TNA News from the 6/28 Observer

[Enigma 0]

All of the issues discussed regarding doing fewer PPVs now that they have weekly TV were talked about a lot over the past week. The feeling from Dixie Carter and Jerry Jarrett (who has gotten more involved of late), is to wait either 13 or 26 weeks before making a move. The idea is at that point they'll be able to find out how much, if any, the PPV buys have increased to from having TV. If the numbers aren't up enough, they may switch to weekly TV and a monthly Sunday PPV. Another idea talked about was continuing the weekly Wednesday PPV, and doing four major Sunday events per year.

 

There is also talk of doing a heavy advertising campaign, as they've contacted some firms but haven't decided who to go with yet.

 

For whatever reason, wrestlers were thinking the second week TV did a 0.6, because they heard 0.3 for the first and then it doubled in the second (actually the doubling was 0.16 to 0.32, which was the overnight of the first to the final rating of show two), thinking they were beating Velocity and WWE Experience.

 

It was said that the third week grind was getting to people, but the morale because of the strong TV reviews has uplifted everyone. People who were unhappy about the company have done a 180. It really shows how important the look of the product is nowadays, as it's the same guys, but in Orlando they look like stars, rather than independent wrestlers.

 

Hector Garza got flagged at the border because he's been coming in as a tourist, since TNA hasn't gotten all the working papers in order for the AAA talent. He was able to get through this week but if he gets flagged again, he may not be able to return to the country, similar to the problems with Super Crazy.

 

Antonio Pena decided not to use Jeff Jarrett for TripleMania this weekend because he felt he could sell out without him, and because Jarrett wasn't coming cheap. Jarrett thought, because he caused a riot the last time that he should be brought back. This hasn't helped the relationship between the sides, and there are things coming in Mexico that may also strain relationships. However, they did air a video of Jarrett at the TripleMania show.

 

Everything is said to be fine with Sabu on both sides after last week. He did well this week and Raven did a great job of getting him over. No word on when the match will be, since Raven aggravated his rib injury coming back too soon against Sonjay Dutt. Raven protected himself the entire match, as I don't think he took one bump nor did anything risky. At press time it looked like he'd be out of action for a few more weeks.

 

Stephanie Bellars, on the other hand, is done, after last week, so Mensa is no more. I guess it shows a double standard of if you're in a program or at the start of a program, because she and Sabu were pretty much in the same boat. She has legally changed her name to George Frankenstein, which is her stripper name.

 

Dusty Rhodes sees potential in TNA and is trying to angle himself into power. He was suggesting pushing for a 9 p.m. Monday time slot, which was the consensus among just about everyone asked, including both Jarretts, if they could pick their slot on FX. Right now they are only in the early talking stages.

 

Ryan Wilson was back, in the dark match main event, billed as Titus, the bodyguard for Jonny Fairplay. He didn't look good.

 

Even though his non-compete with WWE is over, they haven't used Jimmy Hart on TV, which surprises me. Hart is very instrumental behind the scenes, including recruiting tourists at the park with Jonny Fairplay to come to TV. Fairplay was used as a heel manager in a dark match. He got no reaction, and the feeling was, a good percentage of the fans watching were park goers, so it showed there isn't value to him. He's also considered a bad performer and a bad influence.

 

While the long-term success will be improving the time slot and making stars, I think it helps to have a few familiar names. They are instead using familiar names in clips, as they showed clips of Roddy Piper, Sting, as well as A.J. Styles pinning Lex Luger in a tag match (Thank God they only showed the finish), as well as Jimmy Hart, and a clip of Hulk Hogan from Japan with Jeff Jarrett. Having said that, some of my friends came over for UFC and one, an old-time fan who fits into the category of a casual viewer who watches less, happened to be switching around last week and saw the show. He liked it, and watched week three. His remarks were that he didn't realize they had so many stars like Sting, Piper, Dusty Rhodes, and Hogan in the promotion. He thought it was a big deal because of the names he knew. Because the ratings are strong enough for the time slot that everyone is thrilled, and the company is confident will get a time or and/or station upgrade, I'm doing a 180 from two weeks ago. It's best to go with the current talent roster, and show those brief clips of star appearances, and give the regular crew as much exposure as possible for right now. They have to look at the current period as more of "TV tryout" and stage one. The real push should come when they get a better slot. That would be the time to bring in bigger names for television in conjunction with a major ad campaign for the re-launch.

 

There is talk of doing a 3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada feud, although Team Canada vs. America’s Most Wanted looks next where Dusty Rhodes can be in AMW's corner against Scott D'Amore.

 

There was some heat on The Naturals for refusing to do a job for 3 Live Kru.

 

As it turned out, Chad Collyer wasn't offered a contract by TNA after all when he came in last week, as he had expected.

 

Johnny Swinger, whose contract was up in September, has already been signed for another year.

 

Big Vito (Vito LoGrasso) was set to debut this week as the newest member of the NYC. Vito is a good worker, a good performer, and is a friend of Vince Russo dating back at least 12 years. His rep is that wherever he goes, due to personality, the other wrestlers can't stand him, which was the case in ECW and WCW.

 

D-Lo Brown and Monty Brown were scheduled to also have a new feud.

 

It looks like the "Rumbles" TV show is going to be picked up for a few more episodes with B.G. James as the host, and there is talk of a Spanish language version with Konnan hosting. The two hosted the pilot episode that was taped about a month back.

[Placebo Effect 0]

Didn't The Naturals just want the finish slightly changed? Still stupid of them to try and get that changed, but then again, immediately after jobbing, they were thrust into a short program with AMW, which doesn't make sense.

[Guest MikeSC]

All of the issues discussed regarding doing fewer PPVs now that they have weekly TV were talked about a lot over the past week. The feeling from Dixie Carter and Jerry Jarrett (who has gotten more involved of late), is to wait either 13 or 26 weeks before making a move. The idea is at that point they'll be able to find out how much, if any, the PPV buys have increased to from having TV. If the numbers aren't up enough, they may switch to weekly TV and a monthly Sunday PPV. Another idea talked about was continuing the weekly Wednesday PPV, and doing four major Sunday events per year.

UGH!

 

Weekly PPV's AND four "big" PPV'S a year? Jesus Christ, that is BEYOND overkill.

Dusty Rhodes sees potential in TNA and is trying to angle himself into power. He was suggesting pushing for a 9 p.m. Monday time slot, which was the consensus among just about everyone asked, including both Jarretts, if they could pick their slot on FX. Right now they are only in the early talking stages.

Memo to TNA: HIS BOOKING KILLED CROCKETT.

 

And 9P on Mondays? Jesus, they can't be this idiotic.

-=Mike

[Michrome 0]

9 pm monday would be the best. Theyd get more viewers from raw watchers changing the channel during commercial than they get now. Just being against Raw will get them more viewers than they have now.

[Guest MikeSC]

9 pm monday would be the best. Theyd get more viewers from raw watchers changing the channel during commercial than they get now. Just being against Raw will get them more viewers than they have now.

Being on a night with NO competition from RAW would be considerably better. Hell, cancel the Wednesday PPV and go there.

-=Mike

[syxx2001 0]

Fuck all of that, why must they continue to fuck over the mexican workers? get them their papers so they wont keep getting banned (Im guessing) from the USA.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

The Mexican workers can't seem to get their papers because TNA management, I guess, realizes that they picked the wrong promotion in Mexico to work with. Aside from Garza and Juvi, not a single Mexican worker they've brought in has been worth shit.

[Steviekick 0]

Hector Garza got flagged at the border because he's been coming in as a tourist, since TNA hasn't gotten all the working papers in order for the AAA talent. He was able to get through this week but if he gets flagged again, he may not be able to return to the country, similar to the problems with Super Crazy.

 

That's completely ridiculous that TNA hasn't made sure things like that are not issues.

 

However, I can see it being very funny that an agent at the border lets in Garza after he convinces him he's a tourist and then getting pissed later that night while flipping thourgh the TV.

[Guest Donners]

It was the same situation with Juvi, wasn't it? I guess without knowing what they have to go through to get the appropriate papers, it's hard to know whether they're just lazy or genuinely have difficulty getting them.

[cynicalprofit 0]

9 pm monday would be the best.  Theyd get more viewers from raw watchers changing the channel during commercial than they get now.  Just being against Raw will get them more viewers than they have now.

Being on a night with NO competition from RAW would be considerably better. Hell, cancel the Wednesday PPV and go there.

-=Mike

Damn straight. Not to knock NWA at all, but compared to WWE, they ARE bush league. They don't have equal expsoure or star talent, compared to the WWE. They need to carve out a niche and build from there. Don't even bother trying to fuck with the WWE, do everything on nights they don't do anything. Rememeber what Vince did to the NWA with the first ppv, I can only image what he would do to crush NWA now a days.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

Why don't you guys understand that Monday's at 9pm is the best possible time. Monday's from 9-11 is the time where the most wrestling fans are watching TV. It is natural that they are going to channel flip. The odds of people "discovering" TNA are the highest on Monday nights from 9-11. If they were to be on Tuesday's at 8pm let's say - there are way less wrestling fans watching TV then. They need to maximize the probability of people stumbling onto their product. Their target audience is watching TV on Monday's from 9-11 and Thursday's from 8-10. Those are guaranteed times that wrestling fans are watching TV. Everything else is a crap shoot.

[Epic Reine 0]

It'd be best for them, if they could, to get Monday 9-11 [PM] and Tuesday 8-10 [PM].

 

Just air the show Monday, and then just re-air the show on Tuesday. It's the same general cost. Plus, its an extra day of exposure, and then they can even figure out which gives them the better cross-over read on wrestling fans.

 

Plus, that gives two day build-up pre-Wednesday PPVs.

 

Now, of course it's next to impossible to get both of those timeslots, but it'd be something to shoot for.

[Guest MikeSC]

Why don't you guys understand that Monday's at 9pm is the best possible time.

Because it wouldn't be. Hell, RAW beats the TNA shows most week as is.

Monday's from 9-11 is the time where the most wrestling fans are watching TV.  It is natural that they are going to channel flip.

They'll see guys who the WWE doesn't WANT. They'll view them as being bush-league.

The odds of people "discovering" TNA are the highest on Monday nights from 9-11.  If they were to be on Tuesday's at 8pm let's say - there are way less wrestling fans watching TV then.  They need to maximize the probability of people stumbling onto their product.  Their target audience is watching TV on Monday's from 9-11 and Thursday's from 8-10.  Those are guaranteed times that wrestling fans are watching TV.  Everything else is a crap shoot.

And going head-to-head is a recipe for disaster. They don't have the talent, production values, or booking to begin to compete. All they'll do is make the WWE look even better.

-=Mike

[Magus 0]

i mention this because no one else has yet: according to this news, D'Lo is about to move into a program with Monte Brown, and they want to put 3LK against Team Canada after the TC/AMW fued is over... wow, i wonder who's gonna challenge Jeff for the title. Vince vs. Jeff. mark my words.

 

and at this point, i'd give the entire book to Dream and kiss him dead on the lips if it got Mantell out of the picture. i'd regret it later, but TNA really needs a new booker. Vince Russo's a has-been, and Mantell comes from another solar system. fuck, give the book to Raven. and i don't say that b/c i'm a good little 'net mark and i love everything Raven does. i say that because he's THE most creative guy in pro wrestling (everyone seems to be in agreement on this). hell, he's got a better mind for wrestling than most actual creative department heads. he knows how to do it, as it was his booking that lead to a lot of ECW's success (again, this is undisputed). and while Raven might be my choice, the real issue here is that TNA needs a better fucking writer. *course, that's just my opinion, i could be wrong*

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Here's an idea: go back to the original booking team of Russo and Jerry Jarrett. Aside from the midget beating off in a trashcan, the shows while those two were in charge tended to be extremely good. Even the shows that were less-than-stellar were still can't-miss episodes, since they built to future shows. And with Russo now wanting a cleaner product, but still having the ability to make even undercard wrestlers have a meaning to be there? I guarantee you the shows would be more enjoyable.

 

And why would Monday's be ideal? So they could get slaughtered compared to WWE, possibly pose a threat one day, and then have their talent raided? If anything, I'd say have a 2 or 3 hour special on Monday night of the best matches in TNA (voted by the FANS, so we wouldn't get every single Jeff Jarrett match to date), with maybe an hour dedicated to each division (first hour for the Tag division, second hour for the X-Division, and third hour for the World title division). Would definitely show some new viewers what TNA is about and recap them on how they got to their current state. Then, have the actual show on Tuesday or Wednesday, and drive that fact home so that the possible new viewers would tune in.

 

There. It's not rocket science, people. You hype the product, then tell people how they can get it. Putting them against WWE would be like putting a salmon next to a tiger shark.

[Magus 0]

Here's an idea: go back to the original booking team of Russo and Jerry Jarrett. Aside from the midget beating off in a trashcan, the shows while those two were in charge tended to be extremely good. Even the shows that were less-than-stellar were still can't-miss episodes, since they built to future shows. And with Russo now wanting a cleaner product, but still having the ability to make even undercard wrestlers have a meaning to be there? I guarantee you the shows would be more enjoyable.

that's a sound idea as well. the problem i have with Russo being in the company at all is that he's continually used as an on-air character. i don't know about you, Laz, but i can't stand him. he adds nothing to the table on screen. if he were to work with Jarrett (NOT Jeff) with the booking, i could see that working as long as Russo stays off camera. he may be born again and all, but he's still an egomaniac and a spotlight hog.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

UGH!

 

Weekly PPV's AND four "big" PPV'S a year? Jesus Christ, that is BEYOND overkill.

 

Very true, I hope this doesn't happen.

 

Memo to TNA: HIS BOOKING KILLED CROCKETT.

 

And 9P on Mondays? Jesus, they can't be this idiotic.

 

I think Dusty's main booking problem was putting himself over. I don't think that would be a problem at this point.

And, I would love for the show to be on Monday night. Sure, they'd get killed in the ratings, but that's not important at this point. Monday night for 10 years has been the night to watch wrestling. Let people know that there is another wrestling show on Monday night, and I guarantee it will do decent straight out of the gate. Then, if the show is good, it will pick up viewers. If it is bad, it will get canned, and why should we care if a bad TV show gets canned? Don't get me wrong, TNA is years away from competing with WWE, but Monday night would be the way to build their audience over the years in order to get themselves in a place to compete.

[Astro101 0]

that's a sound idea as well. the problem i have with Russo being in the company at all is that he's continually used as an on-air character. i don't know about you, Laz, but i can't stand him. he adds nothing to the table on screen. if he were to work with Jarrett (NOT Jeff) with the booking, i could see that working as long as Russo stays off camera. he may be born again and all, but he's still an egomaniac and a spotlight hog.

 

If the reports are true, it's Jarrett who's been pushing this feud between him and Russo. Russo apparently wants to be off camera.

[TNABaddboi 0]

All of the issues discussed regarding doing fewer PPVs now that they have weekly TV were talked about a lot over the past week. The feeling from Dixie Carter and Jerry Jarrett (who has gotten more involved of late), is to wait either 13 or 26 weeks before making a move. The idea is at that point they'll be able to find out how much, if any, the PPV buys have increased to from having TV. If the numbers aren't up enough, they may switch to weekly TV and a monthly Sunday PPV. Another idea talked about was continuing the weekly Wednesday PPV, and doing four major Sunday events per year.

 

I do think at some point, maybe at the end of the summer, they should make a move on the PPVs. As long as that move is not to do the weekly shows, plus for Sunday PPVs, I’m all for it. That would be way too much and would further damage the Wed. PPV buyrates because people would just watch Impact and wait until the big PPVs to order. IMO, they should wait until Impact gets a better, 2 hour slot, and then ax the weekly PPVs for the Sunday ones.

 

There is also talk of doing a heavy advertising campaign, as they've contacted some firms but haven't decided who to go with yet.

 

This would be a good idea, since 95% of the world doesn’t not know they, or they shiny new TV show, exist.

 

For whatever reason, wrestlers were thinking the second week TV did a 0.6, because they heard 0.3 for the first and then it doubled in the second (actually the doubling was 0.16 to 0.32, which was the overnight of the first to the final rating of show two), thinking they were beating Velocity and WWE Experience.

 

So, the first show was .16 and the second was .32? .16 was a little low for the first show, but its not like it got a heavy advertising blitz. It’s good to see the audience expanded though.

 

It was said that the third week grind was getting to people, but the morale because of the strong TV reviews has uplifted everyone. People who were unhappy about the company have done a 180. It really shows how important the look of the product is nowadays, as it's the same guys, but in Orlando they look like stars, rather than independent wrestlers.

 

The shows do look major league. After attending last week’s PPV live and seeing just how small the building is in actuality, I’m amazed at how big they make it look on TV. Kudos to TNA in that department.

 

Hector Garza got flagged at the border because he's been coming in as a tourist, since TNA hasn't gotten all the working papers in order for the AAA talent. He was able to get through this week but if he gets flagged again, he may not be able to return to the country, similar to the problems with Super Crazy.

 

That’s ridiculous. If they’re going to bring the guy in every week, the least they could do is get his paperwork straight.

 

Everything is said to be fine with Sabu on both sides after last week. He did well this week and Raven did a great job of getting him over. No word on when the match will be, since Raven aggravated his rib injury coming back too soon against Sonjay Dutt. Raven protected himself the entire match, as I don't think he took one bump nor did anything risky. At press time it looked like he'd be out of action for a few more weeks.

 

This is good because Sabu is over and his feud with Raven was going great until last week’s stumble.

 

Stephanie Bellars, on the other hand, is done, after last week, so Mensa is no more. I guess it shows a double standard of if you're in a program or at the start of a program, because she and Sabu were pretty much in the same boat. She has legally changed her name to George Frankenstein, which is her stripper name.

 

Eh….don’t care either way.

 

Dusty Rhodes sees potential in TNA and is trying to angle himself into power. He was suggesting pushing for a 9 p.m. Monday time slot, which was the consensus among just about everyone asked, including both Jarretts, if they could pick their slot on FX. Right now they are only in the early talking stages.

 

I’m actually torn on this one. Monday’s have long been “wrestling” night, and thus they would get the channel flippers. Hell, I hated WCW back in the day, but I always flipped to it during RAWs commercials. On the other hand, if whatever network put them in that slot expected them to compete ratings-wise right away, they’d be off in a month. It would take a network that they know will be willing to grow the audience, ala TNT and Nitro, but they don’t have the common owner advantage. And at the rate Smackdown is going, it might be better to target that show, though Thursday have never been as big a “wrestling” night. Hell, I’ve been a fan since 1990 and half the time, I forget SD! is even on until at least 8:15, but my TV is always turned into Spike TV/TNN/USA at 9 pm on Mondays and has been for 10 years at least. If they are going to keep the 1 hour format, Monday's at 8 or 11 would best. And I think 11 would be better because fans, who haven't gotten their wrestling fill, could flip at the conclusion of Raw.

 

Ryan Wilson was back, in the dark match main event, billed as Titus, the bodyguard for Jonny Fairplay. He didn't look good.

 

Even though his non-compete with WWE is over, they haven't used Jimmy Hart on TV, which surprises me. Hart is very instrumental behind the scenes, including recruiting tourists at the park with Jonny Fairplay to come to TV. Fairplay was used as a heel manager in a dark match. He got no reaction, and the feeling was, a good percentage of the fans watching were park goers, so it showed there isn't value to him. He's also considered a bad performer and a bad influence.

 

I don’t know what they’re going to do with Fairplay. They might have to just cut there losses if they continually can’ t come up with anything.

 

While the long-term success will be improving the time slot and making stars, I think it helps to have a few familiar names. They are instead using familiar names in clips, as they showed clips of Roddy Piper, Sting, as well as A.J. Styles pinning Lex Luger in a tag match (Thank God they only showed the finish), as well as Jimmy Hart, and a clip of Hulk Hogan from Japan with Jeff Jarrett. Having said that, some of my friends came over for UFC and one, an old-time fan who fits into the category of a casual viewer who watches less, happened to be switching around last week and saw the show. He liked it, and watched week three. His remarks were that he didn't realize they had so many stars like Sting, Piper, Dusty Rhodes, and Hogan in the promotion. He thought it was a big deal because of the names he knew. Because the ratings are strong enough for the time slot that everyone is thrilled, and the company is confident will get a time or and/or station upgrade, I'm doing a 180 from two weeks ago. It's best to go with the current talent roster, and show those brief clips of star appearances, and give the regular crew as much exposure as possible for right now. They have to look at the current period as more of "TV tryout" and stage one. The real push should come when they get a better slot. That would be the time to bring in bigger names for television in conjunction with a major ad campaign for the re-launch.

 

I agree. They had to push the regular crew as stars and bring in the occasional name (ala Jeff Hardy). If they bring in all these “big names” and push the new talent to the backburner, they’ll be screwed once all the names are gone over contract disputes and creative control issues.

 

There is talk of doing a 3 Live Kru vs. Team Canada feud, although Team Canada vs. America’s Most Wanted looks next where Dusty Rhodes can be in AMW's corner against Scott D'Amore.

 

I am a fan of both feuds and hopefully, the 3LK feud with be Team Canada’s first feud as Tag Champs.

 

There was some heat on The Naturals for refusing to do a job for 3 Live Kru.

 

Who cares? They are just job fodder for AMW anyway

 

As it turned out, Chad Collyer wasn't offered a contract by TNA after all when he came in last week, as he had expected.

 

If they don’t offer him one, that will be the lowest move TNA has ever pulled.

 

 

D-Lo Brown and Monty Brown were scheduled to also have a new feud.

 

This feud could be interesting too. I think D’Lo can drag some decent matches out of Monty, or at least he has a better chance to than any other main eventer not named AJ Styles.

[HandofFate 0]

the problem i have with Russo being in the company at all is that he's continually used as an on-air character. i don't know about you, Laz, but i can't stand him. he adds nothing to the table on screen. if he were to work with Jarrett (NOT Jeff) with the booking, i could see that working as long as Russo stays off camera. he may be born again and all, but he's still an egomaniac and a spotlight hog.

The thing with Russo being an on air character is that JJJ WANTS him on there to feud with. Russo has said that he doesn't want to be in the feud, but JJJ wants it so he gets it. That's why he is on.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Please, do not call him JJJ, or Triple J, or whatever comparisons to Hunter you may come up with. Aside from perhaps "The Lame." HHH is a better worker than JJ is, a better politician (since it's not his dad that runs the company, it's his wife's), and just a better overall character.

 

As for Russo on-air, I don't mind him as much as others do. I think he shouldn't have been booked nearly as strong as he was during the Tradition (AKA Jeff Jarrett and America's Most Wanted) vs. SEX (AKA Vince Russo and occasionally the Harris Bros.) angle, but if he were to be a more Paul Heyman-ish manager, the kind that stirs up the shit, sells the faces as if he were scared to death of them, and then hide behind his troops? I'd dig him. Just don't let him be the focal point of the product, like he was then.

 

I find Russo to be a decent promo man, and although his accent hinders it, listen to the words he actually says. Not too bad of a talker, in my eyes. Then again, I also think Jerry Lynn isn't too bad of a talker, and it's just his voice that doesn't work.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

9 pm monday would be the best.  Theyd get more viewers from raw watchers changing the channel during commercial than they get now.  Just being against Raw will get them more viewers than they have now.

Being on a night with NO competition from RAW would be considerably better. Hell, cancel the Wednesday PPV and go there.

-=Mike

That's what everyone at WCW thought... everyone except Eric Bischoff.

 

Competition is good. They need to get into direct competition, just not right away.

[Guest MikeSC]

9 pm monday would be the best.  Theyd get more viewers from raw watchers changing the channel during commercial than they get now.  Just being against Raw will get them more viewers than they have now.

Being on a night with NO competition from RAW would be considerably better. Hell, cancel the Wednesday PPV and go there.

-=Mike

That's what everyone at WCW thought... everyone except Eric Bischoff.

 

Competition is good. They need to get into direct competition, just not right away.

WCW is also very much dead.

-=Mike

[TNABaddboi 0]

WCW is also very much dead.

 

WCW isn't dead from going head to head with RAW. WCW benefited greatly going head-to-head and probably would have never had their brief run onto had they not fired that first salvo with Nitro in 1995 with Luger.

[MrRant 0]

On the other hand, if whatever network put them in that slot expected them to compete ratings-wise right away, they’d be off in a month. It would take a network that they know will be willing to grow the audience, ala TNT and Nitro, but they don’t have the common owner advantage.

The network would not be looking for it to compete with RAW in reality. They would be looking for a program that draws more viewers than what they currently have on.

[Guest MikeSC]

WCW is also very much dead.

 

WCW isn't dead from going head to head with RAW. WCW benefited greatly going head-to-head and probably would have never had their brief run onto had they not fired that first salvo with Nitro in 1995 with Luger.

It also led to all of their problems.

 

And a nice chunk of TNA were the same ones who ran WCW into the ground.

-=Mike

[TNABaddboi 0]

It also led to all of their problems.

 

And a nice chunk of TNA were the same ones who ran WCW into the ground.

 

Mike, there a shitload of reasons that are always tossed around about what caused WCW's demise, but going head to head with the WWF was one of them. Starting Nitro is generally lauded as one of the smartest decisions Bischoff ever made and a direct catalyst to their charge to the top of the business, however brief it ended up being. I haven't heard to many people make the case that going head-to-head did them in, since they generally spent 2 plus years waxing the floor with WWE (not suggesting that TNA would do this right away, of course). I'd just like to know what that argument is based on.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Are all you people that think that WCW going head to head with RAW put them out of business fucking retarded? Did you even watch WCW whatsoever? Don't you realize that they had a horribly flawed booking process where no new stars were made? Do you realize they had Goldberg(their biggest draw) lose his first match to Nash(WCW's biggest flaw)?

[Guest MikeSC]

Mike, there a shitload of reasons that are always tossed around about what caused WCW's demise, but going head to head with the WWF was one of them.

It also led to them giving WWF defectees the HORRIBLE contracts that ended up killing the promotion.

I haven't heard to many people make the case that going head-to-head did them in, since they generally spent 2 plus years waxing the floor with WWE (not suggesting that TNA would do this right away, of course).  I'd just like to know what that argument is based on.

NWA was profitable UNTIL Crockett made the mistake of actually attempting to fight the WWF head-to-head. It led to him selling to Turner --- who REALLY tanked the company.

 

So, they decided to go head-to-head and spend a TON on talent to compete. And compete they did. HOWEVER, when things went bad, they had the same contracts that gave these same prima donnas WAY more power than they deserved preventing them from changing ANYTHING.

 

Companies do badly when then try to compete with the WWE rather than simply doing their own thing.

Don't you realize that they had a horribly flawed booking process where no new stars were made? Do you realize they had Goldberg(their biggest draw) lose his first match to Nash(WCW's biggest flaw)?

Don't you realize that two of the 3 people who make up the booking committee (JJ and Russo) helped run WCW into the ground?

 

Why would one assume that they have learned a lesson?

-=Mike

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Mike, all of your arguments are somewhat true, however, you draw a lot of big links between having a show on Monday Night, and competing 100% with WWE like WCW did.

 

I don't think anyone will disagree that offering HHH guaranteed 10 million a year right now would be the death nail for TNA. The arguement is whether or not Monday night would bring in more viewers for TNA. I think it is obvious that it would.