What's Wrong With TNA?

Kurt Angle

People ask why TNA can't compete with the WWE, well its pretty simple. I mean there are obvious reasons, like the WWE has been around longer, so it has a larger fan-base that it has built up over the years. It also has a much bigger budget, so they can afford more stars, bigger stars, and the quality of their show looks better. But those things all come with time. WCW eventually caught up and took over, and that shows that any other company can. It just takes time and money. With the money they can sign bigger stars, which TNA has started doing. And the quality of the production will also improve, which is has been in TNA. The shows they do outside of the usual studio look great, they have the three big screens, and a bigger crowd. But most of their shows are pre-taped in the same studio and they don't travel as much. This is appealing to some wrestlers who hate the road and all the traveling, but how can you build a national fan-base if you never leave your own territory? 

AJ Styles

But the real problem with TNA, just like with WCW is that once they get the big stars they don't know what to do with them. WWE has always been the best at creating new talent. They can take any wrestler, find out what he is good at and exploit that better than anyone. They can take a guy with one good move and make him look like a star. Examples, name a second move Evan Bourne or Justin Gabrial can do! They each have one big move and that's all they can do. In TNA they would be lucky to be an X-Division Champion. But in the WWE they are used in every possible way to get the most out of them. It is good for them, and that is why everyone wants to go to the WWE because even with a little talent they can be a huge star. Also, because they will get to wrestle other huge stars and have great matches. The WWE took John Cena who has no wrestling talent, but a great look and marketed him to be their top guy, just like they did with Hulk Hogan in the 1980s. Stone Cold Steve Austin had a bad neck and couldn't work most of the time but they found ways to use him and it worked very well. If any of these stars came to TNA or went to WCW they would be wasted. 


When Bret Hart left the WWE and went to WCW they should have had the final piece to put the WWE out of business. Instead, Vince used it in his favor and put himself back on top and put WCW out of business. 

Kurt Angle vs Mr. Anderson

Christopher Daniels

ECW on the other hand, never had the big production or the big name stars. Instead they took what they had and made it work better than even the WWE could. They had low production so they made that their gimmick, they were that low budget ugly hardcore style company. They couldn't steal any big names so they created their own. Almost every big start of the 1990s came from ECW. That is where they were created. Then they were signed to either WCW or WWE for big money. Stone Cold Steve Austin started there. So did Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Sandman, Taz, Mike Awesome, Sabu, and most of all Rob Van Dam. None of those stars changed their characters since ECW and they all went on to be big in WCW or WWE. But none of them were created in either. In the 1980s the WWF/WWE created comic book cartoon style wrestlers and that was a huge success. 

But in the 1990s that style stopped working, but they didn't change. WCW only started out by stealing their old stars, such as Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man Randy Savage. But it wasn't really working for them either. Suddenly ECW started and they recreated stars and revolutionized the business. It was edgy, it was extreme, it was real. It took a while, but both WCW and the WWE changed their style to match ECW. WCW was the first, and that is why they took over the top. They brought in guys like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, but they didn't keep them as cartoon characters. They even changed Hulk Hogan into a new edgy character with them. It was called the New World Order. It dominated the wrestling world. Vince had no choice but to do the same, only he repackaged Shawn Micheals and Triple H and called his version Degeneration X. Eventually with the help of Stone Cold and The Rock, Vince won the war. 

The Pope D'Angelo Dinero

But since then the WWE seems to have gone back to its PG cartoon version from the 1980s and no one likes it and it is falling apart in my opinion. The occasional guy seems to break through and that is the only thing saving the company, guys like CM Punk and Zack Ryder. The only credit you can give the WWE is that when these things happen they jump all over it and take advantage of it as much as they can. Its like a small spark suddenly starts a fire, when it happens in the WWE they quickly dump gas all over it and the fire spreads and a whole new era begins! In other companies like WCW and now TNA they find that spark and they dump water all over it and they kill it before it even gets started. They must have their minds made up of what they think should work, and if it doesn't they keep trying, meanwhile if something else works that they didn't plan they try to get rid of it... why?

Kurt Angle

 TNA has signed a few stars from the WWE in the past year since Hulk Hogan took over running things. I had so much excitement and expectations for how good things could be. Just think, a year ago, Hulk Hogan showed up to run the show. TNA already had the "Main Event Mafia" which included Sting, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and Scott Steiner. They also had the originals, AJ Styles, Christoper Daniels, Kazarian, Samoa Joe, Abyss, Beer Money, and the Motor City Machine Guns. Now that was a decent roster and they were doing pretty good. Now add in Hulk Hogan who brought in such stars as Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson, The Pope, and Brian Kendrick. That is a great roster. But the question is, what have they done with any of them?

Look at TNA today, who are the current Champions? 

Where are all the big name superstars I just mentioned? Not one of them is currently a Champion! Why isn't the TNA Champion Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Mr. Anderson, or Kurt Angle? What other titles have any of those guys won? They each had short TNA Championship reigns, but that was it. None of them have been X-Division Champion, Television Champion, or Tag-Team Champions. How many times have any of them even fought each other? 

Matt Morgan

Just a guess, but would you be more interested in watching Impact today if say AJ Styles was X-Division Champion (possibly the greatest X-Division Champion of all time). Rob Van Dam was Television Champion (he has some experience being a Television Champion from his days in ECW). Mr. Anderson and Jeff Hardy could be Tag-Team Champions, their finish could be "Swanton-Bombs" from opposite corners on each opponent, I think they would make a great team. And that just leaves Kurt Angle, the greatest wrestler in the world as TNA Champion. Not a bad line-up huh? 

Jeff Hardy

Rob Van Dam

Who would they fight though, well X-Division stars are all pretty much the members of Fortune and the new guys like Kendrick, Austin Aries, and Kid Kash. Television opponents could be guys like Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan, Crimsion, Abyss, and The Pope. Tag-Teams could be past successful teams, such as Beer Money, Motor City Machine Guns, and they should bring back Generation Me. They could even put Bully Ray with Scott Steiner, combined the Dudleys and the Steiners were the two greatest Tag-Teams of all time. The main event for the TNA Championship should be the whose-who of wrestling today. Every all-star that has ever walked through TNA should be invited to come back and challenge Kurt Angle as the best in the world today. What happened to Kevin Nash and Booker T, I know they are old, but WWE obviously still saw some talent in them even though TNA wasn't bothering to use them. Let Kurt Angle fight each of them in a title match. 

Also have a match with Kurt and Sting, those were one of the few good matches they had. Kurt's best rivalry was with Jeff Jarrett obviously. Does Jarrett even wrestler anymore? When did he semi-retire? And what about the other big names that they never brought in, Goldberg is sitting at home, Brock is wasting his time in UFC, and Bobby Lashley went to MMA. Imagine a Fatal Four-way between Champion Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar, Bill Goldberg, and Bobby Lashley. Elimination Four-way, the final winner is the next TNA Champion... would you watch that match?

Scott Steiner

Rob Van Dam

I think bottom line, TNA has the potential to compete with the WWE. They have enough stars that if used properly they could be just as good. TNA has a better roster and better production that ECW ever had. They seem to be better run that WCW ever has. For a company I never wanted to give a chance (not until Sting showed up) I find it hard to believe, but they should have potential to be a major player. But since they keep wasting time with all the wrong people. They spend half of the show each week putting over Robbie E or Austin Aries, meanwhile Rob Van Dam and Mr. Anderson are sitting in the back watching. Put those two in a Cage Match or a Ladder Match for any Championship in the company and I will watch that match every time. But I don't know how much longer I can keep watching Bobby Roode or Matt Morgan main event instead. Not just because I don't find them that entertaining, but because it drives me crazy to tune in every week hoping to see the wrestlers I want to see, and never seeing them. 

If you can write down a list of the top 10 wrestlers in the company before the show, and after the show not have seen any of them, then something is wrong with this company. 

Jeff Hardy

My favourite TNA moment, when Rob Van Dam beat AJ Styles for the TNA Championship, and all the confetti fell from the ceiling. I thought this is the day TNA gets serious and try to become a major wrestling promotion. Then they ruined the RVD run. They tried to have a Jeff Hardy Heel run, which was a good idea I thought, but Hardy ruined that himself. But what else have they done? The Pope won a tournament at Bound For Glory in 2010, but since then what? He hasn't even won a single title, not even X-Division or Television. I thought the Pope would win the X-Division Championship on the next PPV. I also thought once the Motor City Machine Guns knocked off Beer Money as the top Tag-Team in TNA I assumed they would be feuding with Generation Me for the rest of that year. Instead, TNA fired Generation Me, and now they are putting random teams together by lottery each week, that's funny, but not good. 

Meanwhile the best Tag-Team in the company, Beer Money, split up and is feuding one on one for the TNA Championship. How did they go from a Tag-Team to the main event. They have never even been singles wrestlers before.

Crimson

I watch TNA every week hoping it will be different. Hoping they will come to their sense. But each week when its over I shake my head and say well maybe next week lol. This is getting to be as bad as being a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, each year we say maybe next year. Its pathetic. Get it together TNA. Get serious, put the right guys in the right spots and make it happen. Stop being happy to be a minor league company. You have the guys, you have the production. Now use it, before its too late!

Why don't they have matches like this anymore?