What would/did make you watch TNA?

[johnbragg]

I had checked out Impact about a half dozen times since they came on Spike TV.

I have been watching pretty consistently since Kurt Angle got arrested or JArrett got sent home and the youth movement started.

I want to see stories that make some amount of sense that lead to matches between wrestlers who look like athletes in the ring. I like a bit of comedy, what is called comic relief in action movies, but that's not a necessity. (I think that the time limit draw is a GREAT way to further a feud and not pin either wrestler. I'd use it with 5-minute "teaser matches" sometimes.)

TNA's production does look cheap, and you can see that the crowd isn't that fired up, but I only notice that when I'm watching and trying to figure out why TNA looks small-time. It's not stopping me from watching, but I think it stops other people.

 

[phlewfy]

I started watching TNA because of Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle is my all time favorite wrestler and I wondered where he went when he left WWE. Then I heard he was in TNA and although I have never liked Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle's presence was enough for me to start watching. Kurt is one of the top wrestlers in history and his association with TNA is enough to get me to tune in every week. Truth is I now prefer TNA to WWE. Honestly I haven't been a fan of WWE for years. Maybe if Angle was still in WWE I would watch it, but he isn't. He is in TNA and that is why I watch TNA. KURT ANGLE!!!

 

[Super Crazy]

I believe I started watching it back when it originally started on tv. I believe it was on FSN or something like that. I had seen it once or twice and became interested in watching it as I wanted to see what other companies had to offer compared to
WWE. At the time I thought TNA was a joke of a company and would never amount to anything. Now they are less of a joke and amounted to a place for the old timers to gather and complain about respect.....just kidding. Seriously though, I never thought I'd see the day when Kurt Angle would leave the WWE and join a company like TNA. That was a huge move for them and definitely helped get them going in the right direction as far as getting bigger names for talent goes.

Sometimes I'll admit though, I prefer TNA to WWE as sometimes I tire of the WWE product. It should be interesting to see what is going to happen in the next couple of months though with Hogan/Bischoff/Russo all working for TNA.

 

[MoxViolence]

my relationship with tna wrestling began with my friend telling me to go on limewire and download a match between Low Ki and Amazing Red. and from then on it was over. i began downloading matches and different montages of wrestlers. aj styles in particular. i watched the triple threat ladder match with aj, low ki and jerry lynn. a few other matches between aj and jeff jarret and some xxx bouts with aj and dlo. yea it all really started with me downloading matches and montages off of limewire.

 

[INDYjon22]

I remember when I first heard about TNA way back in like 2003. I was flipping through some wrestling magazine and came across K-Krush being crowned the NWA champion and I was like "whoa that K-Kwik from the WWE". I had wondered for a long time what happened to him because I actually liked him and he just fell off the earth. Thats when I first started keeping tabs on TNA and would hear little spatterings about it on like the tv guide channel of all places. SO to answer the question I guess what got me into TNA was the then missing K-Kwik/Ron Killings.

 

[The Hiphopapotamus]

I will admit it. I turned on TNA because I thought it was the UFC. I was watching Smackdown with my friends, and turned on TNA during the Ads. But what really made me stick was the following 3 things.

1) Sting. I watched Wrestling as a child, and I loved Sting in WCW. I took a break of about 6 years, and then my little brother got me back into the WWE. But when I turned on TNA, it was the main event of a TNA Pay per view. Can't remember the exact one, but I think it was No Surrender 2006. Sting was with Christian, while Jarrett was joined by Steiner. As Sting was about to win, Christian screwed him Jarretts guitar.

2) Destination X 2006. It was a boring saturday, and tNA wrestling was on Bravo. I had previously watched Ring of Honor on The Wrestling Channel (because CM Punk was on it) and during it an ad for Samoa Joe, "ROH Icon" came up. So when I saw Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (who I had heard of) and Chris Daniels I watched. And it was in some sort of bungee contraption called "Ultimate X". I didn't just enjoy it, I loved it. I loved Joe. Especially after his memorable "Barrel roll" over the top rope. That got me hooked.

3) Angle. SO one saturday night I saw Impact o Bravo. And who was I surprised to see than Mr.Kurt Angle. It was 2 weeks before Against All Odds 07, and he was feuding with Both Joe and Christian. AJ was feuding with Rhino, and Christy Hemme was feuding with a big fat oily guy. After that, TNA became one of my great loves.

 

[Kenny Powers]

My friends got me hooked on it about 2 to 3 years ago. One of my friends watched it from the begining and told my other friend he needed to watch it. He was skeptical and so was I because of Mike Tenay and Don West as commentators, along with the six sided ring and Jarrett being world champion. My friend let me watch hours of video tape such as The best of the bloodiest brawls.

AMW vs. Triple X in the six sides of steel was one of the most amazing matches I have ever seen. We also watched Abyss vs. Sabu in a Barbed Wire Massacre match. I couldn't even believe they had those matches anymore. After 2004, I pretty much stopped watching wrestling altogether. I did tune in WWE during 2005 and 2006 during the One Night Stand angle. After being so excited about seeing ECW on television again just to tune in and see The Zombie I tuned out for good.

Once RVD and the rest of the ECW Originals quit or were fired I just couldn't stomach WWE. Especially when Vince McMahon and Bobby Lashley were the ECW Champions. After watching some great TNA matches I was hooked. Especially the great X Division matches from Year 1 with AJ, Joe, Daniels, Elix Skipper, and Jerry Lynn.

Some Impacts are better then others week after week, however I have always been entertained and glued to the screen when Impact comes on. Even though its taped, I can't miss an Impact. I use to feel that way about Raw but now I'm disappointed even when I read the results of Raw and Smackdown. I tried to give Raw and ECW and open mind but after seeing a Rabbi perform a circumcision on a plastic baby, ZZ Top, Chavo vs. Hornswoggle, and Abraham Washington I can't be excited about a WWE show.

TNA needs to move out of the Impact Zone and have other shows on other networks to be successful. Most people don't get Spike TV, and those that do wont let their children watch it. Seeing all the talent WWE wasted week after week flourish in TNA was amazing. The action was great, the story lines were great, and the promos were great. It was so refreshing seeing someone having intensity and passion in their promos like it was a shoot promo, instead of seeing the same robotic scripted promos I've seen before.

 

[TLC]

I got into it about 5 years ago, when it was being shown on The Wrestling Channel, I didn't have sky, so couldn't watch WWE so I was flicking through the channels and saw it, I put it on and first it was a ROH show which I saw the match AJ Styles vs Low Ki as he was known at the time I believe. Anyway that match was great and TNA was after it so I decided to watch and it was just incredible, I just loved watching it and got me hooked to this very day.

 

[Coco]

I didn't start watching until around the Spike debut. A little before that, someone posted a link to DL a match between Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and AJ Styles that had evidently torn the house down. It was three guys I knew from ROH so I was comfortable interested in seeing guys I know in a different company I'd been hearing about, and I was interested in them sending a secondary championship and guys billed as wrestling's future close out the show. It's a bold move that rarely gets thrown down, and I wanted to see if everything went together as well as it should have. It did. Damn fine match.

I would tune in for those three guys and Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, and Roderick Strong whom I also knew from ROH. Two of them eventually dropped off of the radar, but Shelley's Paparazzi Productions gimmick and relationship with Kevin Nash and the X-Division reaffirmed just how entertaining Shelley is. Couple that great work with his time in the Guns and Shelley is someone I definately want on my TV every week. He's still young enough to headline one day, and I hope he realizes his full potential in time.

I was very hit and miss with my viewing in that period though. The Impact Zone fans could kill a show by not booing any of the heels, even real bastards like Joe would be in that time. Then they bitched constantly about Jarrett being in the main event all the time but never realized how it was their fault for not creating any other main event worthy heels. They pissed me off so much that I was more annoyed than entertained with the show at times.

 

[Lancer]

I got hooked during the time of the Asylum and the weekly PPVs. There was this exciting young kid named AJ Styles who had all the talent in the world. I saw some of the matches with he, Low-Ki, and Jerry Lynn and was immediately hooked. The X Division was the hottest thing going..and was, and still is, TNA's baby.

Couple that with it being an alternative to WWE, who at the time was ramming Triple H down our throats, and it was an easy thing to do, to go to my friend's house and enjoy another wrestling product. I didn't care about the low production values, or the annoying guy (Don West) on commentary...there was awesome in-ring action and I loved it.

 

[RatedRKJ]

I started watching it religiously in the fall of 2004, I had just got home from school and started flipping through channels and stopped on FSN. I was suprised that wrestling was on at four in the afternoon, especially on FSN. I had originally caught it earlier in the year and wanted to watch it again, but couldn't find the channel. Anyway, Petey Williams was wrestling David Young and hit the Candian Destroyer.... that was it, I was hooked. The only time I EVER missed an episoder was back when they were doing webshows because they were trying to find another network. Been a TNA junkie ever since.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

It's no secret that I am an avid women's wrestling fan and appreciate that side of the sport. After the Trish vs. Mickie feud, the WWE's portrayal of women went down hill and started to produce matches in a declining fashion. Trish left, Lita left, Molly quit because she was eventually going to be side stepped for "prettier women" and the girls were used more for eye candy than actual competitors. I got frustrated with this and tried to look for other sources of entertainment.

It was then I realised that Mickie wrestled for a company called TNA under the Alexis Laree moniker and I decided to check it out. Around this time, the 10 KnockOut Match to crown the First Women's Championship was being decided and I came to recognise girls like Gail Kim. From then, I have been flipping to TNA.

Since I was watching more and more, I started to pay attention to the male's division and took an interest in the X Division alongside some well known Indy wrestlers and free agents. Guys like Sting, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle are the three main men responsible for making me a legit TNA fan. With more additions to the roster like Ayako Hamada, my love for TNA is growing close enough to make the switch in becoming my favourite Northern American promotion (tying with SHIMMER Women's Athletes, although it costs me an arm and a leg to try and find some good footage to watch).

 

[RavensFlock1990]

Mainly cause I lost intrest in WWE's product. The main event scene is stale and I really don't like much of the younger talent WWE has.

I started watching TNA and guys like AJ, Daniels, Sabin, Shelley, Storm, Roode, Morgan, Red, Abyss, Joe and Hernandez really impressed me. Plus I've been a fan of Sting and Nash forever so that's a huge plus.

 

[The Rock is Awesome]

I watched it yesterday i kinda liked it. But anyways something that would make me watch TNA is if a War between TNA and WWE happened. I do like that TNA is like more extreme compared to the WWE but I'd still watch the WWE more then TNA right now

 

[Michael_Page]

Well i was a WCW loyalist and when WWE bought out WCW i was pissed from the start. I was force fed all that WWF/E crap and i wanted something new and actually ENTERTAINING. So along came TNA with the most PHENOMENAL athletes ive ever seen.
Plus with stars like AJ Styles,Samao Joe,Jeff Jarrett how could u lose.Plus with Sting making his ocassional appearences.
Looks like im a TNA die hard 4 LIFE

 

[Pathogen]

It seems to me, that much like the NWA was, TNA is wrestling for grown ups. I was drawn in by what I'd heard on the internet and in magazines. And it's on a free channel in the UK! lol That helps it's cause!

 

[kerplin]

I saw an advertisement for it one day while they were still doing weekly PPVs. It had a lot of wrestlers that I hadn't seen in years in the commercial, so I ordered it. It's the night Dustin Rhodes made his return to face Jarrett as a surprise. I wasn't really hooked but it was ok for something to watch every once in a while, after they got the tv deal, I stopped watching when it was only one hour, because I couldn't stand the 3 minute matches and such.

Now I catch it occasionally, but I'm kind of bored with every match seemingly having a run in. I haven't watched in a few months, so it may have changed by now. Maybe once Hogan takes over and fires Russo, assuming he does what he says, I'll tune back in to watch the way it changes.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

I would say make AJ Styles champ. He really deserves it, and unless TNA does that, they will never have me as a viewer. He's an original and no doubt one of the best in ring performers in the country. They really need to give him a run. I haven't watched TNA for months and will continue to abstain until they put the belt on him. It's a disgrace.

I watch sparingly, but I would say a main issue is just the feel of it being a second rate show. It just has a very taped feel, and while going live would not change this, I think perhaps a move out of the impact zone more often would definitely help to alleviate this. They need to really go bold and make it seem as though they are the number one show. Stop referring to other promotions and saying you left them for so and so. Focus on why you came to TNA. Make it sound like you want to be there god damn it. If they focus on who they are, instead of who they aren't it would make me take them seriously. Also, get Cody Deaner the fuck away from my screen.

 

[Slowdude]

I originally started watching in 2008 when TNA finally started airing in Australia. I found it quite boring straight away and was merely tuning in and out every other week until half way through 09 when the show really started picking up. Been watching it entirely every week since around June. If the product starts dropping from where it is at right now it will probably end up on my record and fast forward later list like Raw and Smackdown are on right now

 

[Pathogen]

One of the main things I like is that they aren't simply trying to be WWE version 2.0, like WCW were in the later days. If you ignore their horrendous storylines, (fire Russo!), it's hard to ignore the quality of the wrestling, and roster. Sting, Mick Foley, AL Styles, Samoa Joe, and the majority of the X division. I hate Don Wests commentary, now he's replaced with Tazz, it sounds much better. And with Tazz, Mick Foley, Shane Douglas, Stevie Richards etc, it is more ECW than ECW! And I love Abyss, even though it took me a while to think of him as anything other than "ManKane". lol

 

[Lethalfan]

I started watching Tna when Booker T join the company. At the time I was a huge Booker T fan and I am still somewhat a big fan. I loved his feud with Robert Roode It got me hooked to the company and I have been watching ever since.

 

[EStreet]

For my first post:

Started watching TNA because I was flipping channels and saw Sting was on the program..thought it was an old rerun of something WCW and realized that it was a completely different ring.

Read up on TNA...started to follow, and was immediately hooked by the concept of Non-Stop Action..they constantly had matches (even with big names) that were entertaining, not the boring WWE stuff at the time (and still now).

Storylines of Joe (circa 2006), and Christian, along with Sting, AJ, Kurt all got me hooked. Thought some of the booking was whack and there were too many gimicky matches for my liking, but enjoyed the overall promos..still thing the promos are superior to WWE and enjoy the before and after match interviews

I enjoyed learning the new characters of the biz, as well...WWE recylces HBK, HHH, Undertaker - TNA introduced me to AJ, Joe, Daniels, Abyss and while they werent new to the biz, they were new to me in 06

 

[nickg_90]

I first came across TNA a few years back before it was on Spike.

I was flippin channels and saw Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall. At first I thought it was something WCW-related until I kept watching and saw the six-sided ring.

I looked up some stuff on TNA and I got hooked. The X-Division is what really got me into TNA along with guys like Nash, Raven, and other WCW and ECW guys as well as TNA's own home-grown talent.

Then TNA brought in Joe, Sting, Kurt, Christian Cage. That and the storylines involving them as well as AJ, Christopher Daniels, and the rest of the main event scene.

Not to mention AMW, Triple X, Beer Money, the Motor City Machine Guns, 3D, and LAX made a strong tag team division.

The Knockouts Division also got me hooked. Don't get me wrong I like eye candy as much as the next guy, but the Knockouts made(and still do make) the Divas look like crap. The Knockouts have looks and skill. On average, WWE usually has 3 or 4 divas that can actually wrestle.

As of recent, The MEM storyline, along with WWE getting stale, is what got me to watch TNA more than WWE.

 

[Theo Mays]

I remember flipping through channels and the replay of TNA was on. So I watched it and thought it was interesting. So I started watching and thought it was worth DVRing to see if it got better. And I've been watching since. I'd say since 2007 (right around Booker T's debut if I remember correctly).

 

[MoxViolence]

a buddy of mine showed me a match between amazing red and low ki back when it was nwatna will a regular ring. they put on a phenomenal match filled with lovely spots and sick moves. and i am a spotJUNKY so at age 16 i was freakin out. do some crazy shit along with some acrobatic-ness and im sold..lol so i went home and began downloading matches off limewire. and i saw the triple ladder match between aj, low ki and jerry lynn. and from then on...i have loved and been behind tna. when impact debuted i was ALMOST as excited as I was when rock and austin fought at mania 15. yea thats how much i love tna. i went to hard justice 08 here in trenton nj. jeremy borash threw a crumpled up note into the crowd. whoever caught it got a backstage pass. and wouldnt you believe it....it bounced off this dudes hand and landed in mine. no bullshit....i met bg james, taylor wild, raka khan, earl hebner, kevin nash, mcmg and i saw kurt angle. which was almost weird. because he looked pissed the hell off. hope im not spamming here but going to that ppv and meeting the stars backstage was a big part in me loving tna.