10 things I would do to TNA right now

[Guest [censored]]

1. Hire Lance Storm and/or Steve Corino. The roster needs more non ariel wrestlers who are great workers and can go well with the x division guys.

 

2.Make Christian a tweener in the mold of The Rock or perhaps Ric Flair and make him be the chased champion.

 

Give him a stable at make it the figure head of the promotion like DX or the Four Horsemen. Portray them as cool but also cocky. Have them be the types guys either hate or want to be and who girls want to F. Let fans either cheer of boo and be honest with the broadcasting about this make them seem controversial. .

 

Christopher Daniels

Alex Shelley

Lance Storm/Steve Corino

Gail Kim

 

I would have 3 major and separate story lines going through this group much like the old NWA on TBS did with the horsemen. . Shelley would be the young 2nd full of promise and potential. Kim would become the conniving, devious vixen who is as smart and she is sexy. Studying Cleopatra would be a good start. Daniels and Storm/Corino would the savvy, ruthless veterans who have seen it all.

 

Pay attention to details like how they are dressed and entrace music (should be distinct and instantly recognizable). They should be cool and hip and look the part. Not suits but not jeans and a T shirt either. Instead something you would find at a exclusive LA night club. Designer button down shirts, designer jeans etc.

 

I do this because I think every wrestling promotion needs to and will have a figure head type character who is identified with the product. I want mine to be seen as current, cool but also a guy and a group who can flat out wrestler in the ring..

 

3.Completely revamp the Jeff Jarrett character and take him off TV for 3 months. I like Jarrett and I think he is a good worker who can bring value to the table but his character is very stale and overexposed at this point. I would be looking to do something drastic.

 

4.Get rid of the 6 sided ring. It will never result in an additional viewer that wouldn't have watched with a 4 sided ring but very well may turn off a viewer who otherwise would have given it a first or longer chance. You don't start a new baseball league by changing the way the field looks. the NWA TNA should be about the tradition and the sport of wrestling. The focus should be athletes in their prime giving it their all not about silly gimmicks to look different.

 

5. Adopt a policy that says, if your not an above average worker, you don't work for the company. I would strive for a no poor match policy. Things happen and nothing is perfect but that would be the intent. I want to really emphasis this difference with the WWE and make thier product look slow, safe and outdated. This doesn’t mean becoming RoH though.

 

6. Get rid of the "X division" and instead have 3 weight class divisions. Heavy, Light Heavy, and Middle. Moving up would be treated as a big deal reserved for the best of the best similar to boxing. Each title wold be treated as a world title and worthy of a main event, similar to boxing. Emphasize not only ariel high flying action but also submission stlye wrestling as well. Combine the two into a new brand of wrestling now not seen outside of RoH perhaps.

 

7. Bring back the Raven character but as a full time "cult" leader, occasional wrestler. Completely remove him from these ridiculous DoA angles where he is made to be the victim and the sympathetic underdog. Raven isn't a victim and he doesn't get involved in conflicts where he is the underdog. Raven is a calculating cold blooded sadistic but above all intelligent villain who convinces others to do his dirty work and make his sacrifices. He only fights when finally backed into a corner and has no other options and then he looks to cheat or retreat. He's the kiezer Soze of wrestling not john Fing cena. Put 1 or 2 guys in the group who are great wrestlers on their own to give it legitimacy along with the requisite lackey.

 

8.Add a rankings to each weight division of something like a top 3 and make those the only wrester's eligible for title shots. Have getting into and dropping out of the top 3 a big deal. Rankings should be based on a long history and record of success and not a monthly #1 contender match. Tell long term stories of wrestlers building their way up to the top 3 over 2-3 months or longer as well as wrestlers trying to hold onto their spot. Wins and Losses should be significant but not a death nail either something in between a NBA and NFL regular season.

 

9. No more multi way matches expect for special circumstances. emphasis one on one wrestling and look for ways where one man wins but both wrestlers get over. otherwise use other indy wrestlers as jobbers without damaging the guys on the roster. Having Sabin, Williams, Areis, Shelley etc consantly facing each other in a series of multiway matches does nothing to get any of them over and only detracts from any future value these match ups may have. Imagine if Samoa Joe, Styles and Daniels would have been involved in similar matches again and again with TNA before now. Sort of takes some of the shine off the upcoming match ups.

 

10. Have one 15-20 minute match between 2 good wrestlers of varying weight divisions or 2 good tag teams that goes to a clean finish per Impact. Basically look to have one 4 star match per Impact.

[Astro101 0]

I disagree with the classes thing. I don't think there's a need to differentiate size. I want to see Samoa in some matches with the "lighter" X guys.

 

Keep the 6 sided ring. There's no hinderance, it's different, and actually the fields in baseball are different in all stadiums. You got the bases and the pitcher's mounds just like you have the ringropes and turnbucks. But the field is unique just like this ring.

 

Right now, Christian can be a huge huge babyface yet still act cocky, just like AJ. He doesn't need a stable, but it would be nice to see one to counter Jarrett's.

 

Jarrett being gone for a while=thumbs up!

 

Raven does need to go back to being just unstoppable and ruthless. I agree with that.

[Si82 0]

1. Hire Lance Storm and/or Steve Corino.

Isn't Storm retired from active competition and happily running his own wrestling school and doesn't Corino work for a Japanese company?

 

2.Make Christian a tweener in the mold of The Rock or perhaps Ric Flair and make him be the chased champion.

Why when he's working fine right now as a babyface. He should be built up to face, and take the title from, Jarrett.

 

3. Completely revamp the Jeff Jarrett character and take him off TV for 3 months.

Good idea. Jarrett has been stale for quite a while now and something should be done with him. I actually quite liked him when he turned face at the end of 2002 perhaps that could be a way to go with character?

 

4. Get rid of the 6 sided ring.

Why? I mean why get ring of one the unique things TNA has over WWE. Besides, I think the ring looks cool and lets the guys in the X Division, which should be the selling point of the company, do some great stuff. I don't see why it would cause someone not to watch.

 

6. Get rid of the "X division" and instead have 3 weight class divisions.

Frankly, this is a stupid idea. As I stated earlier the X Division should be the sseeling point of the company because it's the thing they do best and makes them stand out. The X guys are some of the hardest working and best wrestlers out there today so why fuck with the formula?

 

8.Add a rankings to each weight division of something like a top 3 and make those the only wrester's eligible for title shots.

I do like this idea. It gives the titles a feeling of something that the wrestlers have to work for rather than just some random guy getting a title shot.

[Guest Coffey]

1. Move TNA around. Get away from Orlando, if even just for a week or one PPV.

2. I'd get rid of the six-sided ring as well. Yeah, it's "different" but that's not always a good thing. TNA have enough "good" wrestlers on their roster now that they shouldn't need a gimmick like that anymore.

3. Establish the characters better. Instead of just having cruiserweights that we don't care about go out to the ring and have spotfests make us care about one or two of them so that we can at least have a little bit of drama when the matches happen. Right now, it's like it doesn't matter who wins any of the matches.

4. Change the commentary. Even if it's something as simple as having Don West and Shane Douglas switch roles.

5. Bring back "Tale of the Tape" and in-ring corner introductions during matches. Maybe just title matches.

6. Enforce the fucking rules. This isn't ECW. It doesn't make sense for a match to continue after chair shots and repeated run-ins. DQ a mother-fucker.

7. A ranking system is a good idea.

8. Institute a time limit for matches on iMPACT! Not like they did with the 10-minute counter when they were on FSN but a time limit, like, thirty minutes so that they can have a nice, good title match on iMPACT! every now and then that can take up the majority of the show. Like Clash of the Champions used to do.

9. Get Traci away from Matt Bentley.

10. Give Abyss the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Yeah, I went there.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

1. 6 PPVs a year

2. Less matches and angles on Impact, and in their place, better matches and better developed angles on Impact

3. More comedy workers

4. Get rid of Zbyszko as the authority figure

5. Get rid of JJ

6. Either get rid of Tenay and West, or develop/differentiate their personalities more, or add someone to the team that isn't so Rah Rah and doesn't share the same brain

7. Build TV better

[Guest Coffey]

1. 6 PPVs a year

 

Goddamn, why didn't I think of that? I've even mentioned it in the past. Good point.

[razazteca 0]

There needs to be a 3rd announcer to play the heel role because I never never never ever want to see Tenay as a heel.......where the fuck is Shane Douglas? Angry pissed off Franchise is the best character ever!

 

6. Get rid of the "X division" and instead have 3 weight class divisions. Heavy, Light Heavy, and Middle. Moving up would be treated as a big deal reserved for the best of the best similar to boxing. Each title wold be treated as a world title and worthy of a main event, similar to boxing. Emphasize not only ariel high flying action but also submission stlye wrestling as well. Combine the two into a new brand of wrestling now not seen outside of RoH perhaps.

As it is the wrestlers fall into 3 catagories: Monster, Journyman, Shorty there is no need for a weight division. If you want the titles to mean something then give it to a wrestler that can work several styles, that can make the opponet look like gold, and is smart enough to not fall into the boring predictable 5 moves of doom moveset.........that being said make Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe the #1 feud of 2006.

[Placebo Effect 0]

I disagree with every single of one of your points but the one about Raven.

 

I'm not going to get to ten, but...

 

1) CUT SCENES! Jesus people, if you're going to give a guy a new gimmick (Shelley last night for example) do a quick, thirty-second cut scene that establishes it.

2) Speaking of, the X Division guys need to slowly develop characters.

3) Show a video about AJ Styles that highlights his previous World Title wins. The new fans have no real reason why he's the face of TNA.

4) 6 PPVs a year IF, and only IF, it's financially sound. We've heard nothing about TNA's buyrates.

5) Stop treating people like Gail Kim and Jackie Gayda as huge acquisitions. TNA's been doing this since the weekly PPV days and it's awful.

6) Never, ever, ever show Don West's full length body in a non-tucked shirt again.

7) Special ring introductions for title matches rocked.

8) Get Jarrett was out of the main event. If they want to keep him around, push him down towards the mid-card and into a feud where he's seen as the dominating force against someone like Sabin, Hardy, etc.

9) Keep the six-sided ring.

10) Either put Apolo in that group with Homicide or fire him. I don't even want him around as a JTTS.

Edited December 4, 2005 by Placebo Effect

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

They need to have Don West DRIPPING in gold - watches, necklaces, rings - and wearing various outfits that expose his chest hair. The dude is sleazy. Let's sleaze him up some more.

 

They need to make the show seem more live. When Christian came out last night, it didn't seem natural or spontaneous. The less editing, the better.

 

And they need to use more inventive camera shots. Shaking the camera when there's action is annoying. They need to use zooms more, more panning, use more crane shots, maybe have cameras on some of the ring posts, etc. If it's possible to have a cinematic documentary feel, then I think they should strive for it.

[razazteca 0]

Was Don West the guy that had extension braids/dreads or was that Ed Ferrera?

[Placebo Effect 0]

Was Don West the guy that had extension braids/dreads or was that Ed Ferrera?

 

That was Ferrera.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

 

Shit, both dudes are sleazy. The third person in the booth should be a dominatrix who randomly gets them to lick her boots. And they refer to her as "Yes, m'lady." And Tenay needs Morty Seinfeld-esque thick lensed glasses.

[razazteca 0]

TWO wild and crazy guys!

[randomguy 0]

I have big problems with the 6-sided ring. I don't dislike the idea, but the execution has problems. One thing is that the ring just looks small. When you get a few guys in it it just looks really crowded.

 

Another problem is the ropes seem really tight. Like when guys bounce off the ropes it doesn't seem like the ropes really move at all.

 

A third problem is that I notice sometimes when a guy is going to bounce off the ropes he has to look backwards to make sure he lines up correctly and isn't too close to one of the six corners. It jus looks add and unnatural.

 

A lot of that could just be solved if the ring was bigger. Too much of the circumference of the ring is close to corners.

[Guest [censored]]

I have big problems with the 6-sided ring. I don't dislike the idea, but the execution has problems. One thing is that the ring just looks small. When you get a few guys in it it just looks really crowded.

 

Another problem is the ropes seem really tight. Like when guys bounce off the ropes it doesn't seem like the ropes really move at all.

 

A third problem is that I notice sometimes when a guy is going to bounce off the ropes he has to look backwards to make sure he lines up correctly and isn't too close to one of the six corners. It jus looks add and unnatural.

 

A lot of that could just be solved if the ring was bigger. Too much of the circumference of the ring is close to corners.

 

 

My original thought was that it needed to be bigger but than I thought about it more and decided I'd be happier if it was done away with all together. All of your observations are very good.

[Astro101 0]

The part about the ropes being tight is one of TNA's selling points about the ring when trying to explain the psychology of it. It's better for the X division guys when bouncing off them.

[gWIL 0]

"6. Get rid of the "X division" and instead have 3 weight class divisions. Heavy, Light Heavy, and Middle. Moving up would be treated as a big deal reserved for the best of the best similar to boxing. Each title wold be treated as a world title and worthy of a main event, similar to boxing. Emphasize not only ariel high flying action but also submission stlye wrestling as well. Combine the two into a new brand of wrestling now not seen outside of RoH perhaps."

 

I like the idea of 3 different weight classes, however it would work better to keep the X-Division as well, because it's about "no limits" and all 4 titles and the tag straps could main event any given show.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

While weight limits in the WWE would make sense, in TNA it doesn't realy work because they don't really have the diversity in talent size to get away with it.

[The Mandarin 0]

One company needs to take my idea of having Men's Department and Boys Department weight classes.

[Guest JMA]

4. Change the commentary. Even if it's something as simple as having Don West and Shane Douglas switch roles.

I'm glad that someone else thinks this would be a good idea.

Edited December 5, 2005 by JMA

[nl5xsk1 0]

4. Get rid of the 6 sided ring.

Why? I mean why get ring of one the unique things TNA has over WWE. Besides, I think the ring looks cool and lets the guys in the X Division, which should be the selling point of the company, do some great stuff. I don't see why it would cause someone not to watch.

 

Speaking as a VERY casual wrestling fan, if I flipped by TNA & saw two wrestlers that I'd never heard of wrestling in a 6-sided ring, with a well-known former Home Shopping Network guy announcing, I'd presume I was watching an American Gladiators/BattleDome type show and probably not watch it. It takes an already predetermined 'sport' and makes it look even less realistic.

[Astro101 0]

That's more the fans' fault though. TNA has a good product. They have great talent. They have a uniqueness. If they want those kind of fans that want "traditional" stuff with known wrestlers.....well, I guess that's why we had Jarrett and Nash.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Even if they put Nash & Jarrett in the 6 sided ring ... it looks unnatural. The template for a wrestling ring is 4 sides, 3 ropes, etc. To all of a sudden add an additional 2 sides looks peculiar.

 

I wish I knew the name of the show, but it reminds me of that fake show that used to be on Saturday afternoons, with a martial arts-theme. It was obviously a predetermined sport, with out even the pretense of pretending it was real, to the point that it made pro wrestling seem legit. That's the show that I think of when I see a 6 sided ring.

[Dangerous A 0]

The cables used in place of ropes is a good thing for TNA because it helps the smaller, X Division flier types to spring off of. The traditional ropes WWE still uses is not good for fliers and such. It's why guys like Shelton and RVD screw half their spots up and why Rey modified his style to where he only does a small handful of moves off the ropes because he knows he can execute them safely. (also, Mysterio is on SD and in the years, they've edited the shit out of a ton of Mysterio matches because he screwed up springboard rope moves)

 

As far as the ring being smaller, that helps and hurts. It helps, because TNA doesn't have a ton of big guys and so it helps with the visual of seeing small guys in a big ring. Take a look at how awkward it looks when the cruiserweights are in the huge WWE ring. As a visual, it hurts. Where it hurts is, TNA does indeed have a small amount of big guys like Abyss, Billy Gunn, and Kevin Nash. It doesn't look as good when those guys are in a small ring and bouncing off of cables.

 

Still, the six sided ring doesn't bother me. If it went away, I wouldn't cry either, but they should stick with a WCW smaller type ring with cables to keep the fliers in the air.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Here's 10 things I would do to TNA...

 

1. Get the belt off of Jeff Jarrett by April of '06 and onto either Raven or Christian. Raven's program with Zbysko should conclude with him gaining his rightful rematch clause that Zbysko and Jarrett are refusing him, and having him go over almost 3 years after Destiny would put a terriffic cap on the feud. Either that, or have Christian win it in February after his program with Monty Brown ends in January (maybe have a mini-blowoff where both men still have beef with each other, and no differences are solved, but Christian, who won at the January PPV, gets a title shot in February).

 

2. Have somebody continue to work with Monty Brown on toning down the gimmick of his act and turning it into a character. I loved the Brown/Christian in-ring tradeoff, and would love to see Brown do the "Alpha Male" stuff more subtley so as to help him get over outside of Orlando.

 

3. Make some rule changes to the X-Division to separate it from the rest of the company. I've touched on this before. I would have it be that the only DQs come from outside interference, excessive use of weapons, and purposefully harming the official in the ring. Make each X-Division match have no time limit, or maybe even make all title bouts 2/3 Falls (to give it the Lucha feel that the X-Division style was originally based off of).

 

4. Push Samoa Joe like a MOTHERFUCKER. Make him similar to the "Path of Rage"-era Taz in ECW, only less talk and more action. Don't have him completely squash people, and only have certain people even come CLOSE to beating him (could make new stars in the process by having a relative unknown like, say, Sonjay Dutt come close to defeating Joe, only to get caught in Muscle Buster out of nowhere and then choked out) but ultimately defeating. Not only does this put Joe's first one-on-one TNA loss over HUGE, but it also helps elevate whoever they choose to finally pin Joe or make him tap.

 

5. Have Raven start gaining more followers. It worked in ECW, it worked in WCW, and it worked in his first few months in TNA. It will ALWAYS work for Raven, as fans just buy him as the cult leader sort.

 

6. Stop having Abyss do the J-O-B to everybody and their grandmother. Have him DESTROY some people, just flat-out decimate them, before somebody having the guts to bring back the barbed wire to ultimately defeat him. Have Abyss go on a complete rampage that even frightens Jim Mitchell, and then we'll get TNA's first true monster back.

 

7. Give everybody a regular tag partner. They won't be competing for the Tag belts all the time, but when the booking calls for a tag match to hold off on the one-on-one PPV blowoff? The two wrestlers can use their regular tag partners, and new feuds can start this way. It also helps boost the credibility of the NWA World Tag Team belts if everybody has a partner and wants them.

 

8. Give more creative freedom to the lowercard guys. This was one of Vince Russo's only true strongpoints, in that he let the lowercard guys give him ideas on how they'd like to be used. If it worked? It worked. If it didn't? Back to the drawing board. Everybody in TNA is a "professional wrestler," but not enough of them have any reason to be in the company other than being a wrestler. I find something wrong with that.

 

9. Get some better theme music. Either hire a small team of musicians, be they professional studio musicians or members of bands that have either faded from the spotlight or are the "reunion show" groups (like Motley Crue, where they'll tour every here and there but not full-time), or get lesser-known bands to contribute material for TNA to use as theme music. A variety of music for the wrestlers helps differentiate them, and as many of us have said in other threads, one of TNA's biggest downsides is that most of the wrestlers have generic entrance themes.

 

10. Add a third, heel commentator. I enjoy Don West's enthusiasm towards the product, and I think Tenay is one of the more knowledgeable commentators in the business (although now that Raw has Styles, Tenay is no longer the best PBP guy on TV), but there's something missing. 3-man teams have worked in the past so long as all 3 add something different, so giving Impact/PPVs a 3rd, heel commentator with a decent enough knowledge of how to do PBP and enough wit to be a good color guy would be good.

[BUTT 0]

I wish I knew the name of the show, but it reminds me of that fake show that used to be on Saturday afternoons, with a martial arts-theme. It was obviously a predetermined sport, with out even the pretense of pretending it was real, to the point that it made pro wrestling seem legit. That's the show that I think of when I see a 6 sided ring.

 

WMAC Masters.

[Guest tony manero]

The six-sided ring has to fucking go.

 

Go back to an ECW/WCW-like ring.

 

TNA does not have the credibility to go from the traditional 4-sided ring to a gimmicky 6-sided one.

 

That's PART of the reason why the XFL failed; they tried to "revolutionize" football before they even established themselves as a reputable entity in the public eye.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Actually, the XFL failed because the initial games, and several of the ensuing ones, were terrible.

 

And no, the 6-sided ring does NOT have to go. I agree that it's gimmicky, and I don't care for it myself, but it's not such a hinderance to my enjoyment of the product that I think it needs to be removed.

[Astro101 0]

WMAC Masters...that takes me back.

 

Anyway, I think the two divisions should be established clearly and only one division should be fought in by a wrestler at a time. For instance, AJ is in the X division right now. Let's say he doesn't have the belt and wants to go after the heavyweight belt again. Make it a big deal that he has to formally SHIFT, not move up, to the heavyweight program. And if Samoa was in the heavyweight and wanted to move to the X division, make it a big deal that Samoa is moving to the X division. It has to be kinda formal and clear cut, kind of like a mini brand extension, but not sucky.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The XFL failed because they promised this revolutionary and groundbreaking and amazing thing and what they delivered was bad football.

 

TNA looks better with the 6 sided ring.