Total Nonstop Action Wrestling: Difference between revisions
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[[File:
America's [[Overly Narrow Superlative|second most popular]] [[Professional Wrestling|wrestling]] promotion, even if it's primarily just by default.
After the end of the [[Monday Night Wars]] in 2001, [[WCW]] and [[ECW]] were out of business and there was no company that could compete with [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] on a national scale; a wave of independent promotions sprang up in the wake of the end of the Attitude Era.
...That head-to-head confrontation with WWE saw TNA totally obliterated in the ratings and they promptly returned to their original Thursday night timeslot on May
▲...That head-to-head confrontation with WWE saw TNA totally obliterated in the ratings and they promptly returned to their original Thursday night timeslot on May 13th.
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{{
* [[Aborted Arc]]:
** Miss Tessmacher being trained to wrestle, since her teacher Lacey Von Erich [[Real Life Writes the Plot|has left the company]]. (Tessmacher got better, and now wrestles in the women's tag division.)
*** On top of her breaking her jaw.
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** Remember when D'Angelo Dinero was a contender for the world title instead of a blink-and-you'll-miss-him midcarder?
* [[Action Girl]]: The TNA Knockouts division.
** [[Badass Decay|At least they used to be]], [[Your Mileage May Vary|in the eyes of some people]].
* [[Affably Evil]]: It's pretty hard to hate the on-screen leaders of Immortal and the heel version of Fortune (Eric Bischoff and [[Ric Flair]], respectively).
** [[Faux Affably Evil]]: It's pretty hard ''not'' to hate [[Jeff Jarrett]] and (the former) Karen Angle, since they're ''super'' smarmy.
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** To a somewhat lesser extent, "Team TNA" / "Team USA" in any World X Cup Tournament.
* [[Ancient Conspiracy]]: Immortal are treated like this. Aside from Abyss's name for [[Incredibly Lame Pun|them]] before ''Bound For Glory'' "10.10.10", and aside from the glaring fact that [[Hulk Hogan]] and Eric Bischoff notoriously gave [[WCW]]'s life to the [[New World Order]] over a decade ago, there's the fact that Sting has been shouting in tongues about the nefarious evils of Hogan/Bischoff since they've arrived in TNA yet few other characters ever listened. Also, [[The Bad Guy Wins|they get away with it]].
* [[Artistic License: Law]]: Abyss kidnaps Dixie Carter, who then demands he be fired ''immediately''. Eric Bischoff then gets the contract for Dixie to sign, stating outloud that they were the forms for the release of Abyss. The next week, it emerges that Bischoff didn't have Dixie sign Abyss's release, ''he had her sign over the company to him & Hulk Hogan''. Dixie's lawyer threatens to take Eric to court over the matter, but Eric says that Dixie signed the contracts in front of the television cameras of an internationally broadcast show, so they wouldn't beat him. ''Even though that same footage features Eric saying the forms were for the the release of Abyss'', and the lawyer would have kept a copy of what he faxed over & could easily prove that it didn't match the signed contract, so any court would immediately rule in her favour. Even dumber is that Hulk Hogan actually looks Dixie in the eye and says outright "I screwed you out of your company", therfore admitting to the fraud ''in front of more television cameras''.
** Subverted at least a couple months later when Dixie came back with paperwork of an injunction she got placed on Hogan.
*** At least until a judge (who was "friends" with Dixie) ruled not only was Bischoff completely in the legal right when he used a fake contract to get control of the company, he ALSO ruled that Dixie was still FINANCIALLY responsible for TNA. Try to find that in a Contract Law casebook.
* [[B-Show]]: ''TNA Xplosion'', to the point that it's now only seen in international markets and no longer airs in the United States.
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: ''Bound For Glory'' "10.10.10." and ''Turning Point'', the following PPV. Barely subverted at "Genesis" 2K11 (See [[
** Following ''Turning Point'' 2011, this happens pretty much all the time.
* [[Between My Legs]]: This kind of shot was used for several years for entrances, with So Cal Val's legs doing the framing.
* [[Black Comedy Rape]]: Well, since the Gangstas showed up they've raped both [[Ms. Fanservice|Socal Val]] and Jeremy Borash, and they've also had [[Depraved Bisexual|Orlando Jordan]] molesting the Pope, so, the rapists are [[Unfortunate Implications|all black]] and it's a lot of emphasis on [[Double Standard Rape (Male on Male)|man on man rape]].
* [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins]]: This is basically the gimmick that Mickie James played up when she first arrived in TNA in 2010, underscoring her Native American heritage with, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|beads and buckskins]] (no braids, though) and the 1970s hard-rock theme "Hardcore Country" (with its "primitive" guitar sound). She has kept "Hardcore Country" into 2011, but now goes for a more generic, [[Deep South|traditionally Southern look]] (she's from Virginia).
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: One of THE most blatant and needless examples of this in the history of scripted television came from [[Hulk Hogan]] on ''ReAction'' November
{{quote|'''Hogan''': "Well, brother, we're lightening the load around here. We're trimming the fat. We're thinning the herd. I mean, you know, it's pathetic. It's pathetic, that Dixie would let this company get in the shape it's in. It's her train of thought! Raven? Who hasn't had a damn shower or bath? Y'know, with RVD, and that whole crew out there? They meant to professional wrestling what [[Hulk Hogan]], who sold out Shea Stadium? who put 94,000 people in the Pontiac Silverdome? who slammed a 700-pound giant? They mean to professional wrestling what [[Hulk Hogan]] means?
"No wonder this company ''was'' in the shape it's in. It's time to get rid o' the trash, the garbage, the worthless piece of crap out here, and we started with Dixie Carter. Yeah, we're gettin' ''very'' real around here. We are so, real, it's unbelievable. Because, if you don't get over like I said, you're fired. If you don't draw number, if you don't entertain, if you don't put asses in seats, if you don't put the coinage in the piggy bank, you're fired. No more games. No more, "[[Fourth Wall|Kayfabe]]." "It's a work." "I've won 34 tag team belts." Who gives a damn, how many…fake belts you won!? If you don't draw money, you get fired around here. If you don't put asses in seats, you’re gone." }}
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* [[Call Back]]/[[Continuity Nod]]: Part of the reasoning behind "Open Fight Night" which gives wrestlers a chance to seek retribution for incidents that had previously been [[Left Hanging]]. For example, on the very first OFN, Devon (the Television Champion) called out Bully Ray, who he had hardly interacted with at all since their split a year earlier.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: The most common reaction to people meeting Joseph Park? "I didn't even know Abyss had a brother!" [[Seven Year Rule|Apparently]], Father James Mitchell and Judas Mesias never existed.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]:
** Abyss is strikingly similar to [[
** Beer Money. Sound familiar? Oh yeah: the APA! Robert Roode even follows John "Bradshaw" Layfield in holding up the "money" end of the equation.
*** One could say they're more a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Bradshaw himself split in two.
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Unintentional, but it still counts. Flair was originally saying "They" were Fortune during the initial conspiracy.
* [[Christianity Is Catholic]]: D'Angelo Dinero, a supposed evangelical (Protestant) street preacher, has been nicknamed "The Pope."
* [[Conspiracy Redemption]]: Fortune, defecting from Immortal on February
* [[Corrupt Cop]]: TNA Security Guards Gunner and Murphy. And this is ''before'' they worked for Immortal.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]:
** [[The Stoner|BRIAN]] [[Wacky Guy|KEN]][[Junkie Prophet|DRICK]].
*** He's dropped the [[Star Wars|Obi-Wan Kenobi]] act for the most part now, portraying just a generic karate guy in white pantaloons. Or at least it seems that way when he isn't cutting as many promos…
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*** And former Team Canada member Eric Young joined up with the British Invasion, Sheik Abdul Bashir, Kiyoshi, No Limit, and Homicide to create the World Elite, which was basically this until they disappeared following the arrival of Hulk Hogan (and the departure of Bashir).
** Somewhat averted by Desmond Wolfe: he's not a British jerk, but rather, he's a jerk that just happens to be British. Being British hasn't really come up in his character at all.
*** Except in his accent. He's used a few American colloquialisms, which sound a little off with his thick British accent. When he used the term Ghetto Booty, I realized they were going for [[Evil Foreigner]], just surprisingly subtly.
*** He does call his finisher the Tower of London and run in a group called London Brawling though.
** Also kind of averted with Sarita and her ''[[Bilingual Bonus|prima]]'' Rosita. They are Mexican, and have been known to lapse into [[Gratuitous Spanish]] on occasion, but otherwise they don't really come off as foreign. Same with Hernandez, who dresses like a Chicano homeboy but was serving as muscle for the primary Anglo-American faction Immortal....
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* [[Expy]]: Upon the revealing of the new Impact Wrestling set, fans are already comparing it to the set of [[WCW|Thursday Night Thunder]].
* [[Face Heel Turn]] and [[Heel Face Turn]]: [[Heel Face Revolving Door|Constantly]].
** And most of the time the average fan likely can't tell who's a face and who's a heel, despite the fact that for a couple of years, they had [[
*** One of [[Vince Russo]]'s booking trademarks is that he doesn't believe in pure faces and pure heels, and feels all characters should be "[[Gray and Grey Morality|shades of gray]]". This is why it's so hard to tell the heels from the faces, and why the booking can be so inconsistent.
*** It would be one thing if Russo's idea of [[Gray and Grey Morality]] was to have the faces exhibit some heelish traits occasionally, a la [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] or [[The Undertaker]], or if he had faces sometimes act selfish the way [[CM Punk]] did when he cashed in his MITB contract on a beaten and exhausted [[Jeff Hardy]] while still a face. The problem is that Russo's idea of [[Gray and Grey Morality]] involves wrestlers acting like they're 100% face one week, and then going to 100% heel the next. Beer Money did a [[Face Heel Turn]] for no real reason, while Eric Bischoff and Mr. Anderson have done [[Heel Face Turn
*** [[Vince Russo]]. He's either a magnet for bad writers, or he has some sort of karmic curse following him, because bad writing seems to just ooze from his pores into the general atmosphere of the script.
* [[Fail O'Suckyname]]: Immortal.
** Indeed, considering how vulnerable Immortal seems to be to the various curveballs hurled at it by "The Network," wouldn't this also be a literal case of [[Artistic License Forever|You Fail Forever Forever]]?
* [[Five-Bad Band]]
** Fourtune:
*** [[Big Bad]]: [[Ric Flair]]
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** EV2.0
*** [[The Hero]]: Tommy Dreamer
*** [[The Lancer]]: [[
*** [[The Big Guy]]: Rhino
*** [[The Smart Guy]]: Sabu
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* ''[[God]]'' [[A God Am I|Am I]]: [[Ric Flair]] literally claims to be God. Not ''a'' god. ''God''.
* [[Gold Digger]]: Karen Angle - er, Jarrett - seems to have become this.
* [[He's Back]]: After all of the [[Badass Decay]] that came with being a [[Hulk Hogan]] fanboy, Abyss finally turned on Hogan and made it clear he was no longer a monster in name only. He was now a ''real'' monster who choked out [[Hulk Hogan]], layed out [[Rob Van Dam]] when he ran out to help, and shrugged off multiple chair shots from Mr. Anderson when ''he'' ran out to help. He has since been able to [[
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Before Fortune's defection, this was literally the only reason [[Jeff Jarrett]] stopped beating up plant fans in his Double-J-Double-MA challenge, [[Jeff Hardy]] ever lost the World Heavyweight title, and Immortal's iron fist hadn't completely choked TNA.
** There's a bit of a pattern in TNA where guys who've had a history of turning their backs on partners and friends end up finally taking a taste of their own medicine. See [[Christian]], [[Beergasm|James Storm]], and [[The Giant|Matt Morgan]].
* [[Adaptation Distillation|House Show Distillation]]: While mileage may vary on TNA television, their house shows are actually well liked for their matches (often compared to the weekly pay-per-view era) and [[Mean Character, Nice Actor|the meet and greets]] before and after the show.
* [[I Call It Vera]]: Abyss' nail covered 2x4, "Janice," and his "10.10.10" branding iron "Bob."
** [[Meaningful Name]]: Though it was never stated, these weapons were named after Dixie Carter's parents, [[Foreshadowing]] her forceful exit from the company.
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** To make matters worse, that same first ''Impact'' after "10.10.10", which as a result of said event was the most viewed episode ever, was near-universally found abysmal in every way except for showcasing the power and control of Immortal. The fact Hogan and Bischoff actually have creative power in TNA could not be made more obvious than that night. This is important because in one key device to the theories, the Illuminati is said to control the media. Examples are as follows:
*** On what is supposed to be a wrestling show, it took '''''<big>75 MINUTES</big>''''' for the ring announcer to first be able to say the words "The following contest is scheduled for one fall." The ensuing entrances, match, and disqualification ending occurred ''within three and a half minutes''. This made the very name of the company itself look like [[In Name Only|false advertisement]].
**** The one impromptu match which happened in those prior 75 minutes time was a [[Finger-Poke of Doom]] sans pretenses or finger poke, and was quickly followed up by former [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] mainstay Mickie James owning the duo involved. This demonstrated just how far the [[Action Girl|Knockout]] division and Championship's collective prestige has fallen.
**** By contrast, ''[[WWE Smackdown]]'' which aired the following night finished four full matches in its first 75 minutes, two of them longer than the total amount of time ''Impact'' put into wrestling.
*** In fact, there was less time on said ''Impact'' dedicated to wrestling than there was dedicated to [[Jersey Shore]]'s "JWoww" befriending the [[Girl Posse]], encountering the [[Odd Couple]], and embarrassing the one-month-old [[Lowest Common Denominator]] parody of her own show - [http://www.cagesideseats.com/2010/9/29/1719902/an-examination-of-tnas-appalling-treatment-of-talent all allegedly to the tune of $15,000].
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*** Combine ''Impact'' and ''ReAction'', we had less than 20 minutes of wrestling in a three-hour block of programming. If we're to go into [[George Orwell|Orwellian]] territory with TNA, the whole show was an insulting level of [[Newspeak|prolefeed]].
** However, they managed to make an [[Author's Saving Throw]] by having Fortune turn on Immortal and proceed to [[Calling the Old Man Out|call Immortal out]] on ''everything'' mentioned above!
** And then there's the court case. Dixie Carter goes to court to contend that Hogan and Bischoff's acquisition of the company is illegal, which, since ''everybody saw that it was under false pretenses'', should've gotten the whole contract annulled within days. Considering the judge was apparently a friend of Dixie's, maybe not even that long. Instead, weeks was how long it took merely to get the injunction slapped on Hogan. Not even Bischoff. Just Hogan. The whole case itself took months. And it was ruled that [[Artistic License: Law|the contract was 100% legal, Hulk and Eric have total control of TNA, and Dixie is still responsible for supplying the company money]]. Oh, these two are [[The Illuminati]] indeed.
** Although, after [[Jeff Hardy]]'s [[Epic Fail]] at Victory Road, Immortal wasn't so much the Illuminati altogether anymore as a street gang with support from the 2/3-man Illuminati of Bischoff and Hogan, and maybe Flair.
** As of ''BFG 2011'', with {{spoiler|Sting managing to both beat Hogan for the power and get him to go face}}…yeah, this trope is done.
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* [[Mook Horror Show]]: On the July 14, 2011, edition, Sting (who's been "coincidentally" mimicking [[The Dark Knight|Heath Ledger's]] [[The Joker|"Joker"]] with his new makeup design) sets loose a small group of clown-masked minions on Immortal. What follows pretty much plays out like a slasher flick, with the clowns picking off Immortal one by one. Gunner even attempts to invoke [[Final Boy]] on them, which fails. {{spoiler|Turns out the clowns were actually Fortune helping Sting out.}}
* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]: At Turning Point 2011, Bully Ray and Scott Steiner were booked in a tag match. They cut a promo, with Bully Ray saying "You're in the ring with one half of the greatest tag team of all time, and Scott Steiner too!" Steiner didn't take kindly to this, causing him to shoot back "''I'm'' the greatest tag team of all time!"
* [[
* [[Nebulous Evil Organization]]: Immortal, thanks to Abyss referencing it as "They/Them" during the lead-up to [[The Reveal]] at ''Bound For Glory'' "10.10.10."
* [[Necessarily Evil]]: Sting's current [[Face Heel Turn]] is this, at least that's what he claims.
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** Actually, [[Hulk Hogan]] was a better example. At least before [[The Reveal]]. Now, he's one once again.
* [[The Reveal]]: Most notably, and recently, Immortal.
* [[Ring Oldies]]: [[Kurt Angle]], [[Mick Foley]], [[
** [[Hulk Hogan]] was added to the mix in 2010, with (apparently) the same amount of creative control he had during his time in WCW.
** Don't forget [[Ric Flair]]. TNA seems to get all of WWE's washouts.
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* [[Stealth Pun]]: In the acronym of the promotion, though it wasn't much of a [[Stealth Pun]] in the early days of the promotion; the name was intended to make the company stand out as a more adult alternative to WWE, since TNA started out on pay-per-view with weekly shows.
* [[Take Over the World]]: Well, the TNA world, anyway. [[Hulk Hogan]] and Eric Bischoff came in, influenced people, brought in some friends, worked Dixie Carter, and obtained control of the company. Some fans feel like this is more than just the on-air storyline.
* [[Take That/Professional Wrestling|Take That]]: TNA loves doing these against the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]. Constantly. In fact, if you're a former WWE wrestler coming in to TNA, you're practically required via contract to take a potshot at WWE within your first month. (And Hulk Hogan seems to do one every chance he gets.)
** Eric Bischoff has started doing these on a weekly basis since his arrival; it's actually pretty sad.
** In May 2011, TNA began the process of rebranding itself as ''Impact Wrestling'' as a rather pointed [[Take That]] to WWE, which had just dropped all references to the word "wrestling" both on its TV shows and in its legal name.
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* [[The Un-Reveal]]: Velvet Sky removes the helmet of the mysterious biker chick who's been allied with Madison Rayne, only to find a mask underneath. (It has since been revealed that this woman is {{spoiler|Tara. You know, the "spider-lady."}})
* [[Throwing Down the Gauntlet]]: "Open Fight Night" is basically built around this, anyone can call out anyone and the challenged ''must'' fight.
* [[Took a Level in Jerkass]] / [[Motive Decay]] / [[
* [[Vagueness Is Coming]]: The ominous warnings about "They" by Abyss in the early autumn of 2010.
** Subverted in early 2011, by Crimson. In his case, {{spoiler|"They" were the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|accomplices]] [[Conspiracy Redemption|turned]] [[Big Damn Heroes|good guys]]}}.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Shortly before his death, "Mr. Perfect" [[Curt Hennig]] was planned to defeat [[Jeff Jarrett]] for the World Heavyweight Championship.
** The return of the Main Event Mafia was cancelled when [[Kevin Nash]], and [[Booker T]] instead made a deal with the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] to return there, forcing TNA to change who "they" where just before the reveal.
* [[Wild Samoan]]: Averted by [[Samoa Joe]].
** At least until he brought out a machete, wore some crazy pants and painted a tribal marking on his face that looked like a penis. Thankfully, he's gotten far away from that, but it did a lot towards killing his push.
* [[With Us or Against Us]]: An unfortunate example happened not long after [[Hulk Hogan]] signed with TNA. TNA Wrestling president Dixie Carter, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn13PwaRQ6s gave a big speech] to the wrestlers before an episode of iMPACT! in which she basically acknowledged the incredibly shitty decisions being made by the company, and rather than do anything about it, told the wrestlers to shut up or leave. Either they were behind her, or they could leave the company. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100914095928/http://www.wrestlezone.com/editorials/article/it-just-keeps-getting-better-90269 This] [https://web.archive.org/web/20151011060434/http://www.vivekwwe.com/wwenews/1585-wwe-reacts-to-tna-president-dixie-carter-speech.html did] [http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/publish/powelleditorials/article1008702.shtml not] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100114025750/http://www.wrestling-edge.com/tna-news/tna-wrestler-reacts-to-dixie-carters-speech-details-on-the-black-machismo-invitational.html go] [http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1257714323.php over] [http://www.zimbio.com/TNA+Wrestling/articles/UVojvt1i_cO/Industry+Weighs+Dixie+Carter+Speech well]{{Dead link}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20140424001729/http://www.camelclutchblog.com/dixie-carter-paul-heyman/ with] [http://www.ukff.com/lofiversion/index.php/t116095.html anyone.]{{Dead link}} At all.
** Since Hogan arrived, [[Christopher Daniels]] and Awesome Kong, among others, have left/been released from TNA (with Daniels infamously showing up at a [[Ring of Honor]] event just days after his release from TNA, shocking everyone with his appearance). Tara (aka [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s Victoria) also left. Daniels and Tara have returned since, but Kong is now [[
*** Arguably the [[Moral Event Horizon|absolute worst]] the TNA creative have done lately is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOwBJu5Hfzk tell the audience that they are "cast members"] as a means to try and control the very chants that the crowd makes, allegedly due to wanting the show to be more fan-friendly. While there are several chants that shouldn't be heard by children, this rings more than a little hypocritical considering the current violent & sexualised content being pushed on the show. Ostensibly this is an attempt by TNA to [[Truth and Lies|regulate the chants from the crowd to try and quell any anti-Hogan regime reactions]].
* [[Writing Around Trademarks]]: Several wrestlers have had to use ring names that were close to their more famous ones in order to avoid WWE's lawyers from sending TNA into legal Hell (the most notable being Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, who became Brother Ray and Brother Devon because of WWE owning several ECW trademarks); notable aversions include Christian Cage (he trademarked the name, so WWE couldn't stop him from using it) and Taz.
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{{reflist}}
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