Why didn't they use the Saturday night timeslot that was used for Excess in late 2001 for WCW instead?

Exactly. To me any alternative promotion must be that. An alternative.

Look at the way WWE does certain things and try to avoid copying it. Make the look and feel of the show different. Maybe film it like a sports broadcast that you would see on Sky Sports/BT/ESPN Monday Night Football etc, such as having the commentators walking through the arena talking about what's on the show that night in a pre taped segment, have an in-ring interviewer or have a podium like Mean Gene used back in the day.

Also do a more serious product that doesn't use the terms sports entertainment and universe.

I believe Vince at the start wanted to potray WCW as being on the same level as WWE, so thought the best way to do this was to give them the established monday slot. They did look into getting another slot for WCW but many of the other networks under the Viacom umbrella didn't want a WCW wrestling show. The WCW Raw slot plans were blown up due to the Tacoma, Washingston Monday Night Raw where Booker T and Buff got booed out of the building.

deja as a long time poster i would have thought you more than anyone would know my fondness of russo is legit, bit disrespectful to call it trolling mate.

You're obviously very knowledgeable about the industry and you've reminded me about the attempts to put WCW on RAW. Man, that was surreal, with the different ring lighting and stuff.

You're entitled to your view about Impact. I actually think it's quite good at the moment, and they've coped with the departure of major stars pretty cleverly, but there you go. It's definitely not perfect, and it's still too similar in storytelling style and format to WWE.

With respect to TNA's logisitcal and financial problems, the internet will always put the worst spin possible on anything TNA related. They're a private company and over the years they've proved remarkably leak-proof. All we know for certain is who they release and the venues they book. That information definitely points to budget cutting and upheaval, but that's all we know for certain.

I disagree about a second promotion springing up quickly to take TNA's place. That's my point about WCW: if TNA goes under, their fans don't just automatically get passed over to WWE, and certainly not to any new number 2 promotion. Most likely they just stop watching wrestling.

It took a decade to build TNA to where it is now. If TNA goes out of business it will take an age to build another viable number 2 promotion, if it ever happens. I would much rather see TNA continue than wait many years to see non-WWE national US pro wrestling again.

Challenge and TNA IMPACT WRESTLING are delighted to announce a new multi-year partnership. The deal secures more wrestling programming than ever before for fans and Challenge viewers with Challenge now becoming the exclusive home of TNA IMPACT WRESTLING in the UK and Ireland.

More information all over the internet.

Look like we will be getting more old episodes as well.

http://www.impactwrestling.com/news/...om-and-Ireland

This really seems to be all that's actually different to the last deal. It'll be good to see some of the old asylum stuff.

Id love to see TNA continue as the #2 promotion but I feel they won't continue if they keep trying to be WWE or even worse, what they become under Hogan and Bischoff which was a rip-off of WCW at it's demise. Legends such as Hogan will always and should always have a place in the industry, but they should be used sparingly on TV. They shouldn't be the focal point of the organisation for 3 years.

Hopefully with Hogan gone, Bischoff surely on his way out and just sitting out his contract, they can go back to what they were known for, being an alternative to WWE, not a pale imitation of them

I always been of the opinion that you're committed to your trolling.

If you love Russo fair enough, but I still find it difficult that anyone in 2014 can still think of Russo as some great talent considering the damage he has inflicted on the wrestling industry in the last 15 years.





Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Personally, I think the show has some decent stuff on it, but it just feels so dead. The company has no momentum whatsoever. I think they're right to try and create new stars but guys like Magnus I just don't see him at World Champ level. Granted he's getting the fast track push a little due to roster cuts, but still.


Not really. Most of the issues with TNA aren't exactly secret. The poor buyrates for PPV's were well known, thus hence the cut back in traditional PPVs. TV Ratings are obviously known as Nielsen records them. How much guys earn isn't exactly quiet. Hogan being on $35,000 an appearance for example. TNA being in financial problems has been muted for a while and thus many roster cuts, getting back off the road to the Impact Zone and recently Konnan on the most recent MLW Radio talking about his recent phone call with Jeff Jarrett where Jeff said the Company is in bad financial shape.


TNA is a distant second promotion behind WWE. They do 0.9 ratings on Spike, Their PPV and house show business is negligible. TNA's benchmarks aren't that high.

TNA's audience is largely made up of fans who dislike WWE, disgruntled WWE fans and other WWE fans who want more wrestling. Those fans don't tend to spend much on TNA as TNA's poor house show attendance and PPV buys demonstrate.

This year it appears that we're going to have 2 new promotions.

AAA USA is supposedly starting in the 2nd quarter of this year on a new bilingual network that has big money behind it. Considering the size of the hispanic population in the States, they could surpass several of those TNA benchmarks pretty quickly.

Also if speculation is believed, Jarrett looks like he's starting a new promotion with the money of Toby Keith. His name alone with open many doors, especially in the country music and tv worlds. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they get the Impact slot on Spike, especially with TNA's contract due in September. If they did, they would retain a good percentage of that audience as there's fans out there looking for a wrestling product on that night not to mention other wrestling fans who tried TNA and left. Also I still think there's a number of southern wrestling fans who would give it a chance especially considering the publicity a promotion with Toby Keith's name attached to it will bring.

You could see a scenario that if TNA went bust, Jarrett's new promotion might take over many of the international deals, considering he was probably privy to a lot of those negotiations.

Good news about the renewal with Challenge, but that doesn't change the fact that if they lose Spike Tv they're probably dead.

what is so great about the current non russo product deja?

6 man tags on raw and smackdown every week?
angle/roode borefest on tna every week?

when russo wrote wwe was amazing
when russo wrote wcw was exciting

you dont really think wcw 2001 was better than 2000 do you?

you dont really think wwe 2013 was better than wcw 2000 do you?????

if so all i can say is wow, we are miles away from every agreeing lol

The first ever episode they showed was quite interesting to watch.

Is everyone going to lay the TNA is doooomed imminently now



Oh silly me of course they arent.

i have old video tapes(yes video tapes!) of asylum shows if anyone wants to give me an offer lol

I know people have been saying "TNA is dying" for the last 10 years in an effort to get it right eventually, but the current situation is probably more precarious than it's been in a long time.

They can sign all the TV deals they like, but if you consider some of the channels they've signed with, it's not like they're signing multi million pound deals each time so it's not really going to be a bottomless pit of money.


It's fascinating to watch the early stuff because you'll end up seeing some people you'd never have thought ever worked for TNA.

I suppose a lot of people probably don't realise that Randy Savage made one rather fleeting appearance on a TNA PPV many moons ago.

And I bet ever more people didn't realise this guy ever worked for them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv-jwYq9_iM

To be honest, if you watch Impact without reading the internet, it seems a lot less dead! I suspect the FUD surrounding TNA on the 'net can make the show seem worse than it is.

I agree Magnus is not World Champ material right now. I think the best we can hope for is that he grows into the role and it elevates him.

Okay - a lot of the other stuff is speculation. PPV buys, for example, are definitely not public. Newsletters say their information is reliable, but it's not official or verifiable. What guys earn is not public either, it's all speculation and hearsay.

TV ratings are known, and they're stable. Low compared to WWE obviously, but stable. In fact given the departure of Hogan and so much of the roster, that's pretty damn miraculous! TNA House shows are sometimes *very* small, but it's safe to assume they're profitable or TNA wouldn't bother running them.

These other promotions are just rumours right now, but I do hope they do come to something. The more the merrier!

Oh, and I agree that if another wrestling show got Impact's slot on Spike, they would keep a lot of the US audience. That's the one circumstance I think where that might happen.

I totally agree! I didn't mind Hogan's on screen presence as much as a lot of people, but I didn't think the direction of the company at that time was going to get them anywhere.

One thing I would say is that differentiating yourself from WWE is harder than it sounds. WWE have a formula that works, and if you're going to deviate from it, you have to make sure you do it in a way which doesn't also lose all your viewers! I know what I would do personally, but I don't know if it would work.

People love to complain, but there's not actually a clear consensus from the 'net or anyone else on what TNA should be doing to succeed. That's the hard bit, and to be fair to TNA, they have tried quite a lot of different stuff (maybe too much!).

But they did it for so long. I loved TNA in the asylum days, fast paced action, young, smaller guys doing incredible things in the ring. As much as it's a gimmick, the six sided ring added something different. The legends were used, but they were hardly the focal point.

TNA under Hogan and Bischoff just made me think this is what WCW would have been if it had continued. Thing like Immortal being 'nWo' just under a different name.

They need fresh blood and a fresh pair of eyes in both creative and upper management

I usually listen to various podcasts and the like reviewing shows, but I always watch those shows regardless if someone says they're good, bad or indifferent. You can tell TNA is a product with no momentum.


It's an old school mindset, brought about years ago when companies would heavily protect the top titles, with the idea that the belt could be put on someone and they become that level. TNA is a cold company and the top title doesn't mean a lot, so by sticking it on a midcard guy like Magnus, it doesn't do anything for anyone.


PPV figures are known and are fed back from sources within the company and from the cable and satellite companies, which allows them to to be verified. The fact that TNA no longer does the standard monthly PPVs tells you the numbers were accurate.

The departure of Hogan and the numbers remaining the same showcases the fact of the lack of momentum TNA has. Also a 0.9 is nothing amazing. It's not even in the top 100 cable ratings in the States most weeks now. The TV ratings are stable, but not exactly great. I believe Spike's tv average is a 0.7 so it's not exactly knocking it out the park.

House show business in TNA has regressed badly in the last 6 months, with many shows being cancelled due to poor sales.


The other promotions is obviously pretty questionable right now given the limited data from even the people involved in these projects. If someone got the Impact slot, it's almost like TNA have done a lot of the donkey work for them.

Of course all this would be a moot point if Spike gets WWE.

I simply don't agree that Impact or TNA having "no momentum" is an objective viewpoint. If that's so, why haven't the ratings substantially declined?

It's your opinion, and you're entitled to it. But can you really deny that the internet and dirtsheets have consistently over the years generally presented a more negative view of TNA than the reality?

I do think the TNA title can elevate people BTW. Roode's reign played a big part in making him a bona fide star. Aries winning the title, even without much of a reign, elevated him. Sabin, I accept, didn't work.

PPV buys are rumours, they're not official figures.

Nobody's saying a 0.9 TV rating is amazing. I'm saying that it's no lower than they were doing when they had Hogan, and that's pleasantly surprising.

Do you have figures / examples for the house shows? I wouldn't be surprised if attendance was down given the roster cuts, but is there *concrete* evidence of this?

This is what I'm talking about really - relentless, vague, non-specific, unsubstantiated negative rumours and doom-mongering about TNA. It's been going on since the beginning of the company, and as long as so many people's careers in pro wrestling depend on the patronage of Vince McMahon, it'll not stop.

But people on forums could do with smartening up and not parroting the FUD verbatim. Because if we're not careful, we'll help give Vince the uncontested monopoly on national North American pro wrestling he would like.

I agree that TNA was a better show in some ways during the asylum days. It was certainly better than the Immortal era anyway!

I'm glad Hogan and Bischoff have gone, creatively. I would say though, on the one hand TNA fans want to go back to the asylum style, and on the other they want "fresh blood and a fresh pair of eyes". Well, which is it? You can't go back and forward at the same time!

The Carter's can look at what got TNA known for and use what people invested their time in every week.

I know it must be difficult when you are #2 to a global business that is likely always going to be #1. In all likelihood they have no chance of ever competing at a level WWE does so why do they insist on trying. Be different, be innovative. Give TNA fans a different product away from what WWE does. People have WWE for a WWE product, they don't need to tune in on Thursday nights to see what at some points looks like a poorly planned, ill conceived third brand of WWE.

Do we need Dixie Carter playing a female Vince McMahon? No because she has neither the ability to play that role nor the believability that she is that person. Do we need heel faction after heel faction after heel faction trying to take over the show? No because time after time, it is always led by older guys at the expense of the younger guys. We didn't need to see Hogan and Bischoff running Immortal as the heels against the younger face TNA guys.

Did we need Impact to go against Raw? No, that was just Bischoff and Hogan's ego trying to recreate WCW and just showed how small TNA is in comparison to WWE. Did we need to lose the six sided ring? No because it differentiated between them and WWE, it gave fans something different and added a new dimension.

As I've said before, there is always and should always be a place for legends and veterans in this business, but they should never be used at the expense of the AJ Styles, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Petey Williams of TNA. They had at one point a women's division that rivalled what WWE's was with Lita, Trish, Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria, Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, Ivory, Jacqueline and Chyna, where is that women's division now?

Whilst it's correct we don't know the full extent of what is happening at TNA, it's pretty obvious that going live and on the road was a costly move and it failed, it's clear that nobody was buying PPVs or we would still have them every month

Um, yes. I didn't even think that something like that would be up for dispute.

Russo is good as creating characters for everyone and making sure that everyone on the card has something to do. He had some great times during the Attitude era but he gets completely lost in his own excess with ridiculous stories, silly gimmicks and endless swerves.