An Open Letter to ROH Fans from TNA Mecca

[WHG]

Presented without comment...

It has been a little while since I have had the time to write a column. Being super busy has prevented me from doing as much writing as I'd like because I literally did not have the time. But I felt compelled enough to carve out some time to write an open letter to ROH fans today. There is an important day coming up this Wednesday, June 3rd. It is a big night for TNA. It is also a big night for ROH. So why not celebrate this night together and bury the hatchet? I know ROH fans have talked a lot of smack about TNA and its fan base in the past. TNA fans have not been innocent in this regard either and we totally own the fact that we have also had some blunt and critical things to say in return about ROH and their overall product. The past is the past. Those things will not necessarily be totally forgotten and they shouldn't be. I'm not asking you to forget about those things that have happened up until this point between the two fan bases. However, we at TNAMecca are extending our hand to you. It's simple: Shake Our Hand. We're asking you politely and respectfully.

Not just yet I see? OK, well let me continue on with my open letter to you and we'll see if you'll reconsider by the end of this thing. I suspect that a lot of ROH fans are adults. Well, there ya go. There's something that we have in common; so are we. Of course there are younger fans that spend good money and time on both products too, but I am speaking to you as a 35 year old man that has watched pro-wrestling since I was 6 years old. So having nearly 30 years of watching pro-wrestling under my belt has given me some perspective on things regarding this industry. I was a WWF and WCW fan to the utmost degree in my younger days before TNA ever even existed. I imagine that some of you also were fans of both of those promotions and others in days past. Fast forward to June of 2015. For the first time in pro-wrestling history (unless Mike Tenay or another wrestling historian says otherwise) to the best of my knowledge, 2 competing companies will be shown on the same network back to back in a 3 hour block of pro-wrestling. Even if you don't like that fact, it is real and it is true. So let's talk about possible compromise and a potential understanding.

My name is Reece. I go by my writing alias and longtime nickname of BigDawg here at TNAMecca and on Twitter. I am being honest and sincere in this plea to ROH fans. If you are still reading, thank you. I will be providing an ROH Review every week on Wednesday nights at 8 PM EST right here at TNAMecca on our debuting "LIVE Discussion" starting June 3rd. This is definitely not the first time that I have watched ROH. Those that have been here at our comment sections for months and approaching years (plural) know that there was a time that I would stay up until 1:35 AM EST (because that's when ROH would be shown in my area on my local CBS affiliate station on my cable package) and watch the 1 hour show and share my thoughts on the episode. I'd usually be up until 3 AM that morning and I did it to watch ROH. I kept hearing about how awesome ROH was from people that watch both TNA and ROH (and some exclusively ROH fans). So I finally gave it a true and objective chance. Even though I was very critical and harsh at times, there were glimpses of brilliance and amazing pro-wrestling that I saw and commented on too. I did have some positive things to say about ROH's product. I did this without any knowledge that eventually ROH and TNA would both be shown on the same night, on the same TV network. Now, eventually that run of doing my ROH Review lost steam and because of my daily schedule change it became very inconvenient to stay up that late for me. Now it will be VERY convenient to watch ROH again directly before my weekly IMPACT viewing. I am not alone in this regard. Big markets all over the United States will have access to ROH for the first time ever. Other U.S. markets will have the show available in prime time for the first time ever. This is very significant and should not be taken lightly.

ROH fans: Your own C.O.O. Joe Koff had an interview with the legend Bill Apter earlier this week. If you haven't already, I suggest watching it because he does not talk crap about TNA. Instead, he is actually embracing this partnership with Destination America and TNA:


An exact quote from Joe Koff in that interview is,"I couldn't think of a better neighbor than Impact Wrestling." Essentially the "boss" of Ring Of Honor is saying those words. At this point, ROH fans acting disrespectful and nasty towards TNA is on them when their C.O.O. is setting a precedence to play nice with TNA. This is smart business and it is totally in the same vein of what I am saying in this letter to you, the ROH fans. We here at TNAMecca are not privy to what level of cross-promotion and advertising these 2 promotions will share with each other. I imagine Destination America and the 2 companies will make some concessions and compromises and that those things are still evolving. Egos will have to be put aside for that to happen but based off of the Twitter interactions I've seen and what key management members have said so far, that door is open. We shall see, but things seem to be getting off on the right foot so far.

My overall point is that we need to unite as much as we can as a collective fan base. To whatever degree that is will be up to you. I'm not telling you what to do. There are a lot of ROH fans that will read this and share this letter. Good! Please do. Thank you for doing that. I am speaking only for the TNA fans and TNAMecca. I am not speaking for TNA Wrestling. I do not work for TNA. I do not get paid by TNA and none of us at TNAMecca do. Most of us have full time jobs. We do not make ANY money running this site at all. We have no advertisements as you can see. Our objective is not to "get the most clicks" nor to make ad revenue dollars. We are legit fans that love pro-wrestling. That is it. We have no hidden agenda. Again, we are extending our hand to you, the ROH fans, to stop the negativity and we will do the same. Some light-hearted joking from both sides will be acceptable but respect will be shown here for both ROH and TNA. We do not wish for or call for ROH's downfall and we do not desire for ROH to go out of business. Hell, one of our columnists and loyal staff members, Nick Mann, is a long time ROH fan and just recently attended another ROH show in Toronto:


I know there are a lot of fans and commenters that frequent TNAMecca that also watch the ROH product. We will be talking about ROH every Wednesday now moving forward. There have been some mean things said by all of us in the past but it's time to move past that and come together as one. The fact is that all non-WWE promotions need to unite together. TNA has extended their hand in recent years to House of Hardcore, AAA, Evolve, Wrestle-1 and other independent promotions. And now, the most unlikely of allies has surfaced with this new Destination America TV deal. We are at this point now just before this June 3rd debut, so let's make the best of it!

In closing, I am speaking to that part of you that is a pro-wrestling fan. Forget promotion names and discard your biases just for a moment. Why are you a wrestling fan? Why do you invest so much time, energy and thought into watching wrestling? We each have our stories and a lot of us have memories of pro-wrestling going back to our childhoods like I mentioned before. Is it more important for you to talk shit about a promotion that you do not prefer OR is more important to just simply be a fan? Ask yourself that question. The time has come to put aside the hate and the negativity. We are willing to do that on our end. Are you also willing to do that? It's time for wrestling fans to #StandUp for professional wrestling. It's time for fans to #WatchROH. It's time for fans to #ShowYourImpact. It's time for fans to watch ROH and TNA together on Wednesday nights on Destination America. Let's make this 3 hour block on Wednesday nights a fun time! We have at least 26 weeks of this ahead of us. We are committed to playing nice and watching both products. We are still and will always be TNAMecca but we are willing to make an exception in covering the ROH product for the foreseeable future, at least as long as they are both on the same TV network for this combined 3 hour block of programming. That is our commitment and our word is our bond. All ROH fans that can communicate civilly in our comment section are welcome here at TNAMecca.

Sincerely,
Big Dawg

[supersonic]

A big wall of insecure tripe.

[lariat_tubman]

I'll be the first to admit TNA gets badmouthed way too much on the internet (sometimes justified and sometimes not) but yeah this is a little too insecure for my taste.

[jordidebaas]

So apparently if you're a fan of a certain promotion, you belong to a certain group, and those different groups all were in a big fight with each other? This is just laughable.

[Sandy Fork]

TNA fans are the fucking lolcows of the internet.

[Wilson]

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

[BlackLesnar]

pls no bully

They just want to be friends

[Recall]

Fuck Vince Russo. Fuck backward ill thought out booked wrestling. Fuck promotions who lack their own identity.

Be it TNA, a random indy or a major promotion the above still applies.

[Sandy Fork]

The interesting part of this discussion:

If the roles were reversed, and say TNA had managed to strike a syndication deal with Sinclair to appear on Sinclair stations + DA, would TNAMecca have still sent out an "olive branch"?


I don't think so.

[classic-cabana]

Started reading, scrolled down, seen how long it was! Sack that off!

Ill take supersonics word for it

A big wall of insecure tripe.

[TYFDK]

ROHWorld and it's members, thank you for not being TNAMecca and it's members.

[Leo C]

Expected a rant or a war declaration.

[AssShooter]

We have at least 26 weeks of this ahead of us.

No we don't, it's 22 weeks with the cancellation at the end of September.

[Marketh.]

However, we at TNAMecca are extending our hand to you. It's simple: Shake Our Hand. We're asking you politely and respectfully.

How hard it must've been to hold back a Code of Honor joke here.

I am being honest and sincere in this plea to ROH fans.

"And I will say this again and again like all honest and sincere people."

I did have some positive things to say about ROH's product.

"That Scarlett Bordeaux has a lovely bottom."

I did this without any knowledge that eventually ROH and TNA would both be shown on the same night, on the same TV network.

You don't say?

ROH fans: Your own C.O.O. Joe Koff had an interview with the legend Bill Apter earlier this week.

ROH fans aren't ROH employees. Do you consider Dixie Carter your leader?

If you haven't already, I suggest watching it because he does not talk crap about TNA.

Must've been the hardest part of the interview.

An exact quote from Joe Koff in that interview is,"I couldn't think of a better neighbor than Impact Wrestling." Essentially the "boss" of Ring Of Honor is saying those words. At this point, ROH fans acting disrespectful and nasty towards TNA is on them when their C.O.O. is setting a precedence to play nice with TNA.

We know.

We here at TNAMecca are not privy to what level of cross-promotion and advertising these 2 promotions will share with each other.

Hey now, don't downplay the journalistic reputation and credibility of TNAMecca who I've totally never heard of until this thread.

My overall point is that we need to unite as much as we can as a collective fan base.

Does this mean I have to watch TNA?

There are a lot of ROH fans that will read this and share this letter. Good! Please do.

Goddammit, WHG. You're making him stronger.

I am speaking only for the TNA fans and TNAMecca. I am not speaking for TNA Wrestling. I do not work for TNA. I do not get paid by TNA and none of us at TNAMecca do.

"There are people getting paid NOT to write ridiculous letters."

Again, we are extending our hand to you, the ROH fans, to stop the negativity and we will do the same.

Some light-hearted joking from both sides will be acceptable

"But excessive humour will earn you a trip to the work farm."

but respect will be shown here for both ROH and TNA.

Well thank God we're not at TNAMecca.

We do not wish for or call for ROH's downfall and we do not desire for ROH to go out of business. Hell, one of our columnists and loyal staff members, Nick Mann, is a long time ROH fan

"He's also black, so you know."

We will be talking about ROH every Wednesday now moving forward.

"Whether you like it or not."

In closing, I am speaking to that part of you that is a pro-wrestling fan.

"And also, as a lover."

Is it more important for you to talk shit about a promotion that you do not prefer OR is more important to just simply be a fan? Ask yourself that question.

To simply be a fan, but disregarding and mocking TNA doesn't take up much of my time.

We have at least 26 weeks of this ahead of us.

"And for Christsakes, we're gonna have fun, you little brats!"

[Recall]

[Sandy Fork]

ROH fans aren't ROH employees. Do you consider Dixie Carter your leader?

I actually think they do

[Robareid]

Oh shit, Joe Koff didn't talk shit about TNA? Well I guess that means I have to follow suit, thank God somebody let me know.

TNA Mecca is a joke, bordering on a cult. They ban certain discussions there, including anything linked to Meltzer, and have been a hive of ROH hatred since the companies stopped working together lately. Now I'm not somebody who is against a bit of ROH bashing, I partake in it myself any occasion I think it's justified, but this sudden face turn of ROH as soon as they (belatedly) realise ROH has overtaken them leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

When TNA goes out of business the main reason I'll be happy is that that place will die the death it needs. The very idea that all TNA fans can be grouped into one entity which he speaks for and all ROH fans are one entity and can be viewed as such is just so stupid.

[classic-cabana]

We here at TNAMecca are not privy to what level of cross-promotion and advertising these 2 promotions will share with each other.

Hey now, don't downplay the journalistic reputation and credibility of TNAMecca who I've totally never heard of until this thread.

So, Im not the only one who has never heard of TNA Mecca before either

[Sandy Fork]

Oh shit, Joe Koff didn't talk shit about TNA? Well I guess that means I have to follow suit, thank God somebody let me know.

TNA Mecca is a joke, bordering on a cult. They ban certain discussions there, including anything linked to Meltzer, and have been a hive of ROH hatred since the companies stopped working together lately. Now I'm not somebody who is against a bit of ROH bashing, I partake in it myself any occasion I think it's justified, but this sudden face turn of ROH as soon as they (belatedly) realise ROH has overtaken them leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

When TNA goes out of business the main reason I'll be happy is that that place will die the death it needs. The very idea that all TNA fans can be grouped into one entity which he speaks for and all ROH fans are one entity and can be viewed as such is just so stupid.

If this forum had a post like function. I would like this post.

[WHG]

If you guys haven't heard of TNA Mecca, it's actually very entertaining for its comedy. It's highly moderated and even remotely negative posts are removed. They believe that Dave Meltzer is out to get TNA and have compared the life of being a TNA fan to that of persecuted minorities like African Americans and homosexuals.

As a sampling of the fun, Chris Regal who runs the site recently posted this:

TNAMecca Update

It's been an interesting week, and at times hectic, so we welcome the start of a new week that includes a new episode of Impact for the fans in the US. It was a week where we did things a little differently by allowing our members to vent about a certain dirtsheet writer while also dealing with a lot of hatred that's directed towards TNAMecca.

However, it is important to get back to the real reason why TNAMecca was created and that is to provide real TNA fans with a safe and troll-free place to discuss TNA (and maybe other wrestling promotions). When we created TNAMecca, we envisioned a site that would become the top site for TNA fans and we feel we have accomplished that. We've created and nurtured a community here that's unlike any other within the wrestling industry. We take pride in that and it's very important that we maintain that standard. For this reason, we've outlined some areas where we need to make changes.

1) Effective immediately, we will give the same courtesy to other promotions that we do to TNA. What this means: blatant negativity and bashing of other promotions will no longer be permitted. We have many members who are fans of the WWE, NXT, ROH, LU and numerous other promotions (or potential new members who don't join TNAMecca because of the constant anti-other promotion talk) and we'd like them to feel comfortable discussing those promotions in our weekly CHAT for the same reasons we want TNA fans to feel comfortable talking about TNA. You are, however, permitted to give constructive criticism and continue to discuss other promotions the same way you would TNA.

2) We have taken security measures this week in order to prevent trolls and any anti-TNA posters from invading TNAMecca. However, it is important that we make every effort to not constantly focus on or discuss trolls on other sites. We have made it very clear that we want no part of members here participating in arguments elsewhere (this includes other sites and social media) and then coming here to pat themselves on the back or brag about it. If you insist on arguing with trolls elsewhere, that is your prerogative but you will no longer be allowed to contaminate TNAMecca with your personal beefs.

3) Similarly, you will no longer be permitted to talk about other sites here in a manner that is disrespectful or insulting. We are not here to talk about other sites. We are here to discuss and focus on TNA and the topics at hand. It is, however, permitted to post items from other sites but all posts from other sites must include the source (the site's name) and a link to the article.

4) The posting of reports by Dave Meltzer is not permitted here, and that includes third-party reports posted by other sites. You will also no longer be permitted to talk about Meltzer and especially in a way that may be seen as a personal attack. However, we do not exist inside a bubble so you are free to discuss any rumors that are part of a larger discussion online such as this week's cancellation rumors as long as you do it calmly and respectfully. If these discussions deteriorate into personal attacks on Meltzer or doom and gloom scenarios like they did last Wednesday, we will consider banning them.

5) TNAMecca is a spoiler-free site. This means that anything that hasn't aired on television (in the US) is a spoiler. In addition, you are not permitted to tease spoilers or comment on anything that may give a spoiler away. There is one exception, however. If any member of the TNA staff announce anything publicly, whether it's on social media or their site, it is not a spoiler.

6) And lastly, the narrative of "us against them" will no longer be tolerated. This is a label imposed on us by the anti-TNA crowd and it is our responsibility to prove them wrong. Although this is a TNA site, it will not be used as a weapon against other promotions or other fans. TNAMecca must be a site where all TNA fans are welcome, including those who enjoy watching other promotions. This is the site we envisioned when we created TNAMecca, and along the way, we may have strayed but if we are going to be the best site for real TNA fans, we must act like it.

Each of these new rules will be enforced strictly and consistently by our staff of mods. Any comments that break any of the above rules will be deleted and repeat offenders (whether it's two times or more) will be banned indefinitely or permanently.

In addition, due to Impact moving to Wednesdays, we have made the following schedule changes that will take effect on June 1st:

- Randomania will move to Wednesdays at midnight on June 3rd;
- Post-Impact Discussion will move to Wednesday nights at 11PM EST on June 3rd;
- Ringside Impact review will move to Fridays (time to be determined);
- CHAT will move to Saturdays at 1PM EST on June 6th.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at shelbinslant@gmail.com

We thank you in advance for your cooperation as we continue to make the necessary changes to make sure that TNAMecca remains the best TNA site on the net.