TNA is coming for AEW

[ECA]

NXT couldn’t do it byke when it was still interesting. What makes them think a company led by Top Dolla can keep up?

 

[mannyrs13]

AEW been doing a good enough job of sabotaging themselves for damn near three years now. they started off hot in 2019 and kept the momentum going through 2022, but it's been a steady decline ever since.

their women's roster is still pretty damn solid though, but two thirds of their men's roster still aren't tall enough to ride any of the rides at Universal.

Hangman, Mox, MJF, Omega, and Ospreay are all six feet or taller. So are Swerve and Okada and Fletcher, latter two currently being champions. So most of the big stars are tall and they don't really bring in any indie vanilla midgets these days.

 

[Wolfpac]

I'm sure the AEW fanclub will welcome this. More competition in wrestling is good, right?

Yep, why doesn't WWE move Raw or Smackdown to Wednesday nights then? Since they fear no competition?

 

[TheAlbionist]

NXT raided every indy company there was AND they also completely killed the UK scene. They bought up every single wrestler from the UK/Scotland/Ireland, made it look like they were going to do partnerships and it never actually happened. Progress never recovered. ICW never recovered.

Do we remember Triple H at the time saying he wanted to do the same thing in Japan? Because I do... It just never happened because he ran out of money and resources after NXT UK was a failure.

@TheAlbionist can speak to this... the UK scene was decimated by WWE.

Ruined it.

They built up all sorts of good will with wrestling fans throughout NXT Black/Gold tbh and it allowed them to take advantage. When NXT brought Takeover: London over and we got our first proper WWE show in *decades* (even if it was developmental) that crowd absolutely LOVED Triple H - he got a hero's welcome.

They held the NXT: UK kick off events - those championship tournaments - intentionally in foundational territories for British wrestling to make it look like they were taking time to "understand" the scene. Norwich (the Knights), Blackpool (history going back a century) and then blew all the London promoters out of the water by booking the Royal Albert Hall and signing everyone's talent.

When NXT: UK launched I think people had hopes it would be a lynchpin for the various scenes in the UK... that they'd still exist and that NXT would be the tide that raises all boats, but WWE didn't want to collaborate with ICW, Progress or RevPro even though they helped get the UK Tournaments off the ground. It didn't want to share talent, it wanted to end competition and rewrite British wrestling history to focus on the few legends they'd also signed.

WWE still has a huge casual audience here, like it always will... most fans would never have been spending money on the indie scene anyway. But if you go to an indie show it's not just a tribal split *nobody* fukks with modern WWE... the celebrated story of RevPro and Progress is that they survived nuclear winter and worked themselves to the bone to keep a faint pulse in the scene's veins, but WWE killed most of the others and it's taken a decade to build back up... now it really feels like it's flourishing again. It feels like there's a resolve to never let it happen again.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

How will this even work. Is WWE going to get TNA a tv deal? I don't even know which channel broadcast TNA in the US. I guess this could benefit TNA if WWE gets them a network deal and possibly added to the WWE network. I see it for TNA as nothing to lose because might as well take this risk to get out of the current tier they're in.

I still don't understand why WWE is going this route because it's best to not put any attention to the competition. I think by putting attention to AEW will allow AEW to take some viewers if WWE's quality is mediocre.

Because TKO don't really understand the wrasslin business beyond the numbers. They think this is the opps we must crush and destroy them. And they have the perfect lacky in because his ego cannot help itself either.

It's stupid because anyone who knows anything about hardcore wrestling fans knows that they will become freedom fighters for a cause they believe to thumb their noses at the establishment.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Ruined it.

They built up all sorts of good will with wrestling fans throughout NXT Black/Gold tbh and it allowed them to take advantage. When NXT brought Takeover: London over and we got our first proper WWE show in *decades* (even if it was developmental) that crowd absolutely LOVED Triple H - he got a hero's welcome.

They held the NXT: UK kick off events - those championship tournaments - intentionally in foundational territories for British wrestling to make it look like they were taking time to "understand" the scene. Norwich (the Knights), Blackpool (history going back a century) and then blew all the London promoters out of the water by booking the Royal Albert Hall and signing everyone's talent.

When NXT: UK launched I think people had hopes it would be a lynchpin for the various scenes in the UK... that they'd still exist and that NXT would be the tide that raises all boats, but WWE didn't want to collaborate with ICW, Progress or RevPro even though they helped get the UK Tournaments off the ground. It didn't want to share talent, it wanted to end competition and rewrite British wrestling history to focus on the few legends they'd also signed.

WWE still has a huge casual audience here, like it always will... most fans would never have been spending money on the indie scene anyway. But if you go to an indie show it's not just a tribal split *nobody* fukks with modern WWE... the celebrated story of RevPro and Progress is that they survived nuclear winter and worked themselves to the bone to keep a faint pulse in the scene's veins, but WWE killed most of the others and it's taken a decade to build back up... now it really feels like it's flourishing again. It feels like there's a resolve to never let it happen again.

Going back to the dark days post WOS closure in the 80's. When did UK wrestling start to pick up again? FWA Doug Williams and Alex Shane era? Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch. When a Young American Dragon use to come over. Late 90's early 00's.

MMA took over the NW England region. But that was kinda expected considering its shooting roots and Bisping's rise in the UFC.

 

[richaveli83]

If anything, all these moves by WWE might spark another "us vs them" movement that galvanized the first 2 and a half years of AEW and fizzled by 2023.

The best thing WWE did was let AEW alone and let them have their issues. Forcing stuff now when WWE's product is being questioned more than in the past 4-5 years sounds like a dumb move.

Using TNA as a proxy is also, like why does TNA have to pay the price for TKO's arrogance

 

[TheAlbionist]

Going back to the dark days post WOS closure in the 80's. When did UK wrestling start to pick up again? FWA Doug Williams and Alex Shane era? Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch. When a Young American Dragon use to come over. Late 90's early 00's.

I do think that MMA kind of took over the NW England region. But that was kinda expected considering the shooting roots.

ICW had a great boom going until NXT UK really hit - made Grado a star, reinvented Drew Galloway/McIntyre, brought up people like Noam Dar, Big Damo etc.

They cosied up a bit too much, sold a bunch of content to the Network, flew too close to the sun with a huge show with lots of WWE names involved but then got trampled.

They are still around but nowhere near the force they used to be.

MMA took off HARD here, especially up north yep - vastly more people training for that than pro-wrestling.

 

[Art Barr]

What they did to roh and njpw being hand waived while still talking about how wwf killed the (racist redneck) Territory days is AMAZING lol

Roh and njpw killed themselves.

Nobody told roh to bury lethal for taven.
Nobody told njpw to emasculate the entire promotion for omega.
Then make everyone fodder for a champion. Who will not bench a baby set

Nobody told tna to bury aries for their precious wwe alum a second time either.
Nobody told tna.
to bury all their male talent for jawbone either.


fukk tna.



Art Barr

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

ICW had a great boom going until NXT UK really hit - made Grado a star, reinvented Drew Galloway/McIntyre, brought up people like Noam Dar, Big Damo etc.

They cosied up a bit too much, sold a bunch of content to the Network, flew too close to the sun with a huge show with lots of WWE names involved but then got trampled.

They are still around but nowhere near the force they used to be.

MMA took off HARD here, especially up north yep - vastly more people training for that than pro-wrestling.

You and I know both know there's nothing more the UK love doing than selling out for a pound note. Can start with the Car industry back in the 90's all the way through to businesses properties football teams throughout the 00's and 10's etc etc.

 

[WhatsGoodTy]

It's like picking between two ugly girls to have sex with... They both still ugly..TNA don't got no real stars compared to AEW it's just AEW is so sack outside of a ppv.

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

As if TSC wasn’t in shambles enough. More shytty business practices happening to make it worse.

 

[Reality Check]

Interesting how TSC all-stars are trying to make this thread about AEW "killing" other promotions instead of questioning why the #1 wrestling promotion, with multiple bags secured, is not only not-confident in their on-screen product, but is using puppet promotions to try taking down AEW instead of using that energy to put out a better product.

When you are #1, punching down to your competition is a sign of insecurity. McMahon knew that, Bischoff did not.

 

[TheAlbionist]

You and I know both know there's nothing more the UK love doing than selling out for a pound note. Can start with the Car industry back in the 90's all the way through to businesses properties football teams throughout the 00's and 10's etc etc.

Yeah, this is just our national personality post-Thatcher.

Sold almost all the biggest sports clubs to the US and the Middle East. Sold half of London to Qatar and Russia. Sold out our Steel production infrastructure to China and then got surprised when they tried to shut it all down. Sold our electricity supply to China and France who have kept all their shyt publicly owned. My Electricity bill literally goes straight to the French government.

We're the fukking worst.

NXT: UK was just par for the course really, we're just lucky that people like Andy Quildan exist and give a shyt about the talent they use.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

So you agree that Vince didn't kill the territories in the 80s, then?

No, Vince didn't "kill all of the territories" in the 80s. They all have their own story. There's a couple he ruined but many that ruined themselves. I can give you a history lesson on that too