Dixie Carter must be throwing up

[saintpat]

TNA rescues Rob Van Dam from the scrap heap and brings him in and makes him a champ and ... crickets. No bump in ratings, no buzz outside of TNA's regular fans, no nothing.

WWE brings him to Philly for MitB and the crowd goes nuts, he has some great spots, a nice tease that he could win it and it feels like an event. Having RVD back felt like a celebrated homecoming.

A friend who I watched the PPV with tonight said it best: "Nobody cares what happens in the minor leagues." He went on about a baseball player now tearing it up in the majors, being treated by ESPN as if he was baseball's savior with his own segments every day, and when he was doing the same thing not long ago with a nearby minor league team he was playing in front of half-empty houses every night.

I seriously wonder if even a Cena or an Orton or a CM Punk would make any kind of long-term impact financially (PPV buys, weekly ratings, merch, live show ticket sales) for TNA. I think there would be a bump for a short while, then it would probably go back to business as usual.

[Shark]

Until they can prove they can market themselves better bringing guys like that won't mean anything more than a 1 night curiosity ratings pop.

[BorneAgain]

Honestly this is how I've come to view the trend of bringing in the big names to TNA. Guys like Nash, Christian, and RVD have complained about how people would walk up to them and ask what they were up to, even thought they'd been on TNA TV for months. At this point to a casual audience, WWE is to wrestling what Kleenex is to tissues. So many think of the sport as being that. Yeah the hardcores will get into other promotions and seek out stuff, but that's them. Look at the ratings; the change in them, either up or down could be seen as being so insignificant as to suggest that there's a built in audience that will always watch Impact, but will likely not grow beyond that.

Doesn't mean they can't expand, doesn't mean that with some smart handling of money they can't sustain themselves, but it does say they're better off getting cheaper talent, given how little the big names seem to do for them.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Jul 14, 2013 23:23:39 GMT -5 saintpat said:

TNA rescues Rob Van Dam from the scrap heap and brings him in and makes him a champ and ... crickets. No bump in ratings, no buzz outside of TNA's regular fans, no nothing.

WWE brings him to Philly for MitB and the crowd goes nuts, he has some great spots, a nice tease that he could win it and it feels like an event. Having RVD back felt like a celebrated homecoming.

A friend who I watched the PPV with tonight said it best: "Nobody cares what happens in the minor leagues." He went on about a baseball player now tearing it up in the majors, being treated by ESPN as if he was baseball's savior with his own segments every day, and when he was doing the same thing not long ago with a nearby minor league team he was playing in front of half-empty houses every night.

I seriously wonder if even a Cena or an Orton or a CM Punk would make any kind of long-term impact financially (PPV buys, weekly ratings, merch, live show ticket sales) for TNA. I think there would be a bump for a short while, then it would probably go back to business as usual.

To be far there is a big different then Philly and the Impact Zone. Plus RVD debut was never hyped. WWE show videos for a month. Plus his title win WAS NOT EVENT advertise. It was random the next night after Lockdown with no build. What did anybody expect?

That is why TNA never gets ratings like one would expect.

[JTG Fan]

I actually thought RVD was fine in TNA up until they stripped him of the title, after which point he never had any direction.

[jimmyjames]

Plus, the whole reason they had RVD debut at MITB was because it would be in Philly. They knew he would get a huge pop without the huge buildup, but adding that into the picture, you knew it would be off the wall. Lets see how this ends up in a month and the reaction RVD is getting and the push or de-push he receives.

[Glitch]

To be honest, RVD isn't exactly giving a bump in the ratings to wwe either.

But this does bring up what bothers me about Dixie. She brings in wwe guys and pretty much gives the ma paying vacation while they wait to come back to the wwe.

[jimmyjames]

But if TNA build and promotes the arrival of a former WWE wrestler, then how can Taz and Tenay exclaim, "Is that. . .", What's (insert name) doing here" or "We know who he/that is."

[Hit Girl]

Didn't they bring RVD into TNA with no hype and then have Sting bludgeon him with a baseball bat?

[Deleted]

Well, WWE has the luxury of being able to hype people up and showing the audience why theyre important which TNA doesnt have. TNA can't show clips from stuff RVD did 10 years ago because A) they dont own that footage and B) he wasnt there 10 years ago. Like, if you hadnt heard of RVD at all until a month ago those video packages WWE showed did a phenomenal job of making him look awesome and selling him as a big deal. TNA may do a poor job at hyping people up regardless, but it'd be impossible for them to do it like WWE did here even if they were great at it.

[Mozenrath]

Rob Van Dam
This theme f***ing blew
Rob Van Dam
This theme f***ing blew

[Been burned too many times]

The majority don't care about folks going from WWE to TNA, it's funny how the opinions change of people once they leave a company though. In TNA it's...

-Washed up.
-Lazy.
-Fat.
-Only in TNA because WWE don't want them.
-Weed head.
-Hasbeen.
-Old timer.
-WWE reject

However as soon as they return to the WWE everybody loves them again. It's hilarious. Another funny thing is people claiming to be fans of wrestlers but then refusing to follow them to other promotions. A lot of folks aren't fans of wrestlers unless they work in a company they like. They'll straight up refuse to watch them anywhere else but keep begging that wrestler to come back to the promotion they like.

People are funny.

[Deleted]

I mean, it was Philly. Of course the crowd was going to explode.

Bryan and Punk both got louder reactions, but still.

In terms of his use in TNA - this WWE appearance was largely a nostalgia appearance, not a new major player on the scene like he was in TNA.

Its not like he appeared in TNA and people instantly hated him - TNA handled him terribly so what did you expect? People to LOVE him despite crappy writing? Come on - being a talent only goes so far.

[SOR]

Another WWE>TNA thread?

Let's talk some facts.

Fact 1: WWE has 6-7 hours (If not more) of broadcasting on national networks a week. TNA has 2 hours a week

Fact 2: WWE's flag ship program RAW rates about a 3.6 if not higher. Impact rates a 1.1-1.2 week to week.

Fact 3: If your product is less known it cannot often compete with a more well known product

So of course a product with 6-7 hours a week who can hype a guy to an audience of a combined 5.0+ rating is going to do better then a company with a 1.1 rating.

A fairer comparison is TNA and ROH to be honest. TNA cannot compete with WWE yet. Maybe in 5-10 years.

[ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul]

Jul 15, 2013 1:08:34 GMT -5 SOR said:

Another WWE>TNA thread?

Let's talk some facts.

Fact 1: WWE has 6-7 hours (If not more) of broadcasting on national networks a week. TNA has 2 hours a week

Fact 2: WWE's flag ship program RAW rates about a 3.6 if not higher. Impact rates a 1.1-1.2 week to week.

Fact 3: If your product is less known it cannot often compete with a more well known product

So of course a product with 6-7 hours a week who can hype a guy to an audience of a combined 5.0+ rating is going to do better then a company with a 1.1 rating.

A fairer comparison is TNA and ROH to be honest. TNA cannot compete with WWE yet. Maybe in 5-10 years.

I wouldn't compare TNA to ROH really. ROH doesn't have national coverage. TNA has international coverage.

And it is not immediately a WWE>TNA. As I agree with the sentiment that the 'E has used RVD well for precisely 1 PPV. I wont knock them too much over Van Dam, and the fact that he real isn't a plus to the product over a decade after ECW was active.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

How did TNA rescue RVD from the scrap heap? He seemed like he was doing just fine at home and could have signed back with WWE any time he wanted. They are the one's that aggressively pursued RVD.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Give it a while, we'll see how well he's received after a few months, once he's started to lose interest again as he's not being pushed toward a title and he's kicked guys like Daniel Bryan, Ziggler and Punk in their mouths.

TNA need to face facts, they're not going to get stellar performances from people who've openly admitted they'd only ever go to TNA for the money like Flair and RVD,

[TK The Friendly Robot]

RVD sucks ass, he put no effort in anywhere in TNA when he was expected to put over any young talent and once he stops being pushed in WWE he'll do the same. Unless you haven't noticed all the guys in WWE at the moment are guys who are young and hungry bar what Henry, Orton, Brock and Cena? RVD is going to go back to being boring and uninspiring asap and I'm not going to let one Philly crowd and once MITB performance change my mind otherwise.

Whoever said RVD was fine sitting at home was right, I'd rather not watch him wrestle the same sloppy matches in either company to be honest, so if home was so good for RVD then he should f***ing stay there.

[Deleted]

Yep. If MITB was held in a theme park in Orlando in front of a studio audience, I'm sure the pop would have been huge, too. Please.

Watch BFG 2012. RVD came out in Phoenix and was over like crazy. This is nothing new. As lazy, unmotivated, etc, as he can become over time, he has always been popular. It's just that TNA was stuck in the Impact Zone for the majority of RVD's TNA run, rather than on the road.

[HMARK Center]

Thing is, as was said before, TNA's ratings continue not to budge much; some of that is their own doing (we've all spent years pointing out how bad TNA is at hyping and promoting itself...even if you're like me and don't think Vince McMahon is any sort of creative genius, you can't knock the guy's ability to promote pro wrestling shows), and some of that is the nature of the industry today, where nothing is really THAT popular anymore, or at least not even sniffing the levels achieved by Hulkamania, the nWo, and the Austin/Rock era.

But whatever the root cause, I think it goes back to what a number of people have also said TNA should've spent years doing: get ahead of the curve when it comes to "shocking signings", and just basically ignore them. They don't pop ratings, they cost money, and those guys are major threats to jump back to WWE in an instant.

That isn't to say don't sign ANY ex-WWE guys, or older big stars; Sting has mostly been fine in his role as elder statesman in TNA, Angle is a great hand to keep around (well, ignoring his Twitter use and things like that, just focusing on his wrestling), guys like Christian and Bully Ray have been great, and sometimes it's good to take a chance on guys that WWE never fully utilized, like what they're hopefully beginning to do with DOC/Gallows. There's nothing bad about it in and of itself, but you should sign these guys with a creative idea in mind, like "I can book this guy in a long term angle with some of our current wrestlers", or "this guy is a great hand to have on the roster, he'll be popular and can put so-and-so over", etc.

The problem exists when these guys are signed seemingly "just because they're there". Nothing really comes of that.