Things and Improvements I Would Like To See TNA Do With This Rebrand

Things and Improvements I Would Like To See TNA Do With This Rebrand
December 30, 2023
By Ryan Porzl

This past October 21st, Impact Wrestling ran their biggest show of the year Bound For Glory. After the show, which ran like you would expect, the ending would see the promotion shock fans and those in the industry by announcing the promotion would once again rebrand itself under it's old identity of TNA or Total Nonstop Action, the name it had used from it's formation in 2002 to Anthem's purchase in 2017. After seven years, the promotion would embrace it's past to continue moving towards the future. Since the announcement, Impact would release a press release making it clear they had big plans from running bigger buildings to upgrading the look and feel of the show to new championship belts to improving their production with the latter having been announced months earlier. The return of TNA has tremendous potential and while they seem to be making some good moves so far, there's things that I like to see them do or attempt in the new year and here's a list of my requests. Keep in mind, I'm not going to bring up stuff like promotion as I feel their promotional work has improved and they are planned to improve their production so I won't include those.

Note: I don't own the pictures. I found them on Google. Credit to TNA or whoever owns them. I apologize for not knowing the exact owners.

Stop Using Tommy Dreamer As An In-Ring Competitor- We start with one of my biggest requests for TNA in 2024. Understand that I respect Tommy Dreamer and have been a fan of him for decades. By all accounts, he's a very nice guy and a respected veteran. Having said all that, he has no business in the ring anymore and as mean as this may sound, he's an anchor on the television programs. Simply put, Dreamer just can't go anymore as he's 52 years old, well past his prime, out of shape, and broken down due to injuries and the hardcore style he did for decades. On top of that, he was in the running for worst wrestler of the year and his feud with Bully Ray was, in my opinion, the worst in all of the major American promotions. Even talented vets like Steve Maclin, Kenny King, Crazzy Steve, and Deaner all struggled to get anything out of Dreamer this year. Along with Dreamer's age and limitations, there's also the fact that TNA has plenty of talented wrestlers on the roster they could focus on or wrestlers from the indies or free agents they could bring in to focus on. The promotion definitely doesn't look good when they got guys like Black Taurus or Laredo Kid on the roster and they're constantly jobbed out while Dreamer is put in bigger roles and given a championship. By all accounts, Dreamer's 2023 run could be a sympathetic one as he lost his mother this year as well as father figure Terry Funk and even Dreamer has admitted 2023 was not a good year for him so maybe Impact felt bad for him. I don't mind if Dreamer continues working the independent circuit or behind the scenes as a producer or part of the creative team but 2024 needs to be the last year The Innovator of Violence competes in a TNA/Impact ring.

Freshen Up The Knockouts Division- Whether you like TNA or not, one thing that should be agreed on is the success of their Knockouts Division. With the exception of NXT or women's only promotions, TNA has no peer as far as strong women's divisions. Since the debut of the division in 2007, many talented women have competed for the division, made names for themselves, and on many occasions, stolen the show with their performances. 2023 was largely the same as the division boasted a great combo of talented vets and great up and comers. The only chink in the divisions armor, as far as the singles division goes, is the fact it kind of got stale in 2023. At times, it mostly felt like the division was centered around Deonna Purrazzo, Jordynne Grace, and Mickie James even though the latter two didn't compete during the summer. It felt like almost every major PPV or Impact Plus special featured at least one of these KOs in the title match and as talented as they are, it got kind of boring. The only other talent to break out was Trinity for obvious reasons. While this trend looks to continue at Hard To Kill with Jordynne challenging for the KO World Championship, there does appear some hope as Mickie has since left TNA while Deonna is rumored to be leaving. With them gone, it opens the door for fresh talent to emerge whether it be up and comers like Gisele Shaw, KiLynn King, and the members of MK Ultra (Masha Slammovich and Killer Kelly) or former champions like Tasha Steelz, Jessicka, and Courtney Rush. There's also the possibility of wildcards such as Savannah Evans, newcomer Jody Threat, vet Alisha Edwards who has been given more opportunities lately, and the recently signed Dani Luna. Not to mention, 2024 could see the return or debuts of new Knockouts. The Knockouts Division has a lot going for it and hopefully in 2024, we can see a bit of freshen up and a bit more variety.

 

Replenish Both Tag Team Divisions- In the past, Impact had a history of having a strong tag team division with many all time great teams going through it. In recent years, the men's division has taken a downturn with teams breaking up or departures. 2023 was an up and down year for the division as the first part of the year had the up and coming ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey), former champions The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), and The Good Hands (John Skyler and Jason Hotch). The summer saw some improvement with Rich Swann and Sami Callihan forming a team while Zachary Wentz returned to Impact and thus reunited with Trey Miguel in The Rascalz and then there was Subculture (Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster) who provided much needed depth. Unfortunately, by the fall, The Machine Guns began focusing on singles competition after Shelley won the World Title while Sabin won the X Division Title, Subculture would be inactive due to an injury to Mark Andrews, and Callihan left Impact thus breaking his team with Swann up. 2024 does look a bit promising as with the signing of Dani Luna, it could mean the rest of Subculture will follow after Andrews' recovers and the promotion has since announced the debut of The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake) for Hard To Kill and there's plenty of talented teams out there.

As for the Knockouts, this will be tougher as there aren't a lot of great female teams out there like there are men. Impact has done a decent job since bringing the belts back in 2021 but by the end of 2023, it's a skeleton crew in current champions MK Ultra and former champions The Death Dollz (Jessicka and Courtney Rush). Both are good teams but Impact desperately needs more to have a division. It would definitely be nice for the promotion to find whatever teams they can or at least sign more talent and see if any could have potential chemistry as a team. I definitely would like to see a revival of both tag divisions in 24.

Do A Live Episode Of TNA Impact- This is likely the one that has the least chance of happening but I would like to see it at least once. I'm not 100% sure but I believe the last live episode of Impact was their Destination X 2017 special on August 17, 2017. If true, it's been over six years since the last live episode. If TNA is planning to go a little bigger, I would like to see them try at least one live episode in 2024. Best of all, they have something that can make a live special work as June 2024 will mark twenty years since the TNA Impact! TV show debuted so maybe a live 20th Anniversary celebration will be in effect. If not that then maybe something before or after Bound For Glory in October.

Continue Making Necessary Changes To The Roster- This is something I've been seeing as of writing and hope it continues into 2024 which seems to be the case. The return of TNA is gearing up for freshen up whether it be the improved production to bigger buildings to new sets to new belts. However, one thing to also look at is making changes to the active roster as the promotion should want a combination of familiar faces and some new ones. Already, Impact has parted ways in recent months with Sami Callihan, Heath, Taylor Wilde, Kenny King, and Mickie James while Deonna Purrazzo is rumored to be leaving. Meanwhile, the promotion has signed KUSHIDA and Dani Luna to full time contracts while signing new names like British vet Trent Seven and British prospect Leon Slater while up and comers such as European wrestlers Harley Hudson and Mike D recently won Gut Check. Same is also true with the ring announcing as David Penzer has since parted ways with the promotion while Jade Chung has become the new ring announcer.

I definitely would like to see this continue in 2024 as there's other wrestlers TNA can part ways with while others can be brought in. Right now, TNA has aging names Bully Ray and Johnny Swinger who feel like they ran their course, especially Swinger. The Design hasn't worked out in 2023 and while Kon is a solid big man and Deaner has done a great job repackaging himself, it probably be best to find something else or part ways with Kon while Deaner can focus on behind the scenes stuff. Dirty Dango is probably an ok undercard wrestler but not sure if Oleg Prudius is needed or Alpha Bravo who could focus more behind the scenes. Then there's talent like Shogun and Su Yung who are good but have had little to nothing to do for years as Shogun has been around for nearly four years and has barely been used. Meanwhile, Su Yung went on maternity leave in December 2021 and gave birth in February 2022 but still hasn't returned in nearly two years despite working indie dates.

On the other side, there's lots of talent out there to either bring back or bring in. Former talents such as Jake Crist, Madman Fulton, former knockout Nevaeh, and former X Division Champion Rohit Raju all made returns in 2023 for a few appearances each. Former Knockouts World Champion Allie recently parted ways with AEW so she could be a nice pick up as well. There's also the talent that the WWE released in September who will be available to sign in 2024. There's also several hot free agents who will also be available in 2024 such as former NWA Women's World Champion Kamille and former MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone. Speaking of MLW, former Tag Team Champion Richard Holliday is also available along with former tag team champion Calvin Tankman as is former Tag Team Champions Lance Anoa'i and Juicy Finau with Anoa'i expressing interest in working with TNA. There's also plenty of unknowns looking for their big opportunity and with TNA having done several international tours and shows in 2023, there's a possibility that they could seek out prospects from not only The United States and Canada but perhaps Mexico and Europe, specifically the UK.

Overall, I'm definitely looking forward to what the return of TNA brings in 2024 and I hope the promotion does make continued attempts to improve what needs to be worked on.