They have had their fair share of bad decisions and behind the scenes controversies. Though probably not all the hate they get is justified.
I tend to look past the mediocre stuff because most of it is born from milking the same storyline past its due date. Aces & Eights comes to mind, and all of the EC3 stuff. Loved the concepts, they just took way too long to resolve, which kinda drains the energy.
Ultimately it’s the small moments and unique twists that I’ll remember fondly, such as Roode terrorizing Sting to the point where he took out his Insane Icon gimmick. Jay Lethal impersonating Rick Flair, the Joseph Park Esq. arc, Austin Aries bluffing his way into ‘option C’ for a shot at the heavyweight title, the introduction of The Rising during the Beatdown Clan time with the amazing speech by Eli Drake. All moments that were amazing within their context.
But my absolute favourite arc was when they brought in Taryn Terrell as a referee after Gail Kim discovered you can just seduce the male referees to win. Which escalated into one of the best feuds I have ever seen.
Great to hear that trans wrestlers are taken seriously. Really curious to see them in action now. Might look up some matches.
Nyla’s second match with Riho is excellent. Their first outing was weak, chemistry didn’t click, but second go round they put on an absolute banger. Riho has a really strong sense of ring psychology and their David & Goliath dynamic works well.
Honestly, I fell off of TNA when they brought Hogan and Bischoff in and they changed everything about the place. I’ve tried to get back into it several times since, and never quite managed.
And definitely, there are more prominent trans wrestlers now than pretty much ever. Nyla Rose is probably the most well-known one, but there’s also Gisele Shaw in TNA, Kidd Bandit and Edith Surreal have been indie standouts, and VENY has been making waves in Japan (and has also done a handful of AEW appearances). There’s a semi-regular series of indie events called Effy’s Big Gay Brunch that features an all-LGBTQ+ roster that’s well worth checking out; you can stream them online.
Oh yeah, Hogan and Bischoff definitely did more harm than good. I remeber getting so tired of the Bischoff stuff that I would just not watch it anymore.
Best decision they’ve made was to bring in Sting to replace Hogan and we got a new Main Event Mafia and an awesome feud with Roode as a result.
Thanks for the suggestions by the way, definitely interested to see how the wrestling world is becoming more inclusive. I feel like it might still take some time to adapt, though we have been watching shiny muscular men in tight speedos for years now which is arguably more gay than watching someone talented doing what they do best and they just happen to be queer.
They have had their fair share of bad decisions and behind the scenes controversies. Though probably not all the hate they get is justified.
I tend to look past the mediocre stuff because most of it is born from milking the same storyline past its due date. Aces & Eights comes to mind, and all of the EC3 stuff. Loved the concepts, they just took way too long to resolve, which kinda drains the energy.
Ultimately it’s the small moments and unique twists that I’ll remember fondly, such as Roode terrorizing Sting to the point where he took out his Insane Icon gimmick. Jay Lethal impersonating Rick Flair, the Joseph Park Esq. arc, Austin Aries bluffing his way into ‘option C’ for a shot at the heavyweight title, the introduction of The Rising during the Beatdown Clan time with the amazing speech by Eli Drake. All moments that were amazing within their context.
But my absolute favourite arc was when they brought in Taryn Terrell as a referee after Gail Kim discovered you can just seduce the male referees to win. Which escalated into one of the best feuds I have ever seen.
Great to hear that trans wrestlers are taken seriously. Really curious to see them in action now. Might look up some matches.
Nyla’s second match with Riho is excellent. Their first outing was weak, chemistry didn’t click, but second go round they put on an absolute banger. Riho has a really strong sense of ring psychology and their David & Goliath dynamic works well.
Honestly, I fell off of TNA when they brought Hogan and Bischoff in and they changed everything about the place. I’ve tried to get back into it several times since, and never quite managed.
And definitely, there are more prominent trans wrestlers now than pretty much ever. Nyla Rose is probably the most well-known one, but there’s also Gisele Shaw in TNA, Kidd Bandit and Edith Surreal have been indie standouts, and VENY has been making waves in Japan (and has also done a handful of AEW appearances). There’s a semi-regular series of indie events called Effy’s Big Gay Brunch that features an all-LGBTQ+ roster that’s well worth checking out; you can stream them online.
Oh yeah, Hogan and Bischoff definitely did more harm than good. I remeber getting so tired of the Bischoff stuff that I would just not watch it anymore.
Best decision they’ve made was to bring in Sting to replace Hogan and we got a new Main Event Mafia and an awesome feud with Roode as a result.
Thanks for the suggestions by the way, definitely interested to see how the wrestling world is becoming more inclusive. I feel like it might still take some time to adapt, though we have been watching shiny muscular men in tight speedos for years now which is arguably more gay than watching someone talented doing what they do best and they just happen to be queer.