Haha, this thread is great. It's cracking me up! Anyway, here's my two cents...
TNA will NEVER be able to compete with WWE on the level WCW did during the Monday Night Wars for one simple, logical reason and that reason alone. Money. How did WCW become huge? It had Ted Turner behind it throwing money at Eric Bischoff who used it to steal ALL of WWE's main event guys. And I do mean every one of them. Hogan, Nash, Hall, Flair, Hart, Piper, Luger, so on and so forth to the point Vince had to make new ones. The list is endless! The only ones who didn't jump ship were Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Stone Cold would never have after his treatment in WCW. I still don't understand why HHH never did though, as WWE delayed his push until 99 and most of his buddies had already jumped ship but that's beyond the point. Dixie Carter is nowhere near the financial level of Ted Turner. She can't just reach into her bank account and start pulling out millions of dollars to nationally promote TNA, take it on the road 200+ days a year, touring every known state of the US. Therein lies the problem. Sporadic tours and small house shows here and there garners very little fan support. They see TNA as a small company that will only come to their town once in a while, so they don't bother following their television programming religiously.
Therefore, unless someone really wealthy starts investing in the company, TNA won't build a loyal, nation-wide fanbase (much less world-wide) that will boost ratings (which would get them more money from Spike and offers from better networks.) It's not even about wrestlers, it's a business stand-point. It doesn't matter who TNA has on their show. It could be Stone Cold Steve Austin himself, the ratings won't magically sky-rocket for a company trapped in obscurity. The ratings won't magically sky-rocket if they get better storylines, or more wrestlers from WWE. Think about it. At first, they were super psyched to get Christian. It seemed like the best thing ever! Then they weren't satisfied and went digging for Sting. And Angle. And Booker T. What do they have to show for it? They're on the road more often, sure... (albeit only for PPV's). They got two hours. It was bound to happen with a steady 1.0 viewership, Spike TV's remaining line-up isn't exactly impressive, so that's not that massive a feat.
Plain evidence of my stance on this is ECW's rating. Take a look at it. ECW is quite possibly the worst wrestling show on TV, yet it steadily beats iMpact! because there's the WWE machine behind it. Look at it like this. Old ECW was considered the shit but it died nonetheless, because of money. As bad as this new ECW is, it won't die as long as WWE doesn't want it to because they have MONEY to keep it going and fans who tune in for two other brands, so naturally will also catch ECW hoping to see their favorites pop up there.
Of course, this is a double-edged sword. A wrestling company can still tank, no matter how rich, if the right amount of ******s are riding the camel head-first into the quicksand (WCW.) Well that and the figureheads that no longer wanted wrestling on their network. Either way, I'm giving the devil his due. Vince McMahon is a genius. But only when backed against the wall. He came back from near bankruptcy and beat WCW by creating new stars when Turner stole all of his... and he did this WITHOUT being wealthier than his competitors. Dixie Carter on the other hand, as passionate as she may be about her company and pleasing its fans, she's nowhere near as smart as Vince McMahon. She has allowed her creative team to be composed of the same morons that helped drive WCW into the ground. If I were in Dixie's shoes, what would I do? Hm, for starters, take control of my own company opposed to letting Jarrett run it like Pee-Wee's Playhouse!
TNA is losing money but Dixie remains with a stupid smile on her face, greeting fans like a Goddamn tree hugger at lousy house shows! It's a cut-throat business and Dixie is not cut out to succeed in it. Why isn't Jim Cornette booking TNA? We all know he can do a much better job than Jarrett. Why does Angle have so much pull? He's not much different than HHH, who held people down for years by hogging the title, ironically driving the likes of Christian, Angle and Booker themselves out of the WWE (who now compose the TNA main event picture.) Last I checked Angle hadn't married the boss's daughter. Does being a multi-time WWE Champion automatically warrant anyone backstage stroke? Man, I steered so much off track here but that's my stake on why TNA won't likely be able to compete with WWE in the foreseeable future... or ever. The moment they become slightly threatening to McMahon's empire, he'll slow them down with superior storylines, shows, matches and superstars. If Joe or Styles ever become household names, he'll take them, simply because he has the money, therefore he can. TNA will never amass any threatening momentum and will inevitably succumb to being bought out by VKM.
