Think about How Far TNA has come in the last year

[Baximus]

Lockdown 2009: Foley v. Sting for the TNA title. Yech.......

Look at the guys on the top of the card for TNA one year ago: Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley, Sting, Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner, AJ Styles, Daniels and Samoa Joe. Those were the top 10 booked guys for TNA's Lockdown 2009 PPV.

Now look at the top three matches:

AJ Styles v. Pope for the Title. Major upgrade in terms of interest and in-ring action. Not to mention that their collective age is about half the age of Sting and Foley.

Sting, Beer Money and Wolfe versus Jeff Hardy, RVD, Abyss and Jarett in the Lockdown match. There was exactly one guy on both sides who could be considered 'old' and the rest of the young guys were given plenty of exposure.

Mr. Anderson v. Kurt Angle in the best match of 2010. Enough said.

They've essentially trimmed the ageing fat (Steiner, Booker, Nash, Foley) from the Main Event and replaced it with two of the last decade's biggest stars (Hardy and RVD), young rising talent (Pope, Wolfe, Beer Money, Abyss) and put them into a package that hasn't been overexposed for a long time.

A year ago, TNA was as good as they were going to get with all of the old guys atop the card. Now? There is serious growth potential across the card and top to bottom their roster is significantly stronger.

TNA's ratings might have fallen to a 1.0 on Mondays from a peak of 1.2-1.3 on Thursdays but they have a much stronger roster now and I think they have a significantly higher ceiling now that they have a younger, more charismatic but equally famous Main Event. Hell, their card is so deep that Nash is back in a second tier tag team role, Angle can get time off of TV and Joe has refocused on the X Division!

If they keep up their recent momentum (and my in-person experience for this week's Impact taping leads me to believe they will) then their ratings are going to start rising beyond anything they could have realistically achieved with last year's roster. Literally every segment has some serious star power, which should make for some fantastic TV.

 

[16mikeytot]

All that really happened was Tna brought in about 15 people and moved to monday nights. It's funny how you said you enjoyed impact more than raw or smackdown I agree that they put on better matches than raw but I don't know about smackdown. Raw could put on as good as Tna anytime they want yet they choose not to. I think a huge step for Tna will be when they leave the impact zone. I wanna see how many people would show up to see impact on a weekly bases.

 

[RVDisTNA]

Yeah... I was watching TNA Monday and after seeing A great match between Jeff Hardy and RVD i turned over to Raw and this is what I saw... K-Kwik getting blown up on stage by two hillbillies I've never heard of...

WWE is insulting.

 

[WWE Manster03]

I can definately agree with you that TNA has come quite some way since Lockdown last year. They are realistically trying to focus on newer/younger talent as opposed to the older wrestlers on the roster getting the rub every time, ala the way the MEM was booked for a while.
That being said, I want to see a consistent product put out from them over the next month or so. You said that this weeks taping was solid, and after reading the spoilers it doesn't look terrible but you never know how that will translate to TV. I have to trust that they can continue a storyline without gimmicks, and 2 weeks isn't really enough to show me. IF they can continue, then they will definately grab more ratings and thus will start to get Vince's attention. As a WWE fan, my main goal is to have 2 bigtime wrestling promotions were talent can shine if they don't fit a particular brand's vision(think Eddie Guererro/Beniot and Y2J coming to WWF from WCW). If that happens, I think Vince will give creative a push that they definately need on Raw( I only say Raw because Smackdown has been booked VERY well lately) and this will lead to more compelling TV from them, regardless of the TV PG rating.
TNA also needs to be able to get away from the Impact Zone to realistically make any bigtime changes because they need funds. It is my understanding that they get no door money for Impact tapings correct? If they were to charge $5 a ticket for Impact Zone seats, or a package like season tickets for Baseball/Football/Basketball/etc then they would make WAY more money than they do now and that would allow them to tour more for their TV shows. Just my 2 cents of course but I think that would help a ton.

 

[tasha16213]

While you say that TNA is better than raw and smackdown i disagree with you, while TNA may be better than Raw it is not better than Smackdown. I really enjoy Smackdown i like the matchs and the storylines its not the same old blah that you see on Raw week in and week out. TNA really hasnt come that far in my opinion they still dont put on a very good show with the exception of last mondays impact with was good i thought. However one show doesnt make it a good brand it will be interesting to see what TNA doesnt next mondy and to see if it can keep up with the good show they put on monday or if they will just fall back to where they were. I do like that there is to brands right now because hopefully TNA will do well and this will push the RAW to put on a better show,but thats just my opinion

 

[ABMorales787]

Yeah... I was watching TNA Monday and after seeing A great match between Jeff Hardy and RVD i turned over to Raw and this is what I saw... K-Kwik getting blown up on stage by two hillbillies I've never heard of...

WWE is insulting.

Yeah. But to defend them a bit, they were improvising. TNA has come a long freakin' way in a year. I joined the forum in September and all the talk was about how TNA would just fizzle into obscurity and Hulk Hogan never joining TNA. A month later everyone had their mouths bitchslapped shut. The roster itself has come a long way as well. I would've never have imagined AJ Styles finally being a credible main eventer, or Abyss. Samoa Joe is on his way back to the top as well. The development of the roster has become a huge plus. It was only 2 years ago when people were complaining about TNA never making their own talent. Not the case today.

 

[cnmasaki]

For my money, TNA has gone from being that pathetic little fed on the little channel that WWE ditched, to being something exciting to watch as it grows. WWE has infinitely more potential but is squandering it horribly. TNA is going out there every night they can and giving it everything they've got. They reek of desperation, however, they're fighting as hard as they can and with their growing roster of excellence, the improved writing, and the fiercely rabid fan base, I could see them challenging WWE for the top spot by Summer of 2011.

However, it's going to be a long road, and TNA MUST stay true to it's course. They've turned over the entire main event scene, and it'd be really easy to start falling into a rut because it's easier than driving forward and taking chances. Vince is very safe. The combination of Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo is NOT safe, but it has the potential to be absolutely riveting, and I'm very happy to be a convert.

 

[tasha16213]

I also think that if TNA does get Jim Ross that this could be the biggest and best thing for TNA. Having someone come work with you that knows WWE as well as Jim Ross does could do nothing but help TNA. He knows what gets ratings im hoping this happens

 

[wushady]

They may be headed in the right direction with some younger guys. RVD is getting older he wont be there for the long haul. I doubt they want to build the company around Jeff Hardy with his history of being unreliable. They really haven't improved much since this time last year. They are still in Orlando every week and their ratings dropped since moving to Mondays.

They wont be considered successful until the get their ratings up and are able to sell tickets for Impact outside of Orlando.

 

[Gramage]

exposure.

Mr. Anderson v. Kurt Angle in the best match of 2010. Enough said.

Huh? I just don't get why people thing this decent match was so great. I'd say just for starters AJ/Angle January 4th was better, and I could list several better Ring of Honor matches this year (Kenny Omega/Davey Richards being my match of the year choice so far)

It's certainly been a dramatic year for TNA, but one with a whole lot of crap. Mick Foley's run I consider a disappointment, the Nasty boys (1991's most overrated tag team) actually had a run, the Knockout division has really gone downhill in terms of product and the X-division hasn't been pushed they way I'd prefer, and the balance between wrestling and skits has quite often been terrible.

Now amongst this it's been a year of fantastic tag team wrestling (other then the Nasty Boys) the best debut any wrestler has had in years (Desmond Wolfe) AJ's pre-heel turn title run was excellent, Pope's been amazing, Matt Morgan has found his character/role, Black Machismo and Hulk Hogan have been on camera together (please bring Macho in for at least one day!) and there have been moments of flat out great wrestling

I don't know which way TNA is going, but there's enough good amongst the crap to keep me interested.

 

[Pryde]

Yes, TNA has come very far in the last year. They've gone from low 1's to.... low 1's or less! What growth, and in only one year! The spotlight went from a bunch of old has-beens in the Main Event Mafia to the spotlight being held by a bunch of old has-beens in Hogan, Flair and Bischoff who get by far more tv time then anyone else on the entire roster, along with having the show entirely revolve around them. They've gone from desperate booking and storylines that make no sense to... desperate booking and storylines that make no sense. The Knockouts division is in far worse a state then it was a year ago, so has the tag team division, and the X division hasn't improved much at all since the place it was last year.

That about sums it up.

Sure there's some fresh faces, and sure some younger talent are getting what seems like pushes, but it's not as clear cut as that. AJ Styles is now a clone of Ric Flair so that Ric Flair can stay in the spotlight and continue to live the wrestling life through someone else, but it's still all about Flair. The same goes with Abyss whose now been turned into a body for Hulk Hogan to continue to steal the spotlight through; it's still all about Hogan. Desmond Wolfe and Beer Money aren't in the top tier of the roster, they've been used as nothing but jobbers to the stars for months now and haven't been given any time to shine on their own. RVD isn't young, and he's only been in TNA a few months and suddenly is already champion, while Pope and other younger talent have been brushed aside. Jeff Hardy's about to be tossed in jail and is a druggie, and yet he's given more spotlight then other, more deserving talents.

Oh, but they did move to Monday. That's something!

 

[stavros241000]

TNA is easily better and more exciting but when people realize tat is the questionyoung wrestling fans are realy stuburn cuz Tna's new roster iz awesome(like the MIZ!!!) they just need to spend more time on the creative for ppv

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It amazes me how people can overlook the fact that TNA has put out an extremely shitty product for most of 2010 all because they put on a handful of good shows and put the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on RVD. Hulk Hogan comes to TNA on January 4th, they put on a great show, score the biggest ratings they've had in the show's history and then the product goes down hill quickly.

We see the Nasty Boys wasting everyone's time with pointless matches against the Dudleyz, we see Sean Morely go over Christopher Daniels, burn outs like Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, Ric Flair behaving and carrying on as if he's going senile, Hulk Hogan being featured in every other segment of the show, Abyss being shoved down everyone's throats despite the fact that he's completely terrible, the Knockout Division becoming completely pointless, Rob Terry actually having a championship despite being awful and having a champioinship that nobody cares about, Bubba the Love Sponge running around and contributing absolutely nothing whatsoever to TNA, the tag team division heading south with the tag titles becoming little more than props to Matt Morgan's heel turn.

Just because TNA put on a show last Monday that featured a world title change and a couple of dream matches doesn't automatically mean that TNA has turned itself around, nor does it wipe out all the crap that it's put out for a good long while. It's going to take more than one good show popping up every once in a while to make me think that TNA is better than it was.

 

[Baximus]

It amazes me how people can overlook the fact that TNA has put out an extremely shitty product for most of 2010 all because they put on a handful of good shows and put the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on RVD. Hulk Hogan comes to TNA on January 4th, they put on a great show, score the biggest ratings they've had in the show's history and then the product goes down hill quickly.

We see the Nasty Boys wasting everyone's time with pointless matches against the Dudleyz, we see Sean Morely go over Christopher Daniels, burn outs like Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, Ric Flair behaving and carrying on as if he's going senile, Hulk Hogan being featured in every other segment of the show, Abyss being shoved down everyone's throats despite the fact that he's completely terrible, the Knockout Division becoming completely pointless, Rob Terry actually having a championship despite being awful and having a champioinship that nobody cares about, Bubba the Love Sponge running around and contributing absolutely nothing whatsoever to TNA, the tag team division heading south with the tag titles becoming little more than props to Matt Morgan's heel turn.

Just because TNA put on a show last Monday that featured a world title change and a couple of dream matches doesn't automatically mean that TNA has turned itself around, nor does it wipe out all the crap that it's put out for a good long while. It's going to take more than one good show popping up every once in a while to make me think that TNA is better than it was.

I think I need to clarify what I wrote because people seem to be taking it like I was complimenting the past year of wrestling and writing as being fantastic. That's not the case.

What I am saying is that last year's TNA roster had pretty much tapped out its potential thanks to age, overexposure and lack of recognition beyond the M.E.M. and Foley.

The TNA we have today has significantly more potential with a younger roster that can still wrestle great matches that TNA can really continue to grow with. Last year, the undercards were average, at best, in terms of recognition and stature. This year? The undercards include some of last year's MAIN EVENTERS!

While I'm really excited to see where this goes after a great Lockdown and two strong Impact tapings, I'm not going to say that things are automatically peachy and TNA is going to start drawing 2.0s. I mean, they did bring in the fucking Nasty Boyz for christ's sake. But I think that if the writing continues to be solid, every Impact should be All Killer and No Filler.

Clear enough now?