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The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread


Adam Ryland

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I'm exceptionally disappointed in the Bound For Glory card, at least from what I've seen. I know they're doing it in conjunction with Wrestle-1, but I don't see a World Title match on the card, and about half of the matches feel like they have no build. For TNA's biggest Pay-Per-View of the year, I believe they could do a lot better.

 

Which wouldn't be quite so bad if this were their Halloween Havoc or In Your House we were talking about. But this is Bound For Glory. Their Starcade. Their Wrestlemania. The culmination of their wrestling year. So I can hardly blame you for that. I'm not exactly crazy about it either.

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Before I start, let me just say that I've been a supporter for TNA over the years and really wanted them to do well. The remainder of my post contains spoilers so dont read any further if you still have interest in TNA.

 

 

 

Now Bound for Glory has cemented the fact that those in charge do not have a clue what they are doing! It was a complete train wreck with no foresight. They have known about Bound for Glory being in Japan and how passionate the fans over there are but they still change the title holder before the show for an Impact that happens AFTER Bound for Glory! That is by far an error that should involve a sacking! It would appear TNA are now treading water in terms of survival. Who the hell came up with putting the belt on Bobby Roode at a TV taping? It should have been at Bound for Glory, but no. This proves that TNA taping a month of shows in a night may help financially but it well and truly messes your product up if not executed properly.

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Who the hell came up with putting the belt on Bobby Roode at a TV taping? It should have been at Bound for Glory, but no. This proves that TNA taping a month of shows in a night may help financially but it well and truly messes your product up if not executed properly.

 

Esepcially in the Internet age. If this were the 80's no harm, no foul. Those who were at the TV tapings would have a hard time filling the rest of the audience in. Not so now. One has to put in a lot more work to avoid spoilers than they just to and nobody wants to watch someone they know to be a lame duck defend a title. Doubly so not when that's the world title.

 

This is like a Ring of Honor move broadcast wise. When Jay Brisco lost the RoH title last time, they had put together the tournament to crown his replacement and announced the whole field while parsing out one man at a time before any need had been demonstrated in the TV timeline. TNA's supposed to be better at presenting their product to the nation than RoH is. They've been putting out their shows to a nationwide audience far longer than RoH has.

 

And I reiterate the significance of this show. This is Bound For Glory. This is supposed to be the capper of their wrestling year. The big blowout before they reset creatively for 2015. If they did a December capper a la WCW and Starcade, then not as big a deal. Roode would be champ by then on TV and the event show could be built accordingly. It's like TNA completely forgot themselves not accounting for Bound For Glory coming before the end of their taping loop aired. It's embarrassing. Utterly embarrassing. Or at least it ought to be. Shame on TNA. Shame on them.

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Talk to me like I'm four...

 

So they taped Roode getting the belt (which will air AFTER BFG), but he's the champ going into BFG now?

 

There is no World Title match at BFG. Roode won it at a taping to air sometime in the future (I lose track with these tapings). TNA then realised Japanese fans take their wrestling seriously and will probably turn on the show if Lashley comes out with the belt, when in reality Roode is technically the Champion as he already won the belt BUT alas, Roode hasn't won the belt on TV yet so now the casual fans are going to be confused because Roode hasn't won the belt on Impact yet so we can't have him coming out with the belt either! TNA's solution is to omit both Bobby Roode and the World title from their biggest PPV of the year. Genius. :rolleyes:

 

TNA, convoluted until the bitter end!

 

Another spoiler (in white) so don't read if TNA interests you still....

This didn't stop them having Samoa Joe defend the X-Division title that Low-Ki won at a taping to be aired after BFG, or Havok defend the Knockouts title when Taryn Terrell won that at a taping to be aired after BFG! You can't make this logic up!

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To be fair, it's not like PPV has been an important part of their business model for years. Most of their money comes from TV deals. If they felt they needed the title changes to boost ratings, or otherwise make their show more attractive to networks, rock on. It's only Bound For Glory. You can call it the 'biggest ppv' all you want. Their cage one always got the biggest buy-rate.
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To be fair, it's not like PPV has been an important part of their business model for years. Most of their money comes from TV deals. If they felt they needed the title changes to boost ratings, or otherwise make their show more attractive to networks, rock on. It's only Bound For Glory. You can call it the 'biggest ppv' all you want. Their cage one always got the biggest buy-rate.

 

They call it their "biggest ppv" not us.

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To be fair, it's not like PPV has been an important part of their business model for years. Most of their money comes from TV deals. If they felt they needed the title changes to boost ratings, or otherwise make their show more attractive to networks, rock on. It's only Bound For Glory. You can call it the 'biggest ppv' all you want. Their cage one always got the biggest buy-rate.

 

And if that's the thing that were supposed to matter, they probably wouldn't be happy you were spacing and calling it "their cage one". But Lockdown isn't what they present as their marquee event. It's Bound For Glory. The show you're only-ing about. "It's only Bound For Glory" is supposed to sound as ridiculous as "It's only Starcade" or "It's only Wrestlemania." Those are the terms they set up to structure their wrestling year in their story world. Forgive people for expecting TNA to be consistent in following the structure they set up .

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Think you have to give them a bit of a pass though.

 

It's clearly a difficult time and regardless of how well booked this event was, long term the only thing that saves them is how well impact does and if they get renewed.

 

If they had the option I'm guessing bfg wouldn't have happened but similar to the ONO events they had to put something out.

 

More concerning is that they may well finish the year without any new product. Suggestions that the last couple of shows this year could be highlight shows means you have to fear for their future.

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Has anyone caught the first episode of British Boot Camp 2? I have to say that I wasn't going to watch it at all but caught the end of it on Sunday and realised that Grado, Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray were on it and it has definitely intrigued me to point where I rewatched it today and enjoyed quite a lot of the show. Mainly for the ICW wrestlers on it but we'll see what Manchester has to offer...
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I'm going to wait till it finishes then watch it all in one night. I watched all of the first series this way and really enjoyed it. Seeing Spud get that great pop two weeks ago when he turned face on EC3 was just awesome. But I'll watch for Grado, mostly. Kay Lee Ray is awesome too, I've always enjoyed her work, especially her match with Mikey Whiplash. It should be fun.
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I'm going to wait till it finishes then watch it all in one night. I watched all of the first series this way and really enjoyed it. Seeing Spud get that great pop two weeks ago when he turned face on EC3 was just awesome. But I'll watch for Grado, mostly. Kay Lee Ray is awesome too, I've always enjoyed her work, especially her match with Mikey Whiplash. It should be fun.

 

The same match where Whippy almost decapitated her? Or another match?

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Her matches in Eve were good too, glad she is seeing some success recently, was really interested in both KLR and Storm when they were working for Eve so have consistently kept tabs on both of them. The Whiplash match was brilliant, if its the one when she is thrown to the crowd? Still amazes me some of the bumps she is willing to take at times.
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  • 5 weeks later...

<p><img alt=":)" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Really happy to see them get a new network. Been a long time tna fan - think the next 12 months will be very positive for them.</p>

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I really hope that they stop pushing old hacks and start developing and pushing their own talent now. I don't care if Lashley is a decent champ, he's 38 or something, where's the TNA trainees? Where's the hungry young guys busting their ass for a big break? Where's the guys I've never seen wrestle elsewhere? Now is the time, push some young guys, pay 'em reasonably, stop overpaying for "stars" and start creating new Mr. TNA's, purrrrlease.
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<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Mootinie" data-cite="Mootinie" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I really hope that they stop pushing old hacks and start developing and pushing their own talent now. I don't care if Lashley is a decent champ, he's 38 or something, where's the TNA trainees? Where's the hungry young guys busting their ass for a big break? Where's the guys I've never seen wrestle elsewhere? Now is the time, push some young guys, pay 'em reasonably, stop overpaying for "stars" and start creating new Mr. TNA's, purrrrlease.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> They kinda have to now because the new network can't offer what Spike would which means eventually those giant contracts will go out.</p><p> </p><p> I do think they have a decent platform for the future and until extremely recently have pushed the Wolves to be top guys in dominant fashion (though feuding with and winning over 2 legendary teams only to drop the belts shortly after is a head scratcher). A guy like EC3 is well on his way to being champion as well.</p>
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<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Mootinie" data-cite="Mootinie" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I really hope that they stop pushing old hacks and start developing and pushing their own talent now. I don't care if Lashley is a decent champ, he's 38 or something, where's the TNA trainees? Where's the hungry young guys busting their ass for a big break? Where's the guys I've never seen wrestle elsewhere? Now is the time, push some young guys, pay 'em reasonably, stop overpaying for "stars" and start creating new Mr. TNA's, purrrrlease.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> At the moment I really like the balance of their roster - Roode, Aries and Storm are all being treated like big deals and go-to guys, EC3, Shaw and Bram are getting a lot of attention as have been the Wolves </p><p> </p><p> The "name" pickups feel like they're playing a big role and are actually guys who can go in the ring - any roster with a Lashley, MVP or Hardy is a better place for it and the likes of Dreamer / Devon are clearly there to make the rising stars look good.</p><p> </p><p> Roster wise there's a lot to like. My only problem is that the crowds for these recent tapings have been so small it's hurting the promotion. Match the action and strong storytelling with good crowds and TNA may start to recapture the momentum they had not so long ago.</p>
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<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Teh_Showtime" data-cite="Teh_Showtime" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> </p><p> I do think they have a decent platform for the future and until extremely recently have pushed the Wolves to be top guys in dominant fashion (though feuding with and winning over 2 legendary teams only to drop the belts shortly after is a head scratcher). </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Several things I really like about that title change though.</p><p> </p><p> From the fan perspective, I love how they had Storm cash in the Feast or Fired shot to effect the change. I love those "oh yeah, that's riiiiiight" moments and Storm using the briefcase was definitely one of those. I think pretty much the whole world had forgotten that shot was still in play and had never been used.</p><p> </p><p> From the TEW perspective, I love how they essentially admitted they were covering for the injury to Davey Richards. Acknowledging him having the leg and how he tried to work through it reaffirms the dominant tough guy he had been before and makes it feel less random to those of us who know how to think like a booker would.</p><p> </p><p> And from the just life in general perspective, I love how Storm took a lemon and made hard lemonade with it. Let's remember back at the beginning of the year, he wasn't too crazy about having that case and saw it as a booby prize. But rather than treating it as such, he took his time to figure out to put it to its best use. Very wise behavior that demonstrates to his charges exactly why they are listening to him. All in all, very well played by Storm in getting the tag titles for his Revolution.</p>
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