It becomes more like WCW every day; JWoww coming to TNA

[Bobby B]

Source: TMZ.com

JWoww Down for a Little TNA ... Wrestling

10/10/2010 8:54 PM PDT by TMZ Staff

If JWoww is looking for a fight ... JWoww is gonna get a fight -- TMZ has learned the "Jersey Shore" starlet has just signed a deal with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Sources close to the deal tell us JWoww -- real name Jenni Farley -- just signed a one-night deal to appear on Spike TV's "TNA impact!" on Thursday.

We're told JWoww doesn't have a match scheduled ... but she'll "probably be mixing it up" with a couple of Jersey Shore-alike wrestlers named Robbie E. and Cookie.

But JWoww ain't doin' the wrestling thing for free -- we're told she's pulling in a cool $15 grand for the night ... and the two sides are working out a deal to get her to come back to the show.

... and to think, Snooki didn't get a dime when she got hit on television.

Nope, not the big Daytona Beach heel turn - although we got that aswell - TNA are paying $15,000 for a Jersey Shore star to appear on the show. It's not quite the astronomical sums that WCW used to pay back in the day - but it's probably as much as they will pay combined for their entire under/mid-card to appear on the show.

Words fail me

 

[It's Damn Real!]

...and the fear mongering nonsense continues.

JWoww is stacked — it's worth the money just to see those cannons she calls breasts alone!

Nah, in all seriousness though, this is a total non-issue as far as I'm concerned. It's called pop culture, and capitalization —*in this case they're capitalizing on the popularity of a program that's still pulling in tremendous ratings as a means to further a character they debuted a week ago who they obviously want to push rather far (considering the aftermath of the X Division match).

No issue with this until they decide to book her in a championship match and have her win a title. Then I'll side with you about the correlating failures of WCW.

 

[Reddannihilation]

And the point is? Celebrity involvement in wrestling!!!!!!! THAT'S NEW!!!!!!! Oh wait no, all the major companies of the last 30 years have done things like this, every week on RAW they have celebrity guest hosts, Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T have been at Wrestlemania, PETE ROSE, PETE ROSE, That's PETE ROSE!!!!!

You want to know what's funny, this celebrity appearance actually has relevance to the angle TNA's running, they're getting one fo the dumb skanks from Jersey Shore to appear on TNA in an angle that is a parody of Jersey Shore, people who watch the Jersey Shore are ******s, so no doubt they'll tune in to see the popular one on a different show. Then TNA can have dumbass ratings, and they'll probably get this skank to badmouth The Shore, which may suck, but I don't care it's a mid-card angle that for one night only may draw new viewers, and with that in mind perhaps the goal is to draw some new viewers in the hope that they stick around to see the unveiling of THEM and their plans.

In WCW celebrity involvement never correlated to stories, Rodman vs Malone was not a wrestling story, Hogan and Bischoff briefly taking over The Tonight Show didn't have anything to do with a storyline, TNA's done something rather smart, The Shore's debut was received poorly, so why not get the most popular and supposedly "hottest" of their cast to appear to get Jersey Shore fans to tune in and see if there's any crossover.

Edit: Personally I'm hoping for this chick and Becky Bayless to get partially naked so I can use my bandwidth for things other than porn.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to a story that came out this morning, TNA has hired Jersey Shore cast member JWoww is making a one night appearance on TNA iMPACT! in order to, I guess, help to get over The Shore storyline and angle. Reportedly, JWoww is getting paid $15,000 for the one night appearance.

 

[Bobby B]

...and the fear mongering nonsense continues.

JWoww is stacked — it's worth the money just to see those cannons she calls breasts alone!

Nah, in all seriousness though, this is a total non-issue as far as I'm concerned. It's called pop culture, and capitalization —*in this case they're capitalizing on the popularity of a program that's still pulling in tremendous ratings as a means to further a character they debuted a week ago who they obviously want to push rather far (considering the aftermath of the X Division match).

No issue with this until they decide to book her in a championship match and have her win a title. Then I'll side with you about the correlating failures of WCW.

WCW booked a load of celebs to show up on Nitro at one time or another (They once paid KISS $500,000 to do a 15 minute concert which did nothing to the ratings).

Even if people tune in (which, is doubtful), it's a huge waste of money. I'd cetainly be pissed off I was one of the 90% of TNA's roster earning bugger all.

Quick question: (I may well be wrong) but doesn't iMPACT run at the same time as Jersey Shore? I have no concept of US TV...

 

[It's Damn Real!]

WCW booked a load of celebs to show up on Nitro at one time or another (They once paid KISS $500,000 to do a 15 minute concert which did nothing to the ratings).

Even if people tune in (which, is doubtful), it's a huge waste of money. I'd cetainly be pissed off I was one of the 90% of TNA's roster earning bugger all.

Quick question: (I may well be wrong) but doesn't iMPACT run at the same time as Jersey Shore? I have no concept of US TV...

Yes, same time slot, which is what makes this so intriguing.

My point is that your fear-mongering isn't warranted here simply because TNA is cashing in on something that is actually relevant right now.

WCW paying Kiss n amount to play a 15-minute concert equates this, how, other than the fact they're both celebrities? Exactly – it doesn't.

JWoww is being brought in specifically to pique the interest in this story, so kudos to TNA to sticking with the Shore thing. Do I personally care about it? Nope. I fucking hate the Jersey Shore, and I hate those guido jackasses even more, but not only is JWoww hot, but she's also the second most popular character on the show, so don't sit there and tell me this will do nothing for TNA, because it's utterly false.

 

[Gelgarin]

Hasn't the WWE spent the better part of the last year bringing in random celebs for absolutely no reason? At least who ever the fuck this JWoww character is is relevant to a current angle.
Go make a thread about how the WWE keeps turning into WCW, it would be just as fucking stupid but would at least have the benefit of originality.

Famous faces from popular culture are always going to make cross over appearances in professional wrestling. The only times it bothers me is when;

a) celebs get overbooked, end up in matches or physical confrontations and then bury existing talent.

or

b) when the people writing the show fail to judge their audience correctly and desperately try to shove a pop culture figure down people's throats as a face when they're getting the shit booed out of them.

Other than that, what do I care. They show, they get paid (incidentally, I'm betting the 15k figure was released to piss off the IWC) they do their segments and they go home. If it helps TNA then good, if not then who gives a shit. Simple.

 

[Dum Dum Dudley]

I may not be 100% happy about this announcement but it makes sense. The Shore + JWoww = Jersey Shore storyline. I would be more worried if they had called in someone not relevant at all to the character/storyline.

And as for the 'Jersey Shore airs at the same times as Impact' arguement, that appears to be a valid arguement, except TNA doesn't believe it can snare away every single JS fan and get them into TNA's product. They may very well be able to attract a few fans from the timeslot but i think the main purpose of 'The Shore' is to get cheap heat, not attract new fans. Fans can look at the screen and go 'wow, what a douche' and instantly hate him.

After all the negativity of 'The Shore', the appearance of JWoww could be the catalyst to get this character going again. On paper, it sounds like a good gimmick and is very similar to what Zack Ryder is doing on RAW so i think there is potential there.

To sum it up, JWoww's appearance is to help a wrestler and help him get heat. She isn't plugging a shit movie like the Raw Guest Hosts (bar Knoxville... you gotta love Jackass) and she isn't just showing up and performing like Kiss; she is being used to help a talent... which is something that doesn't exactly scream 'WCW' at me.

 

[airvar]

Not a fan of The Jersey Shore, but it is like a pop-culter phenom. Why not capitilize on it and bring in some new fan's? Sure it's not a gimmick tailored to the IWC, but JWoWW MAke's sense to bring in, and is probalby worth the money considering how famous she is. Remember - Jersey Shore as just as big- if not a bigger following than the WWE. Probably a fan base it couldn't hurt to try and tap into.

 

[oldschool123]

...and the fear mongering nonsense continues.

JWoww is stacked — it's worth the money just to see those cannons she calls breasts alone!

Nah, in all seriousness though, this is a total non-issue as far as I'm concerned. It's called pop culture, and capitalization —*in this case they're capitalizing on the popularity of a program that's still pulling in tremendous ratings as a means to further a character they debuted a week ago who they obviously want to push rather far (considering the aftermath of the X Division match).

No issue with this until they decide to book her in a championship match and have her win a title. Then I'll side with you about the correlating failures of WCW.

If you're defending this there is nothing that TNA can possibly do that you wouldn't go nuts over. You'd think they could do something better if they have 15 grand to blow on a one night gig.

Not to make this into a WWE vs. TNA thing but WWE capitalizes on pop culture too with bigger stars than Jwoww and they don't have to pay them to come on their show.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

If you're defending this there is nothing that TNA can possibly do that you wouldn't go nuts over. You'd think they could do something better if they have 15 grand to blow on a one night gig.

Not to make this into a WWE vs. TNA thing but WWE capitalizes on pop culture too with bigger stars than Jwoww and they don't have to pay them to come on their show.

Actually, there's plenty that TNA could do that I wouldn't go nuts over, like having EV2 go over Fortune at Bound For Glory, having a character as vocally green as Rob Eckos play a Jersey guido, have Eric Young & Orlando Jordan run a comedy bit on the go-home show prior to Bound For Glory on the live iMPACT!, etc. etc.

But what the hell do I know? I'm just a blind TNA mark whose tunnel vision won't allow me to see anything but TNA's greatness!

 

[Reddannihilation]

If you're defending this there is nothing that TNA can possibly do that you wouldn't go nuts over. You'd think they could do something better if they have 15 grand to blow on a one night gig.

Let's hear it then? I'm waiting...

Not to make this into a WWE vs. TNA thing but WWE capitalizes on pop culture too with bigger stars than Jwoww and they don't have to pay them to come on their show.

Capitalizes on pop-culture how? Buzz Aldrin??? The A-Team beating up Ted Dibiase Jr. and IRS? Pete Rose? The WWE picks random celebrities out of a hat and throws them on their show to let them plug whatever they want.

TNA runs a storyline that directly references an actual pop-culture phenomenon and goes the extra mile getting one of the people from said show to appear in a segment with the parody. Notice how one is planned, thought out and relative to a story, and the other is completely random and pointless? Yeah, TNA's pop culture = South Park (Inherent to a plot), WWE's pop culture = Family Guy (Random cutaway that has no relevance to the story).

 

[TomServo]

I have been a critic of a lot of TNA booking, but other than whatever they are paying Hogan, they haven't really overspent on talent or the like. If nothing else, Dixie has been very careful not to give these guys huge contracts, guaranteed with LONG timeframes. Even Hogan's is only for 2 years. So you can get out of it in time. You could argue Sting was/is being overpaid, but they did that year to year and I believe Spike covered some of the salary.

WCW was an entirely different story.

$15,000 to get some awareness from a hot show that falls in the coveted demographic is pretty cheap. If they signed her to a long term guaranteed contract that would be a different story.

I DO think the value of the people on the roster is changing. I'd definitely pay MCMG, Beer Money, Gen Me and several others before giving Kevin Nash another contract. I don't think Nash moves the ratings one bit and it doesn't matter whether he is there or not. This is where TNA has to rethink things....they aren't really paying Nash a ridiculous amount, but they give the knockouts almost literally nothing, and have to cut people making almost nothing (weren't GenMe just getting a couple hundred dollars?)when they could cut out Nash's salary and do a lot with it to find new talent or reward current talent.

 

[Million Dollar Dream]

People are getting a little carried away with saying this angle has been done before... what in wrestling is really a fresh idea?? At the end of the day it's Heels vs Faces.. I'm a general across the board wrestling fan i've always watched NWA, wcw, wwf, wwe, tna, etc... There really isn't too much new that can happen in wrestling besides flipping out a wrestler here and there and making it look fresh in that degree... We've always seen countries ( Team canada, LAX, Un-Americans, The Boshielviks) Nexus while new in most recent history isn't really a new concept.. wcw had the new blood vs the millionaires club.. Kidman was wrestling Hogan. While yes I was hoping for someone new to join TNA and be a apart of the "They"... Jeff Hardy turning heel is something fresh and to align himself with a stable is something new too.. So I'll sit back and watch this play out before I start ripping this angle because it feels like wcw has already done this

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

I have absolutely NO Problem with Jwow coming to TNA and making only 1 appearance she also has a reason to be on this show because she is actually Advancing a Storyline with The Shore Characters Robbie E and Cookie. Jersey Shore is one of the most popular shows On TV and this is a good way for TNA to capitalize on a Very Popular Show.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Oh, and to any of you actually whining about the figure that was released (that was not released officially by TNA) —*understand two things:

1. That figure is a dirt sheet report, which means it's heresy at best — the likelihood of it being correct is the same for it being wrong, and no one here can attest to it's truth (or falsehood), as TNA is not a publicly traded company and does not release financial details of it's company to the public — especially like this.

2. Who gives a fuck? Even if it is what she's being paid, what bearing does that have on you or the product anyway? Again, you know nothing about TNA's financials other than what you read in dirt sheets—which is about as reliable as relying on tabloids to keep up with your celebrity gossip—so how about leaving the financial concerns and fiscal responsibilities to the company actually making those decisions, yeah?

 

[TomServo]

I have absolutely NO Problem with Jwow coming to TNA and making only 1 appearance she also has a reason to be on this show because she is actually Advancing a Storyline with The Shore Characters Robbie E and Cookie. Jersey Shore is one of the most popular shows On TV and this is a good way for TNA to capitalize on a Very Popular Show.

True, and another way to look at it is that show goes into reruns and it is shown during Impact. If some of them check out Impact they might stick with it later on.

I see it as a calculated gamble with very little risk. It makes more sense than buying billboards in Time Square or the like.

 

[airvar]

For those who think this is a "Waste of money" let me put it this way

4.8 Million people watched the season finale of Jersey Shore

Let's say 2 % of those people are big enough Jersey Shore fan's to watch EVERYTHING that is going on with Jersey Shore (I.E. A JWOWW TNA appearence) - That's 96,000 Extra people tuning into TNA thursday, If even one third of those people enjoy the program they made money on her apperance.

I'm making these number's off the top of my head, but it should help to show what tapping into even a small precentage of the jersey shore fanbase could do for ratings.

Definatly a gamble I would take with my company!

It dosen't work out and people aren't intrested- You loose $15,000.00 - nothing for a company like TNA

IT does work out though and you tap into one of the largest fanbases in the U.S. right now, and a fanbase that is in your target demographic.. Huge Reward, small risk

 

[snoopy]

Tna is doing the right thing here ! they're creating alot of buzz the last few weeks and getting their awareness up a bit that's all! With Hardys heel turn and other things like this going on, Tna is finally getting some good exsposure and that's a good thing!!They're building awareness and a brand, kudos to Tna! Keep it up!

 

[WWEIsLife2]

So let me get this straight because TNA is signing another bimbo from the Jersey Shore and paying her mind you $15,000 they expect me to watch it? Yeah she might be Hot but I can see the Segments now and they are not good. WWE yes has the Guest Hosts on RAW but they don't have to pay them for their Appearences.

I can see why the guys in the Lockerroom are upset over this and nobody in TNA trusts anyone anymore.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

So let me get this straight because TNA is signing another bimbo from the Jersey Shore and paying her mind you $15,000 they expect me to watch it? Yeah she might be Hot but I can see the Segments now and they are not good. WWE yes has the Guest Hosts on RAW but they don't have to pay them for their Appearences.

I can see why the guys in the Lockerroom are upset over this and nobody in TNA trusts anyone anymore.

Yeah, and?

1. What the fuck do you know about TNA's financials other than what you read on dumb ass dirt sheets that you take for the whole truth?

2. Even if the wrestlers in the locker room were upset, again, who gives a fuck? Any of them quitting over this? Doubt it. They can bitch just like the IWC — won't affect it happening any.

 

[Optimist Prime]

I don't see how this is a big deal? Jersey Shore (I don't particularly watch it) but it's apparently a very popular show with a strong following. If they can get some viewers over or some publicity in the magazines, etc. talking about any of them going to TNA for any reason at all...that's worth it right there. And press like that usually costs a lot more than $15K too.

Either way, it's not really a big deal. I personally don't care about it at all...but it's a nice business move by them anyway. IMO

 

[airvar]

So let me get this straight because TNA is signing another bimbo from the Jersey Shore and paying her mind you $15,000 they expect me to watch it? Yeah she might be Hot but I can see the Segments now and they are not good. WWE yes has the Guest Hosts on RAW but they don't have to pay them for their Appearences.

I can see why the guys in the Lockerroom are upset over this and nobody in TNA trusts anyone anymore.

No they expect you to hate it, and hate the heel Jersey Shore gimmick they have going on..

But they do expect some of the 4.8 Million Jersey Shore fan's to enjoy it, and hopefully get them to tune into TNA on a regular basis. It isn't markted to people who dislike Jersey Shore- It's marketed to people like your sister/mother/friend who for some reason are obbsessed with all those Reality TV Idiots on Jersey Shore. I'm sure we all know SOMEBODY who is obsessed with that peice of trash reality TV show.


Gotta pull new fan's from somwhere the IWC is only so big! People are too seflish, they expect every gimmick to be directed at them specificly.

 

[dwith]

I personally don't care who they pay & put on IMPACT for a night as long as their is reason for it. I have never watched one episode of the Jersey Shore, and I don't care. I've seen a picture of this chick, and she is hot, and I think anyone that's a fan of her's on Jersey Shore will tune in... especially the whole cast of Jersey Shore. It can only help viewership.

Besides that I think TNA need's to bring in more main stream celeb's to get awareness out there for them. It's like advertisement, and for instance"This JWwow has never been a wrestling fan, and she comes on the show and meet's some of TNA staff, and wrestler's and she has a blast doing the segment, and becomes a fan, and word of mouth from her to her fellow Jersey Shore crew, and her friend's and they all tune in.. More awareness, and viewership, and higher ratings.) I think it's a good idea.

What has WWE gained out of their "free" exposure of celeb's??? Really.. nothing.. 95% of the celeb's who I love to watch in a movie or tv show SUCKED ASS on WWE because it was silly stuff not even relevant to anything. Besides that you have some of these celeb's that bashed WWE publicly after their appearance because their segments were shit, and everyone either was quiet or booed them. WWE needs to realize that these actors are in a wrestling ring with nothing in common with the sport, and not on a movie set where they can do 50 takes to make that one little part in their movie to make it look perfect.

I say KUDOS to TNA for bringing in a celeb that help's their talent actually get over.

I'm just a wrestling fan, and I like wrestling for wrestling, and not for all the celeb's. Their is a place for celebrities, and generally it's not in a wrestling ring unless it has relevance.

TNA may look like WCW more and more every week, and that's okay. I used to love WCW and would watch that over WWE's programming anytime. Especially WWE'S new programming ages 8-14 years of age.

 

[natlee75]

I myself really don't care whether they bring in celebrities - crap or not - since like others have pointed out already WWE is doing it now and both ECW and WCW did it back in the day. My bigger concern personally is that a lot of the talent in TNA isn't getting paid that well as it stands and the company spends money to bring in a celebrity related to a midcard gimmick that is to be quite honest stupid. Gimmicks like this are what people complained about with WWE way back in the day.

In any case, a big difference between WWE, WCW and TNA as far as celebrity appearances is that the superstars in WWE and WCW are/were getting compensated pretty damn well whereas the fee the Jersey Shore chick got is probably a *lot* more than what 90% of the TNA roster makes.

From an in context perspective, I think the Jersey Shore spoof gimmick is inane but to each their own... I just think the company should spend some money paying the talent well before some more frivolous spending like this. Just my opinion, though.