FIXING TNA: Chapter Six

Also available at http://v2journal.com/17/post/2013/08/fixing-tna-how-a-few-small-changes-can-make-all-the-difference-chapter-6.html

CHAPTER 6: BUILD AROUND A FRAMEWORK FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

I love TNA's new pay-per-view format and I hope the company makes the most of the fact that, with the right preparation, the four live pay-per-view events will soon feel special again. I believe that the following basic rule - applied on the day after Bound For Glory 2013 - would help to achieve that:

List the top twelve singles wrestlers in the company into an elite tier of four names, and a second tier of eight names. Try to include in the second tier one or two wrestlers who have not been pushed as big stars (although you need to select only wrestlers with the talent to thrive in such a role; do not shoehorn a couple of younger wrestlers in for the sake of it). This is essentially your world title division; the group of wrestlers who are either involved in world title matches or part of the main non-title, 'marquee' storylines.

The four names in the elite tier should be the stars of the show; they should be featured, protected and treated like a huge deal. Booking these four wrestlers’ segments should be the top priority every week on Impact and on every pay-per-view. This elite tier should consist of two babyfaces and two heels, with one of the babyfaces being viewed as the absolute top star in the company.

From the elite tier, there are six different one-on-one match combinations. Choose the best one; this is your Bound For Glory 2014 main event. Select the second best match to headline Slammiversary. The third best should be the semi main event of Bound For Glory.

Next, for each of the twelve wrestlers on that list, select their best five opponents (for the elite tier, some of these matches will of course mirror the above). These are the only five opponents from the list that those wrestlers should face on TNA television for the entire year leading up to Bound For Glory 2014; either on pay-per-view, or in special TV matches that have the appropriate build up. Choose the most marketable matches, outside the three identified above, to headline the Genesis and Lockdown pay-per-views. it may be - indeed, it should be - that certain wrestlers will feature in more than one of your most marketable matches. For example, it may be that you consider four of your six most marketable matches to involve Jeff Hardy. That is a good thing, as it should justify your choice of wrestlers in the elite tier!

The Lethal Lockdown cage match can feature multiple acts from the list, and is the one exception in the entire year where fans watching at home can see interaction between wrestlers who have not been paired on "the list", though this should mostly be kept to a minimum and designed to whet their appetite for seeing further interaction in the future.

Feuds, title matches, the forming of factions and heel/face turns can now be written around this list of matches. The matches can be spread out on TV so each one feels special (or multiple matches from this list can be given away on a particularly special episode of impact). Sometimes, combine them into a tag match, but not if this means that you jeopardise the future drawing potential of two wrestlers in such a match. Tag matches would be a particularly useful way to transition from one feud to the next.

Best of all, you completely avoid giving away potential money-drawing matches on free TV with no build-up. If Robert Roode vs AJ Styles isn't on the list of matches, you completely avoid putting those two in the same ring, so that, next year or the year after, that match feels fresh and the fans anticipate seeing those two wrestlers face each other because they haven’t seen it for so long.

Some of these opponents they may wrestle more than once. For example, there may be two TV matches which require a 'rubber match' on pay-per-view. Or maybe a wrestler will cheat two win a TV match, requiring a stipulation match on pay-per-view to stop them cheating. Sometimes a rematch from a pay-per-view could be given away on free TV, but only in circumstances where the viewers don't feel like idiots for paying for it in the first place!

This may sound complicated, but it really shouldn't take more than one day's work to draw up the list!

Once the list is finalised, the promotion should pride itself on being able to follow through on its plans with minimal changes. Anything that needs to be changed because it is not succeeding as hoped is a sign of failure on the part of the promotion.

For the X Division, Knockouts Division and the Tag Team Division, select the best five or six matches available to go on pay-per-view. Then select the next best three or four matches in each division, which can be built up as TV main events over the course of the year. The other potential matches within each division can be shown on TV as contendership matches, and used to build up the big title showdowns. Tag teams can interchange between singles and tag competition; for example Bad Influence could be the star act of the Tag Division, but can also be used as top singles acts.

Only feature triple threat matches, or four way matches, when it makes complete sense in the context of storylines. Aim to give away as few gimmick/stipulation matches as possible, including multi-man ones, so that when these happen they feel special.

When the wrestlers aren't against each other, they can be put in TV matches against opponents lower down the card, which they always win, except in special circumstances (eg when a loss helps to further their current feud or storyline). This would ensure that those top twelve stars TNA wants to revolve around look strong most of the time. However, they should not be wrestling every week. None of these stars should be wrestling on TV and pay-per-view combined more than once per month, so as to make their appearances mean something. In fact it should be seen as a challenge to maximise the wrestling appearances of each of your top twelve wrestlers, and a failure if any of these appearances are wasted in underhyped and meaningless matches.

In the case of the Bound For Glory Series, most of these matches should take place on house shows and that in itself can be a selling point. The only matches shown on TV should be the ones that are already on the list of opponents talked about above. Inspired by "real" sports, a fixture list can even be published, where every competitor wrestles every other entrant once, with the dates of when these matches will occur, and whether it will be on TV or whether the fans will have to attend a live event to see it. All it takes is a little forward planning.

Any wrestler who does not fit into the various divisions will constitute the midcard and undercard; for the foreseeable future, the company doesn’t see large money-drawing potential in those acts, and they are not as protected. They can be involved in TV storylines and the undercard of pay-per-views, and can exchange wins and losses more freely.

If a wrestler from the midcard or undercard catches on with the fans and shows potential to be a top act in the future, you can change your plans accordingly to ease them into the appropriate slot on the card at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, book them to consistently win their matches against other opponents outside the title scene.

Flexibility is of course crucial; these plans shouldn't be completely set in stone. But they should provide a solid framework to the more "creative" side of booking, and a promotion should pride itself on knowing its wrestlers and its audience well enough to be able to plan these things in advance.

TNA should have quite a clear idea right now of their pay-per-view line-ups for the next year, subject to change. But, again, TNA should pride itself on those changes being minimal.

This chapter in particular should be a discussion soon.

I should not have read this peed, head hurts

Off the top of my head my 12 are Bully Ray, Hardy, Roode, Magnus, Joe, Aries, Daniels, Kazarian, Angle, Storm, Sabin, Anderson. (It was a struggle to get to 12)

How would you book 3 months of Impact between ppv's when each of the above can only wrestle 3 times? There is little else of interest on the roster I can't see a way to keep the product interesting when you can only have 3 of the above wrestle on each show.

Enforcer wrote:Off the top of my head my 12 are Bully Ray, Hardy, Roode, Magnus, Joe, Aries, Daniels, Kazarian, Angle, Storm, Sabin, Anderson. (It was a struggle to get to 12)

How would you book 3 months of Impact between ppv's when each of the above can only wrestle 3 times? There is little else of interest on the roster I can't see a way to keep the product interesting when you can only have 3 of the above wrestle on each show.

They can still appear on the shows in order to hype future matches, cut promos, etc.

And if you've got three of them wrestling in the average week, plus the x division, tag division and knockouts, it wouldn't be difficult to put together a card of four or five matches on Impact every week. Especially if the matches were treated as a big deal and lasted more than 5 minutes.

It's only a very modern idea to have main eventers wrestling every single week on TV, and it was brought about by undisciplined, short-sighted booking.

I'd be interested to know how often the Rock wrestled after he hit the main event scene. I don't 100% agree with your numbers, but I do definitely think a babyface should be wrestling more than your heel.

Enforcer wrote:Off the top of my head my 12 are Bully Ray, Hardy, Roode, Magnus, Joe, Aries, Daniels, Kazarian, Angle, Storm, Sabin, Anderson. (It was a struggle to get to 12)

How would you book 3 months of Impact between ppv's when each of the above can only wrestle 3 times? There is little else of interest on the roster I can't see a way to keep the product interesting when you can only have 3 of the above wrestle on each show.

No AJ Styles? I would have him in my top 4 (for 2014) along with Roode, Magnus and Aries.

Main event of Bound for Glory should be AJ v Aries

I think the recent use of AJ shows that TNA and his relationship has gone stale

But TNA did that storyline just so well recently, what fantastic build up to would he or wouldn't he and then the big reveal of him returning to the Phenomenal One. It's nearly been as good as the ending to the Brooke storyline.