Erm... hate to be the one to point this out but the WrestleMania card currently has

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
The Undertaker vs. Bray Wyatt
Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins
John Cena vs. Rusev

Seems like a pretty fantastic mix of established older stars and new younger stars to me. WWE certainly seem to be doing more on this front than TNA currently are.

I'm chilled lol.

And to be fair, I can see 3/4 of those new stars going over. Only one I can't is Rusev because it's Cena lol.

it doesnt always have to be wwe vs tna

tna doing ok with youngsters too

Okay, I wasn't really saying that WWE is a terrible place where talent can't thrive, I was saying that personally, I'd rather see people who WWE currently aren't interested in, on TV rather than not.

Angle and Hardy can't work in WWE right now, and you're right that it's almost certainly for medical reasons. You may think it would be better for them personally if they were forced to stop working altogether, but I personally feel that's their decision, and if they want to work, and an audience wants to watch them (and that includes me), then they should be allowed to. TNA gives them that opportunity.

I think there is a cultural dimension to it too, albeit a small one. For example, I really like Bully's TNA character and I want to watch it. Given how they used him recently, WWE obviously think it's worthless. So that's another reason I'm glad TNA exists - they air characters, angles and people (like EY too, actually) who I enjoy and we can assume we wouldn't currently get a chance on WWE TV. Not that WWE TV isn't sporadically very good, in a different way, and within the parameters of their house style.

As for Aries, I kind of agree. I think if you could go back in time and things happened differently, he could have been CM Punk and Daniel Bryan combined. Although again, you can't deny there is a culture clash element to Punk and Bryan in WWE. Although Punk managed to become a big deal, he was somewhat sidelined as champion and, famously, ultimately couldn't get along with the company and departed in pretty dramatic style. Bryan is blatantly held down, despite being their most over star by some margin. So yes, Punk and Bryan have had success in WWE, but clearly they are somewhat at odds with the culture and politics there, no?

Yeah I kinda wanna stress this too. I'm not interested in bigging up TNA over WWE, and I'm certainly not praying for WWE to close or anything stupid like that.

My position is just that I quite like some aspects of TNA, I don't think their shows are all that bad, and I want them to continue being in business. Sometimes from the reactions I get just saying that, you'd think I was claiming Hitler was right.

And on WWE, I like it! No damn, I love it! I grew up on it. I go to see it live multiple times a year. I'm a network subscriber. But I'm not blind to its increasing corporatism and creative and political conservatism. Or the gradually shrinking wrestling market which I believe that culture is responsible for. Again, just making these points, from the reaction sometimes you'd think I was supporting Al Qaeda.

So yeah. Peace!

But surely this implies that TNA is the only place they'd get that opportunity which seems exceptionally unlikely.


I don't think that's a fair assumption at all.

Bully Ray is 43 years old. That WWE (seemingly) have little to no interest in hiring him and pushing him as a serious upper card guy doesn't necessarily equate to them seeing no value in him or having no respect for what he's done in TNA. Indeed there's much to suggest that they did in fact rate what he was doing in TNA given that apparently showed some interest in bringing him for a singles run. Unfortunately for him I think the timings haven't really lined up. WWE is clearly leaning into a bit of a youth movement right now so bringing in a 43 year old former tag team wrestler for an upper card singles run doesn't really factor into that.


But I'd contend that same culture (or a variant on it) exists within TNA and that actually Austin Aries is a good example of that. He's not had a sustained run at the top of TNA and has seemingly been sidelined and pulled off track by the same kind of concerns and politics that are prevalent within WWE.

First of all, that's a good point about Aries. His red hot championship run was sidelined for ... guess who? From what Aries has said, possibly at the behest of Bischoff. I'm certainly not claiming TNA is politics-free! Especially during the Hogan / Bischoff era. Things do seem like a pretty decent meritocracy at the present time, though.

I'm personally not really convinced WWE were seriously considering Bully as anything other than a one night deal.

Also, while TNA might not be the only place non-WWE workers can go, it's the only place with weekly TV which I can easily watch where non-WWE workers can go! And again we come back to the question: If TNA is so awful, where is the new alternative promotion kicking it out of business? I'm not wedded to TNA. I'd love a new, better alternative promotion to replace it. But where is it? My hypothesis, as you know, is that the market just isn't there for a no. 2 promotion any bigger than TNA, and, sadly I might add, I've yet to see any real evidence to the contrary. I don't take any pleasure in that BTW!

there is room for a number 2 company that is bigger than TNA

if dixie has a clue we would see it. lets not blame the industry or fanbase.

I'd make two points here

1 – I still think this argument looks to absolve TNA of too much responsibility for the state of the industry. TNA being as big as the industry allows as an argument tends to overlook or excuse TNA's role in their own demise and the shrinking of the industry. Which leads us onto point two...

2 – The argument that TNA have poisoned the well. Their failures (which are almost entirely of their own making) have left us in a position where the belief is this is as good as it gets right now.

With that said I think its going to be interesting to track how New Japan's expansion into the US market goes. It'll also be interesting to see if Lucha Underground can continue getting traction or not and where that ultimately leads.

I might also float an idea that WWE has gone ahead and slightly undercut everyone else with the rise of NXT. Its getting a lot of the press and attention that should ideally be going to a non-WWE backed company.

Yeah I think those are reasonable interpretations, even though I'd still go more with my (depressing) analysis. We'll see.

I certainly hope New Japan's expansion goes well. I'd like to be able to easily watch their show on TV each week. Who knows, maybe it could provide some legit domestic competition to WWE in time.

The problem with NXT for me is that it's still a WWE property and so can't be legit competition, in the sense that it can't ever effectively pressure WWE into getting better or pushing talent, like WCW did.

Its laughable when the dirtsheats say insiders in TNA are saying they are thinking about giving Kurt Angle a push.


Last edited by DS Forum Support : 11-03-2015 at 13:39

I hope that is not a spolier as he was't on the last impact.
Last edited by DS Forum Support : 11-03-2015 at 13:38

yeh is that a spoiler? wtf

Spoiler ? Gah.

Caught the end of Wrestle Talk Tv on Challenge at the weekend when i was flicking, and it mentioned that this week, Dixie Carter will be on, interviewed.

Dixie is a bad impression of Stephanie. She had no reason to be a heel on tv.

You could argue the entire reason for TNA's existence is so Dixie can 'star' on television regularly. (Hell it was rumoured that TNA's potential sale last year to Toby Keith fell through over Panda insisting that Dixie remain an on screen authority figure).

The irony being that Dixie had no interest in being an on screen figure until certain corners convinced her that was what was done. Naming no names.

And yet she got nuclear heat anytime she was on, with a ridiculous pop when she finally got put through the table.

Yep, she was clearly a useless heel

I think JCR takes every word the dirtsheets say too literally lol.

Oh I cheered myself stupid when she got out through that table. I took it as compensation for all of her God awful mic work.

I think you were better when you were called wildmovieguy.

The tantrums she pulled in TV angles were just so dire ie the Hogan quits/the AJ Styles love angle.

In 2015 does TNA really need a badly acted Boss when they have talent who did a far better job.

They nuclesr heat her because they genuinly don't like her it's not like a heel getting booed but in real like you respect and like them Dixie is genuilly hated by the fans.

Even the table thing was more of a thank god it's finally over type thing.

Plus that is one of the things that got them taken off Spike as Spike told them no man on woman violence.

Well the no Man and Woman violence thing has certainly gone heh, in the One Night Only there were 2 women fighting the men in the 16 team thing and 16 person Gauntlet match at the end. Of Course Awesome Kong is bigger than most of the men heh.