The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread

[TheEffect]

Does anyone else think they seriously need Shark Boy back, a bit of comedy relief?. I would love to see a Shark Boy vs Doug Williams feud, it would be a comedy vs serious sorta thing.

[Jaysin]

I have always disliked Shark Boy, so no, I don't want him back

[Hyde Hill]

Does anyone else think they seriously need Shark Boy back, a bit of comedy relief?. I would love to see a Shark Boy vs Doug Williams feud, it would be a comedy vs serious sorta thing.

 

EY is better comic relief and not so much a sympathy jobber. If they need a sympathy jobber sure use him otherwise nope.

[Eisen-verse]

EY is better comic relief and not so much a sympathy jobber. If they need a sympathy jobber sure use him otherwise nope.

 

I'm glad that they have EY back to being a comedic character. I didn't really buy the whole "I'm with the band" thing that TNA tried to run with. There was no real connection between them what so ever and then, all of a sudden, he's part of the 'famous' Hall/Nash/Waltman trio? Seems a little weird. Plus, he's better off (EY) as a comedic character right now as he's actually entertaining in that manner. ha.

[Hyde Hill]

As long as they don't take it as far as super eric again. He needs to be goofy and weird but not ridiculous in the comedic role.

[ChrisKid]

I'm glad that they have EY back to being a comedic character. I didn't really buy the whole "I'm with the band" thing that TNA tried to run with. There was no real connection between them what so ever and then, all of a sudden, he's part of the 'famous' Hall/Nash/Waltman trio? Seems a little weird. Plus, he's better off (EY) as a comedic character right now as he's actually entertaining in that manner. ha.

 

He was terrible in The Band (i just didn't see why he was in it) and i'm also happy he is back to his comeidic ways but his World Elite stuff was good

[Slagaholic]

As long as they don't take it as far as super eric again. He needs to be goofy and weird but not ridiculous in the comedic role.

 

Tagging with in a mannequin isn't ridiculous?

[ChrisKid]

Tagging with in a mannequin isn't ridiculous?

 

Well

[Hyde Hill]

Tagging with in a mannequin isn't ridiculous?

 

More weird/goofy. Yeah it's a fine line lolz. I thought the mannequin stuff was funny but I loathed the Super Eric stuff.

[ZMAN]

I like the UFC comparison that was made for the X Title. I would say, put the X and TV as your midcard belts, both with their own weight limits. Then make the World Title the non-division, mixed, top notch belt that anyone can go for.

 

I donno, maybe that makes it seem too organized for prowrestling company.

[Stennick]

Say what you will about WCW but they had a great track record of bringining in fresh faced cruiserweight stars, pushing them and moving them up.

 

Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio Jr, Chris Jericho, Juvy, Kidman, all of these guys started out with the cruiserweight title and over time the morphed into bigger parts of the company.

 

In 96 it was mostly Dean and Rey that anchored the division. Then in Then Kidman shed his Flock image in 98, they got Juvy going.

 

After those guys outgrew the division and started with The Filthy Animals and what not the division got stale and boring mostly with the likes of Disco Inferno and of course the Russo run. Prince Iakea had it for a while and it never got its footing back until once again in 2001 they started pushing new guys with it.

 

Chavo, Shane Helms, etc.

 

Its a great vehicle to bring someone in, display just how talented they are in the ring, let the fans get used to them in that role of jaw dropping matches, throw in some minor storylines and let them organically grow out of the division.

 

I would say that division and the television title division are in the same boat. They need the ten minute time limit for the T.V title that can MAKE a heel and makes the division look strong. The babyface is beating the hell out of the heel and has him pinned but its 10:01 so the match is over. He covers him for the three count and right at the count of two time expires. If that babyface had one more second they would be champion.

 

From those divisions you move onto the next step. Obviously it doesn't need to be that structured but thats where I'd put it at.

[ZMAN]

10 minutes isn't bad. I remember they used to do something similar when they were on FSN. There was a clock, and the names of who was wrestling at the top of the screen. Felt legit, I just wouldn't want it on the entire show.

[Stennick]

Well I only suggest ten minutes for the television title since thats what WCW did and it had some classic feuds just over the ten minute gimmick.

[Hyde Hill]

I like the UFC comparison that was made for the X Title. I would say, put the X and TV as your midcard belts, both with their own weight limits. Then make the World Title the non-division, mixed, top notch belt that anyone can go for.

 

I donno, maybe that makes it seem too organized for prowrestling company.

 

I wouldn't go with weight limits but more with style "limits" so to speak. X Division is more modern with cruisers, super juniors, puro's, luchadores. Television more entertainers, brawlers, technicians and regular wrestlers. Off course there is some crossover but you get my point. Both being midcard belts at around the same level and then the same world title type like you said.

[TDubRaiders]

I miss the old X division. I very much enjoyed WCW's cruiserweights division back in the day and I felt like TNA's X Division was right on par with WCW's division a few years ago but they def moved away from it. I would love to see TNA take WCW's approach and have some guys from overseas come over and wrestle. I enojyed the old Japanese and Mexican masked wrestlers in WCW and would nlove to see some of the newer guys intergrated into the X Division

[SaySo]

Paul Heyman on TNA

 

The subject of Paul Heyman working for TNA was brought up during an interview with MMAFighting.com's MMA Hour Live.

 

In discussing TNA, Heyman commented, "They're not ready for me. They're not there yet. I kind of have self-justified my own interest in TNA as a network of stock and ownership. I left pro wrestling in December 2006 and I haven't done one shoot DVD, one convention appearance, one cameo. I haven't done anything on wrestling."

 

Heyman said the company approached him several times in the last year but he never took it seriously until Dixie Carter contacted him, at which point he was intrigued by the potential of ownership points and stock and working with the SpikeTV network. He felt they weren't ready for what he could bring to the table, describing some of the aspects of MMA that could be brought back to pro wrestling.

 

Heyman noted that if he never does anything in wrestling again, "I've had my fill" and said that TNA is still unclear as to what they want their own vision to be. Heyman said that TNA is looking for the immediate answer and not the long term planning.

 

Heyman commented that if he was a legend in TNA, he wouldn't want Paul in the company. "If you were over 40, I'd chop your f***ing head off." Heyman said if he was asked to run the New York Yankees, he'd ditch Derek Jeter and A-Rod and find the next generation because the big stars are on the end of their prime. "I want a guy who is entering the prime of his career and shape him and mold him."

 

Heyman said it's all about a "long term investment" and not about "grabbing the brass ring just next year." He said he doesn't want a bunch of guys in their 40s.

 

Heyman said older talents should be used for promotional events and autograph signings and video games but not as the nucleus. He discussed the angle where Ric Flair's Fortune beat up the former ECW alumni and noted the focus was on ECW guys in their 40s, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, not the core group of younger TNA talents.

 

Heyman then said, "Imagine if all they did the entire show" was promote the Beer Money vs. Motor City Machineguns match and had Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and the ECW guys saying they needed to see that match and said these guys are the future now. Then, if you put that match in the main event - as opposed to the middle of the card with no follow-up - and produce and present them as the main event. Then, if "you buy this product, this is the progressive type of presentation we are going to present to you." Instead, you have Hulk Hogan in his 50s thanking ECW guys in their 40s before the ECW guys (who Heyman specifically thanked for "everything they brought to my life") are beat up by a group led by Ric Flair in his 60s.

 

Heyman said that he doesn't have the mechanism to go back in time but does foresee how things should change going forward. He mentioned his mother's time in the Holocaust and said he grew up understanding that you can't look back and waste time and have to look forward, or someone else will.

 

===

 

Stock and ownership? Or is he talking in IOUs?

[Hyde Hill]

Nope as TNA is still in the black. Or if it isn't that in his view he will turn it around and put it in the black. Making the older guys supporting characters I can applaud but chopping their heads off nuh uh. Plus the guns was the semi main and it was the end of the series and it was followed up on Reaction.

 

They where not ready for him? More likely they did not want to give him 10 percent of the company with a guarantee of going public which he said he would be asking.

 

Gotta love the spin. Still too bad they could not work something out.

 

PS credit is to PWI for that summation that sayso reacted on.

[jwt13]

I just thought of somthing, what if the "They" Abyss was talking about was ROH Guys? I think that could lead to a good story with ROH workers signing with TNA as Strong has a very good chance at a contract and if they could get some more guys it could be pretty cool imo. But I think the they is Fourtune

[Self]

I thought the Guns/Beer Money match was underpromoted, and clearly presented as less important as the ECW stuff. It was semi-main, and the Guns were on for like 5 minutes of Reaction (tops) and I don't recall seeing Beer Money at all. When you have a MOTY candidate (I have my reservations, but that's just me) shouldn't that go on last? Was the quality somehow surprising to them?

 

Totally agree with Paul Heyman's stance. Young blood. I want to see some new guys in wrestling. WWE has NXT, but they're all cookie-cutter dudes. At least with TNA some wackiness is allowed to seep through.

[Hyde Hill]

I prefer young blood as well but also understand you can't have just young blood. Especially when you are laterally expanding aka expanding overseas like TNA and for other reasons. Yes make them support characters but cutting them away completely nah. Some can just go as they have been eclipsed by bigger stars from their time period and or company.

[Stennick]

Making the older guys supporting characters I can applaud but chopping their heads off nuh uh.

 

It depends on what guys their talking about. He said it himself the ECW guys are over 40 and shouldn't be featured in this way. What is Team 3D adding to TNA at this point? As I pointed out in previous posts there are very few legends I'd keep around. Hogan, Sting, Flair, MAYBE Nash if you can find a non wrestling role for him and decrease his salary. The rest of them aren't adding anything to TNA but television time that can be and should be given to younger guys. I'm so sick of the young guys vs. new guys talk. I've been hearing it since 1999 and I'm sick of it. Paul's right they could be doing more with some of these legends to promote other stars and their not.

 

Plus the guns was the semi main and it was the end of the series and it was followed up on Reaction.

 

It was a semi main event that was clearly made less important than the ECW stuff, it was a semi main event that was touched on all of five minutes on ReAction. If this is the MOTY people say it is shouldn't they be hyping it till the cows come home.

 

I agree with Paul all these statements and I'm not even the biggest Paul Heyman fan. His track record is spotty at best. The stuff he did in ECW some of it was great, but the rest of it was junk. He gets a pass because he was booking New Jack so people say "yeah but look what he did with the talent". Well look what Vince Russo did with Austin, Rock, etc. Talent rises to the top all the time unless your WCW or TNA.

 

He came into Smackdown and he was doing a fantastic job but that run lasted all of what? Six, nine months and he was demoted? He was doing well in OVW but again he didn't last.

 

Aside from ECW which was mostly garbage with a few gems thrown in. Even then its not like they had television or anything like that so the storylines never really ran like traditional weekly storylines anyway.

 

Since then he spends a year in a place, he does a great job and then gets fired. Anybody can write a great first chapter, I want to see if the rest of the chapters are that great.

[Slagaholic]

Self! MCMG were TNA's Impact Players of the Week! Surely that means something to you!

 

Beer Money closed out ReAction with what was one of my favorite segments on the entire show.

 

ECW wasn't really mostly garbage, the entire Attitude Era was mostly garbage.

[Hyde Hill]

Yes it was made less important then the TITLE MATCH and the big angle which they just had a ppv of. They knew it would be a good match and Tenay hyped the **** out of it. Could it have main evented? sure, should it have main evented possibly, was it just a forgotten midcard match as Heyman makes it out to be? No. And the Guns and Beer Money together got more speaking time then 5 minutes on Reaction imho.

[Hyde Hill]

It depends on what guys their talking about. He said it himself the ECW guys are over 40 and shouldn't be featured in this way. What is Team 3D adding to TNA at this point? As I pointed out in previous posts there are very few legends I'd keep around. Hogan, Sting, Flair, MAYBE Nash

 

Agreed and I would remove Nash and sub with Foley. Hogan and Sting and Flair pretty much have Nash's fanbase covered and are bigger legends, Foley has a more unique fanbase that covers almost all the ECW guys who can only drum up support as a group at this time, so once hopefully fortune beats the snot out of them they are done.

[Self]

Beer Money closed out ReAction with what was one of my favorite segments on the entire show.

 

They did? To be fair I stopped watching after the MCMG stuff. Got bored. Is that show an hour long? If so that's WAY too much for a recap show in my book.