At their PEAK, what was bigger competition to WWE...ECW, TNA, NWA or AEW

[Cattle Mutilation]

Ratings wise at their peak, TNA kills AEW.

TNA’s best attendance figure ever is less than the Boston Dynamite from earlier this month lol. And we all know AEW isn’t exactly doing yeoman’s work in attendance right now.

And while TNA’s TV numbers were bigger, I don’t think they were ever ranking top three every single week like Dynamite is doing. Was TNA ever in a position where the only thing that consistently beats them on their night is live sports?

Ratings landscape from now to then is completely different. Raw was doing like high 4 millions and into the 5s and perhaps even higher back during TNA’s peak.

WWE is hot as well right now and Smackdown on free TV can’t in 2024 even get half of what Raw was doing on cable back then. Raw now is barely getting 33% of what Raw got back then.

It’s like trying to compare NBA scoring in 2024 with NBA scoring in the 90s. Same league operating in two completely different environments.

 

[get my pool]

In terms of resources and good will it’d probably be aew. Then when HHH took over they pretty much conceded and turned into what they are now

 

[drifter]

People are more likely to say TNA over NWA because we're not old as shyt

TNA's the last real alternative that gave parts of a product that enough people could believe was equal to or better than WWE. Prime Kurt vs Joe was better than whatever top feud WWE had at the time, is better than any feud Joe will have in AEW, and most likely better than most feuds AEW's had period, because it's still better than most WWE's since before HHH got the sticks.

Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong is still the best women's feud to happen over here in the last 20 years. Rhea vs Charlotte could've challenged but more matches are sorely needed. We're not wasting time talking about AEW here

Add innovative shyt like the X Division/Ultimate X and TNA had it all except mainstream exposure & Shad Khan's wallet. Flips, in shape believable looking motherfukkers headlining shows, long time backstage/booking experience, stuff that made sense. They also just went about their business and didn't take shots at WWE every time you look until Bischoff/Hogan came on and Russo took over creative and made WCW 2.0

 

[FunkDoc1112]

AEW and it's not even close. And ECW worked so closely with WWF from 95 onward I can't even really call them competitive

 

[FunkDoc1112]

No one cares about all that TV semantics, oh the landscape has changed shyt. To counter act this, TNA was doing over million regularly with shows that taped WEEKS ahead of time. Spoilers were everywhere. This is FIRST run LIVE television, in this day and age, that is GOLD and they can't even break a million viewers ever.

Not even WWE draws half the viewers they did back then, use your fukking brain you dullard In the late 2000s, Raw's audience hovered around 4-6 million viewers a week, now it's considered a monster number when they do over 2 mill.

By your logic 2007 TNA was hotter than WWE now because they're drawing the same amount of viewers. Like we keep saying, the cable landscape was much different. TNA on its best day never even came close to the PPV business AEW regularly does.

 

[jerniebert]

AEW has the money to be a threat.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Where's the DDT option

 

[Reality Check]

Add innovative shyt like the X Division/Ultimate X and TNA had it all except mainstream exposure & Shad Khan's wallet. Flips, in shape believable looking motherfukkers headlining shows, long time backstage/booking experience, stuff that made sense. They also just went about their business and didn't take shots at WWE every time you look until Bischoff/Hogan came on and Russo took over creative and made WCW 2.0

This is revisionist history. They took their fair share of shots at WWE several years before Hogan/Bischoff era.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

But on the real...

• The NWA period was never a threat even with Starrcade in the 80s. It was a alternative but even Dusty and em read the writing on the wall.
• ECW lolz, it was pretty much WWF's drugged up PC
• TNA close...but somehow someway they always managed to fukk up the potential, and even at Vince's lowest period, Dixie and em fumbled the ball and yelled GOALLLLl!
• AEW...sighs.....blah blah blah Wembley, but I'm on some "what have you done for me lately" shyt

The only way a company makes WWE sweat is if they focus on self and stop trying to fight the fukking power, which all of these companies sadly did .

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

-Some jobber that wrote The Art of War, damn mark.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

This is revisionist history. They took their fair share of shots at WWE several years before Hogan/Bischoff era.

Like have nikkas forgotten Vodoo Kin Mafia? Sports Entertainment Xtreme? Having all their ex-ECW guys denounce WWECW when it first started? TNA constantly took shots. TNA had whole ass storylines directly criticizing WWE. Like it's one thing to mock their style like the JAS and Brodie Lee's initial character, it's a whole other thing to have Road Dogg and Jesse James dissing HHH and Shawn Michaels every week or Rhyno going on tirades about what a disgrace the new ECW is. shyt wasn't even leading to any match or payoff, just giving WWE attention.

 

[Heelish]

Like have nikkas forgotten Vodoo Kin Mafia?

Corniest diss in wrestling history.

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

@Ed MOTHERfukkING G just realized you put JCP/NWA in the poll but not in the thread title

They are clearly the winner there. They forced Vince to take chances, fukk people over and do an incredible job at promoting to finally put them to rest. He never saw more competition than 84-87 until Nitro started gaining steam a decade later.

Thanks, I added them after the fact and forgot to add rhem to the title. I agree.

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Corniest diss in wrestling history.

Billionaire Ted, the huckster, and the nacho man were lame as FUKK

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Billionaire Ted, the huckster, and the nacho man were lame as FUKK

I'm not going to lie. I wanted to watch WM12 because of the huckster/Nacho Man match and not so much of that shyt card

 

[85 East]

WCW/NWA and that's it. The rest could never pick up enough momentum to compete.