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I think, especially if a Bischoff-led group buys it, they shouldo through with Bischoff's WCW idea. Take a break from TV for a little bit after the buy, let some anticipation build, then come back with EVERYTHING different. Separate yourself from the past as much as possible. New wrestlers, new location, new set, new enterance videos/music, new format, new name, new announcers, new ring announcer, new belts. Every little thing you can change, do change.
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Bischoff's idea was and is dumb. wCw tried several brand restarts in its dying days and with each restart, the ratings were even worse and the product never got better. You can't polish a turd...and especially under Bischoff. Under Bischoff and Hogan, TNA had a rebranding...and it did nothing.Comment
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How is it dumb? The TNA brand isn't worthless, it's negative. It's associated with a poor product and not money-making endeavor. It NEEDS a new brand. Just because Bischoff's execution was awful (and Russo's for that matter), doesn't mean the idea sucked. TNA absolutely needs a new name, it needs entrance videos that aren't outdone by fans on YouTube, it needs a lot of things...Comment
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The most important thing TNA (or any group for that matter) can do is to be as different from the WWE as possible.
Different in ring style, no backstage "why is there a camera here for out secret conversation" segments, no on screen authority figures, etc. All of these things just make you look like WWE-lite. Be bold and do something different.
When biss started Inspire, he didn't copy Anarchy. His promotion has a completely different tone & feel. He runs his shows in an art house as opposed to a rowdy bar, he uses a lot of different talent, he doesn't do 4 or 5 hours shows, he has stayed away from women's matches, etc. Why the fuck would anybody go to an Inspire show if it was just a junior version of the already established promotion that runs across town? I see many of the same faces at both shows, because they are getting something different at each one.
I don't think the brand damage is impossible to overcome. A fresh, unique product that focuses on the things WWE does not emphasize, with smart, logical booking & fresh stars would appeal to wrestling fans and might just bring back some people who handwaved wrestling when WCW went under. I don't think it would matter if you call it TNA or Impact Wrestling or Inspire Pro Wrestling or NWA or United Wrestling Association.Comment
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The one problem with this, is that the WWE, has a lot of bases covered under their umbrella. There is very little a company can truly offer to appeal to the masses that the WWE doesn't already cover. You can hit a niche, sure...but are you ever expanding past the 1.1 with said niche? I don't know.
New Japan is an A+ player, brother...even with the invention known as the internet, you can barely get very die hard wrestling fans to seek it out for free. Yes, TV changes the landscape, but I've feared for a long time that many wrestling fans are gone and they ain't comin back.
Basically, what you are saying, is for TNA to not be TNA...in any way...if that is the case...why would you buy it for anything outside of the time slot? The stench of being TNA, whether its by relation or buyout, needs more than a bleach bath to make it something viable.Comment
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I agree with about 90% of that. Two things though. I did like WCW's take on an authority figure. Not some cartoonish heel or over the top comedic face, but just an older wrestler who plays the straightman and occasionally off-sets heels being heels. Kinda off-topic, because I agree that they shouldn't go that route. Just saying it can be done in a way that I don't think it stupid and takes away from the product the way....say, Vickie Guerrero did.
Th other thing is, I think a LOT of the old WCW fans have seen or at least heard of TNA and haven't caught on or outright hated the product. So to have that same name just makes it easier to gloss over it, ESPECIALLY on your cable or satellite guide. Even if someone recommends it to you, you're likely to be set in that mindset that "Seen it, don't like it." Which is not to say that a new name would get people viewing, but why put yourself behind the 8-ball if you don't have to?Comment
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The Authority Figure wasn't invented by the WWE, but it is as WWE as Apple Pie is the 'Murica.
The concept is also played out. There is NOTHING you could do to make the authority figure a fresh idea.
Also, I'm of a firm believe, sapp...WCW fans are gone and never coming back. When the WWF purchased WCW, those fans disappeared to never return again...I don't agree that those fans even know TNA exists.Comment
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I truly believe the New Japan model can work. It's the perfect balance of traditional pro wrestling & entertainment. No nonsense when it needs to be, fun when it needs to be. It's exactly what the people who have been ran off by the WWE sports entertainment would sink their teeth into.
New Japan will never break through because people aren't going to give a Japanese promotion a chance. The model can work.Comment
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The model works because New Japan has most of the elite Japanese workers working there...and expanding (signing a guy like Ibushi is a sign of things to come, IMO, getting more of these great Jap wrestlers in the fold, even if they work elsewhere). And, its not like they pulled these top guys out of their ass, they spent a long time developing these stars.
Where is this new wrestling company getting the elite American workers from...they are all going to the WWE. We're in a generation now where the young up and coming talent that dreamed of wrestling in the WWE. No where else...the WWE. Even the young Indy talent TNA does have, were previously discarded or pushed aside by the WWE. That doesn't necessarily mean they are second rate (Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Aries certainly weren't at their peak), but they have become second rate by proxy of working for TNA. Even if we fantasy book and Samoa Joe becomes CM Punk...does TNA get more than their 1.1? I don't think so...I don't think there is enough of the market share for anyone to truly expand right now. We're working on over a decade where the second biggest chunk of wrestling fans left. A decade is a long fucking time.Comment
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A lot of wrestling fans died with WCW, that much is very clear. But I think the remaining ones at least have an idea of a promotion that had Flair, Hogan, and most notably Sting for a long time. The problem is that a lot of the WCW fans were people who weren't kids when Flair went at it with Race or Dusty or Funk. They're old. They wouldn't be caught dead watching this new age shitpile. The others, like myself, who followed Sting and Steamboat as kids, are pretty aware of TNA, but don't like it much, if at all, in most cases. The other part makes up probably about 1/3 of TNA's fanbase. Mostly out of laziness or habit.
EDIT: I'd also argue that a lot of those older fans jumped off the ship when WCW started having Vampiro dropping blood on Sting and other assorted stupid crap that WCW did near the end. I'd contest that the older guard dropped off before WCW even hit the 2s (?) near the end. Probably a little bit after Bischoff crushed the new 4 Horsemen into a fine powder...Last edited by s@ppisgod; 10-29-2013, 11:47 PM.Comment
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For what its worth, Big Dave says Easy E (and, I guess, by proxy Wayne Arnold) are gone from TNA. He will be paid out the remainder of his contract while at home.
So, perhaps Warner or ABiss can give me a breakdown of what the TNA structure is like...they have completely gutted middle management at this point.
Who is booking? Who is booking match structure? Etc.Comment
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In the span of a year, the wrestling viewing audience dropped by a combined 4 points before WCW even went out of business. The WWF's audience, from its peak of around 1999, by the time they purchased WCW, dropped 2-3 ratings points themselves. WCW another 2-3 ratings points themselves. That is a lot of viewers that disappeared even before WCW was purchased by the WWF. Now, drop that remaining 3 full ratings points that tuned into the last episode of WCW off the map that never went over to the WWE.
The WWE now runs anywhere from very high 2's to peaking in very low 4's for a RAW. That is a lot of people that just got up and left and now, 15 years later...they ain't ever ever coming back.Comment
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mookie looks at correlation between match time and Meltzer star ratings among other factors. Great read.
For years, I’ve harnessed the “Observer Star Ratings” blog to look at Star Accumulations by Star or Who has the Brightest Future (Age vs Star Ratings). While I had the information of who was in the matches, I lacked other important data points such as length of the match, type of show or finish of match.
Through sheer will of force and extensively cross-referencing with The History of WWE I’ve mapped each of the matches to collect these data points.
I’ve been interested in whether or not it’s possible to qualify the qualities of what distinguishes a good *** match from a great **** match. By examining the dataset in full, can we draw any conclusions about which factors seem to influence how Dave Meltzer rated the matches?Comment
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You should see the shit mookie does randomly on the observer board. He's now delved into the records for New Japan, Dragon Gate, & ROH because he didn't realize there were competent result resources out there. ROH.com has every match result, ever. iheartdg.com, same thing for DG. There are fantastic New Japan resources. Basically, the nerdier the fan base, the more likely you have complete records in existence. And the things mookie can do with those data sets are amazing.
He's been a real boon for HOF research, because the voters who value drawing power, time on top, etc use his stuff to cross reference the REAL records of guys (card position, attendance, etc) as opposed to relying on fuzzy memories.
mookie is what the wrestling community lacked for decades. He really is something.Comment
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