The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread

[K-Nection]

 

 

Is this happening? Wow sucks to be TNA!

[lukess11]

Met EY at Monmouth Park. Got an autograph, retweet and pic with him. :eek:

[Stennick]

 

 

Is this happening? Wow sucks to be TNA!

 

Welcome to six months ago K-Nection

[K-Nection]

Welcome to six months ago K-Nection

 

Well that shows you how much I watch it! I loved TNA in 2013....right up until Claire Lynch. TNA was blah for me after that. I still hate to see a company die especially with some of the talent they have on hand. They could really be a legitimate threat if they have the right creative.

[Planet Stasiak]

What do you guys think of Drew Galloway's current gimmick?

[liontamer]

I think Galloway's gimmick is ok, but he's not very convincing at playing it for me. I just don't take him seriously as a threat to anyone major despite his push. I think he'd almost succeed more if he played the same role hypocritically.

 

Also, been reading reports that Bram is suspended for domestic battery, and then today one report include the nugget that he is married to Flair's daughter "charlotte" so I'm assuming she's the one he battered.

[Big Roguey]

Also, been reading reports that Bram is suspended for domestic battery, and then today one report include the nugget that he is married to Flair's daughter "charlotte" so I'm assuming she's the one he battered.

 

It's not, they are divorced (or are in the process of divorce). It's his new partner the charges are against.

[Stennick]

Well the CHARGES are against him she's the one pressing charges and since he's here on a Visa beyond the law problems for him that will send him packing from the country when he's done with that. I never saw much in him but I know in FCW/NXT and again in TNA he was treated as future big thing or what have you. At this point TNA is virtually dead I think. Its a bummer since EC3 is champ but feuding with Matt Hardy in 2015 over the TNA title is silly. They made EC3 a star and thats it. They couldn't seem to find the motivation to push anyone else new up the ladder behind him.

 

One of the cool things about the late 90's WWF is that Austin was a lynch pin. Austin feuded with Rock over the IC. So when Austin comes up to the main event he nearly drags Rock up with him who then they drag Foley up to the main event alongside him and then finally HHH behind him fighting Austin, Rock and Foley. You never see that anymore. You should have seen it with Dean Ambrose when Seth Rollins came up to the main event, and technically with Roman Reigns as well. Instead they are in an upper mid card feud with the Wyatts which would be fine if they weren't doing this TWO YEARS AGO in the same exact spot of the card. The entire main event seen should be Wyatt, Shield, possibly even Russev with now Owens, Cesaro and whoever else taking their upper mid card spots. Instead its just a log jam in the card since the Shield and Wyatts haven't moved up it leaves Owens and Ceseraro a run below them and so on. Not to mention Russev went from unstoppable killing machine to jealous boyfriend and Ziggler went from "The Show Off" to whatever he is now.

 

Anyway aside from my rant TNA didn't bring anyone new alongside EC3. He never even really feuded with anyone new aside from Spud who hasn't moved up the card any and maybe even down the card despite being every bit the breath of fresh air that EC3 is. Instead they wanted to throw money at Bully Ray who then embarrassed them by leaving a week after he was made "in charge". Its another issue with their taping cyle. By the time they taped television again it had been months and he had moved on.

[Fleisch]

TNA is just treading water until that final "too little, too late" wave takes them completely under. They had something with the whole Aces & Eights thing until they unmasked to reveal their ranks were The Dudley Boys & their band of "who cares" wrestlers. Adding Mr. Anderson did little to give the group any credibility, despite what people may say.

 

Garrett Bischoff and Wes Brisco were awful, Mike Knoxx needed Kelly Kelly to make him a lower midcarder on WWE TV, Doc Gallows at the time had just come off an amazing run as a drooling neanderthal who went crazy at the sound of a bell (thank god he's doing something worthwhile now) and I forgot who else was in it.

 

They picked up a little with the AJ Styles leaving storyline until... they let him go for real. I don't mean Claire Lynch, that was just the death, and probably where AJ decided "I'm done with this company".

 

TNA had all the talent to become a solid promotion, but instead they tried to make out they were bigger than they were by bringing in the likes of Hogan, Bischoff and co. They could have built the company around the X-Division, Tag Division and Knockouts Division with some of the talent they had, but let all of those divisions pretty much fall apart. Not sure they even have a tag team division outside of the Wolves do they? The Knockouts Division looks to be rebuilding to it's former glory but the X-Division is going to need an absolute ton of work done to get that back to the way it was. The Heavyweight Title Division could then have been made up of the likes of EC3, Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy, with the likes of Magnus, Bram, Drew Galloway, James Storm and MVP just below, maybe even fighting over a secondary belt (maybe a US title or bring the TV Title back).

 

It needs to be good workers going for the X-Division belt. Technicians and High Flyers should be the cornerstones of that division. Tigre Uno, Manik, Kenny King and Spud. Those 4 (if booked correctly) could pull that division out of the gutter it has fallen in to and make it something special again. Bring in a couple of guys from Mexico or Japan for their one off tapings or big event to give the belt some prestige. Get rid of this "Option C" crap as it basically says the X-Division is second rate, which it should not be seen to be.

 

With regards to the tag division, again, bring in some tag teams on pay-per appearance deals. Bring the Briscoes in for a taping, or some of the other great teams on the Indy scene. Look at NXT who have just got in Gargano and Ciampa for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Tournament. They probably won't be signing long term, but they're at NXT to show what they can do. Maybe have a "Wolves Open Challenge" where teams can be given an opportunity to wrestle for the tag titles. Don't stick them on a random pairing, tag titles rarely get a boost when they are put on Unused Wrestler A and Unused Wrestler B - unless you then turn them into a proper tag team (look at Buddy & Murphy as an example that it can work).

 

I just think TNA could have been out of this mess years ago but instead bad advice and inconsistent booking have cost them. Instead of using the last few years to build stars, and rebuild their brand, they've used quick fixes and bad planning.

 

sorry for the long spiel, just makes me a little annoyed when a promotion I liked abandon their best concepts to try and be WWE Lite.

[Jaysin]

Doc Gallows at the time had just come off an amazing run as a drooling neanderthal who went crazy at the sound of a bell (thank god he's doing something worthwhile now) and I forgot who else was in it.

 

He hadn't been Festus in nearly two years by the time he came to TNA. He was kicking ass as Luke Gallows in the Straight Edge Society. Aces & Eights was definitely botched, but I just had to point this out to split hairs.

[Fleisch]

He hadn't been Festus in nearly two years by the time he came to TNA. He was kicking ass as Luke Gallows in the Straight Edge Society. Aces & Eights was definitely botched, but I just had to point this out to split hairs.

 

Oh yeah. I forgot about the Straight Edge Society. I retract my previous statement to replace with... "he was coming off a run as CM Punks sidekick (which isn't a bad thing)".

[Planet Stasiak]

I think Galloway's gimmick is ok, but he's not very convincing at playing it for me. I just don't take him seriously as a threat to anyone major despite his push. I think he'd almost succeed more if he played the same role hypocritically.

 

Also, been reading reports that Bram is suspended for domestic battery, and then today one report include the nugget that he is married to Flair's daughter "charlotte" so I'm assuming she's the one he battered.

 

I gota agree with you here, hes not cutting it as an impact player on tv; though i cant quite put my fingers on the reason. His promos are just..off? They seem too forced to me.

 

on the other hand, Eli Drake seems like a hidden gem to me, the reincarnation of the 90s Rock.

[Planet Stasiak]

Speaking of Luke Gallows, i thought he had a thing going with the hammer gimmick of the Aces and Eights. I enjoyed his character, although the storyline could've been handled in a much more different direction.

 

A&8s lacked the believably of an outside threat, just like GFW is being presented now.

[K-Nection]

That's pretty sad when a brand new company has to give TNA a rub!

[Planet Stasiak]

Any invasion angle in wrestling has loads of potential. It really depends on how u as a company present it to the audience. GFW as a threat is at best luke warm. But again, thats just my opinion my online friends .

 

According to the dirtsites, Jarrett was shown to the boys in the back as public enemy no 1. Suddenly hes back like its all normal and they renamed the legends belt, which looks much better than their WHC, for like the 3rd time.

 

I dont mean to sound like a troll here folks, TNA saddens me

[cappyboy]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Planet Stasiak" data-cite="Planet Stasiak" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Any invasion angle in wrestling has loads of potential. It really depends on how u as a company present it to the audience. GFW as a threat is at best luke warm. But again, thats just my opinion my online friends <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />.<p> </p><p> According to the dirtsites, Jarrett was shown to the boys in the back as public enemy no 1. Suddenly hes back like its all normal and they renamed the legends belt, which looks much better than their WHC, for like the 3rd time.</p><p> </p><p> I dont mean to sound like a troll here folks, TNA saddens me</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> And really that doesn't make GFW look very good either. You would think a new promotion would be wanting to get its own feet under itself and not worry about invading another one. That's something established organizations do. If GFW doesn't work out in the long run, I could see attempting and failing this invasion being an in-story reason for that failure.</p>

[K-Nection]

<p>

</p><div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo"><div><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Qhx02kYGObk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" title="Vince Russo Will CHANGE YOUR LIFE! [ft. JIM CORNETTE] | Wrestling With Wregret"></iframe></div></div><p> </p><p>

Shout out to Vince Russo!</p>

[Planet Stasiak]

<p>Lol @ the video <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />...this was posted on the dirtsites today: </p><p>

</p><p><em>

"TNA's official website now has a new episode of Impact Wrestling scheduled for Destination America on October 7th, just a few days after Bound For Glory. According to PWInsider, the episode is also listed on Destination America's internal schedule"</em></p><p> </p><p>

Any thoughts folks?</p>

[Mootinie]

It's a very odd situation because TNA haven't scheduled any tapings. One would believe that if are set to re-sign with Destination America, they would have already announced the tapings in order to sell tickets for them. Not unless they just re-signed, but I find that hard to imagine, especially since all the signs point towards them being booted. They really don't have time to tape anything for October 14th, unless they do a "LIVE" episode and then tape in the days after that, they've done that before. But again, those tapings haven't been announced...

 

They could feasibly shut down for a month or so and then resume operations towards the end of the year. People over at TNAMecca think that that's what is happening. I know they have a few house shows in the build to Bound For Glory, maybe they could tape something then?

 

If anything, they will probably just air Bound For Glory on free TV on October 7th. What kind of number will this PPV do anyway? A 4,000? If that? Destination America probably figure that the very last Impact Wrestling episode is guaranteed to do a good number, easily better than whatever else they air and then they can plug Impact Wrestling's replacement throughout the show.

 

(I don't think TNA will land a deal on another network if Destination America cancel them, hence why I said it would be the very last episode.)

 

That said, it's worth noting that TNA's ratings have increased dramatically over the last two weeks whereas ROH's have dropped. ROH is totally being booted soon, the ratings are so very bad. They're averaging around half of what they did when they debuted and that's what they get for appearing so bush league compared to bloody TNA of all products... I think Impact was up to around 400,000 this week - that's a massive positive. Maybe Destination America have seen that and now have cold feet about replacing them?

[K-Nection]

It could be the rumors swirling that they are closing soon and that is giving them viewers...

[Jaysin]

TNA's ratings in the UK have been almost cut in half. That's a huge blow for them as they've always done really well ratings wise there.

[Planet Stasiak]

Interesting...well this match was about a month ago, I think Paul Lloyd (gabriel) really sold his new PJ Black heel persona; like a legitimate high flying main eventer.

 

 

However, i'm more concerned with the ending, it seems black botched that 450 and his knees connected with Lashley's chest. Nothing was reported on this, It must have hurt Lashley.

[Planet Stasiak]

Hey yos, nobody has any thoughts on the botch? Any expert opinions?

[Rone Rivendale]

It looks like it was on purpose, why else would he go so far down the ladder before jumping?

[Fleisch]

Look TNA did something they have NEVER done!

 

Title vacated for no reason other than their booking choice... set up a series of matches to crown a new champion. Oh my god, so excited!

 

It's cool, I didn't convince myself I cared either.

 

I used to be an avid fan of TNA, I loved what they were doing, they were different, they had a bit of edge about them with the X-Division, their womens division (which at one point was more entertaining than their main event scene) and it brought them in fans (not WWE standard, but more than enough to be a viable alternative) and then... well I don't know what happened. You have ECIII as World Champion, feuding with Drew Galloway in what could possibly set the company up for the next year if booked correctly, but no, they chuck Matt Hardy into the mix and put the belt on him, only to DAYS later have him vacate the title so that TNA can set up one of their "S*** we don't have anything anyone cares about lets do a title tournament... again" er... tournaments.

 

This absolute lack of booking knowledge and 6 month recycle of storylines is why TNA run the risk of being out of business in the next 18-24 months. They used to be huge in the UK, but even most of us fans over here don't really care about their product any more because, well ICW and PROGRESS are a better alternative than TNA from what I've heard, and even WWE is more watchable (even though that isn't great either).

 

Of course, It wouldn't be TNA without Dixies bi-monthly "Major Announcement" which in this case turns out to be that they will be making an announcement... in India... where I guess their last true fans reside because no one else really gives a damn about it.

 

I guess what makes me mad most is that TNA had a real potential to be something different but then fell into the trap of "we can compete with WWE". Someone should have grabbed Dixie Carter by the head and screamed in her face "No, you can't so do something different!" Only one company managed to compete with WWE in the USA, and they too no longer exist. TNA is now less watchable than WCW was back in 2000.

 

Sorry, just had to get my thoughts and opinions out before they devoured my very soul!