Hello everybody,
Lets discuss why TNA is in the garbage currently. Is it Russo, Dixie, Hogan? The talent?
Last week TNA had the worst rating in TNA history with a .6 rating, so far this week looks to be the same if not worse. The question is who is really to blame for this?
I don't think it's Russo. Russo has been in this business a long time, he still has a great mind for wrestling. While he did screw up in WCW because nobody managed him, in TNA he at least has a couple bosses in Hogan and Carter.
Dixie is the real problem. I think bringing in Hogan was a good idea, but so far it's been more problematic than good. Lets look at some of the things Dixie has approved on in terms of story lines:
- AJ turning heel to be like Ric Flair. AJ has lot a lot of fan appreciation and gained a lot of marks on the Internet. At the same time, it seems AJ has lost a lot of his wresting ability. We rarely see wrestle anymore, and when he does it's just a run in and a quick finisher. No setup anymore for who AJ is. While this turn has helped AJ on the mic, in terms of wrestling he's gotten worse.
- X Division gone down the drain. A few months ago the X Division was starting to rock with Jeff Hardy coming into the mix. Not like the X Division wasn't bad at all as it had some of the best wrestlers around including Mr. Indy Chris Daniels and MCMG. Now all three are leaving the company. Daniels has officially quit TNA and MCMG are basically right behind them. What's next the Young Bucks will quit as well? Dixie has let Hogan have free reign and basically destroy the X Division. It also doesn't help that TNA Wrestlers are complaining about TNA on the air like Alex Shelly did on the TNA Spin Cycle this past week mentioning that there were no pads outside the ring during their Ultimate X match with Generation Me, but every other match had pads.
- Bye Bye Hernandez. Why is Hernandez going to Mexico to learn how to speak and wrestle. The guy is a beast in the ring and he has been for many years. All of a sudden he's canned for a few months. He is no longer on the roster page of TNA, and barley gets any attention. WWE scoops this guy up if they are smart. Still you shouldn't be sending one of your best wrestlers away. That is just being a bonehead.
- Knockouts Division. This is turning out to be just as bad as WWE Divas. Almost no point to watch them. Tonight's match really showed how weak the division is when they don't allow one wrestler to speak in English and than they humiliate her by not showing her wrestle in a match. Instead we see a commercial. Scott D'Amore is no longer with TNA so that can be a big reason why the Knockouts have been suffering. It goes back to Dixie as she approves of these matches before they go on the air.
- Wolfpac. Bubba Ray said it best, these guys are a cancer. I don't know if he meant that as a shoot or not, but it's true. Hogan, Nash, Hall and Waltman are a cancer every where they go. Why did Dixie allow to sign these guys at all, let alone the Nasty Boys a few months ago. We all know the Nasty Boys haven't wrestled a good match in maybe 20 years.
- Releasing of Wrestlers who do not need to be released. Look at Creed. While he wasn't used often enough, he was a vital member of the X Division. If they were trying to rebuild that system, they would not allow him gone. The same goes for Melissa, Kong, and now with maybe Hamada. Your throwing away good wrestlers who can help you.
While I agree with many that Hogan has caused more problems than good in TNA, I'm not blaming him as he came in to help TNA. It's not like he's a secret agent for WWE. The person to blame is Dixie Carter. She doesn't know the first thing about wrestling.
Now this is just my opinion, I speak freely and say removal of Dixie Carter is a must if TNA wants to survive until the end of the year.
I agree with the examples you give of issues with the current product. But you can't blame Dixie.
Blaming Dixie is like the equivalent of blaming Ted Turner for problems with WCW. She's a financial backer, and as many have said she knows nothing about professional wrestling. Remember, Dixie's job is not to be involved in the creative process of TNA. She pays people to handle that end for her. Dixie herself I would suspect is more involved in signing talent, negotiating with Spike executives and advertisers, setting up house shows, etc. In other words, the day to day stuff that keeps the company afloat. As for her bringing in Hogan and Bischoff, there are a few things to consider. For one, how much Bob Carter was involved in that decision. And two, that for a layman like Dixie, bringing in Hogan and Bischoff makes perfect sense on paper. The same goes for Russo. They've all been at the pinnacle of the industry, and most people in Dixie's position would choose to trust them. What they are doing with that trust is another story.
As for those people protesting that ratings are irrelevant, you need a serious reality check. If TNA can't meet the ratings expectations of Spike TV or their financial backers, than the company is toast. As for what's causing TNA's current ratings slump, I doubt any of us are qualified to give a complete explanation. I can, however, point out one or two things that have occurred to me as a fan. For one, it seems to me that TNA's 'powers-that-be' are making decisions based more on their own personal long-term visions of what the company should be, and less on the short-term reality of what the fans want to see. And more problematically, doing so both blatantly and hurriedly.
Lets take a look at what's happened under the new regime that could have effected the ratings negatively. And to do that, we need to take a look at the overall direction the company has taken for the last few months, not just in the past few weeks. People don't just decide to skip a show because the episode this week sucks; they choose to skip a show because the episode LAST week sucked, and the one before that and so on. So lets look at what happened since Jan 4: Before Jan 4, AJ Styles was massively over as a face. So they turned him heel. Rob Terry was getting 'you can't wrestle' chants regularly. So they give him a goldberg push. The ring is changed to a more traditional 4 sider. Hogan does what all of his skeptics thought he would do; signs his friends to lucrative contracts (like that or not, at least acknowledge that many people don't.) The status quo of the company (in terms of plot-lines and character development) is at least partially ignored as several characters are re-tooled off screen. Abyss turns into a Hogan clone. Samoa Joe is barely utilized. Many of the top X division and tag team stars are kept off of television for weeks. The X division was minimized, the old-timers were emphasized. For many mid-carders, face/heel turns happen on a near weekly basis. Plot-lines are rewritten on a weekly basis (for example, I'm pretty sure that MCMG beat Generation Me for the no.1 contenders spot for the tag titles, yet were feuding 3D for them this week). Popular talent like Chris Daniels and Awesome Kong leave the company or are barely seen on tv, while talent with little to no fan-base (at least coming into the company) remain, like Orlando Jordan and Shannon Moore. Finally, TNA decides to go head to head with RAW.
Back to that 4 sided ring, as well as Orlando, the Band, the Nasty'z, and the other crap I just addressed above: I'm sure you have your own opinions on them, as do I. Unfortunately, they are fairly irrelevant. Whether or not you agree with the reasoning, there are a lot of people out there who absolutely despise them. And obviously, a lot of TNA's old audience has left, presumably due to one or a combination of these factors (the numbers have nearly been cut in half). Now personally, I don't care if Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Jarrett, etc, all have their own agendas or their own visions of what TNA should be. That's fine. The problem is with pushing your own agenda too fast at the expense of your fan-base and what they want/expect from the company.
Let me try to put this in a way that everyone can understand (by using a ridiculous metaphor): Imagine that you own a small company catering to a niche market. For example, you own a small fast food company dealing specifically with health food. Your market share of the industry is negligible compared to a company like Mcdonald's, but you've managed to build a small and loyal base of customers that prefer your brand. But you're sales aren't increasing, and over time you start to suspect that there aren't as many customers out there who actually prefer health food to greasy takeout. You want a cut of the larger market share, so you decide to start offering greasy food as well. However, instead of incorporating the new items into the menu slowly, you just completely overhaul the company overnight. You stop selling salads and start selling burgers. And just to make matters even more complicated, you change your stores location! What do you think would happen? I suspect you would piss off, alienate, and confuse your existing customer base. And unless your greasy food is pretty phenomenal, you're not going to win over many customers from the established larger brand, at least not quickly, because your company still has a reputation for selling health food.
That is essentially what the powers-that-be in TNA have done. They didn't ease the company into a new direction so much as completely force it into that direction overnight. Old fans left, and potential new fans still either don't know what TNA is or think it's something else entirely. And some who tuned out for a week or two probably don't even know where TNA is located anymore, as it's changed time-slots several times recently. It is still possible, however, that the new target audience will come around eventually. But IMO, it was a risky and unnecessary move to change the company so quickly and in the process alienate so many of the existing fans. And we are seeing the results of that decision now.
Personally Id love you or him to put up an argument here.
