Yep. I think you're on the right track. Everyone needs a character, everyone needs motivation. To take a totally random example: Havok. Who is she? Why is she sadistic? What does she want with the title? We've never even heard her speak! Take it further: What kind of music does she like? Did she always want to be a wrestler? I'm serious; proper characters like you get in, you know, successful TV programmes.

I actually know more about the characters and motivations of many legitimate sportspeople than current midcard wrestlers. When you think about it - that's a major fail.

Those are things that non wrestling fans can relate to. I think after the Attitude Era, WWE found itself in a position without Russo and Ed Ferrara that they had to lean on themselves, back to the old wrestling mindset and lets be fair, for the following 5 years or so they put out a mature product. I've often said that their Ruthless Aggression period was far more violent and uncomfortable than anything they did in the Attitude Era but the way they did it, they did it the old wrestling way. I think TNA went this route aswell, they seem to only know wrestling. And then with todays WWE PG product and TNA now getting away from the violence, it seems like the only solution left is pure wrestling and pure wrestling on its own just doesnt draw money. Millions of people arent going to watch it and pay money to see it. I think the reason it is this way is because the people in charge of the companies creative end and the ones that give the OK for things to be done, don't know anything else. All they know is wrestling. It needs new blood, TNA especially.


And people used to moan when WWE had all their hashtags and Twitter mentions....what fans don't realise is that those things were right to do. Twitter was popular, as annoying as it was that was one way to bring wrestling into the modern age, the year 2014. That's the kind of thinking they need. TNA need people to think along those lines, how do we approach people in 2014. How do we get them to notice us. What are people using everyday in their life? How can we get involved and get ourselves in front of their faces?

Pure wrestling draws perfectly well with good characters and interesting, well booked feuds. Give people a match they want to see and they'll pay for it. It really is that simple.

What amazes me is the fact Dixie Carter (on Twitter) doesn't seem to care that tna is on the verge of death! ... but then again if I was a billionaire I wouldn't care either!

impact is terrible again now

nice win for roode but rest of it really sucks.

I think Rockstar Spud is very good too

To use a forum cliche .. this.

I remember the days when the WWE had only four PPV's a year and the anticipation going in to them was amazing. I remember watching the Hart Foundation -v- Demolition two out of three falls match one Summerslam and going mad when the Hart Foundation won because not only was the storyline leading in to it a good one, the match itself was fantastic.

And who can forget the Ultimate Warrior/Rick Rude fued that lasted over one Summer with the Steel Cage blowoff at Summerslam ?

If TNA could establish that kind of approach, coupled with an increase in mainstream media presence, I think they'd be fine.

i think it helps that most people thought wrestling was real back then.

now its openly scripted and needs higher elvel of creative writing to get people to care.

It doesn't need to be that hard though. It can be as easy as building two people or teams up to be unbeatable and then put them together. Look at Shield vs Wyatts or on a larger level, Cena vs Rock. The problem is that no one knows how to create stars any more. That goes for TNA and WWE. In fairness, TNA were doing a good job with Lashley but the company is so badly in the doldrums right now that it hardly matters.

I think wwe was really popular in the early days because of the outrageous characters that simply jumped out the screen @ ya! ... I remember a match between ric flair & macho man (@ summer slam iirc) and it was magnificent cause they'd built it up for months previous (flair had apparently shagged Elizabeth before she married macho man & it turned out flair had rigged some photographs or summit)

Same goes for the likes of stone cold, rock, triplehhh etc ... They all stood out & had proper feuds with great TV type storylines!

I'm sure she does care and is just putting a public face on it. I don't think anybody can say Dixie doesn't care, the company just seems to be lost.

She has tried, I think all of the Carter family have tried and they have done well in the past creatively. Their ultimate problem, IMO of course, is anything authentic or different to WWE slowly got stripped away under Hogan and Bischoff and they fell into the same traps WCW did and WWE are.

They've created their own stars, they had a cracking womens division and a tag team division, both of which put WWE to shame at the time they were happening.

But they've had issues also. I'm sure there will be a TNA in 2015, and I truly hope there is, but something has to happen now. Even if it isn't on its last legs, it really feels like it is and all of ghee issues have to be a wake up call.

shield were great, i absolutely loved them. But how many actually interesting raw segments can you remember them in? people wanted to watch them because of their talent and how amazing they were.

cant remember being emotionally into outcome of their matches other than match with dust brothers and when they finnaly lost a match via pinfall.

Yep! She comes across as being waaaay too nice for the wrestling business... TNA (at the time) resolved around hogan massaging his overinflated ego when it should've been about promoting their younger talent such as Crimson! ... Hogan left a trainwreck behind when he eventually buggered off imo!

Bully Ray tweet- https://twitter.com/REALBully5150/st...10713010044928

Dixie isn't communicating with anyone atm! ... I understand holly saying she's trying to save face but not letting her employees know what's going on is appalling! ... They've got families to support! ... She seems to be totally in denial!

Meltzer says they're in talks with Destination America, a channel that is only in 50% of US homes and is in the middle of nowhere on the EPG's of the homes that have it.

They do have this website- http://www.destinationamerica.com/ which I shall now quote from-

I hope wwe sign up Bobby Roode / Bully Ray (& afew others such as Aries, Storm, EC3 etc) cause they deserve better then tna! ... Which is pretty much dead now!

Actually I want it to be on Destination America now. Some of their show titles-

United States of Bacon
Fast Food Mania
Ghost Asylum
Last Call Food Brawl
UFOs Over Earth
When Ghosts Attack!
Mountain Monsters

They appear to be on a mission to make Man v Food look highbrow!

My God, they sound like quality programmes...
Imagine TNA with ghosts...

I want to go and live in the United States of Bacon

Thing is, if TNA did move to that channel, the dirtsheets would still make a thing of the ratings that impact got, even though it was on a significantly smaller network.

I think we just have to resign ourselves to the fact that the dirtsheets will always put the worst possible spin on TNA. Right up to the point when TNA is out of business, whereupon they'll bang on about how afwul it was and what a cautionary tale it is. And even as the whole US pro wrestling industry continues to shrink and lose money, it'll probably all still somehow be TNA's fault!

Roode etc. aren't ever getting signed by WWE. He has no real star value to a WWE audience, they'll make him go through developmental for 2 years and by the time he hits the main roster, he'll be about 40. It's really not worth their while.

I really don't understand this notion that there is some sort of dirtsheet conspiracy against TNA. It's pretty clear that they've been inept since day one, both in terms of booking and as a company. TNA is a cautionary tale because it's a company that has steadfastly refused to learn any lessons despite having opportunity after opportunity. They could have been so much more but they're just too stupid.

And as for the business going down the pan, does that mean that that Meltzer etc. should be talking up TNA just because they exist? I mean, it's all well and good to talk about the need for an alternative to WWE but people want a good alternative, not a shitty knock-off. Any old alternative isn't good enough.

What would 2 years development do? ... does it result in a crap gimmick? ... TBH ... I'd rather watch the above mentioned wrestlers then the likes of Adam Rose, Fandango, Jack Swagger, Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston etc etc! #100%beinghonest

(Maybe tna will still end up on a decent network & the dirt sheets are talking shite again) 🙏

I don't think they do to be completely honest. The dirtsheets write what TNA provide and what TNA have provided in the past few years is terrible decision after terrible decision. TNA are where they are because TNA management have completely ballsed up.

Ratings are discussed because they aren't really great. They are good, and were pretty solid around the 1.1-1.4m mark until the move to Wednesdays which hasn't worked at all.

They probably will talk about TNA upon its eventual demise but how can they not? Ex-talent earning more at Wal-Mart than on national television 52 weeks a year, no TV deal past December, people haven't worked since October and won't work for TNA until January at the very earliest. How can a positive spin be put on that?