State of TNA + Impact + PPV + Other Guff!

If you don't want to get into a debate, then why make a point that is asking for one? I get that it is your opinion but to say it's a horrible product because you might have caught 10-15 minutes here and there or watched their YouTube uploads tells me how out of date your opinion on the topic is.

Because I wanted to discuss which of the TNA roster could last in WWE, not the product. I've already gicen my opinion on the product. No point repeating myself.

Don't assume all I've seen is some youyube videos. This year alone I've tried watching three episodes of Impact and had to turn over within half hour because it's just so second rate these days.

I dont see how forcing myself through two hours will change my opinion.

As for your question, Eric Young has more going for him than at least half of the current WWE midcard. Just to reel off a few names that Eric Young is much much better than; Ziggler, Miz, Kofi, Del Rio, Swagger, Christian, Mysterio, Big Show, Mark Henry. All but one of them are former World Champions and everyone of them are less credible than Young right now.

Bullshit. Young has some talent but has been booked horribly for years. This move by TNA is nothing but a cheap tactic to try and capitalise on WWEs success with Bryan you cant deny that. Yoing wouldn't be champ right now had Bryan not won at Mania.

Talent wise,  Kofi, Ziggler and Del Rio are better. Given the right push they would outsell Young on any given day.

Christian, Mysterio and Henry have a loyal fan base and I think they would easily outsell Young.

And if you mean he has more going for him booking wise then of course he does. He just got handed a World Title he clearly isn't right for. Young doesn't exactly scream top chanpion of a wrestling company. He's TNAs Santino.

Of course, bringing Bully Ray back as part of the Dudleyz is what WWE will do. They're one of the greatest tag teams in Wrestling history. But if Bully has shown anything deemed worthy of your viewing time, it's that he can be an excellent singles wrestler. And the final point about AJ Styles doing well to get out of dodge shows how little you know about TNA and the emptiness of your comments throughout the thread. Yes, he left because he was getting paid less than his expiring contract. Nothing to do with the product on show, more so the incompetence of those running the show.

Incompetence of running the show directly affects the quality of the booking and product in general. Its great that you want TNA to succeed but I dont know how you can defend a product that oozes of WCWs last days and consists of on the fly, non sensical booking.

I will defend TNA on some things in recent years: they made Bully a credible singles competitor, Roode and Gunner I am a fan of and they've always had a roster that is for the most part talented.

That is counteracted with abominations like Crimson,  Abyss' gimmick change to James Park or whatever it was, having a drugged Jeff Hardy compete in a PPV main event amongst other things.

It's not like I prefer to hate TNA.  I wish they could provide a decent alternative to WWE but when I cant sit through a single impact you cant expect me to sing their praises.

You can't really compare MMA with wrestling. MMA has more excitement because it is real and you need to watch ever single instant of the match, because it might end in a blink. Big Country beat Nogeria yesterday in an ugly win, but people cheered because they didn't know what was gonna happen. wwE doesn't have that. In mms, when someone wins a match in under a minute, they aren't burying someone, they just beat their ass. Wrestling has more excitement because they build story lines into the matches, and everyone expects a 'good triumphs over evil' ending to a storyline. UFC doesn't have THAT. Couture came back because he knew he could beat slow-ass Silva... and almost did it in the first 10 seconds of the match.

TNA is awful, but it isn't because of the talent. Every roster has good wrestlers and bad ones. Eric Young is the best character they've had in forever. He should have gotten the belt a long time ago (instead of whats-his-name from the Machine Guns). But for every Eric Young, TNA has 3 BroMans. Just like for every D Bry wwe has 3 (whatever the new Koslov clone is called). D Bry being the most popular wrestler on the roster had NOTHING to do with creative, they tried to bury him. It was just stars aligning. The wrestlers have no control over their story lines, and the creative team in TNA is just throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. When www does that, people just shrug & say 'idiots.' When TNA does the same thing, they're 'doomed.' TNA just needs to NOT be wwe-lite, and while DY has been my fav TNA character for a while, he got hosed with his first world title run being a d bry rip off.

You can't really compare MMA with wrestling. MMA has more excitement because it is real and you need to watch ever single instant of the match, because it might end in a blink. Big Country beat Nogeria yesterday in an ugly win, but people cheered because they didn't know what was gonna happen. wwE doesn't have that. In mms, when someone wins a match in under a minute, they aren't burying someone, they just beat their ass. Wrestling has more excitement because they build story lines into the matches, and everyone expects a 'good triumphs over evil' ending to a storyline. UFC doesn't have THAT. Couture came back because he knew he could beat slow-ass Silva... and almost did it in the first 10 seconds of the match.

No-one did. The point about Randy Couture was an example that if someone can return from a retirement in a legitimate combat sport, it shouldn't bypass the realm of a make-believe one. George Foreman would have probably been a better example.

TNA is the shits. I wish it wasn't. I've been more forgiving than most of the ridiculous stipulation matches and follow the BFG series a little too closely for my own good...

(By the way, they ran out of time to finish the BFG series so they just ended it early and claimed "we never said it would be a round robin format." They did.)

...but even I can't defend them anymore. Hell, I was very positive about things around Lockdown, a show that featured every single newer star going over every single older star. MVP and the Wolves beat Roode and the Bromans, Tigre Uno beat Manik, Sanata's team beat Sabin's team...it was great! Unfortunately, since then everything has fallen off a cliff.

Magnus was never a very good champion. His promos are fine, but he's just not good enough. They were building Samoa Joe pretty well, except that whole thing with Abyss dragging him to hell. Now suddenly EY is the champion? I don't get it. The guy is a joke, always has been, and he knows it. He stole the old title belt when a new one was introduced and pretended to be the champion because of how stupid the idea was that he could ever win it. He grew his beard out as a joke, saying he wouldn't shave until he won the world title. We'll see about that. Not only have they put the belt on a ridiculous guy, they've killed whatever good they've done with "paper champion" Magnus. And now the build to Sacrifice is about the heel chasing the title he just lost? How could anyone possibly care?

I want to give Sam Shaw a pass on being a stupid character because he does such a good job playing it, but my god. It's time to end this one. This storyline is so bad. None of it has made any sense, and it's ruined other storylines just by being there. They blew off Anderson v Bully Ray a week or two before Lockdown to get Anderson v Shaw on there. Why? Why can nothing wait?

Releasing all the old guys is a good move. I'm fine with losing AJ and even Daniels, they've been doing a fairly good job of replacing them with no-namers with some talent. I like Tigre and Sonata, EC3 has been excellent. But look at how these guys are treated. Sonata and Tigre had a best of three series set up, but the first match was interrupted by Kenny King. Why? And then nothing was said about the series this week. Angle dropped? Speaking of Kenny King, this guy shows up one week and MVP tells him that the show was booked up and he'd get him a match the following week. Kenny says fine. Next week, King comes to work on a golf cart and asks MVP what his match is going to be. MVP is in the middle of a promo, King says he'll wait. MVP tells him "this might take a while," so King leaves. MVP takes no more than five seconds to finish. Then, like a massive douchenozzle, MVP tells him the show is booked and he'll give King a match next week. King is now a heel for thinking this is unreasonable.

Speaking of which, wasn't the storyline that Dixie was a bad GM? She was supposed to be incompetent and unfair, showing clear bias to EC3 and Magnus. We had zero build to a match where MVP took control of wrestling operations (still confusing to some people who watch this show very closely) and immediately following this we get a scene where Samoa Joe tells MVP that every time he tries to make something right, he only makes it worse. Which is completely accurate. MVP thinks it's a good idea to book Joe in a match against Magnus and Magnus' sidekick Abyss, because it's not technically a handicap match. What a moron. And he can't keep his promises to Kenny King either. I want to like MVP, his promos are among the best in the company and his role as a semi-active GM is a very good one. Unfortunately, he's worse than Dixie at running things.

Magnus as champion was bad, Young as champion is bad, but neither decision is as bad as the situation itself being such a ridiculous imitation of WWE's scenario. Magnus is the face of the company, hand picked by the authority figures, flukes or cheats to win every match, labelled paper champion. Masked monster turns corporate. They just brought Bobby Lashley back, he should have been used in the Batista role. This week we even got the excellent heel and self-proclaimed bully, Bully Ray, now inexplicably a babyface, telling Dixie that "this is not your company, this is their company." They've stolen WWE's material and used worse talent to play it out. They were quite open about stealing the Punk angle for AJ, saying they wanted to do the same thing but to do it right. Congratulations, you sent him to Japan and Mexico! Where is he now? So much for doing it right.

I don't know if it's Dixie to blame, or Lagana or Russo or Christy Hemme, but this company can't do anything right. Bob and Janice Carter had enough and wanted to sell it, they were on the verge of actually doing it too, until they demanded that Dixie remain in a high up management position and an on-air personality. With that, the buyers decided it wasn't worth it. And they were right.

TNA is like a bad syfy channel show... it has tons of potential, and you tune it to see if they ever 'hit the mark'... but like most syfy shows, they never do.

Eric Young is deserves of the World title. At least anyone who has ever watched the show knows who he is. It's a good sign (these last few champions) that they r going to push the TNA guys, and not just the x-ewe guys.

Young has been there since almost the beginning. He worked his way up from a joke character, hitting every crap gimmick they gave him out of the park, and finally to a main evener (tho this last push seems a bit rushed to rip oof the d bey thing).

I like Tigre and Sonata, EC3 has been excellent. But look at how these guys are treated. Sonata and Tigre had a best of three series set up, but the first match was interrupted by Kenny King. Why? And then nothing was said about the series this week. Angle dropped?

This annoyed me the first time they did it and the first match between them wasn't up to much. This week they cut a nice little video of Sanada out training with inspirational messages. It got me in the mood to see the second match. Then Kenny King comes out again and flattens the moment with another promo. This weeks match was much better though. Then in the main event, this made me laugh. Eric Young got thrown into the wrong corner by Abyss to do his Ric Flair spill to floor. You got a lovely camera shot of the empty crowd on the hard camera side.

Wow, they really pack everyone into one side. Bad times. Also I imagine that would be really weird for the wrestlers having everyone on one side like that.

Sacrifice was on the other night, did anyone notice?

I think we can safely say Vince Russo is back in TNA in some creative capacity. That Bully Ray / Bobby Roode tables match was abysmally hilarious. It would have been an average match until the referee takes a bump from nothing. He literally stumbled backwards, fell over and collapsed on the floor. I think a leg was supposed to graze him on a powerbomb lift but it got so messed up it looked hilarious.

Then when Roode was laying on a couple of tables, Bully goes to the middle turnbuckle for a splash to put Roode through the tables. Then from ringside a "cameraman" puts down his camera, walks up behind Bully and pushes him off the turnbuckle and through the table as Roode moves out of the way.
But this was no usual cameraman, he had big thick glasses, big bushy beard and a baseball cap. It's Dixie, who immediately unveils herself. Her music plays and she walks off to end the match. Complete farce.

The whole point of a disguise was rendered pointless because the referee was knocked down and she came from behind Bully so it didn't matter what they were wearing, he was oblivious anyway.

There were some redeeming features on the PPV. Yes, TNA expected people to pay for this show. Tigre Uno vs. Sanada was pretty good and fast paced like the X-Division matches of old. Uno was a bit sloppy at times but didn't really detract from the match. The crowd were stone silent, half of them weren't even looking at the ring and others were doing stupid chants.

Gunner vs. James Storm was the best match on the card. A crazy, bloody, wild brawl that didn't deserve to be on this show. They beat the crap out of each other and was like a no holds barred match from the 80's. Gunner suplexed Storm through a propped up guard-rail for the finish and made him say I quit when he started stabbing him with a shard of glass. If the atmosphere and venue was much better this would have been a great match.

Last edited by Rossman (Tue-29-Apr-2014 20:30:29)

That gif genuinely made me laugh. Best ref bump ever. If anyone can find a better ref bump, start a thread!

Maybe the ref's got a low blood sugar count and passed out? 😋

Yeah, that really was something...

I like how his feet shuffle around for a bit, like they're trying to work out what to do.

TNA really only have one angle don't they. Babyface vs. the Authority. They finally get Dixie off the show (kinda) and now decide to turn their authority figure, MVP heel so he can face Eric Young at the next PPV.

Kurt Angle is going to be out for months because he's needs surgery on his knee. He might be back for Bound For Glory but his contract runs out around that time too. This might be a well orchestrated plan to get all of his recurring injuries fixed. So he can be healthy for a run somewhere else.

That's what I was thinking. Heal now then sign somewhere else when his contract expires. Didnt Angle say he wants to finish his career in WWE? And I'm sure he could go on a run in japan too as backup.

TNA is doing a good job lately of trying to make new stars. The EC3 character is gold and they are running with it. Rockstar Spud is the funniest comedy character wrestling has had in a long time. Samuel Shaw has a storyline that is getting a good reaction. I'm not the biggest fan of Gunner, but they are trying to make him too. Unfortunately TNA leaves people like Austin Aries off TV for 6 weeks for no reason, I hate that. Kenny King has potential, but TNA have to actually put faith in him and dont be so inconsistent

TNA have just realised they haven't got any stables going at the minute. So they've thrown Kenny King & Bobby Lashley in with MVP to form Nation of Domination 2014. Its a terrible idea, Bobby Lashley is shit at everything he attempts. Unconvincing talker with a girly voice, Massive physique but he still can't make basic moves look authentic or at least look like they hurt. Jury's out on what Kenny King brings but they will spin it with some tripe about MVP & King arguing for weeks because it was their big plan.

The new group The Menagerie don't really have much legs to it. They look impressive but Knux is the only one who can wrestle. The Freak AKA Rob Terry looks like an imposing monster but we all know how disastrous it gets when he steps through the ropes. His main role at the moment is to pose in the ring.

The Crazy Steve character had a match against Kaz this week and spent most of it running around & throwing Kaz out of the ring. He then did a splash onto a pile of balloons and the rest of the group got into the ring started posing and jumping about. The referee called the match a No Contest and he & Kaz just walked off. I'm still unsure what the point of it was.

The triple threat X Division match this week between Sanada, Tigre Uno & Zema Ion was fairly poor. Tigre spent most of it lying on the floor outside whilst Sanada & Ion didn't really do much. They've upgraded Tigre Uno's entrance to shoot confetti as well as streamers out when he comes to the ring. The only problem is, from then until the end of the show, everyone was rolling around getting covered in confetti. Can't TNA afford a broom to sweep it out of the ring? They really need to inject some new life into this division because its on its arse. Sanada really has a lot of potential with all of these inspired vignettes he keeps doing. He's already faced Aries, Daniels & Styles in Japan. But he needs someone better to face than a DJ and a clumsy tiger if they have any hope to get him over in the US. What does One Tiger actually mean? Its a crap name that doesn't mean anything.

Theres rumours WWE are considering a Nation of Domination rehash  with Big E, Woods, Truth and Kofi.

Not sure what to think of it especially since TNA have just done the same thing. Either way rehashed factions are usually terrible so hopefully it's just a rumour.

Terrible episode of Impact this week, Black Evolution spent two, thirds of the show in every segment trying to get the group over. MVP called Davey Richards, Eddie. Taz was calling Willow, Jeff on commentary and then hastily changed topics. Can't they cut out the fuck ups on post production or are they that lazy they don't care. The Beautiful People are back together and its such a worn out team/angle its depressing. Gail Kim has turned face because that giant woman got released/left. No X-Division match on the show was disappointing. Anderson & Storm had three, one minute segments of a drinking competition but Anderson was drinking water or non-alcoholic beer then beat up Storm once he was pissed. Classy babyface move. Furthermore Storm has been acting fairly dark and mysterious over the past few weeks, here he was acting goofy and doing more comedic stuff which was distracting.

I think the mix ups with the names were deliberate. They've been talking about Willow as "Jess Hardy's alter ego" the whole time, probably because Willow is Jeff's idea and they can't tell him they don't want him doing it, but they still want to promote their biggest name. If Cena decided he wanted to be Sin Cara for a year, WWE would definitely make it as clear as possible that it was John Cena behind the mask. And MVP mixing up the Wolves was a heel move, just to show they're interchangeable to him. I thought it was pretty funny.

There was way too much MLK on the show, MVP alone didn't shut up for the first 40 minutes. I'm ok with the group, but they're quickly becoming 2003 Evolution. It's crazy to think how long ago the Beautiful People were formed, but given the alternative of each one in singles I'm completely fine with them being back together seven years on. It's a much better role for Velvet than a firey babyface wrestler. She's terrible at that.

The beer drinking segments were really bad. Predictable too. And I don't get why they were necessary. Why did Anderson need to get Storm drunk to attack him? If he wanted to make him pass out so he could throw him into the Psychiatric Services van, fine, but just to throw him over a table? He could have done that anyway! And considering it's Storm's job to be beaten up multiple times every week, who cares that he got attacked here? In fact, Anderson buying all his drinks and putting $100 in his mouth at the end made it a good day.

Highlight of the week was Bram asking Magnus "What are you gonna do about it?" and immediately being floored.

I think the mix ups with the names were deliberate. They've been talking about Willow as "Jess Hardy's alter ego" the whole time, probably because Willow is Jeff's idea and they can't tell him they don't want him doing it, but they still want to promote their biggest name. If Cena decided he wanted to be Sin Cara for a year, WWE would definitely make it as clear as possible that it was John Cena behind the mask. And MVP mixing up the Wolves was a heel move, just to show they're interchangeable to him. I thought it was pretty funny.

I thought it was a terrible move, the crowd were dead for it, two people started a lackadaisical "you fucked up" chant then they carried on talking. Surely everyone knows Davey is the one with the horrible ginger mohawk. Also I don't like the way MVP is constantly play acting when someone else is talking. Rubbing the eyes for sarcastic crying, wafting his hand near his mouth to say their breath stinks. He's taking the focus of the other person & trying to keep it for himself.

Bram seems like such an odd character, its like they forgot Gunner existed and hired a Lancashire version of him without the tattoo's.

Last week's show was poor, this weeks was abysmal. Generic 10 minute talking at the start to set up an impromptu 6 man match between Black Evolution & the Wolves/Aries. Run of the mill match with MVP getting legit KO'ed half way through. Bram had his first match against Tigre Uno and squashed him within a couple of minutes. They've been building up Uno, one of their only X-Division wrestlers then they crush him. Put Bram in there with a jobber to preserve Uno. Next week he gets to face Willow. At the end of the show they did a hype vignette with clips of the impending match with the Twitter hashtag #impactlive. Not sure how that works. Gunner/Anderson teamed up for a short match against the Bro-Mans. The Menagerie came out at the end did a load more jumping and posing. Rob Terry threw one of the Bro-Mans in the air for a flapjack and then they cut to something else. No point in that segment at all. Dixie Carter seems to have wormed her way back onto TV with EC3 for this Bully Ray angle which has amalgamated into the MVP/Eric Young feud. The only way this feud can have a satisfying ending is if Dixie goes through a table. Which I can't see happening. More 10 minute talk sessions which was helpfully tied up at the end with a graphic after I had skipped the promo. Bully Ray vs. Eric Young in the main event with Black Evolution around ringside & EC3 as referee. Skipped the women's match but from what I gather Brittany is infatuated with Madison Rayne & wants to lez off with her. The main event was terrible, neither of the babyfaces wanted to hurt each other so it was a lot of stalling & Black Evolution kept interfering. Then the returning Samoa Joe came out and cleared house. He's been off for two months, no actual storyline reason for his disappearance, he just wasn't there, no he is. In closing, don't watch this weeks Impact, it's shit.

Another TNA sell out at one of their Basebrawl house shows on Friday night.

Oh dear... that's just embarrassing.

Wow... I never realised things were quite that bad. Just hurry up and die, TNA.