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CAGiversary!
[quote name='Sporadic']I don't think TNA is dead in the water, it's just extremely stagnate. The fact that they have SpikeTV's support is enough reason to try and save them instead of starting anew.
To save TNA would be fairly simple.
1) They need to trim the fat. Get rid of most of the older guys and stop emphasizing the ones left, over new/TNA talent. Heyman already did this once with Funk.
2) They need to build new stars out of what they have. This one is the one Heyman excels at. He's not the messiah but he is, hands down, the best in the industry when it comes to building new stars. Hardcore Justice showed how much he turned lemons (PJ Polaco, F.B.I, Kid Kash, Spike Dudley) into lemonade with ECW. With WWECW, he turned Big Show from a novelty act into a legitimate threat.
3) They need to move forward and innovate. Most of the older guys, including Heyman, have been talking about stealing things back from MMA. That would be a step in the right direction instead of this nostalgia trip TNA has been on with bring old guys in and repackaging the people who should be the face of their company with old guy gimmicks (AJ Styles as Ric Flair, Abyss as Hogan, etc) which makes the whole company look bush league.
4) They need to excel in places that the WWE don't. X-Division, Knockouts, they were already moving in the right direction before Hogan and Bischoff showed up.
5) They need a good, competent booker that can listen to the fans when necessary and book long term. There is no quick fix for TNA.
I really don't think so. He wanted a Dana White style deal and the WWE already offered him amazing money to run their development promotion (OVW at the time?) which he turned down awhile ago.
Seems like he doesn't want to get caught up in politics and wants to get something out of turning around the company.[/QUOTE]
We're just going to have to agree to disagree. As a brand, I think TNA is tainted to a point that it can't be salvaged. To hardcore fans, it's a joke. To mainstream fans, it sounds ridiculous. That's running under the assumption they know what it is in the first place. Starting a new company is a stretch, but I certainly think anyone 'fixing' TNA would have scrap the TNA name, history, what have you, and just start over. For me, it's akin to late 2000-01 WCW... there's not much of a way to come back.
I will add one point to that list, though... get the
out of the Impact Zone. That place is sucking the life out of those tapings. Go on the road. If you have the money to blow on Hogan and RVD, use it to cover some travel losses instead. Traveling TNA would be a totally different product.
Now, all of the points you made for fixing are valid... but they are also all things that TNA could have, and should have, done on their own. Aside from his insight into some of those things, you don't really need Paul Heyman to enact those plans. I guess that's part of the point I make... really, outside of 'being Paul Heyman', I can't imagine his plans would be much different than the ones you outlined above.
It goes to an overall point that I think even Heyman himself has been trying to make, which is that it's a problem with the industry itself, which is that they're afraid to change. The same people running wrestling today are the same ones that were running it a decade ago, and THAT'S the problem. There's nothing new, no innovation, and I don't think Heyman is the guy to do it. More to the point, I don't think Heyman wants to do it. He strikes me as a guy who has moved on from wrestling, and realizes that you can't go home again. I can't speak for the man, but I can't help but think that he finds this whole EV2.0 thing to be really sad, even if he wouldn't say it. It just goes against everything that Heyman seems to stand for, which is FORWARD MOMENTUM.
The man does very good work, to be certain, but I don't think just adding him in, even with complete control, is going to do the job. TNA, and the industry as a whole, needs a kick in the ass that the same old people aren't going to give it. They needs fresh blood, fresh perspectives. Heyman seems to be the one guy that understands that.
Oh, and on that note... money or not, OVW is a thankless job, isn't it? You can produce amazing TV, but very few people will ever see it. Even when you get a great guy, he'll likely be snatched and repackaged for TV, a lot of the time ruining why he was great in the first place. I'd imagine that wears on one after a while.
To save TNA would be fairly simple.
1) They need to trim the fat. Get rid of most of the older guys and stop emphasizing the ones left, over new/TNA talent. Heyman already did this once with Funk.
2) They need to build new stars out of what they have. This one is the one Heyman excels at. He's not the messiah but he is, hands down, the best in the industry when it comes to building new stars. Hardcore Justice showed how much he turned lemons (PJ Polaco, F.B.I, Kid Kash, Spike Dudley) into lemonade with ECW. With WWECW, he turned Big Show from a novelty act into a legitimate threat.
3) They need to move forward and innovate. Most of the older guys, including Heyman, have been talking about stealing things back from MMA. That would be a step in the right direction instead of this nostalgia trip TNA has been on with bring old guys in and repackaging the people who should be the face of their company with old guy gimmicks (AJ Styles as Ric Flair, Abyss as Hogan, etc) which makes the whole company look bush league.
4) They need to excel in places that the WWE don't. X-Division, Knockouts, they were already moving in the right direction before Hogan and Bischoff showed up.
5) They need a good, competent booker that can listen to the fans when necessary and book long term. There is no quick fix for TNA.
I really don't think so. He wanted a Dana White style deal and the WWE already offered him amazing money to run their development promotion (OVW at the time?) which he turned down awhile ago.
Seems like he doesn't want to get caught up in politics and wants to get something out of turning around the company.[/QUOTE]
We're just going to have to agree to disagree. As a brand, I think TNA is tainted to a point that it can't be salvaged. To hardcore fans, it's a joke. To mainstream fans, it sounds ridiculous. That's running under the assumption they know what it is in the first place. Starting a new company is a stretch, but I certainly think anyone 'fixing' TNA would have scrap the TNA name, history, what have you, and just start over. For me, it's akin to late 2000-01 WCW... there's not much of a way to come back.
I will add one point to that list, though... get the
out of the Impact Zone. That place is sucking the life out of those tapings. Go on the road. If you have the money to blow on Hogan and RVD, use it to cover some travel losses instead. Traveling TNA would be a totally different product.Now, all of the points you made for fixing are valid... but they are also all things that TNA could have, and should have, done on their own. Aside from his insight into some of those things, you don't really need Paul Heyman to enact those plans. I guess that's part of the point I make... really, outside of 'being Paul Heyman', I can't imagine his plans would be much different than the ones you outlined above.
It goes to an overall point that I think even Heyman himself has been trying to make, which is that it's a problem with the industry itself, which is that they're afraid to change. The same people running wrestling today are the same ones that were running it a decade ago, and THAT'S the problem. There's nothing new, no innovation, and I don't think Heyman is the guy to do it. More to the point, I don't think Heyman wants to do it. He strikes me as a guy who has moved on from wrestling, and realizes that you can't go home again. I can't speak for the man, but I can't help but think that he finds this whole EV2.0 thing to be really sad, even if he wouldn't say it. It just goes against everything that Heyman seems to stand for, which is FORWARD MOMENTUM.
The man does very good work, to be certain, but I don't think just adding him in, even with complete control, is going to do the job. TNA, and the industry as a whole, needs a kick in the ass that the same old people aren't going to give it. They needs fresh blood, fresh perspectives. Heyman seems to be the one guy that understands that.
Oh, and on that note... money or not, OVW is a thankless job, isn't it? You can produce amazing TV, but very few people will ever see it. Even when you get a great guy, he'll likely be snatched and repackaged for TV, a lot of the time ruining why he was great in the first place. I'd imagine that wears on one after a while.
(
Every match had some back-story to it that made you care about the outcome. What made it better is that the live fans gave a shit about every match on the card(judging by their reaction). I miss the 2000-era WWF.