When TNA first broke onto the scene, many saw it as the alternative to WWE. The morale backstage was better than in WWE, the travel schedule was not nearly as rigorous (TNA does most of its tapings in Orlando, Florida), and many felt that they were taking part in the next big thing to hit the wrestling scene.
Things have changed drastically in TNA since then.
Younger stars are being pushed to the side, the pay is not nearly what it is in WWE, WWE rejects are pushed ahead of home-grown talent, and TNA is barely able to compete with WWE's "C" show, ECW.
There are several unhappy wrestlers in TNA. Kevin Nash has had many conflicts with the TNA creative team over the past few weeks, at one point walking out of an Impact taping. His contract ends in October, and many backstage feel it's time for Nash to go.
Nash has teased going back to WWE and working as the bodyguard for Shawn Michaels. WWE would probably not be reluctant to sign Nash, especially in the current bidding war between WWE and TNA.
Christian Cage was always held back as a mid-carder in WWE. Upon his arrival to TNA, Christian was made NWA Champion in a short period of time. Now Christian finds himself back in the mid-card position, and he is upset with the way he is being booked.
Another constant distraction backstage seems to be Brother Ray of Team 3D. Brother Ray would rather get a huge reaction from the crowd while doing less work in the ring. This is why he would rather be in table matches on every edition of Impact, than in a normal tag team or singles match.
Another problem in TNA is money. Gail Kim's contract in WWE is said to be over three time what TNA was offering her. It's no wonder Gail would rather be miserable in WWE than happy in TNA.
With that said, WWE may be keeping on eye on the likes of Taylor Wilde and Angelina Love. The Knockouts are said to make well under $100,000 a year, and I'm sure many of them would jump ship if WWE came knocking.
TNA has done their best to bring in former WWE talent and automatically push them over the likes of Lance Hoyt, Alex Shelley, and many others. Why give Booker T. a title shot when Christopher Daniels has been standing in line since day one with TNA?
The ability to draw fans is obviously a factor in deciding whether your promotion will succeed or not. At a show in Kansas, TNA drew 500 people in an 8,000 seat arena. At their last pay-per-view, they only drew 3,000, and moved them all to one side of the arena to make the arena look packed.
TNA definitely has the names to draw fans. Even if some of these competitors are nearing their 50s, if I hear Nash, Steiner, Sting, Booker T., and Jarrett all in the same company, then I will tune in to Impact to see what it's all about. The problem is that TNA doesn't manage their wrestlers as well as they should, which is also apparent with the X-Division.
The X-Division is supposedly the hook that draws you into TNA. However, said "hook", is non-existent. The X-Division belt ranks fourth (out of four) on TNA's belt priority list. A move for A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels (not Curryman) back to the X-Division might make it interesting again.
The X-Division is given little TV time, and most of its wrestlers are stuck in horrible gimmick (Black Machismo, Consequences Creed, The Guru, Maple Leaf Muscle).
7 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Jason Iovanna 10 months ago
Seems as though TNA is manipulating other things to make things look bigger. If you notice on their roster, they have added referees and other non-wrestling talents to make the roster look bigger. When you get down to it, nearly one quarter on the roster on the website is non-wrestling talent. What a joke.
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warcroft 10 months ago
The thing with WWE snatching up the TNA talent is that the WWE already do mass evictions each year of performers they dont use. The WWE would buy up the TNA talent and let them go to waste.
Really, what the WWE are doing is pulling all the tallent out of their rival company, bring them over to WWE, the fans will switch to the WWE but the ex-TNA talent will just sit and rot on the WWE roster while all the regular tallent gets used over and over. But in the mean time TNAs ratings will drop and hopefully (as the WWE thinks) TNA will disappear.
Regardless of who the WWE signs, all three of the WWE brands only use a select hand full of talent on a regular basis.
The remaining 90% of the WWE talent are constantly under fear of not having contracts renewed.
Wrestlers NEED TNA to exist because wrestling is their job. If the WWE dont want them then they need somewhere to work, to get paid.
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Jason Iovanna 10 months ago
What you are saying is obviously incorrect. Look at the talent TNA wasted and WWE made stars. If you go back to my article on TNA, you will see your statements are quite unfounded. Thus far, WWE has let go of only one TNA jump, Chris Harris, which was most likely due to miscommunication backstage and him out of shape and lackluster ring skills. WWE knows they made mistakes letting go of Kim and Killings in previous years, which is the reason why they brought them back. It is TNA's responsibility to keep TNA talent intact and it is their duty to run their business better. When you have people like Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, Jim Cornette, and Dixie Carter, who has less experience with professional wrestling than my baby cousin, running a wrestling company, you have a recipe for failure. TNA is a second rate company because they have made themselves so. Turns out I will probably have to make a list and post it to make this message clear.
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Joe Burgett 10 months ago
Hold up dude, have you seen TNA lately, its just as good as, actually better than ECW, and this Thursdays show was better even than Smackdown in my opinion, now WWE is better and has ben for a while, but if this continues, TNA will probably expand ato 2 shows and maybe 1 on Monday, then we will see the good storylines and wrestling, it will be like the old WWE and WCW days
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Jason Iovanna 10 months ago
Haha not when their roster is smaller than a little league baseball team.
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Joe Burgett 10 months ago
Well they are expanding and getting some of the WWE's guys becouse its a stable place that doesn't move around as much as the WWE, only on PPVs do they change cities and alot of superstars like that, and Mick Floey has left WWE to join the TNA aswell so you got to hand it to them on the benefit package thing.LOL
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James Tucker 10 months ago
Bringing in excess talent to TNA and not using them would be a waste of time and money. The WWE has three programs to air their talent while TNA has Impact. You can only use certain amounts of talent within a time frame. Sure, TNA could overspend to keep Gail Kim in the roster but those types of moves would be unwise business decisions. If we all remember, WCW spent excessive amounts of money to keep their talent and they eventually started to lose countless of millions. It is my understanding that TNA, an organization less than 10 years of age, is making a profit. I agree, at one point they will have to go big or go home but to compare them to WWE is grossly unfair. WWE has been around for 40 plus years, is the primary force behind wrestling entertainment and is worth billions of dollars. In other words, they can affort to overspend and make mistakes. Wrestlers within the WWE who speak out against their employer or who complain about being unhappy are either fired or buried. WWE has that type of power. Let's see how the Foley signing plays out and how their European tour does before we pass judgement on a very young organization.
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