Is TNA the worst wrestling promotion in history?

[El-P]

On 12/3/2025 at 11:29 PM, sek69 said:

I mean history has shown that no matter who owns it, who  books it, or what TV station it's on, TNA is gonna TNA. They've been remarkably consistent in that regard. 

The Callis/D'Amore years between 2019 and 2022 is the only time TNA did not TNAed itself. And well, it was not named TNA anymore. It will never not be hilarious to me that coming back to the TNA name actively lead to more of the old LOLTNA booking.

Their next special event looks awesome too... Kaz vs JDC as the main event. JDC. And Leon Slater is defending the X-division title against AJ Francis. Jeeez. Mance Warner vs Matt Cardona (aka Zach Ryder from John Cena's retirement tournament jobber fame). And a bunch of NXT undercarders on the card. The reality is that their roster is completely depleted. The worse being the women. Lei Yin Lee is their new champ, despite never having been any good nor over nor interesting in any way shape or form. They are still pushing Indi Hartwell, who is, sorry to say, awful. The IInspiration are the tag champs and apart from doing their pose, they do *nothing* that would make their dismal actual wrestling ability even worth watching. Victoria Crawford is still around.

So yeah, Santana is gonna win the title *again* with the debut of their new TV deal. And then what ? More shitty NXT featuring ? More old ex-WWE guys coming up and taking the space ? Fuck, I almost expect Killer Kross & Scarlett debuting as the big surprise early next year.

[El-P]

And so at Final Resolution, The Righteous debuted (well, Vincent was part of Honor No More a few years back).... to the sound of crickets and "Who are you ?" chants. The TNA audience is basically NXT audience dumbfucks now. TNA should be a good fit for guys like The Righteous under other circumstances, but in 2026 ? Who the hell knows. I wish they were used better in AEW/ROH, as I really enjoyed them, but their biggest appearance was doing a 2 on 1 job to MJF at the first All In. Which is good for them, they will handle the pressure of a huge ass crowd better now that they are in the #2 promotion selling out these huge-ass buildings....

[Alucard]

On 12/5/2025 at 4:40 AM, El-P said:

So yeah, Santana is gonna win the title *again* with the debut of their new TV deal. And then what ? 

Don't forget Nic Nemeth still has his half of the Call Your Shot to cash in!

[strobogo]

I hope AMC's first production note is STOP FUCKING YELLING EVERY LINE OF COMMENTARY. This goes for NXT as well, and anytime Cole and Pat are together. 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Alucard said:

Don't forget Nic Nemeth still has his half of the Call Your Shot to cash in!

Oh gawwwd I forgot about that shit.

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

I hope AMC's first production note is STOP FUCKING YELLING EVERY LINE OF COMMENTARY.

Funny, maybe I just blocked it out of my mind when I watch TNA, but that's really not what strikes me  about the announcing. I dunno, I don't feel they yell all the time. I actually kinda enjoyed the Hannifan/Rehwoldt duo, although Hannifan was taught all the wrong things about announcing by his years in WWE, the worst one probably being the infamous "for the win ! /for the title !" that ruins every nearfalls (and that crept its way into NJPW announcing from time to time too last time I checked).

Matt Hardy whining about how TNA is not about putting good match because they are focused on storylines is the most unintentional hilarious thing coming from him, considering the Hardys in-ring outings this last year in that promotion booked like complete shit by Delirious (who has managed to find his way into my "worst bookers ever" list on the strenght of this last two and a half years of TNA). 

[Boss Rock]

I actually kinda warmed up to the Righteous a bit when they actually got TV time on Collision. Mostly Dutch being a pretty solid big guy, but Vincent's snapping entrance was catchy.

[strobogo]

I guess to be fair to the current group, yelling and screaming announcers has been the deal with TNA since day one and regardless of management, TV, teams, or name of the company. But fuck, it is exhausting that most announcers can't find the medium spot between ludded up Solie and JR losing his mind during the Attitude Era. AEW has the chillest commentary team and most of them are guys that made that style so annoying or indie guys who also only knew how to scream on commentary.

[El-P]

On 12/6/2025 at 10:52 PM, Alucard said:

Don't forget Nic Nemeth still has his half of the Call Your Shot to cash in!

You really pre-shot that shit since at Genesis apparently it's Kaz vs Santana and then Nemeth cashes in. They literally already overbooked their big "debut" show. And now of course the TNA circle jerk is fantasizing about Jericho showing up and winning the title. 😂 

[El-P]

So it seems that at the latest tapings, Trey & Wentz from the Rascalz (I mean, they were the Rascalz after Dez left and Myron Reed only was their indie partners who ended up showing up in TNA, I have no idea if he's even signed) apparently kinda said goodbye, kissing the mat and such. It would be very interesting if they ended up in AEW instead of NXT, considering how much they had been featured in the early days of the partnership (and yes, not that much lately I believe). The fact Trey Miguel was never pushed higher than he was in a TNA landscape is kinda ridiculous, he could very well have been a TNA champ in the IMPACT days. But hey, TNA now is about 45 years old/ ex WWE guys mostly and they have been there forever. AEW is beyond stacked, so I have no idea where they would fit (logic would say throw them immediately in the tag team ranks and have them be credible instantly), but in NXT it's kinda been there/done that already for them. They aren't going anywhere on the WWE main roster.

Slowly catching up because TNA is a life project for me I guess (until it's done, if it's done aka bought out by TKO) and watching Turning point from a few weeks ago. Dani Luna having an actual good match with Indi Hartwell is something to her credit. Well, of course, props and shit helped a lot but still. First time I legit enjoyed a Hartwell match. The three-ways for the women tag title on the other hand, is setting you back 15 years. When Xia Brookside is by a WIDE margin the best worker (and the only decent one) out of 6, you are fucked. The backstage shit with all the GM is so incredibly WWE coded. Damn, it is true, Ava has zero talent whatsoever it seems, and the NXT "invasion" stuff is embarrassing. Leon Staler rules. I'm gonna enjoy every second of his until he's sadly gone. The Hardies look older and slower every time I see them. Full Sail did not look full *at all*. Second biggest company in the US, uh.😎

[El-P]

Also in a weird way, or not, the TNA debut on AMC almost felt like closure to me too. I started an insane TNA watch a decade ago basically at the time to distract me from a depressive state, and then actually became of legit fan of the promotion during the D'Amore/Callis days after LU went down, then it got mixed with my favorite promotion ever in AEW during the Covid days. It was like the perfect storm. And then, ya know, NXT relationship, product turning into a boring dreg, with ridiculous astroturfing from WWE and their army of grifters to weaponize it... And then this AMC debut which, if tried to put together the most LOLTNA show ever, I would not have been able to reach the ridiculous level of incompetence and shit-ass booking, production gaffes and pathetic clown show quality that this hour and a half of pro-wrestling TV did. It's like after two years of being renamed the infamous three letters, TNA had finally circled back entirely, like the Ouroborous of shit pro-wrestling wrestling worthy of the worst hours of WCW 2000 (and I of all people know what I'm talking about), only more boring (but still hilarious at times). Maybe like quantic physics tells us, the present, the past and the future don't actually exist, and TNA being actually fun for a minute was like a bizarre Covid fever dream, in the grand cosmic scheme of things, TNA is always LOLTNA.

[C.S.]

Surprised it took this long for someone to post about the AMC premiere, which I would charitably refer to as a complete fucking disaster and one of the worst shows I've ever seen. It was the first time I've watched TNA in years, and it will probably be the last. Supposedly, Genesis was much better, but who in their right mind would actually pay money to watch that after this show? Certainly not me! Tommy Dreamer and Delirious need to be fired, and Carlos Silva should step down. 

[El-P]

TNA pulling talents from some Mania week shows because they would be working with AEW talents is hilarious (and sad, really, especially for talents). That shitty cap wearing clown Carlos Silva is the cuck of all cucks. TNA right now, despite still having a few great talents (Ali, Miguel, Slater) is more and more the home of WWE hasbeens and NXT rejects (the women division, my god, seems like 80% NXT rejects, and after that Mada Sade vs Eylana Black, it's obvious why they were let go). 

Dani Luna asking for her released is quite great, because it means she's not going to WWE (therefore...). Mance Warner also left earlier this year after they wouldn't clear Steph de Lander, and he already showed up on the last ROH tapings. Wasn't a fan of his work years back, but he actually kinda won me over in the few things he did in TNA, so that's good.

Anywoo. We could have had Leon Slater vs Ricochet, which was a dream match for Slater, but big bad WWE told their little doggy Carlos that is wasn't happening I guess.

[El-P]

I have no words

Last time I saw him was at this truly hilarious NWA show which costed them their supposed CW TV spot because of a coke rail (and now they actually got a spot on some Sinclair owned, because of course, Sci-fi channel). The greatest bad show I have seen in a long ass time, you don't do it like that anymore. He looked gassed like crazy and was really fucking bad.

Carlos Silva is having one hell of a LOLTNA week.

[kaufman316]

On 4/9/2026 at 4:24 AM, El-P said:

TNA pulling talents from some Mania week shows because they would be working with AEW talents is hilarious (and sad, really, especially for talents).

Was it ever sad when AEW had pulled talents from booked indy shows?

[El-P]

How adorable. Despite the board being on life support, there's still some troll posting once every blue moon in "but what about AEW ?" mode. I thought that was the TNA Reddit (one of the dumbest place I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot) for a second. More ignored user. Nice.

TNA is just completely isolated right now, they work with no one else unlike in the past when they had relationships with AAA, NJPW, had joshi wrestlers from different companies showing up, and just get D-tier NXT talent. With that kinda shit, some people may think twice before signing with them too, especially those who count on outside booking, which has always been the case. Fuck, Court Bauer might serve a better deal at this point. 

[El-P]

So EC3 did debut. And the crowd went mild. (insert joke about losing control of the narrative)

One thing you can count on with TNA these days, is really dumb finishes and poor executions. Carlos Silva got booed as soon as he showed up on the pre-show. The ultimate dweeb. One of the dumbest thing is that he's sitting at ringside for all the title matches, so you have those heels cheating and winning via cheating and he sees all of it and apparently he's the president but has no authority over anything. I mean, the cuck-chair man is not a cute line, it's the reality.

Trey Miguel vs Mustafa Ali was great. As expected. 

Main event was excellent until the stupid-ass finish doubled with screwed up execution.

Leon Slater vs Cedric Alexander was very good, but Alexander really is a totally WWE coded wrestler. Either that or he's just cruising. Anyway, he's way overrated considering his rep.

Moose vs Special Agent 0 was the sleeper match of the show. 0 is the best, least talked about wrestler around. He's basically Mike Awesome.

Elegance Brand vs James/Terrell/ODB was basically everything it promised to be in term of being totally ridiculous, absurd and stupid in an entertaining way. The whole bit with Dreamer (and his doggo Carlos Silva, who just can't resist the idea of being in screen, I fucking swear) showing up "impromptu" after the match to announce to ODB that she's going in the HOF was comical. I mean, cool for her, really. But they want SO BADLY be like WWE, it's so pathetic.

The Undead Realm stuff keeps on being the most oddly compelling stuff, as it's straight out of IMPACT circa 2021, and the exchange between James Mitchell and Abyss (yes) was legit nice and emotional.

Lei Ying Lee vs Ariana was bad. And you could see the Brookside turn come from miles away. Ariana is the sole involvement of NXT on the shows lately, and it really feels WWE has lost quite a bit of interest. No TNA talent at the Rumble. Really no presence nor hype about NXT on the TV show (which is a good thing if you ask me). They know they are getting Mike Santana & Leon Slater but aren't that that keen on using them like they did Jordynne Grace & Joe Hendry in the past. 

Also, the Hardies are by a huge margin the biggest stars (the only stars ?) on the show. They also are really getting into "dangerously washed up" territory now, despite still knowing what to do to make a tag match watchable, helped by the fact the crowd is still eating up whatever slo-mo, awkward moving stuff they do. The fact the fucking System, including Brian "resthold" Myers, is tag champs again in 2026 is like.... yikes. Like there was no other YOUNGER, FRESHER, BETTER team they could build ? Oh yeah, Bear Bronson is younger I guess, but he's also mid as all hell.

Show was apparently papered as all hell too. They have moved Slammiversary in a different, smaller place already. When the Hardies are gone, and they won't last for fucking ever, I can't see this "growth period" going anywhere. They built an audience based on some WWE nostalgia and NXT hype and the hardcore fans are obviously gone (ODB and Taryn Terrell getting tepid reactions at the TV tapings sadly illustrated that point, and KC Navarro coming back on the show got crickets too despite running in on AJ Francis who turned on him few months back).