The Official Weekly LIVE iMPACT Wrestling Thread!

CastorTroy

After watching Lockdown, I have come to the conclusion that Velvet Sky should always run to the ring. In fact I suggest they increase awareness of the show by doing a cross promotion with the new Baywatch movie in which there is running by her and Alexandra Daddario.

And I'm wondering what would happen if EC3 went back to WWE. Probably be buried. But he has to be one of the more over guys. He's got the look, the mic skills, everyone singing along to his music, even being orchestrated by him. :-)

Stereomaniac

I'm going to watch Lockdown now. I haven't seen Impact in a few weeks but I'm guessing that won't make a huge difference? There's probably a black mark on Ethan Carter/Derrick Bateman for life now with the WWE. He had some nerve actually becoming well-known in the business outside of their development system. Seriously though, he'd be great given a chance.

beakerjoe

Stereomaniac wrote: »

I'm going to watch Lockdown now. I haven't seen Impact in a few weeks but I'm guessing that won't make a huge difference? There's probably a black mark on Ethan Carter/Derrick Bateman for life now with the WWE. He had some nerve actually becoming well-known in the business outside of their development system. Seriously though, he'd be great given a chance.

Well being in TNA isnt a huge deal anymore, as James Storm, AA and Joe can testify to.

The heat he had with DeMott would be the main issue, even though Bill is gone from WWE, Bateman could have issues with WWE since he spoke out about DeMotts bullying.

Shame as hes the best thing on TNA character wise.

Stereomaniac

I am really enjoying Matt Hardy on it lately. He's just doing such a good job of pissing the fans off, but you can also kind of see his point, or at least I could when it came to winning the championship. That's something I always look for with a heel. James Storm kind of chose his own fate anyway, and he probably made the right one in taking the higher offer available.

Monokne

beakerjoe wrote: »

Well being in TNA isnt a huge deal anymore, as James Storm, AA and Joe can testify to.

The heat he had with DeMott would be the main issue, even though Bill is gone from WWE, Bateman could have issues with WWE since he spoke out about DeMotts bullying.

Shame as hes the best thing on TNA character wise.

There are a bunch of things that would probably prevent this reunion, unfortunately.

Firstly, the guys Hunter has taken from TNA for NXT have been guys with decent reps amongst that fanbase. I'm not sure EC3 has that, certainly not to the same extent. Secondly, he'd have to be renamed and get a new gimmick, so that takes away some of the equity in the character. Thirdly, he has not been kind about the company in his time away. In itself that's not a deal breaker, but given they had him & cut him, they can't be that keen anyway. Fourth, unlike the prior Storm, Aries & Joe, he has been the guy TNA has built the company around of late and I can see that being a big issue. And fifth, perhaps most importantly, I would bet TNA are paying him more than WWE will. James Storm was offered 2.5 times the money WWE were willing to pay him by TNA. The Wolves were also given better money this year than WWE were willing to give them for NXT. Ergo, it is a safe assumption that EC3 is going to be on the high end of TNA's payscale.

For the performer, TNA is probably his best bet. Makes good money working a limited schedule and is in a featured role.

CastorTroy

But would he be on as much as those guys. The other guys probably have more options.
And if I remember correctly, Bateman was liked among fans. I never really watched NXT when he was on it because of the way it was back then. But I'd say if he was on NXT in its current form he would get over with the fans.

gnfnrhead

Will Ospreay is wrestling on this weeks show. A random match of himself and Mark Andrews against the Wolves. For the tag titles for some reason. Angle vs. Roode, Galloway vs. Bennett and Young vs. Damo also advertised so it's a pretty strong card.

On an unrelated note, they need to find someone to take care of the website. Whoever was doing it previously must have left. Austin Aries is still on it despite being on NXT television now. Mike Bennett has been added (with different font than everyone else except Aiden O'Shea) so it has been updated somewhat recently.

Stereomaniac wrote: »

I am really enjoying Matt Hardy on it lately. He's just doing such a good job of pissing the fans off, but you can also kind of see his point, or at least I could when it came to winning the championship. That's something I always look for with a heel. James Storm kind of chose his own fate anyway, and he probably made the right one in taking the higher offer available.

He's doing too good of a job. Every week since he won the title the viewership has dropped. It was increasing week to week before he won it. Hard not to blame Hardy since he is the only major change from when the numbers were going up.

Monokne

CastorTroy wrote: »

But would he be on as much as those guys. The other guys probably have more options.
And if I remember correctly, Bateman was liked among fans. I never really watched NXT when he was on it because of the way it was back then. But I'd say if he was on NXT in its current form he would get over with the fans.

I am sure he would, but I am also sure they aren't taking him back.

GNFRHEAD - I think blaming any one individual for TNA's woes at this point is overanalysing. When your ratings swings are in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds, because of how the nielsen system works, the data is less reliable. Plus let's just be honest, TNA is a dead promotion and when you watch it, it feels that way. Considering their audience doesn't come to shows or buy PPV's, they are watching VERY passively. That's why even over the past year, when they'd build to a big special show or a live show, the audience would often be lower rather than higher. No one cares anymore. It strikes me as very unlikely that one person or angle is going to make a difference.

Stereomaniac

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Will Ospreay is wrestling on this weeks show. A random match of himself and Mark Andrews against the Wolves. For the tag titles for some reason. Angle vs. Roode, Galloway vs. Bennett and Young vs. Damo also advertised so it's a pretty strong card.

On an unrelated note, they need to find someone to take care of the website. Whoever was doing it previously must have left. Austin Aries is still on it despite being on NXT television now. Mike Bennett has been added (with different font than everyone else except Aiden O'Shea) so it has been updated somewhat recently.



He's doing too good of a job. Every week since he won the title the viewership has dropped. It was increasing week to week before he won it. Hard not to blame Hardy since he is the only major change from when the numbers were going up.

As was mentioned above, I don't think ratings can always be blamed on one character in particular. Matt Hardy isn't out there working on his own each week. Anyway, I've been enjoying what I've seen of him as champion so far myself. I usually just watch the second hour of Impact most weeks because I like to keep up on Total Divas for the first hour, ha ha. I guess it's my one way of watching Daniel Bryan on television nowadays and 1 hour just does me.

Machismo Fan

TNA uploaded Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode from Impact in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6xt424ZE3k

gnfnrhead

Dave Meltzer has stated this week's episode was "a much better show than Raw, NXT or Lucha Underground".

If you haven't watched recently, it's really worth giving it another shot. Best the show has been since before Hogan and Bischoff screwed everything up.

spektorfive

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Dave Meltzer has stated this week's episode was "a much better show than Raw, NXT or Lucha Underground".

If you haven't watched recently, it's really worth giving it another shot. Best the show has been since before Hogan and Bischoff screwed everything up.

Hogan and Bischoff brought in their buddies and tried go back to the Monday night war times. TNA problems began when Russo came back in 2006 just after Angle signed.

I was huge fan at the time. So happy when Angle signed and they were being moved up to either a prime time slot or getting a extra hour on Spike (I forget which one it was.) LAX, Knockouts, Joe & X-Division were on fire and then the show took a nose dive from which it never came back from.

beakerjoe

spektorfive wrote: »

Hogan and Bischoff brought in their buddies and tried go back to the Monday night war times. TNA problems began when Russo came back in 2006 just after Angle signed.

I was huge fan at the time. So happy when Angle signed and they were being moved up to either a prime time slot or getting a extra hour on Spike (I forget which one it was.) LAX, Knockouts, Joe & X-Division were on fire and then the show took a nose dive from which it never came back from.

I agree, while things got worse when Eric and Hogan had their false dawn, things went down hill when Russo got the book too. Constant turns, awful gimmick matches and very loose stories soon damaged the great product the had built.

But Hogan and Eric really did the ultimate damage. TNA may never recover from their reign of self indulgance.

gnfnrhead

spektorfive wrote: »

Hogan and Bischoff brought in their buddies and tried go back to the Monday night war times. TNA problems began when Russo came back in 2006 just after Angle signed.

I was huge fan at the time. So happy when Angle signed and they were being moved up to either a prime time slot or getting a extra hour on Spike (I forget which one it was.) LAX, Knockouts, Joe & X-Division were on fire and then the show took a nose dive from which it never came back from.

TNA was pretty great until probably 2007. They suffered in 2008 but the second half of 2009 saw them bounce back. Not perfect by any means, but they were heading in a very positive direction. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels for the World title with Samoa Joe occasionally involved, Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe, Machine Guns vs. Beer Money etc. This was after Jarrett got sent home and Russo was booking by himself for the first time. It was going so well that I actually thought Hogan might be a benefit to the company and get more eyes on the great feud's they were booking. He proved me wrong almost instantly. Those first 6 months of Hogan's reign did untold damage to the company that it will struggle to ever fully recover from.

Angron

gnfnrhead wrote: »

TNA was pretty great until probably 2007. They suffered in 2008 but the second half of 2009 saw them bounce back. Not perfect by any means, but they were heading in a very positive direction. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels for the World title with Samoa Joe occasionally involved, Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe, Machine Guns vs. Beer Money etc. This was after Jarrett got sent home and Russo was booking by himself for the first time. It was going so well that I actually thought Hogan might be a benefit to the company and get more eyes on the great feud's they were booking. He proved me wrong almost instantly. Those first 6 months of Hogan's reign did untold damage to the company that it will struggle to ever fully recover from.

On this one, it always annoyed/disappointed me that Daniels never won the world title while in TNA.

gnfnrhead

Angron wrote: »

On this one, it always annoyed/disappointed me that Daniels never won the world title while in TNA.

A lot of it was bad timing. He wasn't at that level in the early days when they would put the title on anyone at that level. When he was at main event level, they had a stacked roster so he was never the number one guy. Even today with the smaller roster it's hard to say he should be World Champion if he was a part of it.

It's disappointing, but it not something that ever annoyed me. He had the same bad luck in ROH by never being there at the right time to win the World title.

gnfnrhead

TNA are back in Universal from the 15th with a nearly live show. It'll be about a two hour delay. Considering that is more expensive than recording in advance, I'd guess they have something lined up for on the night. This set of recordings should cover them for at least five or six weeks, depending on how many ONO shows they record.

At least Universal is better than Bethlehem.

gnfnrhead

The main event of this week's show is great. Watch it Spoiler free if you can. Nobody debuts or anything, but what happens is great when you don't already know.

A Rogue Hobo

Bobby Roode and Eric Young have asked for, and have been given their release from TNA. NXT bound?

Poor Storm. Comes back, placed into a nostalgia tag team run, partner leaves.

token101

What's wrong with their website? The homepage and the roster are two different websites! They are an absolute mess of a company.

Monokne

A Rogue Hobo wrote: »

Bobby Roode and Eric Young have asked for, and have been given their release from TNA. NXT bound?

Poor Storm. Comes back, placed into a nostalgia tag team run, partner leaves.

Meltzer says the strong talk is it's to go to WWE. Which is odd, given how strongly WWE had distanced themselves from chasing TNA talent after the lawsuit a few years back.

Meltzer also said that Styles being so over from day one opened WWE managements eyes to the potential in TNA talent.

Roode would make a strong upper mid carder. Like most though, I like Eric Young but I don't see where he'd fit in WWE.

A Rogue Hobo

I think Samoa Joe really opened their eyes as well, considering it was meant to be a temporary deal and once he actually went out there they signed him on a permanent deal almost immediately.

Monokne

Actually that's slightly inaccurate. They signed him to a non-exclusive deal which would allow him work indies, which they quickly modified to an exclusive deal when ROH got on national TV with Destination America (you'd be forgiven for forgetting that ever happened, mind you). I don't think the length was ever changed.

I don't want to speak for Dave but I think he's referring to Vince changing his mind based on AJ, which obviously wouldn't apply with Joe as Vince is known to pay little attention to NXT.

gnfnrhead

token101 wrote: »

What's wrong with their website? The homepage and the roster are two different websites! They are an absolute mess of a company.

I'm pretty sure whoever was in charge of the website left a long time ago and they never assigned anyone new to it. The roster page is probably the worst effected with the likes of Aries and King Mo (who last appeared in July 2014) still listed along with recent signings like Bennett, but not other recent(-ish) signings like Grado or Rosemary. The URL is pretty minor compared to other issues on the site. For example, several links bring you to a broken page.

Absolute mess of a company is pretty harsh. Outside of WWE, most wrestling companies websites tend to be poorly maintained. TNA are no different. Not saying that makes it okay, it's just a lot of companies don't seem to care.

CastorTroy

So this week's Impact on Challenge had the scroll bar along the bottom advertising Kurt Angle for the UK shows in January.

Monokne

spektorfive

Confused? are you just trying to stir the pot with that post?

Monokne

TNA is on the verge of a buyout by Aroluxe Marketing which includes the Harris Boys, Ron & Don. Sticking point on the deal has been for sometime that they want controlling interest but Dixie doesn't want to cede control. Given that Aroluxe has been pumping money into the company to keep it afloat during negotiations, it seems a safe bet that either the deal goes through, considering the only real alternative is the end of the company.

Here's hoping the first act of the new owners is to rename this place.

http://www.f4wonline.com/tna-news/aroluxe-marketing-revealed-company-negotiating-tna-211256

CastorTroy

Watching the latest episode I have to say Rebel is quite useless. She's clearly the least talented of the Knockouts in both wrestling and acting.

And was thinking the current roster of guys can't be outnumbering the women by too much at this rate.

Angron

Ron and Don Harris, the racists?