Is Impact* the best wrestling promotion in history? *(Now TNA again, 2024)

[RazorBladeKiss]

On 6/14/2024 at 2:36 PM, Autistic Dragon said:

Speaking as someone who did watch the Broken saga unfold in real time, yes it did.

Cool. It doesn't seem like it brought any long term boost. Did you watch this new segment? If so how does it compare?

[strobogo]

Broken Hardy stuff def had a ton of online views, not sure it did anything for TV or attendance, but that stuff was the most viewed and talked about TNA stuff in probably 5-6 years, and nothing since has had that kind of buzz for them, either.

[Johnny Sorrow]

It's the shits. It was funny for a minute years ago. Now it's just fucking awful.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

At this point, it can't hurt or help TNA plus they are the only promotion to capture what made Broken Matt interesting. 

[El-P]

I'd be remiss if I did not make that post about TNA, which never stops being fascinating. So after all this time, they bring the TNA brand, D'Amore gets fired, hype dies down, workers want out. And then Joe Hendry gets viral because algorithm, then WWE wants to play nice because "let's not get a UFC-like monopoly lawsuit" and TNA is doing the best they've been in more than a decade. 

Which doesn't mean it's the best it's been in a decade either. Quite the contrary. Although the first part of the year had some serious issues with a boring-ass heel faction dominating the program, there was enough great workers and stuff like the MCMG and Mustafa Ali killing it every week. But since this summer, TNA looks more *TNA* than it has in more than a decade, with heavy focus on ex-WWE guys on top (Nemeth, Hardys), booking both dull and crappy, especially that godforsaken "JBL shows up and lariats someone in the main event then disappears and there's zero development about it ever" angle, which should be renaimed "JBL shows up" anyway. Who the fuck wants to see his old bully ass anywhere in 2024 ? Nick Nemeth is "really good by 2010 WWE standard" but also a completely dreadful character. The main heel faction is still the same, and it includes Brian Myers and TAFKA Fandango. And Aleisha Edwards, who's ideas of a heel promo is lifting up the most annoying trait of Vicky Guerrero. The women's division has been in dire straits all year long. Sure, Jordynne Grace is great, but her entire character has been "Hey, look, she's been on NXT last week, she'll be on NXT PLE next week !". I mean, sign with WWE already (which she is doing first thing next year). She had zero notable matches before finally the Masha feud to drop the title (apart from the Roxanne Perez match...  on NXT).

And really now, that NXT stuff is hilarious. Sure, it may have helped the rise of attendance and PPV numbers (getting back to this though), but the upswing was already on when Joe Hendry got viral. But it surely has helped, including perception (somewhat). Still. The deal is NXT getting Grace, Hendry, the Rascalz and getting them over to their audience, while pretty much insuring they'll get them when they leave TNA, while TNA mostly gets a bunch of jobbers. Oh yeah, for TNA's biggest show of the year, NXT sent... Wendy Choo. To tag-team with Rosemary. Meanwhile, they had Grace vs Perez and Hendry vs Ethan Page on their own PLEs. Honestly a brillant move by WWE, it totally helps NXT's perception and atmosphere, it surely is awesome for the talent that get to go there and short term, it probably has helped TNA a little bit. Still, it's far from what TNA fanboys thinks it is (let's not even mention the "AEW relationship was so bad" idiocy, yeah, AEW sent Kenny Omega during the pandemic and had Christian Cage drop the title to Josh Alexander in the main event of Bound for Glory, that's pathetic compared to getting Wendy Choo and Sol Ruca)

And of course, the Joe Hendry craze. Which is pretty unexplicable if you look behind the hype. The guy is objectively a very, VERY mid worker and really has not stepped up at all in big matches. His promos are redondant and gimmicky. His entire character is actually a heel (bullshit motivational speaker with intentionally cringe music theme). His songs are not nearly as funny as he thinks they are (the "Edge's bitch" about Cardonna is the only one I can remember as legit funny). But the guy got viral because of Spotify algorithm or something and became a meme. And so he's a legit draw for TNA it seems like. So what TNA do at Slammiversary after months of building him up and him beating pretty much every "big" name they have ? Well, they have him lose in a clusterfuck including fucking JBL. TNA be more like TNA, like I said. So what do they do now ? They have two "big" events : BFG and Slammiversary. They have to wait 6 months now to crown him as they should (doesn't matter what I think of his work, he's over, he's drawing) ? If they make him the champ at any other PPV before Slammiversary it won't be as important. And will he sustain his meme hype for that long ? Maybe if he show up at the Rumble (like he probably will, I mean I'm guessing) he will. Then again, if he does, that means that by the end of the year, WWE snatches him, so TNA would have fucked it up anyway by wasting 6 good months of him not being their drawing champ. 

And then again, there's something to be said about TNA doing much better (and they are). No PPV, despite the NXT relationship and Joe Hendry being over, has apparently done close to as good as Hard to Kill did at the start of the year. So there's this. Also, at the start of next year, TNA will have lost Mike Bailey, Josh Alexander (can't see him staying further) and Jordynne Grace, basically their three ace workers and 2 of their biggest names. Dunno how long the Rascalz are under contract, but they are NXT bound either way. So is Joe Hendry at the end of next year. So there. What's next (see what I did ?) for TNA ? No idea. TNA is back looking like old TNA, with old WWE guys on top. World champ : Nemeth. Tag champs : Hardys. So yeah, the IMPACT years under D'Amore will end up being the best and most interesting ones, as TNA seems to be back. As in, TNA, ya know.

[Autistic Dragon]

21 minutes ago, El-P said:

I'd be remiss if I did not make that post about TNA, which never stops being fascinating. So after all this time, they bring the TNA brand, D'Amore gets fired, hype dies down, workers want out. And then Joe Hendry gets viral because algorithm, then WWE wants to play nice because "let's not get a UFC-like monopoly lawsuit" and TNA is doing the best they've been in more than a decade. 

Which doesn't mean it's the best it's been in a decade either. Quite the contrary. Although the first part of the year had some serious issues with a boring-ass heel faction dominating the program, there was enough great workers and stuff like the MCMG and Mustafa Ali killing it every week. But since this summer, TNA looks more *TNA* than it has is more than a decade, with heavy focus on ex-WWE guys on top, booking both dull and crappy, especially that godforsaken "JBL shows up and lariats someone in the main event then disappears and there's zero development about it ever" angle, which should be renaimed "JBL shows up" anyway. Who the fuck wants to see his old bully ass anywhere in 2024 ? Nick Nemeth is "really good by 2010 WWE standard" but also a completely dreadful character. The main heel faction is still the same, and it includes Brian Myers and TAFKA Fandango. And Aleisha Edwards, who's ideas of a heel promo is lifting up the most annoying trait of Vicky Guerrero. The women's division has been in dire straits all year long. Sure, Jordynne Grace is great, but her entire character has been "Hey, look, she's been on NXT last week, she's be on NXT PLE next week !". I mean, sign with WWE already (which she is doing first thing next year). She had zero notable matches before finally the Masha feud to drop the title. 

And really now, that NXT stuff is hilarious. Sure, it may have helped the rise of attendance and PPV numbers (getting back to this though), but the upswing was already on when Joe Hendry got viral. But it surely has helped perception. Still. The deal is NXT getting Grace, Hendry, the Rascalz and getting them over to their audience, while pretty much insuring they'll get them when they leave TNA, while TNA mostly gets a bunch of jobbers. Oh yeah, for TNA's biggest show of the year, NXT sent... Wendy Choo. To tag-team with Rosemary. Meanwhile, they had Grace vs Perez and Hendry vs Ethan Page on their own PLEs. Honestly a brillant move by WWE, it totally helps NXT's perception and atmosphere, it surely is awesome for the talent that get to go there and short term, it probably has helped TNA a little bit. Still, it's far from what TNA fanboys thinks it is (let's not even mention the "AEW relationship was so bad" idiocy, yeah, AEW sent Kenny Omega during the pandemic and had Christian Cage drop the title to Josh Alexander in the main event of Bound for Glory, that's pathetic compared to getting Wendy Choo and Sol Ruca)

And of course, the Joe Hendry craze. Which is pretty unexplicable if you look behind the hype. The guy is objectively a very, VERY mid worker and really has not stepped up at all in big matches. His promos are redondant and gimmicky. His entire character is actually a heel (bullshit motivational speaker with intentionally cringe music theme). His songs are not nearly as funny as he things they are (the "Edge's bitch" about Cardonna is the only one I can remember as legit funny). But the guy got viral because of Spotify algorithm or something and became a meme. And so he's a legit draw for TNA it seems like. So what TNA do at Slammiversary after months of building him up and him beating pretty much every "big" name they have ? Well, they have him lose in a clusterfuck including fucking JBL. TNA be more like TNA, like I said. So what do they do now ? They have two "big" events : BFG and Slammiversary. They have to wait 6 months now to crown him as they should (doesn't matter what I think of his work, he's over, he's drawing) ? If they make him the champ at any other PPV before Slammiversary it won't be as important. And will he sustain his meme hype for that long ? Maybe if he show up at the Rumble (like he probably will, I mean I'm guessing) he will. Than again, if he does, that means that by the end of the year, WWE snatched him, so TNA would have fucked it up anyway by wasting 6 good months of him not being their drawing champ. 

And then again, there's something to be said about TNA doing much better (and they are). No PPV, despite the NXT relationship and Joe Hendry being over, has apparently done close to as good as Hard to Kill did at the start of the year. So there's this. Also, at the start of next year, TNA will have lost Mike Bailey, Josh Alexander (can't see him staying further) and Jordynne Grace, basically their three ace workers and 2 of their biggest names. Dunno how long the Rascalz are under contract, but they are NXT bound either way. So is Joe Hendry at the end of next year. So there. What's next (see what I did ?) for TNA ? No idea. TNA is back looking like old TNA, with old WWE guys on top. World champ : Nemeth. Tag champs : Hardys. So yeah, the IMPACT years under D'Amore will end up being the best and most interesting ones, as TNA seems to be back. As in, TNA, ya know.

Okay a couple issues with this. 

You seem to think that putting titles on former WWE wrestlers is a bad move in and of itself which i feel is a bad faith argument. Nemeth is a recognizable face who can be counted on to deliver a good quality match in which he always makes his opponent look good. The Hardys are a legendary tag team who, in addition to already giving years of service to TNA, can still go in the ring and will deliver a boost of credibility to whomever takes the titles off them. 

As for Hendry, a significant portion of your section about him is you saying you don't get what others see in him. That's fine but it's not a real critique. You yourself even admit he is easily the most over man on the roster which justifies his prominent place on the card. As for him losing at BfG, I understand the argument for him winning but TNA are clearly committed to a longer story which, as far as I can tell, will culminate in him dethroning a heel Nemeth at Genesis which they're bringing back in January. Depending on whether they have him drop the title at next year's Slammiversary or BfG will give them between 6 and 9 months to build up a replacement. Plenty of time.

[El-P]

42 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

You seem to think that putting titles on former WWE wrestlers is a bad move in and of itself which i feel is a bad faith argument.

What has plagued TNA during their "glory" days was that they always put ex-WWE guys above their own talent. They had moved past that point in the last few years as IMPACT became that place where people like Sami Callihan, Moose, Tessa Blanchard, Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards could have nice runs as big fish in small pond. It was a welcome change of booking, it gave the promotion its own identity. It was a lot more interesting.

42 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

Nemeth is a recognizable face who can be counted on to deliver a good quality match in which he always makes his opponent look good.

He's been a totally dreadful character. People have argued for years he was one of those "underutilized" WWE talent, but what I've seen in TNA is the same old Shawn Michaels X Billy Gunn dude with no personality apart from having a Sunset Strip fetish or something. The fact he's been doing the rounds in AAA with Alberto el Rapist doesn't exactly endears him to me either, but that's another thing. 

42 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

The Hardys are a legendary tag team who, in addition to already giving years of service to TNA, can still go in the ring and will deliver a boost of credibility to whomever takes the titles off them. 

The Hardys are actually at the exact right spot in TNA. They are a nostalgia act looking every bit of their age, as demonstrated by the absolute clusterfuck that was the BFG main event. I'm not sure they would even fit right in current WWE at this point, they already got their nostalgia run there in 2017. I mean, I take anything over Bryan Myers. Them being tag team champ for a while is not an issue in itself. The Hardys/Nemeth on top combo paints a different landscape though.

42 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

As for Hendry, a significant portion of your section about him is you saying you don't get what others see in him.

Sorry what ? I don't *get* Joe Hendry ? There's nothing to *get*. He's a meme. He got over on social media as a meme. He's an empty shell. There's nothing to it and his work is nothing to write home about. Overrated promo, overrated worker (well, he's not really rated anyway). Probably a nice guy though, and good for him.

42 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

As for him losing at BfG, I understand the argument for him winning but TNA are clearly committed to a longer story which, as far as I can tell, will culminate in him dethroning a heel Nemeth at Genesis which they're bringing back in January. Depending on whether they have him drop the title at next year's Slammiversary or BfG will give them between 6 and 9 months to build up a replacement. Plenty of time.

They don't tell any "longer story". The JBL angle is complete shit and has had zero development since last June. The Kaz "cashing in" stuff is already overplayed and the execution at BFG was contrived and pretty dumb. Genesis doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Bound for Glory is their biggest show of the year and it apparently still did not do as well as Hard to Kill. Now they are stalling with Joe Hendry being put in the Turkey-suit match at Turning Point. The main event scene has been dreadful ever since Nemeth got the title, and really the Moose reign earlier this year was a chore. Booking was simple : Hendry is over, Hendry beats every name on the way, Hendry wins the title at their biggest show of the year while he's hot.

As far as "building a replacement", guess what, there's none. Joe Hendry is a fluke algorithmic happening. Before his theme got pushed by Spotify, he was on the pre-shows working lame 5 minutes matches for the Digital Championship and no one was clamoring for a bigger push. They did not "make him a star". They just rode the wave of the meme hype, as they should have done. Hey, if they do their biggest number at Genesis and the guy shows up at the Rumble as TNA champ and they get bigger while they get to Slammiversary next year, good for them.

[Autistic Dragon]

3 minutes ago, El-P said:

What has plagued TNA during their "glory" days was that they always put ex-WWE guys above their own talent. They had moved past that point in the last few years as IMPACT became that place where people like Sami Callihan, Moose, Tessa Blanchard, Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards could have nice runs as big fish in small pond. It was a welcome change of booking, it gave the promotion its own identity. It was a lot more interesting.

The thing is there aren't really any other ex WWE people for Nemeth to drop his title too. Meaning he's going to have to put over a TNA talent which is already better than the previous era. Also Nemeth is not responsible for AAA's hiring practices.

7 minutes ago, El-P said:

Sorry what ? I don't *get* Joe Hendry ? There's nothing to *get*. He's a meme. He got over on social media as a meme. He's an empty shell. There's nothing to it and his work is nothing to write home about. Overrated promo, overrated worker (well, he's not really rated anyway).

Again this is subjective opinion. You don't find Hendry impressive. Fine but that doesn't make him bad at his job he just isn't your cup of tea.

10 minutes ago, El-P said:

They don't tell any "longer story". The JBL angle is complete shit and has had zero development since last June. The Kaz "cashing in" stuff is already overplayed and the execution at BFG was awful and dumb. Genesis doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Bound for Glory is their biggest show of the year and it apparently did not do as well as Hard to Kill last year. Now they are stalling with Joe Hendry being put in the Turkey-suit match at Turning Point. The main event scene has been dreadful ever since Nemeth got the title, and really the Moose reign earlier this year was a chore. Booking was simple : Hendry is over, Hendry beats every name on the way, Hendry wins the title at their biggest show of the year.

Kaz has had the trophy for a month. I know WWE has overused the "cash-in on the same night" angle in recent years but that doesn't mean other companies can't take their time.

Furthermore Hendry being in the Turkey suit match is because Santino declared he has to start from the bottom which is implied to be because Nemeth used his influence as champion. That's called long term bookings not "stalling".

[El-P]

10 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

The thing is there aren't really any other ex WWE people for Nemeth to drop his title too. Meaning he's going to have to put over a TNA talent which is already better than the previous era.

The previous era was using no old-WWE guy as it's top stars. That was not D'Amore's approach.

10 minutes ago, Autistic Dragon said:

Furthermore Hendry being in the Turkey suit match is because Santino declared he has to start from the bottom which is implied to be because Nemeth used his influence as champion. That's called long term bookings not "stalling".

That's called "shitty booking", that's how it's called, actually. I'm guessing they're going for the exciting Nemeth heel turn with... *yuck* JBL at his side. Awful stuff.

[Autistic Dragon]

1 minute ago, El-P said:

The previous era was using no old-WWE guy as it's top stars. That was not D'Amore's approach.

I was referring to the 2000s-early 2010s era that you invoked.

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

That's call "shitty booking", that's how it's called. 

And you're a booking expert? Look I'm sorry the company is giving you exactly what you want exactly when you want it but maybe the professionals in charge of the company know something that you don't.

[El-P]

OK, we get it. YOU BELIEVE.

[El-P]

So yeah. TNA booked Matt Riddle. TNA is SO BACK as TNA. 

[Alucard]

I'm personally enjoying Nemeth as babyface champ and have been hoping that he doesn't end up turning heel. I've always preferred his face runs. I do wanna see JBL get back in the ring just for the hell of it, so all his showing up leads to something.

 

Matt Hardy announced that the Hardys have signed a one year contract with TNA. He says TNA are looking to get on "a bigger platform" next year. 

[Laz]

As someone who greatly enjoyed Joe Hendry during my 5 year love affair with all things Insane Championship Wrestling? @El-P is more or less accurate in his assessment. He's charismatic and has a unique angle to get himself over, but once he hits the ring he's just another guy, and that was the case even when schmucks like Chris Renfrew and Red Lightning were in the main events. He's not terrible, but take away the songs and Joe Hendry is a midcard act in any company.

I decided to give Impact/TNA a more serious watch earlier this year, when the rumors of the TNA return were gestating, and enjoyed it. I tried watching a handful of times since the return of the original branding and all I see are reasons I stopped watching WWE over the past 15 years.

[El-P]

Next "special event" main event is Nick Nemeth defending his title against.... AJ Francis. Yeah, LOLTNA is back in full effect.

Also, the Hardys vs the System for about the nine millionth time this year. In a table's match. Yeah, it was a month ago or so that the Hardys said their BFG table, ladders, chairs clusterfuck was gonna be the last of this kind. I guess this time it's only tables (which always has been a shitty gimmick btw), ya see. Like the last match wasn't embarrassing enough. 

But hey, they have a 4 men challengers match so Joe Henry can fINiSh tHeStORY at Genesis. So compelling.

The good thing is that I can drop TNA from my viewing habits tomorrow and not even think about it. Kinda sad though, they have been a lot of fun for so long (like, 2019 or something is when I started watching in real time). The saddest thing is that they do better numbers with this product, but then again, numbers don't mean anything. I wonder if they are eventually gonna fall on their ass though if Joe Hendry's hype ends up fizzling out or WWE just gets bored with the "relationship" after picking up Jordynne (and well, Hendry when he's done).

[Alucard]

I think they're going to continue to hold off on Hendry's coronation until one of the "bigger" PPVs and could see Mike Santana winning the 4 way, maybe that's when Nemeth turns.  Though I'm really liking Steve Maclin in the babyface role.

Josh Alexander's contract is up on Feb 15 so I assume he'll definitely end up in NXT.

[El-P]

There's no way. They booked a big-ass building for Genesis. They're doing a live IMPACT (first in 8 years they say, so that mean last time was in 2017, which is surprising in itself considering how wrecked the company was then) the following day. And then the elephant in the room is Royal Rumble, because TNA does book for WWE "visibility" (that's why Zach Wenz won the title from Mike Bailey just to appear with it on NXT). What they want is Hendry winning the title, going live with him as the champ and then having a stadium (maybe) chant "We believe" when he makes his Rumble entry, announced as "TNA World Champion".

Santana is really good but he's been kinda there thus far. The funny thing is that in the LAX days, Ortiz was always considered the charismatic one and potential single star. Where the hell has he been anyway ? I guess having drinks with Scorpio Sky somewhere... Yeah, Maclin is the next workhorse carry of the company after Alexander is gone (if I'm Coach TK, I'm sending ridiculous money on his way to get him, although apparently he already got Mike Bailey).

The women division is so depleted it's not even funny and only getting worse once Grace is gone. They really are gonna have Masha vs... Rosemary at Genesis, or so it seems ? Jeez. And they got Lei Ying Lee, TKAFA Xia Li, and from what I've seen, she's not very good at all. Neither is Ash, but Ash at least is an entertaining act in the midcard/tag team division now with Heather.

I've been watching this week's show still, and of course there has been ZERO follow-up to the JBL angle. And this has been going on for the last six months. There is no story told, just a washed-up shithead getting money to lariat people every two months during main events. 

[El-P]

So, Tessa Blanchard is back with TNA.

I don't give a flying fuck, I'm there. And before someone says something really stupid (although PWO is not reddit or X, but still) La Rosa Negra has publicly made up with her a while ago. About being an unprofessional prick in the past, guess what, so was CM Punk just one year ago. I don't care. She looked really good in CMLL, and I for one am glad she's making a comeback on the US scene. Love me some Tessa Blanchard again. Plus, she's someone that TNA may be able to keep for a while since I don't think major promotions are ready for her yet (although... Logan Paul, ya know, but very different story about the complete hypocrisy of the fandom and their "ethic values"). Well, of course she did not do a match to give away the CMLL tag titles, but guess what, neither did Stephanie Vaquer when she was the woman champ there. Kinda funny and ironic still considering the way she left TNA (during the pandemic when she already lived in Mexico though).

Damn TNA. You never cease to be a fascinating never dying promotion.

[Autistic Dragon]

For those considering buying last minute, here's the full card.

Pre-show.

Leon Slater vs JDC

Frankie Kazarian vs Jonathan Gresham

Main show.

The Undeath Machines* (PCO & Sami Calihan) vs Alexander Hammer stone & Jake SOmethings vs The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz)

Ace Austin vs Trent Seven

Jordynne Grace vs Rosemary

#1 Contender four way,

Joe Hendry vs Mike Santanna vs Josh Alexander vs Steve Maclin

Tables Match for the TNA Tag Titles

The Hardys (c) vs The System (Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers) 

X Division Title.

Moose(c) vs Kushida

Knockouts Title.

Masha Slamovitch(c) vs Tasha Steelx

World Title.

Nic Nemith(c) vs AJ Francis

 

*I heard commentary call them this and I like it. I don't believe it's official though.

[sek69]

7 hours ago, El-P said:

So, Tessa Blanchard is back with TNA.

I don't give a flying fuck, I'm there. And before someone says something really stupid (although PWO is not reddit or X, but still) La Rosa Negra has publicly made up with her a while ago. About being an unprofessional prick in the past, guess what, so was CM Punk just one year ago. I don't care. She looked really good in CMLL, and I for one am glad she's making a comeback on the US scene. Love me some Tessa Blanchard again. Plus, she's someone that TNA may be able to keep for a while since I don't think major promotions are ready for her yet (although... Logan Paul, ya know, but very different story about the complete hypocrisy of the fandom and their "ethic values"). Well, of course she did not do a match to give away the CMLL tag titles, but guess what, neither did Stephanie Vaquer when she was the woman champ there. Kinda funny and ironic still considering the way she left TNA (during the pandemic when she already lived in Mexico though).

Damn TNA. You never cease to be a fascinating never dying promotion.

She may have made up with La Rosa Negra, but this was not welcomed fondly by most of the TNA roster since she's never showed any sign of remorse for (allegedly) being a bully to everyone in a 10 mile radius. She tried to garner sympathy for her mental health issues after everything blew up, only for damn near every female wrestler on social media to clap back at her pointing out it was the consequences of her actions coming home to roost.  Jordynne Grace was reportedly especially not pleased at this, and it seems like she's going to be feuding with Tessa before she leaves to go to WWE.

Also the comparison with Punk has one tiny problem: Punk's a proven draw and merch seller and in wrestling (like all sports) you have more leeway to be a prick if you make money. If Tessa was some needle moving star then I could see it being worth the risk, but you're pissing off your locker room for someone who won't impact (lol see what I did there) business one bit.

[El-P]

4 hours ago, sek69 said:

She may have made up with La Rosa Negra, but this was not welcomed fondly by most of the TNA roster since she's never showed any sign of remorse for (allegedly) being a bully to everyone in a 10 mile radius. She tried to garner sympathy for her mental health issues after everything blew up, only for damn near every female wrestler on social media to clap back at her pointing out it was the consequences of her actions coming home to roost.  Jordynne Grace was reportedly especially not pleased at this, and it seems like she's going to be feuding with Tessa before she leaves to go to WWE.

I mean, it might bite TNA in the ass if she's still impossible to deal with. Then again, she's only 29. She may (or may not) have matured. But that's not my problem. I get to watch Tessa Blanchard's comeback on the US scene. At best, I get some really great wrestling out of it. At worst, I guess it's gonna be some entertaining LOLTNA dumpster fire in the end. As far as Jordynne not happy, why would she care ? She'll be gone by the time Rumble is there. It would be pretty funny though is that, after the angriness about Anthem firing D'Amore last year and people wanting to leave, now more people get upset again because of the Tessa hiring and also want to leave as soon as they can ! 

Also, would Shawn take the risk of Tessa in NXT ? I mean, let's be real, all of this might end up being as nothing as Britt Baker repeated failed comebacks (why am I bringing her up of all people, funny how the brain works), but all the possibilities of stuff that could happen are pretty damn intriguing to me.

4 hours ago, sek69 said:

Also the comparison with Punk has one tiny problem

It was really not a comparison. Just me throwing the first name that came to mind of someone who's had a really sketchy attitude in the very recent past, to say the least. I don't think TNA expect Tessa to "move the needle" for them anyway. Well, maybe they do. TNA be like TNA. My point is this : at this point there's no reason why Tessa Blanchard should not be employed in the US wrestling scene in 2024 all things considered. 

The fact TNA took a pass on Matt Riddle, even after having him as a late replacement during their Wrestlecade show is interesting from that whole perspective. I wonder if the fact Riddle was in the WWE at the time and the fact he had a pretty decently high profile is the only reason why he got through #speakingout after all. And of course there were other issues, but still. The fact that now only MLW and AAA (where Alberto el Rapist is the champ) really will touch him, after a botched NJPW stint, is pretty telling of something.

[El-P]

The meltdown of TNA reddit (which is a cesspool, like every pro-wrestling subreddit, apparently) is funny as fuck. 

Show was actually really good for the first half, because there is still a whole lot of great talent in the company (book Moose vs Leon Slater for Genesis and have Leon win, this is a show stealer). It's damning though when you watch the 4-way how Hendry is by a *wide margin* not nearly as good as the others. Also, it's striking how much everything he does is designed to get Joe Hendry over, while the other three work to get *the match* over, and therefore get over *through the match*. Which is another reason why his matches are basically nothing. His title reign is gonna be unbearable really, at this point I can't bare hearing his stupid theme song anymore nor people chanting "We believe". The quickest WWE snatches him, the better. Nothing against the guy himself, who apparently is really nice, and more power to him really.

The Hardys at this point are 100% a nostalgia act doing fan services. They are 50 years old guys dressing like they did when they were 25 and doing the exact same spots. I never cared that much about the Hardies anyway, so there. The audience paying to see the act gets whatever money they paid for. Highlight of the match for me was Eddie Edwards slapping a dumbfuck in the audience (who actually slapped him first, yeah, great idea that). The look of panic of the referee getting in the middle was pretty funny. Also, I have no idea about his credentials, but Eddie Edwards doesn't strike me as the type of person you'd want to fuck with.

Main event was awful. I did not expect anything good and it was even worse. AJ Francis is the drizzling shit and Nick Nemeth is ridiculously overrated, I can say this pretty safely after one year of watching him working big matches including against some actual awesome talents.

But really now. Tessa pie-faced the FUCK out of Gia Miller (bless her). Oh yeah, I remember now why she was my favorite worker in 2019.

 

[sek69]

The weirdest part is this all came about when some higher up at Anthem suddenly decided they HAVE to sign her right the fuck now.  Everything else about Tessa aside for a moment, who does that?

[El-P]

Maybe they went in panic mode realizing that Jordynne Grace was gone in a few weeks, and they have done a piss poor job of preparing anyone to "replace" her, as Masha was pushed into the spot Private Party style (not even mentioning losing her edge by having her speak perfect English out of nowhere, display her being a teenage fan of the Hardies in a wholesome picture and being "longtime friend" with Jordynne, which absolutely has never been the case on TV. Talk about understanding jackshit about why Masha got over initially).

The weirdest part to me is keeping a whole lot of people in the dark about it ! That's just asking for trouble from the get go.

Say what you want about TNA doing better attendance wise, but since D'Amore left, TNA has reverted back into being good old TNA. It's not like Anthem knew what the fuck they were doing before they called D'Amore back to take over. From what I remember from the Jarrett podcast, they were pretty clueless and not great business partners during the short time they tried to work together. They have booked some big-ass buildings for 2025 too. Seems like they way overestimate their drawing capacity. Now, if this stuff actually hurts them, it would be kinda hilarious in a TNA-only way. Maybe we should post back in the old thread again from now on. 😂

[El-P]

So Hammerstone is injured (again), which sucks for him (the second time thus year). The interesting thing is that he made a video to get the news around, in which is also states that he has some merch to sell and if anyone could hime in, because doctors ain't cheap. That says a lot both about how fucked the health system in the US is (and RKJ surely is gonna make it a hundred times worse sadly) and how much when you're not in WWE/AEW with a big contract, you're not earning that much in pro-wrestling. Nothing new really when you're talking TNA, actually.