TNA Self Sufficient?

[NickC13573]

Big News: TNA To Be Profitable In 2008?, Full Report Report by TNAWrestlingNews.com Staff on 04/06/2008 at 01:48 PM Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Early projections are that TNA will be "significantly profitable" in 2008. TNA has many revenue streams coming in, including rights fees for iMPACT!, the increase in demand for their talent, the upcoming Midway Video Game, overseas TV rights sales and house shows. With these taken into consideration TNA is expected to turn the corner financially, even with their PPV buy rates being lower than they were. Panda Energy has not had to put any money into the promotion for over a year, which means that TNA has actually become a self-sufficient company. The feeling is that the company either broke even or made a small profit in 2007. Jeff Jarrett wants to take the TNA product in a more serious direction, ala the Angle vs. Joe build. Jarrett wants more in ring time and the serious edge, while Vince Russo likes doing more pre-tapes and promos, and adding cute lines to them. Dutch Mantell wants what ever Jeff Jarrett wants.

[BadFurDay]

Two words: Fire Russo. I've been to two TNA house shows, and they were the best I've seen in years. Makes me feel stupid when I watch Impact! or TNA PPVs (yet I still do it, my love for AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, "prime time jobber" Elix Skipper, Samoa Joe, and their other great wrestlers is too strong to let ****ty booking get in our way), so hopefully they'll follow the way of the Jarrett and give us some quality stuff, they've definitely got the roster for that, and now apparently the money aswell.

[alden]

For people who seen global impact you watched what tna could do. There was no comedy stuff like shark boy or team 3d trying to "make weight" it was great matches. I don't think there is anything wrong with angles and storylines. tna will never be roh. But they will also never be wwe. They have a great young talent base and some good big names that can help get them over. I still love sting to this day. Angle is still a draw along with guys like nash and cage. I do think the relik and black rain stuff is killing them though.

[GDE71]

I've never understood Black Reign. Now with Abyss going a different direction, maybe Dustin Rhodes can overcome his demons(i cant believe i typed that) and just be a regular worker. However, James Mitchell needs someone to manage that makes sense.

[Self]

Black Reign as a 'regular worker' sounds so boring, it's enough to make me turn off. Goldust (and to a lesser extent Black Reign) at least have something vaguely interesting about them, character wise. Isn't his in-ring work the worst thing about him right now? Why would you focus his character on that? Then again, I like gimmicky crap. Team 3D on weighing scales? Awesome. Bubba calling D'Von a "Fat B@stard"? Brilliant. Bubba piledriving a blow up sex doll? These guys are national treasures. It's great that TNA are turning a profit. I'm very happy for them. Now that they've balanced this, they can concentrate on the booking, and improving the product. Comedy can be good, as long as it's accompanied by booking that makes sense, and storylines that track. I agree with spending more time in the ring, but I would keep a lot of the comedy stuff. Maybe that's just me.

[alden]

I guess i just remember to much about the ecw dudleys to think of them as a "comedy" act. They were just so good at getting heat people actully hated them. I guess that is done and over with now though. I do admit i laughed with the stuff but i just think they are above the cheep "fat ass" kind of stuff at this point. Look at the fish market street fight? Come on now, yah they sold it like crazy but that is just to far over the top for me.

[Self]

[QUOTE=alden;401961]I guess i just remember to much about the ecw dudleys to think of them as a "comedy" act. They were just so good at getting heat people actully hated them. I guess that is done and over with now though. I do admit i laughed with the stuff but i just think they are above the cheep "fat ass" kind of stuff at this point. Look at the fish market street fight? Come on now, yah they sold it like crazy but that is just to far over the top for me.[/QUOTE] Loved the ECW stuff. I have some tapes of it somewhere. Also, yeah, Fish Market Street Fight is where I draw the line on the comedy/legitimacy issue. They are just funny guys, and their antics amuse me. I'll admit that a lot of the TNA comedy stuff is nowhere near as good as they are. Super Eric, for example... Not so good. I do kinda like stupid heel AJ though. You can't be blandly awesome forever. I imagine he's having great fun doing what he's doing.

[GDE71]

Black Reign is stupid and boring in my opinion. That damn rat also add nothing. You want me to supposedly be afraid of something, bring a SNAKE IN A BAG to the ring. Snakes in a MF bag.......

[alden]

well, tna does copy every thing so heck why not a jake roberts gimmick next. Maybe alex the snake shelly......

[jonlawson]

Didn't Bubba Ray have a stutter that was comedic in ECW?

[Eisen-verse]

Good to see TNA is doing well enough that they aren't bleeding money any more. I'm not a huge fan of TNA (Then again I'm not all that high on the WWE lately either) but it's good for there to be competition in the industry. With that being said, TNA has a lot to review if they want to ever truly compete with the WWE. They have some good things in place right now with some up and coming superstars being developed, some older superstars with name recognition and draw, as well as their own "trademark" matches & titles. (ie: X Division Title, Ultimate X match, The international cup thing that they do, etc.) It seems like the best way for them to continue to grow is if they fall right in the middle line between the WWE and ROH. Like someone said before they will never be able to compete with ROH when it comes to actual in-ring performance and they'll most likely have a lot of trouble competing with the WWE if they run a "Sports Entertainment" based show. All in All, They would be best served focusing more on in-ring action (Since the WWE doesn't really much these days) while still delivering enough entertainment to keep the mainstream fans connected. In the end, the only way they will thrive is if they can create a product that people would want to pay attention to. If they try to be the WWE-lite then they'll fail miserably and will most likely have a very short shelf life. If they stick to their guns, promote better in-ring action (that also looks unique to their company.. ie: X Division and more of a modern wrestling style approach), and keep the mainstream fans interested enough with well developed storylines and angles... Then they could quite possibly stay self sufficient for years to come. [B]Again, with that being said.... Fire Russo[/B] He hasn't done anything worth while since his early days in the WWE and even then he was capitalizing on what was coming out of Phillie (ECW). He went to WCW and sank that ship even though they seemed like a powerhouse & since he's been working the TNA has seemingly made their product too "crap-angle based". Fire him & bring in some "new minds" in the wrestling industry and have them go to work. If you fill the room with guys who have been writing crappy shows for years then you're going to once again get a crappy show. It's time to bring in new insights... It's the only way to help TNA move forward instead of looking at "What use to work" in the wrestling industry & ultimately finding the same outcome that those companies felt before with the same booking.... Swallowed up by the WWE after a buyout.

[Self]

To defend Russo slightly, WCW was sinking before he came in. He just made it worse. I watched a Shoot Interview with him, and I kinda dug the guy. What he said made a lot of sense. Then again, doing an angle where Buff Bagwell 'disobeys the writers' by 'winning' matches he was 'supposed to lose', was just ridiculous. You never know, he might have an important backstage job. Last I heard, he wasn't involved with booking matches and finishes.

[Mr T Jobs To Me]

TNA needs to take the next step. And by taking the next step I mean putting the strap on "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash.

[NickC13573]

No, I am sorry. Sexy cannot carry a title.

[keefmoon]

[QUOTE=Eisen-verse;402321]He went to WCW and sank that ship even though they seemed like a powerhouse[/QUOTE] That's harsh and I'd suggest untrue. There are two points in that one sentence. 1) [QUOTE=Eisen-verse;402321]He went to WCW and sank that ship[/QUOTE] Not really. It was already sinking before he joined. By no means did he do a good job there, but to suggest that he sank it rather than was one of the many, many factors in the sinking is very harsh. 2) [QUOTE=Eisen-verse;402321]they seemed like a powerhouse[/QUOTE] Exsqueeze me? I beg your pudding? WCW in 1999 seemed like anything other than a powerhouse. Since 98 the cracks were starting to form and by the time he arrived they were in a pretty bad state. WCW a la 99 being descibed as a powerhouse is inaccurate on a whole other level. I hate to bring up an old and tired topic, but there wasn't one thing that destroyed WCW. Bad booking, underutilisation of the roster, ego's, backstage relationships, creative control etc were all part of the problem. Russo was just one of a multitude of problems that should never occured for a once great company that should really be the number 1 promotion in the world even now.

[alden]

I think there were multiple factors also. HUGE Pay, injurys *hart getting hurt was a huge blow from them*, backstage politics, and basicly a million things that pomotions have to deal with. It just happend that wcw was not able to deal with them for some reason. I think it started my self with the nwo wolf pack. It was taking a great angle and just over doing it. Nwo were heel's pure and simple. Yah some cheered for them but they should have never made a baby face nwo.

[tristram]

[QUOTE=keefmoon;402376]That's harsh and I'd suggest untrue. There are two points in that one sentence. 1) Not really. It was already sinking before he joined. By no means did he do a good job there, but to suggest that he sank it rather than was one of the many, many factors in the sinking is very harsh. 2) Exsqueeze me? I beg your pudding? WCW in 1999 seemed like anything other than a powerhouse. Since 98 the cracks were starting to form and by the time he arrived they were in a pretty bad state. WCW a la 99 being descibed as a powerhouse is inaccurate on a whole other level. I hate to bring up an old and tired topic, but there wasn't one thing that destroyed WCW. Bad booking, underutilisation of the roster, ego's, backstage relationships, creative control etc were all part of the problem. Russo was just one of a multitude of problems that should never occured for a once great company that should really be the number 1 promotion in the world even now.[/QUOTE] Agree with you 150% my good friend. It's the same old polished turd that comes out from folks who simply seem to know no better than the repetitive cliches of "oh gee blow me timbers she was a sinking ship" or "russo was solely responsible." You know, there were many, many factors responsible for their demise, part of it was Russo, part of it was Hogan, part of it was Bischoff, part of it was Nash, I mean hell, it was a part of everything. I've been watching dailymotion takes of WCW from 1996-1998, WCW was hot. I'd nearly forgotten, great matches, but cutting edge entertainment. The nWo watching Page with the fans from the stands, trashing the announce table, Chris Jericho versus Dean Malenko, yeah, that's right, Dean Malenko was portrayed as damn entertaining, not just a great wrestler. Oh how I miss WCW. Thank christ for dailymotion. If only I could find complete Nitro's somewhere online, I think I'd lose my mind.

[justtxyank]

My fellow WCW historians are making excellent points. In fact, I think a case can be made that Russo did do some good things in WCW. The problem was that all of the other issues that had punched a hole in the ship had done too much damage. Therefore, they got desperate. They tried everything and it only let in more water. The David Arquette idiocy was a desperate attempt to bring attention to a promotion that was starting to watch it's stern rise up out of the water to begin it's final sink. WCW was truly like the Titanic in my opinion. All the backstage politics that started going crazy in 97 were like the Captain deciding to go full speed to make up time despite the threat of icebergs. It's a sad sad story to recount, but it really is a story of several people over multiple years doing something that ultimately put the ship in a position to strike the iceberg and then several other people over a few more years failing to properly get aid to the survivors of the ship. In the end, the mistakes of MANY led to the glorious ship sinking and taking a ton of its fans and workers down to the seabed below. She's still in our hearts though.

[Eisen-verse]

Just because I said Russo "sank the ship" in WCW doesn't mean that I'm stupid as to think that he was the sole reason the company fell apart! Seriously. hah. The reason I feel Russo had a hand in the destruction of the company was the fact that he booked his shows like crap, destroyed characters, and really just made WCW out to look like a joke. So, that was something we could ACTUALLY SEE when it came to the dismal end of WCW. In no way did I mean that he was the only thing that sunk the ship. My point was just on the creative side of things... Like.... how he is on the creative side of TNA now. See correlation? :) I wanted him out of TNA because I didn't want him to do what he did to WCW creatively in TNA and hurt them in the long run. As simple as that.

[alden]

there are things i loved that russo did. The hogan semi *shoot* was classic. No one has ever done that to hogan before *while it blew up in his face* it was a great moment. It gave booker t his first world title and it shoot him into the main event where he should have been a year before.

[alden]

what some of the boys say. [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTxiUAZyvxI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTxiUAZyvxI[/URL]

[sheepy]

[QUOTE=alden;404266]there are things i loved that russo did. The hogan semi *shoot* was classic. No one has ever done that to hogan before *while it blew up in his face* it was a great moment. It gave booker t his first world title and it shoot him into the main event where he should have been a year before.[/QUOTE] Actually this was the final nail in the coffin IMO. The storyline they had set up (according to Bischoff's book at least) would probably have gone down well even if it did mean Hogan staying on top. My take is that if you get Russo feeding ideas but with a strong character, like Vince, to water or shoot them down, then he can be asset. In Russo's defence as well he was fighting against a network that wanted him to fail so you can't judge him too harshly for his desperate attempts to improve ratings (David Arquette :rolleyes: ).

[Remianen]

[QUOTE=Eisen-verse;404222]Just because I said Russo "sank the ship" in WCW doesn't mean that I'm stupid as to think that he was the sole reason the company fell apart! Seriously. hah. The reason I feel Russo had a hand in the destruction of the company was the fact that he booked his shows like crap, destroyed characters, and really just made WCW out to look like a joke. So, that was something we could ACTUALLY SEE when it came to the dismal end of WCW. In no way did I mean that he was the only thing that sunk the ship.[/QUOTE] You're still wrong. Seriously. Let's see how great of a booker you'd be if your hands were cuffed. You can't do this storyline because it'll make worker X look bad/weak/not as good as worker X likes. You can't run this angle because worker X's friend whines to worker X and gets it shot down. Russo is stuck in the 90s, yes. But let's not convict him of crimes that occurred before his arrival, k? Let's use some common sense here, shall we? "Powerhouses" don't generally replace their bookers. What's the chances of Pat Summitt being fired right about now? How 'bout Bill Belichick? Tony Dungy? Terry Francona? Yeah, that's what I thought. So just as a result of him being sought out, that gives the idea that there was no 'powerhouse' in Atlanta. Just how well would you steer a car with a broken steering wheel and a gas pedal bolted to the floor? There is [B][I]no one[/I][/B] who could have saved WCW when Russo arrived. He was just the biggest name they could get who also gave the side benefit of "screwing" the primary competition. Jesus could've returned and even He would say, "I'm not even gonna try....". TNA turning the corner financially is good. It opens up avenues for them. They just need to get rid of the 'throwback' idea source(s) and move forward toward establishing their own identity.

[AfRoMaN36]

Still, did you see the booking during his era? It was pretty abysmal. He may have not nailed the gas down to the floor, but he assisted in slashing all four tires. He brags that ratings went up during his tenure, but thats a bloated number because he got rid of the third hour. A move that cost him more financially than anything else because he's losing third hour marketing. The New Blood angle couldve been the saving grace for WCW, as it infuses the company with badly needed fresh faces, fresh angles and something to watch, yet Russo trashed the storyline and ended it after one month. Go on youtube to see WCWs booking back then. It made absolutely no sense. Their are no good guys or bad guys. An interference can cost one side the match, yet the other side would bring this guy out, but not before the first guy came back.... AND OMG IT TURNS OUT HE WAS WORKING FOR THE OTHER GUYS ALL ALONG!!! It just went on and on. It was like trying to read 3 stories at the same time. I dont know how the loyal WCW fans who stuck till the end managed to make sense of all that. But then again, if the sole point is to say he is the only reason WCW died, you'd be ignoring the AOL/Time Warner merger, nWo after nWo, Hogans politics, clueless staff, signing workers then never using them just to spite the WWF, the WWFs effort, creative control and pretty much everything else that went wrong in a massive snowball effect. But did he contribute? absolutely.

[sheepy]

[QUOTE]Go on youtube to see WCWs booking back then. It made absolutely no sense. Their are no good guys or bad guys. An interference can cost one side the match, yet the other side would bring this guy out, but not before the first guy came back.... AND OMG IT TURNS OUT HE WAS WORKING FOR THE OTHER GUYS ALL ALONG!!![/QUOTE] I'm fairly certain this happened during the golden years as well. It just got kind of old. I can actually see where Russo was coming from. He was trying to recreat the unexpected, the sense that you didn't know what was going to happen. The NWO angle, one of the most successful in wrestling history, was so successful because of this exact reason. Heck, most of the wrestlers didn't know what was gonna happen so every move they made through the fans off. The concept he missed was that if you do it too much then the fans come to expect it so you lose the edge. I think that was his biggest downfall. In fairness though a lot of people happen upon their own particular success formula and then refuse to try to come up with anything new so they become stale and outdated. Happens in all sport management all of the time.