TNA = WCW 2.0

[Synner]

I don't know if this has been done before but if it has I am sorry.

I have noticed many posters on these forums saying that TNA is nothing more than WCW 2.0 or WWE Lite.

Now while it is obvious that TNA has brought in a lot of old WWE guys and WCW guys where do you think they would have gone if TNA wasn't around? I mean look at it. The TNA Champion A.J. Styles is former WCW talent! As for those complaining about Pac & Hall let me remind you that if it wasn't for Hall, Jarrett, Shamrock and countless others who were there at the start then TNA wouldn't still be going strong to this day.

A hell of a lot of people whinge and bitch saying that Hogan & Bischoff are going to destroy TNA but remember back to 1996 and look at what both those men did to the wrestling industry. Easy E turned the biggest babyface in pro wrestling history into the most hated heel in pro wrestling history. Yes they may have currently rehashed a shit load of old storylines but it is because they need to know what they can get away with.

Yes the Nasty Boys are probably the shittiest tag team to ever grace the squared circle but they have a job to do and that is help TNA build their younger teams.

Syxx Pac maybe a terrible on air talent and also backstage but the fact is he's there to do a job and once again it is to help build younger TNA talent.

Hall is out of shape and doesn't look like he will ever be in the shape to ever wrestle again but as I said before he is also there to do his job which is to help build younger talent.

All in all TNA may look like WCW revisited or WWE Lite but the fact of the matter is that they have only been alive for just over 7 years. They are a baby company compared to the legacy of WWE or WCW. They have come a long way in that time and they are known around the world which to me is very impressive considering when WWE and WCW first started hardly anybody except their own territories knew who or what the company were.

Give TNA a chance to grow and find it's feet as a proper organization. Remember when you were younger and people were saying that you couldn't do certain things? Did you listen? Did you take their advice? No you wanted to prove to them that you could do it! TNA is just a child at the moment and it is doing what all children do.

That is my opinion and yeah I do realize I went off on a tangent.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

TNA is nothing like WCW, for one WCW was a success at one point. And even during some of their worst days they still did several things that were memorable, even if they were incredibly stupid. TNA could only hope to have a world champion who inspires as much intrest 10 yeasr on as David Arquette. TNA would love to be able to throw away a match as big as Goldberg & Hulk Hogan on free TV. But TNA doesn't have the capabilities to do either. All they are is a rubbish WCW/WWE tribute promotion.

 

[axl626]

Isn't this considered well known? I mean, they're almost following the pattern exactly. They build up a franchise, get a big nationwide deal, bring in Hogan and Bischoff, and boot out some of the guys who helped build the company. The only things left are to beat WWE in the ratings, which I could see very soon unless you are a huge TNA hater (which honestly there are a lot of, one in particular in this thread and not necessarily the OP), continue beating them using the same tactics, never change those tactics, and fail miserably.

Now hopefully Bischoff has learned from his mistakes as well as his time at two sinking ships and will steer TNA in the right direction. As I said, TNA puts on quality programs and is, to me, a mix of WCW during its height and Attitude era Raw. Hell, they just had a King of the Ring tournament. Right now, their one show is destroying all of WWE's buildup to their biggest show.

WWE is now equal to the WWF of 94-95, TNA is now equal to WCW, and this is a bit of a stretch but ROH is kind of equal to ECW. They have a loyal fanbase, a unique product, and some of their alumni go on to become huge stars.

Oh, and as for the Arquette thing, bringing in celebrities and centering your main product on them is ridiculous, right? WWE would never, ever do that, would they?

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

I disagree with Y2Jake...in fact, I think I rarely agree with him. For one, I don't think "WCW/WWE tribute promotion" really makes any sense as the two companies had such drastically different styles in the past twenty years and I really think you can only emulate one or the other and of the two, clearly the emulation of WCW is more readily apparent...unless you're talking strictly talent of which having a combination of top-level former Indie stars like Styles, Daniels, and Joe and a hodge-podge of former big league talents, a few of which were actually fairly relevant (Hardy, Kennedy) within the past five years, I have a hard time understanding how else you should run a wrestling business.

I do see alot of similairities between WCW and TNA, but there are a lot of differences too. WCW did have a mass influx of talent when they first went head to head with WWF(E). I don't think anybody in the world would argue that Val Venis and Orlando Jordan are anywhere close to WCW getting Diesel and Razor Ramon, but getting Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson might be more equivalent.

The glaring difference to me though isn't TNA's lack of success. I think, especially after Sunday night's PPV and last night's Raw I will, without hesitation, opt for TNA and I would hope anyone who actually enjoys watching wrestling will follow. Honestly, if a viewer's choice is seriously going to be between watching segments like that mind-melting Jerry Springer fluff or a Pope match, are we still going to say TNA doesn't have a chance? Because if they don't we're in for some pretty dark days, imo.

The big difference is noticeably in production values, which aren't even on par with WCW in 1996 and since that was 14 years ago, that's pretty bad. The entrance music, save for a few guys like Pope (with his pretty cool 70's grindhouse music) and maybe Tara, is awful and I, like has been mentioned on other pages, wonder how hard it is to foot a couple bucks towards some Indie band or something besides what sounds like old wcw/wwe music that was fed through some sort of copyright-evasion device.

I really don't think "WCW 2.0" is a negative term anyway. in 1996, WCW blew WWE out of the water with the NWO and the world's greatest cruiserweight division; they really didn't start going too far downhill, until they mistakenly picked up Russo, whom ironically is still one of the head writers for TNA (for the time being; fingers crossed). There are a lot of things that have to be done obviously to reach where WCW was at. I think they easily have the talent, I would rather watch nearly any TNA wrestler against any other TNA wrestler (excluding Amazing Red) than most of the guys on the RAW roster and that's exactly how I felt in 1996 with WCW. I think while guys like Hogan, Hall, and Nash should stay far (far) away from their boots, on the reverse side, their characters are much more interesting now than they've been since, well, 1996. Bischoff especially is blowing my mind with how awesome he's turned out as a charcter. His strange bi-pol,ar kind of super-nice than super-evil, always maybe screwing with people but maybe not, has been really inventive and honestly, one of the most interesting characters I've seen since "Loose Cannon" Brian Pillman. Jeez, I kind of hate to admit it, but his office scenes might be my favorite non-wrestling scenes to watch right now, and that's out of any of the companies.

Long story short, WCW 2.0 isn't that much of a barb to me. The only thing that stands in TNA's way of success is the production values and whether or not they give Russo too much reign with his batsh*t stupid ideas.

 

[aphazel1]

I agree with a lot of what Synner said, however the overall product of TNA has gone down the crapper since Hogan and Easy-E have returned. Synner, you’re right that they've not necessarily re-created WCW as much as they have taken what use to be a youthful, energetic, and, most importantly, a product uniquely different than the WWE and turned it into a generic looking WWE retirement home....I loved the six-sided ring, other than the awesomeness of the x-division, it was one of the first things that popped out about the product....aesthetically speaking, the ring nicely complimented the high-impact, fast paced style of the x-division. Not to mention the fact that, the stars that I grew to enjoy (such as AJ Styles) are being mishandled or just completely swept under the rug. AJ as a heel is actually a good idea, but him playing a “nature-boy-esque” playboy is completely unbelievable. I realize that some of the mishandling is a “work” but others have disappeared from TV all together.

Strangely, I do agree with you that Hall and Waltman are good for TNA. Waltman can still put on a pretty damn good match if he can stay sober…TNA should be strict and clear with him regarding their desire for him not fall back into old habits, when he’s in the ring, it’s not just his life he’s risking. If he can’t stay sober while at work, they should send his ass home and have no regrets. Scott, on the other hand, is obviously in no condition to work, but he’s a recognizable name and he’s still good on the mic. He should be given a reasonable time-line to get himself in shape to, at the very least, do some light work without looking foolish. I think there could still be some value here but I could be wrong...

The Nasty Boys, uggghhh….there is no justification for them, they’re only around because of Hogan. I don’t think they can help the young stars as on air-talents because no one remembers them and those that do don’t care or wish they could forget.

Hogan & Bischoff are both fantastic on air talents but I’m not sure that the “geniuses” behind the Dungeon of Doom should have a career in creative. I’ll still tune in on Thursday nights to see what becomes of this fiasco, however I am not hopeful and what hope I do have is diminishing daily.

 

[Greenlight13]

Not really a fair comparison.

TNA gets sooooo much shit from people because in recent times bitching about stuff is the "in" thing to do. People say WWE is awful and Vince doesn't know what he's doing but then they read or watch the shows each week and they buy Wrestlemania. People bash the hell out of TNA but then watch it anyway. I can't tell you how many times I've seen guys on 411mania leaving comments on the TNA results saying TNA sucks. You have to be pretty sad to go out of your way to point out you don't like something. Just don't watch/read.

TNA has been around less than a decade. WWE has been around for over 50 years and has over time built itself into being a household name and a multi-billion dollar company. Everyone knows who they are because they have decades of name branding. WCW existed as Jim Crockett promotions before getting a multi-billion dollar investment from a media tycoon. WWE didn't achieve TNA's success as quickly as TNA have, and TNA doesn't have Ted Turner to bank-roll them so to compare it to either company is ridiculously unfair.

You can argue about the quality of their product all you want, but you can't deny facts. It started from nothing with Jeff & Jerry Jarrett and made a significant improvement or growth year on year and is still around 8 years later. From the weekly PPVs to the TV deal, to getting two hours, to now going live. Try opening a fast food restaurant with virtually no money and competing with McDonald's or Burger King. If you managed to expand and stay around for nearly 10 years people would be impressed with you, even if you aren't McD's or BK. And yet people take a shit all over TNA for failing to match the WWE. That's just flat-out unfair.

What do you TNA haters want? For them to just not bother? For the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels and others to just stay on the Indie scene forever? They wouldn't make it in the WWE because of their size issues. Should Kurt Angle have been driven into an early death from the demands of the WWE schedule because he didn't want to retire? Should everyone who the WWE fires hang up their boots and go get a new job? Should WWE be the be-all and end-all of wrestling? The only company that exists, spoon-feeding us what wrestling should or shouldn't be?

I for one think alternatives to the mainstream are always a good thing and these passionate and talented individuals should be allowed to be showcased in their own way. Sure, they fall short quite a lot and they just can't match the monetary value of the WWE, but considering where they've come from and what they've got working against them you have to applaud what they've done so far.

WCW was a wrestling company that let the inmates run the asylum. Ted Turner signed blank checks and told Bischoff to get whoever he wanted. Veterans jumped at the chance to control their own characters. Bischoff played dirty and ruffled a lot of feathers. They kicked WWF's ass for nearly 2 years but began to decline when all the egos destroyed the company. They showcased youth but never put a spotlight on it, the cruiserweights were a sideshow that got over by themselves because WCW put no effort into pushing them. Too much money and not enough sense comes to mind with WCW. They didn't have a Vince McMahon who genuinely cared and understood wrestling at the helm, they had essentially a silent partner giving money to a series of bickering deputy managers.

People can complain about Hogan trying to take control again, they can complain about the Band and the Nasty Boys, they can complain the 6-sided ring is gone and Hogan's guys are getting pushed while the originals are buried.... but look at the ratings... look at the advertising, look at the press attention. It's all up and it's maintained a healthy new average. That's a success and it can't be denied.

Bottom line is TNA's management is slightly more mature than WCW's was and it's only been about 3 months so far. The company isn't spiraling into nothingness yet and the world hasn't exploded, so can we stop trying to predict their demise simply because a lot of the people who were there at the death of one company have now arrived in another?

Have I loved every minute of the new TNA? No. But I didn't love every minute of the old TNA, I don't love every minute of the WWE and I don't love every minute of ROH or PWG. None of the companies are perfect and each has some major weaknesses, but they're all seemingly in good shape and don't appear to be going anywhere soon, so just watch whichever one(s) you want to and stop all this TNA IS WCW 2.0 AND IS GOING TO FAIL AND THEN I'LL LAUGH business.

 

[not a loser like u]

you just spent time defending the use of: scott hall, syxx-pac, the nasty boys and hogan. WOW, the same guys were already too old in WCW.

if TNA wants to succeed. they need to use their new talent better and need to change their entrances. no one even knows or cares when someone comes out, entrances are critical to storylines and crowd reaction.

TNA is a shell of WCW, and pathetic as ever.

Jeff Jarret, AJ, and angle are all they have. everyone else is a has been, and noooooooobody cares about REAL has beens.

 

[fdogg83097]

TNA getting ratings? Ok, I will say their ratings have gone up a bit. Now will they last? That is the true question. To all of the fans of wrestling and including the smarks, we tune in to see what they will do next. That is a key point to remember. The very first Nitro we saw Lex Luger show up and rock the wrestling world on its ass. Then each and every week we tuned in to see "what will happen next". Now TNA needs to have that effect to a point, but should stress better story lines. A.J. Styles turning into Ric Flair overnight to me is a joke and does nothing for either character. If they would have built it up more than maybe it would make more sense. Instead of bringing in talent to enhance the talent they already had, they are starting over. TNA only been around for 7 years? Well in the last few weeks they tore down what was built and are starting over. WCW didnt burry its origionals in bringing in new people. Maybe TNA needs to remember that.

 

[Spillz3000]

Holy CRAP! Are you serious!? What the hell is with all the TNA bashing. I'm sorry but if any WWE Shareholder can tell me why Raw yesterday is the direction WWE needs to go into then I'd love to hear it. I don't know how many times I could stomach Michael Cole saying Wrestlemania worthy Main Event or two of the best wrestlers in the history of WWE. I get it man! Triple H and John Cena(Who have already had many matches against each other) have been spoon fed to you guys as the end all be all of WWE wrestling but I still find ShowMiz more entertaining than them and they had a short segment on the show when they own the rest of the gold on Raw! How does the U.S. and Unified Tag Team Champions(who can appear on any show they want) get the less T.V. time than that God Awful Jerry Springer segment!? Ever since the Guest Host concept, screw it for the last few years Raw and probably WWE as a whole has just lost touch with what wrestling should be. Now I'm not saying all of it's bad but you can't honestly tell me that week in and week out that Vince is making way better decisions than TNA. Cause that's just outright ridiculous.

Okay TNA isn't even a decade old yet so they are going to go through a lot of growing pains and not always make the right deicision. So I ask what's the WWE's excuse for making stupid decisions week in week out when they been doing this for 50 years? I'm sorry but if WWE is this holy grail of wrestling that you Shareholders claim it is then why are we getting predictable and ridiculous storylines? At this stage with feeling out things I think TNA is allowed to make a mistake hear and there to see what works as opposed to WWE who knows how to make great T.V. but decides to just throw ideas at a wall and see what sticks.

Now I am a WWE fan but I can look outside of the box and say that Vince doesn't really have a handle 100% of the time on what's going on. I'm not saying TNA is making great choices cause there's things I'd like to see change with them too, but like a lot of people say give them time and see what happens.

Bottom line if your a wrestling fan you should be excited at the fact that TNA is trying to be a viable alternative to WWE. I know I'm happy that very soon I can change the channel on Monday Nights and see which organization is going to give me better entertainment. I hope this competition lights a fire under both companies asses and we as wrestling fans reap the benefits of another Monday Night War. So you got to question if your a wrestling fan or not if your hoping for the destruction of another company. Cause as posted earlier if there was no TNA a lot of your favorite wrestlers would be stuck in the indies, working overseas, or have to retire due to no work. I'd rather have another option then this guest host concept bullshit. On the other hand I am a big fan of SmackDown so if there's a show that WWE has that can make TNA worried it'd be SmackDown cause it seems like Vince gives the writers more free reign on that show to actually produce decent fueds and storylines.

 

[fenfool]

How the heck are the Nasty Boys helping younger talent by working with Team 3D?? I really cannot stand Bichoff as an on-air character...he is channel-changing bad for me. I know everyone loves Flair, but putting him and Bichoff into the Samoa Joe-AJ match just took away from the two performers. Having AJ start to look and act like Flair...well, remember how well that worked for Petey Williams? I really don't see what the bug up Hogan's but about competing with WWE is all about. I don't see what purpose going right to the same timeslot is going to do...the 8-10 slot seemed a good fit last month. I guess they want viewers to make a choice, but I don't know if they are going to be happy with the choice they make.

I guess you can say their ratings are up, they are making more money (not knowing how much they gave the new guys, I can't say how true that is to the bottom line), fine...but as someone who bought their very first PPV, has dozens of their DVDs and hasn't missed an episode of Impact, does that not give me the right to complain when I don't like the product I'm seeing? I know management isn't exactly listening to their long-time fans right now, but it's about the only method of communication we've got.

 

[XgringolocoX]

IT's so funny to hear the ratings arguement for TNA doing better. Where's the huge jump in ratings? Have they been sustained? Or as I've said before there's an initial small bump in ratings SOLEY due to a few WWE fans being interested. Now ratings will slip back down slightly to where they were.
TNA shouldn't even be recognizing WWE. The constant reference to WWE lets us all now that they themselves consider TNA to be low rent. They acknowledge that they're inferior on a consistant basis. It comes across to the fans, no not you TNA die hards.
FENFOOL is right. HOw the fuck does having the Nasty Boys there help anyone? They're a fucking joke....worse than a joke they're FUCKING USELESS. Jokes make you laugh, that's entertainment. the NBs make me want to TURN THE CHANNEL. BAd Tna, no ratings for you...2 weeks!!!
TNA has a ton of potential it's just a matter of them hitting their stride. They need to reel it back and decide on what the core of TNA is and how that should be translated to the audience. TNA needs to just concentrate on being the best TNA can be without considering WWE. They dont need to keep looking up longingly at the cool kids wishing they could be invited to this weekends party. It's just makes them pathetic. Throw your own party and exclude the cool kids.....FTW!!!!!

 

[latinoheat8979]

I agree with everything Spillz3000 had to say. As a wrestling fan I want TNA to be a threat to WWE. Now I am a huge WWE fan, but since there was no competition they gave us a really crappy product that has gone PG and only caters to small kids. TNA gives us that alternative that is a 14 rating and caters to teenagers and adults, I mean what would you rather see Hornswoggle crotch chopping or Velet Sky's booty dry humping the ring rope? Now we can compare TNA to WCW if that's the case then WWE better watch out because WCW overtook WWE for over 2 years and with the same men running the show now (Hogan, Bischoff) it could happen again it just takes time. Once TNA goes to Monday nights WWE will have to up the ante, beacuse if they keep showing a PG lacksluster product a lot of fans will tune into TNA Impact. Again I like WWE I've watched WWE since the late 70's to now. My favotite era was the Attiude era and think about this, had WCW not made Nitro and not gone to war with WWE do you think the Attitude Era would've existed? Think about it before Nitro we had a bad WWE 1994-1995 New Generation Era that forced Vinny Mac's hand to go "Attitude" to survive. All I can say is that as a fan I'm happy that there will be a Monday Night Wars part 2. I wish TNA the best of luck as I do for WWE and I'll tune into whatever the better product is. At the end of the day we, the fans will be the winners as they fight for our ratings and thus will put on a better product.

 

[losmariachi]

I wish people didn't use the "Nastys are here to help" excuse. No, they aren't. They're two of the most selfish personalities in wrestling. And one of WWE's golden boys right now can attest to that. Drew McIntyre worked a tag match with them roughly two years ago. The Nastys stiffed the hell out of him and Dave Taylor. Why? BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO DO THE JOB TO A YOUNG GUY. If one Hogan friend gets hired, and another it's pretty obvious they're there because they're friends "4 life."

 

[DERO1979]

You people need to back off here on the TNA hating and give The Hulkster a chance. Everyone wants to hate on the guy. Everyone wants to bury the guy. None of us would even be watching wrestling today if it wasn't for Hogan. There would be no Austin and they wouldn't be able to make John Cena a cheesy carbon copy of Hogan.
The fact of the matter is this. The late 1990's and the Monday Night Wars were the best time in the history of wrestling. It's tough to argue....Now, we are getting that again and that's exciting. Quit tearing apart every segment of every show like you are movie critics paid to do so. Shit back and try to enjoy it.
To me the WWE has been stale for YEARS and even though everyone on this site pisses and moans about the direction of the Bret Hart angle, I find it to be the most refreshing angle the WWE has put out in YEARS. YEARS. Everyone is a critic. Why?
As far as TNA goes and the bashing? Guys, Hogan got there on January 4th. That's LESS than 6 weeks ago and we already have a new series of MONDAY NIGHT WARS in place starting in 3 weeks. That's pretty damn exciting if you ask me.
So stop whining about the Nasty Boys and Bischoff and this and that and look at the bigger picture. Starting on March 8th the Monday Night Wars are back. And mabe TNA will fall on their face and this whole thing will be over by summer. Or maybe they'll swing the pendulum? Either way, this is an exciting time again in wrestling and you can largely thank Hogan for that. AGAIN.
Would TNA be going head to ehad on Monday nights without him? No.
Would WWE have brought in Hart on January 4th to compete with the live TNA because of HOGAN's presence? No.
Quit bitching and enjoy it...

 

[Kliq4Life]

You people need to back off here on the TNA hating and give The Hulkster a chance. Everyone wants to hate on the guy. Everyone wants to bury the guy. None of us would even be watching wrestling today if it wasn't for Hogan. There would be no Austin and they wouldn't be able to make John Cena a cheesy carbon copy of Hogan.
The fact of the matter is this. The late 1990's and the Monday Night Wars were the best time in the history of wrestling. It's tough to argue....Now, we are getting that again and that's exciting. Quit tearing apart every segment of every show like you are movie critics paid to do so. Shit back and try to enjoy it.
To me the WWE has been stale for YEARS and even though everyone on this site pisses and moans about the direction of the Bret Hart angle, I find it to be the most refreshing angle the WWE has put out in YEARS. YEARS. Everyone is a critic. Why?
As far as TNA goes and the bashing? Guys, Hogan got there on January 4th. That's LESS than 6 weeks ago and we already have a new series of MONDAY NIGHT WARS in place starting in 3 weeks. That's pretty damn exciting if you ask me.
So stop whining about the Nasty Boys and Bischoff and this and that and look at the bigger picture. Starting on March 8th the Monday Night Wars are back. And mabe TNA will fall on their face and this whole thing will be over by summer. Or maybe they'll swing the pendulum? Either way, this is an exciting time again in wrestling and you can largely thank Hogan for that. AGAIN.
Would TNA be going head to ehad on Monday nights without him? No.
Would WWE have brought in Hart on January 4th to compete with the live TNA because of HOGAN's presence? No.
Quit bitching and enjoy it...

Finally someone with some reason so we have a TNA show of two hours and all everyone does is bash the nasty boys. And trust me i get it, but i dont think they are KILLING TNA, and you guys yell about the young guys in TNA well AJ is how old im pretty sure he is 32 and your beloved Daniels is almost 40!!!! TNA is a business and you need RATINGS to stay on TV and Hogan and Eazy-E have brought that, i mean how about we give them a year to let this all play out then we can sit back and judge. Oh to the guy who compaired AJ actin like Flair to Petey actin like Steiner i mean come on your compairin STEINER to FLAIR?

 

[MisterTNA]

Give Hulk a chance. Yep, we have ALL heard that before. So funny how nobody remembers him refusing to job to Bret. How he almost ran WCW into bankruptcy before Hall and Nash showed up.

Remember Starrcade 1994? Hogan vs Zodiak. It wasn't beyond atrocious.

If you, Hogan and Bischoff, promise people change, and promise them new ideas, then do it. Cause Nasties, Hall, Nash, Sting in rafters, AJ acting like Flair, are not new, they are fresh, and they aren't going to help you. They couldn't defeat Vince last time, what makes you think this time, and 10 years added on to the stale nWo crap will work now?

Why couldn't TNA just be happy with what they had. Why go after Vince, when your going to lose? That would be like me wanting to box, so my first match I challenge Mayweather. Why?

TNA is not in the position WCW was in. They don't have fresh stars like Hall, Nash, Xpac, Goldberg. They don't have that insanely popular angle like the nWo, or Austin vs McMahon. They don't have that one character, Sting, that took off and got some of the loudest pops in history.

You want to after Vince, fine I'll support ya TNA. But do it smart. Go after Smackdown first. You won't beat Vince on Monday. So go after his #2 Show.

Throw Wolf vs Angle, AJ vs Pope on a Friday, along with the knockouts and Morgan and Blueprint, and X Division and Smackdown has a serious problem.

 

[Schizophrenic]

You want to after Vince, fine I'll support ya TNA. But do it smart. Go after Smackdown first. You won't beat Vince on Monday. So go after his #2 Show.

Throw Wolf vs Angle, AJ vs Pope on a Friday, along with the knockouts and Morgan and Blueprint, and X Division and Smackdown has a serious problem

They have they are already going after SmackDown. They said on the press conferance Monday that their goal right now is not to beat RAW. They said they beat Superstars and ECW and now they are settign their sights on SmackDown's rating to beat them. Just on a different night. What did you expect them and Spike to do? Go after Superstars on Thursday, then move to Tuesday to go after ECW/NXT then move to Fridays to take on SmackDown, then go to Monday to take on RAW? Yeah changing times and days that much will get people to think they are competition. Going head to head with RAW hour for hour may not be the best but what the hell? WHy not? If they get crushed then they get crushed trying. And I (along with ALOT of others) would rather they try and fail than never try at all.

 

[abraxsis]

Did you guys watch Dixie's interview for the march 8 monday night move? Very interesting comments she made. She knows she can't beat RAW, her bench marks are very realistic. First ECW in ratings which she did, now she wants to be beat number 2 smackdown. I don't think there is the Ted Turner attitude (although like to show it off on TV personas) that they want to beat the competition. They just want fun and profitable alternative, for wrestling viewers and wrestlers to turn to if they choose. Which was lacking for so many years, WWE or nothing, why I stopped watching. I think even hogan said the same thing in the interview.

 

[fenfool]

Anyone see the ratings from last week's Impact? The Hogan/Angle/The Band segment was the lowest rated segment, once again The Beautiful People got the highest rating. I just don't believe anything Hogan or Bichoff say, they have spent their credibility long ago. Hogan's whole thing is 'change', so why are we seeing so many retread storylines, and by and large a copy of his Hulkamania tour? I don't think Hogan is really capable of changing himself. I hope he proves me wrong.

 

[Synner]

My aim with this post was not to be a TNA basher but to actually look at the potential of the company. Personally I think TNA has the ability to do something big to gain ground and become a very forceful competition for the WWE. Yes TNA have made a lot of mistakes but hopefully they can rectify these problems and take focus on their future.

Nasty Boys are gone from the company and have been for some time now and honestly it's a good thing. They did what they needed to and IMO I'm glad they are gone.

One thing that actually has kept me interested recently is the fact they have managed to successfully turn Sting heel unlike when WCW attempted it back in 99.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've noticed a few jump to TNA's defense and that's all well and good. However, if you think the TNA product is shit, then you've got every right as a wrestling fan to voice that opinion. It's the same with the WWE as far as I'm concerned.

Far too many TNA fans try to hype TNA into something that it isn't and jump down the throats of those that simply don't have as high of an opinion of the product. I've watched TNA for about 4 years now and I can say with confidence that the past 5 months or so have been the worst I've seen out of them. I do want TNA to succeed and grow, but I'm not going to pretend that they're great right now.

The OP says that TNA reminds him of WCW in some ways and the OP is certainly not the first one to make such observations. I've read tons of posts in which some posters, some of which have been long time fans of TNA, say that TNA reminds them so much of WCW in its last few years that it's scary. I've also seen the term "WWE Lite" a number o times as well. Part of the reason for that is because TNA has tried to piggyback off of past WWE and WCW successes in the hopes of getting their company over as quickly as they possibly can. TNA frequently rehashes old WCW and/or WWE angles and has brought in a lot of names that one or both of those companies helped to build into stars in the hopes that they can build their audience. TNA's hope has been that if these angles and stars worked 10 and 15 years ago, maybe they can work for us now. To a degree, I think that it makes TNA look second rate. It gives me an impression that TNA doesn't have faith in the talent that they have or they just don't have the talent to get their company over. Maybe that's not how it is, but that's an impression that TNA has given me at times and I'm sure it's given to others. Dixie Carter said last summer that she wanted TNA to be the #1 wrestling company in the world. TNA has shelled out tons of cash to bring in the likes of Hulk Hogan just to accomplish that.

I accept the fact that TNA is still less than a decade old and is still a young company. However, that can't be used as a crutch when TNA decides to go head to head against the WWE before they're ready and falls flat on their face. TNA talked a lot of big talk 6, 7 and 8 months ago. We heard terms thrown around like TNA was going to take over Monday nights and that TNA had declared war. Hulk Hogan himself said that TNA iMPACT! on January 4th would draw a 3.0 rating. A huge number of TNA fans were thrilled and were salivating over the prospect of TNA possibly asserting its dominance over WWE. When they scored a 1.5 rating on January 4th, this section of the WZ forums was packed with posters already saying that TNA was about to kick WWE's ass, that the return of the Monday Night Wars had arrived, that the WWE was about to be knocked off top of the mountain, etc. That's all well and good, but a lot of posters have tried to backpedal once TNA's ratings and the quality of the show started to plummet. Then the old excuses started popping up about how TNA was still a young company and how we've got to give them time and all this and that. I'm just tired of hearing all the bullshit excuses for why TNA failed and is currently failing. TNA went head to head against WWE and got their asses kicked, end of story. No excuses, no backpedaling, just man up and accept it rather than come up with some lame attempt to defend TNA. Nobody twisted the collective arm of TNA to go head to head against WWE, Dixie Carter managed to make it happen and the attempt ultimately failed.

The hopeless TNA marks can't have it both ways. They can't tout TNA's rise to prominence less than 6 months ago and talk shit about how they're about to take the WWE down and then rely on the same old excuses once they failed and failed in an epic way. They also shouldn't just expect everyone to jump to TNA's defense just because they have.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Comparing TNA with WCW is unfair. WCW had a far bigger budget to work with, which meant they were able to spend money like crazy on whatever stupid idea they had. Despite the ideas TNA has, most of them couldn't come to fruition without some money involved. Also, WCW and Bischoff were hell bent on driving ratings up enough to put Vince McMahon out of business. TNA's goal is to be a different company than the WWE and to put on a quality product. TO me, if TNA had WCW's money and resources, the promotion would be a lot more successful than it is now. Reason being that with that kind of money, TNA could travel to different venues across the country. They would also be able to find a better network that would have the potential to promote their product better.

TNA just needs viewership at this point. And slowly, they're getting to that point.