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Punkfan101
Charlie from Sioux Falls, joined wrestlingmarks.com on 11/1/07
TNA - the next big thing
by Punkfan101 on 4/16/08 1:35 PM
I would just like to point out that I have not written a series of blogs in a while, unfortunately this can not be my full time job and I have to work full time. I was fortunate enough to go to one of TNA's recent house shows in Spencer Iowa. I am happy to point out that the show was extremely entertaining, and nobody left unhappy. Their were a lot of things I liked about the show, and it is these things that will give them a definate advantage when it comes time for TNA and the WWE to compete.
The matches were excellent. The TNA roster busts their humps trying to keep people happy. From start to finish, everyone was on their feet, cheering for every wrestler who comes out of the curtain. Every match had the quality that they would put on television.
The woman's division in TNA is over by leaps and bounds with the TNA fans. Everytime I see a WWE house show the woman's division is downgraded to some kind of gimmick match. The TNA woman's division reminds me of the WWE woman's division in the early 2000's. At the show in spencer, it was a triple threat match featuring ODB, Gail Kim and Jackie Moore. One thing that I was very impressed with is that it was given a significant amount of time. Rarely, we see a woman's match in the WWE that is given time. I am not saying it does not happen, it is usually a pretty special occasion when it does. Long story short, it was nice to see talented woman be given the chance to work a good match.
The last thing that I loved about the TNA house show was the fan involvement. It would not hurt the WWE to let the fans meet the wrestlers, even at house shows. It is also a rare occasion for WWE "Superstars" to stay and meet the people who are helping to write their paychecks. I can remember staying after a Raw show a couple of months ago, and we stood out back to see if we can meet some of the people who were at the show. We were ignored and treated like we were not worthy of meeting them. Ron Simmons was the only one who agnolished us. At the TNA show, everyone(minus the heels and Samoa Joe) who was a part of this show stayed to sign autographs and meet the fans. I understand that the heels did not come out, and Samoa Joe can be forgiven as well. They showed their appreciation, and expressed gratitude to every man, woman and child.
When it comes to TNA competeing with the WWE they have a definate edge now. The storylines are getting significantly better, and the matches help push the story. The woman's division in TNA blows the WWE's woman's division out of the water, and with the fan involvement the WWE should be looking to give more to us.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
my opinion
Comments
(5 total)
From willierko on 4/16/08 4:55 PM
TNA house shows are amazing, they are well booked, well conditioned and all around great action.
Now if only they can do as half a decent job on impact on even their pay per views. The last really good pay per view, IMO was Bound For Glory..(maybe final resolution)
From theone86 on 4/16/08 9:02 PM
Yeah, house shows are a different beast. I will defend Impact in recent weeks. I think there's a definite double standard when it comes to gimmick bashing between WWE and TNA. I still say TNA has the edge in that they are both trying to appeal to the fans with their wrestling style, as opposed to just doing the same old stuff and hoping everyone who dislikes it will just die off, and by putting on consistently athletic and well-built matches. I think WWE is no where near TNA in terms of consistency. One week we'll have a very good match and the next we'll have some Hornswoggle crap. The other place I give TNA the edge is going with a style that appeals to the fans. I've noticed that everyone in WWE is wrestling increasingly loose, slow matches. It really accentuates the fact that TNA is putting the focus on wrestling while WWE is trying to take the focus away from it.
From JamesP on 4/16/08 9:36 PM
As I said before, it's very stupid to think that TNA will never gain the upper-hand on WWE and end up getting bought by them. TNA's come a long way since it started. Hell, people were saying that TNA would die within the first year, and I don't need to finish the rest.
From theminister on 4/17/08 2:08 PM
JamesP I wouldn't call it stupid. It depends how you define "gain the upper-hand." If you mean competing with the WWE in Match quality, storylines etc. Then they already do that and get the upper hand at times. TNA can compete w/the WWE as far as product is concerned. They have been doing that for a while now. They have come a long way in 6 years.
But if you mean competing with and surpassing the WWE as a business, that will never happen. They do not have the resources and it's doubtful they ever will.
TNA is the wrestling equivalent of a small market baseball team. They maybe able to compete with the big market for a while. Maybe even win a World Series occasionally. But the big market team will always make more money and be able to buy and develop the talent it needs to compete and stay in championship contention.
If the WWE wanted to bury TNA it could do it right now. It could raid TNA talent and out pay TNA for everyone on its roster. But I believe McMahon thinks its good for business that TNA is around. And he's right. WWE won the war to be the biggest wrestling promotion in the United States. I doubt highly it will ever let another competitor get within sniffing distance of that title.
From theone86 on 4/17/08 2:35 PM
Actually, if you went down the TNA roster you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find people who would let themselves be raided or accept buyouts. There's really not much room for hostile takeover either, since Jeff and Dixie have majority control of the company.
It's just not as simple a matter as being able to bury them or not. From WWE's policies towards them, I'd say they'd almost be glad if TNA never existed, either that or they just don't care (for now). Still, that's just speculation.
TNA is gaining ground in key spots, though. They're taking WWE's key demo, while WWE is gaining ground with new demos. One of TNA's biggest problems is that a lot of their new fans are still fans of WWE, so while they gain some ground WWE's still holding theirs. Another thing is that WWE relys a lot on marketing while TNA is trying to rely on their performance quality. Sadly, the latter doesn't win out in today's society. A lot of WWE fans don't care if TNA is putting on better matches, they just care about seeing big spots and big guys yelling. It's kind of the same atmosphere it was back in the late 80's, so I have to hope the bottom falls out on it again, I just don't know when it's going to happen.
As for TNA, it's not insane to think that in a couple of years they could be challenging WWE for ratings, if all goes well. I think they're fighting an uphill battle against an established name, but I think the more people they get to see their product the better off they'll be.
What I think is hindering WWE is something that's been looming over them for a while, and that's the fact that they want to be a sort of autonomous entity. They constantly ask to be taken seriously and be considered a legit sport, yet they refuse to make concessions when it comes to the sort of discretion of the owner type decisions that are made. Things like fair hiring and equal opportunity, respectful portrayals of women, and a scaling back of hypermasculinity are foreign concepts to WWE. I think the more they continue to expand, the more scrutiny they will come under, and they might be in trouble since a big part of their business is marketing hypermasculinity to people who feel threatened by progressive concepts. I definitely think they could bounce back, though. All they would need to do is put more of a focus on the athletic aspect of their history.