What Would Get You to Watch Impact Wrestling?

[Zeven_Zion]

lol

No it isn't.

Wrestling is a business.

And ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLl business indicators suggest.....well you know.

As for perception of product. Go watch old TNA shows when the X division was awesome, and try and tell me today's product is better.

Stronger storylines, better roster, better production values, better writing, less spotty wrestling and more old school style pro wrestling mixed with storytelling here and there, wrestlers with great mic skills, wrestlers with charisma, legendary names on the roster.

The fuck does 2002-2005 TNA does have on 2012 TNA aside from more "exciting" wrestling? You wanna watch two people do 360's like crazy go watch AAA.

 

[dudedudedude]

Stronger storylines, better roster, better production values, better writing, less spotty wrestling and more old school style pro wrestling mixed with storytelling here and there, wrestlers with great mic skills, wrestlers with charisma, legendary names on the roster.

The fuck does 2002-2005 TNA does have on 2012 TNA aside from more "exciting" wrestling? You wanna watch two people do 360's like crazy go watch AAA.

lol

You have no idea. The likes of Jerry Lynn and the original AJ styles were not spot monkeys. They put on epic matches during that period, the x division in general was more then spot monkey matches. Anyone who mocks, and compares those era of matches to AAA is just a fanboy of a particular brand, and not to the sport.

You are right about one thing, TNA today does have some old school mentality about it. It's called Hogan and Bischoff taking real life power.

I fail to see anything else that is old school about their company, maybe the shitty production valies, that's about it. When ROH was in HD, they looked better.

I mean, god, wrestling in general has problems, and TNA fanboys are just as bad a Vince's drones. You see things so blindly that you refuse to accept that things suck and other things are good. But, nope, you blindly attach yourself to one company, and to hell with reason!

 

[snoopy]

@DUDEDUDEDUDE

Look Dude you're out voted atleast three to one! So please take your ridiculous argument and tell it to somebody who hasn't been watching because maybe they will fall for it! Zevon Zion is dead right! It's that simple,There's obviously nothing wie can tell you that's going to change anything so just let it go, You're wrong and not very observant on top of being closed minded and not willing to adjust. You want Tna to be a certain way it's not so move on to what makes you happy!

Tna obviously is making us happy, go find your happiness !

 

[dudedudedude]

@DUDEDUDEDUDE

Look Dude you're out voted atleast three to one! So please take your ridiculous argument and tell it to somebody who hasn't been watching because maybe they will fall for it! Zevon Zion is dead right! It's that simple,There's obviously nothing wie can tell you that's going to change anything so just let it go, You're wrong and not very observant on top of being closed minded and not willing to adjust. You want Tna to be a certain way it's not so move on to what makes you happy!

Tna obviously is making us happy, go find your happiness !

Look fuckhole. It's a forum I am stating my opinion and why I disagree with others, and welcome others to do the same to me. But to tell me i'm out voted? Who gives a fuck. I don't care if anyone agrees with me. I'm merely stating my opinon. What a total wanker you are mate.

 

[ShinobiMusashi]

If Paul Heyman was hired on to be head booker with complete unadulterated creative control.

I would proboby give it a chance then. Otherwise, TNA has always felt like a WCW B-show to me.

Its like if WCW were to do a brand split back in the day with Nitro, and Thunder as the b show. TNA is like what Thunder would be like.

 

[Game Boy]

I know this is a little bit off topic, but something that actually raised my interest in TNA was going to a TNA house show. It was completely awesome! It is a totally different experience than a WWE show. Both are great, but TNA is built entirely around the fans and it shows through the things they do.

I also became a bigger fan of their wrestling product watching it live.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

I would watch it as much as I watch Raw if they just made it live. TNA like to swerve and shit, and the best way they can do that is a live show. Plus, I just like the idea of watching something as it's happening. I can't watch taped sports events for the same reason.

A much smaller idea is to get the fuck out of the Impact Zone. Seriously, fuck that crowd. My favorite moments in wrestling are awesome partly because of the fans. If there's a great reaction to something, it's going to be more exciting to me. One of my favorite TNA shows happened on the road, and it was because of the awesome crowd.

Fuck the Impact Zone.

 

[LigerBomb]

Weekly "surprise" wardrobe malfunctions from Velvet Sky (And I'm only half joking).

Beyond that, I really can't say because I honestly don't watch and therefore can only guess about their current errors. With that said, what did bother me, when I used to watch, was their constant game of "keep away" with their payoffs. Forever dangling the carrot is a dangerous way to play things. Deny people long enough and they'll just quit in frustration. I know I did. Fool me once … etc.

 

[Fenris]

My deal may be different than others as I watched TNA weekly until the last few months, my second break from the product since 2002. After incredible excitement over the last year i've lost pretty much all interest but i'll answer the question, I guess.

What would get me to start watching again.....

- New announce team. Taz is horrible and Tenay's ability has waned. I'd really like to have a good announce team, these two don't work well together and at this point it comes off poorly.

- New booker and head of creative/TNA/wtfever. Lagana isn't good at the job without people overseeing him and the guy overseeing him is a fucking idiot and asskissing yes man who will cave to whatever Dixie and/or Spike wants.

- Get out of the IZ. Yeah, a cliche` at this point.

- Get out of the past. Now I don't mean using established stars nor bringing in Legends to work with young talent. I mean this whole AJ/Gail/Kaz/Joe/Daniels pushed down peoples throats bullshit and trying to live in a perpetual 2006. It's time to move on from that era of TNA into a new era of TNA. Do it. These guys aren't your top stars that are going to take you to the promise land, move on and find the talent that will.

- Utilize the talent they have better. Say what you will about Russo but at least Abyss, Mr. Anderson, Pope and alot of others were found SOMETHING to do. Currently there's 6 younger guys and a few Knockouts sitting at home and for what reason? Why are they sitting at home while lesser talent isn't? Also in the same vein Roode needs to win at least one match clean and it'd be great if the Knockouts division wasn't simply Gail Kim's personal job squad.

- Change the format back. 30 second promo, 15 minute match, 60 second promo, 20 minute match and so on isn't good to me. *I* don't like that layout for TV and won't be watching it. I like good promos, good skits, good angles that have time to play out and 7-10 minutes of QUALITY action does alot more for me than 10 minutes of rest holds mixed with 10 minutes of wrestling/highspots. If I want to see short promos and long matches i'll order the PPV, thanks. In fact i'm more likely to order the PPV's if Impact is, you know, different to them and used to sell that format on the PPV as something great.

- It was really cool when we had actual tag teams and not just random people thrown together. I'd really like that idea to return.

- If ownership actually CARED about growing, improving and didn't sit there on Twitter content with being second fiddle and a place to keep all her friends employed maybe i'd care as well.

Frankly I don't see any of the above happening so it's sort of a mute point. Thankfully the WWE has been a bit more entertaining as of late because TNA sure as hell hasn't. No, i'm not a WWE mark and matter of fact i'm not even a big fan of it, I was more of a WCW fan then TNA fan but TNA went from horrible to getting good to really really good and now it's decided to just go backwards and I enjoy Raw more these days.

 

[snoopy]

@ Fenris

How in the hell do you know all that shit and you supposedly haven't been watching? And furthermore there's no way Tna's going to be able to please everybody! You don't want some of the originals well others do, now what? Lastly some of you people care way to much about what's going on backstage! Watch the show and judge it by what you see, not by what you can't!

 

[New Hot Fed]

It seems to me that if some people have decided to not watch when things has gotten better since the Roode run then they will never watch. I know there still annoying things like Sorensen, Garreth, Gunner, Bischoff, Hogan, Hardy, Crimson but the rest of the decisions made and the wrestlers taking the big spots have been great.

The one thing I would change as far as improvement would be to bring the multiple X Division matchs, the kind we had during the weekly PPVs, to have this big presence for that kind of level of matchs. Also TNA used to be defined by these kind of fights/brawls. I know they toned down on the blood but I miss these sort of no-holds-bared matchs like when we had James Storm fight Rhino.

 

[lowandmighty]

If they made Hogan champion and had him squash all the young talent without selling any of their moves and he never put anyone over and only lost the belt by being stripped of it, I'd watch it.
I know Hogans old and can't really move and would probably end up in a wheelchair if he wrestled but I don't care, thats what I want to see. I don't care about Hogans health or anything I just want to selfishly watch him wrestle. I'd rather see that than him standing around talking.

 

[dudedudedude]

If they made Hogan champion and had him squash all the young talent without selling any of their moves and he never put anyone over and only lost the belt by being stripped of it, I'd watch it.
I know Hogans old and can't really move and would probably end up in a wheelchair if he wrestled but I don't care, thats what I want to see. I don't care about Hogans health or anything I just want to selfishly watch him wrestle. I'd rather see that than him standing around talking.

I love the sarcasm in this post.

What these TNA fanboy fucks don't realise is, the company, will never get any better as long as Hogan is there. He will bleed the company dry. Just wait till her daughter gets involved in a new project...she will be back on tv. Just wait until one of the nasty boyz run out of money for food, they will be back on tv.

No matter how improved TNA has become....hogan being there is a dark cloud above everything good. For every step they take, hogan will pull them back 10...just wait....and, if you don't believe me....just wait til the end of the year when it comes time for the contract to be renewed...

 

[Davi323]

1. Live shows. As others have mentioned, it raises the "what's gonna happen next" anticipation. When you can simply click on the link to read the spoilers for EVERY show, there is less motivation to watch. I watch Raw every Monday...but when it comes to Smackdown, I probably skip watching at least half of them, because I know if I miss it, even if I don't DVR it, I can just scroll back a page or two in the News, and find the spoilers and stay caught up. As such, I can do whatever I want on Friday nights and know I am not missing anything.

2. Get out of the Impact zone. Again, this seems to be a common idea, the Impact zone simply isn't large enough to feel "big time". Not to mention the obvious: by touring the country and putting on live TV tapings everywhere, you will get people to come.

3. Bigger/brighter sets. This is actually related to point #2...If you are going to get out of the Impact zone and into the arenas for your shows, you need to have amped up production values, bigger sets, etc. You have to. The Impact entrance ramp might work fine in a little 2,000 seat theater or auditorium type location, but if you want to go to places with 10k seats or more, you have to make it look better.

I am a lifetime WWF/E fan, but every now and then I check in on TNA just to see what's going on...and when I compare Impact to Raw, Impact looks like amateur hour. Not in the matches itself, I am talking about presentation. The WWE production of their TV shows simply feels big time, TNA doesn't. TNA feels like Shotgun Saturday Night or Heat, and I think it's turning off casual viewers. The diehards will always watch...but if you want to convince someone like me, a WWE fan to watch your show, you need to make it look more like a professionally done telecast, because that's what WWE fans are used to. SPEND THE MONEY!

To me, that's TNA's biggest problem. Not the storylines, not the booking, it's the presentation. It feels like the cheap SyFy channel knockoff of whatever the current mega-blockbuster Hollywood movie is. It's like Transmorphers instead of Transformers. Sure, Transformers had a shitty plot, but it felt like a huge movie, so you went to the theaters and watched it anyway, regardless of the bad reviews.

 

[Fenris]

How in the hell do you know all that shit and you supposedly haven't been watching?

It's rather quite simple, they have these things called spoilers. Now normally I don't read spoilers but TNA has gotten to a level wherein I now read spoilers to see if there's going to be something i'd like to see before I waste time watching. Other stuff I get from other TNA fans I know, also bored and disinterested in the product yet still giving it a chance hoping it gets better.

And furthermore there's no way Tna's going to be able to please everybody! You don't want some of the originals well others do, now what?

Well there is a few things to look at. There's the fact many of these guys have been in TNA for upwards of a decade and people still don't give a shit about them outside of TNA's internet fanbase, guys like Styles, Kaz and Joe for example. Next we should look at what HAS caused spikes in the ratings. Well new faces coming to TNA certainly increase viewership, as did post BFG when there was an largely fresh, new TNA roster. In fact that set their viewership record.

Point being they can keep doing what they've always done and stay where they've always been or they can change it up and grow. There's 5 million wrestling fans in America, on average 1.3 million of them watch Impact. That seems to be their bottom end baseline of "how many fans do we have that will watch no matter what?" The answer is the 1.3 million watching each week. The other 3.8 million AREN'T watching each week. Aside from upwards of a million or so briefly tuning in then bouncing they haven't been watching. So TNA can either keep trying to get Indy style wrestling and Indy wrestlers over, an attempt that has been failing for a decade now OR they can reboot the roster and give the fans who aren't the diehards something they will enjoy.

Yes I am ware they obviously won't convert all 5 million wrestling fans but they COULD convert another 2 million to their product. As long as they keep pushing Dixies pet's however they won't and me personally i'm in that 3.8 million, i'm not interested in watching a 2004-2009 NWA-TNA nostalgia tour.

 

[Fenris]

What these TNA fanboy fucks don't realise is, the company, will never get any better as long as Hogan is there.

I can see why you're banned(and no doubt lurking and reading), you're a moron. Hogan helped take two small, regional promotions to the top of the business and revolutionized the business not once but twice, clearly he has no clue how any of that happened and is holding TNA back. If you return under a new name please, let me know which dirtsheet you got spoonfed that view from before you decided to hop on this here forum and parrot it acting like you're smart to the business. Just curious who does your thinking for you.

 

[Rayne]

I can see why you're banned(and no doubt lurking and reading), you're a moron. Hogan helped take two small, regional promotions to the top of the business and revolutionized the business not once but twice, clearly he has no clue how any of that happened and is holding TNA back. If you return under a new name please, let me know which dirtsheet you got spoonfed that view from before you decided to hop on this here forum and parrot it acting like you're smart to the business. Just curious who does your thinking for you.

I know the first one, which is the second one? Are you referring back to the AWA? Because that was already well established by the time Hogan was wrestling for them.

I know you can't mean TNA/IW, because their average ratings have improved 10% over the two years of Hogan's employment (read: effectively the same). They aren't at the top of the business, and any traveling they did in that direction happened before Hogan arrived, so I'm pretty sure you can't mean TNA/IW. Which was the second promotion Hogan helped build to the top of the business?

 

[Fenris]

I know the first one, which is the second one? Are you referring back to the AWA? Because that was already well established by the time Hogan was wrestling for them.

I know you can't mean TNA/IW, because their average ratings have improved 10% over the two years of Hogan's employment (read: effectively the same). They aren't at the top of the business, and any traveling they did in that direction happened before Hogan arrived, so I'm pretty sure you can't mean TNA/IW. Which was the second promotion Hogan helped build to the top of the business?

The WWF and WCW. Back when Hogan was brought on as the face of the WWF they were a regional promotion and small in comparison to promotions such as the AWA who had the benefit of little competition in the west and dominance of the midwest as well as Crockett Promotions who was the dominant promotion in the south. Established? Yes, in the Northeast. Big? No. He did play a role in said growth and taking into consideration he spent 6 years traveling around with McMahon 24 hours per day 6 and 7 days per week it's highly likely he learned the business aspects.

WCW once was the kings of the South. Of course as we all know bad contracts, politics and shit booking took WCW from as big as the modern WWE to no bigger than TNA by the time Hogan was brought in. Bischoff has admitted in the past he leaned on Hogan alot and learned from him how to beat the WWF. As they say the rest was history, WCW took over the world for several years.

As to TNA no I certainly don't mean them. They seem unwilling to do the things needed for growth and I would hazard a guess brushed off any advice in that regard he may have given them. Even still they in fact were growing, were starting to tour regularly and were heading in the right direction with the changes made. They had finally dispensed with being ROH with a bank account and were slowly turning into a legitimate promotion. It's unfortunate they have reverted backwards and went back to catering to 10% of the audience.

 

[Rayne]

I'll give you credit there, I had totally forgotten what Hogan had done for WCW. Too much of the focus is put on their spectacular failure, while oftentimes people don't pay attention to their equally unlikely rise. Kudos to you, sir. Well played.

 

[Davi323]

Uh, no it wasn't well played. Fenris' sense of timing is incredibly flawed. The bad contracts, shit booking and backstage politics began with Hogan, not ended with Hogan. WCW grew because Ted Turner was willing to spend a lot of money, and because Eric Bischoff had some really good ideas to balance out some bad ones. The nWo was both WCW's savior and it's downfall. If you are going to claim that Hogan grew WCW, you also have to acknowedge that played a large part in it's ruination. If it had been worth anything by the time Vince bought it, Time Warner wouldn't have been so disinterested in it that they would have sold it, nor would Vince McMahon have been able to afford buying it. WCW's success was built on Ted Turner's cash and Bischoff's brain, not Hulk Hogan. As soon as the cash dried up, it's success was a sham...like an upper middle class family that runs up huge amounts of debt on their credit cards to maintain their lifestyle after losing their jobs. It was a sham.

 

[Fenris]

Uh, no it wasn't well played. Fenris' sense of timing is incredibly flawed. The bad contracts, shit booking and backstage politics began with Hogan, not ended with Hogan.

Ugh, where to start with this. Alright, let's start with the bad contracts. That started with Jim Herd when Ted Turner bought WCW. Here's a dozen or so contract numbers that have been mentioned from various sources through the years as an example:

Ric Flair- $875,000/yr
Sting- $750,000/yr
Vader- $700,000/yr
Lex Luger- $450,000/yr
Road Warriors- $380,000/ea per year
Tom Zenk- $250,000/yr
Brian Pillman- $250,000/yr
R&R Express- $300,000/ea per year
Johnny B. Badd- $75,000/yr
Arn Anderson- $250,000/yr

Let's add that up: $4,710,000 per year going out in guaranteed salary for 12 talents, that's not including the others. During a time when frankly WCW sucked and was smaller than TNA currently is, fanbase and attendance wise.

As to backstage politics I take it you've never listened to interviews from those around pre-Hogan? You know, that whole thing about Ole Anderson, Jim Ross, Ross' butt buddy Bill Watts and so on burying the young guys for their good ole boy can't draw shit buddies? The whole turning Zenk and Pillman into jobbers everytime they got over and jobbing them out to guys like Vader and Steve Williams? Austins 20 years of rants that WCW PRE-Hogan and Co held he and Pillman down and shit on them? Erik Watts and Dustin Rhodes being pushed to the moon because their daddies were the bookers? Guys coming flat out and stating Ole Anderson told them he hoped they would quit and tried driving them to quit because they had guaranteed contracts and he and his friends didn't? Erm yeah, politics and WCW go back a long ways.

Lastly onto the shitty booking yeah, unfortunately garbage like Robocop tearing a steel cage apart and tag teaming with Sting, Shitmaster falling through walls, midgets and wrestlers getting blown up on boats, young hungry talent jobbing to Vader in 10 second squash matches ect ect ect all utterly sucked ass.

If you are going to claim that Hogan grew WCW, you also have to acknowedge that played a large part in it's ruination.

I was unaware Hulk Hogan was ever an executive for Time Warner and was sitting up there with Brad Siegel nixing idea after idea after idea because it wasn't PG enough before canceling the TV programming of it as soon as his buddy Eric secured the funds to purchase and rebuild it. Btw when Hogan quit WCW and filed his lawsuit WCW was still the size of the current WWE, i'd hardly call that ruination.

If it had been worth anything by the time Vince bought it, Time Warner wouldn't have been so disinterested in it that they would have sold it, nor would Vince McMahon have been able to afford buying it.

Time Warner did not want wrestling on their networks. All all. Period. The only chance WCW had to stay on those networks would have been to somehow build the ratings up into the 8's on a weekly basis and even then it would have been a longshot.

As for it's worth? Eric Bischoff had a $60 million dollar offer sitting on the table for WCW and had TV rights with ABC and Fox lined up when Brad Siegel and Jamie Kellner quickly canceled TV effective immediately and unloaded it to McMahon for $3 million dollars. Btw their College roommate Stuart Snyder? Yeah he was the COO of the WWF at the time when that little deal happened.

 

[kcsunshine]

I would watch TNA on a more regular basis (and maybe pay for a PPV...):

1) If whoever was booking Garrett Bischoff to be on the show was not booking anymore.
Book him as a heel who gets a spot because of his name, maybe. But not as a face and not high on the card please. I would watch TNA to see Garrett get his ass kicked, but not to cheer him. Whoever think pushing this kid over other talent is a good idea needs to have a good think about what they are doing to TNA.

2) If Bully Ray went one step further with his character and mocked the hell out of John Cena's early WWE gimmick.

 

[dudedudedude]

I can see why you're banned(and no doubt lurking and reading), you're a moron. Hogan helped take two small, regional promotions to the top of the business and revolutionized the business not once but twice, clearly he has no clue how any of that happened and is holding TNA back. If you return under a new name please, let me know which dirtsheet you got spoonfed that view from before you decided to hop on this here forum and parrot it acting like you're smart to the business. Just curious who does your thinking for you.

you're a fucking moron. He and his cronnies using their influence backrupting a thriving company in less then 3 years. Short term Success is nothing, staying on top for long periods of times come enonomic flucations is what is good business. He may have given WCW a Boost. But he helped build what killed it.

As for being spoonfeed by dirtsheets? What the fuck are you talking about? It's not rumour, or inuendo, it is what happen. Multiple accounts, from multiple sources will tell you that fact. But, lets even just look at the facts, it was a company that was top of the fucking world, and in 3 years, after its boom, was DEAD. It was, I believe, 60million in the hole at close? It sold for, what, 2 million dollars to the WWE? Those facts alone tell you that the likes of Hogan and Cronnies did to WCW.

And Finally, TNA...with hogan, he wastes TV time, money, and position that could be used on other talent. I mean, for a tna fanboy ******, I would just assume you'd want, you know, TNA originals push, their young awesome wrestlers. Not some old barely relevent, long since dead career wise, especially since his wife bankrupted him washed up freak like Hogan.

I don't get it, TNA has all this talent, and tna fanboys will tell you as much, but then they leap to the defence of hogan, the one man holding all them back