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When speaking of years past and present, we often split them into BC (Before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini – in the year of our Lord). For wrestling fans, 2010 may have signalled a need for a brand new designation – WTATNAPBT: when talking about TNA’s problems became tiresome. Now that we’re in WTATNAPBT 1, that problem has become even more worrying for the company and everyone who considers themselves a fan. Whilst critics would once rant and rave for hours on end about what the company was doing wrong and how it should fix itself for the good of the business as a whole, those same people have turned the corner on their not-so-blind TNA rage. Where disappointment became anger, anger has now become apathy...

 

> TNA: Total Nonstop… Apathy?

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Without reading the whole piece yet, this is me, although I'm already at least two years past really caring about TNA's problems.
Yeah, sums it up well but its pretty much the same thing Mitch types out about TNA every time he mentions it on the forum.
I'd love to have creative control over TNA, you know, fire the necessary people if they stood in my way and stuff. I think any half bred wrestling fan could do better... same issues, same people (Russo, Hogan & Bischoff) it's WCW all over again, but this time round people aren't going to invest their loyalty to a product that is, as the article says, repeating history.
Yeah, sums it up well but its pretty much the same thing Mitch types out about TNA every time he mentions it on the forum.

 

Which is partly the point of the article; that never-ending circle that everyone finds themselves in whenever we discuss TNA. Eventually, it's just going to cease circling, but then there'll be no circle, no shape, no nothing. Is that a good thing? Or bad?

That article is pretty much exactly what I think about TNA. Their in ring product could easily be consistently better than WWE's, they've got names, they've got some fantastically charismatic people and they could actually have a decent tag division if they wanted it. But where I used to be angry at their stupidity and inability to book a decent show consistently, I just don't care anymore. Actually, that goes for WWE too. They're not quite as suicidally stupid as TNA, and it helps they're gigantic so can get away with it a bit more, but it's still mostly filler crap and very little thriller.
Pretty much how I see it. I do try to get into it, I try to watch an episode now and then but I never make a full one.
There's parts of the article I think are spot on and other bits I don't agree with and some of it I think comes down to how you watch wrestling and also what you expect from a wrestling company. Mitch is pretty down on the whole thing and at the end of the day there are ceratinly plenty of reasons why you can be down on TNA. I'd refute that some of his criticisms are universal truths and merely representative of people who are apathetic to the product without giving it their full time because that does make a difference to how you view the product overall. Not sure if I want to go into a full on debate about it though as we'd be here forever.

The point is, we didn't start out apathetic, most of us actually liked TNA at different points or still like some stuff about it , but TNA eventually drove us to apathy with their stupidity. Now it's up to them to do something, anything, which would actually make us care enough to give them another shot.

 

You've also go to remember a lot of us watched WCW die a slow, painful death and TNA looks to be going down the same road. That means it will take a lot before I'd actually give a shit about it again because when you invest in something that fails, it is painful or annoying, even if that investment is just the time spent watching the show.

The point is, we didn't start out apathetic, most of us actually liked TNA at different points or still like some stuff about it , but TNA eventually drove us to apathy with their stupidity. Now it's up to them to do something, anything, which would actually make us care enough to give them another shot.

 

If you aren't watching though it doesn't matter what they do. If you watch despite aal that then you aren't really apathetic as you are making the effort to watch the product. Just saying really. bit of a pedant point but anyway...

 

You've also go to remember a lot of us watched WCW die a slow, painful death and TNA looks to be going down the same road. That means it will take a lot before I'd actually give a shit about it again because when you invest in something that fails, it is painful or annoying, even if that investment is just the time spent watching the show.

 

I didn't watch WCW die because I never liked it so I have to say I can't relate to that feeling. Also I've never felt I invested in a company enough to be so bothered by it's demise that I wouldn't watch another show in case it failed to. I might invest in a wrestler I really liked and been irked when they didn't do well or get a push but at the end of the day I'm either going to watch some wrestling or none at all and the trigger will be wether I want to watch ANY wrestling or I'm just bored with it in general.

 

To me TNA has enough decent points that being totally despondant about it is over the top to me. I can understand if you feel there aren't any good points or that you don't like anything about it. That's all personal opinion though. I couldn't sit through John Cena in the WWE these days and that's not because I think it's 3 years ago and it's cool to hate John Cena I just genuinely don't have any time for him. I respect though that's not because he is awful in himself I just don't "get" him. Jimmy sees things in the Diva's that I can't and a lot of other people disagree with.

 

The point to me is that I totally fine if people hate TNA because It doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the product (when I do enjoy it) and if people are spending less time getting knickers in twists about it that doesn't nevcessarily equal that no one cares anymore. TNA is a whole bunch less stupid than it was and that just means that the haters haven't got the instant ammo as before and the fanboys aren't getting whipped so often by everyone.

 

I think Mitch speaks for a lot of people clearly but I don't think that it's the whole picture.

If you aren't watching though it doesn't matter what they do.

 

Not true. I watched when I heard about them doing something that sounded good to me. I watched and then switched off part way through as the rest of the show sucked balls.

 

I watched when Orlando was covering himself in lotion and taunting Rob Terry as it sounded quite unusual, but the rest of the show sucked.

 

I tried the ECW stuff and got bored out of my brain.

 

I tried and tried and tried. I want so much to like them, but they always have me switching off before the shows ended.

 

If they did things different then those times could have produced a fan.

Edited by Paul

The problem I have with TNA is that it has it's good points, it's rarely (if ever) entirely bad. But the bad bits are really bad and just make it feel pointless to watch because, frankly, it feels like standing by and watching some random person bleed to death on the other side of bulletproof glass.....again. It's just unpleasant.

 

It'd be a whole lot easier if TNA was totally shit and I could just hate it. As it stands, the good bits aren't enough to make up for the crap, so TNA is just "bleh, whatever" TV to me, which is exactly what Mitch means.... I want them to fix it, but I just don't have it left in me to get angry about it anymore. Which is really quite sad for TNA.

Maybe I just find it easier to get over the bad bits. The only really objectional bits I find in TNA these days are the Knockouts. Any of the other bits that aren't great tend to not be consistently bad each week. When I first started to watch TNA again I found I hated Hogan\Bischoff and now I find that maybe every other week they do something I think is good. The Anderson as a face thing was annoying but now he's heel I'm finding him bearable. I just think that to some extent people burying TNA as solidly crap or even mostly crap maybe don't really watch it regularly enough or maybe with as open a mind to it getting better which in all honesty it has over the last couple of months. I'm not pulling a Jay here and saying you have to watch all the shows to "get it, man" but I doubt I'd find much interesting or good about the WWE if I randomly watched RAW or SD for one episode once in a blue moon, especially if I reallyonly wanted to see one bit of it.

 

The apathy comes from the fact the product has improved comparitvely so casual critics can't genreally fire off a list of stupid things TNA has done every single week.

 

That's what I think anyway.

Good point Megs, why worry about the things you can't change and enjoy the good bits which there are enough IMHO to make the show worth while watching

The apathy doesn't come from the product getting better. Let's ignore "better" being subjective and accept that, as a general rule, things that improve don't induce apathy. Of course, you could say that the show has gone from 'outright sh*t' to 'not as bad as it was, but still not worth watching for more than ten minutes'. To which I'd say, is a show that is bad enough to warrant ill feelings worse than a show that no one can be bothered to watch, and even discuss in any meaningful way any more?

 

No one is burying TNA as utter crap any more. That's the entire point that seems to be missed. The people who used to bitch about TNA being sh*t don't see it as being good or bad any more. Those people, and I've had enough people tell me that what I wrote is exactly how they feel about TNA, simply don't care any more. It's not good, it's not bad, it's not even there. If it died tomorrow, would we care? For five seconds, before life moves on. TNA just doesn't matter any more. No face turn, heel turn, screw job, blow job, horse riding a motorcycle or debuting circus clown will change anyone's opinion on TNA because there now, bar the people who love the promotion, is nothing there. No hate, no care, no nothing. I'm sure if I watched Impact this week, I could list a hundred things wrong with the show. I just don't see the point, because it's TNA.

 

You could always say the same about WWE, but this'd be the wrong week to do it as they showed how easy it is for them to do one simple storyline at the end of a show that changes everything and gets everyone talking. I've lost track of how many people on my Facebook and Twitter and even at my work place, all casual fans who don't frequent boards like this, who've been talking about CM Punk. Short of someone dying in the middle of the ring, what can TNA do that will make anyone outside of the 1.3million who watch Impact talk about it? At this point, I genuinely believe nothing. They're long past that point now.

 

Even if TNA was the best show in the world, part of me thinks it might be too little too late.

I disagree with a lot of that but I freely admit what other people think of a show has very rarely mattered to me. The fact people may be apathetic about it for whatever reason you want to say is the case doesn't impact me and I'm not a fan boy by any stretch. I've been one of the poeple who found it hard to get through an episode when I first started to watch.

 

You might as well argue that all press is good press and that it's worse for TNA not to be so sh*t that people just watch to take this p*ss. Which obviously isn't the case.

 

I get this is what a lot of people feel like about TNA. It;s not the whole story though and to say that the only people who watch TNA will only ever be fan boys holds no water with me.

The fan boys stuff is crap to, there are people who just enjoy TNA and have done so for years and years despite what people say, there are people and i am one of them who have found enough in the show to enjoy. IS TNA PERFECT? . nope, there are lots of things that could be changed BUT that can be said about ANY company on the planet. Afterall we are hardly in a wrestling BOOM where quality is through the roof

TNA is much more entertaining, I think. Sure, it has some bad weeks, like Omega, I HATED Mr Anderson as a good guy but things are starting to look up.

 

I think they put on really good matches and there X Division, alone, is brilliant to watch. Throw in the comical, even if sometimes unintentional elements into, it, and it makes for a good show.

 

Of course, it isn't perfect but it isn't going to be all the time, I don't think that's possbile, however I think they have more than enough about them, in my opinion, for me to keep watching.

 

I don't really buy into this "TNA is crap", when they have shown, they can put on good matches!

As an analogy TNA were a Swindon Town, a joke, now they are a Fulham. bigger than a new club but if you aren't a fulham fan genreally you aren't going to be spending a lot of time talking about them unless they do something amazing or something awful. If they beat Man Utd one week then that doesn't make the world beaters the same as losing to Blackpool make them the worst team in the prem. Plus your neutral fan with no vested interest in another prem team could happily watch them and enjoy it. Of course there are other fans of teams near by who hate them but they will hate them no matter what they do.

 

apathy comes because there isn't something good to praise or bad to slate not because people have become bored with slagging them off.

I get this is what a lot of people feel like about TNA. It;s not the whole story though and to say that the only people who watch TNA will only ever be fan boys holds no water with me.

 

It doesn't have to hold water - there's nearly five years of ratings to prove it. TNA has grown all of about .2/.3 ratings points in its tenure on Spike TV. Considering it started on a late night Saturday night slot and moved to prime-time Thursdays, that's pathetic. And that audience has barely changed. If any new fans have been picked up, it's only been at the expense of old fans who just don't care any more. Look at yourself - you freely admitted you've sat through some awful TNA shows, but you're still watching it today and consider it to be worth your time 90% of the time, give or take. That's the TNA (and hell, also the WWE) attitude of most of the hardcore fans. It's just that TNA seems to have a higher ratio of its audience as hardcores than WWE does.

 

You keep saying that "it's not the whole story" without explaining what the whole story is. So please do put your argument forth.

As an analogy TNA were a Swindon Town, a joke, now they are a Fulham. bigger than a new club but if you aren't a fulham fan genreally you aren't going to be spending a lot of time talking about them unless they do something amazing or something awful. If they beat Man Utd one week then that doesn't make the world beaters the same as losing to Blackpool make them the worst team in the prem. Plus your neutral fan with no vested interest in another prem team could happily watch them and enjoy it. Of course there are other fans of teams near by who hate them but they will hate them no matter what they do.

 

apathy comes because there isn't something good to praise or bad to slate not because people have become bored with slagging them off.

 

A second analogy: the Westboro Baptist Church are a group of mental nutcases who misread the Bible and use it to spout garbage designed to offend people who are just trying to go about their lives (or deaths) without something stupid in the way. They thrive on attention and do everything in their power to make the mainstream care about what they do. Celebrity death? Let's picket the funeral. Gay marriage laws passed? Let's preach that God hates "fags". Celebrity banned from his sport for being involved in a shooting? Let's hire him and make him our tag team champio... well, you get the drift.

 

Think hypothetically, now. After a while, the stories begin to sound the same. WBC picketing a funeral? Yup, they always do that. It's boring now, and not worth our time getting offended by it. Sometimes we might go out and counter-protest, but it's not like anyone's paying much attention to them or us. If anything, we start to look stupid because we're giving so much time and attention to something that isn't going to stop being stupid and offensive, so let's just forget it. If they're gonna picket a funeral, just let them. It's not going to ruin my day any more. I'm not going to think less of the members or leaders than I already do. Quite frankly, I just don't care what the WBC do any more. In your theory, I've stopped caring because they're doing nothing to praise or condemn any more. Clearly, that's wrong. They are still doing exactly what they did before, trying to push the same message, maybe with a new face or two, but ultimately it's just the same tired old WBC routine that is almost a parody of itself. I'm not angry at them any more. They are what they are, people know what they are, and nothing we say or do can change it. All we can do is sit back and wait for them to just blow over, or blow themselves up or something.

 

That, in a nutshell, is TNA for me and everyone in this thread who isn't Omega or Jayfunk.

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