8 Misconceptions About TNA You Probably Believe

First, the truth: Total Nonstop Awful has been an accurate descriptor for Total Nonstop Action more often than they'd care to admit.

Vince Russo slut-shamed women because he was refused a look at their "breasts, bro" during a time when he served as a member of TNA's creative team and was cast as the puppeteer of the Sports Entertainment Xtreme faction. SEX! Claire Lynch, a supposed addict (who would need to be to trudge through this muck) faked a pregnancy as a Christopher Daniels and Kazarian-orchestrated joke against AJ Styles - itself being the payoff to a rumoured AJ Styles-Dixie Carter affair. The Johnsons -a slang term often used to describe a penis - were a tag team dressed head-to-toe in flesh-coloured bodysuits. They weren't even the worst tag team at the time; that accolade went to The Rainbow Express. Comprising Kwee Wee and Lenny Lane of WCW infamy, they were handed the gimmick of a homosexual couple because lol, could you even imagine being gay.

It was all terrible.

That is true - but these commonly held beliefs are not, and if you consider any of them as fact, then you simply haven't watched the product outside of YouTube lowlight compilations...

Nine years before All Elite Wrestling pocketed the phrase for its annual May showcase, TNA went double or nothing when they appointed Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff as a creative consultant and an executive producer, respectively, but Hogan and Bischoff had contributed in excess to the death of World Championship Wrestling not even a decade earlier. TNA knew fine well what they were getting themselves into.

 So what were they thinking?

Money.

Hogan and Bischoff carried name value. Slapping their faces on a product would draw attention. Their self-booked vanity project of a run was a rehash of the glory days, consistently dominating the spotlight while in-house projects took a backseat. Even Abyss, who was aligned with their latest faux nWo project, failed to benefit by association.

TNA's worst era wasn't with Hogan and Bischoff at the helm, though; it was the omnishambles left in the wake of their exit that marked the company's lowest point. Between late 2013 and early 2018, innumerable factors converged to cast a dark cloud over TNA, the most prolific being their removal from Spike TV, which spurred a five-year spat of channel surfing. With a product that was rotten to the core and a mass talent exodus leaving them without a sniff of an identity, TNA should've - and almost did! - died, so yes, while Hogan and Bischoff tore TNA down from within, it wasn't they who knocked down the final pillar.