Source: JRsBarBQ.com
Earlier today, Hall of Famer Jim Ross posted another entry on his blog at JRsBarBQ.com. In this particular entry, Ross commented on the “embarrassingly quiet” crowd at the recent TNA Sacrifice. In addition, he commented on how the bad crowds do not help the team at iMPACT Wrestling sell the renewal of their television program to the executives at Spike TV. Here are the comments taken directly from Ross’ blog:
TNA had a PPV a week ago where the smaller crowd in a sound stage was embarrassingly quiet and provided little to no motivation for the talents some of which had excellent bouts. TNA is in an especially precarious position as they are in the closing months of their TV rights deal with Spike and have zero momentum or leverage with which to negotiate. Trying to save money by having the TV’s in the same venue more often than not in Orlando is the kiss of death. If the crowds that attend IMPACT events there don’t react to what they saw on the loaded, PPV card then they are unlikely to ‘pop’ for much of any thing. That makes the TV show sound uninspired and not ‘must see’ TV. It’s a good thing that Impact is going to do some of their tapings outside the Orlando sound stage going forward as that scenario is one designed for failure.
I am all for Impact and all wrestling companies for that matter to succeed because he more places that talents, crew, etc have to work the better it is for the overall business.
you just must agree here with Jim. Bad crowd makes the show worse… And
I often feel frustrated when watching Impact and seeing the crowd
“respond”. Orlando crowd simply brings boredom into the show and thats
the fact in my opinion. On one hand, you have perfect talent, on the
other hand, no matter what the talent does, the show seems often barely
interesting… Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Impact, I just feel
that they need to go outside of Orlando, bring more excitement in.
Another thing they need to do (another big agree with Jims older
comment) – change the storylines so the show doesn’t look as a copy of
WWE. And it doesn’t matter that EY had his beard first, or whatever
argument you have in favor of TNA, which I would probably agree with
anyway. They need to seem as an alternative, not as a copy… Look at
the rating, they speak for itself. But this is just my opinion. By the
way, sorry for my English. Wrestling fan from Slovakia, Peter.
Your English is fine, Peter!
I agree with your assessment of Jim’s comments. One of the things that bothers me is the bland, boring audience and how it requires the producers to use fake crowd reactions on the taped shows which ultimately makes the show come off weird (to me, at least). Thanks for the comment!
Well, that’s it, exactly! As soon as you notice the fake crowd reaction, the show seems somehow awkward. No wonder that so many people consider TNA “lame”… first impression is important to attract new viewers, and Impact is not very good at it. To see the difference, just compare normal Impact from Orlando to Impact taped in England…
Could not agree more – I wish that they taped more shows in England. Look, if they can draw 5,000+ people for TV tapings in England, then they ought to consider going over there for 3 taping sessions a year at a minimum!
The crowd for last week’s Impact was a lot better. TNA does have some leverage in negotiating with Spike. TNA is the #1 show on Spike. And USA Network which is owned by Unviersal/Comcast isn’t going to let WWE go.