Monday Night Massacre

[Bobbywoodhogan]

I thought they'd hit a 1.0 once?

My main problem with TNA is that its a mess, I personally think they need to get their act together. The Ego's have taken over just like they did in WCW. To me TNA right now just looks like a cheaper looking WCW (When WCW was in its bad days). I also think they have made too many changes instead of building up momentum, also changing the ring was ridiculous, I'm sure Hogan only did it cause he knew he wanted to setp back in the ring. The thing is its ok for wrestlers to bleed and that but after a while it becomes boring, the adult themes aren't enough to keep people interested, they need a good story behind them to work like WWE did in the attitude era. If they aren't careful they're gonna end up like WCW.

 

[kenvin100]

Now I have not watched TNA iMPACT this week, but after seeing the rating, is anybody else worried about TNA and their move to Monday's?

Sure HBK's retirement had a bit to do with the ratings going down but a 0.6 is awful. I mean really awful. When they kicked off on Monday nights the rating for the first Monday iMPACT was a 0.84.

Correct me if I'm wrong but since the move to Monday's I don't think TNA has hit 1.0 yet. Even with Hogan, Angle, Foley, Sting, Styles, Anderson, RVD and Jeff Hardy, they can't pull a 1.0?

This says to me that the caliber of wrestler that you bring to the product doesn't matter. Its the production values and the audience that matter, and TNA doesn't seem to be appealing to their audience at the moment.

What are everyone's thoughts? Is TNA's adult theme not connecting with the modern day PG wrestling audience? Or is it something more complicated?

I also wanted to add that in Canada, Raw was on at 12am. I think one of TNAs biggest issues is that at times they "advertise" WWE without intention. I have watched some TNA clips in the past, and WWE is referenced a billion times. Name one time on live TV WWE has talked about TNA? The only time that comes to mind for me isn't live..well it is, but it was an old online talk show called Byte This! (Todd Grisham LOL)

Secondly, who really wants to see a bunch of washed out guys fight in the squared circle. It's time Hogan and Flair took a page out of HBK/Austin's book. When you retire, RETIRE! Flair returning was a slap across the face to the WWE! After that whole ceremony after WM24, he's back at it again.

Thirdly, WWF/E wasn't successful just cause of the blood/gore/and vulgar language. It was a lot more than that! The story lines got people hooked (The Rock-Austin II rivalry still brings chills up my spine) <---do something like this and ratings will climb!

 

[MozRKO]

I don't think it has to do with the caliber of wrestlers, though they do have a lot of over the hill names, becasue they do have some good wrestlers that are entertaining to watch. Personally, I think TNA's problem is that they aren't capturing the attention of what could be their audience. They have no credible storylines to keep people's interest. Now sure, they do have some story lines, but even those are just old recycled WWF storylines. It's the WWE storylines that give you a connection to the wrestlers, thats what makes WWE great, along with exciting wrestling.

If TNA could think up an "original" storyline and carry it out properly, then maybe, MAYBE, they could pull a 1. Maybe.

 

[Dagger Dias]

TNA getting such a low number this week is NOT a big deal! They put a Impact up against the first Raw after Wrestlemania, plus HBK's sendoff. Anyone with a brain could have predicted ratings like this. Raw was going to kill Impact in the ratings this week no matter how good of a show they put together because nothing could have made fans switch away from the aftermath of Wrestlemania or HBK's sendoff.... However, now that Wrestlemania is over and WWE is soon to begin its annual terrible booking that occurs every summer, TNA has its opportunity to catch up in the ratings. Monday night might have been a "massacre" but TNA as a federation aren't dead yet because they will soon have the perfect opportunity to improve enough to catch up to Raw before Summerslam when the WWE's annual terrible summer booking ends.

 

[Davi323]

Dagger Dias, while RAW was the one immediately after mania, and had HBK, you missed something. TNA's rating went DOWN. That means that people that normally would watch TNA over RAW changed channels. If TNA's rating had stayed the same, meaning that the same people who watch TNA kept watching TNA, and RAW just got a brief bump of new viewers, you might have a point...but, TNA fans abandoned TNA to watch RAW. That is the most important part of the ratings, it means TNA has not done as good a job at gaining brand loyalty as the diehard TNA fans would have everyone believe. It means that while you TNA fans claim that TNA is so much better than the WWE, that you still watched Wrestlemania, that you still get that the WWE is far more important. Otherwise, TNA's ratings should have remained consistent. But, these ratings prove that people who normally watch TNA, didn't. They watched RAW instead. Its more than just the Wrestlemania bump, drawing the casual fan in, they got the casual TNA fans to watch too.

 

[ZeroVX]

No you said it had magic. That's a step above good to me. Show isn't New Generation. He's Attitude Era.

OK, now you're just nitpicking.

So he should feud with midcarders on his level rather than talking to one of the biggest stars in company history? Having a match with Kofi which we've seen before isn't as good as a new argument with someone that is a bigger deal than Kofi has ever been?

If Miz dominates the midcard, it'll prove that he's ready to move up to the main event. Hanging around the tag division while not defending the midcard belt is just wasting time and burying the midcard as well.

The term I use is victory. Which they got.

Anyone can get a victory via countout. If Hart Dynasty actually got a pinfall victory, it'd prove that they are a legitimate threat and would garner interest in the feud.

So you complain about the show being stale, and your solution is to have DiBiase associate with the guy that he's associated with since the day he debuted and was teaming with and facing in his debut match? It's better to do that than it is to go out on his own in a new direction, which is the point of his character, based upon the first four words of his theme song, "It's a new day"?

Tag team splits up, then the members feud with each other. That's how it works. And they've been hinting at it already for weeks now. Why not do that and forget the feud that they already tried and failed at?

You're right. Even without having seen Smackdown, you know he won't be there to do the same thing to Jericho or even win the title this coming Friday. Tell me, who do you like for Mania 27? I could make a fortune off you with the ability to read the future like that.

So if he does go to Smackdown and successfully cashes in, what does that say about him? He can't hold up on RAW, so he has to run to the "B-show" just to stand a chance? Yeah, that's successful building there.

You're right. When Cena kicked out of Edge' first spear after surviving an Elimination Chamber match and when Hardy kicked out of a GTS after a ladder match it had been 12 seconds rather than ten. Amazing isn't it that a fresh Cena can get up from an attack where he had time to recover and stand up without actually fighting back against Swagger. HE STOOD UP! He really is a superman isn't he?

Did Cena immediately heal from the attack and beat Edge? No. Did Hardy do that to Punk? No. For crying out loud, Triple H got hurt less by Sheamus and sold it more than Cena did to Swagger. When you get hit by a blunt object at least five times, YOU DON'T IMMEDIATELY HEAL AND RETALIATE. Again, not helping Swagger at all.

Oh I know it got me in. I couldn't wait to sit down and watch Raw for the potential to see clips of matches that I can see in full elsewhere. Oh give me the clips baby! 10 seconds of a match that could be upwards of 20 years old is FAR better than anything TNA has, or at least that's what you just said.

I said SOME people. Maybe these were, again, older fans that knew Michaels was leaving and wanted to stroll down memory lane.

So they all buy or are given Cena shirts and hats because....they're pretty? And they stand and cheer and wave signs praising Cena and saying how much they love him because....they can't spell anything else and they react like Pavlov?

I'm not one of these fans, so I don't know. Who knows, maybe that is the reason.

So the audience that TNA caters to, the older fans, were swayed by the promises of an old man talking rather than younger guys having wrestling matches. We have found the solution to TNA's problems: air reruns of Larry King. If a guy in his mid 40s draws ratings, imagine what LARRY KING would get!

Shawn Michaels was retiring. I'd like to think fans considered that important.

Or in even fewer seconds with fewer movements, I could have seen them last night. But the Knockouts segments featuring the Beautiful People are rated as high as they are because people want to see their abilities right? No fan tunes in to see how they look. They were tiny outfits and move around provocatively for better aerodynamics right?

The Knockouts segments are higher because the Beautiful People are actually one of the best things TNA has right now. Do some tune in just for eye candy? Yeah, probably, but to say that that's a sole reason to tune in to a show is just grasping for straws.

I believe that would be up. They want to follow the ratings they're getting.

Not from what I saw.

That's because you're looking at TNA and their direction is the opposite of WWE's.

Because TNA isn't building up guys like Dinero and Anderson as actual threats at all. No, clearly the feuds they're having with Styles and Angle are doomed to failure from what we've seen.

Right again. The celebrities receiving a combined 6 minutes of a 120 minute show, or 5%, certainly were the moments that showed the direction of the company. We clearly saw nothing in the Sheamus attack, the Hart Dynasty match, the Swagger segments or the Batista/Cena argument. Those segments were ads for popcorn I think.

The celebrities added nothing to the show at all. When a guest host actually makes matches and helps storylines along, then they did a good job. Those two sat around in a hot tub with brainless eye candy and talked about their movie. My God, I'm so excited.

 

[psykohurricane]

I don't want to pinpoint all the problems TNA as right now because it would take too long but i'm going to pinpoint one of the major problem they have right now, the booking. I don't know who is running the booking commitee in TNA but he should be fired on the spot because let's face it, he doesn't know his audience really well does he. The point am making is the same point i've been making since hogan and Bischoff took over, crash TV doesn't work anymore. The casual wrestling fans, which is the fans they want to get interested in their product, want to see stuff they are going to remember the next morning and talk about with there friends, not over book complicated stuff that has been done better 15 years ago.


WWE's product is edgy, but it's geared toward getting new guys to get a spot on the main event level to replace some of the older guys that might leave soon. Just look at the list of young guys getting the spotlight right now: C.M. Punk, Sheamus. Drew Mcintyre, The Miz, Jack Swagger, Ted Dibiasie, Kofi Kingston. All these guys are getting the spotlight right now and are either going to be main event player or upper mid carders very soon. C.M. Punk is already on the top of the card. You got the NXT guys who for some of them might be major players in the WWE within a couple of years.

TNA doesn't place the spotlight on anyone major. They had a chance with A.J. Styles of attracting fan and they blew it when they completly chance his personna. Abyss isn't main event material anymore, The Pope probably will be the next victim of A.J. and return to obscurity after the PPV and Eric Young is stuck in a feud with the band, which probably will be more about the five veterans involve in that feud then Eric Young.

Every young guy in TNA is overshadows by a huge star because whoever is in charge of the bookings don'T things that the young guys can draw peoples in and that only ex-WWE guys are able to draw. That's bakward thingking and you can have all the excuses in the world about that bad ratings, but the real reason is the bookings decisions, not Wrestlemania, not Stone Cold Steve Austin, not Shawn Micheals's retirement, it's the TNA product that not attracting fan and that's a fact. If TNA wants to compete with WWE, they need to get their act together and fast because what they are doing right now isn'T working.

 

[Mustang Sally]

If TNA could think up an "original" storyline and carry it out properly, then maybe, MAYBE, they could pull a 1. Maybe.

And some folks on this forum are talking about TNA possibly boosting themselves back up to 1.0 as if that would be a good thing.

Actually, it would be horrible because they were reaching that number on Thursday nights, before they had to pay people like Hogan, Bischoff, RVD, etc. In other words, if they pull a 1.0 now, they're worse off than before because they didn't have the salary expenses they do now. If it's costing you more money to achieve the same numbers, then you're losing ground.......and when it's costing you more to attain lower numbers, it's a disaster.

I just can't understand why TNA moved to Monday nights and it amuses me to read the pro-TNA folks' comments that the company isn't actually looking to compete with WWE......as if it's just coincidence that they chose to move their flagship program to the same night as WWE's.

Never mind what people like Eric Bischoff are saying when they tell us that things are going according to plan. You have to wonder what TNA's financial backers are really thinking now. Not to mention the advertisers who are paying good money to see their products reaching fewer TV sets than they did before.

 

[KnowYoRole]

Anyone can get a victory via countout. If Hart Dynasty actually got a pinfall victory, it'd prove that they are a legitimate threat and would garner interest in the feud.

ShowMiz cowered out of the match because they were losing. That seems like it makes HD look pretty legitimate.

Tag team splits up, then the members feud with each other. That's how it works. And they've been hinting at it already for weeks now. Why not do that and forget the feud that they already tried and failed at?

I don't think you watched wrestlemania. Cody Rhodes got punted by Randy Orton in their triple threat match and is out with a "concussion." It'd be too early if he came back.

So if he does go to Smackdown and successfully cashes in, what does that say about him? He can't hold up on RAW, so he has to run to the "B-show" just to stand a chance? Yeah, that's successful building there.

The point of the MITB briefcase is that you can cash it in, anytime, anyplace, for any championship. Are you saying, just because Smackdown is the "B" Show, that nobody can cash it in there without seeming weak?

Shawn Michaels was retiring. I'd like to think fans considered that important.

it's not even like they promoted HBK's retirement ceremony like crazy. they announced HBK would have his farewell ceremony on RAW on WWE.com and that was it.

The Knockouts segments are higher because the Beautiful People are actually one of the best things TNA has right now. Do some tune in just for eye candy? Yeah, probably, but to say that that's a sole reason to tune in to a show is just grasping for straws.

SOME tune in for eye candy? How about almost all?

The celebrities added nothing to the show at all. When a guest host actually makes matches and helps storylines along, then they did a good job. Those two sat around in a hot tub with brainless eye candy and talked about their movie. My God, I'm so excited.

They did make a match, Cena and a mystery partner (which was orton, which was awesome) vs batista and swagger. talk about not pushing swagger enough, he was in a main event with one of the companys three biggest main event talents.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The final numbers are in for Raw and iMPACT!:

According to gerweck.net, the March 29th episode of Raw drew a 3.53 for the first hour and an audience of 5.2 million while the second hour drew a 3.79 with an audience of 5.8 million, with an average audience of 5.5 million for the night. No quarterly hour numbers for Raw are listed yet, but they probably will be later today. However, it was reported last night on the same site that the HBK farewell speech segment drew a 4.1 rating.

Also according to the site, the quarterly hours for iMPACT! were 0.50, 0.54, 0.46, 0.61, 0.62, 0.64, 0.53 and 0.58 with the show's overrun doing a 0.63. The site lists the average viewing audience for the March 29th episode of iMPACT! at 813,000.

DiggerDias, usually I agree with your posts, but this is something that I don't see how any rational person can ignore. The ratings for iMPACT! have been dwindling since it decided to go head to head against Raw, however Raw in and of itself might not even be to blame. For 2010, only 3 episodes of Raw have scored under a 3.6 in the Nielsen Ratings. All the others have done either 3.6 or 3.7 with one episode scoring a 3.8 Nielsen Rating. I think KB mentioned something on this in an earlier post regarding iMPACT! losing viewers. For the most parts, Raw's viewership has been steady and consistent this year. Their total number of viewers averages around 5.3-5.5 million on a weekly basis. It's been pretty constant while the viewers of iMPACT! have dwindled, yet Raw's viewership isn't really going up as far as the overall show goes. This means that even if the TNA viewers aren't going to Raw, they're at least changing the channel from TNA to something else.

 

[RKOChamp]

Is this seriously a surprise to some of you? Listen, WWE was going through WrestleMania season...their best time of the year according to most. TNA switched over and went head to head without a strong fanbase as it was during WWE's most successful period of the year. I have heard a lot of people say that the last several months has been the best stuff WWE has done in years.

It wasn't just this week that TNA did bad. Their ratings have been falling for a few weeks now. Some say its because of WM and others have a different reason. Whatever the reason though, TNA and Spike are realizing that they may have jumped the gun. Even though the reason for the time change is not the ratings, TNA is doing a different time and it was said that Spike will be looking to see how the numbers do. They may switch the time that TNA airs.

Completely agree with the above post, RAW ratings have for the most part been consistent while TNA ratings are steadily going down. You cant convince me that fans are switching from one to the other because there is no correlation between the two numbers. One staying the same and one going down does not show that fans are switching or deciding to not watch one and remain with one program over the other. And also like the other comment you made about Swagger's push....watch Smackdown!

Whether or not you want to blame the recent decline in TNA ratings on WWE going through WM or Michaels' farewell speech, you have to admit that TNA is not ready to go head to head with RAW. If you fail to admit that, you must be wanting them to fail because right now, its not looking good for them at all. Sorry to TNA fans, Im not trying to bash, just saying it like I see it.

 

[FightOwensFight]

TNA certainly seems to be panicking. Already going to 8 PM next week. Also, is it me or does that open them up to a potentially larger slap in the face? What happens next week when TNA draws a 1.3 for their first hour then drops to a .8 or something right when RAW comes on the air? All that does is confrim that, with no other wrestling on TV people will watch TNA, but once WWE comes on that is where people go. Not exactly what TNA were hoping for when they went after Vince and company.

 

[jamaal mayes]

NCIS is the second highest cable rated show on avg. and it comes on monday at 8pm. TNA cannot stand up to that. plus what it they score a 2.1 in the ratings at 8pm whats going to happen at 9pm when to go head to head? right back below a 1 again. and if wwe numbers drop tna is going to brag knowing it was really the final four that beat wwe

 

[whatalife1683]

WOW, these ratings are horrible. There is no defending the ratings for TNA. I have heard across wrestling sites; people think the booking in TNA is horrendous. I want TNA to do well, but Hogan and Bish jumped the gun. This is not WCW, and this is not WWE's first few years on Monday nights. WWE is well established, and will maintain their viewers until who knows when. They had their boom period when WCW was around, but right now this is the norm for WWE. Until there is another wrestling boom period again, I think these will be the numbers for both programs.

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

The fact is that this was not the right time for TNA to go to war with the WWE, they are re-establishing their product, its a whole new ball game.

You have AJ styles attempting to establish himself as a heel, Hogan and Bischoff attempting to associate themselves with the company to create a buzz and new faces being made.

No matter how anyone bashes the company this all takes time, and would have done better if the Company stayed on Thursdays and expanded on their 1.1's they where drawing.

The fact is no matter how much the product sucks or does not suck at the moment they just need to keep creating a buzz and keep pushing the company as the alternative, showing great wrestling and great talent.

Until they do something that seperates themselves from the WWE they will always be seen as second best no matter how hard they try to tell people they are not and in order to do that they need to get their name out there, get tv shows interested in promoting AJ Styles, promote their shows and PPVs outside of Spike tv, do it exactly how the WWE are doing it otherwise their audience will never grow outside their little bubble.

Because at the moment there is no war, its just TNA attempting to cling onto the name of the WWE to make themselves bigger and we all know how that worked out for the companies that did that before, they ended up failing.

 

[Drunken Aviator]

what did you expect the raw after wm and hbks retirement speach
so what one really bad week next week for all we know it could be the other way around so we cant judge it on one week

 

[TellMeWhy]

Wow you WWE fanboys are so quick to crucify TNA and put them out of business

A taped TNA show with the spoilers out a week earlier VS A LIVE Post WrestleMania Show w/HBK's farewell.

Hmm, I wonder whose going to win that. It's not rocket science people.

TNA needs to continue to stick it out because WWE may win the ratings war which we all expected but TNA has been winning in terms of putting on quality programming since March 8th. This past Monday was probably the first time that WWE has been declared victor while TNA has been the clear loser in terms of show quality and even #s.

TNA has to stick it out! Nothing in life comes easy!!!

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Wow you WWE fanboys are so quick to crucify TNA and put them out of business

A taped TNA show with the spoilers out a week earlier VS A LIVE Post WrestleMania Show w/HBK's farewell.

Hmm, I wonder whose going to win that. It's not rocket science people.

TNA needs to continue to stick it out because WWE may win the ratings war which we all expected but TNA has been winning in terms of putting on quality programming since March 8th. This past Monday was probably the first time that WWE has been declared victor while TNA has been the clear loser in terms of show quality and even #s.

TNA has to stick it out! Nothing in life comes easy!!!

You've got to be kidding. WWE has been killing TNA in terms of putting on quality programming in the past month. Batista/Cena was done great as well as Undertaker/HBK. The Punk/Mysterio angle was good and the Edge/Jericho angle was solid. Abyss and Styles have actually gotten worse in my opinion and Beer Money complain about not being on TV when they are actually on TV. WWE is just better than TNA right now and has been for the past month.

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

You've got to be kidding. WWE has been killing TNA in terms of putting on quality programming in the past month. Batista/Cena was done great as well as Undertaker/HBK. The Punk/Mysterio angle was good and the Edge/Jericho angle was solid. Abyss and Styles have actually gotten worse in my opinion and Beer Money complain about not being on TV when they are actually on TV. WWE is just better than TNA right now and has been for the past month.

TNA at the moment is at its early stages of the Monday night Stint, its has yet to establish itself as a wrestling company.

WWE in terms of star power and Quality matches has more to offer and they have more programming and a stronger fan base, this is because they have had their time to build this base up and kept building it through a wealth of divisions, TNA doesnt hae this luzury anymore due to the fact that the company is attempting to re-establish itself and this will take time.

Im not saying they will ever beat WWE in the ratings war, all im saying is that they lack what WCW once had and that was a hell of alot of cash and alot of balls to take them on in terms of a better overall product and break out stars and bigger paychecks.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

TNA at the moment is at its early stages of the Monday night Stint, its has yet to establish itself as a wrestling company.

WWE in terms of star power and Quality matches has more to offer and they have more programming and a stronger fan base, this is because they have had their time to build this base up and kept building it through a wealth of divisions, TNA doesnt hae this luzury anymore due to the fact that the company is attempting to re-establish itself and this will take time.

Im not saying they will ever beat WWE in the ratings war, all im saying is that they lack what WCW once had and that was a hell of alot of cash and alot of balls to take them on in terms of a better overall product and break out stars and bigger paychecks.

So what was TNA the past seven years then? Wasn't it a wrestling company?

What TNA lacks but they have been getting is big names but I don't know if they will be big enough. WCW had Sting, Hogan, Hall, Nash, and various others. The biggest names TNA has that can come close honestly are Styles, RVD, and Hardy, and Angle. I don't know if that will be enough since it is obvious that WWE is building towards the future. If TNA can just have that one great PPV, then maybe things will start to change. If it doesn't happen at Slammiversary or Bound Glory then who knows what will happen.

 

[WWE Manster03]

NCIS is the second highest cable rated show on avg. and it comes on monday at 8pm. TNA cannot stand up to that. plus what it they score a 2.1 in the ratings at 8pm whats going to happen at 9pm when to go head to head? right back below a 1 again. and if wwe numbers drop tna is going to brag knowing it was really the final four that beat wwe

Not sure if you are aware, but NCIS that airs on Monday on USA are old episodes. The ratings for those viewings aren't bad at all, but not the juggernaught that NCIS is on Tuesdays when they are newer episodes. At 8pm on Mondays, they go against Chuck, Dancing with the Stars, The Big Bang Theory, and of course 24. DWTS and TBBT probably don't get the audience TNA wants, but 24 and Chuck sure as hell do. With 24 in its last season, I will be shocked if most men that watch it would switch off of the first hour of it. Thats like going up against NCIS or Lost on Tuesdays. It's suicide. If TNA pulls an overall rating of 1.0 or higher this week I will be very very impressed, but I don't see it. I predict a 0.8 for TNA and a 3.6 for WWE.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I see some of the same old lame excuses for TNA are still flying around. For some odd reason, some TNA marks seem to believe that WrestleMania is the only time of year in which the WWE can put on quality and interesting programming. Is there some particular reason that the WWE can't continue to put on good programming?

LetEmKnow, it was TNA and Spike that decided to do alternate weeks with taped and live shows. It's not as if anyone was forced to do this and it hasn't made much of a difference one way or another in terms of viewers. As for this past Monday being the first time the WWE has proved a victor, you must have a contact high from watching Jeff Hardy and RVD matches. TNA came out guns blazing on March 8th. They threw out every surprise they could come up with, had big names pop up and that was enough to impress some people just as it did on January 4th. And, just like what happened with the aftermath of January 4th, the quality of and general interest in iMPACT! has been steadily dwindling ever since.

As for TNA not having the star power to compete with the WWE, I don't buy into that for a second. I've put it in on several other posts that TNA has the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Scott Hall, Kurt Angle, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, Jeff Jarrett, The Dudleyz, Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam. TNA has some of the all time greats in wrestling and some of the biggest and most well known wrestlers from the past 15 years or so on its roster. TNA has plenty of star power, they're just not drawing. TNA has made the presence of many of these older and more established names one of the primary focuses of their product in the hopes of increasing the size of their audience. The lack of star power and lack of establishment crutches can no longer be used as excuses for failing ratings and quality of programming.

The facts are that the quality of TNA's programming and its ratings have been steadily declining for a long while now, even before it's move to Monday nights permanently. TNA has blamed everything from the Olympics to football games to going against the WWE with alternating live and taped episodes of iMPACT! to it being WrestleMania time to blaming the HBK speech alone for the bad ratings of this Monday and on and on it goes. TNA decided to "declare war" on the WWE, TNA decided to move to Monday nights permanently, TNA claimed that it was going to take over Monday nights and so on and so forth. Nobody twisted TNA's arm to go up against the WWE. Face facts, it was a foolish decision on their part and all the lame excuses in the world isn't going to change those facts no matter how much Dixie, Hulk, Bischoff and the TNA marks would like it to happen.

There is one small spark of slightly good news regarding the TNA ratings. Apparently, the 0.56 was a mistake and it's now being said that the numbers for iMPACT! this past money are 0.62 and an audience of 877,000. Still, it's nothing to crow over. TNA moving from 8-10 pm this Monday could be a telling night for TNA's future.

 

[trendkiller]

The facts are that the quality of TNA's programming and its ratings have been steadily declining for a long while now, even before it's move to Monday nights permanently. TNA has blamed everything from the Olympics to football games to going against the WWE with alternating live and taped episodes of iMPACT! to it being WrestleMania time to blaming the HBK speech alone for the bad ratings of this Monday and on and on it goes. TNA decided to "declare war" on the WWE, TNA decided to move to Monday nights permanently, TNA claimed that it was going to take over Monday nights and so on and so forth. Nobody twisted TNA's arm to go up against the WWE. Face facts, it was a foolish decision on their part and all the lame excuses in the world isn't going to change those facts no matter how much Dixie, Hulk, Bischoff and the TNA marks would like it to happen.

That is true, but while you portray it in the light of "TNA will fail", I prefer to think of it like this:

TNA has only just moved to Mondays and the difference in production value, overall product quality and storylines have been lacking compared to the WWE as of late. There is, however, a lot of room for improvement.

What TNA needs to do is to attract the attention of casual wrestling fans and KEEP THEM WATCHING. You will not do this with TNA originals only, nor will Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair 10 years too late do it. They have to find the sweet spot and develop storylines that are in touch with their targeted demographic and I have a feeling that until some new wonderboy creative mind comes along, they won't be. Bischoff and Hogan may have great creative minds and paired with Russo I'm sure they have a lot of good ideas... for the late 90's, early 00's.

They need to go global, use the Internet to promote internationally (free international streaming of live shows, with commercials obviously, for example), use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to promote TNA hard and use those media outlets for storyline purposes as well.

TNA's production values needs to improve, it's not justifiable to look like a semi-serious backyard fed when you've got a two hour live show. I don't care if it makes them "wannabe-WWE", because the formula obviously works and people (as far as I can tell) find it very hard to look away from the low-budget look of TNA, the Impact Zone, the promo videos and what have you.

Hopefully, with more money coming in from advertising and house shows, they can up the production values and hire new, fresh talent for their booking division. If they keep investing in "established stars", they WILL eventually fall flat on their faces, because they aren't pouring money into the holes where it's most needed: engaging storylines, production values and greater venues.

In my opinion

 

[Jack-Hammer]

That is true, but while you portray it in the light of "TNA will fail", I prefer to think of it like this:

TNA has only just moved to Mondays and the difference in production value, overall product quality and storylines have been lacking compared to the WWE as of late. There is, however, a lot of room for improvement.

I'm not really portraying anything, just stating the facts as they are. I never said or meant to imply that TNA was doomed to fail, but the facts are that they're failing now. As for TNA just moving to Monday nights, so what? TNA decided to make the move and if it was done prematurely, there's no one to blame but themselves. I want to see TNA grow, I really do. I want to because it does give fans and wrestlers another high profile wrestling company. They decided to go head to head against the WWE and that's all fine and well. But just because things aren't turning out well for them isn't justification, at least in my eyes, for making excuses for TNA.

They need to go global, use the Internet to promote internationally (free international streaming of live shows, with commercials obviously, for example), use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to promote TNA hard and use those media outlets for storyline purposes as well.

TNA does make full use of those media outlets. Dixie Carter herself posts on Twitter. I'm not sure about Facebook but there are loads of TNA Wrestling content on YouTube. The internet fans are what makes up the vast majority of the TNA audience already. Most of TNA's audience consist of internet smarks and fans of the independent wrestling scene. What TNA has been unable to do is capture the attention of your average wrestling fan.

TNA's production values needs to improve, it's not justifiable to look like a semi-serious backyard fed when you've got a two hour live show. I don't care if it makes them "wannabe-WWE", because the formula obviously works and people (as far as I can tell) find it very hard to look away from the low-budget look of TNA, the Impact Zone, the promo videos and what have you.

It's hard to increase production values when you simply don't have the capital to do it. Now, don't get me wrong, I've no clue what TNA's finances look like and what their overall financial situation is. However, I think it's safe to assume that TNA doesn't have anywhere near the finances to tour all over the country, and even the world, on a regular basis as the WWE does. Otherwise, they probably would have already. This is another reason why a lot of fans, some of them TNA fans in particular, feel that it was a mistake trying to take on the WWE so soon. When it comes to production value, management and resources, TNA looks minor league compared to the WWE. The WWE often fills arenas that can hold 13, 14, 15,000 people or more on a regular basis while TNA often doesn't sell out venues that hold only 2,000 people.

 

[Tums]

I see some of the same old lame excuses for TNA are still flying around. For some odd reason, some TNA marks seem to believe that WrestleMania is the only time of year in which the WWE can put on quality and interesting programming. Is there some particular reason that the WWE can't continue to put on good programming?

LetEmKnow, it was TNA and Spike that decided to do alternate weeks with taped and live shows. It's not as if anyone was forced to do this and it hasn't made much of a difference one way or another in terms of viewers. As for this past Monday being the first time the WWE has proved a victor, you must have a contact high from watching Jeff Hardy and RVD matches. TNA came out guns blazing on March 8th. They threw out every surprise they could come up with, had big names pop up and that was enough to impress some people just as it did on January 4th. And, just like what happened with the aftermath of January 4th, the quality of and general interest in iMPACT! has been steadily dwindling ever since.

As for TNA not having the star power to compete with the WWE, I don't buy into that for a second. I've put it in on several other posts that TNA has the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Scott Hall, Kurt Angle, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, Jeff Jarrett, The Dudleyz, Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam. TNA has some of the all time greats in wrestling and some of the biggest and most well known wrestlers from the past 15 years or so on its roster. TNA has plenty of star power, they're just not drawing. TNA has made the presence of many of these older and more established names one of the primary focuses of their product in the hopes of increasing the size of their audience. The lack of star power and lack of establishment crutches can no longer be used as excuses for failing ratings and quality of programming.

The facts are that the quality of TNA's programming and its ratings have been steadily declining for a long while now, even before it's move to Monday nights permanently. TNA has blamed everything from the Olympics to football games to going against the WWE with alternating live and taped episodes of iMPACT! to it being WrestleMania time to blaming the HBK speech alone for the bad ratings of this Monday and on and on it goes. TNA decided to "declare war" on the WWE, TNA decided to move to Monday nights permanently, TNA claimed that it was going to take over Monday nights and so on and so forth. Nobody twisted TNA's arm to go up against the WWE. Face facts, it was a foolish decision on their part and all the lame excuses in the world isn't going to change those facts no matter how much Dixie, Hulk, Bischoff and the TNA marks would like it to happen.

There is one small spark of slightly good news regarding the TNA ratings. Apparently, the 0.56 was a mistake and it's now being said that the numbers for iMPACT! this past money are 0.62 and an audience of 877,000. Still, it's nothing to crow over. TNA moving from 8-10 pm this Monday could be a telling night for TNA's future.

I agree. I admit I was one of those people pulled in by the whole Hogan hoopla and decided to give them a try. To be honest I have enjoyed TNA for the most part though not to the level I enjoy WWE but I like it for what it is plus the two dont conflict with each other since Raw comes out East Coast time on USA HD so I get to watch Impact without having to worry about switching back and forth. But 2 of the last 3 episodes of Impact have been just awful and the ratings have shown that. I thought everything up til the last 3 episodes of IMpact had been kinda solid and the two episodes where March 15th and March 29th with the March 22nd being decent.

I also agree that TNA needs to get the hell out of the Impact Zone and bring the show live to different cities at least once in a while, not saying every show should be out of the Impact zone but they need to take the show on the Road and that will reach out to their other fans who want to see it live that def helps spread word and excites the fan base.

Instead of blaming everything else for their low ratings TNA needs to look deep inside and fix their internal problems and come up with better ideas to market their product and make it more appealing to potential wrestling fans. Until then they are just another afterthought in the wrestling world compared to WWE.