TNA: Ready for prime time?

[betholution]

So the rumors are flying wild about TNA making a move from their shitty Saturday night timeslot. Depending on which ever so reliable wrestling "newz" site you read, Jarrett is pushing for Spike to give them 90 minutes, while TNA management (which is different from Jarrett, I'm not sure how?) is pushing for a Monday at 8pm timeslot. And Spike supposedly wants to put them on Thursdays to lead into a UFC block.

I'm a big huge TNA fan, and personally, my preference is for a longer show. 90 minutes or 2 hours would be SO much better, and they'd actually get to use the talent they have. I personally loved their two hour prime time special, I was at the filming and was colossally pissed after Jarrett won back the title from Rhyno two days after dropping it at Bound For Glory, but when I watched it on television, the pacing and feel of Impact as 2 hours was really on. It wasn't so rushed and frenetic as the one hour Impacts. So I'd LOVE for TNA to get more time, because I think that will help the free TV product immensely. They deliver on pay per view because they have the time for it, but there's only so much you can do in a short hour interspliced with Morphoplex ads.

Monday night, I think, would be a horrendous mistake. Even if they're on at 8 and don't directly compete with Raw, it is still like asking Vince McMahon to bend them over his knee and spank them with his huge checkbook. And possibly show them naked pictures of himself on his cell phone. [Aside: that newsbit is incredibly disturbing. Disturbing because I completely believe that Vince McMahon carries naked pictures of himself on his cell phone and that's just something I never wanted to think about, ever] Vince is incredibly possessive of that Monday night thing, and if TNA goes anywhere near it, he'll be offering ridiculous paychecks to every piece of TNA talent they can get their hands on. Then he'll promptly ship them to OVW to disappear and fade into obscurity for a couple years. And when they finally get called up to the big leagues, they'll job to Viscera or something. Competing with the E so boldly at this point is just going to get them bitschlapped.

I don't care what day of the week they show TNA, but Monday just seems suicidal. But if they don't give the show more time, I don't really see the point. Moving them to another hour somewhere else isn't going to be real growth for the product, and it'll just end up confusing the people who are watching to have to remember to watch it on a different night.
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That's Sandy Frink? What the hell was I thinking?

[B]

The success or failure of the company depends on the loyalty and treatment of its workers. The reason the WWF and WCW could compete so closely was because they were both wealthy parties with decades of history and experience, and workers who worked and competed on a relatively level playing field. That's why you had your Halls and Nashes, but at the same time you had guys like Undertaker who wouldn't jump to WCW, and guys like Sting who wouldn't jump to the WWF.

In the current market, guys like Joe could be pushed, given a few dozen grand to bust their ass, and then one day have Vince come by and say "hey do you want 10 times that to do less work?" It's a Punk situation, where you couldn't really blame them for making that jump and doing what's right for their family even if it's shitty and you hate them for it. If TNA can build a reputation for proper treatment and compensation for their guys instead of paying Joe 20 dollars and Sting 500,000 they can go on Monday night, and have their product compete as a legitimate alternative without fear of losing everybody as soon as they get popular.

Putting a primetime show on Thursday is a great idea, especially since the young male demographic they want so badly can't watch Smackdown there anymore and there's no Friends or anything to pull them away. What they need to do is not give them that same Impact hour on Thursdays. It needs to be longer. Maybe not two hours, but at least an hour and a half. That way they can put on some full-length matches that aren't Joe squashing Jarelle Clark in two minutes but not enough time to run themselves thin and end up having to fill an hour with a 20 minute Jarrett promo. Which I guess they've already started doing on Impact so uh, nevermind.

But yeah, a slightly longer show on a former wrestling day is choice.
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