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So I saw TNA’s audience dropped in a big way this week. Do you think it was due to the NFL Draft? The quality of the product? Both? Neither? Should they be concerned?
Last question first, you can’t get too crazy off of a one week drop, even when that drop is as significant as TNA’s was this week at over 20 percent. The draft may have affected them some but I really think the quality of the product has to be part of it too. Impact has left “TNA guys” go and brought in a lot of lesser known, or unknown, Global Force talents. The familiarity value has dropped for the Impact fan and frankly I don’t see the sense in putting over a company that barely exists over one that has been around for over a decade. Even at its worst state, the Impact brand is far better than the Global Force brand as one has been active and the other has not. And continuing on with the putrid Josh Matthews storylines, which makes me want to change the channel? I just don’t understand who in that company thinks it’s a good idea. So yes, they should be concerned, about the overall direction of the product. Anthem has now had four months to show us their vision. I am not impressed at this point.
I saw the recent post about Reby Hardy denying that WWE purchased the rights to the "Broken" gimmick, is she asserting that the Hardys own the rights to it? I would think that unless there was an enforceable and provable agreement between TNA and the Hardys, that TNA would be able to claim ownership because it was used and promoted in their company. On that note, if TNA does in fact own the rights to the "Broken" gimmick, wouldn't it be in their best interest to sell it to WWE? Obviously, without the Hardys in TNA, there's very little that benefits them from holding on to it; and given its popularity, it could fetch a nice capital infusion for TNA if they sold it.
Speaking of mistakes Anthem has made…..I think you are reading too much into what she said. But Anthem definitely screwed up in letting the Hardys leave, in my opinion. I would think at some point it will come out who owns what.
The single main focus of every WWE superstar should be to challenge for the title. That's the #1 reason why they are there. Yet, with the announcement of Lesnar not returning or even appearing until July, we will not have seen the RAW champion or belt for about 3 months (since Wrestlemania). What is the mindset behind this booking? And if you are a wrestler on RAW, what is the point of even showing up to work for the next several months if there's no chance you can fight for the championship until then?
If I could give you a good answer as to what the mindset was, I would tell you. Mike Eps and I discussed it a lot on the show yesterday. It makes no logical sense to put the Title on Lesnar and then just let it remain dormant for months. I think WWE was very, very shortsighted here.
So I've just discovered Impact back on UK TV after not having seen it since the Challenge deal went belly up. I was a fan of the company, often giving them a free pass through not being as predictable as the WWE, but do you feel they're worth the effort in reinvesting in the companies new "version" at all????
As I said above, I haven’t really enjoyed the reboot. It seems as if the new management is trying to destroy every vestige of the old company, similar to how WWE bought WCW and largely killed it. The difference here is that WWE had its own product to push. Anthem bought TNA and should be preserving the assets that it got instead of squandering them. Only you can say whether they are worth your time or not. But in my view, the show was a lot more fun to watch before the sale.
Obviously, Reigns will beat Strowman at Payback, but how do you think he will do it?
It’s sad that you say it’s obvious and very well may be right. There is NO WAY WWE should book Reigns to win here. He is “going in hurt” due to the beating Strowman put on him so he has the perfect reason to lose. He can battle valiantly and fall “due to not being 100 percent.” If he beats Braun clean, the fans will boo and it with hurt Strowman. So if they have to put him over, I guess the best way would be for Braun to get overly cocky, like he did against Kalisto, but again, that won’t be good if they do it.
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