YMMV / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

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A-D

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Its become a Running Gag for critics to predict the promotion's demise at the end of a given year since around the early 2010s, only for them to be proven wrong time and time again, with the promotion celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2022, at which point it had lasted longer than WCW and ECW, and then celebrating 1000 episodes of Impact! in 2023. Even they themselves began to not-so-subtly lampshade this by naming one of their major events Hard to Kill starting in 2020.
• Arc Fatigue: The never-ending AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels feud. While the matches were amazing, it was basically rehashing the same story over and over again (Daniels gets jealous and turns on AJ). The 2012 iteration featured the nadir of TNA's storylines, the WrestleCrap "Gooker Award" winner Claire Lynch. The only good thing to come out of it was the formation of Bad Influence after Daniels allied with Frankie Kazarian.
• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • Hulk Hogan's tenure as the onscreen authority figure from 2010-2013. In fact, TNA from that point onward is often looked at in this light. Despite making large improvements since Hogan's departure, this period was so damaging to the company's finances and reputation that it has essentially been in perpetual danger of going under ever since, with issues including wrestlers getting either late or no payment and serious production flaws, causing most of their top talent (including TNA Original AJ Styles, Sting and Samoa Joe), to depart.
  • The TNA Knockouts suffered one after the first departure of Gail Kim, including torrid affairs such as Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell, the infamous "lock box" title change, a Fingerpoke Of Doom, Karen Jarrett playing the poor-man's Vickie Guerrero, etc. Even after Gail returned, the decay was still ongoing (notably, Eric Young, a man, remained one half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions for over a year until Brooke Hogan finally forced him and his partner/wife ODB to vacate them and retire the titles altogether) — it wasn't until the debuts of Taryn Terrell and Havok and the return of Awesome Kong that the division started to reclaim its former glory.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Abyss, from around the time Mick Foley showed up and took him in. When he wasn't acting like a scared child and/or Mankind clone (high-pitched voice and all), he was losing a lot. His signature gimmick match, Monster's Ball, went from a once-a-year special at Bound For Glory to a regular occurrence on Impact.
  • Jeff Hardy: Being a Spot Monkey-ish Mr. Fanservice with drug problems is just the beginning.
  • Kurt Angle: Thanks in large part to his antics during interviews and on Twitter.
  • Hulk Hogan: Did he save TNA or doom it? Ratings flatlined when Bischoff and Hogan had creative control, but took a nosedive after they left.
  • Dixie Carter. When you think about it you can trace when things really started going downhill to the time Dixie started inserting herself into storylines as an on-screen character. Like Russo, she only wanted a deal which let her be the star of her own wrestling show because she was living the mark's dream.
  • Velvet Sky is a puzzler because she never got better in the ring, and in TNA she had this thing of never protecting her opponent or catching people. One time they had to pull her by the hair to get her in position to catch someone coming off the top rope. She and Angelina were the weakest of the roster but got pushed to the moon.
  • "Stone Cold" Shark Boy. In the 2008 Rec.Sport.Pro-Wrestling Awards, it came in 19th out of 23 in the "Best Wrestling Gimmick" category, and 3rd out of 23 in the "Worst Wrestling Gimmick" category.
  • Ink Inc was either a pointless pairing only put together because they both had mohawks or a horribly underused team. Adding Toxxin did nothing to piece the base back together, mainly because she didn't stick around long enough to really do anything. Most seem to like all three as individuals but as a group is where the splinters form.
  • Magnus's 2014 run as World Heavyweight Champion. On one hand, he carried himself well enough in his promos. On the other hand, his match quality had been suffering or at least stagnating for awhile and the increasing amount of interference needed for his title defenses was being roundly decried as absurd even for a heel. Hell in his first title defense against A.J. Styles he wasn't able to execute an single offensive maneuver successfully. He was only able to pin Styles after Roode hit his own finisher.
• Broken Base:
  • Behind the scenes, Dutch Mantell. On one hand he was behind TNA's most successful feud and the highest rated "iMPACT" segments. On the other hand, that same feud almost destroyed Samoa Joe and he was one of the more mentioned figures in TNA's injury scandals for his insistence the X division be more about daredevil stunts than technical wrestling or other less risky strategies. Time has made more people favorable to him as nostalgia for TNA's peak, such as it was, set in and the controversies accompanying it were forgotten as fresh new scandals were discussed.
  • The initial reaction to TNA's switch to a traditional four-sided ring in 2010. TNA changed the work environment of a very dangerous profession without informing their employees or production staff beforehand in order to cater to Hulk Hogan's wrestling style. Fans chanted "WE WANT SIX SIDES" on the night of said change, while others (including the wrestlers) saw this as an improvement, since the previous one was like bumping on concrete.
  • The Wrestle House, introduced as the promotion's Reality Show within the main Impact Wrestling program. Many found Wrestle House as a fun concept of having Impact superstars living on a house with Tommy Dreamer as the host and matchmaker for the feuds between the wrestlers. Others found it as a waste of space, believing that it derails the purpose of Impact Wrestling being a serious promotion.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: By the time it happened, few people didn't see it coming that Bully Ray would be the president of the Aces & Eights. Not everyone even knew why it would be him or how. They were just used to TNA pulling that kind of thing.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Jesse Sorensen showing up at Destination X 2012 and able to walk under his own strength despite wearing a neckbrace and delivered a promo promising he'd be back in the ring. He has since returned to the ring, but not in TNA.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Considering how hijacking has become a major hot-button issue in wrestling, particularly in WWE, it turns out that former TNA Producer Steve Small may have had a point during his speech where he called the Impact Zone audience "cast members."
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Despite being a pretty brutal guy, Samoa Joe gets a lot of cheers.
  • "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero, who had to be worse than Joe to get heat during a feud with him, still got a lot of cheers.
  • Beer Money, Inc. TNA did end up making them into baby faces though.

E-M

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • AJ Styles. He's arguably the most well known and popular of the "TNA Originals." Even people who hate TNA like him. But let it be known he only qualifies thanks to Hogan & Bischoff dropping him to the midcard after a needless heel turn. Prior to that, he was the top face in the company.
  • Christopher Daniels/Curry Man is basically to TNA what Shelton Benjamin was to WWE. A talented worker people always wanted to see in a higher position than he was in, except for when he was part of a popular tag team.
  • Eric Young, except for perhaps his "World Elite", "Kevin Nash's buddy" and "Knockout Tag Team Champion" phase. And even in the latter case, people who didn't like him holding a women's belt still seemed to like Eric Young otherwise.
  • If you love great deals and low prices, what's not to love about Don West? His background in sales made him sound funny on commentary (he made a Pelé kick sound like attempted murder, for example):
    "ABSOLUTELY CREAMED HIM, MIKE!"
  • By her second appearance, there were people calling for Awesome Kong to be TNA World Heavyweight Champion, most only halfway joking, some not at all.
  • Shark Boy, despite rarely being treated as a serious competitor had fans up to the uniformed troops parting their foreheads with their hands when he appeared. His Stone Cold phase was a little more divisive online, mostly because it was running at the same time as Black Machismo, but still popular in the Impact Zone.
  • Tomko, despite being largely used as a heel lackey to Christian or Kurt Angle, got popular enough at the end of 2007 into 2008 during his "going independent" phase of the Coalition/Alliance schism storyline that fans would often chant his name, with the aforementioned uniformed troops even holding a wide sign approving him as "army strong".
  • Daffney Unger's appearances on Impact from 2009-2010 were met with huge pops from the Impact Zone crowd and ratings spikes, despite Daffney herself being a heel jobber. And yet, instead of giving her a face run, TNA decided to put her in dangerous situations and let her take enough concussions to force her into retirement.
  • And now we had Norv Fernum and Dewey Barnes. Anytime they had a match, the crowd seemed to cheer for them despite being jobbers.
  • Ethan Carter III is very popular for a guy who spent almost all of his time in the ring winning disappointing squash matches, including one against the aforementioned Shark Boy.
  • Rockstar Spud for being absolutely hilarious.
  • Velvet Sky was arguably the most popular Knockout during her run.
  • Perhaps the most notable example of this trope is none other than the six-sided ring itself.
  • Senor Benjamin, the hispanic housekeeper (and father-in-law) of Matt Hardy, has gained a solid fanbase ever since appearing in "The Final Deletion".
  • Out of all the other dummies in the industry, not many can match the sheer charisma of E-LI DRAKE.
• Fandom Rivalry: TNA's harshest detractors tend to be ROH fans. The relationship begins amicably in 2002, the year RF Video started up ROH to replace top seller ECW. The ECW fans who approved of ROH were still skeptical word of mouth and the video company would be enough to build a brand that would fill the void, so they were overjoyed when TNA came and put several wrestlers who were on ROH shows on pay per view. TNA founder Jerry Jarrett had been somewhat dismissive of ROH from the start but the fandom rivalry really started in 2004 when ROH broke away from RF Video, after RF's owner was involved in one of pro wrestling's most infamous scandals. ROH now lacked distribution, but its wrestlers were still on pay per view so fans remained happy and hopeful. Then TNA barred the wrestlers it had under contract from returning to ROH, and heaven has no rage like love turned to hate. The rivalry continued on into the GFW rebranding, even though GFW founder Jeff Jarrett was more positive towards ROH than his father, because at this point ROH had its own pay per views and its fans were angry with GFW's parent company Anthem for removing one from Dish Network, over Matt Hardy returning to ROH with his Broken gimmick. There have been other incidents that have only fanned the flames, including Christopher Daniels' spotty ROH career prior to his ROH Television Championship reign, and then his permanent return to ROH after his final departure from TNA. The aforementioned Matt Hardy/DISH Network incident isn't even the first time TNA has prevented ROH from broadcasting something — they once prevented the broadcast of a match between Tyler Black and Samoa Joe back in 2008 from airing for similar reasons.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, where most of the shows were taped during the weekly pay per view era, was nicknamed the TNA Asylum.
  • Jeff Hardy's redesigned TNA World Heavyweight Title is referred to as the Aztec Sun belt, due it reminding people of the mythological female origin of all things.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Much of TNA's older fans left when AJ Styles and several mainstays (such as Christopher Daniels, Kaz, Chris Sabin, Sting, and Samoa Joe) all left after him. Mere days after AJ was confirmed to be walking out the door, Jeff Jarrett, the founder of TNA, announced he was leaving too.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The Beautiful People are terribly dressed. When they're dressed, that is.
• Franchise Original Sin: The signing and subsequent booking of Kurt Angle set the dangerous precedent of putting older stars over younger, homegrown stars. In fact, back in the NWA-TNA era there were plenty of older wrestlers competing in the company with them even winning titles. The issue is that while Angle and the NWA-TNA era veterans at least were able to justify it by being able to go on the same pace with the younger veterans, the later older stars, such as the ones brought on by the Hogan-Bischoff regime, were not.
  • Intergender Matches became a common element in Impact ever since the feud between Tessa Blanchard and Sami Callihan put the promotion back in the map. However, while the idea is good in practice, placing these matches can be risky and sometimes are considered wasted slots in the card.
• Fridge Brilliance
  • The "call girl" element to the Shout-Out involving Madison Rayne's "Killa Queen" theme. Madison has had at least two referee seduction angles; one short-lived as a member of TBP, the second on her own and lasting long enough to get her the Knockouts title back for a few days.
  • The Beautiful People's feud with Awesome Kong revolved around them trying to give Kong a makeover. They partially succeeded when they tied Kong's braids into the framework of a steel cage, her freedom from this predicament necessitating scissors. This goes beyond the Beautiful People's generally campaign against "ugly people", before wrestling for TNA, the Beautiful People's Leader, Angelina Love, used to wrestle in multicolored braids similar to Kong's. Love didn't like the look because it reminded her of what she used to be. Furthermore, she'd know exactly what shouldn't be done with them from her own personal experience.
  • Same for EC3's early Squash Match/Informed Ability gimmick boosted by flavor of (kayfabe) Nepotism. As he lampshaded in one #IMPACT365 interview, this allowed him to slowly work his way up the ladder of notoriety in TNA while constantly throwing his status in everyone's face at the same time, making it an interesting cross between using his family connections effectively yet also somewhat earning his keep. Furthermore, once a TNA babyface got sick and tired of his antics and demanded a fight with him, his boosting up the card would be all but guaranteed and the faces would have no one to blame but themselves. So basically, Dixie Carter gave him everything…but at the same time she didn't.
  • "The Reign That Never Ends" is a really strange title for Brittany's theme, seeing how she was basically a valet/jobber. But then, her fanning of Madison Rayne, which seemingly came out of the blue, suddenly makes sense. It wasn't in reference to her "reign" at all.
  • Speaking of Madison, there's her partnership with Gail Kim which seemingly came out of nowhere upon Gail's return to TNA in 2011. The circumstances of Gail's return explain it all: she came back enlisted by Karen Jarrett, the wife of Gail's former leader in 2005-06 and Madison's boss, as well as against then-Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky, one of Gail's arch-nemeses from her previous run and Madison's friend-turned-enemy who helped turn her into the abrasive queen bee she was. They had plenty of common ground to start with and likely hit it off from there.
• Fridge Horror
  • Here's a scary thought; not many people realized that, with his tag team title victory for the Bro-Mans, there was a lengthy window of time in which Robbie E could have by some miracle won the TNA Heavyweight Title and have become a Grand Slam Champion in a shorter time than AJ Styles?!
  • Speaking of AJ Styles, during the Claire Lynch storyline, the week before AJ's match to either accept the blame or get tested in the Claire Lynch storyline AJ had this to say to Kaz and Daniels backstage:
    "You know what? You both know I was drugged. I mean, God knows I'd have to be to sleep with a foot like Claire."
    • And suddenly, that main picture that Claire, the crack addict that AJ and Dixie Carter were helping to get clean, presented as "proof" of her "illicit affair" with AJ? You know, the one in which she's posing seductively on his body while he looks dead-asleep? If Kaz and Daniels' allegations were true in any way in the storyline, that would pretty likely mean Claire drugged and raped AJ, got pregnant from it, then somehow proceeded to perpetuate the notion with help from Kaz and Daniels that if AJ didn't stay with her and raise her child of rape then it made HIM the bad person. Frankly, the whole thing being a lie was the charitable version of the story.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • TNA is very popular in the UK, often beating the top rated WWE show by anywhere from 43% to 53% in the ratings. It even got a reality show dedicated to it, British Bootcamp.
  • Tapes of the TNA X Division were very popular in Japan, though the Badass Decay of the division and burial of hopeful Japanese stars wanting to be a part of it shushed some of the hype. Nonethless The Great Muta's enthusiasm for Seiya Sanada's entry into the division was not an act and after he took the title to Japan and the division recovered most of its prestige, it began to build back its fan base.
  • TNA's popularity in India managed to gave birth to its own Indian Spin-Off promotion Ring Ka King even if it only lasted for a single season.
  • Any countries where TNA gets higher viewership than WWE counts, although this is mostly due to TNA being on free TV Channels compared to WWE which are on paid Cable Channels around the world.
  • In 2014, TNA drew larger crowds in Japan than it did in the US.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: TNA's Knockouts Knockdown were the first all women pro wrestling shows to be broadcast nationally in the USA since GLOW. That was about thirty years in the ghetto.
• Growing the Beard:
  • As the more ridiculous angles slowly started to fall by the wayside in 2004, leaving the company to focus more on something it was good at, which was putting on matches that weren't like whatever WWE was currently doing. Then their Fox Sports Net deal lead to a further cut down on talking and shock value.
  • The Knockouts division wouldn't gain momentum until the Gail Kim/Awesome Kong feud.
  • The pay-per-views from April 2012 onward have been regarded highly by both the wrestling press and internet smarks. This trend started, not coincidentally, shortly after Vince Russo was let go. The TV product has also garnered a positive reaction post-Russo, with critics praising the in-ring focus, building up angles around the titles, and going back to focusing on their current roster.
  • This trope could pretty much be renamed "Shaving the Head" for Kazarian. His recent promo work is vastly improved, and he's just that bit better in the ring, since shaving off his hair and teaming with Christopher Daniels.
  • Garrett Bischoff's promo on Dixie Carter just before Slammiversary. Look at his early-2012 promos when he was stumbling over his words every few seconds. And then look at that. Fuck.
  • Once again shifting the focus on younger talent (such as EC3, The Wolves, and Samuel Shaw) beginning in 2014 has been a change welcomed by many.
  • Many fans rejoiced when the six-sided ring made a comeback as a result of a fan voting.
  • Impact's early run on Pop in 2016 was this to certain fans. The shows were better structured, a few characters have been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, and storylines were better written.
  • After a rough start for Anthem in 2017, the changes made by new-ish regime introduced in 2018 has been seen as a vast improvement. That year's Slammiversary PPV would go down as one of the best shows of the year, with rare universal acclaim for a company with the reputation that Impact has.
  • 2024 is the year where the TNA branding returns for real, with improved production values, new scenery and new signings included but not limited to Xia Brookside, Ash by Elegance and Nic Nemeth. Many fans are ready to see the rebirth of TNA Wrestling.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the past, Russo has argued that risky spots and gimmicks are necessary for "storylines" and defending No Contests in cage matches. Nobody mourned his firing after TNA's injury scandals and subsequent lawsuits came to light.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In addition to trying to open his own dungeon, Teddy Hart talked about wanting to bring the first pro wrestling ring with more than four sides to North America. Not only did AAA already have one of those, six sides in particular being made for Mexican styles of wrestling and all, but TNA would get one as well, three months after firing Teddy.
  • TNA's main house of operations for many years has been Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. During his second NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign, Christian Cage once called himself the "Champion of the Universe", possibly as a subtle nod to this. Since then, WWE (for whom TNA is the Unknown Rival) has begun calling its fanbase the Universe and as of summer 2016 the top title on its flagship show is called the Universal Championship.
  • What makes the story arc of Miss Tessmacher learning to wrestle really sad is that "Miss Tessmacher" was formerly Brooke Adams in Kelly Kelly's "Extreme Exposé" dance squad with Kelly and Layla El in WWE. In a 2007 interview, she mentioned that if she ever improved as a wrestler she would love to leave Extreme Exposé and strike out on her own. Flash-forward a split and about three years later, by the time Brooke started in TNA as a receptionist, Kelly and Layla had long beaten her to the path of becoming wrestlers. Then it was inverted after a couple years when she became the Knockouts Champion and (somewhat arguably) the best wrestler of the three, while Layla had an ineffectual Divas title reign and Kelly left the company, before Layla also left.
  • Booker T and Scott Steiner's first tag team experience together was far more unusual than winning the TNA tag titles while part of the Main Event Mafia. While under contract to WCW, where they actually often feuded, their team debut was actually an appearance on Charmed, jobbing in hell to Prue and Phoebe Halliwell.
  • Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian at one time shared the role of the cool masked video game character Suicide. Originally the character was Kazarian's, but when he got hurt, Daniels ended up taking the role and doing double duty both as Suicide and as himself. They even had each other's back when Kaz reprised the role in the middle of a storyline where the Motor City Machine Guns and Lethal Consequences (Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed) were trying to unmask Suicide to prove it was Daniels. Now, the Suicide character is renamed to something less unfortunate, the Guns are both gone, and Kaz and Daniels as heels are the most well-oiled tag team TNA's had since the Guns and fellow ex-Fortune members Beer Money, Inc.
    • And in a different manner of speaking, The Guns were right all along about Christopher Daniels being Suicide.
  • December 17, 2012: Tommy Dreamer got his ass kicked by The Shield, one of the most talked-about stables in recent history in WWE. Exactly a month later on January 17, 2013, Dreamer got his ass kicked by Aces And Eights, one of the most talked-about stables in recent history in TNA.
  • The name of MVP's latest faction, the Beat Down Clan, and especially the swagger with which he first introduced the name, immediately becomes this once you realize that literally every successful Power Stable in professional wrestling history has essentially been a beat down clan.
  • This one overlaps with Heartwarming in Hindsight, but the company's frequent potshots at WWE throughout its history has now become this thanks to them actually partnering with WWE to have Mickie James and Jordynne Grace (who in both instances held the Knockouts World Championship) participate in the Women's Royal Rumble match in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
• Ho Yay:
  • The relationship between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels was chock full of Ho Yay, even when they were enemies. When they were arguing over the possibility that Daniels could beat Styles, it seemed like a lover's spat that lasted for weeks. Samoa Joe acting like a jealous third party didn't help any. Keep in mind that Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles have named their kids after each other, so this is hardly a relationship that ends when the match does. On the 8/25/11 Impact broadcast, Daniels nearly broke down into tears while explaining why he asked AJ for another rematch (closely resembling an Anguished Declaration of Love) and outright hugged AJ when the rematch was accepted.
  • Kevin Nash with Alex Shelley, when he managed the Paparazzi (Austin Starr often played the jealous third party). Unlike the above, this was done deliberately.
  • Kevin Nash and Scott Hall have been this. Nearly all of Hall's brief tenures in TNA have seen these two be inseparable. One particular embrace they shared in the ring in late 2007 managed to make Hall look like Nash's girlfriend without at all being erotic. Following Hall's no-show and Samoa Joe's scathing promo on him in 2008, Nash even systematically befriended, mentored, and then betrayed Joe through that year's duration. Over that one promo. But then, The Kliq seem to revel in this kind of stuff.
  • Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin could be seen as one of the most homoerotic tag teams ever prior to homoerotic campiness becoming a trend. They refer to themselves as Heterosexual Life-Partners, they constantly hug and stare soulfully into each others eyes, and have some of the best coordination of any group ever. Not to mention being real life BFF's outside of TNA along with Petey Williams.
  • Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan during the first "Immortal" promo had this in spades to the point that Ric told Hogan he was going to get up very morning loving him more than he's ever loved anything else. Hogan then asked if that included his ex-wives. Ric said yes.
  • The Velvet Sky/Angelina Love/Winter triangle. Complete with attempted murder of the hypotenuse and a candlelit massage.
  • The Knockouts roster can be counted as this, given how much they waffle between catfight and orgy on a regular basis. Someone must be enjoying packing as much innuendo in as possible.
  • In a very subtle way, the former members of Fortune (aforementioned AJ and Daniels included). Even over a year since disbanding as a group, they just can't get enough of fighting each other.
  • The Beautiful People seemed to enjoy Faux Yay, due to being heel teases, but so many times genuine Ho Yay has slipped through.
  • Taylor Wilde and Sarita did this shamelessly, both teaming and feuding.
  • Tara seemed to have this with every tag partner she had in TNA, particularly with Madison Rayne (they outright kissed at one point) and Miss Tessmacher as TnT.
  • Speaking of Madison Rayne, her team with Gail Kim included more than a few teases.
  • Winter's connection with Angelina Love was easy to interpret as Single-Target Sexuality.
  • The team of Killer Kelly and Masha Slamovich, MK Ultra, is about as ridiculously over the top Ho Yay as is possible to get without them actually kissing. In their promos and entrances, they constantly touch and stroke each other; they enter with Masha leading Kelly on her hands and knees by a chain; and they otherwise do their best to hint and imply that the two are in a BDSM relationship.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Eric Bischoff, like Russo, just isn't any sort of wrestling mind and doesn't really understand the business, even though he was an awesome on-air character. TNA's attempt to recreate the Monday Night Wars (along with the nWo and Russo to complete the package) fell flat (Aside from this fan-made montage).
  Bryan Alvarez: CLEAN!? IT IS 2009!!
  Vinny: [snickering] Kevin Nash is pinning AJ Styles for Championships on Pay-Per-View.
  Bryan: CLEAN!!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! (Borrowed from Ring Of Honor, who got it IWA Mid-South, who got it from Taz in ECW)
  • ROB DAM VAN! THE WHOLE SHOW FUCKIN'!
  • Homicide just beat Suicide. Expect Genocide to attack Homicide backstage.
  • "I agree."
  • MINUS! FIVE! STARS!
  • "Broken" Matt Hardy was basically a perpetual meme machine:
    • Brothah Nero! Brothah Nero! It's ovah!
    • It's a dilapidated boat!
    • DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!
  • What is [X] doing in the Impact Zone?!? ^Explanation The go-to quote to describe left-field debuts and cameos, regardless of promotion.
  • MEH TNA ^Explanation When Anthem announced ownership, it was quickly noted that "Anthem" could spell "MEH TNA" backwards. Considering TNA's poor reputation, the jokes were all but inevitable.
• Mis-blamed:
  • The Impact Zone chant of "FIRE RUSSO". Russo wasn't the only one involved with booking: Dutch Mantell was also involved, and Jeff Jarrett had the final say on everything. For example, Dutch was the one booking Abyss when his Badass Decay set in. The first time the chant was heard was at Destination X 2007 during the Sting vs. Abyss Last Rites match, which featured a casket suspended from the ceiling. Mantell was later pegged as the guilty party. Here, Dutch defends himself.
  • Once Dutch left, whatever blame he would normally get went to Savio Vega. But, according to Awesome Kong, Vega had a fraction of the input Mantell did.
  • The thing fans remember most about Bruce Prichard's time in TNA is how he "forgot" to negotiate contracts with certain stars like Bobby Roode. He didn't forget. Management never sent Roode a contract because some genius in the office decided they could get him for cheaper if he had to renegotiate.
  • The infamous Jeff Hardy vs. Sting Match at Victory Road 2011 brought almost as much hate TNA's way as it did Jeff Hardy's direction, despite the fact that in the end, Jeff Hardy was the one who showed up completely stoned out of his gourd, and TNA had to choose whether to send him out for a quick squash or cancel their headlining match.

N-R

• Narm:
  • Sean Waltman went off script during a pay-per-view match for the Tag Team titles: he went to go get a ladder from under the ring and couldn’t find one, griping, "Why the fuck they gotta hide it?" This was loud enough to hear at home.
  • Lacey Von Erich's hands being too small to make her attempts at the Iron Claw believable.
  • Dixie Carter saved TNA and the jobs of a hundred wrestlers and other production staff. She helped the company grow with her family’s money. Also, unlike VKM, she didn't have a rep for losing her temper and wanted to be loved desperately, so she actually listened to the fans on occasion. Her biggest mistake was becoming an on-screen character who signed a kayfabe contract which gave Hogan and Bischoff full control over the company without reading a word of it because she was starstruck. (Evidently that's a normal practice in her daily life.) She turned heel, cut laughably-bad promos on AJ, and (in the words of WrestleCrap's 2013 Gooker Award) made Hulk Hogan look like an "Oscar Winner" in comparison. She didn't have a lot of television experience and her promos were awkward and circular. Her knees were actually knocking; in her head she knew she was supposed to be booed but she didn't like it. Even her comeuppance was spoiled; Dixie over-eagerly Tweeted fans to inform them she would be getting thrown through a table. In 2013, she was awarded Pro Wrestling Illustrated's "Get Off My Screen Award", getting more votes than John Cena and The Authority combined.
  • The January 30th 2015 edition of "Impact" where Madison Rayne dumps Taryn Terrell and Gail Kim from the top rope to floor and then attempts to smash their heads with the steel steps. It'd be frightening stuff if the fans weren't chanting "WE WANT PUPPIES".
• Never Live It Down:
  • The "MINUS FIVE STARS" Victory Road match, duly immortalized by Bryan Alvarez and the Botchamania theme song. TNA's resuscitation of North American women's wrestling is often overlooked; look no further than here to see why.
    Bryan: The lewdest entrance I've ever seen.
    Vinny: I'm not—(snickering) I'm not trying to...I'm just describing what I saw: It was an entrance designed to show off her asshole. Not just her ass, but her actual tunnel.
  • Sometime after leaving TNA, Shelly Martinez rededicated herself to training and consistently had good matches. Her TNA comeback was by beset by botches during a poorly-booked fanservice match with Rebel. ("MY VAG! MY VAAAAAAG!!") She'd been wrestling for 17 years by this point and made Eva Marie look like Trish Stratus, and you can actually spot her tampon flying out during the pin. This comedy of errors earned more bad reviews from Alvarez and another Minus Five Stars rating, and poor Shelly was punted back into obscurity.
  • The Immortal/Fortune stuff along with the Hardy heel turn really watered down the product. In fact, most of the Hogan/Bischoff era gets this treatment — while it did have some good material, it's ostensibly the Audience-Alienating Era of the company and even now TNA struggles to get out of its shadow.
  • Jeff Hardy Showing up stoned to a Pay-Per-View. Which he happened to be MAIN-EVENTING!!
  • James Storm throwing Mickie James onto train tracks.
  • The Vince Russo debacle that got TNA canceled by Spike.
  • The AJ Styles incident, where TNA tried to throw him under the bus right before his rumored WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble.
  • Their name changes. The former TNA went through no less than three name changes over the course of 2017 alone, as first they drop the TNA name for "Impact Wrestling" (finally completing a shift that had begun during the Hogan era), then they adopt the GFW name from Jeff Jarrett's post-TNA start-up (that never really got off the ground) when they bring him back, only to quietly drop it after he's suspended then let go a few months later, leaving them right back with the Impact Wrestling name.
• Nightmare Retardant: Abyss. He looks like Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz after a botched plastic surgery. Surprisingly he managed to make it work for a bit. Then they had him talk. It went way downhill from there.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity:
  • This line of thinking bit them in the ass when they decided they were getting on the AJ Styles hype train no matter what and posted a statement on the TNA website about his contract negotiations with them during the December of 2015, two days before the 2016 Royal Rumble, where AJ was rumored to make his WWE debut. For more on that, see Unintentionally Unsympathetic. Prior to this, the rumor of AJ going to WWE was in no way seen as embarrassing for TNA — AJ had been gone from their promotion for two years and all anyone was talking about were his awesome runs in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor, and the possibility of his debut in WWE. TNA was regarded as a non-factor, and many believed that unless TNA broke the bank it was highly unlikely that AJ would sign back with them. After they posted the statement, TNA caught a lot of heat with the fans and the wrestling community at large for their actions, and it erased a lot of the good will they had gotten for their improved writing after moving to Pop.
  • Josh Mathews' embarrassing internet antics led to many fans calling for TNA to fire him. Instead, he was made a heel on television and kept on as their lead announcer until being Kicked Upstairs in 2021.
• Older Than They Think: Many of the complaints people make about the "changes" TNA made around 2010 had deeper roots. Women stripping? Treating the X-division like glorified cruiser weights? Huge stables? Takeover angels? Celebrity guest spots? That had all happened before, but when TNA finally decided to go head to head against Raw, critics all around the internet acted as if it was all new and proof WWE was going to kill TNA, when that all failed to kill TNA before. Apparently Hulk Hogan's presence was going to be the deciding factor this time for those who did have an idea but he had been used to build TNA angles before (if not showing up in person). As long as they had Panda they were fine.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: TNA is capable of showcasing great matches and has provided many of various styles over the years. Their problem is creating buzz for those matches and keeping it from being drowned out by complaints of their blunders (both onscreen and off) when they do.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Matt Morgan. First Samoa Joe came back and murdered him, then Kevin Nash got the tag team titles from him. Then he was getting his ass kicked by everyone with a foot. After undergoing his Heel–Face Turn, he's reversed this and became a badass again.
  • The Knockouts Division. They went from being a key part of TNA (even main-eventing an episode of Impact) to a shallow parody of their former glory, all in the space of a couple of years. ODB famously tweeted "What is happening to our division??" after watching an I Quit match which ended in a No Contest in early 2010. Gail Kim's return and Karen Jarrett's departure helped mitigate the damage, but it wasn't until two years later that the Knockouts could be considered a respectable division again, with a rush of new talent debuting.
  • MVP's debut in TNA as a "new investor" in 2014. Dixie laughably admitted she had no idea who had been investing in her company. After his team beat hers at Lockdown, ostensibly to prevent Dixie from continuing to abuse her power, he turned heel to challenge Eric Young for the belt—becoming the very person he was supposed to stop. Dixie (of course) returned to television a month later and remained a prominent part of Impact, antagonizing Bully Ray and shoving him through a table to help EC3 beat him. Comparisons to WWE's Authority, an already-miserable stable, were inevitable—at least before MVP abused his position to the point of losing it so that Lashley could become World Champion on the Impact after Slammiversary. Dixie was finally taken off TV after being sent through a table by Team 3D and MVP was salvaged by becoming a supporting mouthpiece to a credible world champion, without any on-screen authority over the product.
  • Robbie E was hated since his debut because of his stale Jersey Shore gimmick. It took teaming up with mutual scrappy Robbie Terry to become a better superstar.
  • Jessie Godderz. He started as a wasted slot because of his Big Brother fame. The solution? Put him with the already rescued Robbie E to form the BroMans and he's now a good talent.
  • Perhaps the best thing about TNA bringing in the so-called 'E-Jects, who were considered useless at first, was polishing and making them bigger stars in comparison to their previous runs in WWE.
  • You couldn't convince anyone that Tyson "Problem Solver" Tomko had drawing potential if you only showed them his work in WWE. TNA may have eventually "ruined" him, but that they got as much out of him as they did is still commendable.

S-Z

• Salvaged Story:
  • While putting a weight limit on the X Division wasn't well-received by longtime TNA fans, it was actually an apology for putting the belt on Abyss, which inserted some unwelcome horror/"hardcore" elements into the division.
  • The second "they" reveal on February 3rd, 2011. Originally the storyline was written as a way for the Main Event Mafia to re-form... despite key members (Booker T, Sting, and Kevin Nash) not having re-signed with TNA yet. At least two, possibly all three of those guys were headed for WWE, instead. So, who were "they", exactly? Fortune, which made far more sense in the wider context of the angle and was seen as the feud that should have happened since October. We also got a golden opportunity for AJ to call out Eric Bischoff for reducing TNA to a WWE rip-off.
  • The reveal of Bully Ray as the head of the Aces And Eights. Two weeks later, a series of vignettes managed to link-up the entire nine-month storyline and were surprisingly met with critical acclaim.
  • Bobby Roode was supposed to win at Bound for Glory 2011 after receiving a huge push. (Then-champ Kurt Angle needed to drop the title due to injury, anyway. But that would have overshadowed Hulk Hogan's Heel–Face Turn that same night, so of course it had to be changed at the last minute. Following outrage from the fans and the guys in the back, TNA had no choice but to give him the belt. Bobby would then turn heel, becoming a breakout villain and the longest-reigning champ in company history.
• The Scrappy:
  • Bubba the Love Sponge, a shock jock/white rapper with an interesting history with the Hulkster. Bubba has strong ties in the wrestling community in Tampa where a lot of big names live. Hogan was always a guest on his show during the Attitude Era and he would go full "Hollywood" Hogan mode. Bubba was brought in around the time Hulk Hogan came to TNA in 2010; he hijacked Jeremy Borash's and Christy Hemme's job as backstage interviewer, leading to loud "FIRE BUBBA" chants from the audience. Bear in mind that his reputation of being a backstage bully wasn't widely-known yet. All of Hogan's new hires (Bubba, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, and The Nasty Boys) were fired before the start of 2011.
  • Orlando Jordan. It was during that period of time when anyone who had been fired from WWE had buzz in TNA's eyes, and was given a pretty decent push, e.g. Shannon Moore causing interference during a special match involving NJPW talent. (TNA jobbed out Tanahashi to a Shannon Moore run-in. Let that sink in.) Probably the most undeserving guy to beat Samoa Joe clean, which happened under Hogan and Bischoff's reign, of course. Jordan's real-life bisexuality became part of his gimmick: Jordan defended it by claiming he hoped it would "help troubled teens", but he had a habit of sexually-harassing every man or woman within a four-foot radius, including Rob Terry. Terry took two chair shots in his match vs. Homicide, including one unprotected shot to the head which bust him open in real-life. He no-sold both and destroyed Homicide. For 20 seconds, Rob Terry was the baddest man on the planet. And then Orlando Jordan came out, ate cherries, and squirted himself with lotion. And that moment was ruined forever. Terry could have at least been pushed as a monster but instead became the victim of a stalking by Jordan. Jordan would later beat up Terry while dressed as Janet Jackson.
  • Mexican America were a poor substitute for LAX (Latin American Exchange), apart from Sarita. Hernandez was okay in the eyes of the fandom immediately before the group formed and immediately after it broke up. Rosita got a lot of crap for being short and inexperienced. People just wanted Anarquia to begone entirely, and they got their wish, though not before he nearly ended Chris Sabin's career.
  • The British Invasion. Brutus Magnus would later redeem himself as a wrestler, but his world championship run was so bad even the UK turned on him. Rob Terry was somewhat liked in his masked role as "The Freak", but that's it.
  • Madison Rayne has gone through periods of what one could call "Shoot the Messenger". There are few complaints about her compared to complaints about what TNA has had her do, starting with being the whipping girl of the Beautiful People and flowing steadily on, "killing" Roxxi Laveaux's career being a particularly disliked moment.
• Shocking Moments:
  • As one of the original X-Division members, AJ Styles is the hallmark of HSQ for TNA.
  • Christopher Daniels has a lot of moves and most of them are spectacular
  • Elix Skipper's New School move, where he walks the ropes and delivers a frankensteiner to an oppenent seated on the turnbuckle. At Turning Point 2004 he did this while ON TOP OF A CAGE!
  • Lance Hoyt. How many near seven footers do you know can pull off a Moonsault? And make it look good as well? Hoyt's one of them.
  • Petey Williams's finisher, The Canadian Destroyer.
  • Sonjay Dutt, when he decides to get serious. His finishing moves have to be seen to be believed.
  • Suicide/Manik, many a wrestler capable of evoking this reaction have worn the suit.
  • Scott D'Amore can pull off a Canadian Destroyer.
  • Jeff Hardy is still jumping off high places.
  • Kazarian, see Daniels.
  • Mr. Anderson is a daring risk taker for someone of his size. It is also unfortunately what makes him somewhat injury prone.
  • Generation Me, mainly during their feud with...
  • ...The Motor City Machine Guns, Pro Wrestling ZERO1 decided to pair Shelley and Sabin together as representatives of TNA and magic was made.
  • Team 3-D, one of pro wrestling's most decorated tag teams ever, got even better with Bully Ray's reinvention.
  • Sanada and Tigre Uno's first time as a tag team.
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • Abyss was clearly dipped in this as a kid: to have such a grimdark character engage in such stupidity and still get a great reaction from the crowd every single time.
  • Hardcore Justice 2010:
    1. Tommy Dreamer announced that the stable of ECW originals would be called EV2.0. Because the word "dub" is slang for two, people were supposed to chant "E-V-Dub!" so it sounded like fans were chanting "E-C-W" or "E-C-dub" without getting TNA into legal trouble. Few fans caught onto the joke.
    2. Despite being an ECW throwback, it was held at TNA's standard venue with weird blue lighting (they couldn't find a blue ringmat?) and only Taz on commentary. Many of the old ECW stars had to change their names in order to avoid trademark infringement; even then, Mike Tenay and Taz regularly slipped up and said the trademarked names, which was mocked on Botchamania.
    3. Balls Mahoney (wrestling under the name "Kahoney") and Team 3D had a toy lightsaber duel in the middle of their match. This was simultaneously the most entertaining/embarrassing spot of the whole show.
  • Final Deletion! You wouldn't find a less grounded in reality anything anywhere else outside of Kaiju Big Battel, but it wasn't just a match, but the pay off to the then latest Matt vs Jeff Hardy feud that had gone in a new, strange direction when Matt woke up from the hospital Jeff put him in "broken". When viewed as a piece to a whole, it worked for many people.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Jackie Moore and ODB came back without contracts and started beating the crap out of Velvet Sky because they believe that the reason they were fired was the gradual change of focus in the Knockouts division from the action girls to the eye candy.
  • Dixie Carter may very well be the most hated woman in wrestling, and Bully Ray was only hunting her down to put her through a table because she'd done it to him first, but one couldn't fault Ethan Carter III for wanting to protect his auntie from Bully Ray—especially after MVP and his crew stopped trying to consolidate power with Team Dixie, with Spud and Ethan also getting dropped through tables on the way there.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: This used to be called "The Jimmy Hart Version". It could just as easily have been called "The Dale Oliver Version". Specifically, most TNA acquisitions who are either former WWE stars or popular independent wrestlers get variations of their previous themes, like Christian Cage, Team 3D, Angelina Love, Christopher Daniels, etc.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Dixie’s tenure on TNA came to an end in 2014, after a feud with The Dudley Boys ended with Bully Ray putting her through a table to the cheers of those in attendance, including the announcers. Dixie withdrew from the day-to-day handling of TNA not long after the spot, making it more symbolic.
• Tear Jerker: After The Naturals defeated AMW to regain the NWA tag titles one of the last images was of them and their manager Chris Candido clutching the belts with a smile on his face proud of their accomplishment despite being in severe pain due to a real life injury he suffered at the first Lockdown PPV the Sunday before the taping. A few days later he died due to complications from surgery and this heartbreaking image was used for his "in memory of" graphic, as the episode aired after he passed.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: TNA was originally billed as an alternative to WWE, but the result of Hogan/Bischoff's meddling made it more akin to a WWE rip-off.
  • The "3.3.11" promo seems like this in relation to the WWE's similar "2.21.11" promo, until one realizes that WWE was likely using this as a promotion for the long-awaited arrival of Sting, which was nixed after he decided to stay at TNA. The video packages were copied because they were intended for the same person, and TNA was using 3.3.11 to take a shot at WWE and remind them to whom the Icon was contracted.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • AJ Styles. A dedicated company man and one of the best wrestlers of his generation (see his matches with Okada or Tanahashi in NJPW), he was nonetheless badly treated by TNA management despite being The Face of the company. His departure in 2015 started an exodus of other big TNA stars like Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.
  • In hindsight, it seems TNA was experimenting with bringing back WCW valets in the same manner as WCW digging up former WWE talents (Miss Elizabeth and others) for Nitro. Daffney was generally considered one of the unluckier people who got picked. As the "ugly" Knockout of the bunch, she rarely got booked despite grossing high ratings during her appearances on iMPACT. (It was apparent even during her lock box challenge "strip tease"...which made the whole thing even more uncomfortable.) And most of her injuries occurred in non-televised matches as the network didn't allow any depictions of man-on-female violence. She was persuaded to take bumps through wooden objects full of thumbtacks or wrapped in barbed wire, but the footage never got aired.
  • Russo is a leading cause. For example, had little use for the most decorated amateur athlete to come out of the United States, proven draw for Ultimate Fighting Championship and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn. Ken Shamrock was right there, but rather than building towards a pay-per-view rematch, Severn was instead put in a referee shirt. No wait, that was WWF/E, he didn't even have the patience to wait for Severn to show up in TNA.
  • Velvet Sky has been given the power to make any match she wants with the Knockouts champion and former best friend Angelina Love? Any match at all, any stipulation? Does she give herself a title shot? No, no she does not.
  • So House of Hardcore is name dropped on Impact. Does this lead to a crossover with HOH or Family Wrestling Entertainment? In a way, yes, but it didn't result in any stars from either promotion getting national television exposure — at least not anyone who had not had it already. In fact, it only resulted in two wrestlers new to TNA, neither from HOH or FWE, and both gone almost as soon as they arrived. In this case, the plot wasn't bad, but it could have done more with the people available.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
  • Much was made about the fact that Morgan stole a golden cape that Hulk Hogan used to wear. He wore it to the ring for several months, never actually addressed the fact that he still had it, and was let go before anything could come of it.
  • Remember that plot about a Samoa someone, a van and ninjas? That's alright, because there was no plot that came of it. It was completely dropped after a few months despite there being a tease of him being included in Immortal during it.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Fortune for the half-year it spent as an inexplicably heel stable. Led by "The Nature Boy" Ric "God!" Flair, it consisted of several wrestlers the likes of which have helped build TNA from the ground up yet had a very good case to say that they've been Demoted to Extra for any latest big name veteran fads that may go through the place. This made it all the more bizarre when they outright teamed up with veteran-led Spotlight-Stealing Squad Immortal. When they turned on Immortal using the same exact character premise, the crowd exploded in joy.
  • Then there are the Jarretts; despite being portrayed as a Card-Carrying Villain and his Golddigger wife, both with a chronic case of Small Name, Big Ego, Jeff and Karen have had fans supporting them over Kurt because it's been documented on-screen and speculated off-screen that Kurt treated Karen like shit during their marriage, not to mention he usurped Jarrett's Spotlight-Stealing Squad power and then invoked Jeff's children into their previous feud. The Jarretts managed to be Faux Affably Evil enough to wear this down in good time, though, especially after filming the kids at home on air to demonstrate what a "perfect family" they were as part of their feud with Kurt.
  • Then there are ODB and Jacqueline, who had legitimate gripe with being ousted from the Knockouts. The pair claimed intent to "clean up the Knockouts".
  • There have been attempts to turn AJ Styles into a Heel, and they've never really worked. He's simply too much of a nice guy to be a believable villain. Alternately, those heel turns did work, but rather than giving him heat, they worked in that they gave him Character Development, which added some luster to him as a face. It also didn't hurt that True Companions tended to be involved. Prime example would be Fortune, listed above.
  • When Rhino turned heel, he told Tommy Dreamer that he was only doing what he had to do to keep his job, and explicitly mentioned that he had to provide for his children. Understandable even in the best of times, and when the economy is as bad as it was, that's about as sympathetic as "heel" motives get.
  • Dreamer's own heel turn about a half a year later at first saw Bully Ray gleefully forcing his hand in a way that was very much implied to be the same situation. Then he decided AJ and the fans were all Ungrateful Bastards and worked with Bully Ray willingly before leaving weeks later.
  • Austin Aries has pulled this off later. Following Jeff Hardy's match with Bobby Roode before Bound for Glory, he came out and cut a promo (apparently completely different from what was scripted) calling out the TNA back room for giving Jeff Hardy preferential treatment, even though Austin was the defending TNA Champion. Come Bound for Glory, it appeared he had done the impossible once again, by getting the fans to boo Jeff Hardy.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Velvet Sky in the eyes of some fans, particularly during the "being bullied" angle she had going on at the start of her face turn. It didn't help that the angle was criticized due to her bullying of other knockouts as a part of The Beautiful People for nearly her entire career in TNA beforehand and was only a face because her friends had turned against her. She became more of a true face later on after taking some time on a bus (and helping people in need following Hurricane Sandy in the meantime before The Bus Came Back).
  • TNA got hit with this trope when they posted this statement on their website two days before the 2016 Royal Rumble, where it was rumored AJ Styles was to make his WWE debut. The fans, instead of seeing AJ as a backstabber, saw TNA management as a bunch of incompetent, unprofessional dolts who were trying to screw over a wrestler that they had mistreated, who had been loyal to them for years. TNA was then put on blast by the entire Internet, including numerous wrestling personalities such as Tazz, for making themselves the laughingstock of the wrestling community once again. They were further put on blast after wishing AJ well upon his debut, accompanied by a since-deleted passive-aggressive tweet◊ from Dave Lagana.
    • TNA soon became even more of a laughingstock following this incident, as it was noted that they were effectively admitting to contract tampering if their statement had been true. Karl Anderson, who had been included in the "negotiations" along with Doc Gallows, was still under contract to NJPW at the time and would remain so until the end of January 2016.
• Win Back the Crowd: Lashley's title reign has also done this for the angle surrounding MVP's return and Power Stable. When MVP turned heel on EY and declared his challenge for Young's title, then formed his faction with Lashley and Kenny King, fans immediately jumped on TNA for rehashing their Hostile Show Takeover formula yet again. Then MVP blew out his knee, Slammiversary became a straightforward wrestling show, and MVP's scheme was delayed until the following Impact where Lashley got the title instead, with MVP getting stripped of his power as well and becoming largely a mouthpiece for Lashley and a guide/occasional partner to King. While Lashley inevitably turned face and MVP became the leader of what became known as the Beat Down Clan, this iteration of the takeover plot was much better received due to the Reality Subtext of the members' friendships and the depth the storyline developed.
• The Woobie:
  • Jeff Jarrett, after Hogan buried him and his wife died.
  • AJ Styles, thanks to a pretty rough 2012, which not only saw him become the victim of a complicated scheme by Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian to destroy his reputation via a woman named Claire Lynch, but also saw him become locked out of the TNA title scene until Bound For Glory 2013.
  • Eric Young, due to head trauma related "idiot" phases. Later turned into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds during his first return in 2020 as a Heel.
  • Tommy Dreamer, but it wouldn't be Dreamer if he didn't suffer a little.
• X-Pac Heat:
  • Applied to Jeff Jarrett in 2005, when fans were pleading him to "DROP THE TITLE!" He was called "Triple J" by anti-fans due to comparisons to Triple H. This pretty much vanished around the time his wife died and he took less of an on-screen role with the company.
  • He made fun of this at least once by actually dropping the title on the mat during a promo.
    • This also helped go away after two more things: first, the notorious lumberjack strap match where, whenever he was out of the ring, he would promptly be beaten down by sixteen fans with leather belts (some of them actual fans) AND Samoa Joe. Second, for the smarks at least, Hulk Hogan's presence has helped to dull the hate, especially after he essentially buried Jarrett on-screen in a way that almost made Jarrett sympathetic. When he returned to in-ring action, he didn't even have any entrance music for the first few months.
  • Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal all got it when they were given a collective Jackass Fan Boy gimmick. Petey Williams and Senshi got it when they in turn sold the jackass pranks.
  • Since Immortal began, several of the members (Hogan, Bischoff, and Jarrett) has been building X-Pac heat due to overexposure. This is one of the reasons many fans stopped watching TNA for a long time.
  • Bubba The Love Sponge had this, chiefly because he only got the job by being friends with Hulk Hogan.
  • Chanting "You can't wrestle" at Garrett Bischoff.