Man, it seems like this is one thread topic that's been done to death.
As far as Lance Storm goes, I dunno. I mean, the man is entitled to his opinion of course but I find it to take the criticism of a man in which the vast majority of the highlights of his career came in ECW. Kinda hard to call another company "******ed" when you work for a company that's most famous for blood baths in every other match, barbed wire, thumbtacks, flaming tables, countless chairshots to the head, etc. Also, to me, Storm is just another guy that ultimately just didn't make it and is probably a little bitter about it. He was very good inside the ring but the man had the charisma of an expired box of tampons.
As for what TNA is to WWE, they're just another wrestling company. I'm sure WWE keeps track of the basic goings on just as I'm sure TNA does with WWE. TNA is competition in the sense that they're a rival wrestling company. But they're not competition in terms of a rival company that's a threat to replace WWE as the biggest wrestling company in the world. People can debate who is better, who has the better roster, puts on better matches, etc. That stuff is all subjective but numbers aren't. In terms of television ratings, Raw usually draws anywhere between 4.5 to 5.5 million viewers at any given time over the course of the year whereas TNA generally draws in the 1.4-1.6 million range on average, with the occassional ratings pop like we saw this past Thursday. SmackDown! generally draws around 3 million people, sometimes a little less and simtimes a little more, year round. An average WWE B level ppv, not one of the big four, seems to draw buys in the 150,000 to 180,000 range. We don't ultimately know what the TNA ppvs draw but we've constantly heard rumors or reports that TNA ppvs draw in the 7,000 to 10,000 range. If that's true, you've got most WWE ppvs drawing $6.75 million to $8.1 million vs. TNA's $245,000 to $350,000. WWE house shows usually draw anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 people whereas most reports I read put TNA house shows, usually, in the 500 to 700 range. So no, TNA is not a threat to WWE when it comes to revenue or audience size. I'm not saying this to slam TNA or anything but most of us all read the same internet stories and reports. It's just obvious that, in sheer monetary & viewer numbers, TNA can't touch WWE.
Is there anything TNA can do to change that? Probably not, at least not at this time. TNA has done everything from blatantly copying well known, sometimes outright classic storylines, they've brought in some of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling, they've sometimes tried to paint themselves as an Attitude Era type of company to WWE's PG rating and nothing's ultimately worked in terms of audience size. The only thing TNA can do is hang in there and keep on trying. WWE is a legit brand. It's a brand that generations of fans have grown up watching and it's a brand that literally owns and controls the names & tape libraries of most of the greatest promotions in the history of North American wrestling. One reason why WCW was able to be a legitimate threat to WWE is that WCW already had a solid, large fanbase when Turner took control of Crockett Promotions. Turner eventually used his practically limitless funds to hire some of the biggest stars of the day to come work for him and it worked. TNA has tried to do the same thing and it hasn't worked.
So yeah, TNA is just gonna have to keep chug-a-lugin' along and keep trying. If they do surpass WWE, it's going to take a loooooong time.
