Less than 300 people attend TNA's TV taping on Tuesday

[The Dragon Saga]

On todays Observer Radio, Bryan and Dave started talking about TNA in a really weird way, asking why it took over 24 hours until after the tapings for any spoilers to emerge. They kind of played it out a bit, but then Bryan said, "usually the more people that attend a show the quicker spoilers become available", and then announced this.

The estimated attendance for TNA's TV taping on Tuesday was less than 300 people, and that's not 300 paid either. TNA gave out tickets for competitions, etc, so the paid attendance figure is a little bit worse. They do say that they've not been able to get an exact figure because nobody associated with the arena they're running will reveal it while they're still taping there, but that it's between 250 - 300. The arena can hold 1,000 people and they had to move just about everyone around the ring to make it try to look at least decent but that from what people have told it, "it was awful being there and it will probably come across worse on TV. No wide angle shots or high end camera angles are going to be used because it will expose the parts that they darkened to hide the emptiness."

It only got worse though, because while on air Dave said he'd see how many tickets he could buy right now (if he tries to buy too many It'll send him an error when he tries to checkout), so he tried a few numbers and the error didn't appear until 600, so TNA has sold just over 400 tickets for their TV taping tonight.

It's like watching someone on the edge of being evicted from their home get punched in the face.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I have no idea what this has to do with ROH.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I have no idea what this has to do with ROH.

Oh, sorry, Dave did mention that this is lower then the lowest drawing show ROH has ran this year which was 500 people in Carbondale, Illinois, and was a live event. I'm sure F4WOnline are waiting for ROH's TV taping at the end of the month to update their "ROH is still drawing more people then TNA" stats.

 

[Rayne]

Yikes. I've seen bigger crowds for Powerhouse Wrestling. And that was in the function room of a restaurant.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Oh, sorry, Dave did mention that this is lower then the lowest drawing show ROH has ran this year which was 500 people in Carbondale, Illinois, and was a live event. I'm sure F4WOnline are waiting for ROH's TV taping at the end of the month to update their "ROH is still drawing more people then TNA" stats.

That's better. I was worrier someone hacked your account.

 

[justinsayne]

Who gives a shit? TNA has been getting shit attendances for like a year now, if not longer. As long as the shows they put on TV are as good as what I saw last night I really don't give a fuck if there are 300 people there or 3000.

 

[Thriller Ant]

Oh, sorry, Dave did mention that this is lower then the lowest drawing show ROH has ran this year which was 500 people in Carbondale, Illinois, and was a live event. I'm sure F4WOnline are waiting for ROH's TV taping at the end of the month to update their "ROH is still drawing more people then TNA" stats.

I'm shocked that they got that many in Carbondale. It's a notoriously rowdy college town surrounded by hicks for quite a few miles in every direction. Not exactly an ROH crowd.

 

[Rusty]

Who gives a shit? TNA has been getting shit attendances for like a year now, if not longer. As long as the shows they put on TV are as good as what I saw last night I really don't give a fuck if there are 300 people there or 3000.

You can't deny a hot crowd signifantly adds to the viewing experience though? You want the fans chanting something.

 

[Trill Co$by]

Meanwhile, Ring of Honor abandons their World Champions in Canada, preventing them from getting back to family. But we'll just point out TNA flaws, right?

 

[Rayne]

Who gives a shit? TNA has been getting shit attendances for like a year now, if not longer.

People who are interested in if TNA will be able to continue being a wrestling promotion past this current set of tapings. As much as I've been convinced that they won't last out the year, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be thrilled to be proven wrong.

Remember last year, when it was "who cares what TNA gets for ratings?" The answer is "anyone with an idea of how economics works, who'd like to see more of TNA in the future."

 

[Rayne]

Meanwhile, Ring of Honor abandons their World Champions in Canada, preventing them from getting back to family. But we'll just point out TNA flaws, right?

1) ROH isn't the Federal Government of the United States of America. They can't simply write out work visas for whomever they'd like, although the question remains as to why you'd put the belt on someone whom you weren't absolutely sure you'd have available until his program came to its natural conclusion.
2) I don't recall a point in ROH's history, at least within the past several years, where they straight up refused to pay their employees until those employees walked out. Like how most of their performers had 'paperwork issues' which prevented them from wrestling a show in Kansas last year. TNA *did* learn from that experience though, and realized that if they're going to stiff someone on their checks, the production staff would be a better choice.

It's not like TNA's flaws are just these things that people don't like about the company; they're the reasons you won't be watching TNA on anything besides your DVD player next year. The 'Rise' and Fall of TNA has been professional wrestling's biggest metastory over the past five to six years, and now it's coming to it's hideous, undramatic conclusion.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Meanwhile, Ring of Honor abandons their World Champions in Canada, preventing them from getting back to family. But we'll just point out TNA flaws, right?

You might have missed it but redneck beat the "abandoned" Canadian who didn't do his paperwork correctly to become World Champion. The champ is on American soil and practicing mathematics.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I'm shocked that they got that many in Carbondale. It's a notoriously rowdy college town surrounded by hicks for quite a few miles in every direction. Not exactly an ROH crowd.

They ran Collinsville the next night and I found them rowdier.

 

[Thriller Ant]

They ran Collinsville the next night and I found them rowdier.

Collinsville is significantly closer to St. Louis, so they probably got legit wrestling fans there. When I say Carbondale is rowdy, I mean it's a college town, not that they go to wrestling shows and are loud.

 

[BaconBits]

I don't know why folks want TNA to die. Firstly, it's going to put a bunch of folks out of work. Secondly, it would take away the promotion that we all like to make fun of.

 

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

I don't know why folks want TNA to die. Firstly, it's going to put a bunch of folks out of work. Secondly, it would take away the promotion that we all like to make fun of.

Exactly Bacon, exactly.

First I have to admint I don't watch much TNA myself. The last time I did was in like March and not only did I not have a clue what the hell was going on, the storylines did not engage me and the honestly most amusing thing on the show was MVP kicking off when things didn't go his way.

I'm a great believer in competition being a good thing. If companies pose a threat to WWE (which none do right now, TNA could have done but has failed massively) then WWE will be forced to work harder to produce a great show. Now the competition is forced to work harder than that, and then WWE harder again, and so on and so on. Now if any wrestling company dies, even an unimportant one, WWE has a little more room to be complacent. And complacency will lead to laziness/resting on laurels judging by past experience.

So @justinsayne I would say I understand where you're coming from but if people stop showing up to TNA shows then eventually there will be no TNA.

(Also, the making fun thing that Bacon said)

 

[Papa Pillman]

I'm shocked that they got that many in Carbondale. It's a notoriously rowdy college town surrounded by hicks for quite a few miles in every direction. Not exactly an ROH crowd.

I believe they ran the show when no classes were in session so they likely drew far less students(and by proxy a smaller overall crowd). However they do run TV in the market so the fans that attended were probably actual fans familiar with the product.

 

[sanefan_har]

Wow, I went to the Sheamus Meet and Greet at Dubai on Saturday (13th September), and there were like 500 of us waiting for him.(I'm a fan of his, regardless of what you overlords think.)


I'm no TNA fan, but even I can sympathize with such a terrible crowd.

 

[Thriller Ant]

I believe they ran the show when no classes were in session so they likely drew far less students(and by proxy a smaller overall crowd). However they do run TV in the market so the fans that attended were probably actual fans familiar with the product.

Students are like 85% of the population. The other 15% make the Briscoes look like normal, well-adjusted adults.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

Do they tape three shows in a row? Is it the same crowd throughout the run of tapings? Are the numbers from the first taping? Or just a grand total? Honest questions. How to they come up with these numbers?

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I spent two nights in Carbondale last summer. Very hippyish. The highlight was going to the restaurant bar beneath the hotel that we were staying at and getting a huge alcoholic beverage for like $4.

Oh yeah, and it has this park dedicated to a dead kid in a medieval motif that is amazing. Especially if you have kids.

 

[WBL]

Makes me wonder when they're gonna start filming the show in a giant pink room instead.

For security reasons, of course.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I wonder if anybody else checks the stock of other companies every day to see if they're going out of business because they don't like the products they sell. Truly bizarre.

 

[Nate DaMac]

I wonder if anybody else checks the stock of other companies every day to see if they're going out of business because they don't like the products they sell. Truly bizarre.

If you were a regular on a South Park message board and Family Guy was looking like it was going to be canceled, you'd get the same kind of shit. We're on a wrestling forum, people are going to talk about every aspect of the business.

 

[Alastor]

That is why you target children to pad up your attendance. Appealing to 'adults' to 'save' the business?