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

[El-P]

Anthem apparently asking some workers to take some pay-cuts, after the company was the most successful in years in term of attendance of big shows (doesn't mean *that* much either, really, let's not get carried away) and the higher-ups basically got Tessa back without informing a bunch of the TNA people is peak LOLTNA. This brand is so cursed. What a crazy-ass year.

Kushida's US stint really has been underwhelming as hell. At least he's still awesome when given the chance, as opposed to KENTA who basically ruined himself there. Still. His TNA time was probably a bit better than his NXT, but not that much. Bad timing. 

[Stiva]

TK should get Kushida into ROH when they get that TV spot, he’d be a fun veteran presence. As for Alexander, I can see him being AEW bound over NXT. He feels like someone that they’d give a strong push to based on him having really good AEW style matches 

[El-P]

11 minutes ago, Stiva said:

TK should get Kushida into ROH when they get that TV spot, he’d be a fun veteran presence. As for Alexander, I can see him being AEW bound over NXT. He feels like someone that they’d give a strong push to based on him having really good AEW style matches 

Kushida is full on NJPW again, although I dunno what it means when you're living in the US. I have zero faith in an actual ROH TV deal unless it actually happens (and gawwwd if it ever happens, make it a studio wrestling show completely separated from AEW and give it for someone else to book, current ROH is zero effort given), but yeah, he would be the kind of guy perfect as a veteran presence.

Ditto Josh Alexander actually, as I don't see him get that big-ass push in AEW. Then again, there's so much awesome matches for him to have there (Josh vs Joe... damn). AEW already got Speedball apparently, so I get to still watch at least one of the two TNA workhorses of the last few years.

[El-P]

And this is how TNA is gonna end up :

The funny part (because there is one) is people fired from NXT/WWE who are on TNA's roster talking about "are we back now ?"

Genesis is probably the best card they can present with their current roster (for better and worse). I would be very surprised if the "deal" ended well for TNA in the long run. Of course, monopoly simps are elated. 

I guess we are officially entering into the next phase of TNA, NXTNA. The last one ?

(and maybe it will be no different than what happened the last 6 months, NXT getting TNA's most over and talented people, and sending scraps to TNA, and when the novelty wears off they will just forget about it)

[El-P]

After arguably originating (or popularizing) the "This is awesome" chant, the TNA audience comes up with another unique one. A pretty sadly ironic one considering it happened one day before Trump coming back to power with his click of fascists billionaires. But hey, I guess the Tessa experiment went bad pretty fast.

Also, the two best matches involved two people who are leaving. I could not possibly give a flying fuck about Joe Hendry. I was tired of his act *before* he went viral. Him in 20 minutes main events on every big show is just a torturous thought. And then, there's the WWE relationship, where basically everything in TNA is about who is showing up in NXT next (see what I did ?). And when you don't want to hear about WWE nor watch any of it, well, it kinda ruins the entire deal. 

I will surely miss the days of IMPACT wrestling being this cool little small pond alternative with bizarre backstage angles and goofy fun stuff, and workers not so fit for the other bigger company finding a place there. 

[El-P]

And so TNA got Mustafa Ali. Who is awesome. And Mance Warner. Who is not. That's one + and one -.

But the hilarious news is that the biggest merch sellers at Genesis and the live IMPACT were Joe Hendry, Hardys and... Tessa Blanchard. Never change pro-wrestling fans... 🙄

 

[The Thread Killer]

I haven’t seen any TNA in ages, because here in Canada, they are on a station owned by Anthem Entertainment called The Fight Network. You have to pay extra for it and I’m sorry, I’m not paying to watch TNA. So as a result, I literally haven’t seen anything from them in so long I can’t even remember.

After WWE signed the Netflix deal, that meant that Sportsnet (which is one of the two main basic cable sports channels in Canada) lost all of their WWE programming. That was quite a hit for them because they had exclusive rights to Raw, Smackdown and NXT. Losing WWE left a massive hole in their schedule.

Apparently, AEW had been negotiating with Sportsnet, but for whatever reason Sportsnet decided not to make a deal with AEW and instead shocked everybody by making a deal with TNA. This was surprising for two reasons, firstly, because the whole reason Anthem bought TNA to begin with is because they wanted to basically make The Fight Network the Canadian home for TNA. As a result, TNA programming pretty much dominated that channel’s schedule. So I don’t know what them switching networks will mean for The Fight Network. Maybe Anthem will just pull the plug. The other reason it was weird, is because let’s be honest…a lot more people are going to be likely to watch AEW over TNA. I can only assume that Sportsnet made the deal because TNA was a whole hell of a lot cheaper than AEW.

Anyhow, the upshot is that TNA finally has a significant TV deal in Canada, they basically got all of WWE’s old times slots. So people tuning in to Sportsnet expecting to see WWE programming are now seeing TNA.

The other night I was bored so I actually watched a bit of Impact.

Let me ask a stupid question. Is it just me or is the ring in TNA significantly smaller than the ones they use in AEW and WWE?

[Autistic Dragon]

1 hour ago, The Thread Killer said:

I haven’t seen any TNA in ages, because here in Canada, they are on a station owned by Anthem Entertainment called The Fight Network. You have to pay extra for it and I’m sorry, I’m not paying to watch TNA. So as a result, I literally haven’t seen anything from them in so long I can’t even remember.

After WWE signed the Netflix deal, that meant that Sportsnet (which is one of the two main basic cable sports channels in Canada) lost all of their WWE programming. That was quite a hit for them because they had exclusive rights to Raw, Smackdown and NXT. Losing WWE left a massive hole in their schedule.

Apparently, AEW had been negotiating with Sportsnet, but for whatever reason Sportsnet decided not to make a deal with AEW and instead shocked everybody by making a deal with TNA. This was surprising for two reasons, firstly, because the whole reason Anthem bought TNA to begin with is because they wanted to basically make The Fight Network the Canadian home for TNA. As a result, TNA programming pretty much dominated that channel’s schedule. So I don’t know what them switching networks will mean for The Fight Network. Maybe Anthem will just pull the plug. The other reason it was weird, is because let’s be honest…a lot more people are going to be likely to watch AEW over TNA. I can only assume that Sportsnet made the deal because TNA was a whole hell of a lot cheaper than AEW.

Anyhow, the upshot is that TNA finally has a significant TV deal in Canada, they basically got all of WWE’s old times slots. So people tuning in to Sportsnet expecting to see WWE programming are now seeing TNA.

The other night I was bored so I actually watched a bit of Impact.

Let me ask a stupid question. Is it just me or is the ring in TNA significantly smaller than the ones they use in AEW and WWE?

From what I can find TNA's ring is 18x18 where WWE and AEW use 20x20. So it's smaller but I don't know about "significantly" so. 

[El-P]

That first live episode in 8 years surely was something. I can't remember less actual wrestling on IMPACT in eons. Dry talking segment after dry talking segment. With a overlong, dull-as-dirt main event marred with stupid (and repetitive, how many times is JBL gonna show up to lariat some dude without any kind of actual development to it, it's been 7 months now) booking. Countless "NXT this", "WWE that". 

TNA, dropped.

[The Thread Killer]

So apparently Anthem just cleaned house in TNA on the management side of things, and got rid of a bunch of people, including Gail Kim. They also announced that they have hired Hunter Johnson aka. Delirious as their new Head of Creative, which has to be viewed with some concern if you remember his time in the same position in ROH. Yikes.

[El-P]

Was about to post in the other thread, which is much more designated at this point. 

TNA is being gutted from the inside. All the people who actually contributed to redeem its image and make it a good place for people to get work, and actually built to the rebranding last year which had tons of hype, have been fired. 

Last episode I watched was the departure of Josh Alexander, which I thought was a good point to stop. They can talk as much as they want about bigger houses and shit, but the product itself has been the worse in forever in the last 8 months. The new audience is WWE fans wanting to see the Hardies do their nostalgia tour and play the hits. You can hear "Yeah" and "Yeet" and other stupid WWE chants during cold matches. They still get NXT scrubs while NXT is getting their biggest names. Joe Hendry was already annoying and dull for a long while now, but as a champ, the first week were downright appalling. I see they signed fucking Elijah and the Colons. The last big angle is Nick Nemeth and his idiotic brother turning on Matt Hardy. It's back to the old ways of basically being all about old WWE guys and rejects + now filling spots with underneath NXT people. They actually play into the IRL heat of Tessa Blanchard, which is certainly an idea. I have zero regret dropping them off my viewing routine.

Gail would probably be a good add to AEW's backstage environment. Considering her history with WWE and the fact she got axed while WWE is basically taking control (Dreamer is 100% WWE compatible), I would be shocked if she ended up anywhere close. Maybe D'Amore will hired her for his MLP project, since it's all about Canadians.

[The Thread Killer]

Reading more about these firings, it looks like they really took the proverbial broom to management…if I’m not mistaken they seem to have let go at least six people on the management level.

[The Thread Killer]

As I said in the WWE thread, WWE would be stupid not to try and hire Gail Kim at this point. Equally, if Tony Khan is smart, Gail Kim will also be getting a phone call from him. The problem is, if you believe what is reported and the rumors, AEW is a bit chaotic backstage, and TK tends to micromanage. Then again she would make a lot more money with AEW I bet, and up until recently it seemed impossible to get fired from that company. Whereas TKO seems to overwork their management level people and maybe not pay them what they deserve. I hope for her sake, Gail lands on her feet.

[El-P]

Female talents are *not happy*.

People who have signed a long term contract with TNA not too long ago must scratch their head about what's coming next. 

Ace Austin and Gia Miller should get the fuck away and show up in AEW. (yeah, that's just me throwing wishfull thinking, I now)