[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott Likely were better than you remember, but the "vibe" was more of the point. Not only did you have people with vaginas being able to serious-pants wrestle and or brawl (without most of the "requisite" clothes tearing and hair pulling catfights), a lot of their matches weren't being burdened with the bullshit overbooking that the male side of the roster was plagued with for YEARS before and since. All the girls weren't glorified arm charms: they put over a technically gifted, average looking, chunky Asian in Hamada just as much as they put over Tessmacher's glorious ass. it got to a point where a vast majority of them could at least hold their own (Lacey Von Erich was kinda the exception to that rule; double negative points for being so shitty AND burdened with the Von Erich name) if not potentially tear the goddamn house down. Hell, it even transpired that the one "All Knockouts" episode of Impact was one of their highest rated episodes ever. Ever. It was one of those things that TNA actually "got right" years before WWE got on that train, but of course being TNA, they eventually fucked it up. In similar fashion, I actually remember really enjoying "Global Impact" - when they did that show in Japan - when it aired, though I don't remember why it was so good off the top of my head and need to go back and watch it to refresh myself. Although I suspect it was for a similar reason to your Knockouts vibe: they didn't overbook the show, there wasn't a lot of nonsense because that shit wouldn't fly in Japan, and I think it may have been a solid card from top to bottom, and if it wasn't they were able to fix mistakes in post before they showed it here. I remember feeling like it could have been a turning point for how they presented themselves as a company... aaaaannnnd subsequently, it was back to the same old LOLTNA nonsense.

Yeah, I remember the vibe convinced me to actually order a TNA PPV. Seriously. I'm sure the matches were perfectly fine, and probably good, but you're right in that it the attitude around them was what really dragged me in.

The Knockouts were originally handled by Dutch Mantel and Scott D'Amore, from memory. I think D'Amore was involved in producing PPV and agenting, while Mantel was the mind behind a lot of the booking. Anyway, when Russo got wind it was doing well, that's when his stink was injected, and things like the girls winning briefcases that forced them to strip became a thing.

It's a pattern I've noticed with Russo. Without being too snarky, it does legitimately seem that he can't be around the success of others. He's got to get that total control of a project and would rather bring it down than see others succeed with it. There are other examples in TNA -- like when Mantel put together the Angle/Joe program that led to TNA's highest PPV buyrate, which they never replicated.

There are other examples, but I've just shot up in the middle of the night to break up my sleep, so they're not jumping through to me right now, but there are others from WCW and WWF, where you get wind of something working and then it being snuffed out by Russo. It's really weird. Like how some compulsive liars actually tell the complete inversion of the truth, so you can work out the truth by virtue of knowing how they lie, you can kind of tell what is working in a wrestling promotion by sniffing out the highest Russo involvement, which brings it down.