Cheers.

I was pleasantly surprised by Impact on Sunday. The main event in particular was great and suggests they're serious about EY as champ. The qualifying matches were logically booked too.

Willow / Storm was fun and I enjoy both of these guys' new personas a lot more than what they were doing last year.

Crowd were better than usual for Universal.

I think there might be a slow-burn MVP heel turn going on. His current role is actually a good story about how despite his best intentions, a face GM role is an impossible situation. You can't be completely fair, and please everybody all of the time.

On a more negative note, I really, really hope Aries isn't done with TNA. That would be a blow.

tna back at universal lol

pathetic way that company is being run

Wow, constructive!

Impact had it's moments this week. Some good stuff.

They're trying with Eric Young I give them that, but I can't buy into it. He was a goof for so many years and a co holder of the Knockout Tag Titles and now we're suppose to buy him at the top level.

i dont need to be contructive.

i have defended tna for over a decade now, but for last 5 years i have said they need to take impact on road to look legit and they have given up already

its poor management imo

Or good management if they want something to manage in the future, they were hemorrhaging money on the road and not getting the gate in to cover anywhere near enough. If they stayed full time on the road they would be out of cash and out of business. A smaller scale alternative for people to work in is better than no alternative.

It has been really badly managed in the past and from a creative point of view still not great but they don't have the infastructure to go on the road full time. Although I do think they should stretch to PPV's on the road still. Make them seem different from TV.

they lost money cos product did not pull viewers in

they launches in 2003, a time when fans still wanted competition, at the asylum their product was alight but at universal they have lost it compeltley.

russo made imapct good,they got rid prematurly because of internet geek fans who wanted to watch 1 hour headlocks.

hogan and bischoff had a great start but it petered out, i did like aces and eights however. aj the one stuff was also great until they ruined it at the end.

and now they are at their lowest ebb with some terrible roster and fueds.

all topped off with silent crowds.

if i were dixie i would spend on lighting, replace tenay and go on road. get a new booker in think about putting on a good tv show.

I agree rua! ... record impact @ universal studio but take the PPVs on the road!

I totally agree with you about taking Impact on the road. I've always hated wrestling on a soundstage. Ever since I saw my first studio match on WCW Worldwide. It was like: "What the hell is this? It looks like a game show!".

I was really excited when they took Impact on the road. It was like: "FInally!". And I was so disappointed when they went back to Universal. People assume it was down to money, and although I don't think there was an official admission of that, I guess it's the most likely explanation.

I've gotta say, I'm always sceptical of the theory that TNA's failure to grow is down to creative decisions or bad management. If you look at their ratings, the show being "good" or "bad" (according to the internet) makes no difference. Nothing they do seems to make any difference. Go and look at the ratings for the periods when the internet thinks the show was "good", and when the internet thinks it was "bad". No significant difference, or in some cases "bad" gets marginally higher ratings. In terms of management, they make little mistakes like any company, but I've yet to hear a concrete example of catastrophically "bad management" which really stands up to scrutiny, bearing in mind the situation TNA have to work with. I've gotta ask: What would you do / have done differently? And bear in mind that hindsight is 20/20!

Bob Carter was always bankrolling the company, and losing money. He's now demanded TNA work towards breaking even. Coming off the road, cutting Sting and Hogan, lowballing talent like AJ - all of that comes from trying to make the company break even.

The harsh reality is that it looks like there just isn't space in the US wrestling market for a number two promotion the size internet fans would like. The WWE brand is wrestling, and many fans simply have unreasonable expectations of what a number two promotion can achieve. Carter threw a lot of money at it, but it looks like there just aren't enough paying fans prepared to look outside WWE to support a second nationally touring, nationally televised, live promotion, without cash injections which he wasn't prepared to give any more.

TNA have got to make "the art of the possible" really. I agree with some other posters on here: PPVs have to be live and on the road. It makes them special. Unless they make money, for God's sake drop ONO PPVs. They're confusing and dilute the product. If TNA can combine live, touring PPVs with Impacts from Universal, with occasional touring Impacts like the upcoming Bethlehem and NY shows, that might be the best they can do.

great post, agree with alot of that.

the ppvs do very badly i hear, maybe they should do a wwe network lite and offer a season pass for 12 ppvs(go back to doing 12 if they did this of course) and offer 12 ppvs via their website and app for $4 a month or something.

could offer their back catalogue too.

i just cant see anyone paying for one ppv based on tv, at least if it was a subscription model for cheap they mgiht have some sort of steady stream of income.

There is room for an alternative wrestling promotion to be successful. You're just not going to be as big as WWE, as they're too big and have too much of a head start.

TNA had a chance but rubbish booking rendered many of the talents useless from a drawing standpoint and killed any upward momentum the company had in the mid 00's dead.

TNA needed to be an alternative. Sadly, TNA for the majority of it's existence has tried to be WWE lite. Why would anyone pay for a WWE lite, when WWE are around. TNA needed to find a different style of product. What that alternative is up for debate. To me, I would have went down a more sports orientated product.

TNA's biggest PPV buyrate was Angle vs Joe which was a serious sports buildup about 2 badasses fighting to see what who was the best. Simple but it seemed to work.

The format of wrestling shows in general are in need of a makeover as the the format has largely been the same since the monday night wars. That was almost 20 years ago.

GFW and AAA USA start this year. One pushed by Jeff Jarrett and one doing Lucha Libre but with an American slant. The questions about these companies will be answered shortly. Has Jeff learned from his mistakes with TNA? Will AAA USA largely survive off an hispanic audience or can they attract outside that racial group.

noone wants an alternative, they want sports entertainment back.

wwe have rarely done SE right since early 00's so thats what TNA should try to nail.

save the wrasslin for the independent companies to run.

TNA struggle to get 10,000 buys for PPV's 4 times a year, which you have to imagine are the hardcore TNA fans.

How many more TNA fans are out there willing to pay for a TNA network?
How much would it cost TNA to do 12 PPVs including the streaming costs etc?

I don't think TNA has enough people willing to pay for a TNA Network to make it viable.

So you want the Attitude Era back, that's what you're saying?

It wouldn't work. Society has heavily changed. Watching some of the stuff back now, it doesn't stand up.

We've been there. We need to move forward, not redo something that's already been done.

TNA had a chance at being different to WWE. It didn't do it, even with a great talent roster and a strong TV network.

They really needed to pull the trigger on Joe a lot earlier and give him the title in 2006/7 to capitalise on his popularity.

TNA had to come off the road, it's obvious the tapings, in terms of ticket sales, weren't making enough to justify keeping them on the road. PPVs being removed indicates they simply weren't getting enough buys to justify them, but then the One Night Only events are ridiculous. When you have events filmed in March 2013 that then don't go to air until November (Tournament Of Champions), December (World Cup Of Wrestling) and even January 2014 (Tag Team Tournament), that is just terrible. How much changes in 10 months?

I do think TNA can succeed and be a true #2 promotion to WWE but they have to be different, they have to be unique. They may be subtle little things that they take, but they are noticeable. I watch WWE because I want to WWE, I watch TNA because I want to watch TNA, not WWE-Lite. The ratings are neither good nor bad, I would agree with that, they just fluctuate between weeks which WWE also have. If their ratings were bad, they wouldn't still be on Spike.

I do think there was a lot of bad management in the past, I think there was far too many people making the decisions and it got messy, and it showed. Now, that seems to have sorted itself out with the departures of Bischoff and Hogan.

And sorry but I disagree Whedon, people do want an alternative. If they didn't want an alternative, they would watch WWE. TNA have the opportunity to be different and to carve their own path, if they keep following WWE's they aren't going to go any further

TNA should never have ditched the 6 sided ring. It was a unique feature that set them apart from WWE. I would bring it back and focus a lot more on the X-Division in the future.

TNA putting their world title on the underdog Eric Young just makes them look like they are trying to copy what WWE did with Daniel Bryan, which is a mistake in my opinion. The Bully Ray v Dixie Carter feud is just another face v authority figure storyline which has been done to death over the past 15 years.

Last year's Bound for Glory series was a confusing mess. A league style format where some wrestlers had more matches than others and contained random gimmick matches with several participants. it was impossible to keep track of and went on for far too long. I would have it as a KOTR style tournament instead in the future.

The attitude era worked because WWE had Rock, Austin, Foley, HHH & Undertaker, as well as a super talented mid card.

TNA couldn't recreate that.

I totally agree on the six-sided ring.

People forget that TNA had momentum in the mid-00s - they were starting to gain a cult following. I remember the odd TNA chant at WWE shows - probably the most notable one I can think of was when Kid Kash showed up at ONS 2005.

WWE is an alternative to the attitude era so that makes no sense.

your too blinded by name. preston fc used to be division 1 champions...not anymore. times change.

tna know that fans want adult oriented shows,thats why they use blood and chairshots etc, also the women clothing etc. but they have not cracked the booking of storylines yet. if they ever do that they will gain fans quickly.

too many backstage idiots thinking x division matches are the way forward in that company.

But we're not talking about the AE, it was a long time ago and times have changed from that. We're talking about the WWE in the here and now. I'm not blinded by name, I can just see TNA acting like a poorly executed third WWE brand. You have Dixie coming across as Stephanie/Vickie/Vince-Lite, you have the 'Director of Wrestling Operations' just months after WWE branded Kane the 'Director of Operations', you have EY being the champion following the D-Bry WWE model, the spoilers for the last set of tapings show TNA purely living in the past.

Now WWE do take things from TNA, I can't dispute that, but the problem is, WWE have done it all before anyway. If I want to see a heel woman running a company and going against the faces, I'll go and watch a professional like Stephanie do it on Raw, not an impersonator in TNA.

They aren't an alternative to WWE in 2014, which is what they need to be. They have a choice to make, they can be an alternative to WWE and truly be a successful, strong looking promotion or they can continue to be WWE+6 Months and continue down the path they look to be on. I know which I prefer to watch, and it isn't WWE+6 Months.

or they can be what wwe used to be.

time has moved on,but everyone wants a time machine so TNA should give it to them.

Why be what somebody else once was? And not doing it anywhere near as good as they did? Why bother wasting your time, your effort, your money, your life promoting storylines and a product that WWE did 20 years ago?

you could say same for wwe

why stop beign as good as you used to be? why abandon the approach most successfull in history?

its all about getting back to that holy grail