TNA iMPACT NITRO LD 05/03/10: Sting and Hogan... WHO'LL FLINCH!?

[Coco]

I think he was flirting with questioning Bischoff and Hogan's motivations regarding TNA.

And then, in classic TNA fashion, shit got weird. He sort of trailed off.

 

[Coco]

And by trailing off, I don't mean it in the wilderness survival context I suggested earlier.

 

[klunderbunker]

Watching the show in full now. Oh dear.

 

[klunderbunker]

Ok to be fair, Lethal's imitation is GREAT. Still though, we have TNA's Charlie Haas in a main angle.

 

[klunderbunker]

Ok so the point to giving Lethal the ring was....?

 

[klunderbunker]

Whoa whoa whoa.

Hogan got back in like five minutes after driving the other way for 15? TNA is officially defying the laws of time and space.

 

[klunderbunker]

So let me get this straight.

Lethal imitates Flair.
AJ imitates Flair.
Abyss imitates Hogan.
Lethal imitates Savage.
Anderson imitates Pope.

DOES ANYONE HAVE AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER???

 

[klunderbunker]

WOW. I have never seen a guy suck the life out of a match like D-Von did to that tag match.

 

[klunderbunker]

Naturally the Guns beat up the Band and then get beaten down. We can't have young and talented guys getting over can we?

Oh and the Guns, the young and talented and fun to watch guys, get beaten down by old guys. Who has seen this before?

 

[klunderbunker]

So whatever happened to Terry being in the main event scene? Didn't he do that for like one night after Lockdown?

 

[klunderbunker]

So Sting, just like Flair, is doing what he's doing because of Hogan.

Is anything in this company not related to him?

 

[Lee]

So let me get this straight.

Lethal imitates Flair.
AJ imitates Flair.
Abyss imitates Hogan.
Lethal imitates Savage.
Anderson imitates Pope.

DOES ANYONE HAVE AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER???

And flair copied Rogers, and Hogan Graham

 

[Remix]

So Sting, just like Flair, is doing what he's doing because of Hogan.

Is anything in this company not related to him?

Brooke Hogan?

 

[hatehabsforever]

Since day one of the Hogan regime, I have been warning people these days would come. Things would be cool for a few months and then it would focus on Hogan and the young and talented guys would be pushed aside. The angles would also get stupider and stupider. We would get occasional good stuff like (most of) Lockdown, but the TV between the PPVs would get unbearable.

People kept saying I was crazy and one by one the TNA marks have turned on this show. This was bound to happen and I've been saying it since the beginning: Hogan was the worst decision this company could have made.

The worst part about it, KB, is that if they had used Hogan differently, in a way many people on this site hoped they would, it could have been much different. If Hogan had come on board in more of a mentoring capacity, predominantly behind the scenes and occasionally in the ring or on camera backstage, helping to guide the direction of the company with their youth, enthusiasm, and in doing so, try to provide an alternative to the WWE rather than a poor man's version of it, they might be onto something.

But instead, it's become the Terry and Eric show that we all knew it would. Their egos could not allow otherwise. The end result? A dismal failure, back to Thursday nights with their tails between their legs, struggling to regain their losses before they can even think about moving forward. Hoping to regain the trust and faith of their loyal followers, before they can even think about recruiting new ones.

 

[klunderbunker]

Hogan once a week or even twice a week would be fine. This is at least the second week in a row where he's the first thing we see and the last thing we see. If he was drawing ratings it would be one thing but he's the lowest rated segment each week or at least close to it. That's inexcusable.

 

[klunderbunker]

And flair copied Rogers, and Hogan Graham

Yeah but with years between them and not completely directly. These guys are flat out saying who they're copying.

 

[X]

To be fair though, this is absolutely NOT what you told us was going to happen KB. You and everyone else were jumping up and down telling us that Hogan would be TNA World Champ in a few months and every TNA guy would be buried, and that's obviously not happened.

Shit could be worse. This week's show wasn't half as bad as some of you are making it out to be, it wasn't great either, but it certainly wasn't awful. Personally I think TNA is about roughly a thousand times better right now than it was one year ago this time. TNA was so fucking bad in 2009 up until about September, like, it was just unwatchable to me. Product is much better now if you ask me. I'll take some Flair and Hogan segments over the beyond-******ed shit TNA was giving us for the past few years with their booking.

 

[Coco]

X has a point about the company being better now than it was a year ago.

On the other hand, Hogan cleaned house with Team Flair in a way that four active wrestlers (one being the top dog at the moment) failed to. There's something wrong in that picture.

 

[klunderbunker]

To be fair though, this is absolutely NOT what you told us was going to happen KB. You and everyone else were jumping up and down telling us that Hogan would be TNA World Champ in a few months and every TNA guy would be buried, and that's obviously not happened.

Shit could be worse. This week's show wasn't half as bad as some of you are making it out to be, it wasn't great either, but it certainly wasn't awful. Personally I think TNA is about roughly a thousand times better right now than it was one year ago this time. TNA was so fucking bad in 2009 up until about September, like, it was just unwatchable to me. Product is much better now if you ask me. I'll take some Flair and Hogan segments over the beyond-******ed shit TNA was giving us for the past few years with their booking.

I was indeed wrong on Hogan being champion. Like I said I would, I will admit when I'm wrong (most of the time). I wasn't wrong however in Hogan being the total focal point of the company and driving ratings down while old guys that aren't drawing either are getting pushed. I'd take the fall/winter of TNA over Raw at the moment, but I guess getting a .8 or so isn't as good as a 1.1 or so that it was getting.

 

[X]

How is Hogan the main focus of the show? Rob Van Dam is. He's World Champion, comes out to save the day during the opening segment, and then squashes a guy that was putting on 20+ minute competitive matches a few months ago with the ex-world champ Kurt Angle (which I do disagree with though) in the main event. I'd say without a doubt RVD is the focal point of TNA right now. Hogan is just playing the authority figure role like countless others before him. You could plug in Jim Cornette into Hogan's place and this would be the exact same TNA from a few years ago. Of course than it would be okay because Cornette is the IWC's God.

 

[klunderbunker]

How is Hogan the main focus of the show? Rob Van Dam is. He's World Champion, comes out to save the day during the opening segment, and then squashes a guy that was putting on 20+ minute competitive matches a few months ago with the ex-world champ Kurt Angle (which I do disagree with though) in the main event. I'd say without a doubt RVD is the focal point of TNA right now. Hogan is just playing the authority figure role like countless others before him. You could plug in Jim Cornette into Hogan's place and this would be the exact same TNA from a few years ago. Of course than it would be okay because Cornette is the IWC's God.

Hogan is the first thing you see and the last thing you see. Van Dam comes out with a chair and it's a stalemate until Hogan comes to the rescue. Hogan gets more TV time, is in the opening highlight reel more, and talks more than anyone else. You can't plug Cornette in as Cornette was never beating up guys like Hogan was. Hogan has taken over the show and it's obvious. You know full well being champion does not always mean you're the focal point.

 

[X]

Yes Hogan is coming out and clearing house, but honestly KB, that's what the fans at the Impact Zone want (yes I know, the Impact Zone doesn't matter they all suck, etc), I mean this week that crowd was going pretty batshit crazy for Hogan, chanting his name and a sea of red and yellow in the audience dude. I wish it wasn't true just like you, but it is, so it really doesn't bother me if they bring Hogan out to pander to the crowd and get his pop, that's pretty much his entire purpose of being involved in the wrestling business anymore. I agree he absolutely needs to stop being the last segment on the show, though I don't mind if he's the first one as that's usually the segment involving your authority figure (how many years straight did Vince and company come out to open the show in the Attitude Era?)

I didn't mind Hogan last night though because I thought the ending segment with Sting was pretty good, and that Sting delivered an excellent promo, probably his best since his whole speech to AJ last fall around BFG. TNA is atleast heading in the right direction right now though, they're cutting out alot of the fat (though some people, like OJ, still need to GTFO immediately) and they've got pretty solid angles for all of their title divisions right now as well as some pretty damn good wrestling from most of the roster. I don't think the situation in TNA is as bad as some of you do, I just think the WWE is REALLY f'n good right now and TNA is hurting themselves on Mondays. Although I do think it's a bit soon to be moving back to Thursdays already, I would have let the show stay on Mondays atleast into the early summer months to see if the ratings improve.

Oh well. Short TNA rant over.

 

[Tiger Chaos Theory]

Shit could be worse. This week's show wasn't half as bad as some of you are making it out to be, it wasn't great either, but it certainly wasn't awful. Personally I think TNA is about roughly a thousand times better right now than it was one year ago this time. TNA was so fucking bad in 2009 up until about September, like, it was just unwatchable to me. Product is much better now if you ask me. I'll take some Flair and Hogan segments over the beyond-******ed shit TNA was giving us for the past few years with their booking.

This is true, the early months of 2009 were the lowest point in TNA. Just absolutely filled with problems. I'm hard pressed to remember even one good feud or angle.

 

[klunderbunker]

Good for them. The fans that are completely schizophrenic are happy. Spike isn't because the regular fans at home aren't. Hogan is no longer a big time draw. As a childhood Hulkamaniac I hate to say it but that's reality.

Regarding Vince being on the show that many times, how many times was Raw dominating Nitro at that time? How much money did Vince vs. Austin make? When something is working, there's no reason to not keep doing it. When something gets the lowest rating on the show week in and week out, it's idiotic. In principle, how is this different from trotting out Chavo vs. Horny week after week? The live crowd liked it, the regular fans seemed to hate it. And no, I'm in no way saying that you can really compare those two to Hogan so save the rant about it. You get what I mean.

I will give TNA this: they have a direction. Now I think the direction more or less sucks, but having a terrible direction is light years better than no direction at all.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

.....thats seriously how they ended the show? Really?