You see the problem with pushing younger/less established guys is that it's a recipe for failure. Ask the WWE.
Totally. In 1998, the WWE had lost Bret Hart, HBK and other established stars. So what they did was bring in other established stars to win the war with WCW. Wait......
No they didn't. They pretty much went with guys who weren't so big but they gave them time and some of those guys became legends. The wrestlers that were big in that time? Stone Cold, Kane, Undertaker (arguable if he was a proven draw at this point), Rock, Triple H (and the rest of the nobodies in DX), Mick Foley, and maybe a few more. None of those guys were proven draws from the past and of them, only Taker had been champion before April of 1998 (Taker for 8 days in 91 and then a 5 month reign in 1997). By the end of 1998, it was becoming quite clear that the WWF product was light years ahead of WCW's despite WCW having the "bigger past stars". It wasn't a recipe for failure then and it wouldn't be now if done right. If the newer stars have the hunger and the desire to be great, they'll put on great TV. It's that simple.
I remember reading a year or two ago about them pushing young/less established guys and it didn't work for them so they're now bringing back the older/established guys and shifting the focus to them. And I don't know this for a fact but I'd assume their ratings are now better than they were during the "youth movement"?
Not really. Ratings were better a year ago and so far, people like Rock and more specifically Brock haven't brought up ratings very much, if at all. This is much more concerning for Brock as he was supposed to bring in the MMA audience and so far evidence is showing that he hasn't. Then again, Brock was a young guy coming from developmental once but he probably shouldn't have been given a chance since he wasn't a proven draw then right?
The majority of wrestling fans want to see guys they know/care about and they don't care about their age. It's only 20 people on the internet that want to watch guys they don't know/care about. Genuine wrestling fans couldn't care less whether someone is 25 or 65, they care about how good/entertaining that guy is - not his age.
That's a terribly vague statement and one I hear too many times for people trying to defend old men being on TV. You must ask yourself though, how did these men become important and how did they become people I care about? The answer? Someone gave them a chance to be a star at some point and they ran with it. You can say people want to see who they know and like, but if that's all you have, those people aren't around forever and then you'll have nothing left when they are gone. You need a balance, and in my opinion, you want the younger, hungrier guys to become stars. It's the circle of the business and the hungriest ones become big stars. In the mid 2000's, Rock, Austin, Lesnar, and other "stars" were gone. Within a couple of years, men like Cena, Batista, Orton, and Edge were stars and why? They were given a chance and they succeeded. Some fail, but you have to take chances in business and in life.
Again, I'm not against famous dudes being a part of the business, but remember they got famous somehow and they should remember that too. If they love the business, they'd help put young guys over with their words or actions so that the business can do well.
TNA shifted their focus towards younger/less established guys and people have lost interest, hence why the ratings have been declining ever since Bound For Glory 2011. If TNA shift the focus back to their stars you will see the ratings get back to where they were pre BFG11.
Neither of those ratings are anything to applaud. Again I point you to the WWF. In 1997, the WWF was in trouble. WCW had them on the ropes and they were struggling. However, their business model didn't chance despite being in their worst position in years. They saw the long term picture and that was building the stars of the future. WCW kept looking for short term "big names" You tell me which one paid off in the end? Don't be Eric Bischoff and only worry about today. If you do, you will fail. Ratings are low now, but the hope is that these guys can grow and draw for TNA moving forward.
It doesn't matter what a couple of people on the internet say, the facts tell you that wrestling fans are a lot more interested in the likes of Hulk Hogan, Rob Van Dam and Kurt Angle than they are in the likes of Bobby Roode, James Storm and Samoa Joe. Wasn't the iMPACT after Hogan's match with Sting one of the highest rated in history, while the iMPACT after Roode vs. Storm was one of the lowest for a good few years?
Well that's not fair. One is after the undisputed biggest show of the year while the other is after what should be the second biggest show but where the biggest thing that happened was Eric Bischoff's loss. Being baseless, you could say that no one cared that Bischoff was gone and that's why ratings were low. It's as meaningless an argument as the one you gave. I'll do better for you though. Since BFG 2011, I would consider the booking to be poor. What you've had is a bunch of heel champions for the most part. You have a babyface contender win some sort of match to get the title shot. That person either gets a promo or match to look good leading up to the match then just as the fans are ready for a title change, the heel wins pretty cleanly and cuts a promo about how awesome they are the next night. Then rinse and repeat. The problem with this booking is that avid fans of the product like the champions perhaps but average wrestling fans want to see a babyface triumph over a heel. If you never deliver that, those fans feel like "well why am I watching if this company never delivers great moments?" so they just give up. It doesn't matter if young talent is being utilized if the right people aren't winning stuff. Look at Lockdown. Golden opportunity to have either Velvet or Storm go over Kim or Roode respectively. Both have had long reigns that have been that formula I discussed. Both contenders were the ones fans wanted to win the most and neither won. In fact, no titles changed at Lockdown. Perhaps that fact drove people not to watch Impact, not the fact that Ric Flair hasn't been featured enough.
Focus on your stars, not an unknown entity because he's in his 20's. Who would wrestling fans rather see on their TV - Ric Flair or Jesse Sorensen? It's not even a contest.
Of course not because you said Jesse Sorenson who is both hurt and irrelevant so it makes your case sound great. The problem is, no one is arguing that Jesse should be main eventing. They ARE arguing that Storm is champonship material, that Aries should be featured more, that Styles should be able to do ANYTHING outside of Daniels, among other things. It's so say something like you did. Take the least relevant guy and pretend THAT is the young guys people are clamoring for. Again, I'm not saying the old guys have no place on the show, but they shouldn't be the focus of it either. If you are interested in a short term fix, sure. However, I can't imagine TNA should be in the business of short term fixes. That would be terrible business on their part. However, if they were to build stars and actually market them and they were to create storylines that made sense and showed these new stars to be important, you might have something. It's not like the stars TNA has now are doing wonders for the business. If you go only on ratings, not one major star that has been brought in has driven ratings more than 1/10 of a percentage point (0.1 in the ratings). That percentage means nothing. Clearly the old guys haven't done wonders in that regard. Now, we're not talking merchandising or whatever unprovable facts that will be thrown out there. All we have as far as factual info are ratings and there's not a huge difference at this point.
If TNA is smart, they will look at the WWE model. Every time they've lost stars, they've built new ones. That is why they have been the company to stay around all this time. If TNA would like to do that, I'd think building stars that are easily associated with their product is a much better idea than looking for short term fixes with older guys that will never truly drive business.