Columns - Online World of Wrestling

WRESTLING COLUMNS

Will TNA Ever Compete With WWE"
August 17, 2005 by Sam Vickery

I have been a fan of WWE (WWF) since I was about 3 years old and I'm 17 now.

I will never forget the buzz of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Legion of Doom and even to an extent Big Bad Vader making their entrances and people cheering or jeering. Who cared these were great characters and not necessarily great wrestlers. Then there was the legendary Bret Hart, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and a true icon in this business and should be remembered above all these people.

I may sound like I am waffling on but I really am not. I'm trying to make the points that characters will never be made like this again and the WWE will never create such good characters again, not in a million years. This was the highlight of wrestling. Then after these times the threat of WCW came to power, with wrestlers jumping ship and the business was rejuvenated. I was never a fan of WCW, but I was appreciative of the fact the WWE also rejuvenated, we saw the start of The Rock, Stone Cold, Mick Foley and DX.

WWE gave chances to the younger guys and it's what eventually saved them. Now this is getting me to my point; I'm sorry it took so long. TNA will never compete - they are just going to keep taking old WWE and ECW talent and while both are or were great companies, they do not draw the crowds in. WWE is now finally giving the younger guys a go as well and they have spotted the fact that TNA is on the rise and they are going to crush this company as soon as possible,. TNA WILL NOT WIN!

They simply do not have the characters, or they have old washed up characters. OK, I admit AJ Styles is a very good wrestler, but to me is one of the most boring people I have ever seen grace the microphone, he is 6'0 and 225 dripping wet! Then his arch enemy Jeff Jarrett, a man who is so boring and one dimensional I may have to kill myself watching him. Sorry that's a little serious but it's true!

Then there is the future of the business.... Abyss! Oh please, this man couldn't even lace Kane's boots! He is a simple rip off!

Now there is Samoa Joe people, what" Have I missed something" This guy while technically sound is again BORING!! They say he has a unique wrestling style, hmmmm...... I wouldn't necessarily agree. He is all power and no finesse! He is fat and useless!! They say he turned down WWE, no what he turned down was mid card obscurity that he would attain there! He is poor, simply.

Now coming to the Champion Raven, to me one of the legends of nowadays, and an innovator in his prime. But now he is the same repetitive character he has been for the past 10 years! He is thrilling to watch when he gets going but can also be incredibly boring in a normal match up situation.

Then there is the soon to be forgotten Christopher Daniels, he really has struck gold with his character and I believe it is a fantastic look and has a brilliant array of moves. But can we seriously going on believing that he can beat guys as big as a house!! No, Monty Brown in real life would kill him. So while many will bad mouth WWE for not putting enough time into the smaller guys, we wouldn't take it seriously if Nunzio were to be beat Batista now would we""

Then there is the argument that TNA isn't all about characters, it's about the great high spots that are continually done into the ground, by having each match like this. While some matches can be great and exciting where does this lead the company down the road"" People will eventually become extremely bored and annoyed with the product without good storylines and good characters. I think TNA will come to an end sooner than everybody thinks, or will continue to do mediocre business until the wrestlers decide to leave to WWE i.e. Monty Brown, AJ Styles (still not a favourite of mine) and maybe even Christopher Daniels. It all depends on their loyalty and their pay cheques.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic about the whole subject, as I would love to see WWE have some proper competition, but to me TNA does not fit the requirements and will be buried, because quite frankly people are more interested in seeing Matt Hardy vs. Edge then they are going to be in the on going strange sort of feud between 3 live cru and Kipp James! Batista will sell more merchandise than Raven, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy put together and even Christian will outsell and outwrestle these people. So to me TNA is over before it even gets started!

by Sam Vickery ..

Neil Harris wrote:
There were quite a few points in this article I disagree with, so I'm going to go in the order you brought them up.

First of all: Yes, AJ Styles is a smaller guy. He's a shade over 200 lbs and 6 ft. Does this make him a bad wrestler" Hell no. If anything, it makes him better. His smaller size allows him to do Suicide Shooting Star Presses, Spinal Taps, and an assortment of other high-flying moves. This, coupled with the fact that he is a great technical wrestler, is what makes him a good wrestler. Vince McMahon has a boner for big men. No matter how good they actually are, he will continue to book and push big men. Such cases are Heidienreich, Gene Snitsky, and especially The Big Show. This, coupled with the fact that the Cruiserweight division is DOA, creates the illusion that bigger wrestlers make bigger stars. This is where TNA has the WWE beat; hands down.

I'm not going to dispute the Jeff Jarrett point.

Abyss, however, diserves alot more credit than you're giving him. I'd argue why he's such a great star, but since you didn't back up your point with facts, I won't either.

Samoa Joe's mic skills need work, that's a given. But you make it sound like being technically sound is a bad thing. This is WRESTLING, Samoa Joe is a damn good WRESTLER. If you ask me, that's all that matters. Everything else(gimmicks, mic work, etc) is just extra credit. The fact that the man could have a good match with a house plant is what makes him a good star, not the fact that he has a catchphrase.

WWE has money because of one thing: marks. No matter how respected TNA(or any other company) is on the internet, they will not survive without marks. This is why John Cena is the champion, this is why the WWE didn't go bankrupt after the Katie Vick angle, this is why ROH doesn't have a TV spot. The WWE has people that wouldn't really give a damn if they cut out wrestling all together. Hell, it's already down to a seven minute match per half hour. As long as there are people who like angles more than matches, the WWE will be in business. Alright, I'm done being cynical. In conclusion: Ring of Honor > Total Nonstop Action > We Were Entertaining...

Pedro Torres wrote:
Here we go again...It seems that the most threatening words in professional wrestling today are Total Nonstop Action. Once again, someone is using WWE as the measuring stick for every wrestling organization in the world. I truly have one thing to ask: What is WWE offering, as of late" Absolutely NOTHING. The only thing going on for WWE is the Diva Search and the Lita/Hardy/Edge angle. There is no wrestling...none...sip...nada...zero. No one is taking anything away from WWE and its contribution to prowrestling. But the fact is, there is nothing there. There are no 'characters' in WWE...simply a group of puppets--with little or no drive to give a crowd a decent, much less memorable wresling match, since they are being orchestrated by a group of morons labeled as 'creative team.' You're right about one thing, though. WWE has-and sells-merchandise. This merchandise is bar-coded, tagged, and put in the ring in the form of Divas, stiff wrestlers and senseless gimmicks. TNA, on the other hand, has talented wrestlers who want to do one thing right: WRESTLE and, in the process, put on a hell of an event ( I recommend you order of WWE's 'best' payperview and compare it to any of TNA's).

TNA will not and does not have to compete with WWE, simply because there is no competition. TNA brings fewer storylines and more dynamics, as opposed to Vince's product. Trust me on this one, Sam: when TNA hits your TV screen, pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, sit back comfortably and, above all, don't forget to take your notepad and take some notes...you could learn a thing or two about real professionalism and respect to wrestling. I have a feeling that WWE will be doing the same.

Jackieellisworld wrote:
STOP WITH THE BS!!!!!!!! Look at the main event of Summerslam, HOGAN vs.HBK, two veterans and one guy who is almost 60 years old. You got the nerve too talk about TNA having old wash ups. Batista is not young, he's 40 and JBL is old too. So what you are talking about" If you like terrorist angles,retarted wrestlers, and who's your daddy type angles watch WWE. If you like real wrestling action who always give you your money worth watch TNA. Last time I've check, WWE ain't drawing crowds either. You is a hater and you are a "WWE MARK". At least TNA don't hired HOLLYWOOD writers who knows nothing about wrestling.

The Cleveland Crippler (Nick B.) wrote:
The first time i read your aticle, i had to read it again. not because it inspired me, because it made me want to rip my eyes out.

I too have been a huge wrestling fan, and i follow it avidly. My dream is to become a wrestler, but when i read the stuff you write, it makes me realize that there are even idiots in the wrestling world. Maybe if you actually watched a TNA impact, or ordered a PPV, you would see how wrong you are about TNA. PERIOD.

Taking old washed up WCW and WWE talent" Why does Raven get pops whenever he walks out" Why do people love his matches" That dosent say "Washed Up" to me. No, TNa dosent have their Washed up Talent, TNA has the WWE/WCW gold mine.

the backstage anarchy of WWe has led people to leave, or do things for them to get fired. They look for a place where they can really shine, and they find it in TNA. Did you ever see Raven on anything besides sunday night heat towards the end of his WWE run" How about RhIno" He was stuck in Tag hell with Tajiri. If they wanted to play things right with Rhino, they would have pushed him, considering he was the LAST ECW CHAMPION, and everyones all high on ECW right now. No, see, the WWE makes mistakes, and TNA captiolizes on it.

As for their performers who havent made it to the WWE, look at this.

Christopher Daniels and AJ style could out-perform almost EVERYONE in the WWE roster (excluding people like Rey Mysterio JR, Chris Benoit, Eddie Gurrero, and RVD) because they are Talented, theyre style is different. Its better than everyone coming up fromt he development leauges that can barely wrestle and puts on a sloppy slug fest. How come when Christopher Daniels wrestles a Monty brown, "oh thats not realistic" but when Rey Mysterio wrestels a man like a Big Show your all,"oh go underdog Rey!"

As for Samoa Joe, hes a very good technical wrestler. Perhaps you didnt see the AJ/Joe match at their recent PPV" You should order it, one of the best PPVs in years. Samoa Joe is an EXTREMELy good wrestler. He comes in, and he has the technical workings of a man like benoit, but the agility of a man like gurrero in his prime. He can put on a Good match with almost ANYBODY.

As for the "Mid-Card" Hell that samoa Joe would have been put in" Take a look, bud. shelton Banjamin, perhaps one of the freshest performers the WWE has had in a long while, is stuck jobbing to Chris Masters and Gene Snitsky. Eddie and Rey" Smackdowns 2 best performers, and their stuck with "no hes my kid, no hes not" feud, which makes me want to turn of my TV everytime they come on.

you want to talk about washed up guys at the top" Try HHH. The man has been using the same gimmick for the past 7-8 years, and i dont see you complaining about him" But, no HHH is different. Pah. HHH is stale. He cuts good promos, ill give him that. But this is what he does. Pushes new talent, feud with HBK, push another new talent, Feud with HBK. take a break for a month, feud with HBK. The new guys in the WWE arent as high as youd like to think, the only new guys who are getting up in the ranks are Cena, Batista, and maybe Orton. Talk about your old washed up guys in the Main Event" hogan/HBK, Taker, HHH, JBL, Animal. Granted, im not cutting these guys crap, because i love watching people like hogan, taker, HBK. They bring back good memories. I love watching them, but is it me or does hogan have 19 "one more matches" or "first matches back" undertaker was one of my favorites, now hes just bleh. I was glad to see animal, but im tired of seeing LOD 2005 Take on Team jobber week after week.

Also, note that smackdown has a man who was stuck in the no-direction Tag Team Divison, all of a sudden gets pushed to the Main Event. Thats JBL for all you who dont know. The man SUCKS in rign and on the mic. I get annoyed with him so damn EASILY it isnt funny.

Lets take a look at the WWes "Young Stars" outside of Cena and Batista and Orton. Carlito. On the mic, SUCKS. period. I get annoyed after hearing his damn cabana boy voice for 30 seconds. In ring skills" even worse. Every match i see carlito in i want to rip pout my eyes its so bad. the only decent match he was in was a match he didnt even wrestle in (Cena vs Jesus). Carlito flat out sucks. Cabana" Rip off the Highlight Reel

Masters. Bland, "Cant break my masterlock, duuuurrrr" rip off of the angle invitiational. His inring sucks, because they try to establish him as a monster, but he just squashes Cruisers. The only decent match he was in was the tag with him and snitsky vs benjamin and show, and thats because show and benjamin can carry people in a match.

Quite frankly, i dont think you know anything about TNA. if you proclaim that the WWE is so great, how come i can point out so many flaws" Maybe you should actually try to follow some TNA before you can make these claims, youll be put straight faster than a 14 year old watching MTV.

Trevor Vaillancourt wrote:
While reading my daily dose of O.W.W I came across this article written by Sam Vickery. Its headline caught my eyes as I have been a fan of TNA since its inception to the weekly P.P.V's.

While some of his points are valid. Mainly that A.J isn't very good on the stick and that TNA has used to many high spots in the past. However I must rise and defend my favourite wrestling promotion. Samoa Joe is probably on of the most technically sound wrestles as Sam point out however to call him "BORING" is wrong. Call him talented. In this day and age where most wrestlers can't sell, Joe makes every move look like it hurts. That's more than I can say for half the wrestlers these days.

Since Raven came to TNA he has done nothing but good for the company. Working with guys like AJ and Christopher Daniels on there ring psychology and making them into what they are today. Yes he has been working the same gimmick since his time in ECW, but the same can be said for Eddy. I can go up and down and pick apart half the Raw and Smack Down locker room but that's just dumb. Even TNA has brought us some bad wrestlers.

This is getting very long very quickly so let me just end it on this. TNA is the closest thing that the WWE has for competition. They may not be there yet but they have come a long since I started watching 3 years ago. Instead of trying to pick apart each company support them. Get a TNA P.P.V .I promise you won't be disappointed. Do like I did this Tuesday and go to a WWE event. Catch an indy show in your area. Just be what we are suppose to be. MARKS!!!!!!!! Love the business for what it is. I may have to sit through an hour of garbage on a WWE P.P.V to see a slight glimps of the Sports Entertainment I love but would I do it again"

Yes. Again and again.

acecrusher90 wrote:
There are a few things I disagree with strongly in your article. I do have to agree with you on one thing, Jeff Jarrett is definitely boring and one dimensional. But to then go and on and trash some of the fine athletes in TNA is wrong. Samoa Joe is the one that shocked me the most. Fat and boring" How is Samoa Joe boring" And did you actually expect someone called SAMOA Joe to be anything but big" Was it his match vs. Chris Sabin at No Surrender, that was obviously match of the night, or match of the year candidate with AJ Styles at Sacrifice that lead you to believe he is boring" Samoa Joe is not all about power, he is all about submissions hence the nickname TNA gave him, the Samoan Submission Machine. Cheesy perhaps but so was the Human Suplex Machine for Taz and Taz was great in his prime. And if WWE had signed him maybe they would be the ones getting the five star matches but no simple WWE would accept him and he knows that.

Abyss. Some feel he is a Kane knock off. Far from it. With the current state of Kane in WWE I'd rather see Abyss killing himself for the enjoyment of the fans. Sunset Flip Powerbombs and Alabama Slam's onto thumbtacks, shattered tables, and sick chairshots galore, Abyss has taken all these "bumps". Recently he appeared for Ring of Honor and at first people groaned, but after the show nothing but positive things we said about him. He hit all his moves cleanly from all accounts.

And Christopher Daniels is not forgettable. He has had high quality matches every PPV for TNA. Not of those had men bigger then him, instead mean mostly the same size as him. I really don't see how you said Daniels easily beat Brown when the two have never faced off in the ring.

To me sir, you seem like a typical TNA basher. And I'm no TNA fanboy but when I see some of my favorites from it trashed like this on a popular website I have to say something to defend them.

JP Nichols wrote:
Wow man. Just wow. I understand everyone has their own opinion but some of the stuff you have said are ridiculous.

Wonder why they bring in former WWE and ECW Alumni. For one, I'd imagine there are quite a few fans of Rhino and Sabu, me being fans of both. Pretty much all of the WWE alumni they have brought in were either not established there due to WWE liking characters more then wrestling, it certainly appears. Besides, the WWE Fans complain about all the "WWE Rejects" that TNA has hired

1. Raven | 2. Jeff Jarrett | 3. BG James | 4. Ron Killings | 5. Sean Waltman | 6. Jerry Lynn | 7. Kip James

now, I maybe wrong, but those are all the people classified under WWE Rejects that are currently with TNA. Wow 7 people out of how many" According to TNA's site from what I counted, that would be 84 people. That is not even one tenth of the roster.

How many times are people going to call Abyss a rip-off of Kane" I do not hear people calling Chris Masters or Mark Jindrak(when he had the gimmick) a ripoff of Lex Luger often, but since Abyss works for TNA and can actually wrestle unlike those 2, guess it makes him a target. Do not even compare him to Foley either. Foley and Abyss are completely different. If you mention "But he uses thumbtacks like Foley!!!" that is like saying just about anyone in CZW currently or in the past is a ripoff of Foley considering all the past usages of tacks there.

I can tell you have only seen Joe in TNA. If Joe sucks, why is it that Ring of Honor allowed him to hold their world title from April of 03 to December of 04. Then, let Joe win the 2nd of three belts this year" He will be the first ROH Triple Crown Champ for sure. So much for him sucking. The guy is awesome on the mic and is great in the ring. Plus, his match against Sabin at No Surrender(best match of the night easily) and Joe/Styles last sunday(that a certain Wade Kellar called a ****1/4 match-up) was an easy MOTY candidate.

Raven with a stale gimmick, oh no. What has Hogan used for the past years excluding Mr. America" Wow. Plus, his fans still love the gimmick.

Daniels will not be forgotten. In case you have not noticed, the crowd chants for him every single match. He has a huge indy fanbase, and is one of the most popular guys in TNA. He was one of the best, if not the, heels in ROH history. He can go real well with big guys(see some of his matches against Samoa Joe in ROH.)

AJ has declined WWE multiple times and will not go there. I am pretty sure Daniels is thinking the same way considering that both signed contracts until 2008 and will probably sign extensions when that time comes.

I am no Hardy fan, but when Hardy was around in 'E, did you not notice how much merchandise he and his brother sold when they were there" I do not like Hardy at all, but he can sell merchandise like no tomorrow. AJ and Raven in the past have probably sold just as much if not more then Batista. It may not be that way today, but oh well. That is what WWE fans will dig: a big guy who dances on the way to the ring, and a rapper, rather then great wrestling. To finish off this comment, Professional Wrestling > Sports Entertainment

DLMD9 wrote:
I would agree with you completely. I like to watch both WWE and TNA, but as far as competition, WWE will ultimately crush TNA. TNA often has some entertaining matches but that's it. WWE has better story lines, more money, a few good matches here and there ,and the most important two factors, a decent character ( also known as gimmick) and mic skills. I don't care if your a wrestler who has good wrestling moves or if your willing to jump off of ladders, if you don't have a decent character than you never make it big.

And for those thinking yeah right character doesn't matter, look all around you! Steve Williams would be nothing without Stone Cold drinking beer and brawling. Bret Hart would be nothing if it weren't for the Hitman gimmick, coming down the ring and giving one lucky fan his sun glasses or leading the Canadian heel team, the Hart Foundation. Where would Terry Bollea be if it were not for Hulk Hogan tearing off his T shirt and telling his fans to eat their vitamins. What would have happen to Jesse Ventura if it were not for The Body taunting his opponents with his unique mic skills. Where would Dwanye Johnson be without the Rock asking his fans do you smell what the Rock is cooking"

All those name are symbolic with wrestling. Without good characters, TNA like the ECW will fall apart. You can call me a idiot, a moron, and whatever other name you can think off. Do I care" No, because I know I'm right. The majority wrestling fans want interesting characters.

Before I go if you think that TNA will be the "jewel of the Spike TV crown," think again. Spike TV could care less about TNA due to how the WWE has been doing. The only way TNA can have a chance if another millionaire wakes up and says "I want to be in the wrestling business."

Richelle Aretakis wrote:
I can see your opinion is this and I agree that TNA will need to step up to compete with WWE, but it is not impossible. All it takes is one match to change a person's view on wrestling, why can't it be a TNA match the same as aWWE match. All in all the article was well written but I have one problem. When you talk about Raven and Monty Brown and how Monty Brown should beat him just because he's bigger... think Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. One of the greatest matches of all time and look who won... the little guy, the one who was told he could never beat a giant like Andre.

Anthony"Nitro"Fabio wrote:
By the looks of this article you, the writer of it, are a huge WWE fan and love sports entertainment and not professional wrestling. It seems all you care about carachters and gimmicks and promos. Yea AJ Styles isn't the greatest on the microphone but we can at least say hes better then a great majority of the wrestling world. He is an amazing athlete and probably pound for pound one of the greatest wrestlers in the world today. Hes also a hell of alot better that Cena, Hogan, HHH, and Batista. Jeff Jarrett is both technically gifted and has some good mic skills to back it up. Him and JBL were champions at the same time and are alot alike. JBL had mic skills and Jarrett had wrestling skills. Mic skills can only bring you so far in the wrestling buisness unless your HBK or RVD. Abyss a rip off of Kane" Is there story the same" ummmm no. Abyss is very gifted as an athlete and a wrestler. I have never seen somebody throw people around with such ease and not injure them. The guy also has passion. Hes willing to get slammed on thumbtake from any angle wether it be his back, front, head, or neck. Samoa Joe. Boring" Have you ever watched his matches" Look at the size of him and look at what division in TNA hes in. In order to make it in the X division you have to be something special and he is. As far as Im concerned he doesnt ever need to talk on the mic. Hes very entertaining when he wrestles and always provides great matches. Raven is a legend enough said there. Christopher Daniels is an amazing technical wrestler and ebtertaing no matter what he is doing. Theres two things: Pro wrestling and sports entertainment. Both are enjoyable. WWE is sports entertainment while TNA and ROH are pro wrestling yet WWE claims that they are also pro wrestling which is wrong considering they have someone like John Cena as there champion. The company is built around storylines that seem so incredibly unrealistic its not even funny.

Mike Adams wrote:
WoW! That was one of the most uncalled for attacks on TNA that I have heard yet. Your article started out rather well, but then unfortunately it degenerated in to a frothing mouthed hate TNA fest than it did pointing out legitimate reasons why TNA will fail. The title of this article may as well have been, Why I Love the WWE, hate TNA and hope it fails. Its almost as if the prospect of TNA actually succeeding threatens you" WHY" TNA is not going to run the WWE out of business period. Nor is the WWE going to run TNA out of business. If TNA goes out of business it will be because they have deviated from their roots and tried to go head to head with the WWE. There is no reason to even assume that this will even be the case. Not every wrestling fan is a fan of the WWE product and not every wrestling fan is fan of the TNA product, there is plenty of room for both to co-exist. WWE does not by and large appeal to fans of Traditional and Pure wrestling, TNA does. TNA does not appeal to soap opera style wrestling fans, WWE does. I think a major mistake you have made is assuming that the WWE ran ECW and WCW out of business, far from it. WCW and ECW repectively ran theirselves out of business. WCW was doing ok for themselves before they tried to take on the WWE. They were the solid number two promotion with a very large fan base in the South and among Traditional wrestling fans.

When WCW tried to switch over from the Traditional wrestling company that was their roots in the NWA by signing expensive former WWE talent and going to the glitzy sports entertainment aspect, they failed, because in the long run the WWE offered the better product in that category. The Time Warner merger was the last straw for WCW, because they did not want to invest the time and money to attempt to revive WCW. It could have been done but WCW would have had to realize that they werent WWE. It would have meant scaling back WCW, but it would have been no easy task, because WCW owed too much money to its talent, had too many wrestlers with creative control clauses and had already alienated a large portion of its old school fanbase. ECW failed because they were a company with very limited resources. ECW was a company with the resources of an Indy promotion that attempted to get too big for their britches too quickly. ECW spent beyong their means with their PPV's and when the checks started bouncing people started getting ticked off at Paul Heyman. The other fatal flaw of ECW was that Paul Heyman took on all the booking and fiscal responsibilities of the company himself, because he really couldnt afford to hire a large staff.

I think its unfair to lump TNA in the same boat as WCW and ECW, becasue one, TNA has a more stable parent company, unlike ECW and two, TNA seems to know what kind of product they want to offer, and that they are not the WWE. TNA has the added benefit of seeing WCW's past mistakes and what not to do. Whether they learn from that is up to question, but TNA has come a long way, and it appears that they are learning their lessons well. TNA dropped the weekly PPV's that were costing them alot of money, and switched to monthly PPV's because it requires less of a buy rate to be successfull. TNA needed to sell something in the neighborhood of 50,000 buys for their weekly PPV's to be successful. They averaged far less. With the monthly PPV's they have a better chance of meeting their quotas to turn a profit. TNA seems also smart enough to realize that their wrestlers still need their independent bookings to make ends meet, so for the time, they are allowing their workers to fulfill their indy dates. This may actually very good for the company in the long run, because it keeps costs down and at the same time exposes their talent to a larger fan base who may tune in to see these wrestlers on TNA television.

The bottom line is wether TNA fails of not, it will have little to do with WWE, because they are two separate products. TNA doesn't have to compete with the WWE to be successful, all they have to do is offer the best product of their type for their fan base, which consists of Traditional and pure wrestling fans. TNA cant compete with the WWE in sports entertainment, but WWE cant even hold a candle to TNA in terms of quality matches. If TNA stays true to their product and doesnt try to be something they are not, they will be fine. There is a large demand for the type of wrestling that TNA produces, and the WWE simply is not able to meet. Furthermore it would be foolish for the WWE to even try to compete with TNA is this aspect, since the large majority of WWE fans are of the casual variety. If WWE suddenly tries to compete with TNA they will suffer in ratings because most WWE fans want sports entertainment, not wrestling. This becomes obvious when WWE fans chant "Boring Boring" when wrestlers start to exchange wrestling holds, where TNA fans cheer technical wrestling. You shouldnt feel threatened by TNA, because there is plenty of room for both of them in the American wrestling scene. The success of TNA only means more opportunities for employment for wrestlers and that people have a broader choice of what they can watch. TNA isnt going to win over enough Casual fans to put WWE out of business, and their is no reason you cant be a fan of both.

Lee wrote:
First Of All You All Make Great Points . When I Hang Round With My Mates , They Say "Wrestling Is Gay Because All It Is Is Big Sweaty Men Feel Each Other Up" . So After That Remark I Invited�Them Round My House And I Shown�Them The Hell In A Cell Match Between Undertaker & Mankind .�THey Then Had A Completly Different Outlook On Wrestling , But Still We Got Other Remarks Aswell As That . The Word - FAKE . I'm Talking About Wrestling To A Couple Of My Mates Untill They All Say "Wrestling Is Fake" I Got To The Point Where I Wanted To Shout "I Know" As Loud As I Could . Saying "Wrestling Is Fake" , Is Like Saying "We Eat & Drink To Live" . Wrestling Organizations Have Realized That The Fans Know No That Wrestling Is Fake , But That Doesn't Stop Them Going To Wrestling Events Or Watching It On The T-V . Thats Because These People Accept Wrestling For What Is It - Entertainment ! So I Challenge The People Who Insult Wrestling To Be Chockslammed On To ThumbTacks , Have You Forehead Cut With A Grater , Be Thrown Of A Hell In A Cell , Jump Off The Backlash 2001 Arena Or You Could Just Shut-up And Respect Wrestling For What It Is !

Jax The Ripper wrote:
Is it me or does this go only lives on WWE(Worst Wrestling Ever). I mean come on watching WWE is like watching "days of our lives". Oh here's a story line "who's the father of litas baby is it kane or matt hardy""�The most�boring wrestling�I have ever watched. Since the attiude era past WWE has went down the toilet like a�"nugget".�Don't let me get started on TNA, the best wrestling company�standing today hands down. No more comments this guy really needs to be smacked with�mae youngs saggy boobs, he would probably�enjoy it cause he loves WWE(Worst Wrestling�Ever).

Tom McCarthy wrote:
Will TNA Ever compete with WWE" In a word...no! Im not saying that TNA does not have some talented wrestlers and has had some great matches but promotions the size TNA just wont compete, if they could ECW would still be around today.

While TNA has some great wrestler such as Chris Sabin, Petey Williams and of course AJ Styles, if you put these people on a national stage, 90% of the audience would neither know nor care who they are. The wrestlers who people will remember like Jeff Jarrett, Kip "Billy Gunn" James or Ron Killings were people not good enough to make it in the big leagues.

TNA, despite appearances does not care about making new stars. Yes the X Division is full of young talent, but the heavyweight division is packed full of has-beens and never-weres. They claim to push young talent, but Lance Hoyt, who for better or worse is he big deal in TNA just now with the fans is being totally misued. How many PPV matches has big lance won since Hoytamania was born, ill save you time looking it up, ZERO!!!!!!!!!!

This leads me on to my next point, TNA books as bad a WWE. here are just a few examples

*Abyss has won 2 separate #1 contender matches on PPV and didnt get a One on One Title shot from either (No Surrender does not count as it was not because of a win in a #1 contender match)

*When a wrestler gets injured they bullshit and throw in a replacement that makes no sense, EG Scott Hall vs Jeff Hardy (Replacing Hector Garza), Raven vs Sean Waltman (Replacing Jeff Hardy)

*They dont stick to stipulations in matches, even when it was the whole point of the fued EG Team Trinity vs Team Traci, both were kept as Dusty's assistant even tho only the winner was meant to.

TNA cannot draw anywhere on the level of WWE. To sell out their arena in Orlando they need 700 people, if WWE had ten times that in an arena, it is a disasterous gate. As far as televison ratings go, iMPACT! will be lucky to compete with Velocity ratings.

Spike TV does not care about TNA. When i first heard about proposed talks between Spike and TNA, they were going to be going head to head with RAW on monday nights. Well guess where TNA has ended up. If Smackdown is in trouble with ratings being on a Friday night, well TNA, a larely unknown promotion, will really suffer on a saturday night. Spike will not spend extensive time or money promoting TNA and so ratings will suffer.

TNA do business too much like WCW used to and look where they are now. They spend so much money on bring back guys like Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, DDP etc. I know that WWE do this but for a small promtion like TNA its not good business. But its all ok coz it Panda Energy's money they are blowing

Finally, small companies will not compete. For me, ECW is the model for all small promotions. TNA has tried to be a new ECW in a lot of way, encouraging their fans to chant TNA TNA TNA, they have even used ECW Guys in the past and held the Hard knocks tourny back in 2003. ECW lived and died by being popular to a small group of, excuse the pun, Hardcore Fans. TNA does not have the same type of fans and they will not stick with TNA like ECW fans did. and believe me, if TNA closed its doors tomorrow there would not be TNA reunion shows in five years time.

I realise that this responce may seem very Anti-TNA but the truth is i like TNA, but the simple fact is that it is an alternative to WWE, but NOT now or ever a competitor. FACT

Tony Mayes Jr. wrote:
Believe this or not but I agree with you. I watched TNA and got bored out of my mind. Abyss and Month brown needs to go to WWE before WWE buys TNA and then fire them all like ECW and WCW. The reason I am saying this is because Its ture. Jeff Jarnett has the power to destory the income of TNa by making a sexiest remark to Dixie Carter a woman.

Once TNA comes on Spike TV the WWE will bring in Brock Lesnar, The Rock, Stone Cold. We may start seeing TLC matches again alone with anything else.

WWE wrestle with safety in mind and entertainment while TNA wrestle to please the fan but the fan watch for free. They get hurt you move on.

Not for one second should any of you all think that VInce isn't saving the best stuff for last. Jeff Jarnett's TNA will not last long after they hit TV and people see al of WWE has been on there. Sorry if I have pissed any of you all off but it sucks knowing that its a matter of time before you all turn on TNA after jeff Jarnett demands his Title back and you have to watch him 2 years staright defeating eveyone..

Jo�o Sousa wrote:
Well, I see your point although I totally disagree. In fact, you're nothing but a sports entertainment fan, not a pure wrestling fan. I know many guys like you. You prefer WWE because it simply is, like JR says "the biggest brand in sports entertainment in the world". But WWE's main eventers are nothing but brawlers, litte technically gifted and with some mic skills. And then PPV's main events like the Great American Bash one happen. Did you like it" Hell, I didn't. And when WWE has some technical wrestling, with lots of submission holds, like that match between Benoit and Regal, the best they put it is main eventing Velocity. Because it would simply not draw ratings among most of WWE viewers. But when you see a technical match in TNA, like AJ vs Samoa Joe, people cheer and shout "TNA's Awesome!!". Because TNA fans like wrestling. Sure shouting the promotion's name is inspired by ECW, but, hell, WWE's product isn't only their creation. They were inspired by WCW and ECW. It's not bad. It only proves the promotion's alive and it pays attention to the best things there are on other promotions.

I don't like the way you bash TNA's best wrestlers. Ok, Jeff Jarrett may not be the best, may be overrated, but what do you have to say about HHH"" Samoa Joe is boring"" Well, once again, you prove you just watch wrestling for entertainment. Samoa Joe's type of wrestling is nothing anyone had ever seen. He's unique. He's an artist. Just like AJ. The man delivers a performance on each match that would be Cena's, Batista's, Hogan's, pperformance of a lifetime. And, man, Raven has the same gimmick that he had 10 years ago" And what about WWE" How long has the Heart Break Kid gimmick been around" How long has the Real American gimmick been around" Hell, they still main event Summerslam (not that I agree with it, but that is true).

Finally, to say TNA will not win sound markish. You sure have no idea what you're talking about. TNA fulfills a space that WWE has left open. That's the wrestling space. WWE worries about monsters, soap opera storylines, rappers but forgets the one thing that supposedly kept us in front of the screen. I don't live in the US, here in Portugal the program is shown with a 4-week delay (allthough I see the latest shows). But tonight, I tuned into SmackDown! and I couldn't keep the TV on. Especially when Guerrero and Mysterio came out with their ridiculous storyline, the "Eddie's Bedtime Story". WWE's casual fans will still talk and discuss it passionally. But the ones who like wrestling are sick and tired of it. How I wish I lived in the US to see iMPACT! every Saturday night on Spike. Sure TNA will not win the competition against WWE. In my opinion, it will not even exist. WWE will still draw their ratings with their enternainment fans. But TNA will win their space among wrestling-starving fans. They will not compete. They aren't even in the same business(WWE)/sport(TNA).

Mike Adams wrote:
Once again alot of you guys are missing the big picture. For the person who said Jeff Jarrett is going to kill TNA, Nothing could be further from the truth. One, Jeff Jarrett doesn't have any stroke in TNA now. For those of you who don't know. Jerry Jarrett sold TNA. Panda Energy and Dixie Carter run TNA. Jeff Jarrett isn't even on the TNA booking committe and he can demand the title all he want's, because it means about as much as me demanding for a million dollars. Used properly Jeff Jarrertt is an asset to TNA in the heavyweight division, because he has the name, and lets face it, he is not that bad of a worker. He is certainly good enough as long as he is not being booked as the FRANCHISE.

Two, you guys are making the mistake of comparing TNA and ECW. The only way that TNA and ECW are comparable, is that their product isn't in the mainstream of what WWE is doing. Financially, they are completely different. As I stated before ECW had very limited financial means. Paul Heyman depended on Gates and Buy Rites heavily to pay the bills. ECW's hardcore extreme product also gave little in the way of potential advertising contracts. Panda energy is much stronger, TNA is a much more marketable product and Panda energy seems to be in TNA for the long haul, because they realize that their is a 900 million dollar market in the United States for wrestling and only pony running the race. If TNA even pulls in a small percentage of that, they can be successful. Panda is a company that is not affraid to take risks. For the people who said that Spike TV is not serious about TNA, I think we need to look no further than their adds during RAW, which were paid for by Spike, and not TNA.

Another person said that TNA is spending mone like WCW did in the NWO days and thats not true either. TNA has brought in some people like Nash, Sting in the past, but the difference is that TNA wrestlers don't make a salary. TNA wrestlers are paid per appearance. The biggest names in TNA pull in about 3-4 thousand dollars PER APPERANCE, thats a big difference between guaranteeing wrestlers 10000 dollars per week wether they are used or not. While TNA has lost quite a bit of money over 3 years(a large chunk coming from their weekly PPV's), they seem to be taking a very prudent and economical approach by allowing their workers to continue to work the indy circuit. This may at some point change, but more than likely TNA will never contract every single on of its Workers.

Some people seem to be under the impression that TNA cant succeed simply because the WWE does, and to that I say when did wrestling become a zero sum industry" ECW and WCW both proved that their was a market with their products. Had ECW been more finacially sound I have no doubt in my mind that they would still be in operation today, as may WCW if they had stuck with their original purpose. The problem with WCW was that they saw the weakened State of the WWE and started trying to be the WWE, not the WWE alternative. Their model for success was quite simple. Outspend Vince McMahon, steal his expensive established talent and cast their own asside. It gained them alot of WWE crossover fans in the short term, but alienated their old school fan base and went too deeply in debt with a parent company who didnt particularly care about them as part of the aquisition. The big paychecks didn't stop going out, even though the big gates stopped coming in. WCW in the end was a victim corporate mergers and poor planning. When Vince McMahon bought WCW for 4 million dollars, the company was worth less that what it had been in its early days.

Again TNA doesnt have to compete with the WWE. TNA doesn't have to draw WWE ratings, all they have to do is offer a product that traditional and pure wrestling fans want to see.

wrote:

If you have any comments, reactions, rebuttles or thoughts on this column, feel free to send them to the email below,
If your email is intelligently written, they will be posted underneath this messege..
We at OnlineWorldofWrestling want to promote all points of view, and that includes YOURS.