TNA Comments which don't warrant a thread

[TheFranchise 0]

From the above,

 

'Oh yes, you're absolutely right. If all the matches went for 20 minutes and had clean finishes they would have drawn at least 17 million viewers. '

 

That made me smirk.

[Red Baron 0]

Chris Sabin in an effort to make fun of Jerry Lynn’s age shows up in a bathrobe, using a walker, and wearing depends. Is he six? Who would do this? It felt like a bugs bunny cartoon. Why would Jerry be mad that Sabin is making himself look like an idiot?

 

Hollywood Blondes did this impersonation to Ric Flair.

 

Funny as hell.

[Scroby 0]

Chris Sabin in an effort to make fun of Jerry Lynn’s age shows up in a bathrobe, using a walker, and wearing depends. Is he six? Who would do this? It felt like a bugs bunny cartoon. Why would Jerry be mad that Sabin is making himself look like an idiot?

 

Hollywood Blondes did this impersonation to Ric Flair.

 

Funny as hell.

Ok...but thats Steve Austin and Brian Pillman, not Chris Sabin, big differance.

[luke-o 0]

My god that forums was awfu. It was almost embarrasing to read and made me NOT want to be a TNA fan...

[Twisted Intestine 0]

...Just look at the url... That was enough for me.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Lance Storm responding to feedback on his RussoRiffic rant:

 

Why I Rant

 

February 5, 2007

 

After my recent “RussoRiffic” TNA rant I was again bombarded with the question: Why do I pick on TNA, why don’t I rant on WWE? There are several reasons behind this so this week I figured I could look at them in depth.

 

When I look at WWE and TNA I don’t just do so as a fan that wants to watch wrestling. I watch them with a vested interest in their success as it pertains to the wrestling industry. I want both companies to thrive and succeed for the good of the business and the boys who work in it.

 

WWE is thriving; they make money, lots of money (grossing $380 million per year). There is little to no chance they are going to go out of business any time soon. There is more chance of WWE shutting down because Vince losses interest than due to financial concerns. TNA on the other hand is losing money, LOTS of money ($10 million per year). Without it’s financial backers TNA cannot exist. At some point in time people investing money in a business expect a return on that investment. If that point in time comes before TNA is able to turn business around and actually make money or at least break even, so it can survive without money backers, it’s game over, no more TNA. TNA supporters constant defense that WWE does Stupid Stuff too, is nothing more than a cop out!!

 

WWE and TNA are in two completely different boats. WWE has a stable loyal audience that tunes in every week, buys enough merchandise, and orders enough PPVs for WWE to make money. As long as they don’t do enough stupid things to drive their audience away in droves they will stay in business. TNA on the other hand does not have a large enough fan base, and they do not order enough PPVs, for TNA to stay in business without financial help. So TNA needs to attract a ton of new fans in order to become a success. When your goal is to attract new fans rather than just not repel current ones you need to be far more careful and can get away with far fewer mistakes.

 

The other reason I don’t rant on WWE like I do TNA is that their show in my opinion is far less frustrating. WWE does some stupid shit, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day they usually deliver the goods in some form or another. As wrestling fans we’ve been conditioned to tolerate a certain degree of crap as long as IT ISN’T ALL CRAP and once in a while you deliver what we want to see.

 

Let’s look at SmackDown this past week, which I thought was a weak show by SD standards. SD had 4 matches, two of which had outside interference and were in my opinion crappy finishes, especially the “Little Bastard” Boogey Man finish. As disappointing as those 2 finishes were, there was at least 2 clean finishes on the show and the solid 12 minutes of action delivered by Benoit and Finlay before the finish more than balanced that out. On top of that the show ended with an extremely strong segment involving 4 top guys. We got to see a very serious and dramatic standoff between the two World Champions and the top 2 contenders. It was meaningful and set up the next PPV Main Event, and increased interested in the following PPV (WrestleMania) as well. No other people were involved it was clear cut and focused.

 

TNA on the other hand had 3 matches ALL of which had outside interference and post match brawling. None of the matches went more than 4 minutes and totaled less than 10 minutes combined. There was tons of goofy stupid crap but not one solid meaningful focused segment to anchor the show. They offered us a “PPV caliber Main Event” which had my hopes up, yet turned out to be another short, pointless match that didn’t even have a finish. Had they let AJ and Joe deliver a great main event, like they both can, all the other stuff would have been forgiven. Those who like the goofy stuff would have gotten their fill and those of use who foolishly expect some wrestling on a wrestling show would have been happy as well. If TNA would give me one great solid match once in a while (and they sure as hell have the roster to do it) I’d watch the show and put up with all the stupid shit. Just because others do stupid shit doesn’t excuse it on your show, especially when the other guys on occasion deliver matches like Edge and Shawn Michaels did 2 weeks ago.

 

In closing to those of you who emailed me stating that ECW is worse than TNA, which again is not a valid defense. I won’t dispute that. I don’t find it as mind numbingly frustrating, but I don’t enjoy it and gave up on it months before I gave up on TNA. If TNA revamps it’s creative team, or ECW starts featuring more Tommy Dreamer and less Matt Stryker, I’ll likely give both of them a try again.

 

That’s my two cents,

Lance Storm

 

As with his first rant, I expect Storm's points to go over the heads of certain people here.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

"Certain people" = Morons. Everything he says is spot on. I was a huge TNA fan most of last year, but now I just get so frustrated by the current product. Russo needs to get gone, and soon. I'm glad people with a public platform like Storm are saying so.

[Mystery Eskimo 0]

Storm makes sense.

 

I still can't believe Angle-Styles got 8 minutes, or whatever. Ok, it's not a huge dream match that would have added any significant number of PPV buys, but a good, fresh 15 to 20 min match on PPV must be more important and useful than a throw away TV main event. Well, not to Russo, obviously, but who can be surprised at that.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Yeah, it is frustrating. As a newer TNA viewer (I started when they were on FSN), I thought they were on the right track a few months ago after Angle signed, but lately the shows just don't hold my interest. I can hardly be bothered to watch 15 minutes of their one hour show now.

[razazteca 0]

TNA on the other hand had 3 matches ALL of which had outside interference and post match brawling. None of the matches went more than 4 minutes and totaled less than 10 minutes combined. There was tons of goofy stupid crap but not one solid meaningful focused segment to anchor the show. They offered us a “PPV caliber Main Event” which had my hopes up, yet turned out to be another short, pointless match that didn’t even have a finish. Had they let AJ and Joe deliver a great main event, like they both can, all the other stuff would have been forgiven. Those who like the goofy stuff would have gotten their fill and those of use who foolishly expect some wrestling on a wrestling show would have been happy as well. If TNA would give me one great solid match once in a while (and they sure as hell have the roster to do it) I’d watch the show and put up with all the stupid shit. Just because others do stupid shit doesn’t excuse it on your show, especially when the other guys on occasion deliver matches like Edge and Shawn Michaels did 2 weeks ago.

Well TNA is going to have to change the way it does its tv tapings if it is going to get the wrestlers over via matches. Now let's do the math TNA's tv tapings run around 3 hours which will be edited down to 3 weeks worth of Impact. Now the big question is how do you get the FAN excited enough to buy TNA merchandise?

 

Do you: A) Have wrestling matches that will be remembered on its merit of spotsfest, technical, or psychology B) Re-enact scenes from General Hospital C) Get drunk in a hotel room do crazy shit and record it with a hand held cam D) bait and switch E) have segments that don't last longer than 5 minutes so that nothing sinks in.

 

What Impact has become is a poorly edited informercial that is trying to sell PPVs on the basis of post match brawls after every match, women yelling at people, comedy skits that are done just to get people on tv. Where does this all lead to thats right TNA is going out of business in 3 months...

[luke-o 0]

As with his first rant, I expect Storm's points to go over the heads of certain people here.

 

I assume your refering to me

 

But, on the contrary, i do agree with Lance that things do have to change if TNA want to stay in the game.

 

Oh, and by the way, Lance's last rant did not "go over my head", i just simply disagreed with his comments about the LAX angle. Just because i didnt agree with him, doesnt mean that his rant "went over my head". Prick.

[razazteca 0]

Remember the old beer commercial slogan "Less Filling, Taste Great" I think it applies here too bad TNA thinks "Less Wrestling, Entertainment Greatness".

[Dobbs 3K 0]

It's actually "Great Taste, Less Filling", but you're right on otherwise.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

As with his first rant, I expect Storm's points to go over the heads of certain people here.

 

I assume your refering to me

And you are?

[Si82 0]

I assume your refering to me

What an ego.

 

And Lance is spot on, again.

[luke-o 0]

And you are?

 

My god, you piss me off

[Mecca 0]

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 

There are plans to form a new heel stable soon in TNA Wrestling. The current plan is to put Christian Cage, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner and Tyson Tomko together.

 

With AJ Styles' recent heel turn and Scott Steiner returning to TNA next month as Christian Cage's enforcer for his match against Kurt Angle, the steps are already being taken to align the foursome.

 

Christian Cage will fill the "Ric Flair" role as the star, AJ Styles as the pure athelete, Tyson Tomko as the powerful bigman and Scott Steiner serving as the veteran and another enforcer.

 

Babyfaces like Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle and Christopher Daniels will have their hands full with this faction, whose top priority will be keeping the NWA Title on Christian Cage.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

According to reports, there is talk that Samoa Joe is in for a major push in the next few weeks. So, it looks like things could get rolling for Joe starting with the Against All Odds PPV this Sunday and the TV tapings that follow it. Given the recent information about his departure from Ring of Honor, this news shouldn't come as a big surprise and looks to be the reason why TNA never fully took Joe to the top during his stay with the company.

[TheFranchise 0]

I don't know who is going to moan about that faction, but my god does that sound good to me.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

There's a Chris Jericho interview on TNAwrestling.com

 

http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/fullnews2.php?all=1171

 

The last line interested me. Hinting at something, or just stirring the pot for the hell of it?

[2GOLD 0]

There's a Chris Jericho interview on TNAwrestling.com

 

http://www.tnawrestling.com/news/fullnews2.php?all=1171

 

The last line interested me. Hinting at something, or just stirring the pot for the hell of it?

 

It's Jericho. Stirring the pot for the hell of it.

[luke-o 0]

The heel group sounds pretty cool, but i get the feeling it will just become another "Planet Jarrett" group. With the ending of a match seeing each heel run down one by one to beat up the faces as some random faces (Killings/Team 3D) run down to make the save. We saw that shit in 2005, we dont need to see it again.

 

But hey, im just glad that there doing something with Christian now.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Christian really should be TNA's version of Ric Flair, so this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I question having two "muscles" like Tomko and Steiner in the same group, but they're unique enough where it shouldn't matter, I guess.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Christian really should be TNA's version of Ric Flair, so this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I question having two "muscles" like Tomko and Steiner in the same group, but they're unique enough where it shouldn't matter, I guess.

Maybe with "competition" in the muscle department, Steiner will have to step up his game.

 

THE RETURN OF THE FRANKENSTEINER!

 

...OK, maybe not. Probably the only one that could take the move in the company nowadays without being injured is Abyss.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 

There are plans to form a new heel stable soon in TNA Wrestling. The current plan is to put Christian Cage, AJ Styles, Scott Steiner and Tyson Tomko together.

 

With AJ Styles' recent heel turn and Scott Steiner returning to TNA next month as Christian Cage's enforcer for his match against Kurt Angle, the steps are already being taken to align the foursome.

 

Christian Cage will fill the "Ric Flair" role as the star, AJ Styles as the pure athelete, Tyson Tomko as the powerful bigman and Scott Steiner serving as the veteran and another enforcer.

 

Babyfaces like Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle and Christopher Daniels will have their hands full with this faction, whose top priority will be keeping the NWA Title on Christian Cage.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

According to reports, there is talk that Samoa Joe is in for a major push in the next few weeks. So, it looks like things could get rolling for Joe starting with the Against All Odds PPV this Sunday and the TV tapings that follow it. Given the recent information about his departure from Ring of Honor, this news shouldn't come as a big surprise and looks to be the reason why TNA never fully took Joe to the top during his stay with the company.

 

Absolutely love it.

[razazteca 0]

Christian really should be TNA's version of Ric Flair, so this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I question having two "muscles" like Tomko and Steiner in the same group, but they're unique enough where it shouldn't matter, I guess.

Maybe with "competition" in the muscle department, Steiner will have to step up his game.

 

THE RETURN OF THE FRANKENSTEINER!

 

...OK, maybe not. Probably the only one that could take the move in the company nowadays without being injured is Abyss.

I would rather see the return of the Steiner Screwdriver so Kurt Angle can say "BROKEN FREAKING NECK!" every week. And I rather see the heel stable be Christian, Jericho, AJ, Daniels as religious freaks so Fallen Angel can bring back the collar, Fozzy can sing the gospel, AJ can fly from the heavens preaching the word of Christian, and Christian is the cult leader come on his name is CHRISTIAN! And throw in Sinister Minister and Abyss as the muscle.

[luke-o 0]

I would rather see the return of the Steiner Screwdriver so Kurt Angle can say "BROKEN FREAKING NECK!" every week. And I rather see the heel stable be Christian, Jericho, AJ, Daniels as religious freaks so Fallen Angel can bring back the collar, Fozzy can sing the gospel, AJ can fly from the heavens preaching the word of Christian, and Christian is the cult leader come on his name is CHRISTIAN! And throw in Sinister Minister and Abyss as the muscle.

 

Nah, too preachy.

[razazteca 0]

Come on Russo has shat on everything to pop a rating its time to cross the line and start pissing off the "Heartland" , "Bible Belt" and every single summer camp that brain washes the children to believe that they are "The Soldiers of God" and all the people that voted for Bush for the second term! It will get more press than anything TNA has done that involved baseball players, country music singers, and NASCAR drivers!

 

Remember controversy = ratings

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

From this weeks F4W:

 

Locker room morale is horrible, with the undercard talent being especially miserable, not so much because they're pushed as geeks on television but because they're getting almost no chance to actually wrestle.

 

Alvarez once again mentions the top guys getting their own locker room and that it's furthering the feeling of the non-top guys that they're geeks who the company don't really care about, and whether it's intentional or not that's what it's doing.

 

Alvarez got feedback from guys in TNA about Lance Storm's column, the one where he detailed why he's stopped watching TNA, who were happy that someone else with a clue was thinking the same things they were.

 

There have also been names in TNA contacting WSX in the past two weeks.

 

During TV matches there have been people yelled at for trying to work psychology into matches, people yelled at for grabbing holds, people yelled at for working body parts, etc. Guys have no idea whether they’re supposed to be a babyface or a heel (even Angle stated in an interview last week that he didn’t know what he was supposed to be) and have noticed that because of it they get very little reaction unless they’re doing some crazy high-flying move

 

Let's really think about that bolded part and consider the fact that under reign of Russo, we now have wrestlers being yelled at for trying to wrestle on a wrestling show.

[dubq 0]

Christian really should be TNA's version of Ric Flair, so this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I question having two "muscles" like Tomko and Steiner in the same group, but they're unique enough where it shouldn't matter, I guess.

Maybe with "competition" in the muscle department, Steiner will have to step up his game.

 

THE RETURN OF THE FRANKENSTEINER!

 

...OK, maybe not. Probably the only one that could take the move in the company nowadays without being injured is Abyss.

I would rather see the return of the Steiner Screwdriver so Kurt Angle can say "BROKEN FREAKING NECK!" every week. And I rather see the heel stable be Christian, Jericho, AJ, Daniels as religious freaks so Fallen Angel can bring back the collar, Fozzy can sing the gospel, AJ can fly from the heavens preaching the word of the Gay Community(?!), and Christian is the cult leader come on his name is CHRISTIAN! And throw in Sinister Minister and Abyss as the muscle.

 

EFA

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Christian really should be TNA's version of Ric Flair, so this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I question having two "muscles" like Tomko and Steiner in the same group, but they're unique enough where it shouldn't matter, I guess.

Maybe with "competition" in the muscle department, Steiner will have to step up his game.

 

THE RETURN OF THE FRANKENSTEINER!

 

...OK, maybe not. Probably the only one that could take the move in the company nowadays without being injured is Abyss.

I would rather see the return of the Steiner Screwdriver so Kurt Angle can say "BROKEN FREAKING NECK!" every week. And I rather see the heel stable be Christian, Jericho, AJ, Daniels as religious freaks so Fallen Angel can bring back the collar, Fozzy can sing the gospel, AJ can fly from the heavens preaching the word of Christian, and Christian is the cult leader come on his name is CHRISTIAN! And throw in Sinister Minister and Abyss as the muscle.

 

BOOK THIS!