Thoughts about TNA on the road...

[Sephiroth]

Since they are cutting off road shows and looking for a new permanent taping location, what is the overall impression of TNA's time on the road. Myself, I think they needed to start touring at some point-but they just tried to do too much too fast. Touring is important for a wrestling company to increase their revenue and expand their audience-but its still an expensive venture and TNA broke the bank pretty fast on it. They really should have started just doing shows in other parts of Florida and neighboring states and built from there. Of course, putting in crap shows when they were going on the road certainly did not help them any. Any other thoughts?

[Kevin Hamilton]

They've really gotta somehow improve their presence to a more casual audience, whether by advertising, marketing, whatever.

Easier said than done I suppose, but at the show that just happened last week (second part of which just aired of course), the building was maybe a third full at the outset, and then the vast majority of us left well before the end of the second show. The Impact that just aired, had maybe 500 people there once people started leaving.

Part of that is cuz it wasn't a great show, but more of it was the majority of the crowd ain't really familiar with TNA or its wrestlers. I heard several people not know who this or that guy was, and that went on all show.

[Deleted]

In hindsight, they should have gone on the road periodically at first to build up the fanbase, and then went permanently if/when the money started to increase. They should still go on the road, at least for PPV's, but if one venue is going to save them money and keep them afloat, that's really the more important thing.

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2013 22:34:02 GMT -5 @conebone69 said:

In hindsight, they should have gone on the road periodically at first to build up the fanbase, and then went permanently if/when the money started to increase. They should still go on the road, at least for PPV's, but if one venue is going to save them money and keep them afloat, that's really the more important thing.

The Impact Zone really did die though. That whole "cast members" thing had an effect on it I think. I get wanting to get out of there, and the atmosphere was better a lot of the time after they left, but they were obviously not financially prepared to go on the road full-time. Kinda funny how it seemed like Hogan was the guy pushing them to do all this shit they weren't ready for, like road tapings and head to head with Raw. His ego couldn't handle being in niche number 2 company, they always had to be RAISING THE BAR DUDE WE'RE TAKING OVER THE BUSINESS JACK JUST YOU WAIT! Welp, we waited, and now you're gone and you've had a big part in damaging the company. Thanks Hulk.

[jimmyjames]

I'm not shocked at the financial cost. It's expensive going on the road and across the country, especially with wrestling being in a down period. Even crowds for WWE aren't like what they were (or at least that's what it seems like) and they're in a lot better position than TNA. I think they should have stayed in the Impact Zone and maybe went on the road a couple of weeks every other month. TNa should and could have taken the slow approach, but they like to go all in, without any backup plan.

[BlackoutCreature]

TNA needed to improve their house show business first before they started doing their television tapings on the road. Prove that you can actually draw people to the shows first, then start bringing the cameras with you.

[Sephiroth]

I might add that since they were based out of Universal in Florida, maybe they should have seen if Universal would also give them a studio in their California location and switched back and forth between the two. This perhaps could have let them do some limited touring in California while reducing some of the costs since they would just be working around one of their central filming locations.
Also, if they were still on good terms with the owners of the Memphis Fair Grounds, they could have once in a while done a show back in their old stomping grounds. They drew decent enough crowds for the years they were there, and with their pre-established history they would have already had a foot in the door locally.

[Deleted]

Face facts. TNA doesn't have fans. They have 2 groups who tune into Impact. 1. People who hope they have finally cut the crap. 2. People who want to laugh at them when they screw up....20 times a show.

I'm in the first group and am, more often than not disappointed by them. Now that the Orange cloud of BS is finally gone maybe they can get on track and produce a wrestling show that will be fun to watch while building up wrestlers we would pay to see.

But they wont. They don't have the ability or talent to properly run a wrestling company. There is a reason they fail, and just like WCW its because they can not innovate anything and are always looking to rip off WWF or old WCW.

When your weakest link is at the top, you have no chance.

[kingoftheindies]

Oct 8, 2013 9:51:50 GMT -5 @torgaddon said:

Face facts. TNA doesn't have fans. They have 2 groups who tune into Impact. 1. People who hope they have finally cut the crap. 2. People who want to laugh at them when they screw up....20 times a show.

I'm in the first group and am, more often than not disappointed by them. Now that the Orange cloud of BS is finally gone maybe they can get on track and produce a wrestling show that will be fun to watch while building up wrestlers we would pay to see.

But they wont. They don't have the ability or talent to properly run a wrestling company. There is a reason they fail, and just like WCW its because they can not innovate anything and are always looking to rip off WWF or old WCW.

When your weakest link is at the top, you have no chance.

Well I consider myself a fan so they have 1 fan lol.

The bigger issue with TNA I think is they really didn't seem to put a lot of thought on where they went on the road. Their last show (Arkansas?) had a hot crowd even if a lot of people were left during the second show. I went to the Indiana PA Impact and it was a blast. I think some of the other shows in smaller venues were well received as well.

I do agree Hulk being gone could be good, but I also think (and have mentioned in the past) that getting rid of guys like Bruce Pritchard and D'Lo Brown were good as well and it wouldn't shock me if they were made for other reasons than just cost cutting. I don't think they did a good job of finding talent for Gutcheck or handling certain contracts and I also don't think Pritchard was good in his role as head booker. I know Jeff Jarrett and Bischoff haven't been in their positions long, but I can see a bit of a positive difference in the product since they've come on. It may not be great tv, but I'm at least seeing changes in the right direction.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Oct 8, 2013 9:51:50 GMT -5 @torgaddon said:

Face facts. TNA doesn't have fans. They have 2 groups who tune into Impact. 1. People who hope they have finally cut the crap. 2. People who want to laugh at them when they screw up....20 times a show.

I'm in the first group and am, more often than not disappointed by them. Now that the Orange cloud of BS is finally gone maybe they can get on track and produce a wrestling show that will be fun to watch while building up wrestlers we would pay to see.

But they wont. They don't have the ability or talent to properly run a wrestling company. There is a reason they fail, and just like WCW its because they can not innovate anything and are always looking to rip off WWF or old WCW.

When your weakest link is at the top, you have no chance.

The claim that WCW never innovated anything is utterly ridiculous, compare Nitro once it got going to the WWF shows of the time, it's production values and mix of styles were lightyears ahead of what the WWE was putting out, but they never get any credit for it. WCW's issues were caused by Eric Bischoff handing out creative control and guaranteed contracts which ultimately left the company unbookable and unable to get rid of people on big money and by Eric generally throwing money around like he had an infinite supply, which was unsustainable in the long term... His big ideas, even now, rely on on being able to spend spend spend!

All the big ideas in wrestling have been taken from somewhere so unoriginality isn't that big a deal if you wait a while and add something to it, some original twist, TNA's issue is it has copied ideas from the WWE while they're still doing them rather than doing things to give the company it's own identity which makes them seem like a minor soft drink brand dressed up to look like coke.

[kingoftheindies]

Oct 8, 2013 10:50:05 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Oct 8, 2013 9:51:50 GMT -5 @torgaddon said:

Face facts. TNA doesn't have fans. They have 2 groups who tune into Impact. 1. People who hope they have finally cut the crap. 2. People who want to laugh at them when they screw up....20 times a show.

I'm in the first group and am, more often than not disappointed by them. Now that the Orange cloud of BS is finally gone maybe they can get on track and produce a wrestling show that will be fun to watch while building up wrestlers we would pay to see.

But they wont. They don't have the ability or talent to properly run a wrestling company. There is a reason they fail, and just like WCW its because they can not innovate anything and are always looking to rip off WWF or old WCW.

When your weakest link is at the top, you have no chance.

The claim that WCW never innovated anything is utterly ridiculous, compare Nitro once it got going to the WWF shows of the time, it's production values and mix of styles were lightyears ahead of what the WWE was putting out, but they never get any credit for it. WCW's issues were caused by Eric Bischoff handing out creative control and guaranteed contracts which ultimately left the company unbookable and unable to get rid of people on big money and by Eric generally throwing money around like he had an infinite supply, which was unsustainable in the long term... His big ideas, even now, rely on on being able to spend spend spend!

All the big ideas in wrestling have been taken from somewhere so unoriginality isn't that big a deal if you wait a while and add something to it, some original twist, TNA's issue is it has copied ideas from the WWE while they're still doing them rather than doing things to give the company it's own identity which makes them seem like a minor soft drink brand dressed up to look like coke.

Well there were other issues with WCW's demise. The creative control hurt, but it was also once the first merger Turner went through (Time Warner) the new people in charge would read the scripts and take out a lot of things. So shows were getting rewritten a number of times because of corporate executives.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Oct 8, 2013 10:59:44 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

Well there were other issues with WCW's demise. The creative control hurt, but it was also once the first merger Turner went through (Time Warner) the new people in charge would read the scripts and take out a lot of things. So shows were getting rewritten a number of times because of corporate executives.

True, but a lot of the worst booking decisions WCW made all seemed to miraculously benefit people known to have creative control so I have a hard time blaming Turner/Warner execs for that, unless they really thought that WCW would make more money if they booked the face wrestlers (Sting, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Goldberg after his initial push, Bret Hart again, who was booked to turn from heel to face and back a few times since the first time I typed his name, Ric Flair...) as poorly as possible and made sure Hulk Hogan can only be beaten after several flavours of outside interference.

[Sephiroth]

The topic at hand is not WCW, it is what went wrong for TNA on the road.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

The problem with TNA is they should been on the road a lot sooner then they went. Lets faces it TNA product was better 5 years ago then it has been. It doesn't have to do with fans not knowing the guys on the roster. Because there plenty of guys on there fans know. The problem is fans not knowing about the show period. Advertising and Marketing is the main reason why TNA as been at it's stand still in ratings since 2006. Which was when they got there 2 hr Prime Time time slot. It's wrong when you get a guy like Jeff Hardy who was a red hot talent in the WWE just before he jumped too TNA. You have a guy like Angle who is a known WWE ME talent when he came in. Still able to produce in the ring. Sting who fans wanted to see and hope to go and face Taker.

I know that the TNA product in 2007 was a better drawing product then TNA 2010. How I know? Lockdown in those two years where held in the same town St. Louis area. I went to both shows and the 2007 clearly had a larger crowd. Fans should know who a lot of these guys are as they been in the company for 5 years or most at less the core talent. Everyone knows who Bully Ray was half of a very popular tag Team but maybe nobody buying him as a MEer when he worked his ass off for it. I think it's because the main storyline was a stable full of nobodies that fans don't care about. I'm talking Wes Brisco,and Garrett Bischoff to start things off.

It's bad that you can't not come up with a product that draws. The reason is because you keep putting the guys in charge who have track record that say failure on it in charge. Yeah ok Eric Bischoff had two years of success from 96 the summer of 96 to the spring of 98. That's it before the WWE kicked there asses again and never looked back. This isn't 96 and Eric has done shit since 98. Vince Russo again for years he booked TNA to a stand still. Ok again like Eric Vince was success from 97 to 99 when he left WWE. After that he was nothing to right home about. The fact that TNA has the same WCW formula of not knowing how to create a star and keep it. I mean AJ Styles went from the corner stone guy in the company since day one. Was booked into the low mid card and just now is back in the ME. How does that work? It doesn't.

You look at Samoa Joe for no reason they decide to make him from a monster to just a guy on the roster. No wonder why he gained weight because he stopped caring when TNA stop caring about his placement. So you add Advertising, marketing, to constant booking. Then you will get somewhere and stop thinking former WWE, WCW, or ECW guys are always the answer. Fans want more new faces not the guy the where bored with in 99 AKA Hogan as the man focus in the long term.

[Deleted]

Sorry, I didnt mean to derail the thread....I ment WCW 2009 onwards. They were just following WWF's lead. Mostly due to Russo wanting to book Nitro like Raw.

But moving on....

My original point is that TNA just doesn't have the fan base, due to them producing a poor show every week. It makes me question how serious Dixie really is. I mean do they actually watch Impact? Or do they just finish their taping, mail it to spike and call it a week.

As I have said in other threads, there is a wealth of information that Dixie could easily access to help improve TNA, but clearly isn't interested in doing so. So why should teh fans part with their hard earned money, to watch something that might be entertaining? I wouldn't.

So of course when they go on the raod, people are not going to buy tickets. Why would I pay to see Garrett Bishoff or Gunner?

[muzzle]

TNA should of gone on the road in 2006 to 2008, when people still had faith in them and they were hot.

[Andrew is Good]

I thought it was a good idea at the time, but then again, I didn't know about their finances, and that Janice wouldn't put up with no bullshit anymore.

It's weird, I feel if Janice had more control over that company then Dixie, things would go a lot smoother. Someone who can rule with an iron fist. Be intimidating like a bat with nails in it, that only Janice can be.

[________ has left the building]

Oct 8, 2013 14:29:22 GMT -5 Andrew is Good said:

I thought it was a good idea at the time, but then again, I didn't know about their finances, and that Janice wouldn't put up with no bullshit anymore.

It's weird, I feel if Janice had more control over that company then Dixie, things would go a lot smoother. Someone who can rule with an iron fist. Be intimidating like a bat with nails in it, that only Janice can be.

Janice Carter is the leader they need and deserve.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2013 3:53:56 GMT -5 jimmyjames said:

TNa should and could have taken the slow approach, but they like to go all in, without any backup plan.

Balls deep, Brother.

[Error]

Never should have hired Jay Bradley. His careless road humping cost TNA too much in support.