Report: TNA suspends Samoa Joe for one month

PW Insider reports that TNA has suspended Samoa Joe for one month after an incident backstage at an iMPACT taping.

According to the report, Joe was upset after his match with Jeff Hardy. During the taping, Joe reportedly went to the production truck where he complained to the staff, which TNA management saw as a breach of etiquette.

A one month suspension sounds awfully harsh to me, especially considering that Joe’s concern was for the betterment of the product.

If he assaulted co-worker – hey, didn’t Awesome Kong do this? – then I could understand being suspended. Although when employees do that, TNA doesn’t seem to take any disciplinary action. But being upset about the quality of their television show, seemingly wanting to better the product, well that’s grounds for action.

It’s seemed strange to me that in recent months, Joe has had little to do on TNA’s show. Along with AJ Styles, he’s certainly the most marketable, “home-grown” name that the company has. Not that I wouldn’t push RVD, Hard, Mr. Anderson and Kurt Angle, but they have to find a spot, a main event spot, for Joe.

He has face-of-the-franchise potential.

TNA: Styles re-introduces Television Championship

I like the idea of AJ Styles legitimizing TNA’s Global Championship – or as Stlyes crowned himself, the new Television Champion. The belt, seen as the second highest heavyweight belt in the company, was stagnant and really carried with it little or no meaning in the eyes of the fans – a recipe for disaster.

But it also got me thinking – does a television championship still have context in today’s wrestling landscape?

Back in the 70’s, when TV titles were introduced, wrestling was different. You had a squash match, an interview, and then another squash match. The television champion carried with it an aura of importance.

ECW and WCW carried television champions until their separate demises in the early-2000’s, but since, the title has been absent from all of North American wrestling.

Until last night’s Impact.

I like the idea of a television champion, but it has to be kept different from the world title. How? Well, it should only be defended on television. It should somehow represent “the network” … ECW did a great job with this type of angle booking Rob Van Dam as TV champion on TNN, bucking the system against “the network.”

But somehow TNA needs to make this title different.

WCW, for instance, used to use time limits in their TV title matches, often with matches ending in draws which further built heat for matches down the line.

Styles, with his talents, is the man to make this belt different and stand on its own.

TNA to offer PPV caliber show on Aug. 12 Impact

With Hardcore Justice taking on an ECW nostalgia theme, TNA has announced that Aug. 12th’s Impact will feature matches originally slated for the Aug. 8th pay per view, including Rob Van Dam defending his TNA World Heavyweight Title against Abyss.

Given TNA’s reported PPV buyrates as of late, this is actually a great idea – something TNA has had few of, lately.

The nostalgia ECW-style show may spike a buyrate. It may bring in new fans, too. People love ECW. I don’t care that it folded 10 years ago, it was a company that had a following and people genuinely cared  about.

It’s probably the only company in history to still be drawing sellouts or near sellouts when it filed for bankruptcy.

So bringing that back works. It worked when WWE held One Night Stand and it will work for TNA.

People still want to see ECW, and until it dries up, there is no need to stop going to that well.

Back to TNA’s buyrates being in the toilet – if you offer a “free PPV” on Spike, it has to be done correctly. No stupid backstage segments. No interviews that go nowhere and mean nothing. Run a PPV show – matches, matches, matches.

This is wrestling, isn’t it? It’s all about the matches.

Give guys 20 minutes.

It’d be great if Spike gave TNA a third hour to incorporate more time.

Make sure the commercial breaks fall in the middle of matches – make fans want to come back and don’t waste any time. Going to a break after a match means the action stops – make sure the action doesn’t stop.

Also, give the fans some surprises. Has Van Dam as World Champion run its course? I’m not sure Abyss is the right guy for the strap, but maybe you pull a swerve. Once in a while, swerves are OK – when you get six a show, they get old and don’t mean as much.

But TNA has a pretty big opportunity here. Show the fans that aren’t buying the pay per views what they’re missing. Make them want to buy. Generate some dollars.

TNA: Going extreme could be a curse

Spoiler Alert – this post contains spoilers from Monday’s TNA iMPACT tapings.

I don’t know all of the details, but it appears that an angle took place at Monday’s TNA Impact tapings – for air this Thursday – with the show ending with an ECW-type stable forming. It’s been teased for weeks with the addition of Tommy Dreamer, Raven and others to the company. Monday’s taping ended with the ECW group saving Rob Van Dam in the ring and Mick Foley returning to television on the stage, overseeing things.

You know, I LOVED ECW … not the crap that WWE threw down our throats for the past few years, but the original, edgy ECW. I loved it. I watched Barely Legal ’97 just yesterday and loved every second of the show. ECW – Paul Heyman‘s ECW – was way ahead of its time.

But nowadays, I’m not sure ECW works.

If this whole angle is a lure to get Heyman into the company to work on its creative, then it’s a brilliant move. Paul Heyman has, in my opinion, the best booking mind in the HISTORY of professional wrestling. ECW’s success was in its booking. They had no resources, no financial backing, yet still made it.

But if Heyman doesn’t come on board, then what does this angle have to offer?

Rumor: TNA dropping PPV?

Steve Gerweck of Gerweck.net is reporting that there is growing speculation that Dixie Carter‘s big surprise is that the company will soon drop all pay-per-views from its schedule, instead focusing on wrestling specials on SpikeTV.

TNA tweeted this morning that news is forthcoming on the company’s biggest PPV event of the year, Bound For Glory, scheduled for October.

–ANALYSIS–

Obviously this is all speculation, but let’s analyze this as if it is the plan.

I can’t imagine that this would be a good business move. Even with the dwindling ratings and buyrates TNA has suffered with since making its ill-fated switch to Monday’s, PPVs still generate revenue. Completely abolishing them would be foolish.

Especially considering the production costs of TNA’s events. Most are held at Universal Studios in Orlando, obviously on the same soundstage where TNA shoots iMPACT. There is no cost of travel, setup, etc.

If they were to run specials on SpikeTV, in essence the cost would be the same. Unless Spike is ponying up more money for those specials than TNA generates in PPV buys, then it makes no sense for TNA to make this move.

Let’s say the average buyrate for a TNA PPV is 30,000 – a far cry from WWE, so probably a conservative number. At $35 a pop, that means an average revenue of $1,050,000 per PPV or $12,600,000 per year, minus costs to the PPV companies.

Is TNA prepared to walk away from that? What’s the financial benefit? Something isn’t right.

The internet is full of F-Tards

Has the whole world gone mental?

This morning on SiriusXM, Bubba the Love Sponge was playing clips on his radio program of various internet radio shows commenting on his firing from TNA Wrestling. Well, some of it was comments, most was slander and amateurish name-calling.

Now, let’s get things straight. To start with, Bubba never did anything wrong. I don’t agree with all of his comments regarding TNA – I’ve found the edgier product to be entertaining – but he surely has every right in the world to be pissed at the company that wrongfully terminated him.

But again, Bubba never did anything wrong. Bubba voiced his opinion – I’m fairly certain we still have free speech in this country, right? – and in return, Kong – real name Kia Stevens – repeatedly punched an unsuspecting Bubba in the face at a TNA taping for Bubba’s comments regarding supporting Haiti.

But from the start, Bubba was the bad guy. All he did was speak his mind.

Reports – mainly one emanating from the Baltimore Sun – painted Bubba as a racist for comments made on a radio program with Kong at the end of April. No where has anyone brought up that Kong physically assaulted him.

And really, what Bubba said wasn’t racist. It certainly wasn’t nearly as bad as what some of the “marks” have written and said about Bubba – which is comical, because they’re calling him racial and other slurs for calling what they perceived as racial slur towards Kong.

Hypocritical much?

Bottom line is that Bubba was wrongfully terminated. You can like or not like what he brought to the table as far as television product goes, but he was an untapped resource for TNA that they threw down the drain for someone who isn’t even employed by the company anymore.

I’ve written it a million times – Bubba could have been a HUGE asset to TNA, if they ever utilized him correctly.

He’s listened to by millions of people everyday. He’s listened to by more people on Sirius XM and in the state of Florida on his terrestrial show than TNA gets national viewers. Why not tap into that incredible resource? TNA blew it. TNA blew it for no reason. Bubba’s controversial, that’s what he brings to the table, but if I were him, I’d be filing a wrongful termination lawsuit.

But instead, guys who have never heard his program – guys from say, the Baltimore Sun and internet marks around the world – slander someone they’ve never met or heard, doing the same thing they want him crucified for.

TNA: A company in shambles

In just a few months, TNA has gone from a company on the brink of explosion to an organization that has been so depleted and mismanaged, viewers are confused as to what time their television show is even on.

Last night’s announcement that TNA is moving back to Thursdays – after just two months on Monday nights – was the latest in a troubling few days for the company.

Over the weekend, TNA fired on-air personality Bubba the Love Sponge for undisclosed reasons. Bubba, on his radio program (syndicated nationally on Sirius XM Howard 101) said that his release was due to what TNA perceived as “racist remarks.”

This, of course, from a company that pushed a large black female wrestler with the name “Kong.”

TNA misused Bubba from the get go. The guy hosts a show that is listened to by millions, everyday, with a rabid fan base who would be dialed in to TNA if he wanted them to be. If Bubba were featured in a prominent role – say the lead manager of a heel stable (which is what I think they were trying to do, but never gave it a real push) then it would be a topic on his show, probably daily. Everyday, millions of people would listen and hear and get interested in TNA wrestling.

But instead, they tried to force a backstage interview role on him – which served no real purpose – and then just lumped him in with “The Band” without any real explanation.

It’s strange for me to write this because honestly, I’ve been entertained by TNA’s product. The show a few weeks back where RVD won the world title from AJ Styles was one of the most compelling wrestling programs on free television that I’ve seen in a while. But for some reason, Monday’s never worked for TNA.

Last week’s dismal 0.5 rating was the last straw, and rightfully so.

“The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best timeslot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men,” said Brian J. Diamond, senior vice president, sports and specials.

iMPACT will air at 9 p.m. on Thursday’s (a taped show) with TNA ReACTION, a documentary type program, will air at 8 p.m. The night will be known as “TNA Thursdays” on Spike TV.

A decade ago, can you even imagine the backlash had Raw or Nitro scored such an embarrassing rating? It says something about the company when the Thursday replay scores higher than the original broadcast.

Ultimately moving back to Thursdays was not only the right choice for TNA, it was a necessary one for survival. Clearly, the audience was not ready for TNA as a competitor to WWE’s power branding. TNA will continue to carve out its niche on Thursday’s, hopefully build a larger fan base, and then maybe, MUCH farther down the road, give Monday’s another shot.

And at that point, it’s do or die.

The TNA brand already looks weak and watered down after putting its tail between its legs and scurrying back to Thursday’s. It’s going to take a while to build up the audience’s confidence again. Once that happens – if that happens – they have to sustain it before it can grow.

The strategy really should be simple – do whatever you can do to be different from WWE. But that doesn’t mean take it over the edge. We don’t need to see color in EVERY match – that’s overkill and after a while, people get sick of it. Blood doesn’t enhance a match if it happens on 2-3 matches per card.

Reality-based storylines that are cutting edge and a little risky will work. That’s different from WWE.

For the sake of the business, I hope that TNA survives and thrives. It’s good for the audience and for the wrestlers to have an alternative. Five years ago, if you weren’t working for WWE, you weren’t making a good living in this business (in the United States, anyway). That’s no longer the case. Options are best for the marketplace, both for the consumer and the talent.

BREAKING: TNA will return to Thursday’s after tonight

Earlier today, TNA president Dixie Carter posted on twitter that TNA would make a major announcement tonight on iMPACT. As of 7 p.m. EST, multiple Spike TV sources have told TheSteelCage.net that the announcement will be that tonight’s show will be the last live iMPACT airing on Monday’s for the foreseeable future, and that iMPACT will return to it’s original 9 p.m. time slot on Thursday nights beginning next week.

Last week’s 0.5 rating was said to be the last straw for the network, who have seen the show do almost as good, if not better in its Thursday replay airing.

A TNA source indicated that the show could go live on Thursday’s, preceding the weekend slate of house shows, but a Spike TV source denied that claim, saying that TNA would go back to it’s original taping schedule, airing taped shows on Thursdays.

Kelly: “ROH roster impresses me more everyday”

Kevin Kelly penned a great column at Wrestlezone.com talking about a slew of topics, including deaths in professional wrestling and the atmosphere at Ring of Honor, where he now works calling PPV matches.

In particular, I thought it was interesting how he described a Tyler Black interview in which the ROH champion spoke of the  locker room banning chairshots to the head themselves, not waiting for a ruling from “the office.” These guys put their bodies on the line and the long-term effects of a cheap pop aren’t worth it – just look at Chris Benoit.

ROH is a unique and entertaining product, if you ask me. They’re vastly different from WWE and TNA, which I assume is part of their business model. It’s going to work for them. They might never be recognized on a global marketing level like WWE, but niche brands still have a spot in the marketplace. If they have a solid business sense behind, they should continue to survive and even thrive.

ECW was a niche brand and Paul Heyman helped the brand carve out quite a spot for itself in the wrestling landscape. And if the business end was handled better, and the promotion was able to land on another network in time after getting the shaft from TNN, then maybe they would still be around today.

Raw/iMPACT ratings for 4/19

WWE won the ratings battle again on Monday, with Raw scoring a combined 3.05 rating, down from last week’s 3.24. TNA’s iMPACT scored a 1.0, one of its best showings since the company’s permanent move to Monday nights, which is up from last week’s 0.8.

Obviously, the most telling figure in these numbers are the +/- for both Raw and Impact. Raw, with Smackdown talent invading the program while Raw talent was stuck in Europe, lost 0.19 rating points from the previous week while Impact gained 0.20 ratings points.

It seems that Impact gained what Raw lost.

Raw won the coveted M18-49 demographic 2.19-0.87. … Impact’s highest quarter-hour breaks (1.04 and 1.02) actually occurred during the Jeff Hardy–Rob Van Dam No. 1 Contender’s match, and not that main event that saw Van Dam take the title from AJ Styles.

Raw lost roughly 20% of its viewers in both P18-49 and M18-49 whereas Impact gained 30% in M18-49 and 28% in P18-49.

Certainly not a victory for TNA – they were beaten again, and still easily – but it’s a small step in the right direction. Competition wasn’t going to occur overnight. Monday’s Impact, which I found to be a more entertaining show than Raw, really kept me on Spike TV and prevented me from changing the channel.

I’m a little surprised the title match didn’t do better in the ratings against Raw’s 9:50-10 p.m. segment. RVD-AJ Styles is one of those matches that hardcore fans dreamed about when RVD signed with the company.

Maybe it’s a sign that appealing to the masses is more important than appealing to the hardcore, down and gritty fans.