TNA News: Details on TNA talent meeting Tuesday - what was said, locker room reaction

By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA management, namely Hulk Hogan and Dixie Carter, held a talent meeting on Tuesday prior to the latest Impact Wrestling taping. As reported by Prowrestling.net, the theme was for wrestlers to improve their storytelling in the ring during matches.

According to TNA sources, talent did not take the "pep talk" seriously because of TNA's track record of focusing on a concept or idea for one-to-two months, then forgetting about it and moving on to the next idea or concept.

Talent are said to be frustrated because TNA will be very high on a wrestler/Knockout/idea/concept in the short-term, but the follow-through from creative and management won't be there in the long-term. Talent will then typically be blamed for not "stepping up" when given an opportunity.

Even if a talent is not blamed for a push not working out, talent are frustrated with the lack of follow-through when TNA "gets distracted by something else," as phrased by one source.

There are rumblings in the locker room of non-Attitude Era stars who are in their prime, near their prime, or about to come out of their prime thinking about going to WWE in the next year or two.

Many wrestlers look at WWE being desperate for stars due to a talent shortage and drain of main-eventers, which could open up slots that WWE's developmental system isn't filling.

It would require WWE to actually show interest in the wrestlers entertaining the idea of going to WWE, but it's clear these wrestlers have lost faith in TNA creative and management.

Caldwell's Analysis: The often-cited example of talent frustration is what happened to Jay Lethal last year. Lethal was given a big spotlight opportunity to promo-exchange Ric Flair, he had a big PPV match with Flair at the July PPV, and TNA did nothing with him afterward. A more-recent example is Mr. Anderson, who was given another title reign and TNA did nothing with him as champion other than muddy his character. The sentiment in the locker room is talent feel they are typically blamed for these issues rather than management looking to Creative and addressing the issues there.

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