5 Reasons TNA Never Became WWE's True Competitor
4. Unoriginal Product
At the onset, TNA was rife with concepts that set it apart from WWE. The X-Division featured the always popular light heavyweight style, but removed the weight limit gimmick so more wrestlers could be logically involved. The weekly pay-per-view era featured as much independent talent as the promotion could cram into their run time. Also, as TNA made the move to Fox Sports in 2004 on their first TV deal, they adapted the use of the lucha-influenced six-sided ring. Even though the companys stature wasnt within reach of WWEs level, great strides were being made to separate themselves from Vince McMahons product.
In 2006, Vince Russo was brought back to the promotion to as a creative writer and would eventually move on to Head of Creative in 2009. This isnt to scapegoat Russo as the sole reason of the company image dissolving, but rather a timeline marker for when TNA began to lose the separation it created. The structure of the programming began to resemble the same flow of segments that WWE programming prescribed to. The featured performers of the show were Christian Cage, Kurt Angle and the Main Event Mafia, which was a stable comprised mostly of former WWE and WCW talent.
The Main Event Mafia was involved in was a gang war storyline against the TNA Frontline that was a stable of young and original TNA performers. Good idea, right? It couldve been, except this was the same angle that was done in the dying days of WCW when Russos New Blood went to battle with the aging Millionaires Club. Nothing quite screams Movin on up! like using the same storyline from a dead company, which was in the midst of a downfall when the angle was originally attempted.
In 2010, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan were brought into TNA to take over the reins of the company. The announcement was met with an echo of proverbial groans from the internet wrestling community, with Bischoff and Hogan quickly scoffing at the fans for making ignorant assumptions. What the fans assumed was that Bischoff and Hogan would do go into business for themselves and by the end of their contracts, TNA would be in worse shape than it was at the start and the fans were right.
To estimate that Bischoff or Hogan appeared on screen on a ten minute cycle would be a safe bet. Impact became their own personal variety show. Friends of the two were pushed and given TV time, old names like The Nasty Boys were briefly featured again, and episodes of Impact resembled WCW Thunder from 2000. For a company looking to push into the future, it had instead been burying itself in the past.