Keep star signings a surprise? or advertise?

[farlance]

Here is a quote from a news posting on a wrestling site.


"Regarding Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy), TNA is still expected to sign the former WWE Superstar, who is contractually free to join the company at anytime.

There are rumblings that he might not start until next year, but others believe the company is is trying to keep his debut a surprise and that he will appear at this Sunday’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. Jason Powell of the Pro Wrestling Torch strongly feels he will be making his TNA debut this Sunday. "


What do people think about this? If, and when this happened should TNA keep a big signing like this a secret? or market the hell out of it to try and get more PPV buys?

I can see how a wrestling company would like to add shock value to their signings because of all the jumping around in the 90's but in my opinion it would be smarter to do the vignettes, show the commercials, hype the shit out of a thing like that and not hide it and let it slip under the radar.

Yeah a surprise like that might shock a die hard TNA fan but for the rest of the world the debut would be subpar and there would be no momentum for the character coming in. Thoughts?

 

[Rated_R_Superstar2010]

with a brand new person to the comopany and because its tna and they could use anderson for more ppv buys, i'd say market the hell out of it. make a few promos, advertize him, like they did with lashley....ok not exactlly like that but u kno.

if it were a returning superstar to the wwe or tna. keep it a secret. get big shock value and get a quick feud started.

thats what i would do anyway

 

[JDavis328]

I think both work and both are great. People like Jeff Hardys return for wwe,Kurt Angle to tna,Mick Foley to Tna,Tazz to Tna all had promos and hype behind it for marketing.

Also at the same time,surprise appearances are great as well. Everyone loves a good surprise in my opinion. Problem is,more in wwe then tna(they seem to be better with surprises and keeping things underwraps),its hard to do with us the internet community.

But for Anderson personally i want to be surprised. My reasoning is of course he is a guy who you can get creative with surprises. I mean the whole announcing thing is a great working for a surprise. They could do what they did with lashley and wait it out till the rumbling goes down and everyone forgets or gives up on him comming then bring him in.

Honestly out of the two,my favorite is surprises. I will never forget sitting watching one of my first tna ppvs and a person that jumped ship was advirtised and i hadnt heard anything(this was a bit before i got into the whole online community stuff) so my head was buzzing with people then of all people christian cage shows up and delievers one of my favorite promos to this day.

 

[Dexter]

It comes down to this... if you surprise your viewers and debut him at BFG, you inform your viewers that they get their money's worth when they view your product. They paid for the advertised card and they got a little bonus on top of that. It promotes loyalty and lets anyone who didn't buy the PPV know that maybe they should be paying more attention in the future.

If you market it in advance, obviously, you increase buys up front, but it doesn't necessarily raise any expectations or promote any brand loyalty.

There's pros and cons on both sides, of course, but if it were me, I'd keep it a surprise. But then, maybe that's why I'm not a promoter.

 

[johnnyblaze3:16]

i think in this case marketing the hell out of anderson is the way to a suprise might be missed/ or swept under the tna carpet but bfg doesnt need extra allure its there wrestlemania and they should have some big suprises they could have him return in the legands title match and win it by suprise it would be shocking and awsome

 

[a0161613]

Having Ken Anderson sign for them would be a huge coup and therefore they should market the heck out of him. I liked the build for Booker T, even if it was similar to Y2J's.

A lot of the problems with TNA go back to the fact that they leak plans for a pastime. Keep it as secretive as possible and find a better way of announcing it.

Admittedly having Anderson appear as a confirmed signing (no interference, just appear) at BFG would be pretty epic.

 

[ck-g2006]

Because of the internet its hard for TNA and WWE to keep a star signings a suprise...I think Ken Anderson will debut at Bound For Glory.... I think he needs to make a BIG impact and i'd have Ken Anderson attack sting or aj styles after the title match...That would hype is character and it would make a big impact

 

[Pedro08]

Both ways can be effective. I think it just depends on the stature of the wrestler and when he will debut (on Impact or on a PPV). Since Bound for Glory is TNA's biggest PPV of the year, a surprise appearance by Ken Anderson would probably be the best.

However, if it was a smaller PPV, then run promos and hype the debut to try to increase the buy-rate. However, they have to make the pay off worth it. I think we can all agree that with all the hype for Taz's debut, the payoff was very disappointing.

Now I have to say, if Ken Anderson does show up tonight at Bound for Glory, kudos to TNA for keeping it quiet. In this day on the internet, it would be quite a feat to keep it quiet.

 

[X]

They should definitely, definitely keep them as a surprise. Atleast when it comes to mid-size names like Taz. His debut for TNA was absolutely terrible, they hyped it up for weeks and made it so incredibly obvious that he was going to debut at the PPV, and when he did, no one really cared because everyone already knew it was going to happen. But if he had just showed up out of the crowd and entered the ring, that would have had TNA fans talking. If TNA managed to sign John Cena or something, than yeah, advertise the hell out of that. But usually advertising "surprise" debuts is an idiotic move. Look at one of the best debuts in wrestling history: WCW didn't advertise Scott Hall and Kevin Nash did they?

 

[Derekjt]

Personally I think that by the time TNA debuts a new wrestler everyone on the internet already knows it's coming. Back in the Monday Night Wars days, it was awesome to see a surprise like Scott Hall showing up on Nitro. TNA always seems to debut these once WWE guys at PPV's and most of the time the surprise factor is not there.
The question is how many PPV buys does a guy like Ken Anderson pick up? He was never really a main event guy in WWE and I know like myself, there are many other people who could care regardless when he debuts.
The biggest surprise that WWE missed on in recent memory was with Christian. He should have made his debut earlier, instead of Matt Hardy turning on Jeff. This would of made for a great surprise. I'm looking forward to seeing how Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness debut. Hopefully they're a total surprise.
In the end if a guy is star worthy enough, make it a surprise. If he's not then advertise him and get what fans he has to tune in. It seems that TNA is looking for any attention they can get though so it wouldn't be a shock to see something show up on their website prior to the wrestler making his debut. Much like they did with Mick Foley and Taz.