PeterHilton

What slag said...no one in their right mind would put their top show on Saturday night.

There's honestly no reason to justify that opinion, except personal preference. Monday is only important in wrestling because WWE had their show on Monday night on USA for years and WCW created Nitro to compete. But TNA has literally no reason to follow suit, except to appease the people still reminiscing about the MOnday Night Wars. --They don't film in a large arena so they have no reason to worry about filling the seats in the middle of the week. --Spike isn't pressuring them to do so. --They have an established presence and better track record on Thursdays --They'll have more luck avoiding the NFL --They clearly arent ready to compete with the E head to head

Interesting. And the Saints-Vikings will be a HUGE and much hyped game, but not any more so than any other season opener imo Again...maybe TNA isn't on Spike's list of favorites right now. That's all I've got.

Taker and Trips main eventing a WM is so 6 years ago

*I* agree with you. but if you look at the direction of the KO division ever since the final segment of Impact featuring LVE popped that nice rating, someone in creative thinks that the T&A/Diva route is the right direction to go.

It's not a site rule. But as someone who has been a columnist for a couple of web sites, it bothers me that someone would copy what's essentially an entire article and post it without mentioning that they didn't write it or got it from another site or at least put a link. The rating itself is just hard info that can be found anywhere. Again...not a rule..just good form. That's why i said "should"

A. No it isn't. you cited the site that reported the rating. But that blurb (Congratulation are in order blahblahblah) was originally written by a diva news site and sent out to other wrestling news sites. B. TBP and that segment has as much to do with "women's wrestling" as the Divas do. In the long run, it means that TNA will see these ratings and spend more and more time with T&A, bikini contests, cat fights, and members of the KO roster who are more recognizable for their imlpants than their in-ring ability. Since i don't really care about women's wrestling, it doesn't bother me. But for the TNA fans who really really enjoyed the KOs because of workers like Kong, Sarida, Hamada, and that boring chick with the short hair, they probably won't enjoy it so much

Bad taste in their mouth from the Monday move that didn't go so well?

If you're going to quote from another news site, you should probably credit them. Also, if TBP and the KOs are getting the highest rated segments on Impact, that's not a good sign.

If they built it up for a few months..announced the unification bout ahead of time, made it seem like guys on each show were vying for the right to win the belt and represent their brand at WM...and then went ahead and gave us Cena vs Taker ..it would be a huge draw.

Agree with all this. Kurt Angle is my favorite wrestler ever and if he doesn't have his personal issues, he probably cements himself as an all time WWE great by now. Of course, with the change in product and the lack of real wrestling talent among the main eventers in recent years, going to TNA has actually given him a chance to show off even more.

I'm writing this blog before going to work. Work , for me, involves going to Universal Studios for the biggest hardcore pay per view night in years. ECW! ECW! ECW! I love how the circle of life adds depth and validity each time it comes around. All the energy and time you spent enjoying ECW will be justified tonight, as we will see that it meant a whole lot to a lot of people. I expect this to be TNA's highest rated pay per view in the history of the company. That's based on everyone in the streets telling me how much they're looking forward to it. Me too. I'd imagine a lot of the old TNA guys are feeling like they're taking a back seat. The thing is...you can't argue with the numbers. Last week TNA broke new all-time records for ratings! TNA needed a change. The 6-sided ring and the great technical wrestlers -that nobody knew-wasn't working. TNA brought in two rock stars, and look at the company now! Dixie often points out how hiring Jeff Hardy and RVD started a whole new era, why do some of the wrestlers not see it? Too, young, too green, too selfish to have the correct perspective. Whereas some of the TNA "stars" are lucky to get recognized walking around the studios, Jeff and myself live like actual celebrities, signing autographs and taking pictures EVERYWHERE we go. Without experiencing this, it's probably hard to imagine. In fact, very few wrestlers stick out in people's minds the way that Jeff and I do. WE love our fans and we love their love. TNA is blowing up. Good things will come our way and I see it all happening now. This is a very exciting time. More people watching TNA means more people exposed to the other wrestlers on the card too...as long as they're good enough to hang around with the rising standards. It doesn't matter if you preferred the old style of wrestling when only you and your buddies knew about it. We're into making money. Tonight is going to be a HUGE indicator of what doing the right thing can accomplish. http://robvandam.com/rvdtv/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1092 In it's entirety it reads more like RVD is sticking up for the people who say that TNA fans don't care about ECW or EV2 or whatever...Van Dam has made some pretty conceited comments in the past, so this isn't exactly a shock But reading the whole thing, written the day of a PPV, defending his friends...meh...it's not a big deal.

Well, the story is everywhere and is being credited to Meltzer or to a post on RVD's blog.

<p>Yes. Typo now that I read it. </p><p> </p><p> That's what i meant..I was arguing that TNA did do marketing for the Jan show and yes we agree.</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Hyde Hill" data-cite="Hyde Hill" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>You are getting ratings and viewer numbers confused but yeah I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Still one aspect TNA can improve upon is their marketing. Is that the sole reason for their lack of better success? nope. Is it a reason? yep.<p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> It is definitely a reason but I wouldn't say it's a primary reason. And more than anything I was arguing that TNA did no marketing for the January show.</p><p> </p><p> And you're right that Hogan promoted his book, but that's what you get for dealing with Hogan: he's on board and he'll say all the right things and he'll pimp your company...just so long as there's something in it for him.</p>

No. It wasn't. If you think that this.. ..is 'perfectly clear' then you have some serious issues with the English language. And I don't have to "prove you wrong." You're wrong. TNA and Spike spent millions on the promotion of that first episode, it was hyped heavily by mainstream press (here's an article on espn.com http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=4969328 ) the man was on everything from Larry King to Rachael Ray talking about it and you couldn't watch an hour of Spike without seeing an advertisement. If you don;t think they promoted his debut, then you were either not paying attention or you're ignoring it to prove your point. Either way..every other person who posts in this thread can tell you: they promoted that show. Heavily. Period.

How exactly do you claim there was no marketing for those first few shows? Did you not notice the MSG press conference, Hogan and Bischoff and Dixie being interviewed on UFC events, the millions of commercials for Hogan's debut on all hours of Spike programming...? Also..I know you're heard this before...but your posts are basically gibberish and I seriously have no idea what you said after the bit where I quoted. If you can't convey what you're saying in an understandable way it's hard to go back and forth on a message board. Do us all a favor and spend a second writing more clearly. Please.

That's just stupid. Marketing? Really? It has nothing to do with the fact that they blew their one chance to impress a bigger audience with those first few shows of the Hogan/Bischoff Era? Or that they moved to Monday waaaay too soon and completely shot themselves in the foot, thereby taking several steps backwards from a ratings standpoint? Or maybe the names they brought in are just not that interesting to current fans? TNA is putting on some good shows lately, but rehashing 10 year old names is a mistake and blaming their lack of progress simply on marketing is ridiculous.

just to reiterate

Are they? Because TNA have added established name after established name and they're ratings have done basically nothing.

But it's not like this is an isolated incident. The history of wrestling is littered with companies that failed because they never bothered to make any new stars...AWA, World Class, the Pacific Northwest.. WCW failed to make many new stars and it killed them in the long run. The same thing would happen to WWE and they have the luxury financially to do a youth movement when TNA really can't afford to.

I think Eric is actually saying that the WWE is pushing too many young guys Long term growth vs short term gain. Also...i guarantee i could go through Dixie comments ove rthe last year and find 10 examples of where she's contradicting Eric here.

Their profits are strong because they've been cutting costs for years. The problems is that - eventually - you run out of cuts and those profits are progressively decreasing. Now, they're not in trouble or anything...but it's a sign that business is down But yes, I agree, the youth movement in general will pay dividends if done correctly. I'm just not sure if they're getting the 'prospects' that will become the next big stars.

They're the shirts that look like Affliction knock-offs if that helps The gas mask designs have been actually pretty ok imo

You're wrong. Flat out wrong, actually. http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/148846 Hamilton Ave News Journal covers the business side of things. This is from the most recent column If you back a few weeks those N shirts have been #3, #1, #3, #1, #1, #5 etc since the shirt came out. So..ratings aside..fans are buying into the angle.