Time For TNA To Take A Page Out Of NXT's Book?

[Turd Ferguson]

So far, WWE NXT is in its infancy, and it's been a hit. Daniel Bryan was the only real known quantity (and he's semi-known) of the show, and in three short weeks, the WWE has taken him and the other seven NXT rookies and gotten you to care about them. The focus has been on the eight rookies, and while the veterans are there, the focus is still on the new guys. There has been development of character in all eight rookies, and as a viewer, you're getting the opportunity to care about them.

TNA has hit a wall ratingswise. Sure, you have the older and popular stars, but the surprise and novelty wears off. TNA can't be pinning their success on these older guys, when they only have limited time left. If Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are the future for TNA, they're in trouble. The quarter hour breakdowns showed that the main event of Hogan/Abyss vs. Flair/Styles did a .76. That's really bad. I think it's proven at this point that those guys being the focus are not going to be doing anything for ratings growth.

I've said it many times, TNA has a very talented roster that is getting outshined for the AARP members. Why not do something very similar to what NXT is doing, and pair the talent they have with managers? You already have a start with Hogan and Abyss and Flair and Styles. They need to continue on that, and base Impact on the younger guys, with the older guys passing the torch. TNA's future is not in Team 3D, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Mick Foley, and Sting. It's in guys like AJ, Abyss, MCMG, Matt Morgan, Hernandez, and Desmond Wolfe. Of course, TNA would have to differentiate itself with how they do it, but if it's successful, TNA will truly be an alternative to Raw and the WWE.

 

[jmyers19]

First off I'll start by saying I don't love or hate TNA. But I do love the concept of NXT, Daniel Bryan is just spectacular, the other day I was watching my Best Of CM Punk DVD, and one of the bonus features is a match Bryan Danielson and CM Punk had in ROH and it was just, wow. Legendary HOF'er Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat was the guest ref aswell.

Anyways, I have to say what you've pitched is pretty interesting. Despite me not liking TNA I'm still a huge RVD fan and checked out his debut, and I couldn't help but hate it on so many levels, they had him beat 'The Icon' Sting in about 20 seconds. Great Van Damn won but you don't job out Sting, especially to Rolling Thunder. Second of all was how the commentators sold it, Taz saying something about help is needed for Hogan. Hogan? He took like what four or five shots whereas Van Dam took more shots. So if they did choose to pair rookies with pros, and lord knows they have a lot of pros on TNA, it would really help if they want to bring up their younger talent, could even do it with tag teams and the womens division as well. It wouldn't get me watching mind you but it'd be something pretty interesting and helpful for the product and fresh aswell, but I can hardly go into detail since I don't watch it so I guess its best for the TNA fans to go into detail about that sort of stuff.

 

[dogg77]

I'm still alittle "iffy" about NXT. 1 thing i'm not to big on, is that there is not enough time for them all to wrestle. Personally I kinda liked Tough Enough better. Don't get me wrong, I think NXT does have potential. As for TNA doing something similar, I don't think they should. They need to find something that WWE IS'NT doing, and do it. I think an idea for TNA would be to make seperate programming for X-Division, and TNA Knockouts. They do that, maybe those divisions would get alittle more exposure?

 

[Greenlight13]

I see what you're saying but I have one key gripe. I personally only care about Bryan Danielson. I was excited about seeing all of them before the show started but I don't think much of the other 7 in all honesty. Otunga has undeniable charisma and his star status suggests win lose or draw he will get a main show call up, but his in ring work is boring so far. Wade Barrett's got the size to be a WWE guy. Justin Gabriel does a (horrible version of the) 450 Splash so kids will scream for him. Sheffield is awful. Darren Young is bland. Slater I could take or leave. Tarver's been M.I.A. but I sort of like based on his FCW work.

I watched episode one in its entirety, most of episode 2, and nothing more than the WWE.com highlights of episode 3 as well as everything including Danielson. They are pushing him hard and it's quickly becoming the "what will happen with Miz and Danielson" show. Many live reports indicate that the crowd are more focused on the pros than the rookies and you could hear it last night when people were chanting for Jericho in a match he wasn't even in. There is a little bit of something there in all of them, but the audience don't truly care about most of them. That being said it's only week 3 and we have no clue how long the show will last.

If TNA suddenly assigned most of the older talent as managers to younger wrestlers it would be an out and out admission that they want to copy WWE. I know everyone thinks this anyway, but they've never done things to outright state it. Flair working with AJ has elevated him though, and I don't think anyone can deny it, so perhaps there is room for your idea, but I can't see Hogan ever taking the role of a manager.

Kevin Nash however would be a fantastic manager for the Motor City Machineguns as they're all from Detroit and we saw the natural chemistry he and Shelley had in the PCS (which should be brought back by the way). He managed them for about a month anyway and they were only just finding themselves in terms of character then (I know they'd been teaming outside of TNA and had developed a moveset, but they tweaked their look and character for the better in TNA). Nash could get physically involved every now and then, maybe wrestle two or three times a year in 6-man tag matches with them, do some commentary, cut a lot of promos with them, be their heavy. It's win/win as far as I can see. He gets to stay a presence on TV without having to stress his knees too much. We get fantastic comedy work from them. The Guns finally have an effective way to be pushed.

 

[Chauncy Talon]

To be honest, TNA is doing what any promotion would do. You display the known people to the world, then you show the fresh guys later.

One thing TNA really needs to do is to not "F" over their #1 contenders. We see this happen all the time. #1 Contender get laid out, put on the back burner or go back into a division they do not belong in.

NXT is doing something fresh and new, but TNA needs to do what I just listed.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

NXT is a good show so far, in fact, it's beaten TNA out in the ratings as well. Good concept, Hopefully they have a good spot for a portion of those rookies, because there is some decent talent.

NXT concept, really wouldn't cut it for TNA. I can't stand watching Abyss and Hogan, and say what you want to say about Flair and Styles, it's not good. On top of that, I don't want to see the Nasty Boys, Hall and Waltman. They don't have that edge or clique they once had.

The concept TNA needs is a new slogan, and idea. TNA, "The Real Wrestling Business." Meaning, cut that crappy veteran talent, such as the Nasty Boys, Waltman, and Hall. You already done away with Steiner, and hopefully Lashey. Get that young talent, and promote the hell out of them. I know what some of the folks are going to say, "Well you need veterans to promote the younger guys!" Well, get that veteran talent. Get Sean Morely back, grab Gregory Helms. Start using Shannon Moore. Take the camera away from Jarrett and Foley. Get some good talent from ROH. Build up that young talent like no tomorrow.

"But, you need vets to put over the young guys" Well, if I remember the Attitude era, no Flairs, no Hogans, yea, you had HBK and the Taker and yes Foley as well, but almost everybody in the attitude era, including stone cold,The Rock, HHH, even Angle, didn't have the nasty boys to beat up on, or Jimmy Hart managing a tag team. They had themselves, and they put each other over. McMahon didn't look for veteran talent to help every aspect out, he went out and build the talent.

TNA needs to build themselves! Hogan telling everybody that they are going to be moving to the top can't do it a lone. Young guys stepping it up, practicing promos, getting in feuds that the WWE won't do, is what it needs. Having Jeff Hardy lay everyone out is not what they need at all. Because Jeff Hardy vs. A guy Flair or Hogan told you is the guy, won't do it.

 

[ccotreau1]

I'm still alittle "iffy" about NXT. 1 thing i'm not to big on, is that there is not enough time for them all to wrestle. Personally I kinda liked Tough Enough better. Don't get me wrong, I think NXT does have potential. As for TNA doing something similar, I don't think they should. They need to find something that WWE IS'NT doing, and do it. I think an idea for TNA would be to make seperate programming for X-Division, and TNA Knockouts. They do that, maybe those divisions would get alittle more exposure?

I agree with you on the whole seperate programming for the x-division/TNA Knockouts...What I think TNA should do is have them on like Thursday (which they were doing before) and keep Impact on Mondays. That way, they have 2 shows a week, and that way alot more of the talent gets showcased

 

[RicSpade]

disagree on so many levels with seperating the x-division and knockouts from the other guys and here is why. Limited rosters = repeats and too many storylines. Seriously if we kept all the mid carders and main event and tag team guys on Mondays people aren't going to tune in cause the X-division is what makes TNA unique right now, on the same token the X-division and knockouts can't survive on talent alone because they need to have something with major noteriety behind it.

NXT right now is a beautiful concept and I am intrigued by the Springer esque moments between Bryan and Miz, and the talents of guys like Gabriel but eventually with only 16 people on the roster there is going to be a sense of we have seen this already, and the only way I see that not happening is if someone guest appears to fight someone in the main event.

right now we have been whining and complaining about the ratings TNA got this Monday, but has anyone thought about the fact that TNA repeats Thursday night on Spike so maybe people said well why see it live if I can catch it Thursday and still watch Raw? or that people like me DVR'd TNA and watched most of RAW somewhere else? Lets see what the replay of TNA brings if it's better than Mondays ratings then we know what happened, if its the same as Monday we know that maybe some people missed it, and if next Monday TNA gets a better rating because people watched the replay Thursday and said wow I need to tune in to this.

Was the show the best ever no? did I think it out performed Raw? it had its moments where it was superior and it had its downfalls, but really in this stage it is way to early to say "hey we a ground ball and was out at first what else do we got?"

next week when NXT gets a .9 or 1.0 again and we see a thread that says the same thing about NXT when it comes to ratings think about it.

 

[Derrtown]

The Main event did do a .76 but i really dont think it has all to do with Flair and Hogan. TNAs main events always drop off. The main event of Pope, Abyss, AJ, and Wolfe was the lowest of last weeks show, too. It seems that TNA has trouble keeping its audience during the main event in general. I think it has to do with commercials. Commercials seem to always happen at the worst times during broadcast.