News DA possibly cancelling TNA show

[Stopspot]

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports Destination America is planning to cancel TNA Unlocked, which is hosted by Mike Tenay, possibly due to poor rating and viewer reception.

The network had been giving it a new time slot every week, which is usually a good indication a show is at its end. Observer reports that Destination America regrets making the deal in the first place, and it’s why they are getting any ‘secondary’ TNA programming off of their schedule.

The Observer goes on to say Tenay’s status with the company is up in the air; he signed a one-year deal at the start of the year, but now he’s without an on-air role. Once Taz left it was thought he could have been brought back on to Impact Wrestling, but the decision was made to use Al Snow instead.
Source: Observer, Wrestlezone.

 

[Leo C]

That was fast.
As far as Tenay goes, won't miss him. I think Al is a fine addition to the booth, although JB could also do a fine job there.

 

[CM Punk]

Does anyone here actually even watch TNA? Hell, even in 2006 they had better looking setup than now. lol
How you gon watch something that went from this...

Spoiler

To this...

Spoiler

All the way to this?

Spoiler

Sure, wrestling is what matters, but so does presentation.

 

[Snowman1]

I still watch, but lets be real here: What did Destination America really expect from TNA and especially this show?

 

[Prince Bálor]

I don't care about TNA Unlocked right now, and hell, I've stopped caring about TNA's product overall.

 

[CM Punk]

I still watch, but lets be real here: What did Destination America really expect from TNA and especially this show?

You have my condolences. They can have all the great in-ring action, but it's always going to repeat the same exact cycle over and over.

 

[Snowman1]

You have my condolences. They can have all the great in-ring action, but it's always going to repeat the same exact cycle over and over.

Pfffft. If that would be a problem I'd have given up on them long ago, lol.

But seriously, that's become a big issue about how they can never get any momentum or buzz going - outside of the negative buzz in the middle of the Aces and Eights and the 2013 "crisis" - in years, there's just nothing they can do that won't be panned. Including this, where they try to turn a wwe.com article nobody reads (Power 25) into a whole TV show after they already tried a rankings system to disasterous results.

 

[Jacob Fox]

You have my condolences. They can have all the great in-ring action, but it's always going to repeat the same exact cycle over and over.

I'll take good action over production values any day. That being said, I don't think TNA has really been putting on better wrestling than WWE any time recently. While I think they're better than they were a year ago, their action pales in comparison to most of what's out there.

 

[Snowman1]

I'll take good action over production values any day. That being said, I don't think TNA has really been putting on better wrestling than WWE any time recently. While I think they're better than they were a year ago, their action pales in comparison to most of what's out there.

"What's out there" is likely TNA's biggest issue right now.

See the argument a lot that "TNA apologists and fans are always bringing up WWE!" and that's obviously true... back merely a few years ago when there was no Watchwrestling and you had to actively go find Ring of Honor or stream indy shows and (at least I) had to work hard to find stuff, it was largely TNA and WWE on TV that we were able to see, and so often TNA would have that one thing that helped it stand out against its competition.

But now, back in the post-Russo/IZ era of 2014 when TNA was doing a bunch of shows that took... hmmm... about an hour to write, if that, as the TV product was obviously not a focus for the company (see the BFG build) and the characters became more and more vanilla, we saw Sami Zayn going through this personal struggle of scratching and clawing and trying to get over the hump and accomplish his life's dream. When TNA had possibly the first "wrestling offseason" ever as they were kicked off of Spike TV, Lucha Underground debuted and presented all the amazing, ground-breaking things THAT show has done for us... then TNA showed up like a kid who brought a Sega Genesis to a LAN party.

So instead of the "trainwreck" you used to get, TNA's still the consistent, solid two hours of wrestling it's been without Russo, but while we're rushing to our friends or forums or groups to talk about Raw (since it's still #1), NXT, Lucha Underground, Ring of Honor... TNA just doesn't seem like an important part of the business any more.

And I'm not even sure how to change it... Yeah, Awesome Kong returning was cool and after the first week we started buzzing about that, but the buzz didn't last long... EC3 and Rockstar Spud tried (and are still trying) to get something going, but... They're trying with guys like Angle and the Hardys but that's a mess and you know why...

And as you say, the "good wrestling" TNA used to hang its hat on is suddenly something you can find every day, and usually much better from all these other shows. You can always expect a PPV-quality match on Raw, to the point where we get numb to them and it devalues the PPV's themselves, not to mention the other three shows also hang their hats on good wrestling... and as a guy with the Impact award who still "tries" to watch Impact every week, often I'll forget it's on until Prince tags me in the ratings thread, haha.

What can TNA even do?

 

[Testify]

Who would want to watch a show that is hosted by a old bald boring fartard? Fuck that shit