I agree with that. Every criticism I've read of Dixie is basically that, she really is a lovely woman but she is easily led. She's not a wrestling woman, it's not in her blood, in her history, and I think to an extent that is needed.

I think it's fair to say when Bischoff and Hogan were there, they were calling the shots because she put way too much trust in them. Janice seems to have put her foot down with the money side, but at the expense of AJ and other originals who are going to probably walk straight to Jarrett and into jobs. They have terrible PR due to not finding the money to find Zema Ion's medical treatment (less than one appearance from Hogan) and Jesse Neal telling the world he's getting paid more at WALMART, and is getting paid on time.

Vince Russo isn't really saying anything anyone doesn't already know. Still, he deserves credit for looking at TNA constructively. The other article comes across like an immature rant. The author doesn't like TNA, and thinks his opinion is fact. Well on the contrary, despite the dismantling of the roster and an lengthy run of pre-taped shows in a horrible venue, there are still about a million people, in the US alone, who do like the show.

Anyway, not a great Impact this week, but not for the reasons the usual haters will cite. The problem is that the show is treading water. This was basically a carbon copy of last week's show, with added Joe. They've taped too many shows ahead and I hope they realise that. They may have noticed that the odd taped show doesn't hurt ratings, but too much taping ahead means the writers can't adjust to what's working and what isn't. Next week will probably be just as bad. Slammiversary onward though, I expect things will improve.

ahahahahah so true, i actually laughed out loud on that one. it getting silly now. have an opinion mate....your own!

brilliant article by vince russo, the best mind in the business.

still....i have no sympathy for TNA, should take out a big loan and go for it imo

NxT is not a fair comparison imo to impact, it is a WWE product, has all the cash behind it and a tie in to the biggest brand going.

it has regular advertisements one way or another on both of wwe flagship shows and a presence on the already established wwe website.

the extra cash leads to a better set,better lightening and better ring music etc.

after that its already ahead of TNA instantly so the in ring product makes little difference in the race.

to use a football analogy:


its like saying that man citys new affiliate football club new york city shouldn't be bigger than Philadelphia union right off the bat just because they are new.

you gotta look at the bigger picture and whats going on behind the scenes.

The show was just boring. There's nothing interesting at all with TNA at the minute.

Menagerie are awful. Oddities 2K14. In a company that has a small roster, surely it would make more sense to use whatever money you're paying them to get better wrestling talent on the show, rather than using that money to showcase a fairly awful wrestler in Knux, who will never mean anything to a paying customer?

Women's match was fairly poor. The attempted lesbian angle is really blah as well. Brittany acts really hard though.

Dixie vs MVP. Who cares. 2 heel groups fighting over the company. Haven't we had enough heel owners/GM in modern pro wrestling to last a lifetime. Especially with Dixie, who like Brittany, also acts really hard.


They've spent over $100m chasing the dream. I like the fact that Russo as usual passes the buck. Can't blame creative, even though they come up with the rubbish programming.


TNA has 1 million people every week sampling there show. They should be able to get more than a couple of hundred at a house show or 800 wrestling fans for an Impact taping.

If you've got a few hours to burn, here's some audio to listen to.
AJ Styles on Talk is Jericho - http://podcastone.com/Talk-Is-Jericho
Russo on MLW Radio - http://mlwradio.libsyn.com/
Last Night's Wrestling Observer Live - http://www.f4wonline.com/component/c...alls-tons-more

A rant it may be but there are some good points in there IMO. NXT do tape multiple shows per taping and free tickets just like TNA and these practical unknowns can still getting a reaction at times bigger than anything at Universal. Regardless of being WWE produced, these are people in a development territory getting bigger reactions than veteran, long time TNA stars who have been on national TV for years.

A million viewers is good for TNA but that seems to be their ceiling. Russo wrote a good piece there, but I think a little untruthful in parts and as you say, he's saying what everyone knows.

As for the comment about him being the greatest mind in the business, there are two people IMO that are linked to both the demise of WCW and the stalling of TNA, one is Eric Bischoff the other is Vince Russo. That's just a personal view though.

and a wrong view imo, but we have been through it.

still gotta love how old fans and newbies have different views on the business.

Jesus Christ Whedon I've been watching 14 years, hardly a newbie. I don't use insulting words when talking about your opinions, I would appreciate you doing the same.

14 years missed most of the wcw era you seem suich an expert on, thats what i am trying to hammer home to you.

i wasnt trying to be insulting btw, i truly disagree so much with that school of thought thats all.

Im not an expert at all and have never claimed to be, but I do however have opinions. I don't need anything hammering home to me. Whether you tried to be insulting or not, calling my opinions stupid or idiotic is and as much as I disagree with you, that's not a road I go down.

I mean I personally disagree Russo is anywhere near to being the greatest mind in the industry, but I stated that in a quite decent way rather than saying what I originally wanted to because I know people respect him and it would cause a fuss with you.

ok thats fair enough, upon reading back you are right and i apologise. i will edit post.

TNA used to pull a bit more than a million US viewers. 1.2m - 1.4m at times I think. The viewership has definitely declined in the first half of 2014. If I was them, I wouldn't be happy where they are now in terms of viewership. I would be aiming to build back up to well over a million, consistently, each week.

With respect to NXT, I don't think it's a fair comparison to TNA, but not for the same reasons Russo gives. NXT can attract talent because it's a feeder league for RAW, and TNA don't have that advantage. This also gives NXT has an air of optimism around it. WWE have been quite smart about not hiring TNA guys and astroturfing social media to give TNA a doomy, negative atmosphere that persists to this day.

Very basically, I've always said that TNA have an uphill battle to stay in business, but not because the product is bad. I don't think the product is bad (although the last few Impacts have been very dull). The problem is that WWE completely dominate a shrinking market which probably doesn't even have room for a number 2 player. That's just my opinion though.

I think the product right now for TNA is dire. There is potential for good stuff but once again, a dull faction war dominates the entire show. I was genuinely hopeful for their direction around Lockdown and hoped that they could turn over a new chapter but they've fallen back to their worst habits and maybe now they've done it one to many times.

As for Alvarez, I find him very entertaining and obviously he exaggerates his opinions and reactions for comic effect. However, he does praise TNA when he feels it is warranted and also bashed WWE for their stupidity. So the man is burned out on Impact. I don't really blame him much at this point.

I always look back to the hot run at the end of 2009 before Hogan came in and AJ was holding the belt as the peak for TNA. A real period of what might have been. It's a pity they balked at getting in Heyman in 2010.

I know their ratings are down but I think more worrying is that one of WWE's "C" level shows Main Event was beating TNA's "A" level show. On January 10th, TNA scored it's highest rating since July 2013 with 1.3m. WWE Main Event scored 1.5m that same week. And that is what is most worrying to me, on TNA's best ratings week in six months with AJ's last match, they couldn't beat a WWE show that consisted of Kaitlyn's final WWE match, R-Truth and Xavier Woods vs The Real Americans, Justin Gabriel vs Alberto Del Rio and The Brotherhood vs 3MB.

1m is a solid base to build on and I think give or take a few shows, they hit that 1m. As you say the product is not an issue, the last few weeks haven't been great to say the least, I think the issue is behind the scenes and I think whoever is booking these house shows is a complete idiot or they hate TNA and want them to look bad. The morale at TNA must be terrible when they not only have to perform those shows but then they get picked up and picked apart.

Surely there are people at TNA looking at ticket sales and thinking they need to book smaller venues. It's not a difficult thing to realise.

thats like saying it is worrying that belgiums first division is less popular than englands 2nd division.

it might sound worrying on paper but in reality we know it makes sense.

Come on Whedon, Xavier Woods, 3MB, R-Truth and Justin Gabriel out rating TNA's prime show on a much smaller network is worrying, or at least it should be for Dixie.

is TNA roster that much better?

its the WWE brand name that makes the difference vs TNA anyway, not whos headlining the show.

Smaller venues but also not booking in random hick towns where people aren't likely to turn out in big numbers anyway. There seems to also be an issue with promotion. AJ talked about people spotting him in a hotel before a TNA show and saying that they were fans but they didn't know that there was a show in town.

The venues thing is reportedly because larger venues are sometimes cheaper to book than smaller venues. I don't know about US pro wrestling, but I know from personal experience that can be true for live music venues in the UK.

The same thing goes for "hick towns" vs big cities. It can be a lot cheaper to book a mid-size arena in the middle of nowhere than a small, cool venue in a big city. The venue owners know full well that the latter is actually the more desirable place to have a show, and charge accordingly.

So do people think they'll job the Von Erich's in Dallas? It's the sort of thing they'd do.

MVP is out of the PPV main even through injury, Not really a spoiler because it isn't storyline....And no one will see this before the PPV based on this thread

Pleasantly surprised by Impact last night. Hardly vintage, but a lot better than the last two weeks.

Specifically, the Spud segment was brilliant. The main story with EY struck the right balance of keeping him resilient but vulnerable and putting over KK and Lashley as future WHC contenders. The crowd were much better than usual for Universal so I'm wondering if they maybe shot some of this show earlier than some of the others?

One thing that has to go is keeping The Menagerie's music playing during their matches. It's annoying, feels forced and doesn't make any sense from a kayfabe perspective.

And no more shows presently booked at Universal!

So last night they put out a tweet saying if they got 500 retweets they will reveal the first match of the ppv....They got just over 200 and deleted the tweet die to lack of response

That is pretty bad :/ But what is the point in a tweet like that, It isn't a big enough deal

Caught Slammiversary last night. Really solid PPV. What a difference a decent crowd makes.

The opening ladder match had some very original spots. That powerbomb from the top of the ladder onto the horizontal ladder: That's the reason I watch TNA right there. You would never see WWE performers allowed to do that (currently). Both of the qualifying matches were great, with the right people going over. Again: an avalanche brainbuster; not something you will see in WWE.

Spud was solid gold as usual. Bully / EC3 was a hardcore masterclass until the slightly lame ending. The title match was booked to perfection. Lashley rightly dominated the two smaller men until his own hubris took him out. EY retaining was predictable because the match was booked at such short notice, but there's not much they could do about that.

If there's a negative, it's that I've got a horrible feeling Aries is going to retire when his contract's up, so there's no chance of us seeing him with the title again. I hope I'm wrong.

Still though, great PPV which demonstrated the importance of getting out of the Impact Zone, and for once played to TNA's strengths. I really hope the momentum can be carried to the TV tapings.

I was suprised that Aries didn't win the World Champ match then he could have had the indignity of being beaten by the XDivision champ using the option C that he himself iniitiated, I thought thatwas why there were so many mentions of Option C during the programme. They missed a trick.

You can't really get the crowd wound up in the Impact Zone like you could in other cities, the wrestlers spend there entire time winding the crowd up by attacking or praising the local city and people, which is difficult when every is a tourist in the impact Zone.

Would Mr Anderson really be supported by the Dallas Cowboys given he is from Green Bay.

That's actually a great idea. Although I think they might get criticised for hotshotting the title around too much. It would be absolutely perfect if they ever get another X-Div rising star as hot as Aries that he could drop it to.