Red Eye Chicago recently interviewed TNA star Christopher Daniels and he spoke about creating brand awareness in order for TNA to compete with WWE:
“Well I think a lot of it has to do with just awareness of the brand, like you said. So many people, especially lapsed wrestling fans from the boom back in the late 90’s – early 2000’s, a lot of wrestling fans sort of went away. And they aren’t really aware that there is another brand now, now that WCW closed and ECW closed. A lot of people went away right after that, and they’re not really aware that there’s another brand out, other than the WWE, just sort of enjoy professional wrestling.
And the truth of the matter is sometimes it’s hard to be different from the WWE when you’re trying to gain those same viewers. Sometimes there’s a tendency to sort of follow in the footsteps of the WWE. And so it’s sort of a fine line where you want to be recognizable as professional wrestling but you also want to set yourself apart from what some people consider the standard of professional wrestling, which is the WWE.
So I think the challenge for us as individuals is try to stand out. Try to get people talking. Try to get that word of mouth out about our product. Not just ourselves but the entire roster as a whole. Trying to get people talking about the differences in our talent. The differences in terms of the stories we’re telling in the ring. Trying to get some buzz about the things that we’re doing.”