They need to go back to Orlando, do some serious soul searching and spend the next few months consolidating themselves. They aren't ever going compete with WWE but they can be an alternative. Focus on ring work rather than convoluted stories, be a bit more edgy, build the show around AJ, Joe, Hardy, Bully, Magnus, Aries and Roode. That's plenty of talent for a decent main event scene. Use Sting, Angle, Daniels etc. to help put them over. Hire some indy workers to flesh out the card. Add some more women. Stop with the stables and long power struggles that end up being dropped. It seems so basic.

AJ needs to good, long title run where his matches carry the show along while they rebuild. Let him be the HBK of the company again and steal the show every night, letting the focus be on the matches and basic stories.

EDIT: And keep Dixie and Hogan far away from TV.

I think they'll probably be a more accurate figure out in the next few days, as the early figures appear to be a rough guess from people who were at the arena.


Some of the bigger arenas do offer good rental deals. Alamo Dome being one of them. Personally, I always felt that TNA should be aiming at 2000 to 5000 seat arenas.


Faction warfare is Bischoff's idea. He's spent years trying to create another nWo angle. The version of that angle will never be topped.


The scary thing for TNA is that in the next six months, AAA are supposedly launching in the US with some major backers on a new high profile network. We could be looking at the new number 2 promotion in the US, especially with the large hispanic population in the States.

I think we'll have to see what gets put in place after BFG to get an idea of where they might be going. If no new major angles or feuds are started after BFG, which has tradtionally been the "end of year" show for a lot of storylines, you could certainly draw a reasonable conclusion that they haven't really got any major long term plans over and above what they've already got.

It all looked promising to begin with though. They (tried to) scrap the hotshot flip flopping and planned year long story arcs (of which I guess we're just about to start again). Has it gone (really) downhill since Bruce Pritchard left or is that co-incidental?

BFG was excellent it had a lot nonsense interference in matches but over all it was awesome. roode/angle and bully/aj were top notch matches even if the writers tried to ruin them,if you are a TNA or even wwe fan you will appreciate these matches,i couldnt pick between them but the roode/angle match reminded me of world title match from a starcade or wrestlemania from the 90s it was epic!!

It's his only idea it seems. And they messed that one up something shocking too. Sting should've beat Hogan clean and easily at Starcade 1997, the NWO should've been gone by the end of Jan 1998, Hogan should've been off TV til summer and have Bret vs Sting for the title. I'm not sure if even Austin could've saved Vince if they got it right.

I'm just surprised Eric didn't end up being A&8's higher power tbh.

To be fair, WCW probably made a fortune by having a rematch a couple of months later and by selling loads of Wolfpac shirts. They eventually lost it all, but financially they had a good run with that and the NBA, Jay Leno etc crossover.

The problem with Orlando is the crowd seemed bored of the product. If they are going back to a residential situation then they should look into a different state I think. Apparently TNA contacted Universal Studios about a return in September and they are obviously not staying on the road, they are cancelling shows on a seemingly daily basis

If I was Dixie's parents, I'd seriously be thinking about walking into the company and taking over or finding somebody else to do it because I don't think Dixie has what it's takes. I listened to an interview with Kong not long ago and she said Dixie is a lovely woman but easily swayed. She had put way too much trust and expectation on Bischoff and Hogan, neither of which I understand.

Bischoff helped to take WCW down that path that led to its destruction and the only brand Hogan is remotely bothered about promoting is 'Brand Hogan'. I don't mind Hogan on TV, id rather him being kept away from creative than the ring, Dixie I agree should be kept away.

They need that one person, they need that Vince McMahon behind the scenes that will listen to peoples opinions but ultimately, his decision is the one that makes it on TV and PPVs and whether right or wrong, it makes them millions of dollars every year. TNA would benefit so much from having one boss, a small creative team and if they have to, start fresh. Even Jarrett coming back in on Impact, saying the Carter's had sold the business to him, he fires Dixie and strips everybody of titles and announces a tournament for each of the titles, set up fresh feuds and new storylines from that, just something that can give people a reason to tune in every week

They would've made stacks out of Bret vs Sting, Bret vs Hogan etc. and using Goldberg properly. They wouldn't have got the celebrity attention but Vince already gazumped them on that with Tyson. The NWO and Hogan consumed the company so it would have been better in the long run if they had Sting kill it off.

Jarrett taking charge, even if just on screen and with some booking powers, would make sense and help a lot. There was a lot of talk of JR coming in but I don't see it. I cam still see him back at WWE to commentate if Austin does a Wrestlemania match.

I don't think JR would go there if I'm honest. Despite the way he's been treated in the past, he seems very loyal to WWE and Vince. If Austin does another match, it would be nice to hear JR call it but for me, after reading an interview in which JR said his only regret in his career was not calling Undertaker's final match, that would mean more to me as a fan of his

As for Jarrett coming back, it could be anybody but Dixie, Bischoff and Hogan (both of which if I was in charge would be gone anyway). I really want to see TNA succeed but they've gone so far backwards I don't see how they can take steps forwards without a radical mix up behind the cameras. And it's not like they've gone back to TNA of old, they've gone back to the end of WCW, even the highered ramp is WCW. All of the factions are WCW, Bischoff being involved in ways he never should have been is WCW. I think Bischoff's time in WWE proved he has a great character but he needs somebody to pull him in line and I don't think Dixie is the person to do that

As I see it TNA had two distinguishable things that worked for them and set them apart from WWE, 6 sided ring and the X Division and under Bischoff and Hogan they've just reverted to what WCW was at the end, just another company attempting to compete with Vince and that seemingly being more important than what's going on in their own back yard, it's such a shame

Agree. Not having an end game for NWO was only trumped in foolishness by bringing in ultimate warrior and then doing supernatural stuff in the late 90's. Oh wait, they topped that by having Diesel end the streak. Followed by him giving his title to the guy who had been his enemy for the previous year. Then this new NWO ended shortly afterwards with no ending once again.

The bad guy Sting angle could have been great. Hogan becoming a fan favourite should have been a bigger deal. Steiner could have been the guy to beat Goldberg. And don't get me started on how they failed to capitalize on the USA vs Canada Bret Hart-Hart Foundation saga. That had lots of mileage when he and his relatives signed with WCW after getting screwed over by a resident New Yorker!

Bischoff must be haunted by all those failures.

JR and Austin are as much WWE men as you'll ever find. Same goes with Chris Jericho. They're loyal to McMahon through thick and thin.


As I read on various sites, Bob Carter is no longer allowing Dixie to do whatever she likes. His wife - Dixie's mother - has stepped in to take control of the financial situation. This probably explains a lot of the recent decisions.

wCw could of easily been saved the final nail in the coffin for the discredited company was russo's run in 99,he copied wwe story lines and tried to copy the wwes dodgy production too, wwe is credited with the attitude era which is bull,that era begun in wcw.

But the nwo did need to end sooner and jericho and benoit should of came to the forefront sooner also.

they could of have,

Booker-T
Mike awesome
benoit
jericho
goldberg
lance storm
eddy guerrero
sting
DDP
Ric flair
Mysterio
jarrett

jericho was the biggest loss i genuinely was gobsmacked when he left he was the for me the future of wcw!!!

and the like its amazing that they managed to mess up with that roster!!! IMO they also had an over all better roster than the wwe!!

BFG had just under 3000 people in the building according to the most recent Wrestling Observer Radio.

it was an average attendance for BFG, tna are a small company but they have a future, they could of pulled 10,000 if they went to new york or atlanta!!!

TNA need to accept they'll never beat Vince and scale things back to where they were pre-Hogan. Things were good in 2009 after AJ defeated the Main Event Mafia. They missed a trick with Joe though. He was pushed so strong that when Angle came in in 2006, it seemed like an actual dream match. But it took until 2008 for Joe to win the title. If he had got it in 2006/early 2007 then TNA would have two home grown superstars to work with.


I don't think Sting as a bad guy works. I actually think Benoit would've been a good choice to end Goldberg - out wrestling him and winning by submission.

Strangely enough, WCW won the ratings war in the weeks building to the Warrior vs Hogan match so he was obviously still a draw. The fact that the match and the PPV bombed so heavily means that gets overlooked. WCW was killed by short-termism and greed from Eric and the top few stars. I know they made loads of money but think how much more they would have made if they pushed Jericho, Raven, Giant, Benoit, Booker etc. and used Sting and Bret properly to get them over. They'd still be alive today.

{Not sure if serious.}

Im being totally serious,the cities they have been travelling to are not traditional wrestling cities,sure in new york there would be alot of wwe fans holding signs up etc,but they still would of came out and watched the show!

A lot of the cities they've visited throughout the US have a wrestling tradition dating back to the territorial days. The problem is TNA doesn't have a product that people really care about, thus people aren't interested in paying to see theM. The same applies to PPV.

why is the lighting so good for ppv but so dark and dingy for impact? it really can be difference between looking big time and not

average bfg ppv,i liked most of the booking decisions though

i saw another picture from the crowd at BFG. I think they were in the far left corner on the "full" side and up in the back rows as well. The picture from that angle looked even worse - it looked like a half full school hall ..

Just realise AJ was the only face to go over at BFG (if you assume Magnus will eventually turn heel). They were really pinning a lot of the success on him, in terms of sending the marks home happy.

Thought it was an average PPV. Some good matches ruined by bizarre finishes. I assume Angle's injury was a work? I didn't know what to make of that. Sabin winning was a bit haphazard as well.

I wish Sting wouldn't wrestle in that t-shirt that looks like it can be bought from a merchandise stand. It just makes the match feel...casual.

Shouldn't have allowed a ladder in the ultimate X match kind of ruined it.

I see Abyss was allowed his usual PPV run out doesn't appear at any other time and it seems they have forgotten his TV title altogether heh.

Bet his AJ's chest still hurts after all those slaps, the welts looked nasty.

TNA need to cut costs by doing shows in smaller venues and scrapping the expensive live Impacts. Hire one building for two nights, taping 2 episodes on each night.

They might not be able to compete with WWE, but that doesn't mean they can't improve and attract more viewers to their product. Focus more on the X division and take advantage of their TV-14 rating.


What was the capacity of the arena?