Cutting the TNA roster

[Guest Wolverine]

Myself and Cathal were having a MSN conversation about TNA last night, particularly about how ridiculously oversized their roster is. Going by their website, they have 48 on-screen characters (more if you include interviewers and the like). This seems to be quite nonsensical, especially given that they have only a one-hour TV show. A roster of 20-25 people would be far more manageable, and given the large amount of terrible wrestlers they have, they really wouldn't lose anything by releasing some of them.

 

So anyway, the hypothetical situation we came up with is this. You work in TNA. Dixie Carter comes over to you, expressing concern over the salary bill. She entrusts you with the task of cutting the roster to 20 wrestlers. Who would you keep and who would you fire? Feel free to detail your new main-event scene, your midcard, any tag-teams remaining, etc. You aren't allowed to bring anybody new in, by the way.

 

TNA roster page (remember that Konnan and Killings are gone, by the way)

 

Go for it.

[Naitch 207]

I take it this doesn't count valets/managers/Nash and Backlund and whatnot and we're going for just 20 of their week to week regular wrestlers? Anyway I'd cut the ring, the arena, the friggin name of the promotion, the announce team and Borash before I even started on the wrestlers. I'd keep Leticia though...just because...you know. I'm still thinking about the wrestlers I'd keep, it is pretty difficult when you hate 3/4 of the roster. Still I have to be objective I suppose.

[Guest Wolverine]

My 20 remaining wrestlers:

 

AJ Styles

Alex Shelley

Austin Starr

Chris Harris

Chris Sabin

Christian Cage

Doug Basham

Eric Young

Gail Kim

Hernandez

Homicide

James Storm

Jeff Jarrett

Kevin Nash

Rhino

Samoa Joe

Scott Steiner

Senshi

Sting

Tomko

 

Eventual main-event scene

 

Faces:

Samoa Joe

Sting

Tomko

 

Heels:

Jeff Jarrett

Scott Steiner

Christian Cage

 

THE MIDCARD OF DOOM

 

Faces:

Rhino

Eric Young

Chris Harris (w/Gail Kim)

Alex Shelley

Chris Sabin

Kevin Nash

 

Heels:

AJ Styles

Doug Basham

James Storm

Homicide

Hernandez

Senshi

Austin Starr

 

Tag-teams

 

Faces:

Murder City Machine Guns

America's Most Wanted (possibly)

 

Heels:

LAX

 

Genius. I want Russo's job.

[Guest Wolverine]

I take it this doesn't count valets/managers/Nash and Backlund and whatnot and we're going for just 20 of their week to week regular wrestlers? Anyway I'd cut the ring, the arena, the friggin name of the promotion, the announce team and Borash before I even started on the wrestlers. I'd keep Leticia though...just because...you know. I'm still thinking about the wrestlers I'd keep, it is pretty difficult when you hate 3/4 of the roster. Still I have to be objective I suppose.

 

I included valets/managers/Nash, simply because I was struggling to think of 20 wrestlers I'd bother to keep.

[Guest Dave7g]

Joe

AJ

Kurtie

Christian

Scott Steiner

Abyss

Tomko

Sting

Daniels

Chris Harris

James Storm~

Alex Shelley

Chris Sabin

Jerry Lynn

Jay Lethal

Sonjay Dutt

Homicide

Hernandez

Robert Roode

Senshi

 

Yeah 20 is not nearly enough to run a promotion with monthly PPV's.

[Guest FreeSpirit]

I think TNA are keeping the "clutter" around just in case they are given 2 hours by Spike TV anytime soon, not to mention that some are usable on Xplosion and the house show circuit, which they seem to be doing more frequently now. I agree that they should get rid of about 10 or so wrestlers, but anymore than that would be wrong I feel.

[Guest Wolverine]

Yeah 20 is not nearly enough to run a promotion with monthly PPV's.

 

I think you could do it with around 20 to 25. You might have to reintroduce the old jobber squashes for TV, but it's certainly possible.

[Guest Dave7g]

It would be easier to say shave off some unwanted roster geeks, so if that was the case -

 

Bubba

Devon

Billy Kip James

Jesse James

Raven - Without him there wouldn't be a serotonin.

Miss Brookes

 

The rest of the roster can be used for good things even if it is only an hour a week now. It will be 2 hours fairly soon.

[Guest FreeSpirit]

You also have to have some people on stand by just in case people get injured. Afterall wrestling is a "high injury business". 30-35 members of the rosta is probably just about right.

[Dead Crow 370]

Rather than narrow down to 20 (they do need more than that - they just need to stop thinknig that they all need TV time), I will just list the names of those who I feel don't justify their position and therfore would fire...

 

-- Sonjay Dutt

-- Shark Boy

-- Petey Williams

-- Kaz

-- Havoc

-- Martyr

-- Gail Kim

-- Mr. Backlund

-- Mike Tenay

-- Don West

-- Jeremy Borash

-- Kip James

-- BG James

-- Brother Ray

-- Brother Devon

-- Brother Runt

-- Lance Hoyt

-- Jackie Moore

-- Ms. Brooks

-- Raven

-- Eric Young

 

Ok, actually, I may only have 20 left after that :)

[Naitch 207]

Main Heels

 

Kurt Angle

Christian Cage

Scott Steiner

 

Angle kinda stinks right now and has done since he stepped foot in TNA and for some time before that in WWE but I was going the objective route in that he could still be used as a main event heel. Babyface Angle right now is so unbelievably dislikeable that it would make sense to capitalise on that and turn him heel and he has always been a better heel anyway. Steiner wouldn’t be used on a regular basis simply because it’d expose him badly but definitely as a special attraction type deal he would spark interest. Christian is a decent bumping heel and at least has some name value, is nowhere near as good as people make out though.

 

Main Faces

 

Sting

Samoa Joe

 

I was really struggling for main event babyfaces. Tomko and Styles should be heels, Jarrett I was debating although I do think he is better served in the upper midcard type position for the time being. Abyss stinks, Rhino is pretty average so I’d cut those two. That left me with Samoa Joe and Sting. Samoa Joe has been coasting along for months now, living on a reputation he made two years ago but if used correctly can still be a big asset. Sting hasn’t been any good in probably 10 years and that’s coming from his biggest fan but he does at least have name value in a promotion which a) lacks it and b) can’t create their own names so I went for him.

 

Upper Mid/Mid/Lower Mid Faces

 

Jeff Jarrett

Chris Harris

Chris Sabin

Alex Shelley

Eric Young

Senshi

Jay Lethal

 

Those are in order of importance on the card, Jarrett at the upper type level, Lethal in the undercard. Sabin and Shelley I’d turn babyface simply because a program with LAX would be pretty nifty and Shelley would get over like rover as a babyface. Jarrett kinda speaks for himself, he’s one of the better workers on the roster albeit stale and people were getting sick of him in the main event which is why I’d keep him in the midcard for the foreseeable future. Jay Lethal does need to drop the Macho Man gimmick because it makes the promotion look incredibly bush league and indy tastic. There are a billion and one schmucks out there doing impersonation gimmicks in front of 25 people every night. It reminds me of the fake WWF shows where one guy would play X-Pac and then The Undertaker on the same night. Yeah it got him over but it was more ‘hey, he does a good Macho voice, how funny’ rather than ‘I want to watch this guy on my TV’.

 

Upper Mid/Mid/Lower Mid Heels

 

Doug Basham

AJ Styles

Tomko

Homicide

Hernandez

James Storm

Damaja

Austin Starr

 

Doug Basham I was kinda debating putting in the main event simply because he’s better than 80% of the TNA roster. Although he was a WWE guy, he was a lower midcard WWE guy without name value and if they made him a star, at least he’d be seen as their guy I suppose, something which they’re severely lacking because right now they come across as a WWE Tribute show. And not even a good one. But I decided more Upper Midcard feuding with Jarrett or Harris and whatnot with the occasional tag match with Damaja. Styles and Tomko I’d keep as a tag team and probably give them a long tag title run as the poor man’s Andersons to Christian’s VERY poor man’s Flair. Storm is decent although both he and Harris have fooled everyone into thinking they’re great by having great chemistry with each other. If they could wrestle each other in street fights every week for the foreseeable future, it’d be fine, but they can’t. LAX have been bitchslapped but they can saved pretty easily although no Konnan is a blow. Someone suggested bringing in Chavo Classic as their manager which I think is the greatest idea in the history of professional wrestling.

 

Kevin Nash

Christy Hemme

Jackie Moore

 

Nash isn’t included with all the other saps on the roster because he’s Kevin Nash and he had 29,000 people in the Garden watch him win the title. I don’t really know why I’d keep Christy Hemme around, she’s fine as a midcard manager and she has enthusiasm and likeability as a babyface I suppose. I kinda like the Storm-Jackie combination.

 

That was a pretty big struggle, I'm not even entirely happy with some of those I left on. So, released would be:

 

Abyss

BG James

Devon

Ray

Runt

Chris Daniels

Kazarian

Jerry Lynn

Bentley

Kip James

Lance Hoyt

Devine

Petey Williams

Raven

Robert Roode

Shark Boy

Sonjay Dutt

Rhino

Traci Brooks

Mr. Backlund

James Mitchell

Gail Kim

Jeremy Borash

Mike Tenay

Don West

 

I wouldn’t cry myself to sleep if I never saw any of those in wrestling again. Aside from maybe one or two exceptions, I’ve never seen a bigger group of no talent, useless toilet water in all my life.