That people believe that TNA is, was or ever will be competition.

Hazy, explain in what way TNA are a form of competition? They don't mention TNA because it's an utter irrelevance and it wasn't all that relevant at it's peak. TNA have given WWE no reason to believe their dominance is at risk or that they can get close to competing at that level because they can't.

Does anybody seriously believe, like genuinely believe, Vince has ever sat in his office worrying about TNA gaining ground? Is the hiring of Eric Young really an indicator of a worried WWE?

They are a company that doesn't tour, has lost two television deals since 2014, can't put on pay-per-view on any meaningful level. They have a talented roster who work a couple of nights every couple of months for a television show that airs on a nothing network. In what world is that competition to a company like WWE?

Next to WWE they are the main brand of wrestling in America and even over here because they are on TV. The fact that they have been in business for 14 years, 12 of them with Dixie and they are still going shows they can survive, it shows they've had the resources and money put into them. Look at James Storm, TNA paid more money. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan wrestled their last matches in TNA because TNA paid more money. That alone must get Vince McMahon's respect, the fact that even though he could have easily matched TNA's offers, they still went to work there. They still went there, and bled very heavily fairly quickly rather than just working for Vince and signing autographs. They could have done that anywhere, they did it at TNA. Why? Cause TNA had the money and TNA was on TV. Do you think Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan would have continued wrestling for just any company? Of course not. They wanted to do it not only for the right money but on national TV where they always belonged because they are TV stars.

If the WWE really didn't care about TNA then why not mention them? Why not give Steve Borden the respect he deserves and show his matches from TNA and let his fans see that after WCW closed he kept wrestling and he wrestled the greats and kept going in a TNA ring. Why not do that for him?

Or the nearly 40 year old AJ Styles who they want to try and kid their fans is a young kid in his 20s. Why not do him a favour and let the casual fans see him wrestling the greats, in the same ring, same spotlight as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, even WWE names like Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy, what about the ones they put in NXT? Why not show his history with Samoa Joe and Eric Young and Bobby Roode? They wont do it.


Just like they will still expect their fans to believe Hulk Hogan's last match was nearly 10 years ago and Ric Flair retired in 2008. It's all lies and the truth is if they didn't care about TNA, they would have paid Dixie Carter the money to use all of TNA's footage and try and help get those guys over and give Sting the respect he deserves.

In the most recent Dudley's DVD, Buh Buh mentions TNA by name, but that's because they're no threat.

If you spend years setting up a spoiler product that is extremely similar in scale and content to old TNA, and hire all the biggest ex-TNA stars, it's pretty clear that when you said TNA 'weren't competition', you were lying.

If TNA really 'weren't competition', WWE would have ignored them. Instead, they pretended to ignore them, while spending millions setting up a loss making spoiler operation to put them out of business.

Why did WWE acknowledge WCW? Because they were a threat.

Why did WWE acknowledge ECW? Because there was some value attached to using their name.

TNA has never been a threat nor has enough value to WWE to be mentioned. That Dixie Carter manages to grip on year after year after year doesn't mean they are competition? They've been going for 14 years and what have they done? That they have sticking power, and let's not pretend she isn't clawing to keep her company together for the past couple of years, doesn't make them competition.

And this idea that NXT exists to put TNA out of business is laughable and completely unfounded.

Firstly, the vast majority of people who are going through the NXT system are trainees who most people have never heard of or who are just starting out. Secondly, only Eric Young has come directly from TNA. The rest all quit the company long before they joined NXT.

Thirdly, it's a loss making brand because they pay a base of 30k (from what I've heard) and it plays a small amount of live events to a small audience. It's only been a touring brand for about a year.

This delusion that WWE genuinely views TNA as competition is laughable at best. TNA has survived because of the good will of the Carter family and you strip away that money, and that of a company in Spike that paid talent contracts, and you're left with a shell of a company that Dixie is clawing to keep together on it's second nothing network in two years.

Before NXT WWE had OVW and FCW both pretty much worked the same way NXT does now it's just on air worldwide now rather than a local station.

With no NXT Young ect would still have been hired and sent to OVW/FCW.

They are not picking them up because they are ex TNA but they are good hands to have around.

Over the past few years they have taken more from ROH and NJPW and unknowns than TNA.

Once TNA got a slot on a major cable channel they became competition. Once they lost it they became largely an insignificance to them, with the exception of being somewhere else to grab popular talent from.

NXT serves several purposes:
A place for younger talent to gain experience
Attract the alternative fan; a hook for the network
Triple H's lofty ambitions of having his own NWA/WCW, without the meddling of writers and corporate suits.

OVW hasent been relevant in years. Several years ago pretty much it was on all the sites like youtube but past couple years no new footage has turned up.

Hazy made a good point about age. If NXT was genuinely a developmental league there's no way folks like Samoa Joe, Aries, EY and Roode would be hired. They were hired to stop them going anywhere else. NXT is a commercial spoiler operation.

Oh yeah. On the subject of WWE mentioning WCW and ECW, that was a mistake. WWE's acknowledgement of those feds helped them grow. WWE have learned their lesson; if WCW or ECW happened today, WWE would publicly ignore them while spreading FUD in the dirtsheets like they did with TNA.

So what are all the people who aren't Joe, Aries, EY and Roode doing there exactly? The entire NXT development system is just a front to piss on TNA's chips. Surely they could just hire them to the main roster which is where they will be heading and save themselves a bit of money on this front.

They are using established names to
a) sell tickets to their shows
b) help train the majority of people who are rookies through the system
c) get them used to WWE's style, flesh out characters before they ascend to the main rosters.

Of course, if TNA didn't treat their staff like utter shit and paid them on time or actually used them as the focus of their show rather than a group of people to get ex-WWE talent over for years, this wouldn't actually be an issue because people would actually want to work for them.

Because TNA didn't give the dirtsheets enough to go on over the years.

Can we have an example of say 5 stories pushed to the dirtsheets from WWE to discredit TNA rather than TNA just ballsing up or writers finding it so easy to discredit Dixie and her awful job at running a business

To be fair, while TNA was spending their budget on Nash, Hogan, Hall and even the Nasty Boys. WWE was signing Bryan Danielson, Dos Caras, Tyler Black, Jon Moxley and Castagnoli.

The ultimate point of NXT is to prove Paul Levesque can run a wrestling company, presumably because they fear WWE's share price will collapse on the day Vince McMahon is forced to retire. To that end they need NXT to be a success so it's easier to use guys with name value- and TNA had 1.3 million viewers on Spike at it's peak- than have to rely on performance centre unknowns.

By far the most damaging internet story about TNA remains Dixie calling Jesse Sorensen "son" and publicly saying he had a job for life in the company, after he fractured his neck in a match, then firing him the moment the statute of limitations on him suing them over the injury was up. And WWE had nowt to do with that one.

Velvet Sky has now quit TNA and Bubba is already hinting she is WWE bound.

Noooooooooooooooooo

TNA has gone way down hill, that Fact Of Life segment, what utter, utter garbage that is, absolutely terrible.

Velvet Sky wouldn't fit into WWE at all. Average in ring worker whose main gimmick is, ahem, "letting the pigeons loose" - this certainly wouldn't fly in PG-era, Divas Revolution WWE.

That's being generous! I suppose they could have her manage the Dudleyz as a way to introduct Carmella for the save against Enzo and Cass

I agree I was never a fan of her or any of the BP.

I always found it odd when TNA said they were "real" womens wrestling and WWE just had bimbos who were there to flash their bodies when after just a few years not only were they doing just that but much worse.


I do suppose at least with Bubba to put in a good word she may show up she could be ok in a valet role.

Thought I'd chip in here and shock horror comment on the wrestling!

Have just watched Sunday's show and am really dissapointed EC3 has lost his unpinned/unsubmitted record to Mike Bennet, I didn't rate Bennet very much and still don't, it seems a very strange decision to give him a clean (ish) win when there was no title on the line or anything. Did Josh actually say holy shit when it happened? it sure sounded like it.

On a side note I enjoyed watching the Hardy's kicking the shit out of each other last week although you've got to think they've both got a few screws loose to be taking so many risks at their age and both with a young family to support.

Oh and well done Drew Galloway for superplexing Tyrus off the top rope, impressive strengh.

they mentioned them because for much of the time they were nbr 2 and trying to "call them out" to create buzz... both wcw and wwe made it personal as they fought for the 1 spot live... including when one was live and the other recorded giving away the results of the other one so people did not tune in to it (which went wrong when the winner was something someone wanted to watch winning).

wwe does not mention the competition because a) every word they say is either describing the action or selling something they are paid to promote b) they are in competition (they only name check things like major spots because they are "bigging themselves up against that other sports image" just like wcw/wwf days.

I'd be surprised to see Velvet in WWE. She's *actually* hot, and quite alternative in her look. WWE are more about vanilla fitness model types. Paige is as alternative as they'll go.

I would say that was true a few years ago but now and at last it seems they are going for good workers with the exeption of Eva Marie and a ones like Fox who has been around years most of them are at very least watchable.


TNA seem to have gone the opposite from having great workers to bimbos the goods ones like Gail Kim are the expection now.

As I said I was never a fan of any of the BP if she does go to WWE have her play up to her real life relantionship with Bubba and have her be the Dudleys Valet.

That's part of my scepticism too, actually. Velvet is not a good worker! So her look doesn't fit, and her lack of ability doesn't fit.