TNA - an announcement that will shock the world

First topic message reminder :

Probably.

- As of this writing, TNA's website has been replaced with a countdown clock that looks to expire at around 10am EST on Thursday morning, November 19th.

The TNA Twitter accounts, including Dixie Carter's account, have all "blacked out" their profile photos and headers.

Crimey wrote:I do feel like there is a bit of hating on TNA for the sake of it in regards to this. It's not ideal, but it's better than not being on TV. It's a risk but one they needed to take and I don't see the harm in wanting to see them succeed. If TNA get their act together, write a good show then that's great news for us, another possible wrestling show to watch. If they don't, it doesn't really matter.

The operative word being if and with TNA that's a big IF!  If they do get their act together and put on a smart, intelligent and entertaining wrestling show I will happily watch it again. I am not anti-TNA for the sake of being anti-TNA. However, your last sentence just sums up the mess TNA have got themselves into. From a TNA perspective they've clearly dropped the ball on numerous occasions to get into the state they are in. When TNA first started, JJ vision for it was to create a true alternative to WWE in the wake of WWE assimilating both WCW and ECW into their roster and archive material. Over the years TNA has tried to expand and build to become something bigger, something of a true successor to WCW. If all TNA do is exist, limping on on whatever network will give them some airtime then that is a fail.

WCW was terribly mismanaged and paid the ultimate price for it. But, they were big enough and successful enough at their peak to give WWE reason to buy them out and harvest what was salvageable from their roster. With TNA it is a different story. TNA are nowhere near what WCW was at its peak. They've not been able to attract a large, paying and loyal fanbase, they've not been able to sell PPVs and they've not really managed to create any huge marquee names who move the needle in terms of ratings. If all that changes, I'm all in again; but, I doubt that will happen and quite honestly, I'm not interested in watching TNA settle for becoming a glorified indie promotion. I wanted TNA to evolve into a promotion that would eventually overshadow even WCW and create a legacy in the business greater than that of WCW. I wanted TNA to prove WWE wrong that strong competition can co-exist. I wanted TNA to become a household name. A place where even guys like Cena would think twice before resigning for the WWE. I can't see that ever happening.

I feel like you're living in a fantasy world then. WWE is an entertainment juggernaut that has completely monopolised the mainstream wrestling sphere. Nothing will challenge that without some serious, significant investment. Even then I just don't think it will happen, WWE are synonymous with wrestling at that level and this won't change, so long as WWE continues to develop, which it does, if not creatively, at least commercially. It is filling bigger and bigger stadiums, has a top 5 streaming service and its development has become so successful in its own right it can support a tour. 

If TNA can get back to its peak level, that would be a huge success. I'm not sure TNA can get back to the level where it picked up Hulk Hogan etc. but if it can create an entertaining product, it shouldn't matter. It's never going to challenge WWE, but it can certainly be a good second. I think since they fell off the bandwagon, the spot has been filled with NXT, but TNA with a TV spot do have the potential to challenge that and create another possible place to catch good wrestling.

TNA don't have to become as big as WWE for me to believe they've been successful in their mission statement. But, TNA do need to correct the bad decisions to rectify the resulting consequences of those bad decisions. Take for example the lack of house shows and live events. They cancelled their halloween tour supposedly for TV tapings in India, however, the reality is even if that is true, the ticket sales were embarrassingly weak. There's Dixie saying wrestling fans are the best in the world and TNA's fans are the best in the world and this is why Pop is such a great fit for TNA.

For practically the entirety of 2015, TNA have been recording impact out of universal studios where the fans don't have to pay to attend the tapings. They've ceased touring and doing house shows, apart from the BFG tour they put on after they ran out of TV tapings; so there's practically no income from ticket sales. In short TNA fans don't pay for the product. TNA have only two legitimate PPVs Slammiversary and BFG and they have become afterthoughts now with clearly no expectations for PPV buyrates.

So how Dixie can actually say with any credibility and honesty that TNA fans are the best in the world is beyond me. She knows full well that TNA isn't making money from its domestic fans. Not the kind of money you can actually reinvest in the company to expand it. TNA is relying on its international TV deals.

TNA don't have to become as big as WWE, but they do have to start doing the basics of being a wrestling company well again and then growing organically from there. Go back to live TV shows and do house shows with paying fans. Invest in marketing those shows. Start promoting new merch and dvds and giving fans a product they want to invest in and pay for. Treat your PPVs with respect and make them feel like a big deal rather than just a glorified house show that has no connection to the storylines on impact. Give us compelling TV with well booked feuds that have satisfying pay offs and logical story arcs. Lock your roster down on contracts where you can actually plan ahead with storylines, rather than working around their indie bookings. If TNA can actually do that then they will begin to grow little by little and attract bigger names and talent eventually. Kurt Angle originally came to TNA because he saw there was a real alternative to WWE; TNA have to make other wrestlers believe that as well.

I also think going PG is the right thing to do. You'll never be mainstream if you try to appeal to a niche adult market. Have clearly defined faces and heels. Find a star who can be your poster boy/girl and push them. You don't have to compromise storylines for good wrestling. You can have both. It doesn't just need to be about what happens in the ring. Give people a reason to care about what happens in the ring. Add some drama.

These are things that TNA should be able to do if they book their shows correctly and invest their money in the right ways. It may take a couple of years for attendances to pick up, but eventually if they continue to invest in building their fanbase then they should be able to grow.

Why do TNA need to compete with WWE at any level? Theres plenty money to be made if you can get a successful Indy company running, even without a TV deal. It was trying to compete that got them in this mess in the first place, when back in the day TNA was very much an enjoyable show.

talkingpoint wrote:

So how Dixie can actually say with any credibility and honesty that TNA fans are the best in the world is beyond me. She knows full well that TNA isn't making money from its domestic fans. Not the kind of money you can actually reinvest in the company to expand it. TNA is relying on its international TV deals.

I'm not going to bother looking up the figures, but off the top of my head, didn't TNA lose approx half its fans when it moved from Spike to DA. So, that's 50% of the fans who weren't loyal enough to follow it on its move. And then didn't it lose about half of those DA fans on its move from Friday to Tuesday? So, that's about half the fans who didn't care to find out when the show was now airing to watch it.

There was also a report I'm sure a month or two back that the UK viewers had dropped from over 200K to around 130K and that was same channel, same time.

Also, when do we start to consider TNA an indie. Unless it has found an extra wad of cash, that roster looks to me pretty threadbare. Obviously everyone has their favourite wrestlers, but I'd see that roster as below WWE, NXT, ROH and LU. I'm pretty sure some wit Tweeted a while ago "TNA, the work Galloway does when he's not doing other promotions", and you look at how he, Andrews, etc are booking themselves right now and there's more than an element of truth in that.

Samo wrote:Why do TNA need to compete with WWE at any level? Theres plenty money to be made if you can get a successful Indy company running, even without a TV deal. It was trying to compete that got them in this mess in the first place, when back in the day TNA was very much an enjoyable show.

1. Because TNA is not an Indie and has prided itself on being the second largest promotion in America. If they weren't then they wouldn't have bothered signing Hogan and Angle etc.

2. Because WWE is the gold standard of professional wrestling. And by that I mean, regardless of whether you think the product is stale or has the best matches or not, commercially it is the most successful promotion and therefore becomes the standard by which a lot of people judge professional wrestling. The aesthetics, the production quality, the scale, the merchandise, WWE maintain a certain standard of quality to their shows. If you are going to market yourself or claim to be the best promotion in America (or even one of the best), you will be measured against the WWE.

If TNA want to become an Indie promotion and find their niche in that field of the industry then that's perfectly fine. ROH, LU, PWG etc, are all good and entertaining in their own right and all have their place in the wrestling business. If all TNA want to do is attract a core, loyal enough fanbase to keep them in business and keep making shows until Dixie's ready to retire then that is up to Dixie. But, TNA have never promoted themselves as anything less than a legitimate big time wrestling promotion. TNA has always tried to associate itself with the biggest names in the industry. They signed Hogan, Sting, Jeff Hardy and Angle; they even tried to sign Goldberg apparently and were also after ADR before he returned to WWE. So, if that's what TNA want to become (or are trying to be) then they need to make some serious changes and improvements.

I'm interested to know whether people still view TNA as the 2nd largest promotion in the US?

I think that from their new TV deal it is clear they will be in more houses than ROH and LU. But from a financial perspective I'd say that ROH generate much more revenue directly from fans via tickets, merchandising and PPV.

Looking at their respective websites, both ROH and TNA seem to have similar sized rosters, although TNA's still lists wrestlers like MVP, Storm and Bully Ray.

It is an interesting question of whether they compete. And it is very easy to make the argument that they do not. The TV is not at the same time. They do not run live shows against each other. I can't believe they are competing for the same wrestlers. But I think it is right to say that when a comparison is made, TNA will be compared to WWE, because I think TNA is positioned as a competitor (no matter how David and Goliath that may seem right now) whereas it feels like ROH and in particular LU and PWG are looking at a different niche than WWE covers.

Like Mary on a little donkey, TNA is off to Bethlehem. http://www.impactwrestling.com/Search-Listing/item/6904

Unless they bring Jesus out from under a rock, There is no saving TNA.

The time is nigh for TNA to hire Pastor Bill