The Rise an Fall of TNA: Vol. 6 -
Determined to be Different
Now that the deal was signed, and TNA was set to debut on Fox Sports Net, the company felt it needed a new look, and something that would make them stand out from the competition.
So they decided to move their TV tapings out of Nashville, Tennessee, where they had been since the company’s inaugural show, and instead tape them at Universal Studios, in Orlando Florida. This was the old studio where WCW used to film its weekend TV shows like World Wide and WCW Saturday Night.
The biggest change and most prominent was the decision by Jeff Jarrett, to do away with the traditional 4 sided square circle ring, and instead adopt the 6 sided ring, which was used predominantly in the Mexican wrestling company, AAA.
Those who followed TNA understood that what made them different from the WWE was the emphasis they put on the smaller athletic performers of the X division.
Jeff thought that the 6 sided ring would allow for better acrobats and standout moves, which would get the company noticed. Also Jeff felt the 6 sided ring would be a talking pint, and catch viewer’s eyes as the flip through the stations.
The premier of TNA Impact on Fox Sports Net was as good as you could ask for from a new product to a station. The TV show was so good that it was shocking. Many figured the six-sided ring wouldn’t make a difference, but it was a positive because it was something new and unique.
The style of wrestling on the show was completely different than anything you’d see in WWE, and that was a huge positive. The production was so good that while it didn’t come off as an equal to WWE, it also didn’t come off as a bunch of Indy guys having whacky matches in a barn somewhere in Nashville like before. The difference between the two buildings was night and day.
The problem with this was, the company would still be having all their PPV’s at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. So for free, fans were seeing this new shiny product in a well-lit studio with great graphics and pyro, but then were being asked to pay to watch a show form the run down Fairgrounds arena. Yea, they needed to move and move quickly.
So TNA finally decided to drop the weekly PPV model and run one monthly show, in addition to the weekly Impact show on FSN. The upsides were the promotion is going to lost significantly less money running one PPV per month as opposed to four. Plus all PPV were moved from Nashville to Orlando, marking the end of the TNA era at the Fairgrounds.
At this point, what TNA special was the rise of the X division, and its leader, AJ Styles. Styles was the guy many in the company felt should be the star of the promotion and lead the charge.
But instead, the constant issue with TNA since day 1, was the fact that its owner, Jeff Jarrett, continuously booked himself as the main event and heavyweight champion. Though Jeff was always a good performer, he was never the right guy to be the face of a revolution, or anything one would consider good about an alternative to WWE.
Jeff not only pushed himself, but he made keep bringing in blast from the past to headline shows with him, like Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and DDP. They were in TNA for one reason, money. Of course their name value was seen as way to bring recognition, but by propelling these older guys who were stars known from other promotions to the forefront, TNA was overshadowing and holding back the excellent homegrown talent that would have helped make them different from the WWE.
Many of these decisions led to Jeff being stripped of his booking duties and Dusty Rhodes replacing him as head booker. Dusty was one of the best and worst bookers this industry has ever had, and what he did during his run with Jim Crockett Promotions was legendary.
Up to the point where he was removed from his booking position, Jeff Jarrett had held the NWA TNA World Title for 555 of the 884 days TNA had been in existence. Smh. Pathetic.
Around this time is when WWE started to really take notice of TNA. It all started when a bunch of guys from Raw and Smackdown were at Universal Studios filming a commercial for Royal Rumble. David Sahadi, the former WWE video producer who jumped to TNA, got 3 Live Krew, Abyss, Traci and Shane Douglas to form a greeting party to "welcome them to their home". Abyss had a big thing of balloons and Traci had a plate of cookies.
WWE officials were not amused. The WWE guys were sequestered into a room and WWE filed a complaint with Universal Studios. TNA responded by issuing a comical press release apologizing if WWE found their behavior "hostile" in any way. WWE threatened a lawsuit against TNA if they aired the video footage shot during the "invasion".
The Universal Studios deal caused some other problems as well. Konnan wanted to bring Mick Foley in for a show in Mexico, but when Mick called WWE to get it cleared, the told him about the Universal incident and said there was no way they were going to allow any of their guys to work any shows that TNA talent was working. Ripple effects are still being felt to this day, as Vince McMahon hates TNA.
In the midst of all the issues behind the scenes, inside the ring, TNA was doing everything right. The company presented one of the greatest matches in its history in 2004, when America’s Most Wanted defeated XXX in a Six Sided of Steel cage match. The match was the definition of unique and it stands the test of time to this day.
Then, out of nowhere, rumors began that said that Jerry Jarrett was told he’s had 90 days to find a new buyer or it was all over. There was a meeting after Impact last week with Dusty Rhodes, Bob Ryder and Jerry Jarrett and all the talent. They assured the talent that they would not be closing, but there would be some changes and cost cutting measures.
Dusty gave this big speech about how he was taking over, and said he had a vision and everyone needed to be patient. He told the X-Division guys that he thought they were great workers, but they didn’t have well-defined characters, and therefore the crowd wasn’t into them. He told them they’d all get chances to do more promos. Ryder said despite moving the Impact tapings to every other week, the guys were still going to be paid as if they were doing it weekly.
Dixie Carter called a meeting before the PPV and said no matter what anyone read in the dirt sheets, the company was doing just fine financially and not going out of business anytime soon. She said 2005 was going to be a big year for TNA, and that they’d signed a bunch of big sponsorship deals.
Well, just three months after this rally cry from company leadership, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett had a meeting with FSN officials and said they weren’t sure they wanted to keep paying the money needed to stay on the air. TNA was paying FSN weekly for their airtime, unlike WWE, which is paid a fee by USA.
The Jarrett’s felt that ratings had been solid enough in comparison to virtually everything else on the network to justify not having to pay for the TV time anymore. In other words, it was a power play of sorts, a way to try to coerce FSN into paying them for the programming (or, at the least, letting them have it for free in exchange for selling ads during the hour) since without it, the network average rating would likely dip slightly.
Then suddenly reports surfaced that said that Jeff Jarrett was in New York talking with Viacom officials about getting the Raw time slot once WWE left in September. If you recall, WWE’s deal was up with Spike and they were negotiating for higher rights fees. USA won the bid, and RAW wouldn’t be going back to USA.
Suddenly, the TNA to Spike rumor began to take on a life of its own. Dixie Carter was friends with a Spike executive, which got Jeff the meeting. But nobody believe TNA would get the RAW Monday night timeslot.
Well……
Join us next time as we discuss the next huge game changer for TNA wrestling, as it makes the move to prime time.
So they decided to move their TV tapings out of Nashville, Tennessee, where they had been since the company’s inaugural show, and instead tape them at Universal Studios, in Orlando Florida. This was the old studio where WCW used to film its weekend TV shows like World Wide and WCW Saturday Night.
The biggest change and most prominent was the decision by Jeff Jarrett, to do away with the traditional 4 sided square circle ring, and instead adopt the 6 sided ring, which was used predominantly in the Mexican wrestling company, AAA.
Those who followed TNA understood that what made them different from the WWE was the emphasis they put on the smaller athletic performers of the X division.
Jeff thought that the 6 sided ring would allow for better acrobats and standout moves, which would get the company noticed. Also Jeff felt the 6 sided ring would be a talking pint, and catch viewer’s eyes as the flip through the stations.
The premier of TNA Impact on Fox Sports Net was as good as you could ask for from a new product to a station. The TV show was so good that it was shocking. Many figured the six-sided ring wouldn’t make a difference, but it was a positive because it was something new and unique.
The style of wrestling on the show was completely different than anything you’d see in WWE, and that was a huge positive. The production was so good that while it didn’t come off as an equal to WWE, it also didn’t come off as a bunch of Indy guys having whacky matches in a barn somewhere in Nashville like before. The difference between the two buildings was night and day.
The problem with this was, the company would still be having all their PPV’s at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. So for free, fans were seeing this new shiny product in a well-lit studio with great graphics and pyro, but then were being asked to pay to watch a show form the run down Fairgrounds arena. Yea, they needed to move and move quickly.
So TNA finally decided to drop the weekly PPV model and run one monthly show, in addition to the weekly Impact show on FSN. The upsides were the promotion is going to lost significantly less money running one PPV per month as opposed to four. Plus all PPV were moved from Nashville to Orlando, marking the end of the TNA era at the Fairgrounds.
At this point, what TNA special was the rise of the X division, and its leader, AJ Styles. Styles was the guy many in the company felt should be the star of the promotion and lead the charge.
But instead, the constant issue with TNA since day 1, was the fact that its owner, Jeff Jarrett, continuously booked himself as the main event and heavyweight champion. Though Jeff was always a good performer, he was never the right guy to be the face of a revolution, or anything one would consider good about an alternative to WWE.
Jeff not only pushed himself, but he made keep bringing in blast from the past to headline shows with him, like Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Randy Savage, and DDP. They were in TNA for one reason, money. Of course their name value was seen as way to bring recognition, but by propelling these older guys who were stars known from other promotions to the forefront, TNA was overshadowing and holding back the excellent homegrown talent that would have helped make them different from the WWE.
Many of these decisions led to Jeff being stripped of his booking duties and Dusty Rhodes replacing him as head booker. Dusty was one of the best and worst bookers this industry has ever had, and what he did during his run with Jim Crockett Promotions was legendary.
Up to the point where he was removed from his booking position, Jeff Jarrett had held the NWA TNA World Title for 555 of the 884 days TNA had been in existence. Smh. Pathetic.
Around this time is when WWE started to really take notice of TNA. It all started when a bunch of guys from Raw and Smackdown were at Universal Studios filming a commercial for Royal Rumble. David Sahadi, the former WWE video producer who jumped to TNA, got 3 Live Krew, Abyss, Traci and Shane Douglas to form a greeting party to "welcome them to their home". Abyss had a big thing of balloons and Traci had a plate of cookies.
WWE officials were not amused. The WWE guys were sequestered into a room and WWE filed a complaint with Universal Studios. TNA responded by issuing a comical press release apologizing if WWE found their behavior "hostile" in any way. WWE threatened a lawsuit against TNA if they aired the video footage shot during the "invasion".
The Universal Studios deal caused some other problems as well. Konnan wanted to bring Mick Foley in for a show in Mexico, but when Mick called WWE to get it cleared, the told him about the Universal incident and said there was no way they were going to allow any of their guys to work any shows that TNA talent was working. Ripple effects are still being felt to this day, as Vince McMahon hates TNA.
In the midst of all the issues behind the scenes, inside the ring, TNA was doing everything right. The company presented one of the greatest matches in its history in 2004, when America’s Most Wanted defeated XXX in a Six Sided of Steel cage match. The match was the definition of unique and it stands the test of time to this day.
Then, out of nowhere, rumors began that said that Jerry Jarrett was told he’s had 90 days to find a new buyer or it was all over. There was a meeting after Impact last week with Dusty Rhodes, Bob Ryder and Jerry Jarrett and all the talent. They assured the talent that they would not be closing, but there would be some changes and cost cutting measures.
Dusty gave this big speech about how he was taking over, and said he had a vision and everyone needed to be patient. He told the X-Division guys that he thought they were great workers, but they didn’t have well-defined characters, and therefore the crowd wasn’t into them. He told them they’d all get chances to do more promos. Ryder said despite moving the Impact tapings to every other week, the guys were still going to be paid as if they were doing it weekly.
Dixie Carter called a meeting before the PPV and said no matter what anyone read in the dirt sheets, the company was doing just fine financially and not going out of business anytime soon. She said 2005 was going to be a big year for TNA, and that they’d signed a bunch of big sponsorship deals.
Well, just three months after this rally cry from company leadership, Jeff and Jerry Jarrett had a meeting with FSN officials and said they weren’t sure they wanted to keep paying the money needed to stay on the air. TNA was paying FSN weekly for their airtime, unlike WWE, which is paid a fee by USA.
The Jarrett’s felt that ratings had been solid enough in comparison to virtually everything else on the network to justify not having to pay for the TV time anymore. In other words, it was a power play of sorts, a way to try to coerce FSN into paying them for the programming (or, at the least, letting them have it for free in exchange for selling ads during the hour) since without it, the network average rating would likely dip slightly.
Then suddenly reports surfaced that said that Jeff Jarrett was in New York talking with Viacom officials about getting the Raw time slot once WWE left in September. If you recall, WWE’s deal was up with Spike and they were negotiating for higher rights fees. USA won the bid, and RAW wouldn’t be going back to USA.
Suddenly, the TNA to Spike rumor began to take on a life of its own. Dixie Carter was friends with a Spike executive, which got Jeff the meeting. But nobody believe TNA would get the RAW Monday night timeslot.
Well……
Join us next time as we discuss the next huge game changer for TNA wrestling, as it makes the move to prime time.