BOYCOTT TNA

[razazteca 0]

TNA needs to lower its wrestle scale from +8 to a more reasonable +1.

[Jingus 0]

...what the hell does that mean?

 

I timed the last episode of Impact. Out of a one-hour show, they had a measely ten and a half minutes of actual wrestling.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Raza is referring to: This

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm telling you, OVW is a much better week to week TV show than TNA. It at least has more than 10 minutes of wrestling on it.

[razazteca 0]

99% of all indy promotions will have more wrestling cause that is where they LEARN how to wrestle! Too bad the talent can't use those skills on national tv cause they are told to tone down the style to make the elderly WWE guys look good.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah but it's not like the typical OVW show has guys busting out crazy moves, it's just that it's an actual wrestling show. As in there's a segment with the tag champs wrestling, OVW champ either wrestling or cutting a promo, TV champ now defends every week, and thankfully the Six Flags stuff is almost over and the actual women's division can start up again (instead of Divalympics).

[geniusMoment 0]

OVW is horrible. I couldn't be paid to watch that crap, the only thing worse in Cincy is Les Thatchers promotion that comes on after it.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, I didn't say that OVW had the greatest in ring work in the world, far from it. And obviously the production is 3rd rate and dingy, since it's taped at a glorified warehouse. I mostly refer to the actual booking of OVW as compared to TNA and how OVW makes use of its 1 hour much better and gets over what they need to get over without it ever seeming rushed or chaotic.

[tigeraid 0]

I've been boycotting TNA, though not directly wanting or deciding to. It's just been too awful to watch.

 

TNA has almost completely buried their entire roster in favour of WWE has-beens. One or two being put in the spotlight fine, but this is just ridiculous.

 

Test - Sucks. Why is he here? Who's idea was this? He wasn't relevant in 1999, why would he be relevant now?

 

Matt Morgan - Excellent big man, tons of potential... So what do they do? They INTRODUCE him by having him stand behind Jim Cornette in his office while Cornette cuts a promo and doesn't even ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE'S THERE. In one promo, Brother Ray actually has to say "hey is that Matt Morgan???"

 

Team 3D - booooooooooooooring. And they're both heinously out of shape and get blown up 3 minutes into a match. They weren't relevant in WWE a few years ago, so why would they be interesting now? At least they FINALLY turned them heel (they had no choice, the crowd was shitting on them) so Bubba can cut some decent promos again.

 

Steiners - Scott Steiner is a trainwreck, but he's an entertaining trainwreck. Rick is completely out of ring shape and shouldn't be there. While the story behind Steiners vs 3D is a good one, this is taking up way-too-valuable TV time that could be putting over new tag teams.

 

Sting - Complete waste of time and money. He's being paid more than half the fuckin roster combined, pretty much sucks in the ring, and hasn't done a THING for buyrates or ratings. I admire his effort to stay in shape and keep working, but he's old and played out. And they buried half the roster to put him over in a failed attempt at a title feud.

 

Christian - In my opinion, the only cast-off that's been dealt with properly. His face run with the belt, in terms of storyline and promos, was kinda meh, he's always been better as a heel. But when he had the belt, heel OR face, he did great work in the ring, busted his ass and really put the company over whenever he could. His feud with Abyss was great in particular, and he's arguably the best heel on the roster now.

 

Kurt Angle - Huge swerve, really grabbed some attention for TNA, and I'll admit I marked for him showing up. But it all went downhill from there. It started by clearly and concisely putting him over Joe--why didn't they just make the 3rd match a draw? I'm still not in the camp that believed the feud should've been held off--I thought the three matches were fine, but they had to CLEARLY put Angle over the guy who arguably should be the future of the company. Angle is old and broken--he moves at half the speed he used to, takes zero risks, and unlike his old angle in ECW of the "MMA badass", which FIT him going slower and taking less risks, we're back to the Angle of old, trying to be a comedy act. I only ever really bought him in WWE as the MMA badass, or as the goofy babyface with a heart of gold. This new Angle is unentertaining, and not all that much fun to watch in the ring anymore. And now IMPACT is unquestionably "The Kurt Angle show." Every fuckin week we have to stomach half the show being taken up by awful unfunny promos and segments with him and his wife, and burying most of the roster by holding all the belts. Genious.

 

New Age Outlaws - I refuse to call them anything else, because that's what they still are. Old, tired men who barely had talent in 1997, never mind today. Continue to waste time on IMPACT with shit no one cares about, and continue to go over in matches against talent that SHOULD be main eventing (like LAX or the Motor City Machine Guns.) I mean, Homicide was pinned clean by Billy Gunn. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, HOMICIDE.

 

At least Billy Gunn had the balls to stand up and point out that Pacman Jones is a useless tit who shouldn't be on TV.

 

Pacman Jones - Jesus fucking christ, this is the #1 reason I'm not watching IMPACT anymore. I didn't even know who this guy was until I read about it. Signing a goddamn criminal, who has nothing but a bad reputation, who can't wrestle AND isn't allowed to wrestle, and waste our time with segments involving him all the time. Bringing in mainstream celebrities and sports guys in ANY wrestling fed leads to failure, but TNA seems to have made an art out of it. No one CARES about this shit, STOP IT.

 

----

 

And what about the TNA talent you ask? Gone. Buried. Shit. The future of the business, the young, awesome, hungry talent, virtually non-existent.

 

Samoa Joe - all at once the best off, and the worst off. He's been in the main event scene, which is good. The crowd is NUTS over him, which is good. So every few months, Joe goes through a big conveluted storyline that builds him up as the "babyface chasing the badass heel" over and over and over and over and over again. So what happens? He jobs. Over and over and over and over again. This last time, he jobs FOR ALL THE BELTS IN TNA. He's repeatedly been made to look like a joke, even falling for the most tired, predictable swerve in all of wrestling, when Karen Angle turned on him to help her husband. LAME. Thankfully his contract is up soon, we can only hope he goes back to ROH.

 

AJ Styles - On the one hand, he's fun to watch as a heel, and his promos are really starting to come around as a result of it. But, either way, he's languishing in the mid-card while all the WWE rejects take his spotlight. He's been responsible for multiple MOTY candidates, he was in the feud of 2005 with Daniels and Joe, and the feud of 2006 with LAX. There's no reason he shouldn't be main eventing TNA all year. He's the face of TNA, the most recognizable and most popular of TNA's "home-grown" talent--instead he's Christian's stooge.

 

Christopher Daniels - He goes through all the trouble of a character change into this new, darker, badass Fallen Angel, Sting offers to run a program with him to put him over, yet the creative team shits all over it and buries him. He does a few run-ins on Sting, plays a couple mind games, they have one abysmal PPV match where Sting essentially SQUASHES HIM, and that's the end of the feud because Russo thought "it just wasn't working." So they "reward" him by putting XXX back together. Which of course means Daniels, who's busted his ass and paid his dues for 15 years, who cuts one of the best promos in the business, who should be main eventing TNA after being in the feud of the year with Joe and AJ in 2005, and against LAX in 2006, is now floundering again in the X-Division, which he's been in for-fuckin-ever, and which TNA doesn't even care about and may bury anyway. Ridiculous

 

Low Ki - Arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world, came in an won the X-title almost immediately, had a few great matches, then lost it and was completely buried. He's now made a comeback with a reformed XXX, but in a division that's going nowhere and is booked poorly. There's no reason he shouldn't be main eventing either.

 

Abyss - Unstoppable monster? He used to be. Know he talks, has lost the best manager in the business today, and has jobbed to everyone on the roster at least twice. Why hasn't he had a long run with the belt? He had one very brief run, and he was buried--it was like a Rey Mysterio title run, except with a 300 lb man. He's just about the best big man in the business today, and his talent is squandered on mid-card hardcore matches. Terrible.

 

Motor City Machine Guns - Probably the second-best tag team in the entire world next to The Briscoes, and where are they? Jobbing to fucking Billy Gunn and the Road Dawg on XPLOSION. There's NO reason they shouldn't be feuding with LAX for the tag titles right now, with Team 3D and the Steiners not even in the fucking picture.

 

Jay Lethal - While the Macho Man gimmick is hilarious and his impersonation is PERFECT, this angle can't continue for long, otherwise he'll never be anything but a comedy act. There's no reason he shouldn't be having a nice long title feud in the X-Division. Instead, they jobbed him out to Joe on his FIRST NIGHT AS CHAMPION, just so they could put the belt, and ALL belts, on Angle. Retarded.

 

LAX - Where'd they go? They were part of the feud of 2006 against AJ and Daniels, including two of the most memorable matches in TNA history. Homicide is great on the mic and has endless talent in the ring, and Hernandez is one of the better big men there is, incredibly agile for his size. They thankfully had a good long run with the belts, one of the few things TNA has done right--but then they jobbed out to Team 3D (for no good reason, they SUCK) and have virtually disappeared. Homicide jobbed to BILLY FUCKING GUNN in a conveluted tag match with Rick Steiner. That is an embarassment.

 

Jerry Lynn - So disgusted by the current direction of TNA, he requested his release. Good on him, maybe he'll show up in ROH for a short run and put over some young talent, which is what he is the BEST at doing. Something he hardly did at all in TNA when he wrestled the last few months.

 

Rhino and Raven - Don't even get me started. Both had hugely popular title wins in the last few years that faded into complete nothingness thanks to the creative team's opinion of them. While Rhino isn't that great in the ring, both of these guys can work their ass off, and Raven in particular should be, if not wrestling solidly in the mid-card, at least using his talent on the mic to put others over. Instead they're either not seen on TV, or squandered repeatedly in lower card matches and forgotten about weekly.

 

Petey Williams - Had a really shitty babyface turn that wasn't at all believable, and is now virtually nonexistant. Another guy who should be feuding for the X-Title. I miss Team Canada.

 

Bobby Roode - Sucks. Why is he even on TV? His in-ring work is horrible, his mic work is horrible and his angles are unentertaining. Yet he has "the look" so he keeps getting booked.

 

America's Most Wanted - Broken up now, of course, which means Chris Harris gets a decent push and James Storm gets buried in the lower card. Their matches against each other were awesome, but where do you go from here?

 

---

 

That's about all I can think of to rant about right now. The company's direction is a joke, they're burying their top young talent in favour of has-beens, and we all know Jarrett is waiting in the wings to come back as a triumphant babyface (that will either not be cheered, or cheered out of pity for his wife, may she rest in peace) and ruin the title scene for another year. He was never much of a main eventer even in his prime, and he's just awful now. It's only going to get worse.

 

There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, that AJ, Daniels and Joe aren't essentially repeating their feud from 2005 in the heavyweight title scene. None. It was an amazing feud that drew interest to the product and it can do it all over again, even with a little Angle or Christian thrown in to spice things up.

 

There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, why LAX and the Motor City Machine Guns aren't feuding for the tag titles as we speak, or, assuming XXX needs to exist at all, why Low Ki/Daniels/Skipper aren't feuding with them either. Team 3D and the Steiners need to go away.

 

There's no reason, NONE whatsoever, why Angle should be holding the X-Division title, and no reason whatsoever why Jay Lethal lost it. There's no reason Lethal shouldn't still have it right now, and be feuding with Low Ki for it. They had awesome matches in ROH together, they can do it again.

 

They keep putting gimmick match after gimmick match after gimmick match on display, both the traditional kind (6 sides of steel, Iron Man match) and the ridiculous kind (King of the Mountain, reverse Battle Royale) to the point where they're meaningless and boring. And most are confusing, to boot. Gimmick matches are supposed to be built toward during a feud, not just tossed out there randomly.

 

Their tag line is "We Are Wrestling" and they constantly put over how they're an alternative to WWE, yet all they do is put over washed up WWE talent and do the same insulting bullshit storylines WWE does.

 

If you asked me a year ago about TNA, I would've raved about how awesome it was (other than the Sting bullshit), but now I can't even stomach watching it OR WWE.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Tigeraid, I'm on the same page as you buddy.

[razazteca 0]

Love the rant there so what's you're opinion on Frankie Kazarian, Michael Shane Bentley, Johnny Divine, Eric Young, Shark Boy?

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Love the rant there so what's you're opinion on Frankie Kazarian, Michael Shane Bentley, Johnny Divine, Eric Young, Shark Boy?

Can't speak for tigeraid, but for me:

 

Kazarian - Awesome and he's getting a decent enough push...too bad it's buried under so much other crap.

 

Michael Shane - Sucks in the ring, sucks on the mic, wouldn't miss him.

 

Divine - Good worker, would like him to be in the X Division

 

Eric Young - Was waaaay over but that was squandered on feuding with Roode way too long.

 

Shark Boy - Awesome and needs to have comedy matches on the show regularly. Bring in Ebessan for a match; bring back Norman Smiley; bring in LA Park.

[AlexPuma 0]

This boycott stuff of TNA is a little overblown. I mean, for every problem I can see in TNA, I can name another problem in RoH and two more in WWE. Yes, the Russo/Mantel booking team and WCW locker room morale is horrible stuff. Pacman Jones is probably the worst thing to happen to the company. But it isn't worth boycotting the company over. Wait until the company does something worth boycotting over, like crucifying Tommy Dreamer or raping a mannequin or something. Yes, TNA needs a hard kick in the nuts, but boycotting the show, especially when you don't have a Nielsen box, is going to do nothing.

 

And keep in mind, I haven't watched TNA i months... but I haven't been watching wrestling in general either. So the problem is with the industry now, not TNA.

[razazteca 0]

Concerning Michael Shane who was Havoc or was it Martr anyways I see him as the mini Billy Gunn as a person who should never ever be given a solo push. This guy needs a complete gimmick makeover shave his head paint him blue call him a Smurf I don't care give him something other than the bland junior college kid look that he refuses to let go. I kind of want Kazarian to be the X champion I would rather see him put over in the match against Kurt Angle than the comedy act that is Jay Lethal. I say that Havoc & Martr should stay as a tag team and be thrown into the mix with McMg, XXX, LAX. Hell they could of done better with Ron Killings than let him be the baby sitter for the football player like I don't know have him be the voice for LAX with Killings & Homicide getting the tag team title shot. I'm on board the Eric Young bandwagon now too bad the announcers don't put him over selling all the mannerisms that Eric does from his entrance to the tone of his voice to his expressions. And you know its a blessing whenever Sharkboy gets on tv once every 3 months or so the guy is just pure comedy genius.

[tigeraid 0]

Love the rant there so what's you're opinion on Frankie Kazarian, Michael Shane Bentley, Johnny Divine, Eric Young, Shark Boy?

 

Kazarian was buried with the Seratonin bullshit, and having him turn on the group would've been great, if the group had gotten over in the first place and hadn't been buried themselves. He's the best of the X-Division "B-team" as I like to call them (Bentley when he was there, Sonjay Dutt, Kaz, Williams) but if the whole division's going in the shitter, his push won't help.

 

Bentley of course is gone now, but even when he was there, the Seratonin gimmick was dumb and failed anyway... as the "regular" Matt Bentley is was the slowest and least talented of the X-Division--in every match he was in with AJ Styles, Daniels, Low Ki, etc etc he looked like he was 2 steps behind. He belongs on Smackdown with the midget guy who has the belt.

 

Johnny Devine was pretty useless in Team Canada, he's even more useless on his own. Has no business in the X-Division either.

 

Eric Young has tons of charisma, and is quite the wrestler (watch his BCW stuff if you don't believe me) but considering how much of a pussy his storylines turned him into, I don't see him ever becoming more than a lower card comedy act. Which is a shame.

 

Shark Boy is Shark Boy--they occasionally let him do real comedy stuff, like his Steve Austin impression a while ago, but they really should run with it--he could be what The Hurricane was on RAW, having funny promos and going out and doing some decent wrestling in the lower card.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

Love the rant there so what's you're opinion on Frankie Kazarian, Michael Shane Bentley, Johnny Divine, Eric Young, Shark Boy?

 

Eric Young has tons of charisma, and is quite the wrestler (watch his BCW stuff if you don't believe me) but considering how much of a pussy his storylines turned him into, I don't see him ever becoming more than a lower card comedy act. Which is a shame.

 

I kinda of dug the paranoid, though he was getting fired Eric at first, but that got tired in about three weeks. Then they turn him into a giant moron of a pussy with Roode and Traci Brooks. And now he's aligned with Gail Kim in the never ending feud with Roode? (At least after the last PPV anyway) Young could be a decent player if given the chance, but that'll probably never happen.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

Interesting posts, tigeraid. Nice to see another Londoner, too.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

This boycott stuff of TNA is a little overblown. I mean, for every problem I can see in TNA, I can name another problem in RoH and two more in WWE. Yes, the Russo/Mantel booking team and WCW locker room morale is horrible stuff. Pacman Jones is probably the worst thing to happen to the company. But it isn't worth boycotting the company over. Wait until the company does something worth boycotting over, like crucifying Tommy Dreamer or raping a mannequin or something. Yes, TNA needs a hard kick in the nuts, but boycotting the show, especially when you don't have a Nielsen box, is going to do nothing.

 

And keep in mind, I haven't watched TNA i months... but I haven't been watching wrestling in general either. So the problem is with the industry now, not TNA.

 

I pretty much agree that the boycott stuff is way overblown. TNA isn't as good as it could or should be, and I don't go out of my way to watch it right now. Kurt Angle's stuff is tough to watch. Still, I can't WWE and will watch TNA occasionally, and I find ROH to be just miserable lately.

[tigeraid 0]

Interesting posts, tigeraid. Nice to see another Londoner, too.

 

Indeed! Comin' to Detroit in two weeks for the ROH show?

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

Interesting posts, tigeraid. Nice to see another Londoner, too.

 

Indeed! Comin' to Detroit in two weeks for the ROH show?

Naw, I'm ridiculously out of touch with wrestling right now, especially ROH and the indy scene. Looking at the scheduled talent for the Detroit show, there's about a dozen names I either don't recognize, or haven't seen in a match. Including Morishima.

 

I haven't watched much of anything wrestling-wise since WrestleMania, and nothing since Raw is Benoit.

 

It's disheartening reading that things haven't improved in TNA since the start of the year. And that Angle is every champ, and... err... polishing his medal on TV.

 

As a side note: TNA's website sure has some shitty banner ads.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm with tigeraid on most of that stuff aside from Daniels' promo ability. The dude sucks on the mic and just doesn't project much charisma, which is a major reason why that Sting feud didn't work.

 

The alarming thing about TNA is that I don't hear about much of anyone aside from Angle playing politics. These old guys are just being booked to go over because the creative team is simply booking it.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

I'm with tigeraid on most of that stuff aside from Daniels' promo ability. The dude sucks on the mic and just doesn't project much charisma, which is a major reason why that Sting feud didn't work.

 

The alarming thing about TNA is that I don't hear about much of anyone aside from Angle playing politics. These old guys are just being booked to go over because the creative team is simply booking it.

 

I don't know which is more frustrating -- old guys politicking, or this scenario. I know part of the reason Sting came in was to pass the torch, an opportunity that never really presented itself in WCW. It's a shame that didn't pan out.

[tigeraid 0]

I'm with tigeraid on most of that stuff aside from Daniels' promo ability. The dude sucks on the mic and just doesn't project much charisma, which is a major reason why that Sting feud didn't work.

 

Jesus, you need to watch more of Daniels' work in the past. He's a god on the mic, sir. Watch his early Prophecy stuff in ROH.

[razazteca 0]

Matt Morgan - Excellent big man, tons of potential... So what do they do? They INTRODUCE him by having him stand behind Jim Cornette in his office while Cornette cuts a promo and doesn't even ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE'S THERE. In one promo, Brother Ray actually has to say "hey is that Matt Morgan???"

The first thing I thought was did Jim Cornette step into a time machine and bring back Big Bubba Rogers from 1987 WCW? I was also expecting Jim to start attacking people who entered his office with his Liberace tennis racket. Its not a bad way to introduce Morgan but I fear that he will get lost in the sea of the generic big men who generally do nothing in TNA. Really what makes him different than Test, Nash, Hoyt, Tomko? If Morgan is going to be anything then they must purge the company of the guys who are lounging around on holiday. People like Road Dog, Billy Gunn, Nash, Steiners, Test, random pop culture icon need to be taken off of tv before any of the real talent are going to be perceived as stars.

[cabbageboy 0]

Tigeraid, that sounds like me referring back to Van Dam's fun ECW mic work. Is any of this supposedly god like Daniels stuff on You Tube? I might check that out, but I don't care enough to buy a bunch of DVDs over it.