Smark Out Moment

The following is the current TNA Wrestling PPV Schedule for 2013:


What are these pre-taped shows? Well, as you can tell, TNA has decided to get rid of the following pay-per-view events: Against All Odds, Victory Road, Sacrifice, Destination X, No Surrender, Turning Point, and Final Resolution

Instead, they will pre-tape special shows that they will only charge $15 for. As you can tell, these events will be on Fridays instead of Sundays. What are these pre-taped shows going to be about? Here's the descriptions that have been floating around:

TNA X-Travaganza: features the X Division

TNA Joker's Wild Tag Team Special: enemies team up with a battle royal finale

TNA Hardcore Justice 2: an ECW reunion "hardcore" show

TNA 10 Reunion: features old TNA stars in the six-sided ring

TNA Knockouts Knockdown: a Knockouts tournament where the first round is all stipulation matches and the final four have a "test of stamina"

TNA International Incident: tournament featuring talent from the United States, India, Mexico, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Japan & the UK and the winner earns a title shot

TNA X-Division World Cup Tournament: four teams of X-Division wrestlers have a tournament which features singles, tag team, six man tag, and eight man tag matches

TNA World Cup of Wrestling: four teams that consist of a heavyweight wrestler, a tag team, and an X-Division wrestler have singles, tag, and stipulation matches; includes a "two ring, triple chance battle royal" finale

My thoughts on this are mixed, so I need to break this down into parts.

First off, I don't think this is going to result in any extra revenue for TNA. I think this could very well be one of those things that helps lead to them going bankrupt. The main reason for this is that the shows are pre-taped. If ratings have shown anything, it's that pre-taping episodes of your wrestling shows means that fans can read about the results online and NOT tune in. People certainly aren't going to be willing to spend $15 to pay to watch something that they know the results of.

Friday is also a bad night to be doing this. It's considered one of the worst nights to put a show on TV as people are gearing up for the weekend with different plans. They don't watch TV as much.

The benefit is that this will give the main shows a much bigger amount of time to set up feuds and make them feel special. That's on TNA to actually make them worth the while, though.

Then the events themselves that they have planned raise some suspicions for me as well as some applause. Let's go one by one.

X-Travaganza is such a gimmicky name, but it works, so I actually consider it a positive. With this pay-per-view change, they've gotten rid of Destination X, which means no Ultimate X match and no chance, as previously stated, for the X-Division champion to challenge for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. This is just ridiculous, so I'm hoping they include both the X-Division title shot AND the Ultimate X match in some capacity on this event.

The Joker's Wild tag team idea is one that I don't think will succeed. It's better for an episode of Impact Wrestling. I also don't get why there's a battle royal at the end.

Hardcore Justice being an ECW reunion show is going to backfire on them. Why focus on people that aren't in your actual company, particularly when so many of them are troublesome with substance issues and being old and banged up - and on top of that, not even popular enough to warrant a good buy rate in the first place!?

10 Reunion is a ridiculous name and once again, they're focusing on old stars not on the current roster, which is a mistake. I like the idea of bringing back the six-sided ring for a show, but this isn't the way to go about it.

Knockouts Knockdown is a good idea in the sense of giving the women a pay-per-view dedicated to themselves, and I like the idea of a tournament being involved, but I don't know what this "test of stamina" is and I don't know if stipulation matches are the way to go about things. That's up in the air for now. It could be good, it could be awful.

International Incident is an awesome name for the event they have, but why are they having ANOTHER tournament, and once AGAIN featuring wrestlers that aren't on their roster?

X-Division World Cup Tournament....another tournament, more haphazard tag team matches that are so confusingly described, and why is this a "world cup"?

World Cup of Wrestling...another "world cup", another tournament so to speak, and more random tag team matches that are confusing.


I think TNA needs to take a look at this list and fix some of their ideas. For instance, cut down on the tag team stipulations and tournaments. If you're going to have a world cup, make it the International Incident one, not the other two. Stop focusing on your non-roster talent. Get rid of Hardcore Justice and just make that a "normal roster has gimmick matches" type of event in some capacity rather than build around ECW. Rename 10 Reunion and incorporate the current roster. Add the Ultimate X and title shot to X-Travaganza. And lastly, don't pre-tape them.