It’s hard for me to write negative things about this company, unlike those who spend their days blasting the company on social media for the laugh. I stick up for the company and try to see the positives. I have been a TNA fan for a long time … well before the Hogan/Bischoff era.
TNA has made changes since those days, but they are still in a state of survival. They don’t appear to be showing that on the weekly product though. There seems to be a lack of excitement all around. The show has become unappealing, and the old look and identity of the show has long gone. Many wrestlers have left the company over the past couple of years. Let’s read through some of the wrestlers TNA let go:
After many years of fans begging and pleading, TNA brought back the six-sided ring. This is still a welcome addition, as it differentiates the product from other wrestling companies. However, with that positive move, they made other moves that took away from the appeal of it.
They made the decision to “black out” the crowd, as TNA started to tape multiple episodes (shown weekly) over the course of a few days. Although this decision is meant to stop the problem where viewers would see the same fans in attendance for many weeks, it made the other problem of making the product look very dark and unappealing.
Part of the fun of watching wrestling is to see the audience and how they react to the product. We want to see the excitement from the fans, we want to see their expressions, we want to see their fan-made signs, but with a blacked out crowd, we don’t get to see any of that. It makes the crowd noise much more clear, as it’s the only way someone watching on television can interpret how over a particular match or segment is with the audience.
Unlike some of the current WWE audiences (Jersey, Philly), TNA has exceptionally quiet American audiences. It’s a totally different story when they come over here to the UK, as the English and Scottish fans eat everything up. It’s a special event that only comes around once a year, so the fans over here want to make the most of it. Episodes of Impact Wrestling always go over much better in front of a UK crowd than an American one.
It wasn’t always that way though, I remember when TNA had a cult following and the audience in the old “Impact Zone” remained loyal to the company and kept the excitement up. The cult following was squashed after the changes in 2010 (not long after Bischoff/Hogan arrival), as they wanted to make the program less like an ECW show (how the fans react), and more like WWE. They had producers come out and tell fans not to act up as they wanted the product to be portrayed in a more “family friendly” way. The minute they did this to their loyal fans in the Impact Zone was the day TNA lost the excitement. They have yet to find that audience mentality again.
It’s a shame because TNA got over by being a true alternative, and they catered more towards the “wrestling” fans of the old “Attitude era” by being controversial, extreme, and keeping the wrestling cards very competitive. The X-Division was highlighted heavily, and once again, TNA have fallen into the slump of not paying the X-Division any attention. TNA has lost its identity, now we can’t be certain what TNA is exactly. It’s not a disaster, like some want to make out (“TNA will be dead in a year blah blah”), they are still producing some great wrestling matches. They still have Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode, Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, MVP and Lashley, but we have to believe that these names need to be replaced sooner than later. TNA needs to do what it did to get over in the first place, be creative, and take risks with talents.
The talent TNA currently has, it’s hard to see some of them getting over in any reasonable fashion. They do have some diamonds in the rough though. In my opinion, these include:
TNA is in dire need of creating new stars to rival some of the names I mentioned above. The product needs to swing from the Kurt Angles and the MVPs, to the younger generation of stars if TNA wants to make their product refreshing again. It’s hard to imagine them doing that when it’s guys like Angle who sell the tickets, but when those older names leave, TNA will be in serious trouble if they ain’t done enough to build up the next generation. Just look at NXT and you can see how the WWE is doing an amazing job at ensuring its future. TNA needs to do what NXT is doing. They need the right people in the right places to make an amazing mid-card they can showcase every week.
That’s why the show is unappealing at the moment, we are still seeing the older names (and those guys don’t sound overly enthusiastic most of the time), and seeing almost no X-Division. The tag team division is put on hold again, and we have two heel factions running wild, but somehow, never crossing paths.
That’s another thing that annoys me about the product at the moment. How can you have a Revolution if the BDC is taking everything over? And what is the point in The Revolution anyway? Why is it taking so long to get to the point? And why did the BDC randomly form when guys like Samoa Joe were fighting against MVP only a few months ago? It’s booking like that which makes the show unappealing to some. We are always criticizing WWE for talking to us like babies, but TNA does the same thing too sometimes. Inconsistent booking hurts peoples heads, as fans try to figure out why one guy joined with another guy who he was fighting with only a couple of months ago.
Still very much a fan of TNA Wrestling. Do I get some hate for that? Sure, I do, but I don’t care. I love wrestling in general, whether it’s “sports-entertainment”, whether it’s Lucha Libre, Hardcore, X-Division or Puroreso. It doesn’t matter to me, because each form has it’s strengths and weaknesses, just like any wrestling company does.
TNA has done a good job at fixing the Hulk Hogan ass groove that he left on the sofa, but they have still yet to come to terms with who they are as a product. They need to show the excitement from the crowd, from the commentators (I miss Tenay on commentary, Matthews doesn’t get anywhere near as excited as he used to), from the wrestlers, and ultimately try to make the product look and sound more appealing.
They shouldn’t be afraid to add more colours in general, because the blue, black and white scheme with a dark background looks rather depressing after a while. They also need some comedy, Eric Young was great at bringing comedic value to the show, to ease some of the tension from earlier segments. With EY now playing a heel (really well), we have lost the comedy. Some of you might not care for a laugh during your wrestling program, but I sure as hell do. How many times did you laugh during the Attitude Era at Steve Austin? Or The Rock? Or Vince McMahon? Or Edge & Christian? Comedy is an essential component, otherwise you fall into a never ending pit of anger and sadness.
For those of you who want TNA to succeed, I welcome your contributions to the hilarious comments section below. What can TNA do to make their shows look and sound more appealing? Which wrestlers do you think TNA should push to the moon? Was I right to say that TNA should push the young lions instead of the established names like Angle and Lashley?
So many questions, so little time. I will end this by thanking you all for reading my random thoughts of the day. For those of you who want to bury the comments section like a Zack Ryder wheelchair segment, keep ’em coming. All you do is help my articles get more views, and that pleases me. Have a nice day!