Lance Storm's TNA rant

Mr.Nice Guy

I really like TNA and am willing it to succeed and help the industry but having watched the show this week, it was just a total mess. Lance Storm over on his site has vented his fury on the way things are and has vowed to boycott the product until Russo is removed from Creative:

I know I do this a lot but I am about to go on another TNA rant. I didn’t want to but I got so worked up and angry after watching this week’s show I had to get this off my chest. I can however promise that this will be my last TNA rant for a while because I am now officially boycotting TNA until Vince Russo is removed from the creative process. How a company with such an amazingly talented locker room can produce such an unwatchable show is beyond me. Actually it isn’t beyond me I watched Vince Russo do it in WCW. There is an old expression: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Someone needs to explain the history of WCW to Dixie Carter.

I have come to the conclusion that TNA is to Wrestling, what Scary Movie is to Horror Films. It has become a comedic spoof of a wrestling show. No sane rational person would act the way people do in TNA. Chris Sabin in an effort to make fun of Jerry Lynn’s age shows up in a bathrobe, using a walker, and wearing depends. Is he six? Who would do this? It felt like a bugs bunny cartoon. Why would Jerry be mad that Sabin is making himself look like an idiot?

Ron Killings stuff looked like a bad SNL skit. He said he was going Hollywood and going to be a big star so we now get to see him doing bad movie trailer spoofs. What is meant to be accomplished by this?

Counting Cornette and valets there were 39 people on this Freakin show. How are we supposed to remember any of it? What purpose did Bob Backlund serve? Why is Sonjay Dutt now posing? Has Big Kev convinced him that he is on the gas?

The LAX thing was beyond unbelievable.
Mike Tenay is handed video footage of a horrific violent crime against innocent people he decides to:
A: Report said violent crime to police and hand over the video evidence.
B: Air the footage and act disgusted and mad.

After having close family members viscously attacked and assaulted, Team 3D:
A: Reports said violent crime to police sending the people who assaulted their family to prison.
B: Become so enraged that they track LAX down immediately seeking revenge.
C: Sends D-von to the weekly TV show to vow revenge next week.

Are we to believe that Sting now has magical powers, since he disappeared out of the back of the ambulance leaving only his “trade marked” baseball bat behind? That tiny cage behind James Mitchell during his promo, does the prison yard match take place inside that tiny thing? What was the point, was that incase we didn’t understand the concept of jail?

There were three matches on the show. All of them had outside interference and brawling after the match. We got a total of maybe 10 minutes of match time on the entire show, and they didn’t even bother to announce the result of the main event. Do finishes not matter? Doesn’t anyone care who won? I used to. To plug a PPV caliber main event then deliver a 3 minutes match with no finish is asinine. If that is a PPV caliber match I will never order a PPV. It is also insane considering the PPV caliber Main Event match that Edge and HBK delivered on RAW just over a week ago.

The show is called Total Non-Stop Action yet we get almost no action and when we do get some it is over shadowed by endless run ins, outside interference, and non-finishes. I am officially at wits end and will not watch another TNA show until they replace Vince Russo. Hopefully this will happen before TNA goes out of business, because if they do Vince McMahon will just end up with another video library and we will have to see all this nonsense again on 24/7.

Lance Storm

I have to agree with everything the man says. They start the show with their new line, "We are wrestling" before giving us a bunch of crap that is pretty much everything besides wrestling.

WWE are producing great TV and TNA are coming up with pure sh*t. I'm fearful for the company's future.

WWE are on the road to Wrestlemania but are TNA on Russo's road to ruin?

Vince135792003

Its been like this for a while, even when Russo wasn't there (it wasn't nearly as bad though). Just total bull**** tv shows.

I don't know how they expect their tv shows to persuade people to pay $30 each month. I just don't and I gave up watching 2 months ago. And then they wonder why they still have the same 30 thousand people buying their shows after 4 years.

The infuriating thing is that TNA could be great. Its got things going for it. They have big wrestling names Sting and Angle. They have a really talented roster. They have a good time slot. They generally put on good pay per views.

But it doesn't matter a dam if your putting on shows that a. make no sense and b. don't persuade people to buy their pay per views.

On a positive, they will be getting a few specials on the Raw time slot this month. They'll be highlighting the best of TNA instead of putting on a show. It could be a big oppurtunity and I'd trust them to do a really good complilation show rather than having to do create a new show.

I hope they make the most if it. They haven't exactly done the best job of capitalising on oppurtunities lately.

Minto

TNA definatly need to pick up their game. Lately TNA have been very poor as a product and WWE are starting to fix thier product (with the exception of ECW).

When Angle left WWE for TNA, I thought it would be like when Hogan went to WCW in '94, how wrong I was. TNA has potential, a lot of potential, but it has to ditch Russo.

Fozzy

I watched the last two episodes of Impact last night, and I found myself asking a lot of questions. Some of the same things that Lance asked. I didn't realise how bad the finishes to the matches were until I read that, I don't generally seem to remember who won a match within 5 minutes of it, but the feeling is still there, and I did feel kind ripped-off

There was something Meltzer reported about a month or so ago about TNA officials not being happy with Impact, as it's supposed to get people to buy their ppv's, yet it's nothing like their ppv's. I think that if they get their 2 hour show they'll be better able to showcase the wrestling talent each week, but I worry about Russo's influence being twice as much then

I don't know about WWE producing "great tv" though.. The Rumble was a good show. I haven't seen Raw this week, but the reports I read made it sound kinda crap, apart from the WM main event storyline build-up. ECW was the same as usual I suppose. I just read a couple of good things about SD this week, have to check out the Finlay vs Benoit match later, but it still sounded like there were a lot of negatives

Supposedly Cornette has been questioning Russo in the TNA booking meetings every time he suggests an angle or segment that doesn't make sense. Looks like it hasn't had much effect though

Vince135792003

I don't it matters that TNA doesn't have 2 hours. There would be just more **** then. 60 minutes is enough time to put on a good show. They try and do too much rubbish and nothing gets over or means anything. I never remember anything about a show of theirs a day later.

On WWE, I'm really enjoying for the first time lately. For the last 6 weeks or so Raw and Smackdown (with notable exceptions) have been good to very good for me.

With Smackdown, your generally guaranteed good wrestling and the booking of the title has been fun, logical stuff.

Raw has a had a really good feel to it too lately I think and its got a decent amount of guys who the audience are really into.

The Rumble was a thumbs up show for me especially the ending which was so well done. I'm really interested to see where they go with 'Mania which makes No Way Out even more intriguing.

So I think things are looking up for the WWE in 2007.

Terry

I'm convinced that russo is getting back handers from mcmahon. I have been for years. He is a glorified sitcom writer. also, who the hell is letting Nash book matches? I loved the NWO gimmick when it started and totally marked out for it, but his storylines became tired after a while. they haven't improved.

rizzla

I posted this on another forum....

Some of his points I agree with, but for the most part he just comes off as being bitter.

Most of the stuff presented in wrestling can be considered a criminal offence, if all backstage fighting and sneak attacks where reported as assault's to the police it wouldn't be considered entertainment. Sure the L.A.X thing was intense, Homicide picking up the butchers knife was a little OTT but it put across L.A.X's gimmick as violent thugs, 5150, it served it's purpose and gives a solid reason to why Team 3D and L.A.X should fight.

Also, Chris Sabin doing the imitaion, perfectly suits his character, a cocky Jackass with no respect. Sure it wasn't the most entertaining thing, but it was kept short and served it's purpose.

WTF Bob Backlund is all I have to say on that.

"Ron Killings stuff looked like a bad SNL skit" - I think that's the look they where trying to go for, especially with thge boom mic coming into shot. Dunno what the point of it was though, it served no purpose. EDIT: Turns out this Skit was another pop at the WWE and John Cena. Stupid me.

"Are we to believe that Sting now has magical powers, since he disappeared out of the back of the ambulance leaving only his trade marked baseball bat behind? " - Please, it's wrestling, full of OTT characters, are we really meant to believe Undertaker is an actual Dead Man. As for the Prison Yard match, I'm sure the cage has some connection with the stipulation of the match, as well as the other props that where around ringside. Not just a visual cue as to what a Jail actually looks like. TNA want to create some buzz about the match so more than likely they will full explain the rules on the PPV.

Overall I thought the show was good. Agree with what Storm says about the matches, I would like less run ins and more conclusive finishes, but they do only have an hour and want all their storylines to be mentioned on the show so to devlop the card of their PPV.

Mr.Nice Guy

rizzla wrote:

Some of his points I agree with, but for the most part he just comes off as being bitter.

Why would he be bitter? He has some of his best friends in the company such as Christian Cage.

Vince135792003

rizzla wrote:

but they do only have an hour and want all their storylines to be mentioned on the show so to develop the card of their PPV.

I completely disagree. Only an hour? Yeah they only have an hour. And in that hour we've had VKM wasting time promoting a fight that was never gonna happen, X division guys doing push ups and Killings doing bizarre skits about The Marine that are 3 months out of date.


If you've only got an hour, use it more efficiently. Don't use it on a bunch of **** that wont mean anything or sell a pay per view. Concentrate on the things that matter. Concentrate on the main event.

Putting 35 guys on a 45 minute show (less adverts) gets nothing over. It all becomes just a blur and nothing means a thing.


On Lance Strom being bitter, I completely disagree again. He was on figure four yesterday (which is really worth a listen www.f4wonline.com) and he didn't come across bitter discussing TNA. He came across as ever logical and reasonable.

Lance's basic point was the reason he criticises TNA is because he cares and wants it to succeed. But when he sees mistake after mistake in his opinion, it annoys him.

Plus why would he be bitter? The guy has it made. He saved his money, has his school booked up though September, can wrestle when he wants and has a clean bill of health at 37 in terms of substance abuse. Unfortunately not everybody in wrestling end up like that. Look at Bam Bam.

rizzla

I never said he WAS bitter, I said upon reading what he wrote he seems to come off as bitter.

"Yeah they only have an hour. And in that hour we've had VKM wasting time promoting a fight that was never gonna happen" -You can see the logic behind that though, marks would be buying into like it will/would/could happen.

"X division guys doing push ups" - I found the PCS skits alritght, most they ever took up was 5mins, now that it's gone now hopefully they'll have them wrestle.

"Killings doing bizarre skits about The Marine that are 3 months out of date" - Waste of talent really, I loved The Truth when he was running with the racism angle, some of his best promo's.

As I said I hate the crappy finishes but some of the stuff Strom points out is also present in the WWE at the moment.

Vince135792003

rizzla wrote:

As I said I hate the crappy finishes but some of the stuff Strom points out is also present in the WWE at the moment.

Of course but the WWE even at its worst still makes money. The WWE can make a hundread mistakes on tv (not they have lately) but because of their name value, the following they have built up over 20 plus years and the way the company has structured itself, they are almost guaranteed to not lose money.

Making mistakes matters a whole lot more to TNA. They can't afford to.


On VKM- There is no logic behind it. Promote somthing well you can deliver on. Don't waste time on something that leads to a a flipping promo.

And if marks did buy into it, what did it lead to? A ****ing Christy Hemme promo. So stupid. And it didn't make an ounce of money.

X division skits- They have ruined the X division. It was the one thing that really gave TNA its identity. I really loved it and they killed all its momentum. The only thing those skits got over was that Nash is a funny guy. They were made to look like a bunch of kids.

Gillie

Terry wrote:

I'm convinced that russo is getting back handers from mcmahon. I have been for years.

You've been getting Back Handers from Vince McMahon?:eek:

oneofakind32

Well, I have to say I have been watching TNA over the internet for the past 3 or 4 months and I realy enjoy it. I keeps your attenion in a way that no WWE show dose theese days. After reading what Lance Storm says I can see where he is coming from. Sting dissapearing from the ambulance makes absolutly no sence and will probably never be explained but I am willing to let it slide. I didnt notice that all 3 matches ended with interferience but I did notice that for the last 2 weeks the main event ended that way, which is shame because they were two matchs with great potential. I find the PCS and Eric Young skits highly entertaining. VKM was good for awhile but I think its time has come. You just dont get good skits on WWE anymore (from what Iv seen latly which I'll admit is'nt much)

oneofakind32

Vince135792003 wrote:

Of course but the WWE even at its worst still makes money. The WWE can make a hundread mistakes on tv (not they have lately) but because of their name value, the following they have built up over 20 plus years and the way the company has structured itself, they are almost guaranteed to not lose money.

Making mistakes matters a whole lot more to TNA. They can't afford to.


On VKM- There is no logic behind it. Promote somthing well you can deliver on. Don't waste time on something that leads to a a flipping promo.

And if marks did buy into it, what did it lead to? A ****ing Christy Hemme promo. So stupid. And it didn't make an ounce of money.

X division skits- They have ruined the X division. It was the one thing that really gave TNA its identity. I really loved it and they killed all its momentum. The only thing those skits got over was that Nash is a funny guy. They were made to look like a bunch of kids.

I think its hard to run storylines to fill a 3 hour ppv every month and book decent matches in a one hour show. You see very little of the type of match that made the X-devision back in the day on Impact.
Impact has the same size roster as Raw and Smackdown but only one hours TV time, the fact that it is so condenced and fast moving means you dont see the same stuff every week and hence it dosnt get stale.

Vince135792003

oneofakind32 wrote:

I think its hard to run storylines to fill a 3 hour ppv every month e.

The point is you don't have to. Not every match has to have some run in, or swerve, or a turn or a pole or a weird storyline that doesn't make any sense to have a match on ppv.

The more angles you do, the less they mean. If you've only got an hour push the main event hard on your tv. Push a couple of other matches and thats all you need. If you try and get over a hundread things on tv, nothing means a thing.

And thats why despite having Angle, despite having Sting, despite being on in primetime and despite having a great roster they are stuck on a treadmill doing the same numbers month after month.

The whole 60 minutes thing bothers me. If people think you can't book a show that is entertaining, has wrestling and promotes your ppv, watch Cornettes booking at OVW in 2002.

If TNA has 50 wrestlers on its roster, that doesn't mean you have to put 70% of them on your tv every week. They have 45 minutes. Its about focusing on what matters. Its about focusing on what will draw. When you put too many guys on your tv, when you have too many matches with inconclusive or bull**** endings nobody gets over.

Double C

Here's what Storm would bo if he was booking TNA:

From stormwrestling.com

I figured with all of my complaining about how TNA is booked I could at least offer my two cents on what I would do if I were in charge. I’m not going to get into who I would push or not push and why, or even offer any specific angles I’m going to talk more about show structure and general direction than anything else, because that is one of the biggest problems I have with the current show.

We hear all the time the complaint that TNA needs to be 2-hours. I won’t dispute that the show could benefit greatly from an additional hour but they don’t have it so there is no point complaining about it they need to make the best use of the hour they have. In a 1-hour TV program you have approximately 44-minutes of content and 16 minutes of commercial time. This week’s TNA show had approximately 6 ½ minutes of actual match time air on the show, which means that fans actually saw more than twice as many commercials minutes as they did wrestling minutes on a wrestling program. This to me is crazy and I would NEVER have less match time that commercial time on the program. I would aim for closer to 20 minutes of match time as a show minimum.

There are those out there that will say you can’t build enough angles, or tell enough stories with so much of the show dedicated to matches but I disagree. I think the problem is they are currently trying to tell too many stories in one show, and over looking the fact that some stories can be told in the ring.

I would break the show into 4 10 to 12 minute segments. If commercial breaks require it, some segments would span commercial breaks, 3 of those segments will almost always feature matches. One of those segments each week would be devoted to the X-Division, and I would focus less on “Story Lines” with the X-Division and give it more of a pure wrestling feel. You can book some angles along the way but predominantly it would be about competitive high-end action. I would also keep these finishes as clean as possible. I think most of the appeal to the X-Division is the action so by simplifying the angles here will allow for more story based stuff elsewhere. There are a lot of “spot junkies” out there, this will give them there fill, and by giving the X Guys 8-10 minutes of actual bell to bell ring time they will be able to get their personalities over more during matches.

The other main Segment each week would focus on the Heavy Weight Title. As far as I’m concerned if your Championship program isn’t the focus of your show you have the title on the wrong guy. You make the NWA Title important by featuring that program. This segment may not always be a match but it needs to be strong and important. You also almost NEVER beat your champion, he needs to be strong, you cant’ be Mr. Nice guy and try to protect all of his challengers. If you have a match for this segment give it serious time 12-15 minutes and trim minutes from the least important segment which won’t need to be a match segment anyway.

The 3rd segment would alternate each week, featuring your #2 and #3 angles, either the Tag Title picture or a featured non-title program. This should also feature a 6-10 minute match. I would avoid trying to get 2 or more angles over with one match, each segment would be more strictly focused on the one specific angle. I find when you book a match between 2 guys with unrelated angles just to have their respective angles run together to avoid a finish, both issues get watered down. You want to focus and paint vivid pictures for the audience to follow.

The 4th Segment would vary depending on the rest of the show. If the NWA Title segment featured a match, their extra minutes would come out of this segment and the minutes left could be evenly spread out on the show and would consist of the needed interviews, video packages, PPV plugs, angle re-cap, and DVD release information type stuff. The interviews and recaps would remind fans of the angles and talent not featured on this show. If there wasn’t a match involved in the title segment, this segment could highlight a shorter strong win type match for someone needing a clean win on TV or involve a minor underneath angle, and still get the other recap and video stuff covered.

With this structure, there will be weeks where guys aren’t on the show, but I think that will make when they are on the show mean more. This format will only be able to feature 4 strong angled matches for PPV purposes but I think if your top 4 angles aren’t selling the show a weak 5th and 6th angle won’t do it either. You still announce and plug the other matches and when possible slide them into that variable 4th segment.

With the show set up this way we get 3 matches per show with an average length of 8-10 minutes, which would give fans 25 to 30 minutes of wrestling, and still allow 8 to 13 minutes for promos, angle recaps, etc. Before you math majors out there tell me that that only totals 38 minutes, I’m allowing for ring entrances etc, which take time as well. If there is a need once in a while for 2 strong talking, non-wrestling segments we are still left with 2 10-minute matches and more wrestling minutes than commercial minutes.

With this you still need to book all of the angles, but you’ve got a structure and format that is easy to follow and gives 3 current programs time to focus each week. Fans need to care about and remember what they see; if you do too much it just all blends together and becomes forgotten. I think it far better to feature and get over 10 guys than cram 35 people on to one show and have most of those get forgotten in the shuffle.

Lance Storm.

It would be great to see a guy with a wrestling brain like Lance to book a show like Impact to make that show watchable again. Then again it would be just as good to see a monkey in charge, it would be an improvement on Vinny.

rizzla

It's nicely done and put. I would like to see it put into practice. My only problem would be if you where to watch this same formulae for a whole year the show would become stale. It's a great idea to divide the short time there given and still make it mean something. It would also be a vast improvement on the current product.

I'd like to hear some proposed storylines by him.

Fozzy

rizzla wrote:

My only problem would be if you where to watch this same formulae for a whole year the show would become stale.

How would it become stale? He's not suggesting that the same angle be done time and time again, just that there should be a part of the show that features the angle that the champ is in, and that the X-Divison guys should be on the show each week. That's not goin to make it stale, that's just logical booking, it's promoting the top feud and giving time to the guy's who make TNA unique

Mr.Nice Guy

Damn, maybe Lance and the rest of us are out of touch though...

TNA Impact this past Thursday, headlined by the return of Scott Steiner and a main event featuring Samoa Joe & Kurt Angle vs. NWA champion Christian Cage & AJ Styles scored a 1.12 rating, with a record 1.6 million viewers watching the episode. That is the highest audience viewership in TNA's four year history.

- PWInsider

I knew Americans put up with crap on their TV but wow. I didn't even bother to watch this week's TNA.

Fozzy

I saw it last night, it was same old stuff really. The three matches all ended cleanly this time, although I just read the total amount of wrestling time on the show: 6 minutes and 7 seconds. There wasn't even three minutes of wrestling in the first half of the show, and the commercials during the main event were as long as the actual wrestling shown from the main event

I really did find myself getting lost a lot during the show. It must be even worse than it used to be, as I used to be able to keep track of most of the stuff. They tried to get 4 angles over in the one match, which was a bit too much. AJ actually cut a decent promo, even though he did compare himself to a bug. But then Christian came in and kinda ruined Styles' serious tone with some comedy

The ppv will probably have some decent wrestling though

Vince135792003

The Nielsen ratings have just started tracking the college student audience (don't ask me how it works).

It could be a factor in the recent rise in both TNA and WWE ratings given that 18-25 years are key component of the wrestling demographic.

I also think TNA have suffered from under exposure for a long time. And maybe its a case that more people are beginning to know they exist.

I'd still be shocked if it led to a rise in the number of ppv buyers. And to be getting 1.6 million viewers and maybe getting 45,000 (which is being optimistic) is not the sign of a company promoting well.

These next few days will be interesting for TNA though.