You're Not the WWE: How TNA Can Improve in 2009

TNA burst on the scene in June 2002 with an attitude that hadn’t been seen in professional wrestling. The league was made up of mostly unknown wrestlers with a few veterans such as Roddy Pipper and Curt Henning thrown in.

These wrestlers mesmerized the crowds with wrestling that hearkened back to the underrated independent scene and matches never before seen, such as Ultimate X and Six Sides of Steel, distinguishing themselves a refreshing alternative to anything WWE had to offer.

Fast forward to 2009. TNA has gone away from what made it exciting and dynamic and have become what fans now call “WWE Lite.” TNA and TNA Impact! were named Worst Promotion Of 2009 and Worst Wrestling TV Show of 2009, respectively.

However, this trend can be reversed with a few simple changes that I will outline below. Granted, with Dixie Carter owning the company, these changes may take some time to come to fruition. But fans can hope.

1) Stop trying to be WWE. There is only one WWE, and it’s owned by Vince McMahon. Trying to be WWE is what got WCW in trouble during the Monday Night Wars; WCW tried to be their competition in order to get their viewers back when they fell behind in the ratings.

TNA needs to move away from this mistake. Stop the stupid backstage skits and get rid of the outlandish characters. Go back to having great in-ring matches. This is why fans bought the $10 Pay-Per-View matches during the early days and watched Impact! on Spike TV. It was an alternative to the glitzy production that Vinny Mac threw at fans each and every week.

Now, for every step TNA takes forward, it seems to take two or three steps back. If it wants to compete with the WWE, and not be bought out, TNA needs to get back to what got it noticed in the first place.

2)  Stop signing WWE refugees. Remember how shocking and surprising it was to see a cult favorite such as Christian or a huge star like Kurt Angle show up on TNA Impact? These days, it seems that TNA will sign anyone who was once in WWE, even though most of them end up doing nothing.

Out of all the former WWE signings, only Kurt Angle, Christian, and Booker T have really proved that they were worth signing. Sting, a perennial WCW mainstay, has proved that he still has something left to offer, and helping give the WCW-inspired storyline of the Main Event Mafia vs. The Front Line some real flavor is showing us a side of himself we’ve never seen.

Guys like Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash are taking up space and should just hang up the boots. They don’t really give anything in the ring. Also, spending big money to sign a former big WWE name takes away title shots and opportunities to move into higher spots from guys such as Samoa Joe, Alex Shelley, AJ Styles, Kaz, Chris Sabin, and, most importantly, Christopher Daniels.

This is beginning to become the WCW all over again, wherein younger, fresher talent is falling by the wayside in favor of an aging veteran who wants to hold on just a bit longer to his spot.

3) Reestablish the relationship that was once had with Ring of Honor. TNA stopped its relationship with Ring of Honor because, once ROH obtained a Pay-Per-View deal, it didn’t want its talent appearing on another wrestling company’s broadcast.

Most of the TNA roster is made up of former Ring of Honor favorites such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Samoa Joe. These guys have helped define not only TNA but a new generation of wrestling and wrestlers.

Why not trade talent with a company with such a great breeding round? TNA wrestlers have started appearing once again at house shows due to new ownership in Ring of Honor, but who wouldn’t want to see Bryan Danielson challenge AJ Styles or have the Briscoe Brothers challenge a great team such as LAX or Beer Money?

Several possibilities for great dream matches exist and would really get people interested in TNA.

4) Advertise the product. The reason the WWE is so well known globally is because it advertised like crazy in the '80s and '90s. International tours and promotional appearances all over television, magazines, toy isles and video games ensured everyone knew what the WWE was.

Spike TV airs maybe one or two TNA ads for every five million UFC ads. You don’t have to become a marketing machine like the Former Fed, but try and advertise matches or TNA Impact as much as possible in order to let people know that WWE does have competition.
 
5) Fire Vince Russo.This might be a tough one for Dixie Carter, who believes there aren’t any problems in TNA, especially Jeff Jarrett, but Russo just plain sucks.

The fans even thought so by chanting “Fire Russo!” after Roxxi had her head shaved in a very dumb storyline. Sure, Russo had a hand in the success of the Attitude Era in WWE, but Vince McMahon molds and shapes all ideas presented to him by his writers and ultimately has the final say on what goes.

In WCW, he bragged about being the WWE’s best-kept secret. Most fans wish he would have stayed that way.

If Eric Bischoff started the destruction of WCW, Russo surely finished it with confusing storylines, too many title changes, stupid backstage skits, and the gall to put the WCW title on himself. What he's doing to TNA is more of the same, with too little emphasis on wrestling and too much on the “Crash TV” style he helped create.

This is 2009, not 1997. Does anyone have on speed dial the number of former Ring of Honor booker Gabe Sapolsky?