[MrWeymes]

A simple question: who or what drew you to TNA in the first place?

In my case, I hadn't watched wrestling for a number of years, probably from about 2003-2008. I had just got back into watching the WWE and couldn't pick out many familiar faces. This John Cena character was running the show; three men (Randy Orton and Legacy) were getting their asses handed to them by Triple H; (who I at least recognized) and Edge was main eventing for some reason with Christian nowhere in sight. Suffice to say, upon initially coming back to the WWE after such a long absence, I was a bit put off. I'm very into it now, but that's not the point.

I had always seen TNA listed on Spike, but never thought about watching it until I had already gotten back into the WWE. I put it on one night and to my surprise, it wasn't just a bunch of indie guys. Kurt Angle, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, Kevin Nash and Mick Foley were running the show. Not only that, but Team 3D was putting people through tables. It was like I took a time machine back to the time before I stopped watching. So, I really only started watching TNA for the nostalgia value, but I've grown to appreciate the Pope, AJ Styles, the Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money and to a lesser extent, Samoa Joe. (Sorry, I don't get his hype.)

 

[jfs1408]

A simple question: who or what drew you to TNA in the first place?

In my case, I hadn't watched wrestling for a number of years, probably from about 2003-2008. I had just got back into watching the WWE and couldn't pick out many familiar faces. This John Cena character was running the show; three men (Randy Orton and Legacy) were getting their asses handed to them by Triple H; (who I at least recognized) and Edge was main eventing for some reason with Christian nowhere in sight. Suffice to say, upon initially coming back to the WWE after such a long absence, I was a bit put off. I'm very into it now, but that's not the point.

I had always seen TNA listed on Spike, but never thought about watching it until I had already gotten back into the WWE. I put it on one night and to my surprise, it wasn't just a bunch of indie guys. Kurt Angle, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, Kevin Nash and Mick Foley were running the show. Not only that, but Team 3D was putting people through tables. It was like I took a time machine back to the time before I stopped watching. So, I really only started watching TNA for the nostalgia value, but I've grown to appreciate the Pope, AJ Styles, the Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money and to a lesser extent, Samoa Joe. (Sorry, I don't get his hype.)

To properly understand Joe and why he's such a bad ass, you have to go from Summer 2005- Fall 2006. That was during his undefeated streak. Watch any of his matches with Aj Styles and Christopher Daniels in 2005 and 2006 and you'll understand why Joe is a favorite among TNA fans.

But for me, what drew to TNA, was the X Division

 

[Thumbinthebum]

Oddly, considering my feelings towards him right now, Hulk Hogan. It was while reading the boards on gamefaqs.com, looking for some advice on how to create a couple of wrestlers for whichever was the current Smackdown game at the time, that I heard that Hogan might be signing for this new promotion called TNA. Up until that point I'd never even heard of it so he deserves some credit for that. It wasn't until I learned he wasn't joining after all that I actually started watching though

 

[Carcass]

I started watching around New Years of 06.
Sting - Huge fan when I was younger, hadn't seen him since WCW
Christopher Daniels - Don't know why but I just really liked him from the second I saw him.
Samoa Joe - He just came off as a total bad ass.

 

[MrWeymes]

To properly understand Joe and why he's such a bad ass, you have to go from Summer 2005- Fall 2006. That was during his undefeated streak. Watch any of his matches with Aj Styles and Christopher Daniels in 2005 and 2006 and you'll understand why Joe is a favorite among TNA fans.

But for me, what drew to TNA, was the X Division

When it comes to wrestling, I like to stay current. I rarely go back in time to watch matches on YouTube or DVD. It's hard to describe, but I just don't feel the same way about them. For me, it's kind of like watching the match between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania this year again. It was a fantastic event the first time, but the feelings simply aren't there as much the second time. I didn't live through Joe's dominant era on TNA, thus the reason I don't feel fondness for the guy. He'll always be a fat, out of shape Samoan to me. Steiner ruined him for me. lol

 

[floyd2386]

I went quite a while without wrestling, I'd say about 6 years or so, but started watching off and on when I was flipping through the channels and came across the 6 sided ring, it caught my attention. Had I seen a regular 4 sided ring, I would have thought nothing of it, but there was something about that ring. Then there was the guys in it, I don't remember who, but it was an X Division match. Holy crap! So I watched every now and then, never really catching it at the right time, but then one night I caught my favorite wrestler in the ring, The Stinger feuding with Jarrett and Steiner, I was sold.

Hogan, you dipshit, what good did bringing in a 4 sided ring do? What makes a 4 sided ring better than a 6 sided one?

 

[famicommander]

Foley, Rhino, Raven, Steiner, Booker T, Angle, Sting, Team 3D, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, and Stevie Richards. They were all guys I knew and liked, but they were somewhere other than WWE (which I have hated since the Invasion). That was a big plus.

 

[tboneangle]

saw the first BFG when i read that Rhino won.

Switched over to TNA full time when Angle Signed.

Now..idk..

 

[BORT]

Everything thats no longer part of the current TNA product. The innovative X-Division, the badass Knockouts, the more simpler storylines, etc.

 

[L-thesnap]

A simple question: who or what drew you to TNA in the first place?

In my case, I hadn't watched wrestling for a number of years, probably from about 2003-2008. I had just got back into watching the WWE and couldn't pick out many familiar faces. This John Cena character was running the show; three men (Randy Orton and Legacy) were getting their asses handed to them by Triple H; (who I at least recognized) and Edge was main eventing for some reason with Christian nowhere in sight. Suffice to say, upon initially coming back to the WWE after such a long absence, I was a bit put off. I'm very into it now, but that's not the point.

I had always seen TNA listed on Spike, but never thought about watching it until I had already gotten back into the WWE. I put it on one night and to my surprise, it wasn't just a bunch of indie guys. Kurt Angle, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Sting, Kevin Nash and Mick Foley were running the show. Not only that, but Team 3D was putting people through tables. It was like I took a time machine back to the time before I stopped watching. So, I really only started watching TNA for the nostalgia value, but I've grown to appreciate the Pope, AJ Styles, the Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money and to a lesser extent, Samoa Joe. (Sorry, I don't get his hype.)

You started watching too late.

In my case though, a friend of mine who is no longer a wrestling fan had sent me some links to some weekly PPV's from TNA, whom I had never heard of at the time. At this point in time, I was a casual mark through and through and hadn't the first clue about the indy scene, I just figured that the WWE was the big leagues and everything else was minor league stuff. I decided after about a week to give these PPV's a watch figuring that I'd likely see some green wrestlers who were still learning, having matches so that one day they could perhaps get noticed and be picked up by the WWE in time. When I began watching, the first match thrown my way was a four way match for the X division title between AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Psicosis, and Low Ki; I was absolutely floored. After watching a surplus of X division matches that included Christopher Daniels/Michael Shane, AJ Styles/Amazing Red, Petey Williams/AJ Styles, Low Ki/AMazing Red, and even the 2004 World X cup with talents such as Teddy Hart, Jack Evans, Hector Garza, Juventud Guerrera, Nosawa, Kazarian, Sonjay Dutt, and Chris Sabin among others, I was hooked on TNA and wondered why I didn't see this kind of action in the WWE.

It wasn't Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Ron Killings, Raven, Brian Christopher, or appearances by DDP and Randy Savage that got me involved, it was the X division. That was TNA's trump card and they would throw it out the window years later once they were able to bring in some bigger names. A well written product featuring a combination of both the X division action of old as well as today's main event scene would be off the charts, but alas, here we are today with what we have.

 

[TripleG]

The Tag Division. I loved AMW right off the bat and teams like Triple X, Team Canada, & The Naturals were really pulling their weight too early on. Their Tag Division just really stood out to me and for the most part, that has stayed true in TNA. America's Most Wanted, Triple X, The New Church, Diamond & Swinger, AJ/D'Lo, AJ/Daniels, LAX, Beer Money, The Guns, Gen Me, Team 3D early on, AJ/Tomko, The Steiners, The British Invasion, Lethal Consequences, & many other teams added a lot to TNA's product. I could sit here all day and name the excellent tag team matches that I have seen in the last few years from TNA and it really does tend to be one of if not the best part of the show.

The only periods I can recall the tag division being "bad" were about the 1st of 07 where all the teams got released or broken up (AJ/Daniels, AMW, TCanada, The Nats, Paparazzi, etc.) and all we were left with were 3D vs. LAX about a 100 times & VKM vs. Christy Hemme's Team of the month. And the first half of 2010 we had Morgan & Mex, then just Morgan, & then The Outsiders as tag champs with 3D Vs. The Nasty Boys as the secondary feud. Not fun. But other than that though, the tag division has delivered some pretty solid stuff.

 

[Mcshnobel]

AJ Styles. Saw his 1st(for me) match in 2003.

 

[BWRBrett]

I heard of TNA sometime in 2003 and watched some stuff online, I went on their site. I still thought WWE was watchable at the time but I was excited at the prospect of watching another wrestling company (while WCW was around I barely watched it). The first show I ordered was in August 2003, it had the first Ultimate X match. It was the most fun I had watching wrestling since WrestleMania XIX. After that I watched a lot of the stuff online and kept up with results for stuff I didn't see. I remember being excited about Hogan coming in when they were originally supposed to do Bound For Glory in November 2003, then that fell through. I started paying for the weekly PPV's rather than downloading them in early 2004. My favorites in 2003-2004 were AJ Styles and Monty Brown when he came back in 2004. I've seen just about every TNA show from late 2003 to now outside of a month in summer 2008 and maybe 5-6 PPV's. TNA is pretty mediocre right now and I'm not all that passionate about it, but I am happy to still have a wrestling show to watch that is actually geared towards the 18-34 male demographic, since I haven't watched WWE now in a couple of years.

I'd say the most exciting time to be a TNA fan was probably 2004-2005. The company was growing but had so many ups and downs. First they got the FSN deal, then Nash/Hall/DDP/Savage came in, then they left and the FSN deal was gone and WGN fell through and I thought TNA was dead, then Spike happened and they survived. It was a real roller coaster, one of my favorite time periods as a wrestling fan just because of my attachment to the company.

 

[FLAW]

Being able to DL the show at any time, drew me to TNA Wrestling. Internet = more convenient, so I watch more wrestling than before.. even more WWE than I would

TNA the product has never drew me really, I can't remember a single character or storyline where I thought TNA really hit the nail on the head. Not once

 

[Dub]

AMW vs Triple X

 

[PartFive]

Kurt Angle.

WWE Sucking.

 

[just1988]

Simple, the X-Division.

 

[JuviJuiceIsLoose]

I'd read about their weekly PPV's and 1st saw them when they were on Fox Sports Net.

They had some guys there that I knew like Jarrett, Sting, etc.

I had heard of guys like A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels working the Indies in the late 90's/Early 00's, but never actually saw them wrestle. So, I was interested in seeing them.

What drew me to TNA and what continues to draw me to TNA is the simple fact that they exist. As a huge wrestling fan, I'm not satisfied just watching the WWE.

I loved the X-Division guys, and watched TNA a majority of the time in the early days just for them.

 

[Ninja Rush]

for me it was the very first televised spike show, when they got raw's timeslot after raw left for usa, if i remember correctly, and i just remember thinking "so this is where jeff hardy has been, im gonna have to watch this." and while waiting to see jeff, i got my first AJ Styles match, been watching ever since.

 

[pgi86]

It was late 2001. There was no WCW anymore. There was no ECW. WWE was starting to bore me. I needed a new promotion(s) to follow. At first it was XPW, XWF & WWA but eventually that didn't work out all that well. Then one day I stumbled upon the very first NWA:TNA press release. Ken Shamrock and Jeff Jarrett were two of the names mentioned in the press release. That was enough to get my attention and as the weeks went on and they added more recognizable names to the line-up I got more intrigued until finally they announced Scott Hall and that completely sealed the deal for me - I was going to watch this new promotion. Then I watched, liked it and I'm still liking it now, 8+ years later.