TNA's biggest mistakes, beginning to end

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

The Daffney deal and Jesse Neal firing

[rocket]

I know Jeff Hardy has his problems, but when he returned to TNA in 2010 he was months removed from being probably the number 2 face in WWE. And that didn't work.

[weaselboy]

Ask yourself what was the only "title" that was ever protected, idolised and presented as truly sought after???

Hulk Hogan's WWE Hall of Fame Ring

I'll never forget the idiocy of that angle, you've got Hogan handing Abyss a WWE issued item and Abyss is acting like a child getting a bicycle on Christmas morning. To me it sums up the biggest problem, TNA is constantly referencing and revering the WWE's creative history (or companies that are now WWE property like WCW/ECW), while the WWE is acting like TNA doesn't exist.

[Ben Wyatt]

Jul 28, 2014 11:06:10 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

This was a great post by Bad News Hitogoroshi about TNA making the mistake of pissing off their most loyal cusomters and harming their TV show in the process.
officialfan.proboards.com/thread/498499/good-blasts-impact-zone-audience?page=2

May 4, 2014 13:45:15 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

TNA brought this upon themselves. Years ago, the Impact Zone was full of life and the fans were wild. They were excited about the product and quite vocal to the point of taking over the show. They popped for almost every angle. Chant "This Is Awesome" for matches that got their attention. But Hogan and Company came in and changed it all. They stripped TNA of its former identity & crapped on the previous accomplishments and the crowd showed their disapproval. So TNA told them to behave because you're just cast members not wrestling fans. That lead to a large group of regulars protesting that and not returning. The ones who did try to continue to go were moved from their usual spots and replace with paid models and plants. Seeing the are no longer wanted, they stopped going. Which lead TNA with plants, models, and clueless tourists who're wondering when John Cena coming out to wrestle. The models forgot their cues of when they are suppose to cheer or boo. The plants weren't loud enough to counter the confused tourists' apathy. The very same people they wanted gone were the ones who gave the Impact Zone life. So Hogan convinced TNA to take the show on the road and cuts ties with Universal Studios. TNA went on the road without a backup plan if the tapings didn't work and bring the growth as predicted. The tv tapings put TNA even further in the hole financially and fans on the road acted like the ones in the Impact Zone. So with their tails between their legs, they went back to Orlando. The problem was Universal Studios rented out Studio 21 to someone else and the new area they tape at isn't their's exclusively.

While TNA was gone from Orlando, a new wrestling show came to town. WWE brought NXT to Orlando permanently after falling in love with Full Sail Arena. The Full Sail Arena is everything the Impact Zone used to be. The crowd is loud and interacts with the wrestlers. The shows get them excited. Matter of fact, a number of the former Impact Zone regulars are now regulars of NXT. They went somewhere that actually wanted them to make noise and be part of the show. So when TNA announced they were returning back to Orlando, that FORMER fanbase weren't excited. They didn't want to stand in line for hours and get told to how to act like fans. Sure it's free to get in, but they remember how TNA treated them. So they are sticking with NXT and TNA is stuck with the tourists who probably still thinks Hulk Hogan is still there. So you can blame the crowd for the lack of noise and excitement all you want but look at the product that is being sold if you really want the truth.

Well put.

[Ben Wyatt]

TNA also failed to learn that there are times where you just have to give the fans what they want and that sometimes the really obvious happy ending to a storyline is the way to go.

The obsession with heel factions taking over the company failed over and over, and yet they just kept doing it

[weaselboy]

Let's also look at match inventions

-That stupid casket match rip-off that Sting and Abyss had
-That eyesore of a red cage
-A ladder match with a penalty box, where you have to hang the belt like a christmas ornament thus robbing one of the cool visual of literally reaching for the title
-A reverse battle royale
-A match in which you compete for a 1 in 4 chance that you will be fired, based on a flavour of the month game show and an idea the WWE had

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Throwing large chunks of cash at former WWE and WCW stars. TNA never really realized that the ball was in their court. Guys like Angle, Hogan, Sting, etc, came calling because either They were tired of WWE's shit or WWE was tired of their shit. I'm all for wrestlers knowing their worth, but a lot of the big stars just got greedy and milked TNA dry. TNA never put its foot down and said, "you're the one who wants to stay relevant, you play by our rules."

[khali]

-The continued killing of guys that were huge and should have been THE guy. This includes Monty Brown, Samoa Joe and James Storm.

-Similarly, the continued failure to pay off major storylines or angles. I watched for years as a another heel stable sought to dominate the company, and usually they didn't end up any comeuppance whatsoever. And it wasn't just those kind of storylines either. This kind of thing happened all the time. They really wanted me to pay for Bound for Glory to see James Storm win the title, just so it wouldn't happen.

There's a lot of others that I'll probably point out later.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Eric Young Knockouts Tag Champion
Eric Young world champion
Magnus World champion

[Phil Parent]

Not believing their own hype that X-Division style workers were the future, and make them the identity of the company.

10-12 years later, X-Division style workers like Punk, Bryan, Ambrose, Rollins, Cesaro, etc... are the core of WWE.

It could have been TNA.

[angryfan]

I could go with booking decisions, but the last mistake may prove to be the most telling. Even the McMahon's delusional world, they don't intentionally piss off business partners and do the exact opposite of what they want. They may skirt it, or go around but they don't just say, "Yeah, we're gonna go ahead and do that thing you were against, but don't worry, we won't tell you about it and will deny it when asked".

They brought Russo back when that was a rather blatant point of contention, and that speaks absolute volumes.

[Deleted]

The 2007-2009 burial of their biggest star AJ Styles

1 Becomes Christian's b****
2 Becomes Angle's b****
3 Dresses like a turkey
4 Dresses like a reindeer
5 Marries Karen at the time Angle

[Johnny]

Their biggest mistake was going with wwe outcasts and old timers.

Look at the talent pool wwe have on their roster, and nxt. Take all of those Indy heroes and stick them in TNA. Take Bryan, Punk, Cesaro, Rollins, Ambrose, Zayn, Kenta...

The Indy scene was there for the milking, and TNA didn't bother until wwe had caught on to the idea.

[Pillman's Pencil]

Russo
Daffney's medical bills
Hogan/Bischoff (wasn't needed IMO)
Lack of building original characters, even though they have done.
Scaling back the X-Division
Dropping the 6 sided ring
Jarrett leaving
Rellik
Painting a penis on Samoa Joe's head and pairing him with Taz
Depush of Samoa Joe (when AJ left he was the guy you should build around)
Silent Night Bloody Night match (Shark Boy, Black Reign and Rellik, it was the most hilariously bad thing you'll see)

[weaselboy]

Jul 28, 2014 17:16:11 GMT -5 @bigcass said:

The 2007-2009 burial of their biggest star AJ Styles

1 Becomes Christian's b****
2 Becomes Angle's b****
3 Dresses like a turkey
4 Dresses like a reindeer
5 Marries Karen at the time Angle

Don't forget the time they had Borash camp outside his house and interview locals about how he regularly lost amateur wrestling contests to a girl in high school.

[Woo]

1. Hiring Hogan and Bischoff. How can this not be #1? The sheer fact they were paying Hogan way over seven figures is outrageous in itself seeing as Angle was on less than him, but the fact is most of their mistakes that came later were Hogan's ideas. He took their cash and bled them dry and then after steering TNA towards the edge of the cliff jumped out and survived intact. Let us not forget that not only was TNA at it's peak when Hogan signed. Yes 2005 was better in-ring but this was the time when they were actually making money too.

2. Failing to push Samoa Joe. How did they mess this up? He was the talk of the wrestling world and pure money, yet he never took the belt off of Jarrett and they then had him lose his streak to Angle (to show that the WWE guy was better), then lose again to Tomko of all people. When he eventually won the belt it was too late.

3. Hiring Russo after being told not to. Russo was the booker in 2009 and did an awesome job.. yet TNA turned heel on him in favour of Hogan's ideas (a swerve that even Russo couldn't have seen coming)! I like the guy, but if I was told by the network not to hire him, I would listen to them!

4. Butchering the Knockouts Division. Amazing Kong, Cheerleader Melissa, Sarah Stock and Ayako Hamada. Four of the best women in the world in 2009.Four women that cover every type of demographic you could ask for (white, black, Japanese, Hispanic- sort of) and you have them all on your roster at the same time. Then you have Roxxi (as good as the other four), Wilde, Daffney, the Beautiful People and Madison Rayne also and you have an incredible division which is something that separates you from the WWE. This is after Gail Kim left too! Also the fans love it! It gets your highest ratings constantly. So why do you let the division crumble when Hogan arrived? Is the value of having some radio DJ really worth more than Kong, one of the most unique and talented female wrestlers in the last decade? Surely you could have paid your golden girl Taylor Wilde enough money so she didn't have to sell sunglasses to make ends meet?

5. The X Division crumbles. TNA have always had a hard time with this, which is odd because it was the thing that drew so many fans to the company in the first place. They had AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Kaz, Williams, Bentley, Sabin, Shelly, Dutt, Lethal etc putting on incredible matches yet they never seemed to fully embrace them as true stars. As has been said above they look so stupid now seeing as the current stars like Bryan, Rollins, Ambrose and future stars Zayn, KENTA, Devitt are now out X-Divisioning the X-Division. I recall when Hogan decided that all X Division matches should be triple threats for no good reason and when they were reduced to Jackass skits. Like the KO's, good fast paced action wasn't something you saw in the WWE and helped TNA forge its own identity and with the Ultimate X it had one of the be best stipulation matches in history unique to its brand.

6. Relying on ex WWE guys. Some were great signings- Raven, Angle, Christian, Pope, Team 3D and I loved Steiner, Nash and Foley's runs but did we need Chyna, Test, Al Snow, Rikishi, or the Bashams? This got even worse when Hogan arrived with all his friends stealing all of Dixie's money such as Orlando freaking Jordan, Val Venis and even the bloody Nasty Boys! Who wants to see the Nasty Boys rather than Beer Money or the Motorcity Machineguns? TNA never had any faith in TNA original guys like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, James Storm etc but that is who the fans most wanted to see. Monty Brown was the first big example of an underpushed TNA talent, but he was far from the last.

7. Victory Road. Letting a drugged up Hardy wrestle in that state was a shameful tactic and burnt so much of what little goodwill TNA still had with fans.

8. Going on the road! Another Hogan idea and one which cost them sooo much money and must be the reason (aside from Hulk's wages) that they are in such dire straits now.

9. Changing the 6 sided ring. The hexagon was great, the X Division guys loved it and it was another thing that made them stand out. Hogan hated it so he got his way again.

10. Miss-treatment of talent. Under-pushing talent is one thing, but refusing to pay for medical bills was such a disgusting low for them. Jesse O'Neil, Daffney and Jesse Sorenson's situation was probably the worst of the lot. Konnan left the super hot LAX because of dispute with TNA over his medical bills and went back to Mexico where he now has serious clout in AAA, which would seemingly have hurt any possible talent loans between AAA and TNA and TNA's super cup tournaments which was stupid. You also had guys like Homicide and Sonjay Dutt constantly wrestling in bandages making them look like such a bush league company. Then you underpay them, but do not let them work for any other company? Hasrh. Later on TNA relaxed the rules saying they could wrestle anywhere, but weren't allowed to be filmed for DVD's, which for most indies that thrive on DVD sales was a good as a no-release clause. This meant that women such as Madison Rayne and Sarita couldn't wrestle for Shimmer and earn extra some money to help them out with their pitiful salaries.

And just one more because why the hell not:

The hiring of Pacman-Jones. Seriously what were they thinking? I imagine a lot of Americans had no idea who this "superstar" is and nobody outside American would have any idea at all. Those that did might have known him due to the fact that he attacked a stripper in a night club and then one of his gang shot and paralysed a man from the waist down. That sounds like just the type of guy you'd want to hire! Forgetting about the fact he wasn't allowed to wrestle too... though he still managed to win a tag team championship despite that...Oh and the man who was shot was a profesional wrestler which just makes the whole thing worse in my eyes. Almost like they betrayed one of their own by hiring this scum bag.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Jerry Jarrett at that fishing trip on 2002 not telling Jeff to shut the f*** up

[Chainsaw]

[benstudd]

A big part of TNA's lack of forging itself an identity has to go to Jeff Jarrett's fault. His dominance and hugging of the spotlight from 2002 to 2006 was just awful. Not only the matches were overbooked messes but if the X Division sort of put TNA on the map and were the reason for the early buzz for the company, it should have been the brand to promote and logically the next step for this company-Hell the next step for a new breed of wrestling- should have been to bring forth these competitors to the limelight. You have these incredible athletes be the stars of your promotion, choose the best of them and make them TNA World champions and they become the brand. They almost did that with AJ but they kept "putting him back in his place". Don't get me wrong JJ is not a bad wrestler but not only he was limited as a star in the WWF and WCW but if you wanted to promote something interesting and new, he should not have been the face of the company. And like I said all his booking style of matches were stuck in the Attitude Era. To cover the fact that they were not really exciting on their own.

Jarrett being the face of the company was TNA's biggest mistake.

[Deleted]

To me, the biggest blunder was that control of the company was always portrayed as more important than any wrestler or title.