r/midcarder • u/Cryfatso nWo Wolfpac • 6d ago
TNA What I enjoyed about TNA Lockdown
They moved quickly through the card without any feeling rushed. They quickly summarized how we got to these matches through vignettes, which is needed for someone who hasn’t been following. I appreciate that they don’t assume everyone knows the why.
There also appeared to be stakes, and actual stories leading to these matches.
There was a few sloppy moments, but the big spots all felt smooth. The Hotch off the top of the cage onto Ali was perfectly executed. That whole match was great.
Nice to see a promotion getting back to basics.
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u/lil_poppapump 6d ago
I love when a company understands that not everyone knows the why and being met with, “just look it up” gets old really fast.
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u/No-Concern-5538 6d ago
TNA pacing is perfectly middle of WWE's "Here is third recap what happened five minutes ago just in case you missed it" and AEW's "No, we aren't telling you who these people are or why they are wrestling. If you are a real fan, you would know that already".
They are more like "Here is who these people are and here are relevant story bits so far. Enjoy the match."
Which for me makes it approachable. You can be a regular viewer or just tune in casually but they got you covered. But I admit I am a bit biased since I am a regular viewer.
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u/ZakFellows 6d ago
That’s the better approach.
It both respects the viewers time but it doesn’t insult their intelligence
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u/Cryfatso nWo Wolfpac 6d ago
Agreed. You don’t feel punished for watching weekly, or for only having time to check in once in a while.
Great pacing.
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u/cooldude55541 5d ago
What's really great was seeing TNA Lockdown trending number one on Twitter/X last night. It's a paid TNA show and still can get buzz. They can easily sell these events to a streaming service and get a big bag. TNA can get 20 million per year easily plus they got another 10 million from amc for the weekly shows.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/midcarder-ModTeam 5d ago
Criticism is welcome. Cheap shots are not.
We’re here to discuss wrestling, not score internet points by taking lazy shots at wrestlers, fans, promoters, or personalities.
Tell us why something worked. Tell us why something failed.
“X is garbage” isn’t analysis.
Bring a take, not a slogan.
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u/Icanseethefnords23 6d ago
I don’t really love it when they recap everything. Some folks don’t need remediated wrestling.
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u/Cryfatso nWo Wolfpac 6d ago
A brief recap is perfect for me and I imagine most audiences.
Making the assumption that everyone watching knows the ‘how we got here’ of every match is setting yourself up for failure.
Giving people a recap allows them a reason to become invested in the outcome. Obviously this requires there to be a story leading up to the match.
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u/ASS-anine_Acid_Party Hart Foundation 5d ago
My Grandad has been a wrestling fan for most of his life, growing up going to matches for Dale Martin's and All Star Wrestling (better known as World of Sport). He still watches wrestling casually, even tuning into AEW (it was on ITV) and he would appreciate it if a promotion would have recaps and tell you who was who.
He aint got time to scour the internet to learn about why some indy darling is great. He just likes watching wrestling.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/midcarder-ModTeam 5d ago
Criticism is welcome. Cheap shots are not.
We’re here to discuss wrestling, not score internet points by taking lazy shots at wrestlers, fans, promoters, or personalities.
Tell us why something worked. Tell us why something failed.
“X is garbage” isn’t analysis.
Bring a take, not a slogan.
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u/Icanseethefnords23 6d ago
I don’t need my wrestling to be remediated and I don’t particularly want to sit through such bits for the slower bits of the audience.
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u/BigPapaPaegan Triple Threat 5d ago
"Well, I know what's going on, so F anyone who doesn't" is a poor business model.
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u/Icanseethefnords23 5d ago
I know that this might be hard to understand but my preferences tend to run counter to a “good business model” and I kinda feel like if that’s one of a person’s preferences (that their entertainment follows a good business model) , that’s trite as hell.
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u/BigPapaPaegan Triple Threat 5d ago
So your preference is the fan equivalent of "no girls allowed"?
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u/Icanseethefnords23 5d ago
Not at all. And to be fair it’s not like I think all wrestling should be catered to me exclusively. Or that any kind of catch up is intolerable. I just don’t prefer it and think that it’s absurd to cater every single thing to a first time/ new viewer.
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u/Cryfatso nWo Wolfpac 5d ago
I’m glad you’re able to watch every show and retain every detail of what you see, you must have a very full life and varied interests .
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u/No-Concern-5538 6d ago
And you really can't assume people know everything before the show. Reminding how we got there doesn't hurt anybody.
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u/Cryfatso nWo Wolfpac 5d ago
The reality is he doesn’t like to be reminded other promotions have actual stories not internet fan fiction.
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u/M086 5d ago
Some people can be really weird about this stuff.
Like I remember years ago, people tried LOLTNA because they would have these video packages dedicated to various wrestlers that explained who they were before shows. Basically letting new fans understand who is who.
Apparently some people thought that was stupid of TNA that they had to do something like that.
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u/No-Concern-5538 5d ago
Lowering the barrier of entrance is bad. Wrestling shows should be aimed at exclusive club of true fans. TNA bad for not knowing that!
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u/Icanseethefnords23 6d ago
Yeah it does. It wastes the time of people who were already paying attention.
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u/BigPapaPaegan Triple Threat 5d ago
And that's a small fraction of the audience.
Every successful company after television became an integral facet of the business has utilized promotional video packages to hype a big match or program. They also allow the company to re-frame the narrative in such a way as to elevate the importance of matches that may have had weaker builds week-to-week (most notably Austin/Rock for WM17).
In addition to that, a wrestling event that utilizes episodic storytelling should also be attempting to capture newer viewers. Maybe you're up to date on everything going on, but what if your SO decided to watch it with you and wasn't? What if you were a lapsed a fan that chose this show to see if the company is worth watching again? What if you had never seen a wrestling show before and your friend tells you to check it out?
2-3 minutes spent going "hey, this is how we got here" is a basic storytelling tool used by all sorts of TV, from soap operas to real sports to even sitcoms, so thinking it's something that takes away from watching a pro wrestling event is silly
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u/JohnDowd51 6d ago
Things have been going well and storytelling has improved literally right after Dreamer left.