Would It Be So Bad if TNA Shut Down?

Whiled it's still very flawed, in the last few weeks they seem to have taken steps in the right direction.

The older talent isn't main event, the younger guys are getting most of the spot-light, and they are pushing/hiring new-young talent from the Indy scene. They seem to be getting rid of talent/things that ar a waste of money.

Bully Ray, Ken Anderson, and Kurt Angle(Also MVP if he gets signed) should have roles on the roster. Hogan's gone, a lot of the guys like Wes & Garrett who sucked are gone, Sting is most likely headed to WWE in some fashion. Magnus & Samoa Joe are getting Main Event/World Title pushes(making them the faces of the company), EC3 has been used well and bee awesome since his debut, Spud is hilarious and plays his role perfect, The Bro-Mans/Zema combo has been fun to watch, Roode has been great as usual, same with Aries, etc.

They obviously need to add to the lower-card divisions and have more wrestling on every show(last weeks Impact was brutally promo heavy). I think Dixie can be a decent heel authority figure, but she needs to be used in small does, like 15% of the time she has been taken up. Easy fix would have Spud replace her in most backstage segments.

The problems at the moment out-weigh the good, but they seem to be changing things up for the better. Despite the flaws, TNA going out of business would hurt the wrestling industry and would put a lot good people out of work, as Jim Ross has said many times.

J-Double5150 wrote:
Whiled it's still very flawed, in the last few weeks they seem to have taken steps in the right direction.

Let say you are telling the truth about the last few weeks of shows and it not just because you watched the shows while being high.  How many times that been said in the history of the company only for them to take step after step right back down times 2 weeks later?

J-Double5150 wrote:
The problems at the moment out-weigh the good, but they seem to be changing things up for the better. Despite the flaws, TNA going out of business would hurt the wrestling industry and would put a lot good people out of work, as Jim Ross has said many times.

Today, yeah you might be right .. but a year from now could be a different story if Jarrett with help can get a new promotion/w tv going..If AAA America can get people into their product once they start.. If Sinclair keep buying up local tv stations, ROH going be available in more and more homes.

So jobs could be available for a lot of those that currently work for TNA in a year. They just might be able to make more than what they are making in TNA right now or at the very least what TNA will offer them when contract time comes are up if TNA survives the next year. If more talent follow AJ out of the company.. It going become harder to sign fair replacements, that people will want stick around and watch.

When I say make more money.. I am not saying they will earn more working those companies but they might be able to do more indy & international dates cause remember TNA usually charges a arm and leg to indy promoters to use their talents.

TNA as a whole has been a lousy promotion for the past decade plus it's been running. Its early offerings were awful but their talent managed to endear people long enough for them to provide a compelling product for once. I think most people on this board are tied to the 2004-2005 run of TNA, when they actually seemed like they were going places, or at least had the chance to. Then Russo happened. And the following five or six years of television and wrestling were among the worst of any promotion I've had the displeasure of viewing, and the previous incarnations of this board bled users for years until it was worn away to basically what is a bitter stump. I understand the negative perception of TNA because they deserve it by and large.

That said, while I could categorize 2007-2011 TNA as the worst promotion running at the time, everything that followed hasn't been THAT bad. Yes, it's been bad, sometimes incredibly obnoxious, but for a long time Impact was at a holding pattern of being at least more consistent and offering younger talent more time to shine. The pacing slowed down a bit after Russo left and until recently they tried to tell stories in longer term blocks, despite the mixed results thereof. My main problem with TNA is that they could never let their actual wrestlers outshine the likes of Hogan, and the show sometimes veered off into Russo land, albeit rarely. If TNA had been at this level of quality during 2007-2011, I think the fanbase would have grown instead of stagnating on the American level. However, the damage is done, and the fact remains that a middling-to-decent show can't do anything to reverse the years of horrid storytelling that plagues the company.

I don't think Impact is a bad show now. I don't think it's a good one. It's in that middle ground with nothing to really offer a viewer one way or the other. They've improved in so many areas over the past four years yet they've never been able to make their show compelling for more than a few episodes at a time. That's their bigger sin to me right now as opposed to them falling off a cliff every few weeks after providing a promising yarn, which was more of a Russo era thing.

Would I care if TNA went under? Probably. I liked the promotion quite a bit when I first saw it and believed it could compete. And they've improved over the years. But like I said, I don't think there's any righting of the ship they could do to bring back the fans who actually spent their money on the product without a complete overhaul of their internal and maybe even external structure. I don't really want to see an American wrestling scene where there's no clear competitor for WWE, even if TNA at best has only ever been a blip on the radar. But at the same time, does anyone really invest anything into the company anymore? All I see is measured apathy and venom that's only been somewhat diluted by time. So maybe it going under would provide some other promotion with the toolset to succeed. Even today TNA has a mostly great roster.

Is it just me, or is everything TNA doing very cyclical? They start off trying to push "names" because that's what is supposedly going to draw people in, they get comfortable with how their current stage is progressing and begin introducing "originals" as top tier talent, then the next stage rolls along and we're back to "names" at the top of the card. Anytime progress is being made, something new develops-- evening show, move to Thursdays, increased touring, Hulk Hogan shows up, etc-- and the reset button is hit.

I'm pretty sure that I'm in the minority of fans currently enjoying the storyline and hoping it has a worthwhile payoff, even though I know it's probably going to fall flat on its face. We're far enough removed from the Monday Night Wars for a little craziness nostalgia, but it has to end at Lockdown or it's going to be well over-staying its welcome.

I completely agree Truth, If they could go back to right before Christian left or the 2008-09 time period and continue on from where they were at that exact point it would have been amazing, They were building audiences, the shows were amazing and the talent was incredible. Angle, Christian, Sting, Jarrett, Joe, Aj and the others would have / could have been a true alternative and really given us some great times.

But the constant changes, the talent arrivals and departures and all of the other failed ventures have just burnt us so bad. We truly have no choice week in and week out to what wrestling product we get to watch. Especially for someone like me who REFUSES to watch a McMahon product under any circumstance.

Roh is good but not consistent on my network. And the show quality isn't what i would like it to be.

JOHN CENA has been at the top longer than Austin/Rock.  Let that one sink in.

Not that shocking. Austin's run on top was cut short due to injury and Rocky got chances in Hollywood.

Rock and Austin made such a huge impact in WWE that I think most people forget they were only around a few years.

Cena, on the other hand, has been a staple in the main event since 2005.

What makes that so sickening is that Cena is a talent less hack who couldn't wrestle to save his life, If i werent for this countries obsession with the hiphop lifestyle he would have never made it out of the closet.

RefChrist wrote:What makes that so sickening is that Cena is a talent less hack who couldn't wrestle to save his life, If i werent for this countries obsession with the hiphop lifestyle he would have never made it out of the closet.

I still don't understand how you still have this passionate hate for Cena's wrestling abilities.

Have you ever seen one of his matches? Unfortunately I have. He doesn't sell worth a damn, He has no technical or Chaining skills, Psychology is completely lost in nearly every match he has ever had and they make him out to be this super human that can absorb and take everything plus the kitchen sink. I see lots of things from the way he runs the ropes to the way he takes moves. He even bumps awkwardly, i am amazed that he hasn't been seriously injured.

I even know some of the people who trained at the same places as him in the indies that say they are amazed he ever made it out of training. Just ask John Morrison, Christopher Daniels or even gangrel.

I don't mean this as a jab really but the idea of me asking Gangrel about Jon Cena makes me giggle.

I hated Cena for a long time. I certainly wouldn't trust him to do much else, other than what he does right now, but I think he is pretty good at that. His selling isn't terrible, at least not compared to the general standard right now. He uses his physical gifts to create some pretty incredible spots to be honest. I do think he looks like a tool when he hits the ropes, but he knows what he is and what he isn't and there is a lot to say for that.

Let me be clear. I don't have him on any top lists or anything like that. I think he is good within some very specific parameters. He can hold his own in there and he can certainly add a lot to a match with a really good worker. I mean he did his part in the CM Punk matches and the Dragon match at summer slam.

But do you really believe that someone who is just "Good within some very specific parameters" and that you "Wouldn't trust him to do much" to be a top man in the most publicly accepted entity in this business? That is my whole point. I don't necessarily hate him per say but the fact that anyone with his limited skill can get to the top of wrestling. I also hated Hogan, The Rock and anyone who wasn't a top caliber wrestler that made it too be on top of the business. Its just ridiculous to me that these people can make wrestling look so bad just because they can cut a promo and talk on a mic.

Now you are speaking my language. If it were up to me I wouldn't put him at the top, but it isn't up to me. If I had a wrestling promotion it would look a lot different from vince's, but it would probably make a lot less money too. I am just saying Cena is good at his job and given his place in the wrestling world, he doesn't have to be much more. I don't love him, but I have a degree of respect for him now. But, no, in my dream world he isn't the top guy of anything.

If we're talking about hitting the ropes weirdly, you have to mention how Daniels hits the ropes weirdly. Cena knows how to perform. Cena knows how to tell a story. Yes UPW Cena was terrible (but I just watched American Dragon vs. Spanky from TWA, and they weren't great). Cena has worked hard on being one of the top guys, and has done so. I'd take Cena over Rock and Austin (post injury).

Cena is also very good at building matches. In his big feud with Punk there were a few nights were Cena outshined the best on the mic.

Cena is good when put with the right opponent. Edge, Punk come to mind as some of my favorites. Randy Orton, Kane come to mind as some of my least favorite.

JustSkiff wrote:If we're talking about hitting the ropes weirdly, you have to mention how Daniels hits the ropes weirdly. Cena knows how to perform. Cena knows how to tell a story. Yes UPW Cena was terrible (but I just watched American Dragon vs. Spanky from TWA, and they weren't great). Cena has worked hard on being one of the top guys, and has done so. I'd take Cena over Rock and Austin (post injury).

Cena is also very good at building matches. In his big feud with Punk there were a few nights were Cena outshined the best on the mic.

If we're talking in-ring skills maybe, but in every other aspect, not really.  I don't even think Cena is bad.  My point is just that "modern" wrestling has been crappy far longer than it has been good.

Cena is currently one of my favorite wrestlers in the WWE because as you say, he's good at building matches, he can shine on the mic, and he can actually put on a compelling match with the right competition.

I just wouldn't put him alongside Rock/Austin who were on a whole other level in terms of star power, although who knows how big Cena would be if he peaked in 2000-2001 rather than 2005.  Cena just doesn't have the same talented cast of characters to work with that Austin/Rock had.

Xero wrote:JOHN CENA has been at the top longer than Austin/Rock.  Let that one sink in.

I'd already known that... I don't get where the surprise is. As already noted, Austin dealt with injuries and a walk-out when he had issues with creative. Rock got some Hollywood success and knew he could make more money there.

That said, Austin and Rock were at the top during the "glory days". They were surrounded by guys at or close enough to their prime-- Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Kane, Mick Foley-- to put on impressive shows and not have to be the focus at every turn.

What has Cena had to work with over the last decade? Orton is an incredible talent in his own right, Edge had a series of great runs before he had to retire, and CM Punk has the capability to carry the torch, but who else is there? Alberto Del Rio? Big Show? Rob Van Dam? Triple H clinging on like it's still ten years ago? No one has the drawing power of Cena right now, and if they go with anyone else or Cena needs time off, everything just falls apart.