TNA fails to impress

[Guest Choken One]

I took the risk of the spending my penny for tonight's PPV.

 

 

But I called a couple friends and they joined me for this HUGE BLOCKBUSTER.

 

They had never seen TNA before and apart from the Commericals, never heard of it.

 

This is what they thought...My friends are Chad and Dave

 

During the Ultimate X match

 

Chad: Interesting concept...but they look too similar to each other

Dave: So who is the good guy? and whose the bad guy?

 

The ending

 

Chad: That's cheap

Dave: THAT? Bullshit.

 

The Cage Match

 

I made the mistake of calling it the match of the year, setting their expectations HIGH.

 

Dave: That dude looks like Howie Mandel (Christopher)

Chad: Blood....BLOOD! MORE BLOOD! I LOVE IT!

 

They thought it was good but wasn't as good to be MOTY (I quickly surveryed them and chad thought Benoit/Angle was gold and Dave was partal to the Lesnar/Angle Mania match or as he said "The match where the dude fell on his head doing that backflip" )

 

That's when it went to hell...

 

The first hour made a impression on them but The Raven/Jarrett/Douglas/Styles/Russo RUINED it.

 

They both believed it was the worst acting they have ever seen since our 7th grade production of OUR TOWN.

 

They were restless and weren't really paying attention and I can't blame them...

 

BIG THUMBS DOWN to TNA for failing to impress two unknowns to their world...

 

I was disapointed severely by the horrible Graphics, the COUNTLESS botched spots, "exposing" moves...

 

 

This two hour production TRUELY exposed TNA as a bush league organization.

[Guest Doyo]

This two hour production TRUELY exposed TNA as a bush league organization.

 

If only they could be like the pros and have two hour productions of announcers being

set on fire, announcers turning heel, bikini contests, evil french guys, stink faces, etc.

[Steviekick 0]

at least they got to see it . My cable provider only had it for dig. cable subscribers.

[Guest The Real Nosferatu]

I think everyone and their mother knows TNA is an independent promotion.

 

No News there.

 

TNA = a better ECW. But its still Indy.

[Guest Choken One]

I was refering to Shoddy Production and Graphics and such.

 

The Raven/James Mitchell stuff wasn't any better then any of the Kane shit as of late...

but since raven is in it, it's fucking cool and revolutionary.

 

Shane douglas, a Fat aging 40+ year calling himself the franchise with his bloated belly huffing and puffing got WAY to much air time...

 

Here's another tidbit from my friend

 

"Why did they spend 2 hours hyping a HAIR VS HAIR MATCH? When they showed them setting each other on fire and shit...Why is a hair vs Hair match so HUGE that you put a big ad campagin for it?"

 

Another note from my friend

 

"Why are they hiring the WWF mid-card from 1998?"

[Guest Doyo]

Shane douglas, a Fat aging 40+ year calling himself the franchise with his bloated belly huffing and puffing got WAY to much air time...

 

Very true.

 

"Why are they hiring the WWF mid-card from 1998?"

 

Casual wrestling fans know who they are, but they have never heard of AJ Styles.

[Guest Choken One]

The real fun was playing a game of

 

"How many times fired/Released by the former big three"

 

I believe the count was 109.

 

And that was just Shane Douglas.

[Tawren 0]

I was most disappointed in the incredibly long video on the Raven/Douglas feud. The rest looked fine to me.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I was disappointed because, instead of showing some clips of Chris Sabin at his best (in pure 1-on-1 heel dickery), they showed a match where he was a participant against an above-average worker whose fame is based on his cousin (Michael Shane) and Antonio Banderas (Kazarian).

 

Remember the "Best of the X-Division" show a year ago? Way better than tonight's. And tonight had more stuff to use.

[cbacon 0]

I loved the Raven/Douglas stuff. The Gathering vs. New Church angle is the only angle i've really been interested in since in a LONG time. It's a shame Alexis will be leaving soon

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I think everyone and their mother knows TNA is an independent promotion.

 

No News there.

 

TNA = a better ECW. But its still Indy.

TNA better then ECW?

 

Hmmmmm. Well, uh, fuck no. That's not correct.

[Guest Choken One]

ECW was equally spotty and messy but it had a series of incredible storylines...

 

but the match quality was horrendous in ECW in the later days, which TNA reminds me of since they seemingly employ 97% of the 2000 roster...of course the 3% that meant a fuck are in the big land right now (rhyno, RVD and Tajiri)

[Enigma 0]

I was disappointed for three reasons:

 

1) The video quality in some portions of the show was absolutely horrible and looked like an aged video tape.

 

2) The AMW/XXX cage match was no where near this supposed match of the year quality that I've heard so much about from the likes of Dave Meltzer. This was the first time I got to see the entire match. Sure, the finish was great, but the rest was pretty sloppy. Elix messed up at least 3 spots. A MOTY candidate doesn't feature someone slipping on the way to the top rope.

 

3) The show got immensely boring after the Cage Match when it turned into the Jeff Jarrett Appreciation Hour.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

The match quality after Benoit and company left ECW sucked to no end. Hardly anyone that Paul E developed/saved from the gutter provided good matches, only imports like Awesome and Tanaka did consistently. So yeah, match wise, TNA kills ECW. Storyline wise, probably not so much although all those classic ECW angles were few and far between from 97 on.

 

As far as the PPV goes, it was eh. First hour was great but the rest while necessary (get new people turned onto the current angles) was boring as all hell.

[NoCalMike 0]

WWE basically contains bush league gimmicks/angles with Top of the line production. I mean this whole Kane thing is something USWA or Deep South Wrestling would have done in 1987.

[the pinjockey 0]

So your arguement backing up TNA's bush league tactics is to say that the WWF sucks and has bush league stuff? "TNA, Watch us because the WWF sucks too"

 

I don't care what the WWF is doing. Their angles have no effect on TNA.

[NoCalMike 0]

So your arguement backing up TNA's bush league tactics is to say that the WWF sucks and has bush league stuff? "TNA, Watch us because the WWF sucks too"

 

I don't care what the WWF is doing. Their angles have no effect on TNA.

ermm no, not exactly. All I am saying is that if you are going to complain that NWA "looks bushleague" then you are going to have to explain why another fed that is basically running gimmicks and angles that are even more foolish has your full undivided support. If it is because their production makes the product look like a million bucks, then just say so. I am not a huge nwa-tna fan, I don't watch it every week and haven't seen it consistently in about a year or so. I am just tired of the "bush league" comments. By everyone's standards, ROH is probably even more bush league than NWA-TNA, however you are lame if you think WWE is putting out a better product.

[the pinjockey 0]

Since when has the WWF had anyones full undivided support?

 

If TNA ever gets a TV deal, I will start watching it. The 5-6 shows I have seen haven't really been anything special, but I would give it a chance for free. But I am not going to pay ten dollars a week for a bush-league looking wrestling show.

 

And Vengeance was better than all of the TNAs I have seen put together, so I don't think it is lame if I say the WWE puts out a better product.

[NoCalMike 0]

Umm, yer average wrestling fan I would say watches only WWE(Maybe WCW during the nWo prime days).

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I watched the show with my friend, as always, and he pointed out that the problem with watching it is what made them great the first time was lost...as there was weeks of buildup to those matches...and this time they were just the match.

 

Oh...and TNA can't be busch league if there is no major league...which there really isn't at this point. I've watched.

[1234-5678 0]

I dunno, I had a couple friends over who loved the ECW PPVs (all of em past Heatwave 98) and one left after about 45 mins, and another left the room and sat online. I enjoyed most of the show, but if they were trying to appeal to the casual fan then they failed miserably.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I enjoyed the show for the most part. A few points:

 

1. The video packages looked amateurish and were longer than they needed to be. Many spots seemed to be repeated over and over. One spot in particular that we saw too many times was a partially botched powerbomb from the ladder match that didn't look very good.

 

2. The first two matches were great, but they should have been spaced out over the course of the show. I can see what they were going for: introduce each major section of the show in one block (X-division, Raven-Douglas, and Jarrett-Styles-Russo), but mixing it up would have kept things from dragging on for too long. Having the best part of the show be the opening also exposed a lot of the mathces that came afterwards.

 

3. The video quality ranged from pretty good to really awful. I'm guessing that at some point TNA upgraded to newer equipment? Because some shots were clear and bright, while others looked like they were filmed on a cheap grainy camera.

 

4. I liked Mike Tenay, and hated Don West. West was like a combination of all the worst elements of Larry Z, JR, and Mark Madden all rolled into one. Tenay did a good job of calling the action, but hearing West sell an enziguri one minute in to the match like it was Owen nailing Shawn was painful.

 

5. The Raven-Douglas stuff was WAY too long. All the fire parts should have definitely been scrapped. Whether or not it happened before the Kane stuff, a lot of the audience you are trying to get tonight is probably new viewers who would have seen what happened on RAW, and they are just going to think "that's a bush-league copy of the Kane storyline" regardless of what the truth may be. And I think "Clockwork Orange House of Fun" is the lamest name for a gimmick match in history (I'm going to guess that Russo came up with it). On the other hand, the Ultimate X match was an excellent concept and was reasonably well executed.

 

6. The Jarrett-AJ stuff was much better, not running too long and recapping the feud nicely. Russo is way too involved though: at the end of the one of the matches, Russo had the belt and was jumping up and down with it in the air, and my brother, who had left the room for a few minutes, actually thought that Russo had won the title. I can see the point of the Russo-AJ pairing, but at the same time I think it hurts Styles more than it helps him. The AJ-Dlo stuff was good but nothing amazing.

 

7. The stuff they built up to was underwhelming: a hair vs. hair match and Roddy fucking Piper? Piper in particular has me scared of what kind of dumb shoot promo he is going to run off.

 

Overall pretty decent and a good introduction to the main players and storylines going on. It was a lot better than most ECW stuff post 1996, and the basic foundation is good, just needs some work around the edges. Everyone here enjoyed it for the most part, with the X-division stuff getting the best reaction and the Raven-Douglas feud the worst.

[Guest Coffey]

TNA = a better ECW.

Yeah fucking right. It's not even close.

[Guest RickyB]

What the fuck.... you're complaining about a show that cost you $0.01. You got 2 good-great matches and the rest as history and build up to the next shows..... what did you expect?

[RedJed 0]

What the fuck.... you're complaining about a show that cost you $0.01. You got 2 good-great matches and the rest as history and build up to the next shows..... what did you expect?

Exactly, thats what baffles me too. Shit like this is why I dont even bother hardly posting around anymore. No matter how good something may be, someone always has to turn the other cheek just "because".....or so it seems. Clear example of how there is validity to the wrestling community shunning the net fans because all they want to do is bitch for bitching sake, thats how I see it.

 

Like he said, what are you to expect here with a show that was basically free and compare it to a normal Raw or Smackdown, and you still feel the need to bitch?! Fucking arg.

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

I have never gotten the love for ECW. ECW's wrestling sucked balls after 1995. The only two guys to have a good, not great, just good, match in ECW after 1995 was Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome. When the radicalz, misterio, psychosis, etc. all left, the entire promotion went to shit. Hell, they made Super Crazy vs. Tajiri uninteresting and boring brawl.

 

fuck ECW...never got the love for it.

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

I agree and want to add on to this. The company is 1 fucking year old. Everyone expects a new company to come out from day one and put on the best shows with the best talent. On day 1 they expect a new company to have a tv deal, sign the best wrestlers to long term deals, have the best storylines, the best bookers, the best writers the best arenas the best merchandise, etc, etc. You can't expect a company to startup as Number 1. They need time, money and support, like any other business. They have grown tremendously in the last year and will continue to do so. Look how they turned Scott Keith into a TNA fanboy. Give it a chance.

[Guest Choken One]

I didn't...I was complaining or expressing my disapointment in the quality they gave us...I think they could have done a better job of presenting their product.

 

I know the product is good, no question but I was simply saying they didn't present the product as well as they could

 

I'm sorry but if your trying to bring in new people, showing them something that REEKS of overacting and horrible brawling isn't going to convince them to watch next week...

 

They can get that for free twice a week instead of paying 9.95 a week.

 

TNA has good matches as does WWE...But those two full matches (X and Cage) aren't going to convince the WWE masses that they are a better product by showing them those two matches because the wwe fan will just point to Benoit/Angle or WGTT/Kidman/Mysterio...

 

The show came off as if they were telling us...HEY! Remember these guys from WWF Mid-card 1998? Well they couldn't hack there so they came here...

 

They didn't do a good job of promoting AJ Styles as their champion and if they never told us, you would think Shane Douglas was the World Champion.

 

It was all right but NOT a good indicator of what they can do.

[Guest Stunt Granny]

Vince McMahon = 1.....2.....3!! Oh he got him it over, no he didn't.

 

Jim Ross: Bah Gawd!!!!

 

Lawler: PUPPIES!!!!

 

And then you have Don West: OH MY GOD MIKE DID YOU SEE THAT FLYING DROPKICK OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

EDIT: And AJ Styles will be in the WWE in a year with a coin collector gimmick. And is it just me or is Christopher Danials head WAY to big for his body. And Elix Skipper and Shelton Benjamin are the same person.

Edited September 11, 2003 by Stunt Granny

[the pinjockey 0]

I am not complaining that the show was not worth the penny I paid for it. I am complaining because with their big best of show, the show that is supposed to get people to pay $10 a week from now on, was nothing special.

 

And I am still trying to figure out why this thread has WWF bashing in it. If you're arguing that the WWF sucks as well, you would be correct. But when you are a PPV company, you don't get the benefit of pointing at the other guy and saying "See, they suck too."