Frank The Clown approves.
TNA decided to come to Dekalb this past Saturday night and I will say, it’s much different than WWE in many ways. TNA tends to interact with fans more by giving away backstage passes and the experience is much less grueling than WWE. The show lasted just over two hours (half the time of WWE) and prices, obviously, are much cheaper.
The thing is, the product of TNA is still, horrible. While the wrestling is pretty decent, the acting in promos and backstage events are terrible. Sometimes, wrestlers can’t be taught how to act. It’s something that happens naturally.
In Dekalb, about 500 fans showed up in a place where the capacity is around 6,000. That is bad. TNA draws well overseas but when it comes to the United States, they can’t sell out a 2,500 seat arena. The closest it ever reached were the events in Hoffman Estates in 2008 and last year, in which, I attended both times. The Sears Centre might seat around 6,000 fans as well and both times, the crowd was about half full. Wrestling events always draw well in the Chicagoland area. If this was, say, Iowa, TNA gets 100 fans maximum for this past Saturday’s event.
With all of the budget cuts going on, TNA has shown everyone that they are struggling. They put nearly their entire budget into guys like Angle, Nash, Hogan, Bischoff and Sting over the last four years. You figured, Bischoff may help a little bit but when he came in, he was merely a shell of himself. He had a great run in the mid-90’s with WCW and that was his peak as far as being a promoter. Dixie Carter still rolled the dice and paid for it heavily.
TNA in Dekalb and everywhere else is a loss for them. It’s costing them more money to travel and pay wrestlers because they aren’t drawing enough fans to turn a profit. Merchandise sales help any company but with all of the traveling, TNA still has to pay the place they are holding their event in and giving a share of their sales to them. I saw some good matches on Saturday with Samoa Joe against Magnus and the Wolves against the Bromans (yes, TNA is that bad to have a tag team called that).
The only thing keeping TNA alive right now are their TV deals in the United States and Europe. If those deals aren’t around, TNA isn’t worth the change in my pocket. Some people might have thought five or six years ago, that TNA might have a chance to compete. All of these years later, it’s much worse than it was back then. Wrestlers like A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe have been the only bright spots all of these years and even now, Styles may not be back.
Stick a fork in TNA.
Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus 
February 10, 2014 at 3:55 pm
Fro….I think the worst thing about TNA is their rabid fan base. I don’t mean people like you or me. I’m talking about the complete and total geeks who are in their late thirties and still living in their parents basement. The same dorks who get together every Thursday night around their computers for a absolute fucking circle jerk. I fucking swear they are embarrassing as hell to normal fans. Just check out the comments section of 411 mania.com. Every Thursday they have some knuckle dragging freak review the show as it airs on TV and about 5 or 6 as these douchebags comment on the dumbest fucking shit on the show as if it was the greatest thing ever. And if somebody chimes in with something negative that person is automatically labeled a troll. And to make matters worse these idiots think Dixie Carter is actually hot. Whenever that twit shows up they spooge their fucking pants! The same thing happens with Christy Hemme. Christy is not bad, but c’mon. Stop advertising the fact that you’re goddamned 7th grade punk ass bitch trying to get to puberty.
I don’t doubt that the wrestlers try hard. Every wrestler does. All the way from the guys in WWE to TNA to ROH or any other rinky-dink indy fed. In all honesty, I would be surprised as hell if moral wasn’t at an all time low in the TNA locker room. No crowds, wrestlers leaving left and right, probably wondering if Panda Energy, the “owners” won’t be kiting paychecks like Paul Heyman did when he owned ECW. I’d be looking to leave too if I had the chance. That is probably one reason, among others, that Sting is close to signing a deal with WWE.
I used to watch TNA, many years ago. They just became too much like WCW lite for me. Isn’t it ironic that Hulk Hogan came in to WCW, was granted total creative control, and basically torpedoed the entire fucking company in the process. Then he goes to TNA, and then right after that happened TNA started to suck donkey nutsack. Hogan was good one time in his career. It was from around 1978 through 1983. Then he goes back to the WWF, Vince Jr. gets his hands on him, and for the rest of his goddamn career his a fucking cartoon. And he fucking sucked for the remainder of his career.
February 10, 2014 at 10:14 pm
FRoDog, thanks for the article. Keep ’em coming!
chucky…damn, that’s harsh. If/when TNA goes under, what happens to the rest of the smaller wrestling circuits that do/don’t feed into WWE?
February 10, 2014 at 11:36 pm
Guys…I think we are forgetting the most important thing about this…
Fro still has the chops!
February 11, 2014 at 7:23 am
By Cracky
February 11, 2014 at 8:27 am
DVX….those smaller feds will be OK. In fact, they may do even better than they are now, because some of TNAs talent would end up working for one or two of them. I think ROH and whats left of the NWA would benefit the most. The WWE would probably pick up only one or two guys. They didn’t exactly push real hard to land AJ Styles, did they? TNA does have some decent wrestlers. The problem is, and always has been, Ditzie Carter. That idiot bitch has become the TNAs answer to HHH. NOT GOOD!
February 11, 2014 at 10:03 am
I started growing the chops right after the Blackhawks won the Cup in late June and early July. I trimmed them up in September and November. I’ll probably go another month or two before taking them down.
Chucky, I know what you mean about the TNA hardcore guys. They’re the idiots that cheer “This is awesome” constantly when the product, visible to the naked eye, is garbage.