In his latest piece, PWP Nation’s Caden Moran lists the ten things that hurt TNA leading to Anthem’s purchase and a company shake-up.
In wake of Anthem Sports & Entertainment purchase of TNA Impact Wrestling, we look back at the once promising company that produced many talented stars and many great matches.
However, after years of terrible mistakes, TNA finally felt the impact (no pun intended) from those decisions by suffering huge cut backs in terms of pay-per-views, show locations and failure to pay stars what they’ve earned.
I have created a list of the ten things that have hurt TNA and do note that these are in no specific order. And no, their new logo is not on this list.
The Knockouts Division
The Knockouts division in TNA is basically the WWE’s former Divas division. It’s terrible. Now yes, there have been some amazing women talent in TNA like Gail Kim, Awesome Kong and Angelina Love, but in it’s history, the Knockouts division has been a massive flop.
With sloppy matches and exposing the women’s “appeal,” it was uncanny of how similar the division was to WWE’s Divas. At least WWE had the brilliant idea of dropping the term “diva” and giving women a chance.
Six-Sided Ring
Creative? Yes. Practical? No. I hate the six-sided ring and it baffles me as to why they brought it back after they were doing just fine with a normal four-sided ring like every other company.
I get it, they want to “stand out” and “be different” but let’s face it, the six-sided ring is one of the worst ideas in wrestling history. It’s an eyesore and has affected the quality of matches since they brought it back. TNA can go ahead and try to be different, but it is not in the form of a six-sided nightmare.
X-Division Losing Luster
I will give TNA credit for at least one thing; they had a brillaint X-Division. The X-Division was basically their version of WWE’s Cruiswerweight division, but in some aspects, it was more entertaining. With tremendous talent like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and many others, the X-Division was absolute fire, especially with the brilliant Ultimate X concept.
However, over the past few years, the division has become a shell of its former-self. With no Ultimate X matches being conducted and not a lot of high profile and entertaining talent, the X-Division has officially hit rock bottom. If you don’t believe me, TNA once made Lashley the X-Division Champion for two weeks. Point made.
Losing Huge Talent
TNA Wrestling used to have some of the best wrestlers in all of professional wrestling. AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Eric Young, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries (all five of those men are now in WWE by the way), are all guys who have left the suffering TNA in the past few years. Losing this talent has hurt TNA and has given fans a reason not to pay attention. Granted yes, I will give TNA credit for attempting to build young and new talent but it just isn’t working. Losing high profile talent like those five men will haunt TNA until it’s finally dead especially now that all of them are successful in WWE.
Aces & Eights
Man, where do I even start with this? The Aces & Eights storyline had all the potential of being amazing. With a very intriguing masked biker gang stable attempting to take over TNA, how could we not be entertained? That was until Hulk Hogan‘s daughter got involved and we figured out who was under the masks. Wes Briscoe? Garrett Bischoff? Really?
Now yes, I will not lie when I say I was very surprised by the stunning reveal of Bully Ray as the president of this club, but after months of the same thing week in and week out, the story was going nowhere and hit an abrupt end when a new reformed Main Event Mafia ended them.
It is a big “what if?” for TNA Wrestling.
Relying On Past Stars
For many years in TNA, old wrestling legends would wrestle for the company such as Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Sting, Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, etc. I could go on forever. The point is, TNA has relied on old talent for years instead of building new talent and not only did that hurt them on the entertainment side of things but ti hurt financially as well.
I don’t know the exact number for sure but I’m assuming the amount of money Scott Steiner demanded to compete in TNA for is A LOT. You can’t turn something old into something new and that is what TNA tried on multiple occasions and hurt them massively in the long run.
Dixie Carter
And you thought Vince was bad. Vince McMahon may be a bit, how do the kids say, “out of touch,” but at least he is a genius when it comes to business and money. Dixie Carter on the other hand is an absolute moron when it comes to those two things. Terrible business mistakes by Carter have cost TNA millions of dollars and the company hasn’t recovered since. Luckily, Dixie Carter is no longer the Chairwoman of TNA, which gives the loyal fans a breath of fresh air but in my opinion, the damage of “Dixie-Land” has already been done.
Choosing Wrong Champions
TNA once put the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships on Eric Young and ODB. Enough said.
Victory Road 2011
The biggest blemish in TNA’s history will always be Victory Road 2011. One of the most embarrassing moments in professional wrestling history came when the very popular Jeff Hardy was set to challenge Sting for the TNA World Championship and came out very late during his entrance and winded up being pinned very quickly due to the fact that he was intoxicated during the match. It was uncomfortable for everybody involved and screwed everybody out of their money as it was an anticipated match and it was just straight up embarrassing for the company.
Sting’s reaction said it all as the fans were saying “THIS IS BULL***” and Sting simply replied with “I agree”. Fortunately, Hardy has gotten the help he needed and has redeemed himself with the company but this will forever be one of the most embarrassing moment not just for Hardy, but for TNA.
Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff
It was obvious. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff single-handedly ruined TNA Wrestling. We all know the egos of Hulk and Eric are through the roof but you’d think they’d actually try to help out, at the time, a strong and growing company lime TNA. Nope. Instead they put themselves as the focus of the show week in and week out and pushed aside the true talent for way too long.
From the dreadful Immortal story line to Hogan facing Sting at Bound For Glory, it was just an awful few years under Hogan and Bischoff and the worst part about all of this is Dixie was paying them HUGE loads of money! That just proves two of my points right there.
I refuse to say TNA is dead in the water but after years of terrible mistakes, TNA is now suffering the effects of those decisions. Here’s to hoping Anthem can turn this company around but after seeing their new logo, I’m losing hope.
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