Welcome to this week’s Tybo Talks. As the title suggests, this week, I’ll be talking 6 problems with TNA Wrestling.
Before we get started, I want to say I’m somewhat of a TNA fan. I am a wrestling fan and I like a broader scope of wrestling than WWE offers, so I watch TNA, ROH and as much British wrestling as I have time for.
Recently, I’ve seen that TNA have brought back the six-sided ring. It used to be an awesome thing that made TNA stand out from everyone else, and it made them automatically look different to any other wrestling company.
It’s like if you’re flicking through 500 channels of bullshit TV. As soon as you get to The Simpsons, you automatically know it’s The Simpsons because everyone’s yellow. If you were doing the same thing, but with TNA, you’d know it was them because the hexagonal ring stood out.
As soon as TNA did that, all I could think of was that there are a lot more changes to make, and important things that TNA could work on, so here are six of them. See what I did? 6 sides, 6 changes! I know. I’m a genius ha!
1. They Want to be WWE: This seems fairly obvious to point out, but I feel this is one of TNA’s main problems.
When the IWC is constantly making reference to the fact that you’re ripping off WWE, you need to take a serious look at what you’re doing and change it. Take risks, listen to the fans and be as different as possible. Do anything that makes your product feel different to WWE. The reason why TNA was so good when it started was that it was fresh, new and it felt good.
Unfortunately, all that went out the window when Hogan and Bischoff came in to the company.
They immediately scrapped the six-sided ring and went with the more traditional squared circle. In one swift move, TNA COMPLETELY lost its identity, becoming generic and losing their appeal.
2. Their Booking/Creative Decisions: TNA never really help themselves when it comes to their booking and creative direction.
To be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure who is actually booking the shows at the minute, and I’m still a little shocked that they let Bruce Pritchard go. Sure, there may have been some issues with his work, but he’s been in the wrestling business for years and has a lot of knowledge (good or bad). All of that experience was gone in one decision.
And then there’s the recent situation with Tommy Dreamer who was/is an agent for the company. To cut a long story short, Dreamer runs his own promotion and he’d advertised Bully Ray to appear at a show, only for TNA to pull the plug on Bully’s appearance at the last minute because they needed him for a Spike TV appearance.
It’s here that I start to ask, what are TNA doing?
Those are just two instances off the top of my head, and I’ve not even started talking about their stupid storylines that either make no sense, or have a shitty pay-off. Let’s not even mention Clair Lynch.
And then there’s the problem with thrusting talent into positions that they’re either a) not ready for or b) can’t carry.
If the fans aren’t invested enough in a gimmick/character, then making them the top guy WON’T work! Look at what happened with Chris Sabin. Not taking anything away from him, but the fans weren’t sold on the idea of him being the World Champion, so making him the champ just to keep ‘option C’ alive was a bad move, for the company and Sabin.
3. The Internet (IWC) hates them: Again, obvious, but unfortunately, I think it’s true.
There are so many wrestling fans out there who write off TNA as a whole – without even watching it – because of all the hate and backlash that it gets from the (admittedly) stupid decisions it makes.
Remember the whole #AskDixie clusterfuck on Twitter last summer? Or the invention of the TNA United States Championship – nope, I’ve never heard of it either – on Memorial Day a few weeks ago? Or asking for 500 retweets to find out the first match at Slammiversary, and only getting just over 250? Need I go on??
All of those things give people reasons to dislike, and even hate, TNA. Whenever you see people talking about them on TV, it’s never in a good light. I understand that the smarky fan exists only to try and make a joke out of wrestling, or to get as many likes/retweets/comments as they can, but it seems like TNA is just easy pickings.
And sadly, it’s partly TNA’s fault.
4. They have no “originals” left: I honestly believe that no wrestler is bigger than the company they made their name in – yes, that includes CM Punk – but when you establish a star like AJ Styles as a mainstay in a company like TNA, then don’t renew his contract, the fans are going to wonder what the hell you’re doing. They’ll follow that star whereever he goes, and lose interest in your company, and your product.
I don’t just feel like that about AJ. It’s the same for Daniels and Kazarian, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Samoa Joe wasn’t too far behind them.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t think you can properly establish your own company by building it using stars that were established elsewhere?
Kurt Angle, Mr Anderson, Bully Ray, Jeff Hardy, MVP and Bobby Lashley are just a few of the guys who TNA have elevated to be the main-event of the company, but every single one of them did their best work in WWE.
TNA should’ve concentrated on building their own stars and used one or two of the bigger names to add a bit of legitimacy.
5. Dixie Carter: This isn’t going to be a bash at Dixie personally, because without the money that her family have invested in the company, I don’t think they’d have had half of the exposure they’ve had in the last 10 years.
What I’m talking about is the Dixie Carter gimmick/character. It is a WORLD – some would say Universe 😉 – away from the Mr McMahon character that she’s clearly aiming for.
I understand that she’s playing a heel and wants to draw heat from the crowd, but there’s a massive difference between drawing heat and being just plain disliked – which inadvertently brings the whole product down.
Dixie does not belong in the ring, or even on TV for that matter. She belongs in the boardroom fixing the problems that TNA have, and making sure that Impact stays on TV is a huge one at the minute.
6. It could all be too little to late: After going though all these points, all that’s left to ask is – is it all too little, too late?
I honestly think it might be. TNA need to go away, rethink what they’re doing, completely rebrand the whole product and think about how they can move forward.
They should make a huge push for more exposure in Europe, working with the bigger promotions, especially here in the UK. It’s unfortunate that they probably won’t do that, because they could come back stronger than ever and be a solid second company in wrestling.
Don’t get me wrong.
The changes they’re starting to make now are good. Working with the Japanese talent and the return of the six-sided ring is a great way to try to get some of the old fans back, and the fact that Bound for Glory is being held in Japan this year is – hopefully – a sign that they’re without a doubt heading in the right direction.
I REALLY don’t want TNA to fail. Some of what they do is enjoyable. They just need to work hard on getting people behind them again. Only time will tell if they can do that.
Thanks for reading this addition of Tybo Talks. If you want to hear more from me, I host SLTD Radio every other Thursday so join us then, or you can follow me on Twitter. I’m @Greg_SLTD
Owner and operator of www.SLTDWrestling.com, host of SLTDRadio at www.SLTDRadio.co.uk and on Spreaker
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