TNA Impact Script (contains future Impact Spoilers if you're that concerned)

Fozzy

So just before I head to bed I come across this leaked script of Impact to air on the 3rd of January next year. The episode has already been taped so I'm pretty sure it's not a fake. That can be checked easily enough by looking at the spoilers for the show. I haven't got the time to read it all but I'm sure there's a few interesting thing you can take away from it. For instance, it lists which "producers" (I see they're already following WWE's ideas) do which segments, so we can find out just how responsible Russo really is for some of the nonsense they put on tv

It's available at this link in pdf format: http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=290231&da=y

Actually, I took a quick look through the producer bits there, looks like Russo is in charge of every speaking bit that goes on, and there's an awful lot of them

Vince135792003

I know nothing about writing tv shows but 23 pages of a script is an awful lot considering theoretically, we're talking about a wrestling show.

Bubs101

Didn't think it was that bad but I found it strange that Tomko won a confrontation with Kurt

bombidol

23 Pages of script is pretty small. Consider that a 30 second TV commercial probably gets broken down into a 50 page manuscript. When dealing with TV or movies every single second must be accounted for.

Vince135792003

bombidol wrote: »

23 Pages of script is pretty small. Consider that a 30 second TV commercial probably gets broken down into a 50 page manuscript. When dealing with TV or movies every single second must be accounted for.

This is a weekly tv show which is supposed to be about wrestling. Maybe 23 pages is pretty standard but my head was sore from reading it all the dialogue.

There's just too much stuff from the company who says at the start of every show "We are wrestling".


I caught a bit of Impact last week specifically to see the Christian/Nash skit. It was about half way through the programe and even by skipping bits on dailymotion I couldn't get over the fact that I had basically only gotten through half of the show. Just too much stuff going on.

bombidol

I do agree, theres too much nonsense and not enough action for my own personal tastes.

rizzla

I didn't read it, but I'm studying film and the general rule with scripts is that 1 formated script page equals 1 minute of run time.

Vince135792003

rizzla wrote: »

I didn't read it, but I'm studying film .

If you do decide to read it, have 2 panadol and a glass of water beside you before you start.

Fozzy

AGH! I just read it and I feel like I've watched it, it sounds bad! There's four Royal Rumble style matches on the show! Three or four weeks before the actual Rumble. And these matches don't seem to have any reason to them at all. Cornette says that they're to determine the rankings for the divisions, but it's the last show before a PPV. Why would you have what is basically a number one contenders match on the show before a PPV?! Why would you have four?! Those matches might make people interested in the future title matches, but it does nothing for the PPV! Christian wins one, but he's already got a title match at the PPV. So if he loses the PPV match, does he still remain the top contender?! How?! Why?! ODB wins the women's match yet she's nowhere on the PPV card. Same goes for Petey Williams in the X-Division match. There's actually a women's title match on the PPV, and since ODB is a heel, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the face (Gail Kim) leaves the PPV with the title

Crystal the backstage interviewer is in at least six segments. HHH doesn't take up that much screen time, even when he's at his worst! There's so much talking on the show, and of course Russo's name is beside every single one of the talking segments. The man who doesn't believe that people watch wrestling shows for the wrestling. And they do watch for all this talking?! I'm going to go count them

Ok, five times during the show we're brought to AJ's house with Borash. There's seven backstage interviews, I might have miscounted the times Crystal is on. There's two in-ring talking segments and two PPV card rundowns by the commentators. Why is there a need for all that?! This just hurts my head! I did a quick rundown of the match times, the average match is eight minutes long, and keep in mind that a lot of the camera time will be focused on all the entrances rather than the matches taking place. Only one match doesn't have a break in the middle of it, and that one lasts six minutes. TNA are not wrestling!

A script for Raw was leaked a couple of years ago, I'm not sure if it was the full thing or not, but you can see five pages of it here: http://www.wrestlingfever.de/rawscript.htm

The first four pages cover nearly an hour, there seem to be a page missing and then the fifth page fits in. So that's six pages to cover nearly an hour and a half. About one third the length of TNA's script. Although TNA's script does leave a lot of empty space for breaks, so it's probably closer to twice the length of WWE's script. And more than twice as bad

Gerard.C

So I take it that none of us will be watching this episode then?

Wahey!

ShaneU

Interesting that they're turning the supposed samoa joe "shoot" into an angle with Nash.

Fozzy

Nice of them to involve the personal problems of a guy who doesn't work for the company in an angle though

Bubs101

Fozzy wrote: »

Nice of them to involve the personal problems of a guy who doesn't work for the company in an angle though

Assuming that's sarcastic that is ridiculously harsh. He no showed a PPV. They have every right to slag the **** out of him. Ironically, I probably will watch that Impact, I like AJ's segments

Fozzy

Bubs101 wrote: »

Assuming that's sarcastic that is ridiculously harsh. He no showed a PPV. They have every right to slag the **** out of him. Ironically, I probably will watch that Impact, I like AJ's segments

They're now insinuating on tv that he missed it because of his alcohol problem. If that's true, or if he did miss it because of some other problem, then it's not very sensitive of them. If you had a drink problem I really doubt that you'd appreciate it being broadcast on national tv for several weeks while having your character questioned. It's not going to help you get any better. And if he did miss the PPV due to a legitimate reason, then it's just cruel on TNA's part to give people that impression of Scott Hall

Bubs101

Did he have a legitamate reason. The food poisoning wasn't confrimed. I can see we won't agree on this but I think TNA have the right to say whatever they want about him ATM. I doubt it's that far off the mark either or otherwise presumably Nash would refuse to do it

Mr.Nice Guy

The Drinking Championship Series? Did I read that right?

I liked this bit in particular from the script:

- Kurt walks off

- Crystal and Karen look at each other confused

I suspect they won't be the only ones.

Fozzy

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The Drinking Championship Series? Did I read that right?

Yeah, have you not been watching recently?! I think Eric Young won it off James Storm a couple of PPVs ago

Gerard.C

Crystal: Did he just say what I think he said?
Karen (fustrated): Yes

So, there you have it. Karen Angle can read peoples minds! She knows what you're thinking!

Mr.Nice Guy

Fozzy wrote: »

Yeah, have you not been watching recently?! I think Eric Young won it off James Storm a couple of PPVs ago

Wow that's incredible. TNA - We are...uh, drinking.

Bubs101

The drinking title is one of the best things going in TNA.

Storm has been gold with his feuds so far this year. One of the few bright spots in the last 6 months of TNA

Vince135792003

Bubs101 wrote: »

The drinking title is one of the best things going in TNA.

Would you pay 30 dollars each month to see it be defended?

Bubs101

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Would you pay 30 dollars each month to see it be defended?

I would consider wathcing it for free the next day on the net if they made it a drunken ultimate X

Fozzy

Has James Storm done much in the last six months apart from drink with Eric Young? I don't think I've seen him wrestle since he was feuding with Chris Harris

Does anyone remember when Team Canada was getting disbanded and the fans truly cared about Eric Young? The guy won me over in the space of a month. Now he's just some goofy guy who still thinks that he might be fired soon

Vince135792003

Bubs101 wrote: »

I would consider wathcing it for free the next day on the net if they made it a drunken ultimate X

There you go. You wouldn't even pay for it.

rizzla

Vince135792003 wrote: »

There you go. You wouldn't even pay for it.

I've never paid for a wrestling event but still wouldn't waste my bandwith on WWE.

Bubs101

Vince135792003 wrote: »

There you go. You wouldn't even pay for it.

The only event that I would ever consider paying for would be the Rumble. TBH, I don't see the point in paying when it's so readily available the next day

Bubs101

Fozzy wrote: »

Has James Storm done much in the last six months apart from drink with Eric Young? I don't think I've seen him wrestle since he was feuding with Chris Harris

Well, I personally think his feud with Harris is the best of the year (maybe a tie with hardy MVP) culminating in my MOTY. After that he was in a feud with Rhyno which had some great promos. I have been really impressed by him

Vince135792003

Bubs101 wrote: »

The only event that I would ever consider paying for would be the Rumble. TBH, I don't see the point in paying when it's so readily available the next day

Sometimes I pay for things because I know I'll get quality.

For example I've seen the HBK dvd but I'm gonna buy it anyway because it's a quality product that I'll know I'll get my moneys worth by buying it.

You wouldn't know you would be getting a quality ppv which TNA do ocassionally (they were much more consistent in the past on ppv) from watching their own tv show. That's the issue. And as a result, their buy rates are tiny because their tv show does a horrendous job at making people want to put their ppv shows.

Gerard.C

Bubs101 wrote: »

Well, I personally think his feud with Harris is the best of the year (maybe a tie with hardy MVP) culminating in my MOTY. After that he was in a feud with Rhyno which had some great promos. I have been really impressed by him

James Storm is great. He could be huge if he is pushed right........ so, y'know, don't expect that from TNA....