For old age , the forwarding cognize as TNA fought to be seen as an choice to WWE , a oasis for wrestling fans who had grown disillusioned with what WWE was providing . And at multiplication , they did manage to succeed , putting on well - received show , make new stars , and they even keep the ship’s company afloat for over thirteen year despite a variety of obstacles , many of them ego - visit . unluckily , for every step TNA adopt forward , it seemed like they would do something that induce them to slide two or three step rearwards , an unsustainable model no matter how you look at it , especially for a fellowship trying to compete with a multi - million - dollar behemoth of an opposer like WWE . The mistakes of TNA are many , and these are the one that help oneself ensure that not only would they never be even close-fitting to competing direct with WWE , but also seriously jeopardized any luck they may have had of hold out .
12. The Name On The Marquee
The bad thing TNA did , decent out of the gate , which repeatedly prevented them from being taken badly , was name their company TNA . Sure , they constantly did their little song - and - dance about how it tolerate for “ Total Nonstop Action ” , but when it got right on down to it , they were a wrestling company that deliberately decided to utilise a dirty punning as their name , so as to pretend that they were edgy and coolheaded . As a result , they straight off made any dealing with legitimate line much severely than they need to be . What company wants to shop something that sounds like a smut magazine ? What boob tube meshwork would want that name airing on their channel ( the resolution finally turn out to be Spike TV , back when it was deep in its “ we ’re the manly channel for world , which means dope and gunman and curse wrangle ” form that had a like grade - school mentality as TNA ) ? Did they recollect ESPN was ever go bad to utter the words “ TNA ” in anything but a derogative way , no matter how many baseball players and race automobile drivers they got to seem on Impact ? For years , fans hoped that the next re - branding of the ship’s company would erase the name and alter it to something more suit a serious wrestling promotion , and every time , they were abnegate .
11. Repeatedly Trying To Make The nWo Happen Again And Again
For everyone who accuses WWE of judge to retake the magic trick of the Attitude Era , we give you TNA , which spent most of its life going even further back and trying to recapture the magic of the initial personification of the New World Order . To be mediocre , that stable turned the wrestling world on its head , impel WCW to the # 1 organization in the world , and made heap and lot of money . And then it hale on and tanked the ship’s company , but take over that someone had learn from those mistakes , it ’s not the worst thought to copy . Except TNA just proceed go back to the well . From Sports Entertainment Xtreme to Planet Jarrett to the Main Event Mafia to Aces and Eights , and another half - dozen incarnations , TNA just would n’t get away from the idea of a cad faction that dominated the company as a major part of their storylines . And then , just like the original nWo , they would always forget two thing :
1 . build up a babyface or group of babyfaces to tumble the junto with a decisive victory
2 . Not dragging the slant out for months on end because you did n’t do the first thing , and then just abandoning the intact matter without a resolution
Every single meter , TNA would build up up this massive , unbeatable evil sect , and then extend to deny fan a great blowoff where the group was destroy forever , delaying continuously until nobody worry , and then birth the faction but disband and go off , only to be replaced , sooner or later , by another one . Hey , if we told you that the writing staff for TNA included regularly over its life-time names like Eric Bischoff , Hulk Hogan , and Vince Russo , would you be horribly surprised ?
10. The Monday Night “War”
Thanks to several months of seemly appearance that had the ship’s company making pregnant gain in public perception , TNA developed more than a little hubris and decided that the time was right to take the engagement straightaway to the # 1 show in township . And in a mistake that everyone except TNA direction and Spike TV visit coming , an promulgation was made that the society was run to compete directly against WWE ’s flagship show , Monday Night Raw . TNA Impact became a live show that would air on Monday nights , with the first hour airing unopposed , then straight off contend with Raw for the second hour . It was a formula that WCW used when they were beating Raw in the Monday Night Wars , and TNA somehow believe that they could bump similar achiever . Except TNA was n’t WCW , they had neither the fanbase nor the industry - changing slant of the New World Order ( although they did sign Hogan , Hall , Nash , and Sean Waltman to deals that get down with the first Monday show ) , and WWE was now a massive corporate megalith that was never go to be dumb enough to permit another packaging even endeavor to compete with them . Now , it did n’t avail that TNA put on a fearful first show of the supposed new Monday Night Wars , but even if they ’d put on a keen show , it in all probability would n’t have matter , as WWE countered by promoting the first appearance of Bret Hart in a WWE gang since the Montreal Screwjob . TNA ’s attempt to contend was stagnant in the water before it even began , and after several calendar week of floundering , they were storm to give up and move back to a different night , lose a significant share of their audience in the process .
9. Hulk Hogan
Remember when we offhanded mentioned that TNA signed Hulk Hogan as part of their attempt to compete with WWE ? Well , they did n’t just make for Hogan in to be an on - screen fictional character , they truly think he ( and Eric Bischoff , because at that point the two were a software program deal ) was the big name and the wrestling mind they needed to get to the Promised Land . Honestly , if Hogan had only been involved to come along on TV , thing might not have conk out quite as awfully , because his on - screen reference while working for TNA was n’t bad once he slipped into a non - wrestling assurance figure role . But no , Hogan was also involved hard in a behind - the - scenes function in TNA , and while nobody was last to let him hold himself as the World Champion or anything , his influence did still lead to many decisions that helped stultify TNA in a mixed bag of ways . The most obvious , of row , was that he bestow in a bunch of his Quaker , many of whom were years ( and in some cases , over a decade ) past their peak and actively take away from the on - screen intersection , and one of whom , radio jounce jock Bubba The Love Sponge , actually ended up repeatedly giving TNA bad public relations due to his actions , most notably his goading of TNA Knockout Awesome Kong , who had literally been the human face of the women ’s division , which was seen as a bright smirch in the company , that finally drove her out of TNA . But Hogan also push for TNA to leave the Impact Zone and begin tour , find monolithic production expenses that the company was unable to set off with ticket sales , and which also result them without a rest home once the experimentation fail , thanks to Universal Studios give the construction to someone else in the interim .
8. Not Understanding Their Audience
away from WWE ruthlessly crushing their attempt to compete on Monday Nox ( and after a couple weeks , WWE did n’t even bother to pay attention anymore ) , lead the same night as WWE was likely foredoomed to bankruptcy in the planning stage . The trouble was , TNA see ratings from the original Monday Night Wars and assumed that by being an option to WWE , they had tree the market on disaffected WCW fans who had stopped watching writhe altogether when WWE bought the company , and that forge the majority of their fanbase and television viewership . However , as the move to Monday Nox proved , a large percentage of TNA ’s fanbase was in reality just writhe fans who catch both WWE and TNA , and when forced to pick out , ultimately sided with WWE . One of TNA ’s strengths was , in fact , that they were a wrestle show which aired on a night when there was n’t competition with WWE , which meant that fans who just want to watch a wrestle show had another option . If they had been slaked with that , and not stress to set out a war with WWE when they were massively outgunned , there ’s a very genuine fortune they could have continued to survive and even make little gains , rather than on the spur of the moment purge forth all their advance from the preceding year thanks to ridiculous hallucination of grandeur .
7. WWE Lite
for compete with WWE , you have to offer a grappling Cartesian product that is somehow unique , and unlike from what they provide . And in the early stages , it seemed like TNA actually knew this , by their establishment of the X Division at the inception of the fellowship , a partition which bring home the bacon some of the most exciting mates on a hebdomadary base , without restrain who could participate due to size ( the class ’s motto was “ It ’s not about weight limits , it ’s about no limit ” ) . Some of the biggest stars and best matches came out of the X Division , and several wrestler , such as AJ Styles , Christopher Daniels , and Samoa Joe , then moved on to the chief event , on the face of it guaranteeing TNA ’s futurity as a company that focus on corking wrestlers and fantastic wrestle . Similarly , years before WWE ’s “ Divas Revolution ” , TNA jump onto the concept of making charwoman ’s writhe legitimate again , bring in top stars like Awesome Kong , Gail Kim , and WWE ’s Victoria ( under the name Tara ) , lead to a Knockouts Division that often brought in the highest TV military rank on a weekly fundament . However , after incline on those division to build the company , when TNA decided to go up against WWE directly , they stopped trying to be unique and instead seek to emulate their competitors . The X Division was kick downstairs to a sideshow for wrestlers deemed “ too small ” to hang with the “ real ” wrestlers , and the Knockouts division regressed as well , with catfights and undertrained models replacing legitimate wrestler . By presenting something that was n’t any unlike from what WWE was offering , only on a small exfoliation with a lower budget , TNA made themselves look like deficient copycats , alternatively of a true alternative .
6. WWE Castoffs Over Homegrown Talent
Speaking of TNA copy WWE , one of the biggest factors working against TNA was its monumental inferiority composite . Nobody is saying they should n’t have signed former WWE adept like Christian , Kurt Angle , and The Dudley Boyz , because plain when you ’re a pocket-sized furtherance trying to get tending , have wrestlers on your show that mass already be intimate from WWE is a good manner to do that , and many of the wrestlers they picked up still had a lot to offer as character , and from an in - ring perspective . However , the real problem was that almost without elision , whenever a former WWE Superstar came into the company , they were directly limn as being far more important and better than wrestlers that had been with TNA since the rootage . Wrestlers like AJ Styles , Bobby Roode , and Samoa Joe ( who , ironically , are now well on their ways to becoming even bigger stars in WWE ) were often shunted away at a consequence ’s notice in favor of whatever WWE Superstar had been secrete on a give week , and those former WWE wrestlers were often put in select positions on the add-in and given profits and title of respect over loyal wrestlers who could have been star adequate to of carrying the company into the future . By the time TNA envision this out and turned to their homegrown star ( i.e. when they could no longer afford to pay bighearted - name talent ) , it was too previous , as many of them had grow tired of play 2d fiddle to WWE cast - offs , and began desolate the caller en masse .
5. Killing The Bound For Glory Series
One of TNA ’s bully ideas was the Bound For Glory Series , which was essentially a round - Turdus migratorius tourney lead up to their big PPV of the year . Basically , a dozen of TNA ’s top wrestlers would take part , and in the months before the PPV , every match they were involved in was deserving various numbers of “ points ” . point were track , with a leaderboard displayed regularly during Impact , and most of the hebdomadal programming was devote to the Series . At the final PPV before Bound For Glory , the top 4 wrestlers , ranked by points , faced off in a undivided voiding tournament , with the succeeder earning a TNA World Title shoot at Bound For glorification . Many fan , over the years , have begged wriggle companies to occasionally handle their product fairly like a legitimate sport , and the Bound For Glory serial did on the nose that . Plus , because rassling is pre - determined , and thanks to a high level of parity bit and talent on the roll , things were always interesting , as people moved up and down on a hebdomadary basis , and things stayed tight justly up until the final show , attempt to make the Top 4 . Plus , it meant that once a year , for several months , Impact was full of friction match with good wrestling that all had legitimate stakes , and an obvious intellect why they were happen , taking some weight off the engagement squad , and making Bound For Glory legitimately feel like the climax of TNA ’s hand-to-hand struggle calendar . It was a unique and enjoyable yearly effect that truly determine TNA apart . And then , for no reason , they just stopped doing it .
4. Losing The Support Of Panda Energy
have ’s be point-blank : the vast majority of wrestling companies do n’t make money . WCW only showed a profit for two age of its entire existence , and those gain were wiped out almost instantly when the caller started going downhill . WWE is the exception , not the regulation , and it require ruthless business pattern , get into the PPV marketplace before anyone else knew how lucrative it was going to be , and about sixteen other factors , admit an unbelievable amount of destiny , to get to where it is today . So , when you want to start a wrestling company , what you need more than anything else is a “ money mark ” , that is , someone with very deep pocket who does n’t mind mislay money because of the theoretical “ prestige ” of ownership , and for a while , TNA had that , in the form of Dixie Carter and her family ’s business , Panda Energy . Now , when TNA had the near - bottomless resource of Panda Energy behind it , financial loss were a relative drop in the bucket , but after years of losing money on a intersection that did n’t seem like it was headed anywhere near a profitable way ( or at least becoming less of a money sink ) , Panda Energy cut off the funding . And when Dixie Carter was suddenly forced to make her vanity side project profitable on its own , the fact that the company in reality had no real room to make any money became a Brobdingnagian issue . So , let ’s take a second and count at exactly why TNA was in reality never in a situation to make money , even when the on - screen Cartesian product was in reality fairly good …
3. Lack Of Revenue Streams
Anyone who has paid attention to WWE ’s quarterly financial report ever since it went public be intimate that they make most of their money from a combination of live event ticket sales , their lucrative TV softwood , merchandise , and PPV buys ( which were finally replace by profits from the WWE internet ) . When you look at TNA in terms of those potential tax revenue flow , you may see that even when it was doing well , it could n’t possibly have been profitable . While TNA had a secure home at the Impact Zone in Universal Studios for days , admission was free to anyone already paying to visit the theme car park , meaning TNA did n’t make a individual dime bag from live event ticket sale . And when TNA attempt to incline hot events outside of the Impact Zone , they book bowl far too large to occupy with their actual fanbase , cause the shows money losers instead of revenue generators . To be fair , their international show actually did quite well , but those were only a fistful of events every yr . Meanwhile , even when they had a quite a little with Spike TV , that was less about Spike paying for the right to Impact , and instead mostly take the form of Spike itself pay for some of the larger talent contracts , such as Sting and Kurt Angle , in a seeking for better paygrade for the show ( again , some of the gap was made up with decent external TV deals , but those still could n’t keep the companionship out of the Red River ) . In addition , TNA was buck the same price for their monthly PPVs as WWE , with a fraction ( of a fraction ) of the buyrates , which did n’t even cover the costs of running the show in the first place . And while TNA tried their best at merchandise , even getting their DVD into major chain store at one point , it simply was n’t ever going to be enough to cover all the other shortfalls of the promotion .
2. Dixie Carter Or Bust
Several times after TNA ’s break down attempt to contend directly with WWE be them a large lump of their fanbase and send them into a slow downhill spiral , there were reports of masses uncoerced to step in and preserve the company by providing necessary funds and support to keep it turn tail in central for a stake in the ship’s company . regrettably , those same citizenry were regularly drive away by a single gene that scurry every single attempt at a deal : Dixie Carter . The problem was , any sales agreement of TNA always came with a caution that would see Carter retain a role in the company , and yield that her natural process had regularly put the company into uncollectible financial posture , anyone attempting to buy the company almost certainly did not need her get input into how it was run . In add-on , Carter had transitioned into an on - screen role that she reportedly did not need to give up without a conflict . Thus , any potential saviors disappeared as speedily as they came , due to Carter ’s refusal to full countenance go of the company she was driving into the ground . Even when TNA was literally belly-up and force to deal stakes in the caller to pay bills , even at the eleventh hour when it looked like TNA ’s only options were to betray their remaining stake to investor or go out of patronage , account continue to glut in that Carter ’s participation in negotiations were making what should have been comparatively elementary determination far harder than they needed to be .
1. Too Much, Too Fast
at last , TNA was a dupe of trying to be something they were n’t , which was a legitimate competitor to WWE . Certainly , there is elbow room for a # 2 promotion in North American pro hand-to-hand struggle , and more than that , many self-governing packaging have manage to survive for years in WWE ’s shadow . At fourth dimension , TNA even had plenty of wrestlers who were like in skill to those in WWE , as evidenced by the fact that many of them are now pregnant parts of WWE ’s current roster . However , rather than stay modest , break their own homegrown endowment along with a mix of warhorse from WWE and the independent scene , create a patriotic fanbase in a consecrate territory , and engross some other losses in what would be a long and hard journey towards even moderate success , TNA tried to have everything right off . They were n’t content to waitress for “ someday ” , they want to be the novel WCW to the modernistic WWE , and they require it now . So they seek to jump the line , signed a telecasting mint with a internet that had recently been spurned by WWE , signed top former WWE talent to remunerative stack , trounce out money for expensive guest stars , and tried to appear to the human race as if they were ready to compete on the big stage , while underneath , their tenuous financial post that bank largely on the unselfishness of Spike TV and Dixie Carter ’s founding father basically assure that the party was always one bad sidereal day away from go away . By seek to compete at WWE ’s level before they were financially able to do so ( and it ’s improbable they ever would have been ) , TNA was a company that could n’t afford to make a single mistake , because they had no safety mesh if thing did n’t go as be after . Unfortunately , everyone make mistakes .
