TNA Impact Wrestling Thread: Rob Terry version 4.0

[Legato]

They put them up free on their website i thought.

Correct.
http://www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current

[Jadis]

Some Meltzer stuff about TNA

For what it’s worth, the belief is that there is a good chance, described as slightly better than 50 percent that Bully Ray will be back at the next tapings. Some of the wrestlers were given the impression he’ll be back and the three-way tag team feud will continue on television to its conclusion, where it looks like Edwards & Richards win since they are the ones defending the titles at Bound for Glory, unless they hold off the last match until Bound for Glory, but then they have to make sure Jeff Hardy can go to Japan. His contract expired this past week and the company felt comfortable he would re-sign, because it’s not a deal the level of a Hulk Hogan, or even an A.J. Styles. He gave no inclination about not wanting to sign beforehand, and they announced him for the U.K. tour, scheduled to put him in the Hall of Fame and had him in the main TV program when it was up. The first most anyone heard of him possibly leaving was his speech to the guys at the show in Salisbury, MD. It may be trying to maneuver a raise at a time they are cutting back, given all the hats he has between main event wrestler, being the best agent now that Jeff Jarrett is gone, and having a lot of input into creative.

John Gaburick was again trying to contact Alberto Del Rio this week to make a deal.

As things stand right now, Bound for Glory is the only date on the schedule for the month of October and there are no future house shows scheduled. This has a lot of the talent which was working on a per-event deal kind of in a panic and worrying about their income being maybe half of what they expected it to be going forward unless they can get indie dates. The talent that worked the house shows regularly were making more than half their income from working house show dates. One thing that has changed is that the talent is allowed to appear on DVDs in the new contracts (or at least the contracts with a couple of people who relayed this info to us). They believe they are allowed to book themselves with any promotion that doesn’t have national TV, or doesn’t run on PPV, meaning the only companies they couldn’t work out dates for are WWE, ROH and the El Rey promotion.

However, even if the talent works every TV, that’s only 64 shows a year (52 weekly TVs, four PPVs and eight taped PPVs). Almost nobody works every show.

Impact on 8/27 did a 0.81 rating and 928,000 viewers (1.20 viewers per home), which was up from the 852,000 on its first Wednesday show. So the good news is that they are getting some of the audience back. Also, they did far better than usual DVR numbers, as they did another 176,000 viewers watching between Thursday and Saturday via DVR (up 19 percent from live viewing, about double the usual increase of a pro wrestling TV show).

But these number are still lower than what would have been a bad number on Thursday, even against killer sports competition. But it’ll take time to find out where the Wednesday audience settles in at. But the question becomes if they have time due to the uncertain future of wrestling on Spike, and the ratings at this point may be irrelevant to that decision making anyway. There was no significant sports programming on against them, and the two lead-in episode hours of COPS did 1,020,000 and 1,191,000 viewers.

The ratings pattern overall was bad.

In the segment-by-segment, Bobby Lashley vs. Tommy Dreamer lost 46,000 viewers. Taryn Terrell vs. Madison Rayne and Homicide & Manik & Zema Ion vs. Low Ki & Crazzy Steve & Tiger Uno lost 45,000 viewers. The Bobby Roode/Eric Young in-ring promo to set up next week’s match lost 34,000 viewers. Ethan Carter III vs. Rhino at 10 p.m. in the usual growth spot lost 22,000 viewers. Austin Aries vs. Great Sanada gained 11,000 viewers. The introduction of Chris Melendez lost 24,000 viewers. And worst of all, the dream tag team match with The Wolves vs. Hardys vs. Team 3-D, the first of the series, lost 35,000 viewers and did a 0.74 quarter, so the main event did the lowest rating and audience of the show.

[alex]

Some Meltzer stuff about TNA

Nostalgia has a shelf life, shocker.

[alex]

BTW, Bully gone exactly long enough to be able to legally talk to WWE and have them tell him they don't want him.

[Jadis]

I'm glad they finally amended that heavy handed rule regarding working for other feds who make DVDs. Granting they had little choice at this juncture since they have to invent reasons for good talent to want to sign with them and face scraping the bottom of the barrel roster wise with less tv money coming in.

[BigLbo]

main event got the lowest rating?? i blame eric young.

anyways show was good tonight, main event was predictable but still cool. all the matches were at least decent and i'm starting to get interested in what they're doing with james storm, sanada, and manik.

i enjoy the triple threat mic time, those guys are cool, joe also did his thing.

gail vs taryn was good, my feed timed out and i all but missed havok's debut. happy she's going to be on tv.

glad to see it looks like they're going to do something with brittney again, hopefully it doesn't suck.

shaw & gunner vs bram & magnus was ok. i dig bram & magnus as a tag team, otoh shaw is nowhere near as interesting as he was before gunner saved him. i'd have rather he escaped from the nuthouse.

EY vs bobby roode was good. i think they've done alright with EY post title reign. hopefully bobby gets the big win at BFG this time.

X-division #1 contenders match was OK, but DAMN how many times are they going to do this match with the same guys?? here's hoping ki & cide join forces to take down joe like the good old days. cide needs to go all out here, wire hangers, forks, fireballs, maybe even the bottle of drano. post match stuff was interesting, i'll be very happy if they get TJ out of the manik gimmick unless of course they come up with something worse. emo TJ would be good.

aries/tajiri/storm/sanada thing was cool. ECW hasbeen, WWE reject, whatever you want to call him, it was cool to see tajiri back. hopefully a tag team match soon.

didn't care about spud/rhino, spud is cool though.

joe vs lashley as said earlier was predictable but cool.

[master of read]

main event got the lowest rating?? i blame eric young.

anyways show was good tonight, main event was predictable but still cool. all the matches were at least decent and i'm starting to get interested in what they're doing with james storm, sanada, and manik.

i enjoy the triple threat mic time, those guys are cool, joe also did his thing.

gail vs taryn was good, my feed timed out and i all but missed havok's debut. happy she's going to be on tv.

glad to see it looks like they're going to do something with brittney again, hopefully it doesn't suck.

shaw & gunner vs bram & magnus was ok. i dig bram & magnus as a tag team, otoh shaw is nowhere near as interesting as he was before gunner saved him. i'd have rather he escaped from the nuthouse.

EY vs bobby roode was good. i think they've done alright with EY post title reign. hopefully bobby gets the big win at BFG this time.

X-division #1 contenders match was OK, but DAMN how many times are they going to do this match with the same guys?? here's hoping ki & cide join forces to take down joe like the good old days. cide needs to go all out here, wire hangers, forks, fireballs, maybe even the bottle of drano. post match stuff was interesting, i'll be very happy if they get TJ out of the manik gimmick unless of course they come up with something worse. emo TJ would be good.

aries/tajiri/storm/sanada thing was cool. ECW hasbeen, WWE reject, whatever you want to call him, it was cool to see tajiri back. hopefully a tag team match soon.

didn't care about spud/rhino, spud is cool though.

joe vs lashley as said earlier was predictable but cool.

i too am digging what they are doing with storm, sanada, and manik.

[alex]

Vince Russo made comments this past week about Spike TV and its relationship with TNA, including saying he felt they were horrible for the promotion, which led to Spike saying Russo was a non-entity and that they had gone above and beyond their contract over the years in helping fund and promote the product.

Russo, in an interview on the Pro Wrestling Report, said:

“I’ve been holding this back for years and I finally get to say this. I felt like Hannibal Lechter when he was strapped in and had his mouth wired shut. Spike TV is a horrible partner. Why TNA would ever want to partner with Spike is beyond me, unless there were no other options. If Spike TV were the only option to stay on television, then I would understand it. They are a horrible partner. They know nothing about the wrestling business. They way they advertised and marketed the program over the years was absolutely atrocious.

I can tell you this from a position where I worked with the USA Network, I worked directly with Bonnie Hammer. She was the female version of Vince McMahon. She knew what she was doing. When you had Bonnie Hammer at USA and Vince McMahon, the sky was the limit. If TNA signs another deal with Spike TV, great for them. It will move along for another two years and everyone will work, but the product will not grow on Spike TV. My hope for TNA is that a new network comes along and embraces TNA and gives them the time and investment to help grow the product. I can’t say this enough. TNA on Spike TV will never grow.”

Aside from the fact that WWE Raw moved in 2005 from Spike TV back to USA and its ratings never grew, and are today lower than they were on Spike, the reality is Spike TV saved TNA. They had already pulled out of the Fox Sports Net deal because the decision was made to no longer pay for television.

Fox Sports Net didn’t care about the ratings TNA was getting, which were well above the station average. FSN was only interested in wrestling as a time buy, meaning the promotion buys the time. TNA was on the verge of extinction without a television home. But when WWE left Spike to return to USA, Spike decided it wanted to keep wrestling, so they gave TNA a Saturday night show and eventually in time, moved them to Thursdays, and tried Mondays in 2010, which didn’t work.

Spike was not happy with Russo’s comments.

“I want to start by saying we enjoyed a great relationship, a very collaborative relationship with Dixie Carter and her team over the years,” said David Schwarz, the Senior Vice President of Communications with Spike TV. “We took TNA from a late night spot on Saturday nights, doing 500,000 viewers, to a two-hour time slot that did two million viewers over time. Spike went out of its way, not in just adhering to its contract, but above and beyond the contract.

"We paid Hulk Hogan, we paid Eric Bischoff, with our money. We financed many shows. We financed U.K. shows. We helped promote. We gave TNA a prime time slot of Thursdays from 9-11 p.m. I think his comments are way off base. Clearly, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s somebody who thinks more of himself than really exists. Vince Russo never meant anything to Spike TV. He had nothing to do with negotiations. Nobody cares about Vince Russo at Spike TV. Nobody cares or knows who he is. We have a great relationship with TNA. We went above and beyond for them, as they did for us. Dixie helped promote our shows. What Vince Russo is saying is complete nonsense.”

[Jadis]

Their promotion was pretty lackluster usually. That part has been talked to death for years. (Not that TNA themselves are strong there either.)

Spike still doesn't get it apparently. Schwarz says "We paid Hulk Hogan, we paid Eric Bischoff, with our money" as if that is a good thing. By saying that they are basically drawing attention once again to the fact that they played a part in TNA's decline. And helped feed Dixie's markishness.

It's very unlikely TNA would be in worse shape had they skipped on those clowns 2010 run. And they might have been better off. Instead they burned through much of the fanbase and potential fanbase and few give a crap anymore.

[StrongStyleSpirit]

I don't think Hogan and Bischoff was such a bad thing. Didn't TNA do it's best business under them or am I mistaken? It's certainly when the promotion felt like the biggest deal.

[Jadis]

I think the fed was finding itself some before bringing them on. It was a slow steady build but they seemed to be developing an identity as an alternative.

Within weeks of Hogan/Bischoff we had Abyss going on seven minute long tirades, Bubba the Suck Sponge, and Orlando Jordan rubbing lotion on himself. Coupled with getting absolutely creamed by Raw.

[master of read]

I think the fed was finding itself some before bringing them on. It was a slow steady build but they seemed to be developing an identity as an alternative.

Within weeks of Hogan/Bischoff we had Abyss going on seven minute long tirades, Bubba the Suck Sponge, and Orlando Jordan rubbing lotion on himself. Coupled with getting absolutely creamed by Raw.

also adding in the "they" story line, the top ten rankings, removing the six sided ring, and all but destroying the X-division.

and of course, victory road.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The reply to Russo sums up everything wrong about Spike and the people involved with the network. What other TV executives are gonna decide to launch into an angry reply over what a former TV wrestling writer thinks ? Even if said writer has his own website and does interviews . I didn't see anyone over Time Warner when they cancelled WCW getting angry when people called Jamie Kellnor a dumb fucking moron who blew his company $50+ million in a sale. They never ever replied to critics who bashed the company.

Sure Spike did some ok things as he posted. They moved the company to a better time slot. But they would push for things like Hogan as an example. Its long been said that Spike wanted Hogan and Sting to be a part of the company and all.

I won't agree with Russo they were completely terrible. They did move the company to a better time slot. But the issues they had...were pretty big.

1.) - The Monday Night debacle. Spike decided to suddenly move TNA within 3 weeks to Monday Nights. With little to no advertising. When WCW went to Monday Nights for Nitro...Bischoff and Time Warner spent months advertising it on TV and newspapers. As a part of Viacom , Spike never did anything beyond on the station to tell people to watch.

2.) - Spike never informed TNA they would air repeats of Monday Night shows on Thursday. In fact the combined rating for both shows was pretty solid. Spike would seemingly change their minds each week on airing a repeat broadcast and suddenly re-broadcast the show at the last moment.

3.) - Spike wanted more TNA programming and instead of again advertising said new programming , suddenly demanded a new show within 2-3 weeks. TNA Reaction was suddenly aired after Impact. Then the next week was moved before Impact....then....well you get the hint. The network finally cancelled that show when it didn't draw well (I wonder why lol) .


In all Spike's TV executives better accept they did some dumb **** at times.

[BigLbo]

I don't think Hogan and Bischoff was such a bad thing. Didn't TNA do it's best business under them or am I mistaken? It's certainly when the promotion felt like the biggest deal.

i HATE hogan and bitchoff, always have but when they were in TNA people actually bitched about them using a ring with 4 sides. just think about that **** for a minute.

i wonder if anybody out there feels kind of silly for bitching so much about how much TNA was paying hogan now.

[master of read]

i HATE hogan and bitchoff, always have but when they were in TNA people actually bitched about them using a ring with 4 sides. just think about that **** for a minute.

i wonder if anybody out there feels kind of silly for bitching so much about how much TNA was paying hogan now.

its not just the fact that they used a 4 sided over a 6 sided ring. its what hogan said that rubbed me the wrong way when they made the change.