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With TNA Impact Wrestling taking their show on the road, WWE has began contacting a number of major arenas to put holds on them for future dates. At least one person within WWE thinks that if TNA begins going on the road every Thursday, WWE may need to change their touring schedule to Thursday, Friday and Saturday for at least one of the brands. There is internal talk that WWE will put some arena dates on hold to make sure TNA doesn't get into them. WWE also may be enforcing some of their non-compete clauses so TNA can't run in the same buildings they do.

WTF? I thought they didn't see TNA as a competitor but they're pulling this crap. Sounds like they're treating arenas like talent. So if they "future endeavor" an arena, does mean they can't compete for another promotion for 90 days?

Kinda reminds the WCW/WWF days, since there towns where certain arenas would be exclusive to one promotion. Like the arenas near me, where one was where all the WWE stuff happened, while the other was used by WCW & ECW when they were in town.

I remember the first time I saw a WWF show advertised for The Omni in Atlanta. It just blew my mind. The equivalent would have been WCW doing a show in MSG.

If competition really matters to you, keep your money in your pocket and don't go when WWE comes to town. Go see TNA when they do.

there are enough venues in the US, TNA will be fine. Still makes WWE pigdogs for shying away from direct market competition.

Originally Posted by HydroX I'm a huge HBK fan, and I have been slowly buying some of the Attitude-era figures (I only have Bret Hart, Diesel and HBK). Plus I absolutely love how great of a job Mattel did on the HBK tights. Miss Elizabeth is only in case set B, which is apparently only available in Target stores as of right now -- if they even got their cases yet. Walmart is getting case set A for right now, which has everyone in it except for Liz.

This shit is why I gave up on collecting figures. Don't see why they can't just make a reasonable amount so anybody who wants one has a decent shot without having to resort to Ebay or sites like Ringside Collectibles and their overinflated prices

Originally Posted by mykevermin there are enough venues in the US, TNA will be fine.

I'd imagine that TNA would be targeting smaller venues than WWE anyway, nothing looks worse on TV than an empty arena.

I must say, Naomi has got some talent. Enjoyed watching her on Main Event.

Originally Posted by no_chocobo I'd imagine that TNA would be targeting smaller venues than WWE anyway, nothing looks worse on TV than an empty arena.

There's ways to squeeze people in the right place. TNA should offer low ticket prices for starters - get people in the habit of going to their shows. "TNA is in town? *Of course* I'm going!" Travel costs will likely be helped by running two shows in a row every other week. Emphasize the interactive nature of their shows (photos w/, meet and greet, etc.). Emphasizing fan involvement is a must, and promotion as well. TNA ran a show here a few months ago and I didn't know about it until a few days later.

After all this time, after all their mistakes, I still want to see TNA succeed, I want to support them - I want there to be competition. So if they come around, I'll go. But they need to grow fans, they can't rely on people who are already invested in and follow wrestling to be their only fan base.

Originally Posted by mykevermin If competition really matters to you, keep your money in your pocket and don't go when WWE comes to town. Go see TNA when they do. there are enough venues in the US, TNA will be fine. Still makes WWE pigdogs for shying away from direct market competition.

Yup. I didn't go to Raw this past Monday but it's a pretty safe bet that I'll go to another TNA show when they come back through. There are multiple venue options in the metro Atlanta area, not just Philips Arena. Even WWE in the past has optioned to not use Philips and go to Gwinnett Arena instead.

I absolutely love the changes TNA has been making this year. Less PPV's, making the remaining ones actual events. Now sending Impact out on tour starting after Lockdown, another strong improvement. The Impact Zone is great for a TV studio, but in the end it's still a TV studio (with a large portion of it's audience being freebies).

I think TNA should run the venues ECW did or the type of venues like WCW would use for Sat night tapings.. the ones that hold 2-4k people, if those are still even around. I know I used to go watch them in Rome and Dalton GA back in the day and also in Montgomery, Al at their civic center.

Originally Posted by neocisco There are multiple venue options in the metro Atlanta area, not just Philips Arena.

World Congress Center, yo. We ran the WFTDA Championships there last November. One of the convention halls could work for a TNA taping with the right lighting. Ain't gotta have a 15K seater if you're drawing 3-5K.

Originally Posted by mykevermin If competition really matters to you, keep your money in your pocket and don't go when WWE comes to town. Go see TNA when they do. there are enough venues in the US, TNA will be fine. Still makes WWE pigdogs for shying away from direct market competition.

I feel awful for saying this, but I mainly stayed away from WCW programming because it made me feel...dirty. I know this might make zero sense to some, but back when I was younger I viewed it as the evil wrestling company because it was owned by a billionaire who kept stealing away wrestlers that I liked.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. I have watched WWF (WWE will never sound okay with me) for so long that I feel like a traitor for wanting to watch TNA. It's sad that WWF has been doing just about everything in their power to make me want to give up and switch. Some of the "top stars" there bore the ever-loving shit out of me, no matter how talented they are.

On a semi-positive note, Punk's promo this past Monday was pretty damn good. I normally cringe when the show starts off with a promo and fast forward it to 15-20 minutes in, but I'm glad I didn't. But yeah, I just watched/fast forwarded through the Hulu+ version of RAW, it's all I can tolerate. Yeesh.

Totally fake but kinda neat. This would never fly in WWE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=961P6Vp5hl4

WWE booked a "hold" on the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University for later this year. That IS the smaller venue in Cleveland, holding around 7-8K rather than the 16K Quicken Loans Arena holds. It's the venue WCW used to run Thunder and Nitro in - brilliant if WWE is going to book the second tier and leave the bigger arena that TNA obviously won't fill.

TNA house shows run approximately 1500 attending - it'll be weird to see them in anything resembling an arena.

TNA ran a house show at the Coca-Cola Events Center in OKC when they were here last time. It was no bigger than my old high school gym.


(pic shamelessly taken from a Bing search)

It's not like this is anything new from WWE. They've been doing TV from small towns, where Vince won't even allow the announcers to say what town they're in. I think attendance is just down for them. I think it also helps that they're trying to screw over TNA in the process.

Originally Posted by JJSP WWE booked a "hold" on the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University for later this year. That IS the smaller venue in Cleveland, holding around 7-8K rather than the 16K Quicken Loans Arena holds. It's the venue WCW used to run Thunder and Nitro in - brilliant if WWE is going to book the second tier and leave the bigger arena that TNA obviously won't fill. TNA house shows run approximately 1500 attending - it'll be weird to see them in anything resembling an arena.

To be fair, they've run the Wolstein Center instead of the Q the past few times they've come to town; iirc the last two times I went one was in the Q (Unforgiven) and one was at Wolstein (Smackdown taping, maybe?).

Good to see some Cleveland talk in here, any locals going to AIW tomorrow night?

Originally Posted by mykevermin World Congress Center, yo. We ran the WFTDA Championships there last November. One of the convention halls could work for a TNA taping with the right lighting. Ain't gotta have a 15K seater if you're drawing 3-5K.

Also Cobb County Civic Center which ECW did some shows in. I went to an ECW show in Rome like pimpster mentioned and an indy show in Rome and they both did well. Both are north of the metro area but still accessible. Rome in particular is a good small-medium venue for wrestling.

North GA has a good wrestling fan base.. the convention center in dalton draws good crowds.. might be the rome folks going also since it's so close. Chattanooga would probably draw good too.