Things that TNA is doing right

[Guest [censored]]

It seems like the board been pretty negative about TNA recently and I've certainly been guilty of this.

 

I thought it would be fun to discuss the good things that TNA is and has done recently and in the past to sort of balance out the negative.

 

At the forefront for me is the last PPV and 2 hour special both of which I thought were great. For as much as Impact may struggle whenever TNA needs to deliver the goods I think they have. I came away from both feeling very satisfied and excited about the product. As soon as Genesis ended I was eager and had all ready decided to order their next PPV. On that note the Turning Point card so far is really looking to be great with the AMW v. 3D awaited match, the real barbed wire match and the big show down between Joe and Styles its got three big time matches already signed. The Jarrett v. Rhino match while not up to the that level still has enough history and back story to make it PPV worthy.

 

Your thoughts on what TNA is doing right?

[razazteca 0]

Positives:

 

1. X division adding new talent

2. Signing Christian Cage

3. OLE muthafucker OLE Samoa Joe

4. Jim Mitchell is a great manager

5. Team 3D adding new life into the tag team division which was stale beyond believe of nonstop Canada vs Naturals vs AMW

[Guest [censored]]

Yeah the tag team division is another thing that TNA does very well compared to the WWE that is often overlooked. You mentioned Team 3D which has helped alot but I disagree that is was stale. On the one hand yes it was the same 4 teams (3LK as well) but that was something I appreciated. I like the fact that TNA has some teams with actual history and history against each other. It reminds me of the glory days of tag team wrestling when you had Arn & Tully, The Road Warriors, The Midnight express and The Rock & Roll express together in the same company for 3-5 years. It was good times. Are any of the TNA on the level of any of those teams. Well no. But still they are trying.

 

Speaking of Tag Teams, man I wish XXX would have never been disbanded. They were great. I like Daniels as a solo wrestler so just replacing him with someone would have been great.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

-Samoa Joe being pushed as an unstoppable bad motherfucker.

 

-Abyss/Sabu being built up over violence instead of some asinine personal "you killed my dog" BS storyline.

 

-Abyss in general. He's being handled perfectly, as he's a believable monster, but also a vulnerable one.

 

-Christian Cage delivering on the stick (hopefully he'll deliver in the ring).

 

-Jeff Jarrett's face not being in between EVERY match.

[razazteca 0]

I like the fact that TNA has some teams with actual history and history against each other. It reminds me of the glory days of tag team wrestling when you had Arn & Tully, The Road Warriors, The Midnight express and The Rock & Roll express together in the same company for 3-5 years.

Naturals and AMW might of had some decent title matches but I still don't know who they are.....there is no character development or follow up after whatever momentum that was built up from the matches. All of the NWA tag teams from the glory days of the 80s had defined characters what exactly does the Naturals have going for them other than wearing pink and a classic finisher?

 

Positive:

AJ/Joe promo had some character development with Joe being the badass that just does not care and AJ saying that "crossed the line" making him the default hero.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Positive #1: Tag teams.

 

They've done a good job building up the division. I mean, off the top of my head you have:

- The Naturals

- AMW

- Team 3D

- Team Canada (well, various combinations of guys in that group)

- Diamonds in the Rough

- 3 Live Kru (again, a couple different cominations, but they tag regularly)

 

That's a lot better than either RAW or Smackdown (or maybe even the two combined) can offer right now.

 

Positive #2: Managers.

 

Something TNA is really doing well, although it could be said they could do more with some of the managers they do have right now.

 

- James Mitchell. Probably the best manager in wrestling right now in terms of mic work. Should probably have more guys under his wing than just Abyss (who he is perfect for).

- Scott D'Amore. Just a great heel. The fans hate him. At some point Team Canada is going to have to break up, though.

- Gail Kim. Hasn't had a chance to do a lot yet, but it makes sense for Jeff Jarrett, the World champion, to have a valet/manager. WWE was idiotic for firing her, IMO. I mean, she is talented, was getting better as a wrestler, looks hot, and has shown she's willing to pose nude (not that I care about that, but WWE seems to).

- Traci Brooks. Probably the most underutilized. Seems to be kind of slumming with the directionless Matt Bentley.

 

Positive #3: The X Division.

 

OK, this one seems like a forgone conclusion, as it's been the most popular thing in TNA for almost four years or so. I almost hesitated though, because a lot of the guys seem pretty generic. The only exceptions are probably AJ Styles, Christohper Daniels, and Samoa Joe. I mean, what is the real difference between guys like Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, or Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, other than some different signature moves?

 

They really need to build the personalities of these guys so that the crowd will care about them. Yeah, they can have a great match and pop the live crowd, but the casual wrestling fan tuning in probably won't care unless they can get into the characters a bit more.

 

Still, you gotta give TNA credit...they could've been tempted to focus more on the heavyweights when they moved to SpikeTV, but they really haven't shirked on pushing and showcasing the X guys. Again, not to turn this into comparing TNA to WWE, but WWE has repeatedly done nothing with their cruiserweights in almost 9 years.

 

Positive #4: The announcers.

 

OK, some people don't like Don West, but I think he does a good job bringing excitement to the broadcasts and putting over big moves. He's also probably the most improved announcer in wrestling, at least since I first heard him in TNA's early days.

 

Tenay just doesn't have that exciting vibe, but he does a great job calling the action. They also do a very good job on focusing on storylines which involve the guys that are actually in the ring at any given time. I also think Shane Douglas does a good job with interviews backstage.

 

Positive #5: Feuds that are thought out and make sense.

 

Abyss vs Sabu is the big one right now. A nice violent feud without any dumb backstage skits to get it over. I mean, think about it...TNA has managed to book an interesting feud between two guys that basically don't even talk! James Mitchell is the only real voice piece in this feud.

 

I think Team 3D vs AMW is another good example of this. A nice logical feud with some good wrestling. You could make the case that the storyline with Kip James and 3LK also makes sense. At least they're giving these guys something to do, rather than just booking people in meaningless matches, show after show.

 

Overall I think TNA is doing a very good job for what they have to work with now, and they just need to stay the course. The only two areas I really think they need to develop are giving characters to more of the X Division guys, and maybe tuning up the World Title picture. They need to decide who is going to knock Jarrett off the "top of the mountain", and make it clear cut. They seem to fluctuate between Jeff Hardy, Raven, Monty Brown, and Rhino lately. It needs to be decided who will get to carry the ball next, and that person should have a lengthy reign, not job the title back to Double J at the earliest opportunity.

[Guest Coffey]

There's a lot of positives about TNA. Especially when you're looking for something outside of what WWE provides. For example, iMPACT! usually has at least one match that I actually *want* to see. On Raw or Smackdown, at any given time, it feels like I've already seen everything. A six-man tag in TNA would be refreshing whereas in WWE it seems like it's all we get.

 

Although I'm not a huge fan of Monty Brown, it does appear as if he came up with all the details of his gimmick himself. That's cool to me. It shows that TNA will let their wrestlers have some creative freedom. After seeing how scripted Raw is, down to the word, when that scan of the script was posted, anything like this, no matter how little, has to be seen as a positive.

 

TNA is the home to a lot of my current favorite wrestlers. Now that Eddie has died, I have no reason to watch Smackdown anymore. I've never been real high on Benoit or Mysterio. I always liked Eddie and Batista though. Of course, on Smackdown, I just liked Batista because of his interaction with Eddie. When I think the highlight of the show is a comedy spot involving the Boogeyman, I probably shouldn't watch anymore. TNA has Daniels, Samoa Joe, Aries & Abyss, all of whom I like. If they were to get James Gibson, I wouldn't have to watch WWE at all anymore. I've been tuned off to Raw for awhile now. I'm just numb when I watch it. Usually focusing more on the computer, or a Raw thread, than the actual show. I dig iMPACT! though because it's like watching a company build. Watching WWE is like watching a company fall. It's a big difference.

 

Remember about fifteen to twenty years ago, in WWF, we could watch people like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart climb the ladder. They started in tag teams, then went solo, then went through the IC division up until they were main eventers with multiple title runs. Now in WWE, someone comes in and if they have the right look, they're instantly pushed over other guys that we've been watching for years. It's not like it used to be. In TNA, we can watch almost every wrestler "grow." With other indy feds, instead of watching wrestlers "grow" you watch them go to WWE and get misused.

 

I like James Mitchell and Scott D'Amore as on-screen managers. It seems to be a lost art in the business today. They can help get over characters that can't talk for themselves.

 

The moves in TNA are a lot more innovative and original. That's refreshing. The wrestlers aren't told to "tone it down" or that certain moves are banned. When was the last wrestler in WWE to use an original move? Ken Kennedy does an old Fit Finley move. Bobby Lashley does Farooq's old move. MNM do Simon/Swingers old ECW finisher. In TNA, instead of rehashes, we get Canadian Destroyers & Styles Clashes.

 

I'm sure there's a ton more stuff that I could point out but I have to leave. So, I'll check back later and try to add more to the conversation.

[2GOLD 0]

AJ, Daniels, Joe, Christian and Monty.

That's all the positives I need to want to be in the front row of one of their events.

 

They have done a good job rebuilding Rhino and washing off the WWE stink. Really they did a great job washing off any stink the guys might have had and made them believable again.

 

The X-division offers either very great tech wrestling, stiff oh my god that hurt me style (Joe makes you cringe when he nails the kick to the face) or the ever fun bouncing around like super balls style. It's the perfect division right now and the title feels so damn important the way the guys are willing to punish themselves for the belts.

 

Actually, the belts in general just feel really important. Alliances mean dick to these guys, they just want the belts and they will go through any amount of torture or any opponent placed in their way for it. Belts meaning something is huge to me, even when a bag of boring is holding the world title at least I know there are about 10 guys who can realistically be a World champion because they're all won a big match.

[Guest [censored]]

That is a very good point, TNA has done a very good job making the Championships the forefront of the company and consequently they seem very important. I like this as well.

 

Even the maligned World Title with Jarrett has Brown and Christian basically calling next, Rhino got screwed and wants the title back. Additionally you have Raven battling with Zybsko over getting his rematch. 4 guys all going for the top spot.

 

I wish they would have mixed The Naturals into the tag title scence a bit more along with Team 3D and AMW. They are a pretty good tag team with a different style than either of those two teams and could use the exposure and development. Although I can understand why TNA would not as it would be hard to accept The Naturals on the same level as AMW and Team 3D.