TNA at Worse

Question
QUESTION: Hello there, this is ahsen after long time. Again need your opinion on TNA.

I believe TNA is now passing through worse period of its career. It is so haphazard that even WCW wasnt like that. They just lost interest and nobody cares what storylines are on the floor.

Mr. Anderson, I'm sure nobody remembers that how many times this man turned face/heel in its one and half year tenure. He changed almost after every 2 pay-per views. He was mid-carder in WWE and wasnt THAT much big wrestler or entertainer as TNA is portraying him.

Scot Steiner, i remember his last best match as Stainer Brother in WCW, and after few years with HHH. Other than that, he sucks for 15 years. No moves, no speed, no entertainment just muscles and still in lime light.

Bubba Ray Dudley, never proved himself as solo entertainer.

RVD, not so active and lost his charm.

These are few examples, list is very long. They are in the show replacing the greatest talent of TNA like Samoa Joe, Desmond Wolf (left), X-Divisioners, Kazarian, Robert Roode etc. Even Kurt Angle was far behind till winning the championship. Forming groups like Immortals, disbanding them frequently, joining of new ones, firing of old ones....its all seems to be crap. No good matches, no drama, no hype just random stories, everyone fighting with every one. I believe Hogan has just done which he was supposed to do...destroy the organization. Where do you think will it end, or any chance for improvement?

ANSWER: Well, people saw this coming when Hogan and Bischoff came in. I mean it was not a shocker and people were expecting lows like this. So, I won't sit here and say I didn't see it going down this way. However, I will admit some things are ok.

The X-Division is getting better and it seems like TNA is trying to move the TNA Originals to the main front. But the issue is that they just don't know how to properly do it.

I agree big time with the Ken Anderson thing. I was even wondering why the change happened.

Anderson is in a tweener mold, so it's not shocking that he goes back and forth. But the way he goes from a guy people love to a guy people hate is a bit weird. TNA made a big mistake by trying to pair him with Immortal, as it just didn't work in any way.

The idea in the beginning for the group was ok, but it was just NWO 2.0 for me.

The dumbest thing nowadays is the Kurt Angle turn. I mean seriously, he hates Jeff Jarrett and Karen, who are both in the group. So, Hogan sells out Jeff and everything like that, then Angle is suddenly siding with people he hates, over reasons for hating them?

That's just stupid!! I mean seriously, what the hell TNA?

I managed to talk to Chris Daniels the other day and we spoke on a number of issues. He told me a lot of PC things. But, he did go a little out of that when I asked him about some dumb signings. He said, I wondered how many celebs TNA employed who were actually worth the money invested.

TNA tries too hard to do things that really they shouldn't be doing. They try to shock, to surprise. But the issue is that the shocks and surprises are idiotic.

Right now, they have no idea what the hell is going on, why they are doing what they are doing, and where they're going in the future.

They put so much into an angle that works on a certain night, but never what works for a long term story.

Marketing wise, I think they're getting better there. But, they really need to do more work on getting these guys on TV shows more. Get them on Late Night shows, seriously! I mean, WWE had 3 different guys on 3 different late night shows within a month. So, obviously they do have pull but TNA could do this as well.

The one thing TNA really needs help with, to me anyway, is figuring out where they're going with something before the last hour. They need to have long term stories in place, especially for big angles. And they need to be able to work after one PPV. Obviously the Anderson thing was just to set up one PPV, then they were like, hey Anderson is a better face, let's do that then.

Working on the long term instead of the short term, to me, will be better for the overall product



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanx,
Kurt Angle situation is confusing and i think Jeff Jarrett will again be side lined like earlier.
I do agree that stretching storylines till at least 2 pay-per views would be better for title shots. But the main thing is that how many WWE leavers will you bring in, on promise to make champions? In past two years we can not figure out how many times the title changed hands. First They brought RVD to award championship, then Jeff Hardy, then Sting, then Anderson and now number of others. Then for Midcarder, MMG's stuck on one point, Generation Me was the best tag team i have seen in past 10 years but left, Jay Lethal and even Danials left (now back). The unfortunate thing is, that these all have been pointed out number of times but TNA management is not caring for that. They have become VINCE MACMOHAN, even he gone on back foot in recent years after much criticism. It seems to me that its not too far that WWE will buy TNA with in two years.

Answer
The difference between Vince McMahon and TNA is that Vince creates stars and moves his business forward while TNA relies on talent he built up and focuses on what works today.

The thing about TNA is, they won't get bought by McMahon any time soon because they are owned mainly by Panda Energy and Dixie Carter, not to mention Jeff Jarrett. Therefore, until Panda goes down, which they won't really. Then TNA won't sell unless it seriously has to. And right now, they are making a little money.

Vinny Mac can't just up and buy TNA any time he wishes. They have to be willing to sell it off. The thing about WCW was, AOL merged with Time Warner and AOL had no idea what they had and because they owned everything WCW outright, such as Warner Bros, TNT and TBS, and the company itself, they could sell it off. And Vinny Mac was there waiting with pocket change to get it.

Panda Enerdy, Jeff Jarrett, and Dixie Carter would have to be losing a lot of money to try and sell the company. I don't see that happening even in 10 years, unless Panda suddenly goes down.

G-Me may be going to WWE btw, I spoke with them a few weeks ago and they had no contact from anyone, but Trips suddenly decided to go after them because he wanted to improve the tag division. So, they had a try out on RAW and they're supposed to go to FCW within the next month or two if they choose to sign on with them.

To me, the biggest thing TNA has to do is this: Work on what you're going to do the next month, up through the PPV. Then, sit down and plan on what's going to happen. But make sure things will make sense after the PPV too. TNA seems to write for the moment, then by the PPV, they come up with random things no one understands seemingly. Then they spend the next few shows trying to make it work, then do something else stupid, and the pattern just continues.

So, they need to plan things out far better. To me, that will improve things