TNA's Unique Place In Wrestling History

[BigBombB]

WWE acknowledges ROH and NJPW. They build up the accolades of any stars that come from those organizations as if they are big deals. But TNA wrestlers? They come from the "minor leagues". But why? The only other organization that WWE has had such a solid "no mention" policy toward was WCW, but TNA is nowhere near that big a threat to WWE...are they?

TNA does have some legitimate star power. Jeff Hardy and Beer Money are considerable draws, then talents like Matt Hardy, EC3, Mike Bennett/Maria, Spud, and Bobby Lashley provide a solid foundation beyond that. Gail Kim is still the top female wrestler in the world and someone WWE would no doubt love to have back now that they are treating their women's division more seriously.

But with WWE raiding most of the top talent from around the world to place in NXT, why bother with a scorched earth policy towards a non-competitor? Is there something the WWE knows that no one else does? Or is TNA simply not willing to play ball like all of the other companies? Or, perhaps, is there something even more damning?

The unique place that TNA has is that, no matter how much star power they can assemble, any time a wrestler spends there will never be acknowledged by any other company. While some careers have been strengthened by their TNA tenure like Christian, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and EC3, to encourage anyone to look into their time in TNA might actually be a net loss.

Take AJ Styles. In TNA he had years worth of amazing matches, pioneered the X-Division, and proved himself to be a main event worthy talent. Unfortunately, that isn't all. A search of AJ Styles in TNA may also bring up his terrible run as a Ric Flair clone, the abysmal time he spent as Christian's sidekick, and any number of other embarrassing moments. While TNA was certainly the biggest factor in AJ Styles successful career, it is a factor not worth the risk of acknowledging.

The Dudley Boyz, Sting, Ric Flair, Booker T...hell, Xavier Woods! Did any of these talents gain anything worth looking back at during their time in TNA? Other than the Jay Lethal woo-off, no. TNA is essentially the black hole of the wrestling industry. A place to get television exposure, keep in wrestling shape, show that you have talent...and then go some place else as if it never happened. Is there any other example of a company so widely disregarded as TNA is today? I don't think there is and that makes them one of the biggest anomalies in wrestling history.

 

[filthyanimalz]

Let me talk to ya. It's pretty well known that WWE won't acknowledge TNA because they are the only company that have ever looked like possibly being a threat to their global dominance since they acquired WCW and ECW. No other company has come close to having the star power or global reach that TNA has and that's not a put down, that's just a fact of life. As for ROH and NJPW not acknowledging them it is because TNA hasn't allowed their workers to work for them whilst being under contract to TNA.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

It's all due to TNA not having a working relationship with WWE unlike NJPW and ROH. TNA seems to be an island of their own and most of the talent that works there are bitter former talents who have ill will towards WWE such as Matt Hardy and if he still works there, Ken Anderson.

But lately, WWE's been mentioning TNA in passing on some WWE Network programming, but a far as mentioning them in any capacity other than that, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense because not a lot of history other than Styles and maybe the Dudley Boyz aren't really in TNA. Maybe Sting, but he has enough WCW history to make his legacy in WWE's eyes valuable. TNA, if anything, would lower his legacy as he had to work with older, uninspired talent like Nash, Steiner, Jeff Hardy, etc.

 

[rmp0012002]

When TNA was run by wrestling people in the beginning they were definitely on the radar but since daddie's little girl took over they have not had anyone with a clue, wrestling wise, steering the ship. There's zero reason for WWE to mention them as resembling any kind of competition as they are lower than ROH and NJPW. I think WWE would like some kind of competition they could beat and feed their egos again but going back in time is not going happen so they just raid indies like they did the territories.

 

[Vintage]

Dixie has owned the majority of TNA since damn near day one

FACT ( In October 2002, Panda Energy purchased 71% of TNA)

WWE has a history of not mentioning direct competitors unless they are bragging about ratings or attendance numbers

FACT


Sting's run in TNA kept him relevant.

FACT



Please... don't let truth get in the way of a good story

 

[dsotm5150]

TNA shouldn't be in the position its in, from the time of its inception on up to late 2009 early 2010 the product was good, solid in ring action, good talent, was picking up steam and starting to emerge as a solid but distant number 2 to the WWE. Talent was starting to notice them and names like Sting, Kurt Angle, the Dudleyz and many other great talents came in which was great beczuse they could still go in the ring and were used just enough that you knew that the company was trying to focus on guys like Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles it was great I loved watching TNA from about 2004 - 2010. Unfortunately Dixie Carter decided we needed Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall etc guys that yes have incredible name value and the nostalgic side of me loves to see those guys pop up on occasion, but for a company like TNA, the cost to have them on roster overshadowed the performance they got out of them. From the moment Hulk Hogan came in it completely reversed everything that had been accomplished upto that point. All of a sudden you have almost the entire roster in a stable, be it Fortune or Immortal, the younger guys, the TNA originals all but disappeared from TV so that Hogan could have his last big turn from heel to face again. From that point on the talent was jumping ship as fast as they could go. Yes I can see from their point of view why they would think hiring Ric Flair or a Hulk Hogan would be a good idea but its almost like Dixie was given the keys to the kingdom and handed them over to Hogan and said here run my empire. TNA is at a now or never point now, they've really got to sit back, shut RAW off and say OK, we need to go back to being different, that's what worked for us in the past and we need to go back to it because being a off-Broadway copy of RAW isn't working.

 

[akathelaw]

TNA has become a punchline. Their company has had its ups and downs but has failed to maximize the potential of their assembled roster. Ric Flair himself has said that the time for TNA to become a major player has passed and it's probably not coming back. It is what it is. That's a 2 hour weekly taped program that features wrestling matches of varying quality and a few names you might recognize from other wrestling feds. TNA is wrestling by formula, but not really as innovative as they would like everyone to think. It used to feature innovative wrestlers, but traded that in for WWE names that people recognized. Instead of booking main events in 2015 with AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels and Bobby Roode, TNA brought in MVP, Tyrus and another Hardy. TNA is just a wrestling show that a small number of people like. I'm not one of them anymore.

 

[Azane]

If you're #1, you don't even mention #2, even if you're berating them or taking a shot at them, acknowledgement is a huge no-no.

TNA is nowhere near the threat it once was, I wanna say the Hulk Hogan Push for Monday Night Live Impacts was when TNA had peaked, as the Hulk Hogan Era started the huge decline, that being said, they're still "Somewhat" of competition towards WWE.

The only time I remember a real direct TNA reference was when Kaval (Lowki) 'rapped' and used the term "It's time for some Total Nonstop Action" during NXT 2

That being said, I anxiously await the day that TNA gets added to WWE Networks library so I can watch some Pre-Dixie as on screen character TNA.


TNA Had literally an all-star LEGENDARY roster at one point and was getting destroyed in ratings because of really dumb decisions, the booking was even bad at the time (near the end of the Spike days, TNA had some quality storytelling). Then after The failure of the Monday Night Wars 2, We got... Aces and 8's for a solid 2 years (a story that should of died after ~4-6 months at most), and then Josh Mathews.

 

[dsotm5150]

Moving to Monday nights against RAW was about as stupid as stupid gets. I get it, it worked for WCW back in '95 but '95 was an eternity ago as far as TV goes. TNA didn't have the fanbase, popularity or the expansive reach WCW did to go head to head. It really was just a stupid idea, I mean it showed they had some brass balls on them to even try but still, you can't tell me somebody at TNA or Spike didn't know it was a bad idea.

 

[MoRtAnDaD]

IMO the only reason WWE does not acknowledge TNA its because ROH and NJPW are more solid as a product than TNA, and as someone already mentioned, theres a business relation between the 2 companies with WWE.

And honestly, i dont think that TNA was never even 1000 miles close to be a threat for WWE. TNA was never ECW kind of threat, far less WCW kind of threat.

 

[BigBombB]

If you're #1, you don't even mention #2, even if you're berating them or taking a shot at them, acknowledgement is a huge no-no.

TNA is nowhere near the threat it once was, I wanna say the Hulk Hogan Push for Monday Night Live Impacts was when TNA had peaked, as the Hulk Hogan Era started the huge decline, that being said, they're still "Somewhat" of competition towards WWE.

The only time I remember a real direct TNA reference was when Kaval (Lowki) 'rapped' and used the term "It's time for some Total Nonstop Action" during NXT 2

That being said, I anxiously await the day that TNA gets added to WWE Networks library so I can watch some Pre-Dixie as on screen character TNA.


TNA Had literally an all-star LEGENDARY roster at one point and was getting destroyed in ratings because of really dumb decisions, the booking was even bad at the time (near the end of the Spike days, TNA had some quality storytelling). Then after The failure of the Monday Night Wars 2, We got... Aces and 8's for a solid 2 years (a story that should of died after ~4-6 months at most), and then Josh Mathews.

Josh Mathews was so great in the WWE, what in the hell happened to that guy? Seriously, Matt Striker is in Lucha Underground and doing a great job, how did the other half of a "commentary team of the year" award winner end up spewing so much garbage? From his attack on Jim Ross to his piss poor performances every week, he isn't even a shell of the potential he used to have. Seriously, WTF.

It's like he cares so little about the product that he, himself, is the voice of that he barely even tries. When he doesn't care, is it any surprise that so few others do? When you come into a commentary team and are worse than Taz, you should not be on television.

 

[whoopin' ass]

In a lot of ways, i think TNA embarrased wwe. First, they showed that even when they bought out WCW and ECW, they were still not hte be all and end all of wrestling. Fans were willing to give other companies a chance. As well, they showed that wwe didn't always get the best talent. Lots of guys what wwe didn't want anymore went to TNA and did wekk, proving they still had value. As well, TNA had a lot of talent like Styles that wwe could have had and passed on. While TNA may not have become the competitor that we all hoped it would be, it certainly shows that you could build a wrestling company and have some success even under the bid shadow of wwe. I think that is going to be its legacy - you don't need to beat wwe to be successful. People won't admit it but things like Lucha Underground, etc and even ROH to a degree exist like they do because TNA shows you can succeed.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

TNA brought on alot of the issues they have today on themselves and it all started with January 4th 2010 when Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff coming in. They were at least in the conversation as the #2 promotion behind WWE up to that point. Hogan and Bischoff coming in changed all that and they got away from what worked for them.

If TNA were doing today what they did when they got started we might not even be having this conversation and maybe WWE would acknowledge them a little bit.

 

[SHAGAMANIA 3:16]

The major problem with TNA was that they never aloud themselves to grow that and the silly name of TNA. Once they got the Spike deal they should of left the studio and expanded into a touring schedule not doing that resulted with no expanded fan base, don't think they ever got much advertisement either which didn't help. They had a killer roster in 2010 they completely missed the ball with Hogan all they had to do was to use Hogans celebrity status to advertise the show and start a touring schedule then with good booking they could of been a real threat.