WWE vs TNA: Merchandise

[Alex]

I know the WWE vs TNA threads have been done to death, but I don't remember seeing a thread discussing what brings a decent amount of money for each company. The merch.

Now merch entails clothing, DVDs, action figures etc, but I'd like to focus on the two main ones, clothing and DVDs (seeing as action figures are pretty much the same wherever you go).

Now clothing wise personally I prefer TNA's. That's not to say WWE don't have good clothing, its just TNA has more that I'd rather buy from each wrestler (Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, James Storm, Bobby Roode, Christopher Daniels etc) The only merch I'd wear from WWE guys would be CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Triple H and I guess Dolph Ziggler, everyone else's is a bit meh.

DVD wise WWE certainly do better DVDs. They're put together well and seem to have more time and effort put into them. CM Punk's recent DVD has certainly been one of those. TNA's DVDs while not bad certainly aren't great (although part of that is the relative short time they've been around in comparison to WWE)

So yeah what do you think. Which company do you think does the better DVD's/clothing??

 

[The Dragon Saga]

DVD's is unquestionably WWE's forte in this discussion. I've two TNA produced DVD's and neither are anything special, Christian's "The Instant Classic" best of DVD featured good matches and an interesting (yet short) documentary, but obviously due to the majority of his career footage belonging to WWE, it was never going to blow you out of the water. I also have Jeff Jarrett's "King of the Mountain" DVD and its pretty much the same story, good, entertaining but not overly compelling.

WWE has a slew of fantastic DVD's. Just to name a few you have the Monday Night Wars, Rise and Fall of ECW, Bret Hart's DVD (Best There Is, Was and Ever Will Be), any DVD focusing on The Undertaker makes for good viewing, And That's The Bottom Line, The Epic Journey of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and most recently, and one which does take ranking near the top of the list, CM Punk's Best In The World DVD, which features a fantastic documentary and some great extra features.

When it comes to clothing, I think both companies are hit and miss. I own two TNA t-shirts and three WWE t-shirts, I only wear them when training at the gym and regularly wear my Christian's "Glass Shattered" t-shirt or Punk's white "BITW" t-shirt. TNA's old t-shirts sucked pretty bad, but their MMA inspired designs suit some people. MMA t-shirts seem to do well, I know several people who wear Tapout t-shirts on nights out. I think their pretty even in this respect, although history would suggest WWE because when they produce a good t-shirt, it sells.

 

[GrandSword]

I think whovever designs TNA's t-shirts should be fired! They are horrible. You've got the most diverse and cool roster in pro wrestling and yet their shirts are all the same looking except perhaps for Hardy's. All the others are so crap and lack any sort of imagination.

I am a fan of a tonne of the TNA roster but none of their shirts are any good. I hate Rey Mysterio, but some of his shirts are so damn cool you just think about buying them anyway!

Please TNA get some friggin cool t-shirts! You'll actually make some money!

 

[HBsam31]

As already mentioned the WWE is far superior in the DVD category. I have a pretty decent collection,, and while there are some that aren't great most really are well put together and entertaining. I have a few of TNA's both Jeff Hardy's and King of the Mountain Jeff Jarrett. They are pretty good actually, but just don't come off as well as WWE. WWE seems to take more time with theirs for the most part. The shirts are something I was never really a buyer oof. i own a Cm Punk best in the world shirt and that is about it. Not really sure how the two compare there.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As far as clothing and all that goes, to me, it's sort of a toss up. Some of the stuff is nice and some of it looks like crap for both companies.

As has been pointed out, however, WWE completey owns TNA when it comes to putting together DVDs. This is especially true for compilation DVDs. The WWE has access to so much material in their video library, plus the fact that other promotions have allowed them to use footage they don't own as we've seen in the recent CM Punk DVD, TNA just has no way to compete. In terms of production values when it comes to anything involving video footage, WWE is the far superior company.

 

[Cereal Killer]

I agree with you. WWE's clothing is pretty down. There just too simple and similar now. TNA's have some cool clothing wear like Hogan's classic wear, RVD's T-shirts, Anderson's A hole clothing, Jeff Hardy's numerous amount of merchandise, Roodes IT Factor wear and Storm Beer Hunter top. I think it's because WWE don't let you have that much of freedom and let you choose your clothing where as TNA let you have what you want.

As DVD's are concerned, WWE's are better by far but TNA has only been around ten years so don't have all that history to show. Also, sometimes the TNA creative is a little meh, so if they have something huge planned like the whole THEY stuff or MEM, they could make a slick documentary.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Well, it's already been said plenty of times, but yeah, WWE's DVD sets are far superior. Although, some TNA DVDs do feature a nice selection of high quality matches. I picked up the "The Best of Christopher Daniels - Heaven Sent, Hell Bound" at a TNA house show a while ago, and the matches were just excellent.

As far as the clothing goes, it's a toss up for me. The designs for TNA's merchandise have improved (mainly the Impact Wrestling shirts), and WWE usually creates some awesome shirts (CM Punk's dark grey Best in The World shirt, Cena's Rise Above Hate shirt, etc.), but they also produce some horrendous material. Punk's new yellow GTS shirt is a prime example, and Ziggler's pink "show-off" shirt is hideous.

 

[stonecoldstv86]

Well, when it comes down to clothing, dosn't really matter the company, you are going to by shirts for the wrestler you like. Some people may think the shirt looks like total crap but if you like the wrestler and they are wearing it on the show week after week you are probably going to buy it.

As for DVDs, I have alot from WWE, never really watched any from TNA. But as people have said, WWE has a much bigger archive they can dig from. TNA has been around for just 10 years. WWE has Raw which is going on 20 years by itself. They have smackdown all the PPV's from even before the weekly show, WCW, ECW and all the other promotions they have bought out or bought the rights to their old footage. Plus the footage they have from alot of their wrestlers they have from the developmental systems. So they have footage from all over the place where TNA just has ten years worth which alot of matches werent even taped. Plus it looks like TNA has tried to release DVDs of people that had a very limited run with the company, like Foley, so it limits them even more with what they have to show.

Now one thing that WWE has dropped the ball with that TNA still does is TNA has a selection of Knockouts merch. They have shirt's, photos, and banners for the knockouts that is for the knockout you like. Where WWE has 11 items all together, which it's for the whole Diva's division and not just for the ladies themselfs. The items they do have with photos on them, overhave of the ladies are not with the company anymore. Which just shows what WWE thinks about their Divas division. If they would get back to having posters, photos, shirts, an annual DVD and mag amoung other stuff for the Diva's like they use to, it would be a small step twards getting people behind th divas again. It will help get the Divas faces and names out there.

 

[Garavito]

DVD-wise, I can't argue much since I don't own DVDs from neither of them.

On clothing, however, I'd say TNA's is better. The t-shirt designs are more complex and "darker" - like Ed Hardy t-shirts, while WWE's are much more bright and straight forward. You could see a John Cena t-shirt from a mile away while you could spend a day with someone wearing Gail Kim's "Dragon" t-shirt and not notice it, at least not right away.

It's a reflection of their target audience: t-shirts for kids by WWE and for teens and young adults in TNA.

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

DVD's yeah undoubtedly WWE.

Merchandise? I say TNA and I think this is the key reason.

It's a reflection of their target audience: t-shirts for kids by WWE and for teens and young adults in TNA.

So for me it's a no brainer. Although the shirts Punk had were pretty good.

I guess also my tastes are a little different. When I buy a shirt I'll usually ask myself "If this shirt had nothing to do with wrestling, would I still buy it?" Consequently I don't own many

 

[Just Do It]

TNA DVD's are the worst. Just poorly produced work, as if it were created in a shed with Windows Movie Maker. I livei n the UK and you can tell the conversion's aren't even done professionaly as there are lines in the footage. An absolute joke if you think about it.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

TNA doesn't even come close to WWE's video production team. I don't recall TNA ever putting together a collection as good as the likes of Greatest Rivalries, Best in the World, or Rise and Fall of ECW.

TNA has the better clothing selection though. They have shirts that look like normal shirts people wear every day. They have fun logos and sick designs; I personally own an RVD shirt from TNA that I wear every time it's clean. It's awesome. There are a few WWE shirts, but most of them are beyond obvious what they support. They are catch phrases or the shirts you see guys wearing each every week. They are meant to be gimmicky and promote the individual in a really obvious way. I'm not going to wear a shirt that says Brogue Kick on it, but I will wear something like this: http://shoptna.com/impact-ce.aspx, or like this: http://shoptna.com/tna-winged.aspx.

The thing that usually will persuade me though is price. TNA has great deals all the time. WWE is super expensive, and they rarely have deals worth caring about. THey even got rid of their super clearance section. Right now WWE's black friday sales are giving away things like Superstar stockings and Christmas tree ornaments. TNA is giving away their entire collection at 50% off, or more. That's the difference for me: affordability.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

I agree with everybody else about WWE having better DVD's.

I think TNA has much better shirts and WAY better deals on their merchandise in general. For example the last TNA merch I bought was when they had that brown bag special running where you got 4 DVD's (guarenteed to all be different.) and a random t-shirt. I got a old Sting shirt and 4 random DVD's for 20 bucks that was a great deal!

Plus comparing the two companies the only WWE shirt I have that's even close to up to date is Daniel Bryan's YES! Shirt. Where as I have a few TNA ones, Love Anderson's A**hole shirt I wear it all the time.