a show that was trying to recreate the Attitude Era to a show reminiscent of early 2000s Smackdown, which fits the roster better. Vince Russo's style of booking was pretty much the only style that could have gotten a good show out of the WWF roster in 1998 and 1999, but it was out of place in TNA even if it was better for TV ratings. Pritchard and Lagana's style is perfect for early 2010s TNA just like Russo's style was perfect for late 1990s WWF and that is why Impact is so good right now. Pritchard and Lagana didn't really change the direction of TNA that much as the company was already largely heading in that direction before they came around, but the changes they did make have been mostly for the better.
One more thing... people bash Bischoff for pushing established stars, but it was Bischoff only who pushed GOLDBERG and DDP, two of the Biggest Home-grown stars of WCW. Bischoff was the man who managed the TNA Board of Members to fire Russo, and promote Prichard and sign Lagana. He is a genius when he has wrestling people around him (not Russo).
So, what do u people say...
