CubbyBr

TNA's timeslot is not the greatest but it could definitly do better than what it has been doing. You think Tenay/D'amore are good but thats obviously your opinion on not the majority. The bottom line is the product is stale, dull, boring, and predictable and that lies on the shoulders of Tenay, D'Amore, etc. Its funny because in that shoot interview with Russo/Tenay in 2003 Russo said that if Tenay would be booking TNA's show nobody would watch and it was true. They've booked mostly crap for a year and no one cared. It's the same exact show every week and it's definitly time for a change.

Are you on crack? Mike Tenay can book a promotion properly? Tenay and D'Amore have been booking for the past year and for the most part put out utter crap that's only been able to break the 1.0 barrier a handfull of times.

Not that we didn't know this already, but can it now safely be said that Christian's drawing power > than Jarrett's. When Christian was on top and TNA had the hot Joe/Steiner feud going on, the numbers were over 1.0 pretty regularly. Dixie Carter has to be on the verge of shaking up this creative team. Does the rating have to drop to a 0.5 for them to get a clue?

I'm considering starting wrestling training and I was wondering if anyone's heard anything, good or bad, about Windy City Wrestling school in Chicago?

Yeah this Agassi/Pavel match is neck and neck. They gotta do something bout the crowd noise..they're barely letting Pavel serve.

What is it gonna finally take for this company to realize that what they're doing is simply not working and take a change in direction? Probably nothing short of Spike threatening to not renew the deal if ratings don't go up. Nothing really going to make the ratings go up in my opinion. TNA try mostly everything so far. TNA and us fans just have to realize that TNA is only 4 years old and it will take time/years to build up a strong audience. How long it took for UFC to really blow up? UFC now averaging mid six figures for ppv buyrates. Spike and TNA is actually talking about a 2 hour show which means Spike like TNA enough to keep them on tv for the next few years. TNA is still one of the highest rated cable shows(top 5) for it's timeslot among the 18-35 male demo. SPIKE is the men network afterall. Plus, TNA is cheap programming. I personally think TNA should leave the traditional wrestling stuff alone,heel vs. face,storylines,etc. but that's a big RISK. I was thinking more of a promotion based on rankings and competition like boxing and MMA. Can the wrestling world handle something so drastic? Probably not, people complain when they see a random X division match on ppv. It just seems like they could be doing so much more to produce a jam-packed action-filled show yet we keep getting Slick Johnson/Earl Hebner skits, no Samoa Joe, and Jarrett overload.

LOL @ someone yelling "you fucked your daughter!"

What is it gonna finally take for this company to realize that what they're doing is simply not working and take a change in direction? Probably nothing short of Spike threatening to not renew the deal if ratings don't go up.

I agree and I think that guy is Ron Killings...as long as he starts acting like he did in 2002 when TNA first started up. The guy looked, talked, and acted like a crazy SOB, whipping people with his metal belt, etc. They need to turn that shit up and almost make him a New Jack-type character. Putting him with LAX would make them look like a completely believable crazy street gang.

As far as the business overall, i think LAX in TNA could be one of the next big things in wrestling, tapping into the latin market. I could see them selling tons of LAX "5150" shirts.

LAX should be completely unpredictable like nWo was. They should be jumping anyone and everyone. Since Sting came out and cleaned house on them this week, I'd love next week's show to open with LAX jumping Sting, rubbing off his face paint, etc. Joe/Styles/Daniels v. LAX could be real fucking good as they could play off the history between Joe/Daniels/Styles with Joe playing the guy who unwillingly cooperates with with two guys that he used to feud with just so he could get at Truth/LAX.

They should have Killings transform into The oppressed Truth character that he was in 2002 and have him join LAX, becoming the top guy in the group with Homocide/Hernandez as the tag team enforcers with Konnan being the promo man. Konnan/Killings could cut some badass promos. Once Joe wins the title have Truth go after him in a long world title feud. Truth w/LAX v. Joe has money written all over it.

Those skits make the Tim White suicide look like art house drama. Atleast Tim White was confined to WWE.com after a couple weeks...They've been wasting TV time on this crap for six months.

Another lame and pointless Zbysco/Slick skit...

Agreed on James Gang but Konnan has been pretty entertaining as the leader of LAX. Atleast he's good on the mic...Zbyzsco just fucking sucks. He brings absolutely nothing to the table at all..can someone honestly explain the reasoning behind these stupid skits with him and Slick Johnson every week when they can use this TV time to develop someone like Sonjay Dutt or Petey Williams or give the extra time to a match or an angle. Perfect example was two weeks ago with the LAX contract signing angle. After Homocide hit the cop Killa the crowd was super hot. So instead of staying with it and letting LAX soak up the heat to really make the angle seem important, they cut away to a completely pointless skit with two horrible actors in Zbyzsco and Slick. I'm not trying to hate on TNA...i really like some of the stuff they're doing with LAX, Bobby Roode, Naturals, the video packages have been awesome, and I'm really liking the Christian slow burn heel turn...i just wish they would wake up and make the show less hokey and a little more believable...kinda like ECW was this past week. Get rid of the bad acting, the laser beams and the pyro in a 900-people filled studio, Tenay and West screaming about everything. Let the characters that are over (LAX, Christian, Styles/Daniels) shine and give them enough time in the ring to show their stuff. Look at someone like the Truth...Truth could be their biggest star but he's been buried more times than I can count. When TNA first started up the guy was one of the most compelling characters not only in TNA but all of wrestling at the time. And now He gets about 4 minutes of TV time a month and does nothing of note besides saying "whats up?" And why is that? So we can watch Zbyzsco walk around with a wig on while Slick points and giggles at him like a child. And they wonder why the rating is a 0.8.

I'd love to know what the casual fan thinks of this show when he's flipping through the channels and sees Tenay, in his tuxedo, screaming and making those ridiculous facial expressions, Zbyzsko in his wig, Don West in his orange shirts, and Slick Johnson's bad acting. Perception is reality and TNA is just so hokey and fake at times that its hard to watch. They need to get rid of Zbyzsko, Slick, and other wastes of TV time and add more LAX, Nash/Shelly/Devine, add personality to the X Division, etc. And good god, please change the announcers. They oversell everything so bad that its hard ot buy into anything. The five minutes that Konnan was doing the announcing with Moody Jack was really refreshing. Bring back Scott Hudson and put him at the announcers desk with Konnan. Anything would be better than Tenay and "DW."

I'll try to make sense of this: Zbyzsko was playing the heel commish before Cornette came in. We saw this through the Raven feud. He and Hebner helped out Jarrett before Cornette came into the picture. Once Cornette showed up he made it clear that no one's job was safe, and he proved this by fireing his "friend" Hebner for his part in King of the Mountain match. He then Told Zbuzsko he had to do everything he (Cornette) said to do otherwise his job would be lost. The first thing was the put him in a match with the reinstated Raven in a hari vs hair match, and we know what happened there. Last night Zbyzsco made that announcement from what Cornette "told" him to say to Jarrett and Steiner. He's not a face commish, nor a heel one. He does what he is told to do otherwise he can loose his job. Its the same stupid thing thats been going on since they got on Spike TV and its gone nowhere for the past year. What happened with Raven's girlfriend? What happened to Jacky Gayda and the dirt she had on Jarret, etc? I'd love to know who in TNA actually thinks that people give a shit about Zybsco, Slick Johnson, Hebner, etc.

They also really need to get rid of that big goofy TNA sign opposite the camera and the red ramp. On the plus side, Nash/Shelly was comedy gold and I'm liking the free agent thing they're doing with Bobby Roode.

Honestly, they really need to get rid of Tenay and West.

Everyone knows that WWE is number 1..but the fact that Rhino turned down a contract from number 1 goes a long way in changing that, which helps TNA.

Not when the competition was the one that offered him a contract but he turned it down.

"David Lagana has been replaced as lead writer on Smackdown by Alex Greenfield. Lagana will move to being a writer on ECW." -Wrestlingobserver.com Brilliant move.

I can't understand how a company that waited 3 1/2 years to get a slot on television can put on TV like this. Mind-boggling. They better get their shit together and fast.

I definitly agree with everything said in the column. Apiril looks like a big month for them where it will probably be Jeff vs. Sting and Raven's return for the big blowoff to the "controversy in Canada" storyline. One thing that I think would be a good idea, and people might laugh at this but w/e, is to bring in Kevin Nash and make him a color commentator. The guy is entertaining as hell on the mic and he'd add a lot of realism to the show. I remember he used to commentate on Thunder for a little and i used to tune in just to listen to his smartass remarks. They got him under contract and he's not doing anything anyways so why not? What do you guys think? I hope some of the guys rumored to be coming in really do get signed. If they go through with all the signings being rumored like Low Ki, Teddy HArt, Matt Morgan, etc their roster would really start resembling WCW circa 97 which is definitly good.

There are times when Russo seems like he's throwing everything against to see what sticks but to say he's incapable of planning things out is ridiculous. The 1998 Survivor Series angle and everything leading up to it was more developed and thought out than anything the WWE has done in the last five years. Everything leading to the nWo reformation in December of 1999 was laid out really well too.