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Oh that's not the best part, the best part is AJ Stylescalling Bischoff out for turning TNA into a WWE ripoff. Why is this the best part? This is exactly what the fans had been complaining about!
After the catastrophic mess that was the Main Event of Victory Road 2011, TNA offered six months of free access to their online on-demand service if you show proof of purchase.
The Knockouts Division: they went from being one of the best parts of TNA (they even main-evented an episode of Impact!) to becoming a shallow parody of their former glory, all in the space of a couple of years. ODB famously tweeted "What is happening to our division?" after watching a "Leather and Lace" Match on Impact in early 2010.
With the return of Gail Kim and Karen Jarrett finally leaving, this has started to be reversed.
Mick Foley went from becoming an actual psychotic berserker capable of taking the world title to being Too Dumb to Live concerning his final weeks against Eric Bischoff.
Broken Base: Changing from the six-sided ring to the more traditional four-sided ring. Many fans hate the change (Note the "WE WANT SIX SIDES" chant on the night of said change) while others (particularly the Smarks) see this as an improvement. Wrestlers were won over in good time, though, by noting that the mat was far less stiff to bump on.
Orlando Jordan's bisexuality becoming a part of his gimmick. Even now, the arguments about whether it's a good thing or a bad thing haven't been settled in some circles.
Even worse, the gimmick plays into the nasty stereotype of the Depraved Bisexual.
Introducing two characters based on Jersey Shore was strike one; having one of their one of their stars make a one night cameo for $15,000 and humiliating a legitimate wrestler in the longest segment of the night was strike two; hiring another one of them and potentially bringing the first one back is/will be strike three.
Doing away with one of the characters was a step in the right direction, but then TNA brought in a thirdJersey Shore cast member.
Dude, Not Funny: Eric Young and Orlando Jordan's current gimmicks, to many.
The ENTIRE angle involving Kurt Angle, Jeff and Karen Jarrett, and their kids. The pinnacle of this is probably having the custody of their children being part of a stipulation for one of their PPV matches.
He only qualifies thanks to Hogan & Bischoff dropping him to the midcard after a needless heel turn. Prior to that, he was the top face in the company.
Fan Dumb: It has a track record to match Ring of Honor, but the Crucial Crew pushed this over the top. Their complaints about Hogan's arrival and the switch to four sides, along with threatening to STORM THE RING DURING A SHOW, led directly to the equally stupid "You're all cast members" speech.
There's also the common defense of TNA: "it's not WWE."
Hilarious in Hindsight: What makes the story arc of Miss Tessmacher learning to wrestle really sad is that "Miss Tessmacher" was formerly Brooke Adams in Kelly Kelly's "Extreme Exposé" dance squad with Kelly and Layla El in WWE. In a 2007 interview, she mentioned that if she ever improved as a wrestler she would love to leave Extreme Exposé and strike out on her own. Flash-forward a split and about three years later, by the time Brooke started in TNA as a receptionist, Kelly and Layla had long beaten her to the path of becoming wrestlers.
Ho Yay: The relationship between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels was chock full of Ho Yay, even when they were enemies. When they were arguing over the possibility that Daniels could beat Styles, it seemed like a lover's spat that lasted for weeks. Samoa Joe acting like a jealous third party didn't help any. Keep in mind that Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles have named their kids after each other, so this is hardly a relationship that ends when the match does.
This recently happened again with AJ and Daniels, over the same thing. On the 8/25/11 Impact broadcast, Daniels nearly broke down into tears while explaining why he asked AJ for another rematch (closely resembling an Anguished Declaration of Love) and outright hugged AJ when the rematch was accepted.
Kevin Nash with Alex Shelley, when he managed the Paparazzi (Austin Starr ofter played the jealous third party). Unlike the above, this was done deliberately.
Kevin Nash and Scott Hall have been this. Nearly all of Hall's brief tenures in TNA have seen these two be inseparable. One particular embrace they shared in the ring in late 2007 managed to make Hall look like Nash's girlfriend without at all being erotic. Following Hall's no-show and Samoa Joe's scathing promo on him in 2008, Nash even systematically befriended, mentored, and then betrayed Joe through that year's duration. Over that one promo.
Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are one of the most homoerotic tag teams ever, refer to themselves as Heterosexual Life Partners, they constantly hug and stare soulfully into each others eyes, and have some of the best coordination of any group ever. Not to mention being real life BFF's outside of TNA along with Petey Williams.
Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan during the first "Immortal" promo had this in spades to the point that Ric told Hogan he was going to get up very morning loving him more than he's ever loved anything else. Hogan then asked if that included his ex-wives. Ric said yes.
The entire Knockouts roster can be counted as this, given how much they waffle between catfight and orgy on a regular basis. Someone must be enjoying packing as much innuendo in as possible.
More than a few fans believed that the "They" Abyss was talking about was Hogan and Bischoff, and the Impact before Bound For Glory, even more suggested it was them. Come Bound For Glory... Let's just say Sting was right...
When Jackson James first appeared and made questionable decisions that were written off as rookie mistakes, at least one person believed that he was in Immortal's back pocket [1]. Come Bound For Glory a year later and it was revealed to be the case.
Love It or Hate It: TNA is incredibly polarizing. One side says that the storyline and writing are so bad that it makes the show unwatchable. The other side says that their young talent is so incredible and the matches are so good that it makes up for the bad storytelling. They're kinda both right.
Most people consider the breaking point the amount of time spent on storylines (i.e. talking) versus the amount of time spent on wrestling. YMMV all around.
One thing about TNA that must aggravate some WWE fans is that they apparently have to assign all of their talent to some ridiculously large faction (Main Event Mafia, Fortune, etc.) in a failed attempt to recreate the magic of 1990s WWE with The Corporation, Nation of Domination, etc. Rather than make the storylines more interesting, this tactic only cheapens them because it locks the characters into stereotyped roles to the point where their only motivation for attacking each other is "one's in Fortune and the other's not," etc.
Mis Blamed: Writer Vince Russo - fans frequently chant, "Fire Russo!" To be fair, Russo's not the only person involved with the booking (Dutch Mantell was also involved, and Jeff Jarrett had the final say on everything). He gets singled out because of his track record with WCW.
If it had anything to do with Abyss before his Badass Decay set in, it was Dutch Mantell booking it. The first time the "Fire Russo!" chant was invoked (Turning Point 2006, during the Sting vs. Abyss Last Rites match featuring a casket suspended from the ceiling, called a Deathbed), Mantell was later pegged as the guilty party.
According to Internet reports, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have been rewriting the shows. Your Mileage May Vary as to the quality of the finished product.
Despite getting a lot of flack for things he wasn't involved with, Russo is still a horrible writer. When the infamous "DQ in a Cage match" happened Russo defended it saying that there was no reason why D Qs shouldn't happen in a Cage match.
The infamous Jeff Hardy vs. Sting Match at Victory Road 11 brought a lot of hate TNA's way, despite the fact, that in the end, Jeff Hardy was the one who showed up completely stoned out of his gourd, and TNA had to choose whether to send him out for a quick squash or cancel their headlining match. We can argue about whether the company making a known substance abuser champion was Tempting Fate to begin with, but in the end, Jeff screwed Jeff.
Nightmare Retardant: Abyss. He looks like Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz after a botched plastic surgery. Surprisingly he managed to make it work for a bit. Then they had him talk. It went way downhill from there.
Protection From Editors: Vince Russo is to pro wrestling booking what a shotgun is to target practice: just firing a gajillion ideas out and hoping something hits. In WWE, and his early run with WCW, he worked WITH a team of other writers with careful oversight, so the target was essentially a chain-link fence: 1 in 100 ideas "hit", while the rest of the garbage went flying by. Now there's only one other writer besides Russo, Matt Conway, and, well... The chain link fence is more like the broad side of a barn. And whatever he says, goes. And he says a lot of weird shit.
Shocking Swerve: So many times that they're no longer shocking and are often considered senseless.
However, some actually do manage to come off well.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The initial reaction to TNA's changeover in 2010 to a traditional four-sided ring, after having been using a six-sided ring for over five years. It can be argued all day as to whether the six-sided ring was gimmickry to begin with, but the fact that the company changed the work environment of a very dangerous profession without informing their employees or production staff beforehand, in order to apparently cater to Hulk Hogan and his friend's wrestling style, makes the hate at least a little justified.
Perhaps the biggest example of this is their "3.3.11" promo. About the only thing different from the "2.21.11" promo was the color.
Unfortunate Implications: Orlando Jordan, bisexual. The thought of how TNA is pulling this off is so bad it honestly HURTS! Ow...
The problem here is that, in a recent interview, Jordan was quoted as saying that he hopes it helps other people who have problems because of their race or sexual orientation. Really, how in the world is being lowered to the ring wrapped in police tape or squirting mayonnaise all over yourself going to help people?!
The other problem, and the one that pisses off actual bisexual people is that his gimmick of having a female and male partner isn't just bisexuality, it's polygamy, a completely different thing. And the constant association of the two (although TNA is far from the worst there) makes people think of them as sex-crazed and incapable of being satisfied with one partner.
This has seemingly been rectified following an incident with Ric Flair and Jordan's male valet, leading to the latter's apparent dismissal from the company. His female valet disappeared shortly afterward.
Now, Orlando is openly groping his opponents like D'Angelo Dinero during his matches. This just takes the implications to a whole 'nother level. Apparently, Orlando would rather sexually assault other men than try to defeat them in a wrestling contest which, should be mentioned, is his job!
Recently, after Rob Van Dam was forced to vacate the World Championship, a tournament was held to decide the new champion with final four consisting of Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Ken Anderson, and The Pope. All four former WWE Superstars. There were TNA originals in the tournament, but they all lost to the aforementioned.
The treatment of the Knockouts could be seen as this, given that they are paid lower and have less screen time than the male wrestlers. Made worse if the rumor why the "unlucky-knockout-gets-her-head-shaved" angle came to be because the Knockouts were complaining about their lack of screen time was true.
It's even more grating because the promotion is actually headed by a woman, Dixie Carter-Salinas.
To add on to the less than pleasant treatment of the Knockouts, they were shut out of the first TNA Impact video game. TNA thought it would be better to put Mike Tenay and Don West in the game over Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, etc.
For a couple of months, half of Immortal. Fortune was led by "The Nature Boy"Ric"God!"Flair and consisted of several wrestlers the likes of which have helped build TNA from the ground up yet had a very good case to say that they've been Demoted to Extra for any latest big name veteran fads that may go through the place. When they turned on Immortal using the same exact character premise, the crowd exploded in joy.
Then there's the Jarretts; despite being portrayed as a Card-Carrying Villain and his Gold Digger wife, both with a chronic case of Small Name, Big Ego, Jeff and Karen have had fans supporting them over Kurt because it's been documented on-screen and speculated off-screen that Kurt treated Karen like shit during their marriage, not to mention he usurped Jarrett's Spotlight-Stealing Squad power and then invoked Jeff's children into their previous feud. The Jarretts managed to be Evilly Affable enough to wear this down in good time, though, especially after filming the kids at home on air to demonstrate what a "perfect family" they were as part of their feud with Kurt.
Then there's ODB and Jacqueline, who had legitimate gripe with being ousted from the Knockouts in favor of the current scantly clad, barely talented pieces of eye candy that currently populate the division. The pair claimed intent to "clean up the Knockouts", and as far as this troper is concerned, THANK GOD, they were the faces in this feud.
The glaring disconnect of Velvet Sky suddenly cutting "I busted my butt to belong here" promos yet still bending her butt over and getting it kicked the exact same way as when she rolled as an Alpha Bitch with The Beautiful Elite (aside from the occasional blowoff DDT and pin, essentially winning less believably than Cena) did not help this.
There have been attempts to turn AJ Styles into a Heel, and they've never really worked. He's simply too much of a nice guy to be a believable villain.
Alternately, those heel turns did work, but rather than giving him heat, they worked in that they gave him Character Development, which added some luster to him as a face. It also didn't hurt that True Companions tended to be involved. Prime example would be Fortune, listed above.
When Rhino turned heel, he told Tommy Dreamer that he was only doing what he had to do to keep his job, and explicitly mentioned that he had to provide for his children. Understandable even in the best of times, and when the economy is as bad as it is, that's about as sympathetic as "heel" motives get.
Dreamer's own heel turn about a half a year later at first saw Bully Ray gleefully forcing his hand in a way that was very much implied to be the same situation. Then he decided AJ and the fans were all Ungrateful Bastards and worked with Bully Ray willingly before leaving weeks later.
X Pac Heat: Applied to Jeff Jarrett in 2005, when fans were pleading him to "DROP THE TITLE!" He was called "Triple J" by fans due to comparisons to Triple H. This pretty much vanished around the time his wife died and he took less of an on-screen role with the company.
This also helped go away after two more things: first, the notorious lumberjack strap match where, whenever he was out of the ring, he would promptly be beaten down by sixteen fans with leather belts (some of them actual fans) AND Samoa Joe. Second, for the smarks at least, Hulk Hogan's presence has helped to dull the hate, especially after he essentially buried Jarrett on-screen in a way that almost made Jarrett sympathetic. When he returned to in-ring action, he didn't even have any entrance music for the first few months.
Since Immortal began, several of the members (Hogan, Bischoff, and Jarrett) has been building X-Pac heat due to overexposure and really asinine moments (such as Hogan's "No more kayfabe" promo).
Bubba The Love Sponge had this, chiefly because he was a barely-known radio show host who got into the company thanks to being friends with Hulk Hogan. When he got fired, pretty much the entire IWC exploded in joy.
↑Due to some people recognizing him as Eric Bischoff's son.
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