Thoughts from a TNA virgin...

[Balls_of_Jericho]

Howdy folks,

I hope you'll apologise for me barging on in here and pontificating on my first real watch of TNA. I don't really have any questions for you to answer, but what I CAN offer you is the thoughts of someone with no preconcieved ideas about whether the product is good bad or indifferent, coming from someone who really only watched WWE up til now. I know very little back history of the story lines - all I have ever done before is flick over once in a while
because i've heard how good Mr Styles is, or to see Daffney...

Ahem, anyway, i've just finished watching the last two weeks shows - the first one's i've ever watched in entirety. It started with several pretty average matches (wtf has happened to Jeff Hardy?? He looks fat and uninterested and lazy!!)

Anyway a few things that struck me as I was watching:

A lot of the moves - sorry I don't know the names for a lot of them - seem to be done with a lot more FORCE than in WWE programming - one especially made me rewind, It was some black chap (was it jay lethal??) absolutely ramming some dude's head into the canvas. looked very painful! That was pretty much the highlight of the singles matches for me - they were so-so and apart from some different (and excellent) moves done with high voltage it wasn't much special.

However... the saving grace of TNA over the two eposodes I watched were
the amazing Knockouts - yeah pretty cute n all, but HOW the Diva's can even think they're in the same league is beyond me - these chicks could go toe to toe with some of the small guys!

and last but not least, the tag-teams.

Oh my gods...

For someone bored to death of watching the bleedin' Hart foundation zzzzzz..
what an eye opener was it to see Beer Money, MCMG (oh my!! amazing!!) and even the umm 2 young lads... looked like a young hardy boys?? sick moves, and done so, so, so fast and cleanly! A joy to behold.


It was also interesting for me to see Nash. I got into wrestling after he had his day in the sun with the other guys - but on a related note, there were a lot of matches which featured ex-wwe stars vs original tna'ers. Seemed that the teams were rarely mixed up. I don't know if that's something you've got going on atm, or it shows divisions in the locker room or what?


If I can leave this ramble on a slight downside though?

They really should stop the shameless self publication. If you aspire to be the best you should not need to TELL people that you're ace. Your product should speak for itself. Seemed like half the talky bits were that "we're awesome!"

Anyway, was a fun couple hours, I shall tape it in future. Sorry for waffling but just thought you should know that there is some real nice stuff coming from the impact zone - no matter what any knockers say!

Feel free to correct any of my probably many mistakes!


Balls!


Oh yeah.. EV2.0? ewww!

 

[RD_21]

I made a lengthy reply saying how WWE is lacking wrestling and TNA offer me my fix as a wrestling fan and that's what I like about TNA because I mark every impact and see moves that the WWE can't and don't allow their performers to make but it got lost when I try to post it.

But that's what I like TNA for and that's why I started watching a couple of weeks/months ago because I couldn't get myself to watch Raw or Smackdown!, I only like Punk and now Del Rio.

But TNA, I can't miss a week. Sure the storytwelling is not perfect and TNA need to work the mark to established clear cut heel and face but it's still the best wrestling show (I didn't say entertainement) available. I kinda wish TNA would go even more wrestling focus like when they were calling themselves the alternative, but to me TNA is wrestling and that's what I am looking for as a wrestling fan.

 

[SydTinDad]

IMO (and you will think I am crazy), it's just how I feel about the NFL. I have to watch a game with the sound off at times because the announcing is so bad (Gus Johnson, Ron Pitts, Kevin Harlan are a few examples of the worst the NFL has to offer).

I truly believe that if TNA had a REAL announcer like Jim Ross, Joey Styles, or even Tony Shavoinne, ratings would immediately perk up. If they got rid of that panzy ass Mike Tenay who doesn't know the difference between a story line and a close line, I certainly would be able to give it an honest chance to grow on me. But, Tenay absoluetly sucks balls.

Cole is no Jim Ross, but he's a hell of alot better than Tenay.

 

[nightmare]

whoa whoa whoa. say what you will about dixie carter being blind to the needs of a promotion or russo's lack of good storylines but ur gonna diss tenay? mike tenay holds some cred with me & alot of other fans. he has a great knowledge of the talent\history in wrestling. & despite what the above poster said- he actually knows the names of moves & can carry the broadcast along with proper emotion. whereas fucking michael cole dosnt know shit unless someone tells him thru a earpiece.

now on to the op. im glad you have given tna a chance instead of blindly bashing them based on others opinions. tna tries to put action in the matches, like you were saying. moves with impact so to speak. they have a great handle on the tag division w\ imo the 2 best teams in the business. (wish the briscoes were there). and the knockouts would destroy the divas in wwe, hands down. some of the stroylines get out of hand but the foundation is there every week for great action. keep watching & sharing what you think. id rather hear opinions from other fans about good\bad on both sides & not just constant rambling of the zombie-like 'cenation'.

 

[TheBWO]

Does anyone ever notice how Tenay always adds another adjective into the move? Some call it genius, I call it irritating. Why can't a missle dropkick be a missle dropkick? Why does it have to be a "Flying Aero-Dynamic Missle Dropkick"....or a Tornado DDT is "Flying Tornado Twisted DDT"?.....I know that's not what he calls it, but some of you get the point. I think he's trying to be too much like Gordon Solie (i.e. "professor" Mike Tenay....who gave him that moniker?). I'm not bashing TNA per se....just his announcing.

 

[Trill Co$by]

TNA's got its downside, sure, but I will say that what you like is spot on for what most people love about TNA. Machine Guns, Beer Money, and Generation Me (the Hardy Boy like team you talked about) are perfect examples of tag team wrestling done right. Sure, WWE can put two people together and sale tickets, but only TNA can find tag teams that actually click to me.

I would hate to see someone with Kane's gimmick mixed with someone like Rey Mysterio's style. Or hell maybe a chosen one mixed with a dashing one... or rockstar wanna be with rap star wannabe... or my favorite pairing, a comedic Italian with a serious Russian.

TNA puts teams together that makes sense and not some bull shitters like Kozlov and Santino. Serious if Vladimir were in TNA, I bet you he'd have championship gold right now.

 

[Phenomenal]

Finally some one with sense on these forums. It's obvious OP isnt interested in the booking as knows its fake and just watches the AWSOME young guys that wrestle in TNA.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

Finally some one with sense on these forums. It's obvious OP isnt interested in the booking as knows its fake and just watches the AWSOME young guys that wrestle in TNA.

I know exactly what you mean. She basically said all the stuff that I was TNA for. ( Or he, sorry )

Ubiased opinion about a product. Logical criticism...this is a weird feeling. I read something written by someone with a brain!

See, this OP just goes to show that people just need to give TNA a chance. I was exactly like him/her. I was only watching WWE and I shat on every other company. I used to come to these forums and say how Vince has an empire and that TNA can never beat him. I used to bash TNA because of stuff I've heard other people say. I was one of 'them'.

Then one happy sunny day I saw iMPACT and that was it. Now I want WWE to die. No, I know what they are and who they are and what they did, I just want them to die. All of 'em. Take the kids too. ( Take this literally now, c'mon, I know you want to )

Anyway, it's very hard to NOT like TNA. Seriously, if you choose not to watch a program because it's ran by Hogan/Bischoff, if you choose to not watch a program because it has old wrestlers in it ( even though the majority of them can still go as well and sometimes better than 90% of WWE's mid-card but whatever they're over 40 that means they automatically suck ), or because the arena is too small, production sucks or whatever stupid reason, then whoever you are - you're a fucking twat.

They have their minuses, can't see 'em, but apparently they do. And for some awkward reason people act as if some negative stuff equal total fail. Tell you what, if you count the bad stuff in TNA and then the bad stuff in WWE you'll find out that WWE absolutely blows compared to TNA. The same goes for the positive sides. Cuz hey, don't know if anybody noticed, but TNA has the exact same ammount of "old" wrestlers as WWE does. TNA gets bashed for trying to reincarnate The Attitude Era and have a little WCW and ECW flavor in it, while the WWE is following a pattern they did over 20 fucking years ago.

Anyway, I'm glad that you gave TNA a chance. Hope you enjoy watching both programs.

 

[Whatsinaname696]

Tenay wouldn't know a story line from a "close line" ? FAIL ...to the OPs point, TNA certainly has it's flaws, but good to know you enjoy some aspects of the program, the only thing that REALLY irks me is Dixie coming out, stay in the back where you belong sweetie, not a star, not gonna be

 

[Gura]

TNA needs to go back to when it was without Hogan, Hogan's gotten some ratings now its time to screw job the shit out of that old ***.

Seriously, you can see the difference.
They shouldnt have had the EV 2.0 story line, seriously.
Leaving RVD bloodies up and in the hospital, why couldnt they just keep him there.

Because RVD did over 60 events, hah. Man.

 

[bigbadwolf2010]

Gura I disagree, I think Hogan actually made the product better. Yes at first it was pretty bad but ever since about June I think they've done a tremendous job. The product really has changed and it doesn't feel so all over the place as it did during spring. Although I agree with you that you disagree that the EV 2.0 story line shouldin't of have been made, I still find it more entertaining than the united jobbers of unification: nexus.

I think the future for tna is looking bright. People were saying that tna needs to stop throwing sticks at the wall to see what sticks, well I think they finally found some sticks that do stick to the wall because lately the product has been so fantastic I'm just dieing to find out what happens next on impact. You should just stop watching and forget about it if you really hate it so much that you need to complain about it so extensively.

 

[NWannabe]

I'd say late July to Mid august is when the turn around came. But Hogan really did leavea black mark on TNA. Especially compared to 04.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

Why is it when anyone criticizes TNA all the Fanboys on here just go up in arms? Yeah I watch TNA too but how anyone can still defend what they do is just amazing sometimes. I for one do not need to see Dixie Carter on TV every 5 Seconds,it just makes my head explode. I also get tired of Hogan saying Oh Yeah Brother We're Raising The Bar here Brother,just stop it Hulk its not cool anymore. If I want to see you cut a Promo I will watch your WWF/E & WCW stuff. The ECW/EV 2/Extreme Violence whatever Faction is ok I guess but those guys are over the hill and its not helping TNA one bit IMO. I also do not care about Abyss and his THEY deal,honestly will it really matter in the long run whoever it turns out to be? I still like seeing Ric Flair,he still is entertaining after leaving WWE. I like AJ Styles & Beer Money so thats one plus for TNA in that regard.

The Sting/Kevin Nash/Jeff Jarrett Saga I have no idea where that is going but knowing TNA I doubt it will really go anywhere and they'll drop it without a proper end. I still like seeing Jeff Hardy,Mr Kennedy/Anderson,Kurt Angle,Dudley Boyz,Sting,RVD,etc.

So while I prefer WWE over TNA I do watch them also (for some reason) just to see what they are doing and to see the Older Faces I mentioned but thats about it.

 

[aks86]

TNA needs to go back to when it was without Hogan, Hogan's gotten some ratings now its time to screw job the shit out of that old ***.

Seriously, you can see the difference.
They shouldnt have had the EV 2.0 story line, seriously.
Leaving RVD bloodies up and in the hospital, why couldnt they just keep him there.

Because RVD did over 60 events, hah. Man.

I''ve seen a lot of TNA fans saying that Hogan and his cronies are bringing in ratings but its simply not true. A historical comparison of the ratings for the same time period from the previous 2 years shows that ratings have more or less remained the same and occasionally there has been slight bumps.

http://www.wrestlingnewsworld.com/tna-ratings/ (2009)

http://www.wrestlingnewsworld.com/tna-ratings/2008.php (2008)

Notice that a year or 2 ago, they were at least consistently getting 1.0-1.1's. This was all accomplished without spending millions upon millions of dollars on some of these established "stars". I mean even waltman and hall were making 3000$ per appearance for basically doing nothing. A true increase would be at least more than 50% of the original and even that is not much considering the amount of money TNA is spending. Also don't forget that for weeks tna got the worst ratings in their entire history (0.6 being the lowest) during the monday night "wars" and all of this star power in the roster didn't help. What about all the massive advertising campaign that Spike TV paid for ? Had Spike TV and Dixie Carter been more agressive initially when promoting TNA maybe they wouldn't have had to bring in Hogan in the first place. Hogans doesn't equal ratings, advertising equals ratings.

They would be much better off spending all of that money on hiring talented people from the indy circuit. While Tna is hiring has beens from ECW/WWE, WWE is signing Dos Caras Jr. , Tyler Black, Bryan Danielson, Wade Barett, Justin Gabriel, The Uso's, Heath Slater (slag him all you want but he's still better than atleast 50% of TNA's roster and its WWE they can turn anyone into a star with their marketing), Skip Sheffield etc. Theres more talent coming over from Indy's as well as the NXT show. What exactly will TNA do with wrestlers who are way way past their primes ? I mean most of the EV2 crew with the exception of Raven never drew anything.

With the genuine star power that the WWE has at the moment, there's no way that a company like TNA can stand toe to toe with it, even if it does have the almighty Hulk Hogan at the helm attempting to steady the ship. TNA should stop dedicating it's air time to washed up has-beens and start concentrating on the wrestlers of the future that can lead the company into a proper war with WWE. I mean this is not even like WCW 15 years back when Bischoff was hiring hall, nash and all these other established stars who were in their late 30's - early 40's. Birschoff is using the exact strategy today except that he can't get any of the established WWE stars so he would rather hire his ex-WCW buddies (atleast a decade past their prime) or ex-ECW guys (half a decade past their prime + 0 star power) or the more recent useless guys from WWE.

 

[smokinglizard]

Why is it when anyone criticizes TNA all the Fanboys on here just go up in arms? Yeah I watch TNA too but how anyone can still defend what they do is just amazing sometimes. I for one do not need to see Dixie Carter on TV every 5 Seconds,it just makes my head explode. I also get tired of Hogan saying Oh Yeah Brother We're Raising The Bar here Brother,just stop it Hulk its not cool anymore. If I want to see you cut a Promo I will watch your WWF/E & WCW stuff. The ECW/EV 2/Extreme Violence whatever Faction is ok I guess but those guys are over the hill and its not helping TNA one bit IMO. I also do not care about Abyss and his THEY deal,honestly will it really matter in the long run whoever it turns out to be? I still like seeing Ric Flair,he still is entertaining after leaving WWE. I like AJ Styles & Beer Money so thats one plus for TNA in that regard.

The Sting/Kevin Nash/Jeff Jarrett Saga I have no idea where that is going but knowing TNA I doubt it will really go anywhere and they'll drop it without a proper end. I still like seeing Jeff Hardy,Mr Kennedy/Anderson,Kurt Angle,Dudley Boyz,Sting,RVD,etc.

So while I prefer WWE over TNA I do watch them also (for some reason) just to see what they are doing and to see the Older Faces I mentioned but thats about it.

If you take a good hard look at all the names in your post, you'll glean exactly what's wrong with TNA: Hogan, Flair, Sting, Nash, Jarrett, Angle, Dudleys, RVD...they're all OLD and way past their prime, yet they still command -- or, rather, DEMAND -- the spotlight. Meanwhile the younger talent gets relegated to the midcard. TNA's just living for today, trying to bump up the ratings week-to-week, rather than building the future talent base of pro wrestling.