TNA has no story arcs - it's a problem

[Uncle Sam]

OK, so every knows the basic elements of a story; a beginning, a middle and an end. You can go into much more depth (with character theory and whatnot) but this is all I need to prove my point.

TNA has incredible trouble ever completing a story arc. I mean, I don't know how you manage to make so many feuds over-long without fulfilling the story arc.

Cases in point:

Main Event Mafia - no resolution whatsoever. Just fizzled out.

Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe - even when we were teased that there would be more, no resolution.

James Storm vs. Sting - didn't even have a middle. Sting went home and cried. Kind of off-point, I know.

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels - they just suddenly forget about their passionate feud and pop, AJ is more concerned with Tomko (who he defeats on iMPACT! first try after months of build-up - great vooking there) and Angle.

TNA hardly ever resolves their stories - and if they do, it's confusing and underwhelming - and they suffer for it.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Eric Bischoff made it a very clear and present point to note that story arcs are probably the most important aspect of professional wrestling, so while I agree that as of right now the story lines are seemingly fading out with very little pay-off, I would hope that his injection into the company would at some point in the next few months begin to ween the company back into the direction he took WCW in in terms of establishing credible feuds with real story arcs, as you noted.

The feeling I get right now is that the show is very Russo-esque in that it's generally chaotic, and the value in story telling is damn near non-existent. I'm not even referring to the throw-together PPV coming up (Genesis), which I don't actually blame the company for (considering the amount of time Hogan & Bischoff had to actually piece the thing together). I'm just talking in generalities, really.

I agree whole-heartedly, however with the fact that the product does in fact suffer from it. I just hope that the Bischoff influence can remedy that.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I believe the reason in that could be their overuse of gimmick matches. In the WWE, usually the end of a feud or story culminates in a Last Man Standing or Hell in a Cell match. Take for example the Cena and Edge feud. That feud went on for damn near three years and we saw an end to it at Backlash. Knowing the WWE, they would probably start another feud again but at least it ENDED. If TNA cuts down on their gimmick matches and use them for specific situations to end a feud, then I think you would get more story arcs as you put it. They invested a lot of time in the Main Event Mafia storyline and there was no resolution or good ending. This is one area that TNA desperately needs to work on if they want to improve as a wrestling organization.

 

[Junior]

i think after this ppv we will see bishoff n hogan go into effect...they only had 3 weeks to set something up so they threw it together for this ppv adn gonna start off fresh come next week impact...plus since when has samoa joe became a jobber they need to get him back to the killa he is!

 

[TheMainEvent]

I expect things to take off after Genesis. If you noticed last nights Impact was a big improvement in that everyone had a purpose or direction with their actions and their were little meaningless segments on the show. Everyone was driven by something to do whatever and that is the start of story telling.

I have been saying for awhile that TNA and WWE need to position themselves similiar to the comic book industry in that they have one HUGE fued/program/story arc each year and throughout that they can intertwine other side feuds. Marvel comics grew greatly from doing this with storyarcs such as Civil War and Siege in that they had one major storyline but it involved alot of people and effected everyone. Think when wrestling was its most successfull...we had the McMahon/Austin fued that encompassed WWE but it branched off to include Rock, Mankind, Undertaker, Ministry, DX, etc and everyone got over and the company grew...WCW did the same with the nWo that included Hogan, Sting, Luger, Macho, Outsiders, DDP, Booker T, Steiners, etc...everyone got over and the company grew.

If TNA were to come up with something compelling and interesting they could have some huge interesting storyline that would result in everyone being involved. Having Bishoff as a GM and nWo in their could be a start. Bringing in Heyman could add as well, especially if he brings RVD and Dreamer with him like he did in WWE Invasion....

 

[T2KFreeker]

Eric got to stretch his wings for last nights show. You could feel his touch on things in TNA that has just seemed very different before. The build up between Angle and AJ is a great example of things to come. It really is going to be very interesting to see what happens going into the match come Sunday. The rest of the card also went from dead to fairly strong in the span of a night, so that tells you that something is going in the right direction at TNA. We aren't there yet, but the climb up the side has started. Hopefully we keep making good time and the destination is worth the walk.

 

[Ryander88]

I think that is the clear weakness of the TNA creative team...they just run out of ideas. In some cases, they don't know how to catalyst a feud (see Jeff Jarrett's awkward heel turn on this weeks Impact) and in other cases, they don't know how to sustain a feud or how to end one without diminishing their characters, so they just end. Hopefully Bischoff will help ease them into a new direction.

The AJ/Tomko feud, I think, got blown off the way it did because it didn't fit into Hogan's plan. I don't think Hogan sees Tomko as a power player in TNA (neither do I. His spontaneously edited promos on AJ last night were very poor). Tomko also looked fat in the ring, obviously not building up the muscle he lost while he was gone. He looked terrible and Hogan doesn't want him stinking up the main event, so he blew it off on Impact.

 

[dmacizdman]

maybe i'm horribly wrong, but could the fact that many of the fans that go see them are basically going for the first time? since they are part of Universal Studios and don't charge, i would think this leads to fans that come week after week are there because of vacations. i am sure some come every week, but i would think most of their audience every week is new since Impact is more like an "attraction", meaning they wouldn't know the storyline that led up to that week's action.

 

[GenMe]

i 100% agree wit lord check this out a month ago all TNA story lines were doing find angle/wolfed team 3d/morgans team ajstyles/daniels abyss/stevie raven now all of the sudden those fueds are over with no ending all those wrestles were having great fueds with each other but here comes hogan n eric and they mix every thing up n now us the fan we dont know wats going on...

 

[go2war313]

I think russo should be fired or de-promoted n instead give the creative ideas to eric bischoff for awhile and see how things go I'm interested in his ideas cuz the dude has had success and learn for his past mistakes and is smarter then ever IMO Dixie should let him control TNA when they move to Mondays

 

[Jack-Hammer]

in terms of story arc and legitimately coming up with something at the moment wwe is the same and has been for the last couple of years.

So someone raises a legitimate complaint/concern regaring the TNA product and you're complaining about the WWE? Well, first of all, the WWE actually does do different storylines and actually does follow through with them. They sometimes keep some storylines going on for longer than necessary and go back to some feuds to the point of redundancy, but they always do have something of a finish. They have a beginning, a middle and an end rather instead of letting them fizzle out and quietly going away as TNA frequently does. Slam the WWE all you want, but it doesn't negate the fact that TNA's schizophrenic booking and Creative's habit of lackluster ends to story arcs and/or just letting them quitely die out can and does negatively effect the overall product.

 

[NSL]

While I'm not a fan of the stories just ending, and everyone moving on, I do have a way of "justifying" it in my head. I just look at each story/feud as a book, and it has a clear beginning, an end, and then you're done. Everyone moves on, and there's nothing to really think about.

As Sam pointed out, Daniels finished up with AJ, and then just kind of appeared and took out Venis/Morley. He explained it with a promo, but before that, we had no reason to believe that he would attack him, and no idea that he was out of the title picture.

But, it's done, so why complain? It's still considered a men's soap opera, is it not?

 

[Dead-Angel]

probably i am the only one who sees that from jan 4 hogan and bishoff kind of restarted TNA in storyline so dont be suprised and complain , now they are building everything from their point of view , all the storylines before jan4 was droped , that was their decision

 

[gd]

Are you telling me TNA is illogical with their booking? No way, Sam. How dare you make such an accusation.

Actually, you're quite right, but you know that already, don't you? The whole Tomko thing is a great point. 2 or 3 months of a mystery attacker angle, which is always fun, and then it all falls apart. First, the fact that it's Tomko means it's a letdown. Then, the big blowoff match happens about an hour after the attacker finally reveals himself, for no reason whatsover. Just strange,

Ending storylines can be rather tricky though. At least the WWE makes a little bit of sense with it. Cena/Orton - No more title matches for Orton. Edge/Taker - Send Edge to hell. Punk/Hardy - Kill off the drug addict. And so on and so forth.

The MEM situation was very poorly handled, as well as the evaporation of the Frontline and Rhino to go along with it. Maybe they'll attempt to use some simple logic from now on with Bischoff there, but I doubt it. It actually may be more interesting when they don't.

 

[ejsmobiledetailing]

Great Post man, great discussion topic. I totally agree. For the fans who don't catch it every week it has to be greatly confusing. Team 3d has went from face-heel-face within what, 6 weeks? "plus since when has samoa joe became a jobber" Great point, I thought the same thing last night when Joe got Punked out by Desmond Wolfe, but the last PPV or so he was in the main event. TNA has no direction when it comes to feuds and booking and longevity of the feuds. There are far too many gimmick matches, great point I may add. Abyss/Lashley? what build up is that? Beer Money/NWO? what build up there? Daniels/Venis? No build up there. Wolfe/Pope? not much there. Joe became irrelevant for this PPV, as did team 3D. Where is Suicide? I know he just got married but still. That cage match Jan 4th ended in no contest because no one could escape. Seriously get real. Sting is in the rafters watching, can someone say WCW? So what they wanted to make Jarrett heel week 1 and it didn't work, so week 2 it will? Why the hell should he be heel anyway, it was his company. Hogan and company should be the heels. Are they trying to make AJ heel? Is Flair heel or face? What's Angle now? In 2009 I think Matt Morgan flip flopped between heel-face about 4 times or so. yeah where did Raven and Stevie go? How did Black Machismo and Creed become jobbers? what happened to his invitational? THe only way Lashley can get over as a heel is having his bitch wife talk for him because he has no personality or character? Foley flip flopped heel and face about 8 times this past year. I was surprised Russo never made an on-air appearance. Anyone seen Rhyno or Jesse Neal? Does Eric Young or Amazing Red ever defend their belts? Maybe we should tone down on all the knockout matches or get another show? Maybe they should do like WCW and go to 3 hours every week? Or maybe get a second show for thursdays or fridays. Maybe even Wednesdays since there is no Wrestling on that day. They need to do something because with the talent they have they really don't have actual jobbers versus some of the crap WWE be putting on TV and they have overall more talented wrestlers, but the better actors and story tellers are in WWE.

Well thats enough of my rant for now because I could go on forever about TNA's lack of direction. Hopefully Bischoff can make some changes and sell some better stories.

oh yeah MEM just fizzled out, how nice. Where is the World Elite? WHOA! Orlando Jordan! That's the biggest acquisition in TNA history. Seriously, think things out for scripts and shows, dont just put shit together and hope it works cuz it probably wont. Or what about Joe going to MEM. What sense did that really make?

 

[prophefixz]

What about Tomko attacking AJ for weeks, finally reveals who the attacker is, only for TNA to turn AJ heel. What was the whole point in tomko attacking AJ, Turning heel and looking like the setup of a fued, only to turn AJ heel!?
It pretty much ended the Tomko thing in it's tracks and turned him heel for apparantly no reason at all. If they do decide to carry it on who would now be the heel? AJ who screwed angle...or Tomko who attacked the Face champion who is now a Heel?! I really don't get what the writers are thinking sometimes. I guess that their impact match was the culmination of months worth of secrecy.

They bring Hardy back, he attacks homicide, but isn't under contract. So why have him attack one guy without anything else happening?

Also Tazz debuts as joes manager, two weeks later he's a commentator...

Don west turning heel. He is turning heel one week snapping at mike tenay next week he's normal. Why even bother doing it in the first place!?

 

[wolvdog316]

What about Joe turning heel and handing Angle the title? I said then it was completely bullshit and Vince doesn't have a clue what he's doing and everybody said they had something up their sleeve. That it was a HUGE shock. Well nothing came out of it. Joe just handed the title to Angle I guess as a gesture of kindness. We were supposed to see something with Joe and Tazz, maybe a Joe turn on MEM but MEM just fizzled out, quit. Nobody explained why, so guess what? Joe gets fucked and lost in the shuffle.