I'd say Daniel Bryan and The Shield have made a difference in the ratings, and they're all "indy guys".

i said most, obviously there a some who can and they are the future of the industry(although reigns isnt mic ready 100% yet)

im talking your petey williams, sonjay dutts, most of the gut checkers, sabin etc - not gonna make the difference

if we are talking a main event scene full of kazarians and daniels? then i am all signed up! but they can be quite hard to find.

i wasnt mocking indy scene, its where nearly everyone starts out after all

There is talent out there. You have to do the hardwork to find it and produce it. TNA had the chance to get those guys like Bryan if they had actually offered good money and weren't spending it all on old guys like Hogan, who supposedly gets $35,000 a shot.

Building your company around old WWE and WCW guys, meanwhile a lot of your TNA associated guys are stuck in the tag division doesn't help matters either. Just adds to the illusion that TNA guys aren't good enough compared to ex-WWE guys.

You're going to have to make stars at some point, unless you're just going to take WWE castoffs when they become available. Also TNA's track record when it comes to keeping new guys hot isn't good. Every ex-WWE guy they brought in had the steam taking off them really quick and thus the lack of rating improvement.

Watched the full episode of TNA on challenge last night for the first time in years, I usually just watch some clips on the youtube channel.

I quite enjoyed it, and liked that unlike Raw, it didn't drag on for 3 hours. And it was nice to see former WWE stars such as Bubba Ray and Jeff Hardy in action.

yeh i watched impact last night and its ahead of raw in terms of quality, shame ratings dont reflect that

the ending scene with bully/hogan/brooke is right out of attitude era.

A lot of people gave TNA's HOF a tough time because they've only been in business ten years. It's seen as the inferior brother to WWE's Hall of Fame. This doesn't help by having your most recent Hall of Famer, Kurt Angle, exclaim on Twitter that he wants to be in WWE's Hall of Fame for proper recognition of his achievements.

Because of this, TNA need to make their HOF seem legitimate. While I'm sure it hurts the guys who have been there since day one - and rightfully so - the way you build a successful HOF is to have top, top names as your inductees. It is no coincidence that their first two inductees are arguably the two biggest names outside of WWE who aren't in their Hall of Fame.

Just found out that Christy Hemme does the vocals for "Hot Mess", Taryn Terrell's theme.

It's a really good theme as are Hemme's vocals

She really is a great singing talent.

Kevin Steen and Jacobs on TNA.

http://wrestlewire.blogspot.co.uk/

The problem for me is that this leading to a Hogan title shot. That's just appalling. Brooke will more than likely turn heel and it'll just look like a rehash of WWE storylines.

I really think Hogan needs to go, he's at the WCW-esque stage when he stopped drawing.

I honestly don't feel the product is much better than WWE, worse in parts, and ratings reflect that. TNA is at a difficult stage where its stagnant

In the Aces & Eight's they have something they can do things with because they have kept it to pitching the groups in their entirety against each other. In my book that means they have given themselves more freedom.

It is generally assumed I think in pro-wrestling circles that a faction v promotion feud is best run being comprised of personal battles. But the way I see it personal feuds may not work because you need to rely on the two rival stars to work well with each other and a poorly worked match will harm the storyline.

And I think we would not have had what will happen soon had Dixie decided to create smaller personal feuds. Prepare people for the return of.....The Main Event Mafia! Sting announced on this Sunday's show which was shown on Spike TV last night that he would be forming TMEM.

For me Sting, Kurt and Jeff are shoe-in's. Samoa Joe is also a major contender as he is one of only three with Kurt and Sting who is from the original group. Magnus is also a must.

Things could be looking up.

Totally agree. The Knockouts division seriously needs freshening up though-hopefully they get a couple of new faces in soon.

Incidentally, does anyone know if Mickies "Hardcore Country" nickname is a nod to the porno she did or if its just a funny coincidence?

Either some weirdo is on a wind-up or this could be massive for TNA. The Wikipedia entry for the Main Event Mafia has a number of current stars like Abyss and Samoa Joe and Magnus mentioned as members for it's reformation. But someone put next to it possible returns for Christian Cage, Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett!

@ TVFreako not being funny mate, but this thread is supposed to be kept spoiler free!

TNA need to be more funny and have somebody dressed,as a clown come out like Doink and win the title,and then have somebody come out and do a dance and then shut it down.And have Vince buy it and then burn it down and make AJ Style and Somoa Joe bigger star than what they are in now.

Kudos to Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell, their match at Slammiversary was one the best women's matches i've ever seen.

Errr...right. Hardly a spoiler when it's the biggest load of BS I have heard ever anyway. For one thing Jeff Jarrett is all but finished with wrestling anyway and as for Christian Cage, TNA could never resign him. He is too much of an ego. Too drawn to the WWE. TNA is considered too small-time for him.

I'm quite happy for you to have your own opinions on storylines, that's what forums are for but it would be really nice if in future you wouldn't mind not posting details until after the episode has aired on Challenge. No matter how BS they may seem.
Thanks

Right so the BFG series is set.

The participants are (in alphabetical order):

AJ Styles
Austin Aries
Bobby Roode
Christopher Daniels
Hernandez
Jay Bradley
Jeff Hardy
Joseph Park
Kazarian
Magnus
Mr. Anderson
Samoa Joe

So who's going to win it? There's some pretty big names in there.

It would be nice to see AJ winning it and getting the title shot at the first opportunity he's had for the year, but there's some other names who could definitely be considered by TNA as challengers to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

damn, whats with the MEM spoilers?

look forward to it though

Since I have only been here since Challenge started showing Impact, can someone explain the original Main Event Mafia, I had always assumed they were some sort of evil Aces & Eights style faction but given how happy everyone seemed to be when Sting announced he was creating a new one i'd say not, so what where they then.

no they were a group of main event wrestlers looking out for their spots, it was a storyline witha bit of reality created by vince russo

they were taking on the frontline(tna youth) it was springboard for all the new stars of TNA to make a name for themselves but as always TNA never truly let vince russo run the show and it all petered out.

it should work very well as a face group but they need to add some real stars to replace booker t, maybe rey msyterio?

I enjoyed the MEM storyline, my only criticism would be that they were booked too strongly, even with rhyno on their side the Frontline never really made any headway against them. Intriguing too see who joins the faction though

MEM can't be anyone on the roster though can it, as Sting said they all left him to fight alone, thats the way i see it anyway

Er when you see the first two members any interest will plummet quickly! Most have already guessed it is so telegraphed

Yeah ive just watched this weeks Impact, don't understand that, load of crap, Sting comes out says no one from the back came down to help him, left him on his own, so hes going to find a new family, and one of his new family, is someone from the back, who left him on his own!, rubbish.

Could have done something good there, but they've ballsed it up, right from the start.