The Newest and Improved TNA

TNA is in a state of change. Again. For more times than we have been able to count, TNA has been in a state of change. I've never quite been sure what they have been trying to change into, like what is their ultimate goal, but TNA has always had the potential to just be a great alternative wrestling show. I have always felt that 2011 was the best year for TNA. Their roster was the best at the time, their wrestling was incredible (and to be fair still can be), and they had a decent story going on with Sting versus Immortal. Even 2012 wasn't bad with Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, and Bobby Roode really holding things down. 2013 was a complete disaster! I've never seen a company take such a huge dip in quality and lose a good chunk of their roster. It seems like anyone who had a good idea was fired and we were left with not even the B team, but the F team making all of the decisions. They ruined AJ Styles but managed to turn Bully Ray into one of the greatest singles stars in their company but totally ruined what could have been an amazing stable in the Aces & Eights. If at all possible, we just need to forget 2013 as quickly as possible!

Well now 2014 didn't have the best start with AJ Styles gone and Sting's contract up, but in the last month TNA has been quickly picking up. So lets get the negative out of the way. TNA is losing money and we all know it. Their Pay Per View model, in my opinion, is a complete mess. I can't imagine they are gaining any money with their taped specialty Pay Per View episodes that don't tie into the story lines at all, even though it gives us interesting show options. So I watched the #OldSchool PPV and that was a show with some great matches, but the production was terrible! TNA really needs to invest in a production manager because a better looking show could go a long way, and this is one of their biggest flaws right now. When they had the Impact Zone everything had a nice look to it. I look back at those episodes and like what I see, but episodes recently just look like the were barfed out by a sick camera. Fix the look of your show!

So contracts are going to expire. It's bound to happen. Sting, AJ, and Kurt Angle are probably the three biggest names in the company and two are gone, and with Angle's contract ending this year the chances are they aren't going to be able to afford to renew. So Angle will be gone later this year but TNA doesn't need to rely on these talents to survive. Their recent strategy of signing younger and cheaper talent is actually working out pretty well. The roster is full of young wrestlers that are amazing like Zema Ion, and Kenny King (who has been absent for a while and hopefully not let go) but Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards were great gets for  the company. Ring of Honor is a company full of eager talent and if TNA winds up with any of them on their own roster it can only be a good thing. My only fear is that we may lose Christopher Daniels and Kazarian when their contracts are up. Hopefully TNA can bring in more money before then. Tommy Dreamer is also back in the company to an unknown extent which seems to mostly be in the back stage but having Dreamer involved in any way is always a good thing. The cross promotion with his House of Hardcore was genius and TNA is actually doing really good promotional crossover work this year and that can only be good for business. If promotions could work together more often then the wrestling business could become something special.

Now let me just say that I believe in MVP. This Dixieland story angle was killing TNA and fast. I was happy to see Magnus improve as much as he has and become a world champion, but Dixie being an onscreen villain was a horrible idea. That is until MVP and The Wolves stepped in. The Wolves are amazing wrestlers and MVP was always under appreciated in WWE and having these three work together has been a highly entertaining angle and they couldn't have chosen a better time to introduce it. With TNA over in Manchester, where TNA is loved pretty highly, they are getting great tapings with high energy crowds that love wrestling and it makes their show look that much better. I wouldn't mind if they taped over in the UK for an entire year just to make their show look that much better by performing for crowds that love them. Bored US crowds can do a lot to ruin a show and that's why they need to find the perfect Impact Zone and just stick there for a while to save some money and make their show look good.

So word is that there has been a lot of bonding between the TNA roster on their UK tour due to Samoa Joe giving a pretty heartfelt speech. Good! This is a roster that is extremely talented but for a long time it has felt like everyone has their own agenda. Now that they are on the same page it has really shown through on the show and everyone has kicked it into high gear. I can only hope that they can keep this momentum going. Samoa Joe is now one of the top tier veterans of the company next to guys like Christopher Daniels and word is that Joe and MVP are kind of leading a charge in the locker room and it certainly seems to be working. The last couple episodes of Impact have been legitimately great and if TNA can keep their act on track then they could get back to the success that they once had.

So what do you think about TNA's current status? I really don't care to hear the "TNA is terrible" angle because it's not the WWE. TNA is an alternative not a replacement. Either you love all wrestling or you love WWE. We all know that. As always you can find me on Twitter @advent_crash.