In an interview with the Live Audio Wrestling Show, former TNA Champion AJ Styles commented on drawing more people for local independent house shows than TNA live events when Impact Wrestling went on the road away from TV tapings.
Said Styles, "I don't quite understand why this is, but almost every show I've been at has drawn that kind of number. I'm not saying it's me, I'm saying the promoters know what they're doing. That's what's so crazy about this, I'm having so much fun and I'm going, wow, for somebody to say that I wasn't worth the money, there sure are a lot of people showing up at these independent shows to see exactly what I do. It's confusing, to say the least, but I'm very excited about the fact that I'm able to work in front of all these people and I'm able to give them their money's worth."
When analyzing Styles' comments, PWTorch.com indicated that TNA's biggest problem is that they are "too big to be local, but too small to be national."
I agree with this sentiment because when it comes to being a national wrestling promotion, TNA severely lacks the firepower to compete with the WWE juggernaut. I wouldn't expect Impact Wrestling to ever really be able to stand toe to toe with Vince McMahon's well-oiled machine, but it also doesn't help matters when TNA has never really been able to establish true national brand recognition. Hopefully, their recent marketing deal with UTA will help change that.
On the flip-side, the problem TNA has when taking Impact Wrestling on the road is that because they are "too big to be local", they don't have the ability to really pull off the same kind of grass roots efforts that smaller promotions can do in their local areas because the smaller companies have already made the in-roads on that hyper-local level to bring in regular, dedicated fans.
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As for Styles, good for him that he is doing well bringing in fans to see him wrestle as he travels the independent circuit ... I'm sure Jeff Jarrett and GFW have taken notice.
(credit: Live Audio Wrestling Show and PWTorch.com)
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