[Official] TNA Top-10 Rankings Discussion Thread

[shattered dreams]

The point of the ranking system is to get the fans involved. Can you let the fans determine every title match by unlimited internet vote and succeed as a company? Of course not, we all know that and TNA never once promised anything like that. TNA initially said they would announce the number 1 contender on impact after Sacrifice and that fan voting would merely be taken into consideration. So they could have easily just took in the votes, essentially ignored them and made whomever they wanted #1 contender.

So why is everyone acting like they are so betrayed when they let Wolfe wrestle the main event vs the champion and let him get some offense in which included setting the champ up for the tower of london. They did not have to do any of this. The vote started one week ago. They are really supposed to scrap everything including the ppv and new champion build and push Wolfe to the moon immediately because you voted for him a few times? Even with a week full of vote as much as you want the total number cast was less than the amount of people who watched some of those .5 impacts. Thus, obviously not necessarily representative of the whole fanbase. The length of the match was a poor choice but everyone acting like you just got ripped off needs to get a reality check.

 

[farlance]

The reason for the ranking system is simply to get people to go to their website. That way Don West's Insane Deals catch your eye and maybe they make money off of you. Hogan and Bischoff dont give a shit what we think. They prove that week in and week out. I am a huge TNA fan and hope the best, but that Wolfe match was a slap in the face to the fans in my opinion. It is backfiring though. Wolfe is killing everyone else in the polls way more than last week. I dont think he is quite ready to be champ, but I agree with the consensus that he should been given a longer match and on PPV as well.

 

[MB1025]

Also I think Impact was extremely strapped for time because they had to get 2 matches and a segment done in 20 minutes. Something had to of happened to make the opening segment run to long and that is why you had your quick title match.

As far as the ranking system goes, I think it is there to just get people involved and to see what direction the fans want them to go in.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

When it comes to the TNA ranking system with its online interaction, I seem to chuckle and shake my head, because TNA has a great concept of the Ranking system, but now have added the fans input. Not also that, but the fans input is the main factor. Which is pleasing for the fans, but also insulting, because you know TNA won't give us RVD vs. Jeff Hardy every week. (What I mean by this, is we know who the most popular guys are in TNA, and that's who would get the votes.)

The concept they have is a great idea, but it's being used at the wrong time of the year to get a good marketing strategy on this. It should be used during the football season, when Rankings are a big deal, that way TNA can used a couple months to try to pull some new viewers.

Not also that, but the way to do the rankings shouldn't be the fans. In fact, it should be called the TNA championship ranking system. This concept would have 12 single competitors from former champions to never won a title compete in a serious of matches for a 2-3 month span. Every time these guys wrestle you call it a TNA title ranking match, or a TNA championship ranking match. Over that 3 month period you have battle royals, tournaments, fatal 4 ways, single matches, tag matches, hardcore matches, three ways, and gauntlet matches to help promote this concept. Only one title show though! Not a system where everybody on the list is going to end up with a shot. At the end of the TNA championship ranking deal, the winner gets a title shot, and a trophy. This a good way to promote a lot of talent, and to push for a huge PPV main event. Just my idea, but seems like a better concept then online interaction.

My thoughts on the current ranking system is, that it's not as clever as cyber sunday or Taboo Tuesday. At least it's a one time deal, right now TNA is putting a lot of focus on this. Their is a reason why the fans don't get involved that often is because we would want a great match with the same guys over and over. It would quickly kill a great feud. For example, what if Undertaker and Mick Foley had a hell in a cell every two weeks. It would take away from the classic Hell in a Cell match, and we would quickly get tired of them feuding. The ranking system is a bust... For now

 

[JayMiine]

The point of the ranking system is to get the fans involved. Can you let the fans determine every title match by unlimited internet vote and succeed as a company? Of course not, we all know that and TNA never once promised anything like that. TNA initially said they would announce the number 1 contender on impact after Sacrifice and that fan voting would merely be taken into consideration. So they could have easily just took in the votes, essentially ignored them and made whomever they wanted #1 contender.

So why is everyone acting like they are so betrayed when they let Wolfe wrestle the main event vs the champion and let him get some offense in which included setting the champ up for the tower of london. They did not have to do any of this. The vote started one week ago. They are really supposed to scrap everything including the ppv and new champion build and push Wolfe to the moon immediately because you voted for him a few times? Even with a week full of vote as much as you want the total number cast was less than the amount of people who watched some of those .5 impacts. Thus, obviously not necessarily representative of the whole fanbase. The length of the match was a poor choice but everyone acting like you just got ripped off needs to get a reality check.

You must be the one who needs the reality check good sir. Noone is arguing that Wolfe should have won or anything of that nature. The point of this is to argue that in order for the ranking system to be taken a bit more serious proper builds and feuds need to develop from it. RVD/Styles are going to have their rematch--all is good and well. But TNA established this, the fans voted and then the person people wanted to see in a match..gets squashed. It just has bad idea written all over it. Take the votes into consideration..dont give the title shot right away and build off of it. It could be a good idea if used better.

 

[JayMiine]

Not also that, but the way to do the rankings shouldn't be the fans. In fact, it should be called the TNA championship ranking system. This concept would have 12 single competitors from former champions to never won a title compete in a serious of matches for a 2-3 month span. Every time these guys wrestle you call it a TNA title ranking match, or a TNA championship ranking match. Over that 3 month period you have battle royals, tournaments, fatal 4 ways, single matches, tag matches, hardcore matches, three ways, and gauntlet matches to help promote this concept. Only one title show though! Not a system where everybody on the list is going to end up with a shot. At the end of the TNA championship ranking deal, the winner gets a title shot, and a trophy. This a good way to promote a lot of talent, and to push for a huge PPV main event. Just my idea, but seems like a better concept then online interaction.

That is a great idea! That would be awesome if that happened. Sort of like ROH has 5 spots and you dont get a title shot unless youre in the top 5. But with a nice little expansion. Have these guys earn points based on pinfalls and victories. That would be a good idea.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Personally I think the entire reason this poll was created was in the simplest terms a way for TNA to SEEM like they are getting the fans involved with the product when the real truth is nothing could be further from the truth.

TNA created this ranking system because it shows them who the FANS think is deserving of a TNA title shot, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because most likely what they'll do is consistently squash the number 1 contender until the fans vote for someone THEY want to push. My guess is they were hoping for someone like Jeff Hardy to be voted #1 so they could create a feud between Hardy and RVD, but when the polls came out and it showed the fans actually liked WOLFE not Hardy, they gave him a title match and squashed them in hopes that they wont vote for Wolfe anymore because in THEIR minds he's not MAIN EVENT MATERIAL, even though last time I checked Wolfe was still leading the polls even after he got squashed.

If TNA was giving the fans what they wanted, they would of started to push Wolfe and start making him into a Main Event player, not letting him get squashed in 4 minutes. The Rankings really show who the fans think are DESERVING of a main event program, not necessarily who they want as champ. The polls show that the fans really like Desmond Wolfe, so then it might be a good idea to give Desmond Wolfe a real push and make him into a credible contender for the title. Since he won the poll, it shouldn't mean that he needs the title shot right then and there, but it gives him a reason to get that shot in the future (maybe at the next PPV, after you've built him into a credible contender for the title. Wolfe is AWESOME (probably my favorite TNA guy at this point) but he has spent most of his time in TNA losing his matches and feuds, the only reason he isn't fodder right now is because his skills are so good he rises above the crap they put him in).

Essentially its a way for TNA to say they are getting the fans involved and giving them what they want when the truth is they already know what they want to do and really don't give a shit what the fans want, but it looks better because they can say the FANS are choosing the contenders when really they aren't.

I think you hit the nail on the head exactly. When it comes to a concept like this, I'm automatically suspicious of just how legitimate it is. In the case of the TNA Ranking System, Bischoff himself already gave away something that sounds like it ultimately backs up what you've said. Bischoff said that these rankings as determined by fan votes would be taken into consideration by the "TNA Championship Committee" when the time came to determine the #1 contender. That says to me "We kinda wanna know what you think, but we're ultimately going to do what we want in the end". Now, I have no doubt that for the first little while, the #1 fan picks are going to be the ones to get the title shots in order to keep everything looking as though its on the up and up. I don't think that's going to last for very long, however.

 

[K_VonFong]

I don't feel like I need to say much because its already been said well above and I agree with mostly every point already made. This whole ranking system is nothing but a fake gimmick to try and make it seem that TNA gives a crap about what they're fans think.

Bischoff is an arrogant idiot and he's always been one. He believes he knows what's best and that's never going to change.

TNA created this ranking system because it shows them who the FANS think is deserving of a TNA title shot, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because most likely what they'll do is consistently squash the number 1 contender until the fans vote for someone THEY want to push. My guess is they were hoping for someone like Jeff Hardy to be voted #1 so they could create a feud between Hardy and RVD, but when the polls came out and it showed the fans actually liked WOLFE not Hardy, they gave him a title match and squashed them in hopes that they wont vote for Wolfe anymore because in THEIR minds he's not MAIN EVENT MATERIAL, even though last time I checked Wolfe was still leading the polls even after he got squashed.

I agree....the Jeff Hardy point sounds like a realistic possibility to me....

It's obvious that the fans want Wolfe in the title-hunt, but the match we saw on Monday was terrible. We need Wolfe's character to be built up, and we need to believe that there's a chance he could actually win. Not this thrown together at the last-second crap.

Shame on TNA for that, but there's still time to fix the mistake. It's only been a little more than a week since the ranking system has been in place, so maybe we need to be a little more patient.

Again, I think you make solid and logical points Idioteque, but I also think you might have a little too much faith left in TNA. I've been rooting for them years now and I'm more excited to watch TNA every week than I am Raw, but with stunts like this last Monday my faith has been eroding quickly.

And to sum up...here's my favorite thought so far in this thread....

I find it kind of funny that a company built around not listening to it's fans has a fan poll which ultimately they dont listen to either.

SO FUCKING TRUE!!!!

 

[Honkey_Kong]

You guys know actually a ranking system is a good idea. I think TNA implemented the idea poorly. But leave it to Bischoff, Russo and Hogan to fuck things up.

Anyways, suppose they give everyone a ranking and use a similar method to chess rankings to move wrestlers up and down the ranks. Top five can compete for the title, etc.

Here is the kicker which can make the ranking interesting. Have a championship committee that takes care of the ranking. Now you can have a manager manipulate the rankings to give a non-deserving competitor a shot a the title. Kind of like how boxing is. The potential for a good angle is there. But of course TNA will drop the ball.

 

[Coco]

I think people are reading too much into Wolfe's loss. They were short on TV time, but for what they had, it was a fairly even match. I see nothing wrong with how it went down.

As for a ranking system in general, the "point" is obviously to establish a list of top contenders and show the ladder that people need to climb to reach the World Championship. Rankings are never a bad idea as it gives the belt credibility. "Out of nowhere" midcarders getting the belt isn't an issue when you have a top ten rankings to climb through.

However, I think the fan poll shouldn't be the only thing that influence the rankings. Fan appeal of the contenders is important for any business that's interested in making money, but I just can't see it as logical when wrestling relies on many top contenders NOT being liked by the fans. So in addition to the fan poll, there should be a kayfabe aspect to the rankings. IMO, TNA's got a lot of work to do in perfecting this system. Hopefully they put some thought into it.

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

I've got to say that I like the idea and, to some extent, I think Bischoff delivers a solid product, at least better than the E.

I honest to god thought the polling was rigged BECAUSE Wolfe got so much votes. Anderson, Pope, and Hardy are the real vehicles right now, are the best tv friendly, and get the best reaction from the live crowd; I really have a hard time believing Wolfe is more popular than any of those three guys let alone all of them unless, like someone said, a bunch of indy nerds spammed the voting (no offense to any of you who may be indy nerds). Wolfe's good, really good, but has nothing going on right now, and his god-awful valet gets more pop than he does; a solid match to push RVD's steam was a great option in my opinion.

 

[NXTrookie2013]

I'm pretty sure the ranking system is just a vote of TNA fans on who they think should get a world title shot. They had 10 people i think and i think it was just a way to see what tna fans wanted to see and a way to think about who should go for the title i guess. Thats my assumption.

 

[vertigolowe]

As of 9:51pm EST May 5, 2010 here is the current poll

Jeff Jarrett 919 votes 1%
The Pope 1,702 votes 2%
Sting 2,393 votes 3%
Abyss 652 votes 1%
Mr. Anderson 13,989 votes 16%
AJ Styles 1,058 votes 1%
Hernandez 1,002 votes 1%
Rhino 1,761 votes 2%
Matt Morgan 22,840 votes 26%
Brother Ray 675 votes 1%
Brother Devon 941 votes 1%
Jeff Hardy 7,020 votes 8%
Rob Terry 4,657 votes 5%
Kurt Angle 1,506 votes 2%
Desmond Wolfe 27,539 votes 31%

Wolfe is beating Morgan with the two of them having a combined 57% of the votes. Anderson and Hardy have another 24% of the vote. That's a total of 81% of the votes going to 4 guys. Hmmm, I wonder who TNA should be promoting.

Rob Terry gets a respectable 5% of the vote.

Isn't Kurt Angle on hiatus? Isn't Hernandez injured? Why are they even in the voting?

What are Team 3D doing on this list? They are a tag team and neither has ever done well in singles competition.

Rhino is still around? That's cool. Why is he on the list though?

Is Pope injured right now? I know he has the eye thing going on but is he 'inactive' so to speak?

AJ is already gonna have a rematch so even his fans wouldn't bother voting for him.

I was sick of Jarrett before WCW closed. The best part of Abyss was Sinister Minister (his TNA name escapes me at the moment).

Sting hasn't really been doing much lately other than messing with Hogan.

The poster for the Slamiversery ppv is RVD & Sting. If that's the direction they are going in I'd love to see the match.

On the whole, we'll have to wait and see how it plays out over time, but they could easily give a shot to whoever the popular vote getter is and just keep crushing them until the fans vote for someone else because they are sick of seeing their guy get demolished every week. It would also make the vote getter less popular among any other 'fringe' fans who have no real loyalty to the guy.

 

[vertigolowe]

Just to update, I went back to the page just to see about re-voting and it wouldn't let me vote again. So even though I'm sure it's not horribly difficult to get around that, it's not quite a matter of just voting for Wolfe a hundred times to boost his numbers.

 

[shattered dreams]

You must be the one who needs the reality check good sir. Noone is arguing that Wolfe should have won or anything of that nature. The point of this is to argue that in order for the ranking system to be taken a bit more serious proper builds and feuds need to develop from it. RVD/Styles are going to have their rematch--all is good and well. But TNA established this, the fans voted and then the person people wanted to see in a match..gets squashed. It just has bad idea written all over it. Take the votes into consideration..dont give the title shot right away and build off of it. It could be a good idea if used better.

You do realize what you want them to do is exactly what they plan to do. The whole point is to announce the rankings, with the votes merely given consideration, after the ppv and build to the next one. This one week based only on vote thing was a bonus. They ran short on time and now everyone is losing their mind and acting like their was some implied contract that voting for Wolfe to be considered in rankings after the PPV meant he was entitled to something two weeks before that solely based on the votes. See how this logic fails?

 

[admaildaniel]

I love the concept of the ranking system. I think its too early to tell if TNA is going to use it properly. One thing you guys don't seem to realize is that Impact! only has a set amount of time to run and that's why the RVD - Wolfe match was so short. Don't get me wrong - I voted for Wolfe but unless its a PPV I doubt the outcome would be any different if the match went for 15-20 minutes.

Lets give them some time before we decide they are bombing the idea - that's all I's saying.

 

[K_VonFong]

Shattered Dreams is either a "special" type of guy or a Troll.

* I would know, I've been one ugly troll in the past.

You do realize what you want them to do is exactly what they plan to do. The whole point is to announce the rankings, with the votes merely given consideration, after the ppv and build to the next one.

Whoa, didn't know we had a TNA executive on our board. Or are you a psychic? You have no proof of this and the only real evidence out there (last week's Impact) points to thrown together garbage to try and make it appear that they're appeasing the fan's desires.

This one week based only on vote thing was a bonus. They ran short on time and now everyone is losing their mind and acting like their was some implied contract that voting for Wolfe to be considered in rankings after the PPV meant he was entitled to something two weeks before that solely based on the votes. See how this logic fails?

Dude, how many times does someone have to tell you. NOBODY IS ASKING THAT DESMOND WOLFE BE GIVEN A WORLD TITLE, ALL PEOPLE HAVE SAID IS TO GIVE HIM SOME PROPER BUILD UP AND GIVE HIM A LEGIT MAIN-EVENT PUSH. To attempt to clarify more for you....a main event push is defined as being promoted into main-event storylines, or given a big feud with a main-eventer, but does not mean automatically winning the title. If you want the rankings system to have some value or meaning, then you have to take the results seriously. That doesn't mean that if Bubba Love Sponge is voted #1 then he beats RVD next week, but if it's someone actually legit like Wolfe then it's different. (And DUH its early, but just because its only in the 1st quarter of a game doesn't mean you can't screw up) Logic still failing?

They ran short on time and now everyone is losing their mind

OK, one more thing. Many of the TNA defenders are using "time limit" as an excuse for the Desmond Wolfe crap. Well, it's not necessarily the 5 minute match that's bad. NOBODY expected Wolfe to win the title in some 20 minute **** match, that's not it. It's the lack of a REAL push or build up in anyway. For example, Wolfe is a jobber in the opening segment, no mentions or hype of his character, he's just another one of Flair's goons getting beat up. Then Hogan comes out and announces the title shot. TNA COULD HAVE...had Wolfe hit Hogan with a chair, take out RVD, etc...something to make him at least stand out in the opening segment, therefore making his title shot a bit more relevant. You also could have given him a couple segments throughout the show to put him over more, not a segment where he's just getting lectured by Flair like a fool. Try to hype him and make an attempt to put his character over even a little bit, just try somewhat since you just booked the guy in a world title shot......but they didn't even do that.

 

[Muffin Top Merkley]

Just because someone wins an unlimited poll on the internet does not mean those thoughts accurately reflect all of TNA's fanbase.

Then don't give us the option to vote if our votes aren't going to be taken seriously. Obviously, if Wolfe received the largest number of votes from TNA fans, then TNA fans want to see Wolfe vs. Rob Van Dam. Why not give us what we want to make us continue to turn in rather than half ass it because our voting wasn't apart of your booking plans.

They did not have to give the match a week after the polling started or ever.

Agreed. This is a match that TNA fans voted to see. Why not put more of an emphasis on the fact that he won the pool leading up to the match instead of giving it one quick mention during the actual match itself.

Fans wanted to see this match. TNA should have anounce that Wolfe vs RVD would take place at next weeks Impact in order to better promote both the match that we want to see, plus give us credit for voting.

The match was too short but that might have been a live show problem or it is indeed possible they simply wanted to discourage wolfe voting.

Again, we wanted to see this match so why half-ass it and cut it short? Why not give this match a legit chance of being one of the best matches on Impact as of late?

Why would they want to discourage Wolfe voting? If Desmond Wolfe continues to do well in the polls, TNA should notice that he is someone that the fans want to see.

By voting, we are making it easier for TNA by telling them who we want to see vs. the champion. They don't have to guess as to what match we would like, we are telling them and all they have to do is give it the proper amount of air time for us to enjoy it.

Dixie Carter praises TNA for always listening to its fans. If the fans are telling TNA this is the match we want to see, why wouldn't they give it to us?

 

[TheBestThereNevaWas]

I would also like to add that I don't buy into the "it's early, let's wait and see" line with the poll concept. TNA should've had a clear idea of how they wanted to implement this before announcing it. We have no idea how long it's supposed to go for, and what happens now that Wolfe got his title shot? Does he get another one after the PPV if he's still the leading vote-getter. And you can tell it wasn't well thought out because some of the wrestlers on the poll list have no business being on it.

How are you supposed to improve a product if you won't even take the time to properly plan a concept you're introducing?

I'm all for a 10 wrestler ranking system like an earlier poster said. A friend of mine has been screaming about it for years wondering why no organization did it. Now ROH has something similar. I think the ranking system would allow fueds to develop easily and pretty much write themselves, while stressing the importance of the belt.

 

[Gerald Brisco]

I Urge all of you to vote Brother Devon as the next contender for the TNA world title.

Seriously? the Dudleys are on the vote page, they wont make a big deal out of anything untill someone like Jeff/Sting/Abyss get voted in. Everyone else it will be a under 3 minute Match.

 

[whatalife1683]

I think what TNA did was poorly booked. By the way, the time limit is no excuse no matter what. They know what they are going to do before the show starts, so they had plenty of time to booked things properly and timely. Shattered Dreams I do not think you understand what people are saying. You are entitled to have your opinion, but you can not get on people for the opionions they have. The majority of people feel it was poorly booked, and nobody was saying Wolfe should have been given the belt. He should have been built up over the program, so the match between him and RVD could feel special at the show or at some PPV.

 

[RVDisTNA]

Its a way to guage who's over (Desmond Wolfe) and who's not (Abyss). Its that simple.

 

[steveh0481]

I think its a way to get Bischoff some more air time. I think he and Hogan are having a contest to see who can get the most exposure.

I completely agree that if they want this idea to work it NEEDS time to develop. The squash match this week on Impact was a joke. They needed this match to last at LEAST 10-15 minutes. Make it seem like Wolfe has a chance to beat RVD. I dont think a title swap needs to happen now, but if we are gonna have a ranking system, the #1 guy should last MORE than 5 minutes.

 

[philbrooks]

Its a way to guage who's over (Desmond Wolfe) and who's not (Abyss). Its that simple.

Too bad they dont act on that guage and continue to push Abyss over Wolfe.

 

[RVDisTNA]

it is a shame. abyss barely gets a reaction from the crowd. it reminds me of when the fans started getting tired of Eugene.