How Many Feuds?

[ramblinroy682]

In TNA with basically a two hour show to promote their company, how many feuds or ongoing storylines should there be at any given time? Realistically, how many can you put focus into so that your Pay Per View is an interesting and engaging event?

Clearly, you need something revolving around each belt:

World
TV
X-Division
Tag
Women's

How many more do you need, want, or have the ability to sustain?

Personally, I think a total of 8 feuds is the right number. In addition to the 5 listed above, I would like to see two individual feuds and 1 additional tag team feud.

In my mind this would lead to a number 1 contender's feud...I wouldn't actually always call it a number 1 contenders feud, but a feud to set up the next contender for the World title. Same goes for the Tag feud. Give a team a push and let them get a little momentum before challenging for the titles. The final feud could then be a little more flexible. Here you could have a contender's match for xdiv or tv. It could also be a grudge match like Angle and Jarrett are in currently. This is where you could also put guys like Morgan who need to stay in the limelight, but don't have a title program.

However, I think TNA needs to use the TV title in the manner it was intended. Right now its on Abyss. It should be on Morgan, Joe, Pope, Wolfe, or even God forbid Matt Hardy. It would give a little more prestige to the feuds they are involved in.

Look at the last pay per view. Really only 1 belt was being involved in an actual feud. Kaz was a late addition, the tag titles weren't on the line, and the TV title is nowhere to be found. Chasing a title always is a solid storyline. You can also make personal feuds tied to the belt.

Also, if you need more folks involved you can always make a 4-way, triple threat, battle royal type of match.

What do you think is a good number? How would you focus the feuds? Could you add a feud on xplosion or on the web?

 

[Rasha]

Your formula makes sense. My only exception to it would be that not EVERY title has to have a feud connected to it. Sometimes it's a good thing to have one of your singles titles used solely to build up the champion (TV or X-Division would be best) as a dominant in-ring performer who defends it for a few weeks to a month without any storyline or feud involved. The hard part there is not having the title lose prestige/attention as it becomes nothing more than a hood ornament for the surging wrestler (think Goldberg and the U.S. Title).

Where TNA has a problem right now is the imbalance between the number of titles and the amount of TV time consumed by non-title feuds and even non-wrestlers. Neither of these things is bad, but when you consider the screen time for Bischoff and Flair and couple that with angles like Angle/Jarrett, Bubba/Devon, and Pope/Joe how much time is left? Why couldn't the TV Title have been part of the Pope/Joe feud? Not only would they have added way more hype to the belt, but it would have added some credibility to an otherwise bland and even slightly nonsensical storyline.

 

[Tech N9ne]

I definitely think TNA should step up it's TV Title involvement. I think it should be defended every week on Impact. Also, I agree with the OP, it should definitely be on someone else. Abyss is doing nothing for or with that title to be honest. You put the damn thing on someone relevant, have them defend it often, against quality opponents, and make it mean something. That will begin the building of that title's legacy.

I don't really think there should be a set number of feuds. I think a feud around the World Title is a given. As far as the other belts go, I think it is a case by case basis.

You can have other feuds within the company, away from the titles and use the titles to build up the actual Champion. Have the champions just face all challengers. It is a way to keep the champions and their titles, relevant. At the same time, it allows you to push other guys that aren't a Champion, within their own respected feuds.

 

[JaredJammer]

They need enough on-going feuds to sufficiently promote the upcoming PPV, obviously. Assuming the typical eight-match PPV, I'd say around six or seven simultaneous feuds is reasonable, with a thrown together match or two rounding out the card.

• World Title Feud
• Tag Team Title Feud
• X-Division and/or TV Title Feud
• Knockouts Title Feud
• 2-3 "Personal" Feuds

Assuming four shows between PPVs, at about 87-minutes each, sans commercials, that gives you a total of just under six-hours to work with. I would guess around one-quarter of that (90-minutes for the mathematically challenged amongst us) would go towards building the world title match, about an hour for the top "personal" feud and the other three-and-a-half-hours divided up amongst the remaining four or five lesser feuds.