Is TNA's Current Roster One of the Best in the Last Decade of Pro Wrestling?

[TheMainEvent]

I been looking at TNA's current product and roster and have really come to the conclusion that the current lineup of guys they have is quite possibly one of the best rosters in pro wrestling in the last decade or so. Please note that Im mainly basing it on potential and not actual current star power. However with guys like Roode, Storm, Styles, Joe, Magnus, Angle, Hardy, Anderson, Aries, Bully Ray, Morgan, MCMG, etc there is something for all wrestling fans and if done correctly this crew could really ignite a new era of wrestling similiar to the Attitude Era once did with Austin, Rock, Triple H, Big Show, Taker, Kane, Mankind, Jericho etc... Hell alot of the current TNA guys are simliar to those stars in some aspects...

Storm - Austin, Aries - Jericho, Roode - Triple H, Morgan - Big Show, AJ - Angle, MCMG - DX, etc... I know that is a bit of a stretch to some extent and they dont have the star power as their counterparts but the potential is there. One guy I really like is Magnus and after watching is promos and in ring work I can honestly say, and please dont flame too hard, that he reminds me of The Rock at his early stages. I honestly believe that given some solid feuds with guys like Roode and Storm that if the storylines are done serious and correct that Magnus can become TNAs top star. MCMG I also see as a top face duo that are serious in the ring but can be the jackasses like DX and/or Edge and Christian that get a great crowd reaction.

Add in guys like Bully Ray, Angle, and Hardy who are all veterans and that roster is pretty stacked. I havent even mentioned the Knockouts either...The potential is ENDLESS I just wish they would cleanup the storylines and nonsense comedy shit. Overall though TNAs roster is very indepth and could really flourish... I see more potential in that roster than the stale WWE setup with Cena, Orton, Punk, Kofi, Miz, Rhodes, Ziggler, etc... although its probably just my overly wishful thinking.....

 

[BetterThenU!!!]

Have to agree with you TNAs roster potential wise is one of the best ever as a neutral fan tyou have have to admit the main event scene is awesome and the x division needs to beef up im liking what they are doing with the knockouts division and the tag team division is about to receive the MCMG who with Joe/Magnus can possibly do wonders

however as good as the roster is TNA needs so work on their Creative department and they could be golden

 

[Skinsley]

I was about to kick off at the utter comedy of this thread......and then looked at your post.
And when it comes to sheer wrestling talent....yes its a pretty damn good roster.
However they will never fulfil their true potential in just TNA...and thats not being a WWEfanboy its me being serious.

Roode, Aries, MCMG etc would all be really entertaining in WWE if they were given the chance and werent buried or destroyed by WWE creative before they could get the ball rolling.

 

[Madeye36]

I'm not disagreeing but at 1 time WCW had the greatest roster of all time. At least in terms of star power but creative ruined that. Hopefully TNA is headed in the right direction because I'll watch the product for the in-ring action but end up turning the station when they start showing some dumb storyline or dumb comedy skit.

 

[crippler]

As good of a roster TNA has the need to beef up there creative work to be real competition for WWE. Also TNA needs to keep Hogan off camera or cut ties with him TNA was way better before Hogan joined and made it all about him and Bishoff. I stopped watching TNA after the Immortal thing started and they had too many Hogan segments. If they keep the camera off Hogan TNA could be worth watching again.

 

[Rayne]

TNA/IW's been pulling in a weekly 0.9-1.1 with this "best roster of all time". That's down from where they were holding steady last year at a 1.2. If we're going to talk about what matters in a business, bringing home money, this TNA/IW roster sucks.

If we want to talk about all time great professional wrestling rosters, with people that are talented in the art of doing flips and convincing headlocks, what about ECW circa '92-'94, which featured many wrestlers who went on to be multi-time world champions? (We all should know the list by now.) What about PWG '03-'04, which in addition to almost everyone you listed from TNA/IW under the age of 35, also featured CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Homicide when he didn't suck, Chris Hero, Colt Cabana, a whole bunch of TNA/IW people you didn't mention, etc.?

If this is a "best ever" roster, then professional wrestling is dead as a televised art form, and we're just old men fumbling around a cemetery waiting to pass on.

 

[yoshi_doce2006]

It pails to Crockette Promotion's Carolina Based NWA from 86-89. That roster if it had an advertising group behind it that knew what it was doing would have taken Vince to the cleaner.

Horsemen, Road Warriors, Magnum TA, Rock n Roll Express, Luger, Sting, Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Nakita Koloff, Barry Wendham, and so on. That was the greatest top to bottom lineup in wrestling history from man 1 to 40. TNA may be better than todays WWE top to bottom but they can't match the old Carolina Territory.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

To even compare TNA's current roster with the WWE's attitude era roster is straight up asinine. That AE roster was so talented and filled with main eventers that it will be hard to top by anyone, much less TNA right now. TNA has a few good things going right now. I'll give them that. But to call this roster one of the best ever is just plain stupid. WWE's current roster is superior in every way, and WWE's roster isn't even that strong right now. All I need to say is Cena, Orton, and Punk. Call them stale or whatever, but nobody in TNA can touch their popularity or their resumes. Throw in Undertaker, Kane, Big Show, The Rock (he counts for now), HHH etc and it's no contest. So no TNA doesn't even have the best roster right now, much less one of the best of all time. Just a TNA fanboy trying to tell himself it will get better. Thanks for the giggle for comparing James Storm to Austin and Bobby Roode to HHH though. That was hilarious!

 

[ABMorales787]

You mean to tell me there's a notable difference between today's roster in TNA and the one from say... 2008 or 2009?

Trade Booker T and Kevin Nash for Hardy and Anderson, add Ric Flair and Hogan and well, that's about as far as you go. At the end of the day, the MO is the same. The Fortune guys are all over the card as they were far before they were a faction, Samoa Joe is in turmoil as he has since 2008, Morgan is the same, as is EY.

The only thing that's really changed is the characterization. Over time, we've come to know the likes of James Storm, AJ Styles, Roode and Bully Ray and so on. The roster is the same. We've just come to know it better over time.

 

[WorldHeavyweightChampion]

In the mid-late 80's the NWA-JCP roster had the following:

SINGLES:
Sting
Ric Flair
Lex Luger
Harley Race
Ricky Steamboat
Barry Windham
Magnum T.A.
Nikita Koloff
Stan Hansen
Brian Pillman
Dusty Rhoades
Paul Orndorff
JYD
The Great Muta
Big Van Vader
Steve Williams
Terry Gordy
Mike Rotunda
Kevin Sullivan
Buddy Landell
Steven Regal
Sam Houston
Buzz Sawyer
Eddie Gilbert
Ronnie Garvin
Tommy Rich
Terry Funk
Ranger Ross
Dutch Mantel
Cactus Jack
Adbulah the Butcher
The Shiek
Kerry VonErich
Thunderbolt Patterson
Kendall Windham
Scott Hall/Diamond Studd
Al Perez
Bubba Rogers
El Gigante
Nitron
Jimmy Valiant
Larry Zybysco

TAG-TEAMS:
Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott)
Roadwarriors (Hawk & Animal w/ Paul Ellering)
Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed w/ Teddy Long)
Midnight Express (Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton w/ Jim Cornette)
Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)
Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin)
Skyscrapers (Mark Calloway & Sid Vicious/Danny Spivey)
Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard/Ole Anderson w/ J.J. Dillon)
Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu)
Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk
Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose w/ Paul E. Dangerously)
Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas & Johnny Ace)
State Patrol (Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker & Lt. James Earl Wright)
Rick Rude & Manny Fernandez
Mr. Wrestling I & Mr. Wrestling II
Master Blasters (Al Green & Kevin Nash)
The Fantastics

ANNOUNCE TEAM:
Gordon Solie
Jim Ross
Tony Schiavone
David Crockett
Bob Caudell
Chris Cruise
Jim Cornette
Paul E. Dangerously
Missy Hyatt

This is a who's-who of the business. THIS is the greatest line-up EVER in the history of Pro-Wrestling. No other roster compares. Not the WWWF/WWF/WWE, TNA, AWA, ECW, WCCW, USWA, NJPW, AJPW, AAA, UWF, etc....

 

[New Hot Fed]

It seriously lacks as far as star power and you have the same 4 X Division wrestlers wrestling over and over.

TNA is a pimple on WCW 1998's ass as far as deep roster. WCW 1998 probably had the best roster in the History of Wrestling. TNA is not close as that. Plus most of their stars are too old.

 

[TheWrestlo]

TNAs roster is great right now but the X and tag team divisions need work, since the MCMGs are out right now, make another X divison tag team my thought would be Anthony nese and Mark Haskins, since nethier of the 2 are being givin big oppertunites right now, and for the X divison, bring back sonjay dutt, low ki, and Jay lethal and also ik hes on break right now but give Shannon Moore a better oppertunity, I thought it was total BS when Ink Inc. didnt win the tag titles and shannon should ahve been X divison champ a long time ago

 

[3:16]

Hmmmm i will say that TNA roster has potential and that they try to put on quality shows with the roster that they have. Not really stacked though like WWE. Maybe with a bigger budget and better writers and more talent they can actually put on shows that compete with WWE

 

[kor420]

To the OP:
YES, TNA roster is leap and bounds better then any promotion right now including the wwe roster.

To the Rest of you:

How stupid are some of you? Do any of you know what a decade is? a decade is TEN YEARS, (ie. From 2000 - 2010 is a decade) Not mid 80s-2012. Here you guys are mentioning mid 80s NWA roster, WCW roster like it's even relevant to this topic! If he would of said that TNA has the best roster in the last century, then yes it would of been okay to bring up mid 80s rosters..

You guys ruining his topic because you don't know the difference between a decade and a century.

 

[yoshi_doce2006]

In the mid-late 80's the NWA-JCP roster had the following:

SINGLES:
Sting
Ric Flair
Lex Luger
Harley Race
Ricky Steamboat
Barry Windham
Magnum T.A.
Nikita Koloff
Stan Hansen
Brian Pillman
Dusty Rhoades
Paul Orndorff
JYD
The Great Muta
Big Van Vader
Steve Williams
Terry Gordy
Mike Rotunda
Kevin Sullivan
Buddy Landell
Steven Regal
Sam Houston
Buzz Sawyer
Eddie Gilbert
Ronnie Garvin
Tommy Rich
Terry Funk
Ranger Ross
Dutch Mantel
Cactus Jack
Adbulah the Butcher
The Shiek
Kerry VonErich
Thunderbolt Patterson
Kendall Windham
Scott Hall/Diamond Studd
Al Perez
Bubba Rogers
El Gigante
Nitron
Jimmy Valiant
Larry Zybysco

TAG-TEAMS:
Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott)
Roadwarriors (Hawk & Animal w/ Paul Ellering)
Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed w/ Teddy Long)
Midnight Express (Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton w/ Jim Cornette)
Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)
Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin)
Skyscrapers (Mark Calloway & Sid Vicious/Danny Spivey)
Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard/Ole Anderson w/ J.J. Dillon)
Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu)
Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk
Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose w/ Paul E. Dangerously)
Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas & Johnny Ace)
State Patrol (Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker & Lt. James Earl Wright)
Rick Rude & Manny Fernandez
Mr. Wrestling I & Mr. Wrestling II
Master Blasters (Al Green & Kevin Nash)
The Fantastics

ANNOUNCE TEAM:
Gordon Solie
Jim Ross
Tony Schiavone
David Crockett
Bob Caudell
Chris Cruise
Jim Cornette
Paul E. Dangerously
Missy Hyatt

This is a who's-who of the business. THIS is the greatest line-up EVER in the history of Pro-Wrestling. No other roster compares. Not the WWWF/WWF/WWE, TNA, AWA, ECW, WCCW, USWA, NJPW, AJPW, AAA, UWF, etc....

Absolutely agree. It still rattles the brain how incompetent management had to be to lose that war with Vince. Ric Flair said it best, if Vince McMahon had the Horsemen and let them peak like crockette did the WWF would have pulled 80,000 people a show. If McMahon had that roster there would be no Monday Night Wars because Vince could have marketed those guys so badly there would have been nothing left.

 

[whoopin' ass]

to say the best of all time for the whole roster is tough because it all depends on your perspective. take the WCW roster from WorldHeavyweightChampion - really good in hindsight but were all those guys as good then as we remember them? Was Sting the Icon then? was Flair the 16 time champ? Diamond Studd was not exactly nWo Scott Hall back then. you can look back and see how good a roster was and became but you might not have known it then because they just were not there yet. we could look back and say the 2012 TNA roster was the best ever but it might take 15 years. all depends on what happens this year.

is it the best roster out there today? i think so. best over the past 15 years or so? maybe. the creative has really hurt TNA but they have some unreal talent there and i think better creative will make a huge difference. they just need to be their own company and not worry what WWE is doing. the have the potential to give wwe a real run for their money in terms of in-ring product - hopefully they will this year.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

The best roster is subjective. There is no right or wrong. Some people think that ECW had the best roster of all time.

Absolutely agree. It still rattles the brain how incompetent management had to be to lose that war with Vince. Ric Flair said it best, if Vince McMahon had the Horsemen and let them peak like crockette did the WWF would have pulled 80,000 people a show. If McMahon had that roster there would be no Monday Night Wars because Vince could have marketed those guys so badly there would have been nothing left.

That makes no sense because Vince had a lot of those guys and a lot of them got over.

They lost to Vince because Vince knew how to showcase somebody and the NWA didn't. They stuck to their Southern roots for too long. Plus Vince took a huge chance with Wrestlemania that turned into gold for the WWF.

The WWF had a pretty stacked roster itself in the late 80's early 90's.

 

[New Hot Fed]

To the OP:
YES, TNA roster is leap and bounds better then any promotion right now including the wwe roster.

To the Rest of you:

How stupid are some of you? Do any of you know what a decade is? a decade is TEN YEARS, (ie. From 2000 - 2010 is a decade) Not mid 80s-2012. Here you guys are mentioning mid 80s NWA roster, WCW roster like it's even relevant to this topic! If he would of said that TNA has the best roster in the last century, then yes it would of been okay to bring up mid 80s rosters..

You guys ruining his topic because you don't know the difference between a decade and a century.

TNA uses a small roster because they don't have the money to pay the wrestlers. They have the same X Division wrestlers over and over and they have one tag team right now. You call that a deep roster?

 

[d3thRoW]

I can't agree with calling this TNA roster one of the best ever, not even top 5. Those that have been named already in this thread are ridiculously stacked with real stars that filled arenas and sold ppvs. On paper yeah, there are a lot of good guys there with in-ring talent and certainly potential for them to do big things. Obviously the creative mistakes have been holding back what might have been, before hogan/bischoff I think there was reason to believe...nothing they have done since really gives me hope. I am glad you are optimistic about it, and I hope you are right and they have a break out year...I'll be over here holding my breath on that one.

 

[Rayne]

To the OP:
YES, TNA roster is leap and bounds better then any promotion right now including the wwe roster.

To the Rest of you:

How stupid are some of you? Do any of you know what a decade is? a decade is TEN YEARS, (ie. From 2000 - 2010 is a decade) Not mid 80s-2012. Here you guys are mentioning mid 80s NWA roster, WCW roster like it's even relevant to this topic! If he would of said that TNA has the best roster in the last century, then yes it would of been okay to bring up mid 80s rosters..

You guys ruining his topic because you don't know the difference between a decade and a century.

You mean, a guy headlined a thread "one of the best ever", buried a reference to the past decade, once, in the middle of his post, and people responded to the headline?

Free writing tip, Horace Greeley: when you try to communicate something, and the audience thinks you mean something entirely different, it's not the audience's fault. It's a failure of the author to communicate his point properly to his audience. If he was looking for a discussion about the past decade, asking if the TNA/IW roster was a best ever roster in his thread title was the wrong way to go about that.

Now, on that note, did you have anything to support your opinion that TNA/IW is a best roster of the past decade? I believe I did mention the PWG roster of '03-'04, which does fall within the past ten years.

 

[H.A.M]

You mean, a guy headlined a thread "one of the best ever", buried a reference to the past decade, once, in the middle of his post, and people responded to the headline?

Free writing tip, Horace Greeley: when you try to communicate something, and the audience thinks you mean something entirely different, it's not the audience's fault. It's a failure of the author to communicate his point properly to his audience. If he was looking for a discussion about the past decade, asking if the TNA/IW roster was a best ever roster in his thread title was the wrong way to go about that.

Now, on that note, did you have anything to support your opinion that TNA/IW is a best roster of the past decade? I believe I did mention the PWG roster of '03-'04, which does fall within the past ten years.

It would probably help if you read the title of the thread. Just sayin'.

While I am more of a WWE fan, I agree that TNA's current roster has more potential to be one of the best rosters in the last decade.

I don't quite think they are there yet, but I do believe over time, all the characters will develop into something great. As long as IW stays consistent and doesn't build stars up just to drop the ball on them, I'm sure we will see some great wrestling and entertainment from their stars.

 

[Rayne]

It would probably help if you read the title of the thread. Just sayin'.

While I am more of a WWE fan, I agree that TNA's current roster has more potential to be one of the best rosters in the last decade.

I don't quite think they are there yet, but I do believe over time, all the characters will develop into something great. As long as IW stays consistent and doesn't build stars up just to drop the ball on them, I'm sure we will see some great wrestling and entertainment from their stars.

The thread title was changed from between when I made my post and when you made yours. Just sayin'. The clarification is helpful, because it excludes most of the better periods in professional wrestling, leaving us a choice of "in a declining era of professional wrestling, which promotion sucked least?"

If we're going for a raw assemblage of talent, I'd say the WWF roster immediately after the closure of WCW. Many of WCW's top guys, on top of what was one of the best WWF rosters of all times. The fact that the "Invasion" storyline sucked horribly doesn't take away from how many people were working for the WWF at that time.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

No. WWEs right now is better.

Let's see, a bunch of has beens who are shells of their former self and a bunch of flippers who are too pissed off at the vets who hold them down to listen to them when they say "no Alex, doing 100 moves in 2 seconds isn't really that impressive, sell and tell a story with your selling and moves instead".

ROH in the mid 2000s was more impressive, more organic, and booker better. CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Low Ki (motivated Ki, not bitch "I don't wanna lose and I think it's real" Ki), Homicide at his height, the Embassy, Aries/Strong (used best as a tag team to hide their weaknesses of not ever selling), Briscoes, Bryan Danielson, James Gibson, Delirious, the NOAH guys like KENTA, Marufuji, and Morishima, Nigel, Claudio, Hero and the CZW feud. IMO that blows TNA out of the water. Also the ROH roster was a roster build around what the audience wanted to see. TNA's roster is built around what the markish booking wants to see and what a few "10 percenters" want to see. Which is ******ed if you're trying to put on a mainstream show.

TNA is like if you had Ozzie Smith, Roberto Alamar, Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Pudge Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Randy Johnson on the same team......now, at their current age. Then your subs are a bunch of 25 year old prospects who are getting close to the end of the time period where you expect them to get better and haven't ever admitted that they need to learn to hit a curveball. It'd be a pretty damn shitty position to be in honestly.

 

[blkshp]

The best roster in the last decade? No, not even close. The poster before put out the once truly kick ass lineup ROH had. And if we're talking a decade, that means we go back to 2002, and there's NO WAY TNA's current lineup could match up the WWE '02's roster.
Honestly, I watch both TNA and WWE, and while its obvious the overall talent level and polish of today's wrestlers don't match up to the talent in the glory years of this business, I can't say TNA's roster is clearly better the today's WWE roster. I like Roode, Storm, the MCMG and Aries, and feel like they are the cream of TNA's crop (along with Angle), but as a whole I don't think the rest of roster (Hardy, Anderson Bully, AJ, Daniels, Morgan, Joe, Magnus, Devon, Pope, etc) has already peaked, or never will. If they had this fabled "best roster in the last decade", then I think they would be pulling in more than 3-6 thousand ppl at their biggest PPV.
To be honest (and I know I'm going to hear it from TNA's hardcore fans) I don't see this roster as being any better the WWE's current roster. TNA fans and the op want to say Cena, Punk and Orton are stale, but they are arguably the 3 biggest names, in their prime, in the business today. Plus guys like Sheamus, Ziggler, Barrett, Del Rio, Bryan, Miz, Rhodes, Kofi and Ryder haven't peaked yet (and yes there's a chance they may never reach that peak either. So I'd have to say imo, no TNA's current roster is not the best in the last decade.

 

[PowerHouse]

This is a joke!!!!! TNA having the best roster line up in decades what the hell are some of you smoking???? The TNA roster is loaded with POTENTIAL but they have no star power at all. Anderson is not a star he hasnt brought them a shred of ratings. Hardy for all his accolades hasnt done a damn thing to help TNA compete. To make things worse TNA buries the talent that got them where they are today. They shit on AJ Styles they barely use Samoa Joe and now are wasting him in a tag team. They still have yet to give Morgan a title run even thought he is the best big man they have besides Joe. Their angles and storylines are just piss poor!!!!!! For a place that says its about the wrestling their matches havent gotten better they have gotten worse. I actually enjoy the matches in WWE far more. The idea of the X division is great but the way they implement it to me is the reason it hasnt taken off. TNA has things going for them years ago with the X Division cause they put on matches you couldnt see anywhere else. Now you dont see that and the X division is just another Cruiserweight division with a different name. TNA needs some major changes to happen one is getting rid of Hogan and Bischoff for good and for real. Another is concentrating on putting on great matches and having the storylines come second. Lastly they need to stop pushing to the moon all the WWE rejects like Bully Ray,Anderson,Hardy,Angle,Devon and whoever else is there.