TNA Expects Too Much From Their Fans

[MachoMadness1988]

I like how it's "not TNA's fault" it's the fault of their announcers who they've hired and continue to employ on a weekly basis. It's more than just a lack of announcer explanation, if they're gonna put a guy in that position they have to put him in the ring or in a fight to show that he's formidable. No matter how the announcers introduce him he's still nothing more than a camera man who punked out one of TNA's top guys.

I don't know why you're trying to make that segement something it's not. Re-watch the footage if you have to. Samoa Joe is chasing the Pope. The Pope trys to run up the ramp but Okada is at the very top of the ramp. Pope sees him and runs out another way with Samoa Joe chasing him. That is hardly "punking out" Pope. If anyone punked out Pope, it was Samoa Joe. Okada did little to nothing in that segment, yet you're making out to be like he played some huge part.

 

[Rampage Bentley]

I don't know why you're trying to make that segement something it's not. Re-watch the footage if you have to. Samoa Joe is chasing the Pope. The Pope trys to run up the ramp but Okada is at the very top of the ramp. Pope sees him and runs out another way with Samoa Joe chasing him. That is hardly "punking out" Pope. If anyone punked out Pope, it was Samoa Joe. Okada did little to nothing in that segment, yet you're making out to be like he played some huge part.

I just did rewatch it. Joe has Pope backed up, Pope starts heading for the back until Okada comes out and does this little "your not getting past me" head nod, Pope books it and Joe and Okada both chase after him. It was very clear that Pope wanted no part of Okada.

 

[Kitten Cutter]

Before I go into the thread:

TNA has been trying this different style of storytelling for a while. I personally like it. I do not see why they should book their product for the people that only casually watch. It is not like minor shit like this matters to a casual fan anyway. The stories tend to function on a few levels. TNA is just adding something beyond the overly simplistic concepts that tend to dominate wrestling storylines. Missing the small stuff doesn't hurt anything unless you are trying to look deeper into the stories. The people that are trying to look deeper are not the casual fans. If the alternative is having everything spoonfed to you like a child then give me what TNA does 10 times out of 10.

Bischoff has made it pretty clear in interviews that they are doing this in an attempt to change the way people watch the show. It is an interesting idea because simplistic does not differentiate you when you are seeking an audience. Simplistic and non-controversial is what you slowly switch to once you already have an audience and you just want to appeal to as many people as possible.

Of all the TNA marks, it's you who I hate the most. It's people like that you, shattered dreams, that make TNA fans look sad. At least Zevon makes a lot of great points. Your points reek of what people drop after a Taco Bell bender.

Problem with your explanation is it's a paradox. You're saying Bischoff is trying new things, but why try new things if casual fans don't matter? Why change the way to present wrestling if it doesn't matter? If there's no reason to bring in casual fans, there's no way the ratings will ever go up. And the ratings don't go up, what's the point of changing the direction of TNA in the first place? Casual fans matter because you need to bring in audience, not stay stagnant with the same fans. Sure, you can do your stuff to a select group of fans, but if you don't hook new fans, nothing will change. And if nothing changes, that will make things boring and Spike TV WILL dump them. Maybe you, the wrestling snob, want TNA to be your own minor league\garage band that you'll hate as soon as they become more mainstream. It happened to ECW, it happened to WCW and some fans don't want it. TNA wants to change how they tell stories and present wrestling. You keep mentioning the small details in things. Well, where are the minor points in Eric Young? I've been watching wrestling for 20 years and I don't see any small hidden jewels in Eric Young other than he's crazy and funny. With these kinds of moments I doubt any fans will stick around. You'll be able to watch TNA to your heart's content. You and the 8 other people related to Russo.

Alright, now that I got THAT off my chest...

Without adding all of the quotes, I'll break it down to this:

Okada should have debuted better. I hate to use the WWE as an example, but when ANYONE is new, we know who that person is. Mason Ryan came in, we know who he is, what's he all about, and who he believes in. I haven't been a fan of TNA since I didn't have cable before 2009 (go ahead and knock me for being poor) but I have no idea who Okada is, what he's done or why he's around. Why a wrestler is someone's cameraman spying on a pimp is beyond me. Why a wrestler has an allegiance to Samoa Joe, who I've seen be a vicious loner for almost the entire time I've seen and heard of him is beyond me. Why Okada has a problem with The Pope is beyond me. (Maybe the last girl gave him a burning sensation when he pees?) And by the way, Yurnewhero is right. The Pope was running from Joe, saw Okada on the ramp and went a different direction. If he wasn't afraid of Okada he'd have gone toward him, attacked him or ran past him. Plus, if Okada didn't matter, why would he bother to chase him? Film the beat down? Right now he looks like Kato to Samoa Joe's Green Hornet.

Jack-Hammer is right. If TNA is going to put someone on camera, the least they could do is tell something about him. Give us a reason to care about him or hate his guts. And whether Zevon's right about the announcing or not, it's called a script. Write down a tidbit about Okada and give it to Tenay: he's Samoa Joe's workout partner, they share the same dojo, the same rental car, the same prostitutes, SOMETHING, so he's not just Kato with a voyeuristic occupation.

Chrome, you're wrong about The Pope being a heel. Go watch the Final Resolution pay-per-view where he wrestled Abyss in the casket match. Look like a heel to you while he's being attacked by his own brother while facing a psychotic nailed 2 x 4 wielding established heel in Abyss? In fact, after the PPV, he hd a segment where he said he'd be back with a choir and everything to fight the good fight, then the next week he was taking kids' money and going to strip clubs. So, in essence, by your thinking, The Pope gave up fighting The Immortals after the casket match and decided to steal money instead.

Okada's purpose may be revealed later, but it's been a month now, and so far all it's been is Asian guy with camera and angry Samoan guy disliking loudmouth Black guy. This is going down the road of Orlando Jordan's crush on Eric Young, Samoa Joe's kidnapping, Tara being a cougar with Max and Jeremy Buck, and Douglas Williams and Magnus reuniting. While I feel like I'm going to love Fourtune vs. Immortal, I feel like The Pope is going to be wasted talent with this feud, and in the end it'll benefit no one, and Okada is the lowest rung on this ladder.

 

[ABMorales787]

I think the issue in the OP is a little ridiculous. I agree with problem, it's just not a good example. All you really need to know is that Okada is Joe's personal cameraman for now. Nothing else needed, really. He's not doing anything else but that. As for expecting too much of the fans, yeah. The "next week" concept really should be used more often. Unless you go to their website, you don't know a single thing that will happen. Especially when their commercials are literally all questions about this week based on what happened last week. WWE does it too, but then again, they're a household name. Millions watch even if you put a cat in the ring playing with yarn for a commercial. TNA is growing and it's viewership is the one thing about it that isn't. If you want to hook viewers in, you need to set a simple groundwork for the following weeks that they can follow.

 

[klunderbunker]

All you really need to know is that Okada is Joe's personal cameraman for now. Nothing else needed, really.

And Tenay knew who he was how? You're missing the point here. Tenay acted like everyone should recognize Okada and the vast majority of people won't because the vast majority of TNA's audience isn't going to know about the showw he appears on. There is zero, yes zero point to not saying who Okada is quickly. Saying he's Joe's cameraman is fine, but you can't tell us he's wrestling for TNA? Or that he used to wrestle in Japan at least? It's sloppy storytelling and TNA does it way too often. Tell us why we should be interested in this man or he's just a person and not a character at all.

 

[shattered dreams]

I think what people fail to understand is that TNA is not trying to be WWE right now or possibly ever. Maybe in the long-run they could reach a point where they care about attracting a mass of casual fans but that isn't the goal right now. All of prowrestling is in a slump and as such it is presently quite hard to draw in entirely new wrestling fans. All TNA wants to do is see a modest increase in market share. They seem to be putting more effort into trying to attract fans that might be disenfranchised with the current WWE product. You do not beat WWE doing that but you could conceivably see a bump in business. This is why appealing heavily to casual fans does not have to be the best or only policy to grow the company.

As an added bonus, this style of TNA storytelling does not necessarily deter casual fans anyway. Such people do not care about the details. Essentially it boils down to there being plenty of people that are not casual wrestling fans that do not watch TNA regularly. Seems like the effort to bring them in would yield more of a payoff than catering to the unpredictable casual fanbase in ways that might contradict the desires of those that actually regularly watch. If you break it down, a lot of the complaints about TNA this year they seem to be precisely about transitioning away from more of an upscale indy and instead attempting to draw in the mainstream casual audience.

Sidenote: Hammer, why do you keep repeatedly claiming TNA isn't giving Mickie James a distinguishable spot? The notion is simply absurd.

 

[MachoMadness1988]

I just did rewatch it. Joe has Pope backed up, Pope starts heading for the back until Okada comes out and does this little "your not getting past me" head nod, Pope books it and Joe and Okada both chase after him. It was very clear that Pope wanted no part of Okada.

I did see Okada trailing along, but he was definitely running from Joe. Hypotheticaly had Pope tried to go through Okada, at the very least Okada would have stopped Pope momentarily and Joe would've got his hands on Pope because he was only seconds behind him. If Joe wasn't behind Pope do you think he would've been hesitant to get into and altercation with Okada? Hell no. The Pope just didn't want any part of the big angry samoan behind him. I mean common this fued is Pope vs Joe, of course he was running from Joe. Furthermore, Pope is heel. It's not like his going to act all courageous and try to take on two men.

The fact that this segement is being microscoped is ridiculous to me. It's just not that big of a deal. This is just people being nitpicky, and looking for something to complain/critisize about. It's not like Okada is some major player, we know all we really need to know about him.

Word for word what Mike Tenay says when Okada shows up on the screen: "It's Okada. Samoa Joe's camera man. He's been following every move of the Pope."

 

[GameOver]

The bottom line here kids is that TNA doesn't expect too much from it's fans. TNA expects too little from it's writers. So much talent and so little ambition to use it correctly.

This pretty much sums up what i think too.
It's maybe a combination of poor writing, uninspired storylines and an unwilligness to try and stick with something even if it doesn't immediately pay off.

If they cahnged the way they produce things for the better and wrote more storylines that actually made sense and less of the constant swerves every single week, and for god sakes make the PPV's actually worth and worth caring about buying instead of just taking the free option of watching Impact and getting a marginally better show.

All the shows just tend to meld into one continuous swerve, and things change every single show so it's impossible to keep up from a perspective of consistancy.