I have a hunch Kong is working quite badly injured and wouldn't pass a WWE physical. I also agree about the Hardys and wellness.

ethan carter is great.

Should be he was trained at NXT

I would love that. There is huge comedy and creative potential in just embracing the haters and playing up to all the Dixie is crazy / low backstage morale memes. Remember the Aces & Eights funeral? Still my favourite ever TNA vignette. Like that but more so. I do hope they go out on a high.

However, it's fair to point out that most TNA fans are capable of saying nice things about WWE and being balanced about it, and I'm not sure the reverse is true.

It's really not that simple at all. There have been albums and films etc. that are regarded as hugely significant despite not being a massive commercial success in their day so why can't that relate to wrestling promotions? In fact, to bring it back to wrestling WCW Slamboree 1997 did a similar buyrate to Wrestlemania 13 but that doesn't mean that Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and Kevin Greene vs Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Syxx is of equal significance to Bret Hart vs Steve Austin. Because when you look back on those matches and events, one of them has had way more historical impact than the other.

ROH's legacy in the business is more significant than TNA's simply because it has produced so many stars who went on to bigger things while TNA hasn't made any big stars that went elsewhere, never really drew any money of it's own and hasn't really had much positive impact on the direction of the business.

Agreed. He really deserves something good if TNA doesn't make it. I'm guessing he'll win the title from Angle at these tapings.

If TNA Slammiversary is live on sunday I guess no impact this week then or does TNA air a different day?

Im unsure which is the first airing and which is the repeat.

Impact will air at 9pm until 11pm Slammiversary will air at 1am until around 4am.

Given the matches already booked I guess it will have about 4-5 bonus matches on.

Those are your opinions about the relative historical significance of various events and you're entitled to them.

The fact is that loads more people have watched TNA than have watched RoH. It's touched more lives, has a bigger fan base, had more people attend the shows, watch the TV, buy the merch. Those are facts.

Smarks can play down TNA's "historical significance" all they want. But the facts are that by any measurable metric it was / is a much bigger promotion than RoH.

I do think the Spud storyline was scrwed up.

They spent about a year building up to it even when TNA was off air they were feuding on Twitter.

Then they threw it away in a quick Impact match.

Spud should have won to to finish it.

Actully ROH gets more paying fans in than TNA can get free fans in.

Can we not do the 'boo smarks' thing? It's a bit like some C-list celeb going on about their 'haters.' There seems to be this obsession that, whenever someone is critical of TNA, their opinion should be categorised ('smark!' 'WWE worshipper!') so that it can be dismissed rather than actually being considered and debated.

And that's what's happened here. I notice that you haven't actually addressed by wider point and just reiterated the first one about viewers even though I explained my thoughts on why that's not the be all and end all that you think it is.

They couldn't do anything other than put it on Impact because they have very few PPVs. But Carter winning was absolutely the right move. They're building him to be a main eventer so he really has to go over the likes of Rockstar Spud.

It wasn't so much it was Impact but it was treated as a throaway match.

I see your point but then they shouldn't have done the feud the logical outcome was Spud winning.

He was bullied for over a year told how crap he was and he could never do it the outcome should have Spud proving he could.

It was like the Million Doller Man and Virgil feud Million Dollar was was 1000X better than Virgil but Virgil had to win.

this is the make or break weekend...
sunday sees the showing of last nights live edition (in the usa) which had to build where they were going
followed a little later by the live "traditional storyline style" ppv

if they have not created a compelling storyline and point to where they are going and with which wrestlers then they will just fade away.

otherwise where does tna go? a merger with another group without a tv contract is not by itself a future... they need their tv contract and they need to have a storyline... and too many of their recent stories went no where... "creepy bastard" had legs, but i guess the chants did not fit the "kid friendly sideshow" he ended up on... gunner never really "grabbed attention" but they were trumpeted long term "signings" when tna was between tv channels and they lasted 8 months.. so what were the plans that so quickly died... every other week just seems to be "throw something at a wall, see if it sticks" when there should be a longer story arc - which if well written would survive major rewites if need be... seeing people dance around each other without a "story" is a poor show by itself

I'm not dismissing your view, I just don't agree with it. The "historical significance" angle is subjective and in my opinion only being adopted by yourself because it results in a negative appraisal of TNA. TNA can't help it if the wider wrestling world has refused to hire their stars, take on their ideas or engage with them. In fact I think freezing TNA out and starving it of recognition (and hence legitimacy) may well have been a deliberate WWE policy. That's addressing your point, right?

TNA's audience dwarfing RoH is an objective fact.

I enjoy and engage with constructive criticism of TNA. I do a lot of it myself - for example, I think the recent move to a more wrestling pure product and away from trashier sports entertainment has been a mistake, as reflected in declining ratings. I don't rate Abyss. I think they should just give up on PPV instead of making almost non-cannon ones. I think they should do anything they can to stop making OnO PPVs. I think Aries should have been champ for most of the past two years. I have loads of criticisms of TNA! But they're specific and constructive. Whereas smark "criticisms" of TNA are invariably concern trolling:

a) Unsubstantiated negative backstage rumour regurgitated from Meltzer.

b) General, unsubstantiated, non-specific claim that TNA's TV product is "bad", the company is "badly run". etc.

It's impossible to engage with stuff like that because it's non-specific, destructive, and transparently about creating negative vibes around the company and willing it to fail. That's why 'haters' is a perfectly appropriate term. These people have no genuine interest in or desire to honestly apprise TNA. It's basic "spectrum vs C64" playground fanboyism and only worth engaging insofar as calling it out for what it is.

how many matches do you think are on ppv! a traditional ppv has longer then normal tv matches, not more.

It was their main event at their Wembley show! Their biggest attended show of the year, in the biggest arena they use worldwide!

That whole Impact also happened to be the best TV wrestling episode I've seen since the heyday of SNME. Absolutely fantastic Impact. I only wish it was that good every week!

What a smart appraisal. Couldn't agree more. For some time now the show has seemed superficially "good", but it isn't actually going anywhere.

They seem to have added more last night before only 3 offical matches were booked

But they still didn't treat it was anything before or after.

I do think it had a good build up one of the best in years and as I said even when they were off air they carried it on through Twitter which I thought was actully great .

Do you agree though with a storyline like that the logical outcome is the bullied underdog proving the bully wrong.

The fact EC3 won just proved his point that Spud wasn't good enough to be in his class.

thank you

Fair enough.

I actually thought EC3 winning was the only logical outcome. I loved the finish - Spud didn't lose anything from it (showed his heart), and EC3's pretend respect at the end, only to utterly humiliate him after all, was so deliciously evil. I think wrestling needs more of that actually - the bad guys winning, I mean really winning, pulverising the good guys and being completely evil. Not safe, family friendly evil - actually Jake Roberts tie you up and try and kill you with a snake and dance around you laughing as you hallucinate evil. Yeah!

Such a shame that the PPV won't be shown in HD here in the UK.