TNA is struggling right now, and it’s all their own fault. They’ve fallen into pitfalls that we’ve been warning them about for years now. It’s all coming to a head with slow ticket sales and a lack of interest in their current product.
To avoid falling apart completely and ruining all the good progress they’ve made as an organization, TNA has got to implement all 15 of these concepts for them to bounce back and finish the year strong.
1. Release the dead weight
Not every talent on the TNA roster is worth using. Not every talent is worth keeping employed. TNA has signed some really unimpressive talents that, frankly, are just eating up the payroll. Namely, many of the Knockouts need to go. Ash by Elegance, Daria Rae, Indi Hartwell, Victoria Crawford, Xia Brookside, and Elayna Black have dragged the roster down with unimpressive matches or just being flat-out unentertaining. KiLynn King is another name that the company should cut ties with, mainly due to her prolonged injury. She’s been out of the ring for over two years now, and it seems unlikely she’ll ever return.
There are some men who need to go as well. While the tag team division is weak, The Righteous have not connected with the audience. That wouldn’t be the worst thing, but they’re on nearly every show in one or two segments, just bogging down the show. They’re talented but not getting the reaction needed.
Sadly, a young prospect needs to go as well. Mr. Elegance is doing the best he can, but the fandom just isn’t interested in him. That’s a kiss of death in wrestling.
2. Push the younger talent
Tag teams like Sinner and Saint, Ricky Sosa, Harley Hudson, Jada Stone, KC Navarro, and Bear Bronson should be getting the most screen time of everyone who isn’t a bona fide main eventer. Hudson and Jada are the best young Knockouts going in the division right now. While Sinner and Saint may be the best tag team in the company, bar none.
KC Navarro, Bear Bronson and Ricky Sosa are also making waves but as of right now, are being pushed heavily. When Sosa returns from his visa issues, he’s likely going to be pushed quite heavily. Another name that should be on top of things is Jason Hotch, as he showed he’s one of the better workers on the roster.
3. Don’t bury star talents
This seems odd, but you have Tessa Blanchard on your roster, easily a top 10 or 15 women’s wrestler in the world today. She’s still in her prime. TNA has not had a “good” Knockouts champion in going on a year. If she’s on the roster, she’s good enough to hold the title. If you think her past issues disqualify her from being the face of the division, fine, then fire her. But if she’s here, use her to her maximum potential. Same thing with guys like Eddie Edwards and Rich Swann. TNA has got to utilize its best guys.
4. Fire Delirious and remove Tommy Dreamer from creative
Part of the reason why this isn’t working is that, first, Delirious is fucking garbage at booking, and second, Tommy Dreamer is out of touch with what TNA fans want. They seemed to have found some success early in their tenure and kept rehashing a formula that only worked, momentarily, due to luck. It feels like a band that had a one-hit wonder, and instead of trying something fresh and new to get a second hit, they keep rehashing the first song over and over again. They aren’t panning out and are harming the product.
Delirious has a history of being just awful at this job, so it makes no sense to keep him at all. Dreamer, on the other hand, seems to be pretty well-liked by the talent. So it makes sense to keep him around in a different role.
5. Split the Hardys for now
The main event scene is utter ass right now. A quick way to fix that is to slot Jeff Hardy into the main event. Jeff can still go 15 minutes in a singles match, and still hast he fan support of the crowd. Plus, you can easily protect him between major matches by doing a multi-man tag match. He’s shown he’s still pretty nimble, and while he was never the most dynamic athlete, there’s nothing Jeff could do 20 years ago that he still can’t do today. Let him in the main event and let him do his work. As for Matt, the Broken Matt gimmick is strong enough to swim in the mid-card still. Let him take on a few young wrestlers in a new stable, ala prime Raven, and help cultivate and develop personalities for them.
6. Combine Order 4 and The System and end The Elegance Brand.
A major issue for TNA right now is the same old factions on top for years. The Elegance Brand, the System, Order 4; it’s time to move on from them. The Elegance Brand is not worth keeping. George Iceman (the Personal Concierge) is the mouth of the group for better or worse, and because of that, it’s caused M and Ash to never develop as characters. As for Ash, we know what she can and can’t do, and it’s time to thank her for her work and move on.
As for The System and Order 4, they’re two stables that are too similar to exist. Before, when The System were babyfaces, there was a balance. A yin and yang situation. That is no longer the case, so it’s best to just combine Order 4 and The System into one super-group of heels that consists of Mustafa Ali, Agent 0, Bear Bronson, Brian Myers, John Skyler, Tasha Steels, and Cedric Alexander, while allowing Eddie Edwards and Jason Hotch to work as faces against this group.
7. Shake up the stagnant characters
This goes hand in hand with the above names. Jason Hotch was so hot a year or so ago that Delirious and Dreamer were on the verge of accidentally creating a new star. Instead, they shoved him right back into the same box he’s always been in. It has done nothing for him in the long term. Guys like Hotch, Edwards, AJ Franchis, Rich Swann, Tessa Blanchard, Eric Young, and a few others have been done to death as is. They need shakeups that will help get them over again. Don’t be afraid to get weird. Ideas like making Francis the new monster of a reformed Decay. Have Tessa dye her hair and cut it, as an act of rebellion. Have EY anywhere but on television. Be creative.
8. Make new tag team pairings that make sense
You know who doesn’t make sense in her current role? Heather by Elegane. The former Heather Reckless would be better served tagging with someone with a similar background and look, like Jody Threat. She and M don’t have much in common, and it shows in their work.
In fact, a tag team between Threat and Reckless name writes itself: The Reckless Threats. This isn’t a knock on M by Elegance, aka Maggie Lee, as she’s so much more than a pretty face. Maggie is a tall and athletic Knockout, and if you pair her with someone like Mila Moore, then you could have your own female version of the Skyscrapers (be it the NWA/WCW version or the current MLW version).
Both Moore and Maggie are about six feet, give or take, and would be an imposing image in the Knockouts Division. You could also find a new tag team for guys like Elijah, Matt Hardy, and Jason Hotch. All three men could find a new partner and instantly help reshape the tag team division without doing too much to pull it off. You could also give Ricky Sosa the rub by pairing him with Leon Slater for however long Slater will be around, thus giving the tag team scene that much more ‘umph’.
9. Replace Santino Marella
I’m actually not against putting Marella in a tag team with a Cody Deaner type and letting them have some fun together, but his run as an authority figure is over. Daria Rae isn’t the answer, and honestly, she should refund TNA for what they paid her. The answer was Mick Foley, but he went to AEW. So maybe bring someone else in who is a bit out there. Maybe someone wild and unexpected like The Blue Meanie (but not actually The Blue Meanie). You could also get someone who makes sense in an authoritative role, like Matt Morgan.
He’s 7′ tall and a former mayor and current city commissioner. He’d be one of the most unique authority figures in wrestling.
10. Make a hard choice about Frankie Kazarian and Eric Young
Neither man is a draw. TNA fans love them both, but let’s be honest, no one is tuning in to see what promo Kazarian is going to cut that we’ve heard three dozen times before. No one cares that EY has another new alt-cult stable. They’re still good hands (no pun intended), but they’re better served working with new talents to get them ready for the big stage than they are serving as “stars”. Not to mention, it may be worthwhile to see what both men could do with the creative reins.
11. Sign some major new names to freshen up the roster
TNA made some really strong moves this year, getting Bear Bronson and Ricky Sosa, and finally bringing Harley Hudson and Jada Stone to television, but the roster is lacking impact names. TNA has got to find some up-and-comers and get them on television. Scott D’Amore was great with that, getting Josh Alexander, Speedball Mike Bailey, Ace Austin, The Rascalz, and more on TNA television. There’s a lot of unique talent out there that could shake up the TNA roster. Jessica Roden, BoZilla, Lord Crewe, Shane Haste, Alex Kane, Richard Holliday, and so many others could come in and really make an impact (no pun intended) on the company’s weekly television. The same motley crew of guys and gals who keep doing the same thing isn’t it anymore.
12. End their partnership with WWE/NXT
The NXT-TNA partnership really helped the WWE. They got to see firsthand the talents they wanted to poach (and for some reason never use). They also got to run their future guys through the paces on bigger stages, while taking focus from TNA’s ability to develop new stars. Sure, some could argue that Trick Williams helped bring eyes to the product (he didn’t), but Trick’s run on top only served to ruin Joe Hendry’s departure and hinder Mike Santana’s arrival. Instead of booking Hendry against Santana at Slammiversary, we got Trick instead, where Hendry slowly turned heel, we got Trick.
Let’s not even talk about how devalued the Knockouts Championship has become thanks to the talent-lacking women’s division in NXT.
The Knockouts division is ass, but part of that is due to TNA not being able to dedicate its television time to its roster. So instead of going from Jordynne Grace, to Masha Slammovich to…whomever, TNA had to make adjustments and allow NXT talent to win the title. Thus making it all the harder to have a strong women’s division once again. TNA really only has 90-ish minutes a week to develop talent and get them over; they can’t afford to let guys from NXT take up air time anymore.
13. Adjust hiring practices
TNA has found success poaching guys off the bottom of other companies. Bear Bronson was an AEW guy for a moment, and Ryan Nemeth was an NXT guy. They’ve worked out. Even talents like Mara Sade that have a certain look seem to have an upside. But not everyone has an upside. Not everyone is worth hiring. Sure, Brian Myers should probably be leading TNA’s talent development division, if they had one, but in the ring? On TV? We know why he keeps getting cut. Lei Ying Lee is pushing 40 and has yet to showcase a single match that has me saying, “yes, the new ace of the division”. Same with Fabian Aichcner. He’s nearly 40, has no personality to gauge, and is now taking a spot away from someone younger and with a personality that could actually draw you in to watch. TNA has got to stop signing someone just because they have the WWE stink to them. They need to be truly remarkable or loaded with potential.
14. Get good merchandise
TNA has awful merchandise. That’s not a knock on quality, but on selection. Unless you want a shirt or a hat or a DVD, you’re out of luck. They had that deal with BlackSmith, but that’s over, as all of their BlackSmith apparel is on clearance now. Not to mention their new deal with AEW.
TNA had sports cards you could collect, but those are done for the moment, with no third series to be announced. They had Micro Brawlers but stopped working with Pro Wrestling Tees to produce them. They have no action figure line, no micro toy line, and no real tangible gift items to speak of, like the Slam Buddies they used to have. They’re not even in the video game space to any degree. Since 2021, AEW has put out its own game, and the NWA (of all companies) has partnered with a wrestling game. TNA can’t at least do that?
The closest thing they have to a unique merch line is TNA-specific SRG cards. Have you not heard of these before? I’m not surprised, as there’s been next to no promotion for them. SRG is a pro wrestling card game that uses fictional but too-close-for-comfort versions of wrestlers. Like a guy that’s called Stung, but is all but a color-palette swap away from being sued by Sting. Or a character that looks just like Piper Niven or one that is the spitting image of AJ Francis. Well, now you can buy TNA-specific versions of cards. Never mind that the original set is all illustrated and the TNA ones are not…that won’t clash with the aesthetics.
You can get cards for TNA stars like The Hardys, Mike Santana, Leon Slater, Nic Nameeth….Indi Hartwell and of course ‘TNA star’…Joe Hendry.
TNA could easily make their own card game and sell that instead. Or a simple board game. They could release another line of TNA trading cards or partner with Brian Myers’ company to make a new line of TNA action figures. Or partner back up with Pro Wrestling Tees to get more Micro Brawlers made. They could make perfumes, toy cars, micro playsets, or little championship titles that kids could buy at Target. You could make those Slam Buddies again, or a Jeff Hardy face paint kit. Hell, you could reach out to smaller comic brands like Dark Horse or IDW and have them make a line of TNA comics.
Anything but the dreck they have now.
15. Bring back the six sides
If nothing else. If absolutely nothing else is done, you could at least bring back the six-sided ring. It’s fresh, it sets you apart, and the best years of your company’s existence happened in one. Sure, it may be a bit harder to take certain moves in it, but the uniqueness it provides is worth not performing certain moves off the top rope anymore. Not to mention, Jeff Jarrett always talks about how the six-sided ring got TNA in toy stores and in toy aisles back in the day. To grow the brand, you have to diversify your income streams, and merchandise (especially toys) is a huge source of revenue for wrestling.