In Your Opinion, What Was The Best TNA Era?

[BigBombB]

In my recent thread I laid out why TNA seems to be in a better spot than it has been in years and with smart partnerships they could easily step back into prominence with a completely renewed roster. Now that TNA is in an up-swing product wise, I think its a good time to look over their history and think about when it was at it's best!

Was it when Samoa Joe was an undefeated monster battling the top young star of the company AJ Styles?

Was it when they first started, with Low Ki, Jerry Lynn, and AJ Styles giving their all to first establish the X-Division?

Was it when Monty Brown was starting to become a major player in the organization only to never quite reach the promised land?

Was it when Christian debuted and put on some of the most entertaining performances of his career?

Was it when Kurt Angle debuted and entered into a seemingly endless feud with Samoa Joe?

Was it when Bully Ray reinvented himself as the top heel in wrestling and won the TNA Heavyweight Championship, revealing himself as the leader of Aces & Eights?

Was it when the Main Event Mafia was at it's peak, with the tease of a Sting heel turn?

Was it when Jeff Hardy turned heel and shocked the wrestling world?

Was it when Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns made tag team wrestling relevant again?

Was it when Raven finally became Heavyweight Champion and TNA ushered in a new era?

I'm sure I'm skipping over tons of awesome stuff so let the debate begin! When was TNA at it's best?

 

[lil steroid meat]

07 - October 09. Up until when Hogan was to start being involved in the company.

It was an alternative at that time. Right now it's just WWE Lite. Although things after Lockdown seem very promising with no more Dixieland, Kenny King and Jeff Hardy being repackaged, and new talent coming in.

All they need now is a new color scheme, go back to six sides, and for goodness sakes stop taping 5 weeks of shows at a time. Go live, tape a show that same night. Then air the taped show next week. Then the week after that, go live and tape, and repeat. Basically do four hour episodes for your live events every other week, but only air them two hours at a time.

 

[jeffrey9800]

I was reading your post and got bored.

I don't understand how you would know the different era's of TNA, the product is awful, most of the wrestlers there are not good.

A couple of years ago, I stayed with this girl, she was awesome the first 2 weeks, I stayed with her for 2 years, expecting her to go back to being awesome, she never did.

Kicked her out,

TNA is that ex-girlfriend to me, I'll never go back. 2 painful to think that something with great potential, let's me down. I never make the same mistake twice.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't really consider those eras. Those are just things that happened in TNA for the most part. Obviously you have the Hogan Era, then at a push maybe you could say the Russo Era. Asylum Era? Maybe, I dunno. I don't care really.

I enjoyed them few weeks when TNA were waiting for Hogan to arrive and they were on cruise control. TNA was really good when they didn't bother with their bullshit storytelling and just had guys wrestling. I was also a TNA fan before Russo returned and, oddly, before Angle came to TNA. If you ignored their main events, TNA was a really good promotion from 2005-2006 and intermittently thereafter.

 

[Headman]

In my opinion TNA has two eras. The old ppv era before they were on tv and the current one. TNA is far too knee-jerkish in their booking to define a new era over simple creative or talent related incidents.

 

[Stinger]

My favorite time period for TNA was probably the first year when I watched it from October 2008-December 2009 (though I briefly stopped watching during the summer that year, but Nigel McGuinness/Desmond Wolfe's debut renewed my interest). I actually really liked the first year of Hulk Hogan being in TNA, but by January 2011 that whole Immortal thing got pretty old for me.

Also, I'd say that TNA from May 2012-October 2012 was top notch. I know haters are gonna hate on TNA, but during that time they were really consistently putting on some good tv shows every week in my opinion, especially after they first went live from the Impact Zone.

One of my greatest regrets as a wrestling fan is that I didn't watch TNA sooner. I really wish I had watched from around 2005-2008 when the Samoa Joe/Kurt Angle feud was at its peak, when Sting first arrived, etc. I'm a little bummed that I missed all of that as it happened.

 

[bioshock]

Don't eras' usually last longer then a year? lol TNA is how old? I don't think its even 15 years old yet, and you basically listed "10 eras", while in that time WWE has gone from "Ruthless Aggression" to the "PG era". Maybe thats just part of TNA's problem if the OP is saying they had 10 eras lol...

Not idea how to define the TNA "eras" maybe the Jerrett era, the six sided ring era, and the current WWE Lite era.

I liked the six sided ring era my self, before the WWE Lite era with Hogan started before moving to Monday nights it was getting better and better on a regular basis.

 

[BigBombB]

I realize each of the time periods I talked about don't constitute an actual "Era", I was more suggesting events that happened to help jog memories and open up debate. Suppose I should have said that in the OP.

Wikipedia lists two Eras (the Russo Era and the Hogan/Bischoff Era) but I'm not sure "Russo Era" covers that time period adequately.

I'd probably go with:

PPV Only/Fox Sports Era (June 2002 - October 2005)
TNA on Spike TV Era (October 2005 - January 2010)
Impact Wrestling Era [Hogan/Bischoff] (January 2010 - October 2013)
Restructuring Era (October 2013 - Present)

However, feel free to talk about any time period within these Eras as TNA is known more for short periods of surprisingly top-notch programs as opposed to any longterm successes.

 

[Trill Co$by]

Easily, the NWA era... when they were on PPVs every Wednesday, Xplosion on local networks every Saturday, and eventually went to Fox Sports. It was one of the best times to be a wrestling fan. You had Sports Entertainment Xtreme, The Gathering, James Mitchell & The Disciples, NWA legends wanting to bring in new light, the best tag team wrestling, the birth of the X-Division, the World X-Cup was awesome and seemed legit, AMW vs. Triple X, Double J smashing guitars over peoples heads left and right, and even the almighty six sided ring... And the production value reminded me of WCW.

It was great, and honestly, if Dixie knows what she's doing then she'll go out of her way to get someone who knows what they're doing and can get them back up there. Russo is a great start, but so would Dave Prazak [spell check] or maybe even hire Colt Cabana and let him be your head writer. I heard he used to book promotions before.

 

[TheVolFan52]

The TNA on Spike TV Era (October 2005 - January 2010) was amazing to me. I started watching TNA sometime in November or December of 05. It was cool, different, and the wrestling was great. There was several times throughout this era where the product sucked and several times when it was great. I stopped watching probably in 2011, TNA has the stench for many fans as to where they've had a bad experience with them and they don't want to go back.

 

[GameOver]

I first watched it back in 2003, they lucked out WWF at the time refused to cut a deal with our Cable Provider in Australia subsequently 2003 was the year of no WWF on Australian TV, TNA replaced all programming slots if i remember correctly. But within 9 months it was demoted due to dismal ratings and outrage from users over the lack of WWF, they managed to cut a deal and WWF was brought back

Anyway from what i got to watch it was great then, certainly different from WWF but on a ECW style size, World Cups, Groups galore, Tag Teams were awesome, storylines/gimmicks and acting were far better then anything they've produced in the past 6 years

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

2012 was by far the best year for me. Roode as the champ taking on allcomers was great, and of course the feud with Storm that they did such a good job booking IMO with the Lockdown match and then hyping Storm something fierce, as the No. 1 babyface. Then you had Bully Ray vs Aries, another fantastic feud. And of course the two feuds cross over; Aries then beating Roode for the title in one of my favourite matches ever!

You had Styles and Angle as the tag champs putting on great matches with a just formed Bad Influence. Now of course there was the Claire Lynch angle but I actually enjoyed it for its absurdity (I disliked the ending however but they had no choice).

The Bound for Glory Series was the best version of it they have done with some excellent matches and made nearly everyone in it look good. Hardy was an unpredictable choice (but IMO should not have beaten Aries)

You had the beginning of the Aces & Eights angle, which I enjoyed very much in its initial stages. Devon legitimately shocked me when he was revealed.

Joseph Park in the beginning was also a very good character.

So for me 2012 no contest.

 

[InsomniaMusic]

In my recent thread I laid out why TNA seems to be in a better spot than it has been in years and with smart partnerships they could easily step back into prominence with a completely renewed roster. Now that TNA is in an up-swing product wise, I think its a good time to look over their history and think about when it was at it's best!

Was it when Samoa Joe was an undefeated monster battling the top young star of the company AJ Styles?

Was it when they first started, with Low Ki, Jerry Lynn, and AJ Styles giving their all to first establish the X-Division?

Was it when Monty Brown was starting to become a major player in the organization only to never quite reach the promised land?

Was it when Christian debuted and put on some of the most entertaining performances of his career?

Was it when Kurt Angle debuted and entered into a seemingly endless feud with Samoa Joe?

Was it when Bully Ray reinvented himself as the top heel in wrestling and won the TNA Heavyweight Championship, revealing himself as the leader of Aces & Eights?

Was it when the Main Event Mafia was at it's peak, with the tease of a Sting heel turn?

Was it when Jeff Hardy turned heel and shocked the wrestling world?

Was it when Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns made tag team wrestling relevant again?

Was it when Raven finally became Heavyweight Champion and TNA ushered in a new era?

I'm sure I'm skipping over tons of awesome stuff so let the debate begin! When was TNA at it's best?

Don't have a favorite
Was it when Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns made tag team wrestling relevant again?

Was it when they first started, with Low Ki, Jerry Lynn, and AJ Styles giving their all to first establish the X-Division?


And back when they had a real womens division

 

[IT Factor]

I'd say the best time for TNA would be 2004 to about 2007. They had bust ass matches that were innovative and usually pretty long. Nowadays, the main event is lucky to get more than 10 minutes at most.

 

[Reflection]

I have an idea:
instead of calling them "era", since many are finding them too short to be classified as such, lets call them "saga" instead... Like in Dragonball-Z we had every saga named after a villain Here too, we can name them as such- PPV saga, X-Division saga, Jarrett saga, Tag Team saga, Main Event Mafia saga, Hogan saga, Dixie/A&8 saga, Recovery saga and so on...

My second-favourite would be the Main Event Mafia saga- a time when TNA was really interesting; the stable wars between Main Event Mafia, TNA Frontline, and later World Elite, were awesome. After that, the product quality started dropping and dropping; we had stables like 4Tune and Immortal, but they were nothing like the stables from before.

Even before the days of MEM and Angle, we had many great moments with teams like AMW, Team Canada, MCMG, Naturals, Team 3D, and my personal favourite- LAX. That period was my favourite. Jim Cornette was the GM, Samoa Joe was an undefeated powerhouse, Abyss with James Mitchell had that mystique surrounding him, Jarrett was a motherf***er that would always find a way to retain the title, we had Raven, Brother Runt, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, AJ Styles, Daniels, Senshi, Bob Backlund and many others...

 

[AnthonyM4]

Definitely 2004-2006. I believe Russo left TNA in 2004 and came back in late 2006. While he was gone TNA was a great wrestling show and was a true alternative to wwe. Before Russo came back in 2006 TNA was on a roll with Kurt Angle coming in and starting that feud with Joe. Also there were a lot of awesome X division matches in that time period. Wasn't crazy about Jarrett being a main eventer, but he and Sting had a decent feud. Loved the part in Bound For Glory 2006 when he hit Sting over the head with the guitar and Sting no sold it before finally winning the TNA title(which at the time was the NWA title). Christian coming in was a big coup for TNA at the time.

To me TNA has never been the same since late 2006. Hogan and Bischoff were supposed to fix it in 2010, but they did more harm than good.

 

[Royal12]

2012 was by far the best year for me. Roode as the champ taking on allcomers was great, and of course the feud with Storm that they did such a good job booking IMO with the Lockdown match and then hyping Storm something fierce, as the No. 1 babyface. Then you had Bully Ray vs Aries, another fantastic feud. And of course the two feuds cross over; Aries then beating Roode for the title in one of my favourite matches ever!

You had Styles and Angle as the tag champs putting on great matches with a just formed Bad Influence. Now of course there was the Claire Lynch angle but I actually enjoyed it for its absurdity (I disliked the ending however but they had no choice).

The Bound for Glory Series was the best version of it they have done with some excellent matches and made nearly everyone in it look good. Hardy was an unpredictable choice (but IMO should not have beaten Aries)

You had the beginning of the Aces & Eights angle, which I enjoyed very much in its initial stages. Devon legitimately shocked me when he was revealed.

Joseph Park in the beginning was also a very good character.

So for me 2012 no contest.

Agreed with this. 2012 was a peak year. Big arenas, great PPV:s, London was awesome.

All PPV:s were gold. Slammiversary was insane.

2012 was the real peak. So have to give cred to Bischoff for it.

It died slowly at 2013 when they only had 4 PPV:s a year.

2012 was great.

Austin Aries vs Bully Ray
Austin Aries vs Jeff Hardy - I've never heard so much crowd chant in TNA ever like in that match.

That feud was awesome.

2012 in TNA was an amazing year. Great moments.

Until Dixie Carter came in...

 

[king1836]

TNA's Glory Period was from Bound For Glory 2006 to Bound For Glory 2010. I have no fond memories of 2011. Things were getting better in 2012 until Aces & Eights arrived. Only 2 good things came out of 2013 : Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode and Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell.

So far, 2014 is looking good but they need to get a good TV deal.

 

[Reflection]

Edit: Oh fuck, I have already commented here once. Just hopefully the two posts are not contradictory, or I'll look like a fool. lol

2005-07 for me. It was the highest point for "TNA Originals" until Ex-WWE guys started coming in and taking their spots on a mass scale.

During this time, we had solid, hate-able heels like Jeff Jarrett, Team Canada, Larry Zbyszko, AMW, and James Mitchell who were fantastic at their act and never came off as forced.

Tag Team wrestling was as fantastic as ever, with teams like Team 3D, LAX, The Naturals, Styles & Daniels, and James Gang, apart from the ones mentioned earlier.

The X-Division had talented stars like Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, Senshi, Alex Shelley, Kazarian, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Johnny Devine, and Shark Boy.

The heavyweight division was not nearly as strong as 2007-09, but it was never their main strength anyway. Nevertheless, they had Samoa Joe, Abyss, Raven, Judas Messias, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, Christian and Sting.

 

[Nature Boy]

There have been lots of great periods in TNA for me.

I'd say 2005-2008 was amazing.

Kurt Angle coming to TNA, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe at what could have been their TNA peak.

But there have been masses of great stuff.

The Tag Team Division was at one point white hot and the best in any promotion anywhere on the planet!

The X-Division was at one time an amazing part of the show and really made the roster come alive.

The Main Event Mafia was a great angle, and an interesting twist on yet another nWo style group.

But there has always been lots of great stuff in TNA during its 12 years, which is why it continues to be my promotion of choice!