Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

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CROSS THE LINE

America's second most popular wrestling promotion, even if it's primarily just by default.

After the end of the Monday Night Wars in 2001, WCW and ECW were out of business and there was no company that could compete with WWE on a national scale; a wave of independent promotions sprang up in the wake of the end of the Attitude Era. TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Wrestling was one of these, being formed in 2002 by WCW and WWE veteran Jeff Jarrett and his father Jerry; when the company was later bought by Panda Energy, it essentially became the second-biggest major promotion in the US. TNA was initially part of the NWA and aired only weekly pay-per-view events (which allowed it to air a slightly edgier product than WWE), but the company eventually struck a deal with Fox Sports Net to produced a weekly show called Impact!; this allowed TNA to shift over to the "traditional" monthly PPV format. When its deal with Fox Sports Net ran out, TNA spent a few months being a Web Original until Spike TV picked up Impact! and gave it a weekly timeslot. Since then, the company's grown well beyond its meager beginnings, including getting the chance to go head-to-head with WWE on Monday nights in 2010 (thanks to the arrival of Hulk Hogan).

...That head-to-head confrontation with WWE saw TNA totally obliterated in the ratings and they promptly returned to their original Thursday night timeslot on May 13.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling provides examples of the following tropes:
  • Aborted Arc:
    • Miss Tessmacher being trained to wrestle, since her teacher Lacey Von Erich has left the company. (Tessmacher got better, and now wrestles in the women's tag division.)
      • On top of her breaking her jaw.
    • Who was Samoa Joe abducted by? Where is the Nation of Violence thing?
      • And since Joe was the first to proclaim that "They" had spoken, why wasn't he in Immortal?
    • Remember when D'Angelo Dinero was a contender for the world title instead of a blink-and-you'll-miss-him midcarder?
  • Action Girl: The TNA Knockouts division.
  • Affably Evil: It's pretty hard to hate the on-screen leaders of Immortal and the heel version of Fortune (Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair, respectively).
  • The Alcoholic: James Storm
  • All-American Face: Kurt Angle, when he's a face.
    • To a somewhat lesser extent, "Team TNA" / "Team USA" in any World X Cup Tournament.
  • Ancient Conspiracy: Immortal are treated like this. Aside from Abyss's name for them before Bound For Glory "10.10.10", and aside from the glaring fact that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff notoriously gave WCW's life to the New World Order over a decade ago, there's the fact that Sting has been shouting in tongues about the nefarious evils of Hogan/Bischoff since they've arrived in TNA yet few other characters ever listened. Also, they get away with it.
  • Artistic License: Law: Abyss kidnaps Dixie Carter, who then demands he be fired immediately. Eric Bischoff then gets the contract for Dixie to sign, stating outloud that they were the forms for the release of Abyss. The next week, it emerges that Bischoff didn't have Dixie sign Abyss's release, he had her sign over the company to him & Hulk Hogan. Dixie's lawyer threatens to take Eric to court over the matter, but Eric says that Dixie signed the contracts in front of the television cameras of an internationally broadcast show, so they wouldn't beat him. Even though that same footage features Eric saying the forms were for the the release of Abyss, and the lawyer would have kept a copy of what he faxed over & could easily prove that it didn't match the signed contract, so any court would immediately rule in her favour. Even dumber is that Hulk Hogan actually looks Dixie in the eye and says outright "I screwed you out of your company", therfore admitting to the fraud in front of more television cameras.
    • Subverted at least a couple months later when Dixie came back with paperwork of an injunction she got placed on Hogan.
      • At least until a judge (who was "friends" with Dixie) ruled not only was Bischoff completely in the legal right when he used a fake contract to get control of the company, he ALSO ruled that Dixie was still FINANCIALLY responsible for TNA. Try to find that in a Contract Law casebook.
  • B-Show: TNA Xplosion, to the point that it's now only seen in international markets and no longer airs in the United States.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Bound For Glory "10.10.10." and Turning Point, the following PPV. Barely subverted at "Genesis" 2K11 (See Eucatastrophe).
    • Following Turning Point 2011, this happens pretty much all the time.
  • Between My Legs: This kind of shot was used for several years for entrances, with So Cal Val's legs doing the framing.
  • Black Comedy Rape: Well, since the Gangstas showed up they've raped both Socal Val and Jeremy Borash, and they've also had Orlando Jordan molesting the Pope, so, the rapists are all black and it's a lot of emphasis on man on man rape.
  • Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: This is basically the gimmick that Mickie James played up when she first arrived in TNA in 2010, underscoring her Native American heritage with, well, beads and buckskins (no braids, though) and the 1970s hard-rock theme "Hardcore Country" (with its "primitive" guitar sound). She has kept "Hardcore Country" into 2011, but now goes for a more generic, traditionally Southern look (she's from Virginia).
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of THE most blatant and needless examples of this in the history of scripted television came from Hulk Hogan on ReAction November 18:

Hogan: "Well, brother, we're lightening the load around here. We're trimming the fat. We're thinning the herd. I mean, you know, it's pathetic. It's pathetic, that Dixie would let this company get in the shape it's in. It's her train of thought! Raven? Who hasn't had a damn shower or bath? Y'know, with RVD, and that whole crew out there? They meant to professional wrestling what Hulk Hogan, who sold out Shea Stadium? who put 94,000 people in the Pontiac Silverdome? who slammed a 700-pound giant? They mean to professional wrestling what Hulk Hogan means?
"No wonder this company was in the shape it's in. It's time to get rid o' the trash, the garbage, the worthless piece of crap out here, and we started with Dixie Carter. Yeah, we're gettin' very real around here. We are so, real, it's unbelievable. Because, if you don't get over like I said, you're fired. If you don't draw number, if you don't entertain, if you don't put asses in seats, if you don't put the coinage in the piggy bank, you're fired. No more games. No more, "Kayfabe." "It's a work." "I've won 34 tag team belts." Who gives a damn, how many…fake belts you won!? If you don't draw money, you get fired around here. If you don't put asses in seats, you’re gone."

  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu / Curb Stomp Battle: Rob Van Dam, who defeated Sting in about ten seconds during his surprise debut in TNA, only to immediately receive a hellacious minutes-long beatdown from Sting and his trademark black bat.
    • Especially bad when security holds back Hulk Hogan, who is trying to help Rob Van Dam... and they completely ignore Sting as he continues to beat the holy hell out of RVD while security does nothing.
      • This can be somewhat justified in both parts. Sting was rehabbing from shoulder surgery and was limited in what he could do in-ring (though he didn't bother to inform anyone beforehand), which was why RVD went over so quickly. And the reason why the beatdown went so long? Hogan missed his cue and was late to the ring. Facepalms all around.
  • Brooklyn Rage: Bully Ray.
  • The Brute: Abyss, whenever he's heel at least. Also, AJ Styles has been The Dragon in two stables with someone like this, namely Matt Morgan and Tomko.
  • Call Back/Continuity Nod: Part of the reasoning behind "Open Fight Night" which gives wrestlers a chance to seek retribution for incidents that had previously been Left Hanging. For example, on the very first OFN, Devon (the Television Champion) called out Bully Ray, who he had hardly interacted with at all since their split a year earlier.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The most common reaction to people meeting Joseph Park? "I didn't even know Abyss had a brother!" Apparently, Father James Mitchell and Judas Mesias never existed.
  • Captain Ersatz:
    • Abyss is strikingly similar to Kane, even going so far as to use the Chokeslam as a finishing maneuver. He also bears a resemblance to Mick Foley (especially in his Mankind persona), what with the hardcore wrestling and the outfit he used to wear. This didn't go unnoticed when Foley himself actually came to TNA; he feuded with Abyss for a while, then took him under his wing.
    • Beer Money. Sound familiar? Oh yeah: the APA! Robert Roode even follows John "Bradshaw" Layfield in holding up the "money" end of the equation.
      • One could say they're more a Captain Ersatz of Bradshaw himself split in two.
    • Ken Anderson grew up in the podunk town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, admiring fellow small-town boy Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now in TNA, as "Mr. Anderson" he has had the opportunity to recreate the enormous success Austin enjoyed in WWE in the late 1990s and early 2000s, paying tribute to his idol with a similar Wild Card moral alignment and a crowd-pleasing anti-establishment attitude.
  • The Cassandra: Sting, who warned everyone about Hogan and Bischoff and was seen as a heel because of it.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Played with whenever TNA airs a skit set in the "real" world. Wrestlers such as Jeff Jarrett or Eric Young interact with ordinary mortals who don't seem to have a clue who they are, even though they're on national TV every week.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Unintentional, but it still counts. Flair was originally saying "They" were Fortune during the initial conspiracy.
  • Christianity Is Catholic: D'Angelo Dinero, a supposed evangelical (Protestant) street preacher, has been nicknamed "The Pope."
  • Conspiracy Redemption: Fortune, defecting from Immortal on February 3.
  • Corrupt Cop: TNA Security Guards Gunner and Murphy. And this is before they worked for Immortal.
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • BRIAN KENDRICK.
      • He's dropped the Obi-Wan Kenobi act for the most part now, portraying just a generic karate guy in white pantaloons. Or at least it seems that way when he isn't cutting as many promos…
    • To a lesser extent, Abyss.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: This article list several hideous business practices that TNA is accused of - IN REAL LIFE.
  • Crying Wolf: Frequently done with teases of surprises that end up often either not happening or turning out to be very underwhelming.
    • Such as the "Who rung the bell?" controversy in March 2011 when Rob Van Dam and Mr. Anderson competed for the number-one contendership to Sting's title. Not only did that turn out to be a total red herring, but TNA handwaved it so dismissively that it was almost insulting. (For the record, it was referee Earl Hebner, and Rob Van Dam didn't even accept that victory.)
  • Darker and Edgier: You don't have to watch this program too long to figure out that TNA is noticeably less gimmicky and comedy-oriented than WWE. That may be precisely the reason why some fans prefer it to its older counterpart.
  • Deal with the Devil: Joining Immortal is largely treated as this, which is only fitting considering the nature of that outfit.
  • Despair Event Horizon: After the rise of Immortal, Sting and Nash decide to leave rather than fight or join them.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Treating AJ Styles and Matt Morgan like crap came back to haunt Eric Bischoff, as it made both Heel Face Turn on him, AJ taking Fortune with him and forming the first real threat to Immortal. A lesser example happened later when Eric insulted most of the X Division. Later that night, he and Hogan find "You're next" written on the side of their car, leaving them even more paranoid than they already were. Cut to the same wrestliers Eric was insulting earlier laughing and high fiving each other.
  • Evil Foreigner: Raisha Saeed, Sheik Abdul Bashir, and Control Terrorism Unit (C.T.U.) when they were in the World X Cup 2006. In fairness, C.T.U. was (supposed to be) a heel unit in its home promotion too.
    • Several World X Cup teams are treated as heels, but this is partially because they actually act like heels instead of just being foreign.
    • Team Canada was this until the breakup.
      • And former Team Canada member Eric Young joined up with the British Invasion, Sheik Abdul Bashir, Kiyoshi, No Limit, and Homicide to create the World Elite, which was basically this until they disappeared following the arrival of Hulk Hogan (and the departure of Bashir).
    • Somewhat averted by Desmond Wolfe: he's not a British jerk, but rather, he's a jerk that just happens to be British. Being British hasn't really come up in his character at all.
      • Except in his accent. He's used a few American colloquialisms, which sound a little off with his thick British accent. When he used the term Ghetto Booty, I realized they were going for Evil Foreigner, just surprisingly subtly.
      • He does call his finisher the Tower of London and run in a group called London Brawling though.
    • Also kind of averted with Sarita and her prima Rosita. They are Mexican, and have been known to lapse into Gratuitous Spanish on occasion, but otherwise they don't really come off as foreign. Same with Hernandez, who dresses like a Chicano homeboy but was serving as muscle for the primary Anglo-American faction Immortal....
    • ....until now (March/April 2011). The above three, plus a new wrestler named "Anarquia" have now joined forces as "Mexican America," a faction of gringo-hating Chicano extremists plotting a Nazi-style takeover of the United States. How do you say "swastika" in Spanish?
      • Esvástica
  • Expy: Upon the revealing of the new Impact Wrestling set, fans are already comparing it to the set of Thursday Night Thunder.
  • Face Heel Turn and Heel Face Turn: Constantly.
    • And most of the time the average fan likely can't tell who's a face and who's a heel, despite the fact that for a couple of years, they had separate entrances for faces and heels.
      • One of Vince Russo's booking trademarks is that he doesn't believe in pure faces and pure heels, and feels all characters should be "shades of gray". This is why it's so hard to tell the heels from the faces, and why the booking can be so inconsistent.
      • It would be one thing if Russo's idea of Gray and Grey Morality was to have the faces exhibit some heelish traits occasionally, a la Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Undertaker, or if he had faces sometimes act selfish the way CM Punk did when he cashed in his MITB contract on a beaten and exhausted Jeff Hardy while still a face. The problem is that Russo's idea of Gray and Grey Morality involves wrestlers acting like they're 100% face one week, and then going to 100% heel the next. Beer Money did a Face Heel Turn for no real reason, while Eric Bischoff and Mr. Anderson have done Heel Face Turns for no reason that was adequately explained. It's like the old character has been abducted and replaced with their evil (or good) twin.
      • Vince Russo. He's either a magnet for bad writers, or he has some sort of karmic curse following him, because bad writing seems to just ooze from his pores into the general atmosphere of the script.
  • Fail O'Suckyname: Immortal.
    • Indeed, considering how vulnerable Immortal seems to be to the various curveballs hurled at it by "The Network," wouldn't this also be a literal case of You Fail Forever Forever?
  • Five-Bad Band
  • Five-Man Band
  • Foreshadowing: Much like the Chekhov's Gun above, unintentional but it still counts. During their time with Immortal, Fortune were giving constant hints in backstage segments toward how they could only trust "the core four" (each other/themselves), and Robert Roode even once said in an interview that he envisioned them holding all the gold, even going so far as to say he saw AJ regaining the World Heavyweight Championship. This was while Jeff Hardy was World Heavyweight Champion.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Sports Entertainment Xtreme, Voodoo Kin Mafia. The TNA name also qualifies.
    • For the uninitiated, VKM is Vince McMahon - middle name 'Kennedy'.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Not exactly since they're not trying to sneak a curse word by, but it's surprising that they can say "asshole" on cable so often and keep a TV-14 rating.
    • Somehow Dixie Carter got away with calling Eric Bischoff a "little smug shit" on this TV-14 television show. Even TV-MA Fan Service-filled Manswers doesn't typically get away with this from Spike TV.
  • Gimmick Matches: TNA has invented more than a few; they're apparently so obsessed with all types of these that Kurt Angle himself once said TNA puts on "too many gimmick matches" in an ESPN interview.
    • The six-sided ring itself could have been its own gimmick match.
    • Might have established a new low with the infamous Reverse Battle Royal.
    • Nearly surpassed it with the ungainly red (bird)cage as the opening match under the Hogan regime. Poor Homicide trying to climb out of it to no avail (think Pvt. Pyle on the obstacle course).

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: "Private Pyle! Whatever you do, don't fall down! That would break my fucking heart!!"

  • Girl Posse: The Beautiful People.
  • Glass Jaw Referee: Averted by Shane Sewell, whose Puerto Rican wrestling background was acknowledged.
  • God Am I: Ric Flair literally claims to be God. Not a god. God.
  • Gold Digger: Karen Angle - er, Jarrett - seems to have become this.
  • He's Back: After all of the Badass Decay that came with being a Hulk Hogan fanboy, Abyss finally turned on Hogan and made it clear he was no longer a monster in name only. He was now a real monster who choked out Hulk Hogan, layed out Rob Van Dam when he ran out to help, and shrugged off multiple chair shots from Mr. Anderson when he ran out to help. He has since been able to withstand ridiculous amounts of punishment, shown no trace of fear toward any of his opponents, is acting very Ax Crazy, and most recently put Rob Van Dam on the shelf (kayfabe).
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Before Fortune's defection, this was literally the only reason Jeff Jarrett stopped beating up plant fans in his Double-J-Double-MA challenge, Jeff Hardy ever lost the World Heavyweight title, and Immortal's iron fist hadn't completely choked TNA.
    • There's a bit of a pattern in TNA where guys who've had a history of turning their backs on partners and friends end up finally taking a taste of their own medicine. See Christian, James Storm, and Matt Morgan.
  • House Show Distillation: While mileage may vary on TNA television, their house shows are actually well liked for their matches (often compared to the weekly pay-per-view era) and the meet and greets before and after the show.
  • I Call It Vera: Abyss' nail covered 2x4, "Janice," and his "10.10.10" branding iron "Bob."
    • Meaningful Name: Though it was never stated, these weapons were named after Dixie Carter's parents, Foreshadowing her forceful exit from the company.
  • The Illuminati: Immortal. It's bad enough the whole formation of this stable involves an ever-expanding secret group working the scene for longer than the entire duration of most wrestling plots to take full control of TNA from Dixie Carter and rule it with an iron fist. Or that The Reveal which completed this group's takeover was at Bound For Glory, on the ominous date of "10.10.10". Or that they share many quick parallels to Hogan and Bischoff's nWo. But in the very first episode of Impact since said reveal, we have the members talking about how they'll live forever through Hogan (hence the Immortal name), Ric Flair and Fortune bowing down and professing undying love to Hogan (these two have been featured as enemies for the past 25 years), and World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy looking and playing the part of the Dark Messiah, all within the same celebration promo which lasted across two segments and saw Immortal and Fortune stand in the ring for close to 40 minutes. Later we had Jeff Jarrett claiming he sold his soul to the devil (joining Immortal is referred to as this several times in the future) to get back at Kurt Angle for stealing his influence in the company and then some, and Dark Messiah Hardy even referred to himself as The Antichrist of professional wrestling with one eye shadowed in a backstage vignette. Last but not least, enter Hardy's closing words on TNA's third-hour show ReAction that night: "We will continue to rise, until the end of the world." Knowledge of actual Illuminati theories, even without having a fixed opinion about them, can make this all very cringe-worthy.
    • To make matters worse, that same first Impact after "10.10.10", which as a result of said event was the most viewed episode ever, was near-universally found abysmal in every way except for showcasing the power and control of Immortal. The fact Hogan and Bischoff actually have creative power in TNA could not be made more obvious than that night. This is important because in one key device to the theories, the Illuminati is said to control the media. Examples are as follows:
      • On what is supposed to be a wrestling show, it took 75 MINUTES for the ring announcer to first be able to say the words "The following contest is scheduled for one fall." The ensuing entrances, match, and disqualification ending occurred within three and a half minutes. This made the very name of the company itself look like false advertisement.
        • The one impromptu match which happened in those prior 75 minutes time was a Finger-Poke of Doom sans pretenses or finger poke, and was quickly followed up by former WWE mainstay Mickie James owning the duo involved. This demonstrated just how far the Knockout division and Championship's collective prestige has fallen.
        • By contrast, WWE Smackdown which aired the following night finished four full matches in its first 75 minutes, two of them longer than the total amount of time Impact put into wrestling.
      • In fact, there was less time on said Impact dedicated to wrestling than there was dedicated to Jersey Shore's "JWoww" befriending the Girl Posse, encountering the Odd Couple, and embarrassing the one-month-old Lowest Common Denominator parody of her own show - all allegedly to the tune of $15,000.
      • Most of the main event was actually wrestled on ReAction, and even that match had a non-finish which only served to showcase the power and control of Immortal.
      • Combine Impact and ReAction, we had less than 20 minutes of wrestling in a three-hour block of programming. If we're to go into Orwellian territory with TNA, the whole show was an insulting level of prolefeed.
    • However, they managed to make an Author's Saving Throw by having Fortune turn on Immortal and proceed to call Immortal out on everything mentioned above!
    • And then there's the court case. Dixie Carter goes to court to contend that Hogan and Bischoff's acquisition of the company is illegal, which, since everybody saw that it was under false pretenses, should've gotten the whole contract annulled within days. Considering the judge was apparently a friend of Dixie's, maybe not even that long. Instead, weeks was how long it took merely to get the injunction slapped on Hogan. Not even Bischoff. Just Hogan. The whole case itself took months. And it was ruled that the contract was 100% legal, Hulk and Eric have total control of TNA, and Dixie is still responsible for supplying the company money. Oh, these two are The Illuminati indeed.
    • Although, after Jeff Hardy's Epic Fail at Victory Road, Immortal wasn't so much the Illuminati altogether anymore as a street gang with support from the 2/3-man Illuminati of Bischoff and Hogan, and maybe Flair.
    • As of BFG 2011, with Sting managing to both beat Hogan for the power and get him to go face…yeah, this trope is done.
    • Confirmed done the Impact after the PPV, via a 39 minute segment in which Sting, Hogan, and Dixie celebrated, among other things.
    • So basically, this trope both began and ended with a Hulk Hogan turn at BFG and a 30-40-minute segment on the following Impact…
  • Incompetence, Inc.: Any company that willfully employs Vince Russo is asking for this title.
    • The entire power structure in TNA seems to be composed of petulant, spoiled brats.
      • Adult Child: Dixie Carter is over 40 but frequently acts a third her age on her Twitter account. Eric Bischoff is much, much worse.
      • Artist Disillusionment: Eric Bischoff loves acting like a six year old, making fat jokes at the expense of and generally sniping at fans who simply do not like TNA.
      • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Aside from Bischoff above, Matt Hardy will complain about all the negativity going around on the dirtsheets, despite being the direct cause of it (see Edge/Lita 2005, his Twitter account, his and Jeff's "shoots" against CM Punk, his pathetic re-enactment of his breakup with Lita).
      • Pointy-Haired Boss: You don't have to look very far to see examples of this for Dixie either in storyline or in real life. Vince Russo also qualifies in heaps.
      • Upper Class Twit: Dixie has a rich daddy. However, other than sign the checks, does anyone know what she even does?
      • Dumb Is Good: Dixie's opinion is that, since wrestling is "television", nothing has to make sense. Apparently confusing "television" with "Twin Peaks". This explains the rampant Lowest Common Denominator atmosphere, as well.
  • Insistent Terminology: TNA refers to gimmick matches they create as "concept matches".
    • There's that one video in which TNA Director of Production Steve Small refers to the audience as "cast members".
  • The Jimmy Hart Version: The Trope could possibly be renamed in favor of Dale Oliver.
    • Specifically, most WWE-to-TNA defects get Jimmy Hart Versions of their WWE themes, like Christian Cage and Team 3D.
  • Large Ham: TNA Superstars do tend to be more reserved than WWE Superstars, but Father James Mitchell was pretty hammy.
    • Not to mention Ric Flair and Mr. Anderson.
    • Jay Lethal is hammy enough for most of the roster.
  • Laxative Prank: Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, and Chris Sabin slipped laxatives into Petey Williams' water bottle.
  • The Man Behind the Man: "The Network," whoever they are. (They're actually a nonvillainous example, constantly checkmating all of Immortal's moves, albeit only in the interest of TV ratings.)
    • The executive behind the Network's activity turned out to be Mick Foley. Until he got fired. Now it's pretty much unknown.
  • Massive Multiplayer Scam: Immortal. Enough said.
  • Memory Gambit: Pretty unique take at that. More of an aborted arc if TNA did not do this repeatedly and filled each of these with their own aborted storylines and forced changes. Originally TNA was sold on the NWA brand and were known as NWA-TNA. The X division was not a cruiserweight division but a division where anyone of any weight class who could perform extreme high flying moves could compete in. A sharp contrast from the prestige of the other belt that's usually the main belt. If TNA had the Undertaker and Brock for example, he could compete under the X division but not Batista or the Big Show despite all the names possibly falling under a Super Heavy Weight category. Then they dropped the NWA part and changed the logo to something edgier. Pretty minor change if not for the X division starting to become ignored and this was the era where AJ Styles would mysteriously do power moves as a heel and compete toe to toe with SH Ws like Abyss and be much closer to Japanese Puro Wrestling. Then TNA with little warning switched around again. The six sided ring was added as a form of innovation. AJ Styles and other elite X division wrestlers fell to Goldberg Jr. Samoa Joe. Again, this would be an arc if not for the sudden overall change in the show where almost the entire cast were portrayed differently and the fans were expected to eat up the sudden difference even for the same characters with the same gimmicks. The X division now became more of who could do the Ultimate X. Then it changed again. The DX take thats became more of a Hogan takes that to the WWE. The Dixie promos started appearing much like the shift in Mcmahon only without the Face Heel turn. Who knows what TNA is up to nowadays. AJ went from being the phenomenal one to the chicken one to the one who needs to be mimicking Ric Flair all while the character's gimmick remains mostly the same. The worst thing about the gambit though was not the pandering to the fans but how the fanbase got broken. Forgetting great matches in order to pump great gimmick matches as proof of it being superior to WWE. Then forgetting that there were great ladder matches prior to this and lamenting how the great X division triple threat of AJ, Samoa Joe and Daniels being what old TNA was. Then it went to hell as those long time characters TNA developped fell to the old veterans like a case of WCW minus the veterans ever being dominant and many who were previously losing or portrayed as inferior to the new generation in the early years. Notable among this is Shamrock stating he had to go through 19 men to get to the belt despite being a deadly name in pro wrestling in the early years to Jeff Jarrett being good enough to be the promotion's Tripe H to Samoa Joe beating Kurt Angle to the Hogan/Flair/Sting show.
  • Mighty Whitey: Jeff Jarrett's new gimmick of being "King of Mexico" (after winning the AAA Championship and bringing it to the United States).
  • Mood Whiplash: During the 2011 No Surrender pay-per-view (held on Sept. 11), Rosita was booed by fans as a heel running interference as part of Mexican America during the tag team title match. Later in the pay-per-view, Rosita brings up in an interview that her father died on 9/11, and inspired her to go into wrestling. The crowd acknowledges her breaking character with applause.
  • Mook Horror Show: On the July 14, 2011, edition, Sting (who's been "coincidentally" mimicking Heath Ledger's "Joker" with his new makeup design) sets loose a small group of clown-masked minions on Immortal. What follows pretty much plays out like a slasher flick, with the clowns picking off Immortal one by one. Gunner even attempts to invoke Final Boy on them, which fails. Turns out the clowns were actually Fortune helping Sting out.
  • My Friends and Zoidberg: At Turning Point 2011, Bully Ray and Scott Steiner were booked in a tag match. They cut a promo, with Bully Ray saying "You're in the ring with one half of the greatest tag team of all time, and Scott Steiner too!" Steiner didn't take kindly to this, causing him to shoot back "I'm the greatest tag team of all time!"
  • Eucatastrophe: Genesis 2K11, in which aside from Morgan/Anderson, not a single face won a match with Immortal managing to capture the rest of the titles. Then Bischoff got overconfident and booked the World Title match immediately after Anderson won the match, which lead to Jeff Hardy losing the championship.
  • Nebulous Evil Organization: Immortal, thanks to Abyss referencing it as "They/Them" during the lead-up to The Reveal at Bound For Glory "10.10.10."
  • Necessarily Evil: Sting's current Face Heel Turn is this, at least that's what he claims.
  • Nepotism: Garret Bischoff.
  • No Export for You and Screwed by the Network: Averted. In the UK, TNA airs on a channel called Bravo. It was taken over recently by Sky, who are closing it down. As Sky already airs WWE, it was assumed that TNA would be dropped, but Sky put it on game show channel Challenge instead, which at the same time got launched on Freeview to replace Channel One, thereby increasing TNA's audience instead of removing it!
    • But inverted in the U.S. TNA's B-Show, Xplosion, isn't aired anywhere on U.S. TV, and is only shows in foreign markets. It is pretty easy to find online, however.
  • Odd Couple: Orlando Jordan and Eric Young.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted with Jeff Jarrett and Jeff Hardy, who feuded in late 2011.
  • Perky Goth: Jeff Hardy, Daffney.
  • Power Stable: Sports Entertainment Xtreme, Planet Jarrett, The Angle Alliance, The Main Event Mafia, The Christian Coalition, The Beautiful People, Fourtune, Immortal.
  • Put on a Bus: Samoa Joe. Although it wasn't a bus, it was a van. And he wasn't "put" on it so much as he was "thrown into it by ninjas".
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: Fourtune, for the first four months of Immortal.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Jim Cornette was one, to an extent. Eric Bischoff's trying to be one, after a recent Heel Face Turn.
  • The Reveal: Most notably, and recently, Immortal.
  • Ring Oldies: Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Sting, Scott Steiner, and Kevin Nash, among others.
    • Hulk Hogan was added to the mix in 2010, with (apparently) the same amount of creative control he had during his time in WCW.
    • Don't forget Ric Flair. TNA seems to get all of WWE's washouts.
  • Royal We: During the time period in which he singlehandedly held both tag team championship belts, Matt Morgan would refer to himself as "we" and "us".
  • Screwed by the Network: In-universe as part of the plot. For a while, the Network had an executive helping Sting to screw Immortal by keeping them under control, sending Bischoff and Hogan into a mild Villainous Breakdown. This person turned out to be Mick Foley, only for him to get fired (he actually requested a release) weeks later.
  • Shout-Out: Hoping to capitalize on Orlando Jordan's Real Life bisexuality (in the stupidest way possible), they had Jordan make his re-debut dressed as Lady Gaga from the video for "Telephone".
    • The lady first introduced as Eric Bischoff's on-screen assistant, former WWE diva Brooke Adams, is named "Miss Tessmacher".
      • "Brooke" later was acknowledged as her first name after she transitioned into a wrestler role, thus toning down or changing up the shoutout somewhat.
    • Abyss' Weapons of Choice, Bob and Janice, are the names of Dixie Carter's parents.
  • Something Person: TNA was spoofing this trend in wrestling for a while (which was a major trait of WWE in the early 1990s, by the way) with such ridiculously costumed wrestlers as "Shark Boy" and a mythical "Japanese" character named "Curry Man."
  • Slobs Versus Snobs: How James Storm and Robert Roode interacted when they first were paired up. Over time, they meshed very well and Beer Money was formed.
  • Spanner in the Works: Subverted with Miss Tessmacher being one to Immortal's plan. The Worf Barrage example of this, actually.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Ric Flair's group. Is it "Fortune" or "Fourtune?" Fans and reporters alternate between the two. Even the company itself seems to alternate between the two.
    • For the stable's first few months, it was "Fourtune" in honor of the Four Horsemen. However, since more and more people pointed out that the stable has six people in it (seven if including Flair) after including Morgan and Williams, it was switched to "Fortune."
  • Spiritual Successor: Has become one to WCW over the past few years.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Jeff Jarrett from 2002-2006; Kurt Angle from 2006-2009; Hulk Hogan starting from 2010.
  • Stealth Pun: In the acronym of the promotion, though it wasn't much of a Stealth Pun in the early days of the promotion; the name was intended to make the company stand out as a more adult alternative to WWE, since TNA started out on pay-per-view with weekly shows.
  • Take Over the World: Well, the TNA world, anyway. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff came in, influenced people, brought in some friends, worked Dixie Carter, and obtained control of the company. Some fans feel like this is more than just the on-air storyline.
  • Take That: TNA loves doing these against the WWE. Constantly. In fact, if you're a former WWE wrestler coming in to TNA, you're practically required via contract to take a potshot at WWE within your first month. (And Hulk Hogan seems to do one every chance he gets.)
    • Eric Bischoff has started doing these on a weekly basis since his arrival; it's actually pretty sad.
    • In May 2011, TNA began the process of rebranding itself as Impact Wrestling as a rather pointed Take That to WWE, which had just dropped all references to the word "wrestling" both on its TV shows and in its legal name.
      • Included in the various commercials about the rebranding, are a few with Hulk Hogan talking about how this is real wrestling, with real stories and no scripts. Ending with "We're here to wrestle, not entertain." Looking at some of the TV ratings, PPV buy-rates and IWC responses, he may in fact be right on that last aspect; it's just not entertaining any more.
  • Take That, Audience!: Eric Bischoff introduced a new ranking system where the fans would have a major say in it, voting for who would be the top ten contenders for the TNA World Title. Despite the fact that AJ Styles, Abyss, The Pope, Sting, and Jeff Hardy were all being pushed hard, the fans voted for Desmond Wolfe to be #1 contender. The very next week, he lost in five minutes to Rob Van Dam in a non-title match. To date, Wolfe has not even sniffed world title contention since then.
    • More insulting was that Dixie's comments on Twitter gave the impression that she thought this was what the fans had wanted.
    • When introducing the new four-sided ring to replace TNA's unique six-sider, the crowd booed and started to chant "WE WANT SIX SIDES!" Hogan's response to the crowd?

Hogan: "I got one thing to say about six sides: you had it, and it only got you so far. Now we're takin' ya all the way, Jack! No more eight sides, no more six sides, no more stinkin' playpen rings!"

    • There was Dixie Carter's quote about how TNA tries to appeal to the kind of fans like "that guy who collects the toys in the 40 Year Old Virgin." Of course, it is the titular character of the film.
  • The Un-Reveal: Velvet Sky removes the helmet of the mysterious biker chick who's been allied with Madison Rayne, only to find a mask underneath. (It has since been revealed that this woman is Tara. You know, the "spider-lady.")
  • Throwing Down the Gauntlet: "Open Fight Night" is basically built around this, anyone can call out anyone and the challenged must fight.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass / Motive Decay / Deadly Change-of-Heart: Tomko.
  • Vagueness Is Coming: The ominous warnings about "They" by Abyss in the early autumn of 2010.
  • What Could Have Been: Shortly before his death, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig was planned to defeat Jeff Jarrett for the World Heavyweight Championship.
    • The return of the Main Event Mafia was cancelled when Kevin Nash, and Booker T instead made a deal with the WWE to return there, forcing TNA to change who "they" where just before the reveal.
  • Wild Samoan: Averted by Samoa Joe.
    • At least until he brought out a machete, wore some crazy pants and painted a tribal marking on his face that looked like a penis. Thankfully, he's gotten far away from that, but it did a lot towards killing his push.
  • With Us or Against Us: An unfortunate example happened not long after Hulk Hogan signed with TNA. TNA Wrestling president Dixie Carter, gave a big speech to the wrestlers before an episode of iMPACT! in which she basically acknowledged the incredibly shitty decisions being made by the company, and rather than do anything about it, told the wrestlers to shut up or leave. Either they were behind her, or they could leave the company. This did not go over well [dead link] with anyone. [dead link] At all.
    • Since Hogan arrived, Christopher Daniels and Awesome Kong, among others, have left/been released from TNA (with Daniels infamously showing up at a Ring of Honor event just days after his release from TNA, shocking everyone with his appearance). Tara (aka WWE's Victoria) also left. Daniels and Tara have returned since, but Kong is now Kharma.
      • Arguably the absolute worst the TNA creative have done lately is tell the audience that they are "cast members" as a means to try and control the very chants that the crowd makes, allegedly due to wanting the show to be more fan-friendly. While there are several chants that shouldn't be heard by children, this rings more than a little hypocritical considering the current violent & sexualised content being pushed on the show. Ostensibly this is an attempt by TNA to regulate the chants from the crowd to try and quell any anti-Hogan regime reactions.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Several wrestlers have had to use ring names that were close to their more famous ones in order to avoid WWE's lawyers from sending TNA into legal Hell (the most notable being Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, who became Brother Ray and Brother Devon because of WWE owning several ECW trademarks); notable aversions include Christian Cage (he trademarked the name, so WWE couldn't stop him from using it) and Taz.
    • Taz's case was due to the performer's WWE name being a copyrightable "Tazz".
    • Also, Rhino. In the WWE, he changed his name to Rhyno.
    • The new ECW faction has been dubbed "EV2.0"
      • This can become rather painful to hear as TNA skates closer to old ECW set-ups.
    • "MIIIIISSTERRRRR...... KEN-NED-DY AND-ER-SON."
      • "AND-ER-SON."
  • You Bastard: One Night With ODB. They took videos from various fans and actually aired them on National TV. What came out of it? We had the last appearance of Shark Boy to date, and the debut of Cody Deaner. TNA made sure to make its fans look like complete idiots in order to shoot an angle that went nowhere.
    • Whenever TNA decides to give the fans any sort of significant face time, they always seek out the lowest lying fruit. The start of the Kurt Angle-Sting empty arena match and the beginning of the January 4th, 2010 show are prime examples of this.
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