Normally I crap all over ideas like this- "hey, this promotion did this, should this other promotion do it?" But this one actually doesn't sound like a bad idea.
TNA very consciously tries to appeal to the alienated WWEPG audience. The language is saltier, the matches are more bloody, but the problem is that the language and blood are never within context. Take the Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley match for instance. Yes, I know they had a storyline feud and didn't like each other in kayfaybe. Buckets of blood were spilled, but there was nothing intense about the rivalry. After the match was over, people were remarking "wow, that was bloody", but no one thought it was particularly brutal or over the top. There was nothing to shock the audience; it was another match, this one with blood.
There is surprise, which is when someone encounters something at the outside of their expectations, and then there is shock, which is when someone encounters something actually outside of their expectations. Televised wrestling hasn't shocked anyone over the age of 14 for years. The "brutality" is almost comic in nature now; we've all seen the heels beat up the good guys badly. This is the kind of angle which would serve to excite more than the fans that TNA already has; this is the kind of angle which gets buzz amongst fans that aren't watching your product.
Compare it to the Raven/Sandman "crucifixion" angle from ECW years ago. Was it in good taste? Hell no. I would have gone off my nut in that writer's meeting against the idea, but I would have been wrong too. For all the shit that angle stirred up, it got ECW a lot of attention, and in television, the only kind of bad attention is no attention. People's major issue with that angle wasn't Sandman's torture, but the use of the religious iconography. What was so brilliant about the launch of AotF was that it defied people's expectations without spitting on their sincere values.
We've all seen the "Hogan and Bischoff as conniving bad guys" angle before; the only thing surprising about the "They" angle was that TNA's writers actually went through with the most predictable option. This would be something that the mainstream audience would respond to. It could be ripped off in almost verbatim fashion as well, which is right up TNA Creative's alley; unlike the Four Horseman, ECW, or the nWo, almost no one watches RoH. The idea would be entirely unfamiliar (and hence shocking) to a mainstream audience.
There is absolutely no reason to bring in another organization's wrestlers in order to perform this angle, to answer the other questions. While good performers, TNA has more than enough wrestlers on their roster with which they could form a new stable. The only thing that could ruin the idea would be having an already formed TNA stable do this; again, that's brutality out of context. Jeff Hardy beats someone up more than normal- yawn. AJ Styles stringing Ric Flair from the rafters and declaring his intent to take back TNA (hell, throw in some TNA vets with him) while soaked in Ric's blood- THAT will sell.
