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  1. #1
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    Default Spike TV's Cancellation of the TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Wrestling Promotion

    From Sporting News.

    “May you live in interesting times” is of course a very famous Chinese curse, and one that I’ve mined for a column years back. The topic then was the AWA’s dying days, and the things that went down back in 1990 to end that wrestling promotion have seemingly happened again. But in a much funnier way this time.
    As reported by TMZ tonight, Spike TV has finally (and many would say mercifully) pulled the plug on the WWE “alternative” wrestling promotion, Total Nonstop Action, aka TNA. The circumstances behind the cancellation of wrestling’s biggest running joke are almost as ridiculous as the storylines that it became infamous for presenting. But first, a little background.
    Debuting in 2002 from the ashes of WCW, TNA was a concept born from Jeff Jarrett and father Jerry, both veteran promoters out of Memphis and reasonably well-known names in the business. The original focus behind the promotion was a series of weekly, cheaply priced ($10 or so, depending on cable system) pay-per-view shows without a TV show to back them. The idea is that fans would be enticed to purchase four cheaper shows per month instead of one pricier monthly show like WWE put on. As you might expect, this model worked for roughly six months before the Jarretts ran deep into the red and were on the verge of shutting down completely.
    Then, in an unlikely twist even by wrestling storyline standards, TNA’s publicist took notice of their financial woes and decided to do something about it. That publicist was Dixie Carter, and her father Bob is the owner of Panda Energy, a company with very deep pockets. Panda purchased TNA for an undisclosed amount of money and has seemingly kept it alive as a tax write-off ever since.
    Rumored losses for the wrestling promotion were in the tens of millions as they floundered on oddball distribution models like the internet and Fox Sports, but a TV deal with Spike in 2006 once again saved them. Losses for Panda were still high, but TNA delivered solid viewership for Spike TV every Thursday, keeping them an important part of the landscape for the channel.
    And then, because it’s wrestling, there was a twist.
    On and off since TNA’s debut on Spike, Dixie Carter has insisted on using former WWE and WCW head writer Vince Russo as the person to craft the storylines for her wrestling promotion. To say that Russo is a polarizing figure is an understatement, but more importantly he was not well-liked by Spike’s TV executives, and his most recent firing in 2011 seemed to right the ship somewhat for TNA. Ratings were stable and a new TV deal seemed imminent to keep them going.
    However, for reasons that only Dixie knows, she secretly hired Russo back earlier in the year and then lied about it to everyone, both to employees of the company and any members of the press who asked about it. It was a terribly-kept secret because everyone knew Russo was there and writing the show, but the final straw for Spike TV (according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer) came when Russo accidentally CC’d an e-mail to reporter Mike Johnson indicating that he was working for TNA after all. And then Johnson tipped off Spike TV to that fact, causing negotiations to fall apart completely, and now TNA is without a network.
    So what now?
    First and foremost, the TV deal with Spike was almost certainly the only thing keeping the company alive in any sense of the word. Their live shows were an internet meme come to life, featuring minor-league baseball stadiums “filled” with crowds ranging from 100-500 people and thousands of empty seats. The company made WWE-style bloodletting cutbacks of talent in the months leading up to this, letting top talent leave, such as AJ Styles, Sting, and most notably Hulk Hogan.
    Their company direction was transparently clear: Don’t renew any big contracts, use cheap talent on short-term deals, tape months’ worth of shows at a time in smaller venues. Really, though, there was only a few major decisions that led directly to what is certainly the death of the 12-year old company in October.
    The Monday Night Wars 2.0. In 2010, desperate to compete with WWE like Ted Turner had done years before, Eric Bischoff gained control of TNA and talked Spike TV into going head-to-head with Monday Night RAW in a move that can only be termed a complete debacle. Millions of dollars were spent bringing in Hulk Hogan and all his buddies from the glory years of WCW (Ric Flair, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and The Nasty Boys most notably) and ratings were a complete embarrassment.
    They quietly moved back to Thursdays, but with Hogan now signed to a long-term deal the damage had been done and they were paying out large sums of money with no return on their investment. Much of the talent who had been carrying TNA in the previous years, such as AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, were completely shunted out of anything approaching a top position and were never able to regain momentum that they had before. Even worse, Hogan was given creative control over the company and proceeded to muddle with long-term storylines like the James Storm World title victory, while keeping himself in a prominent position on TV despite no longer being able to wrestle or even move TV ratings.
    Vince Russo being given creative control in 2014. This is the biggie, because he had dropped the ball so many times before by rendering the TV show into unwatchable nonsense, filled with backstage segments that led to nothing and ridiculous matches like “reverse battle royales," where the object was to throw people INTO the ring. Don’t even get me started on this stuff.
    The show had been essentially on cruise control through much of 2013 with the seemingly never-ending “Aces & Eights” biker gang storyline that bored most of the audience to death but at least drew ratings. But Russo’s return quickly killed off all semblance of long-term planning and we were back to feuding authority figures, endless talking and people turning from heel to babyface on a weekly basis with no explanation.
    The low point for the company was likely Eric Young, a longtime comedy figure and jobber, winning the TNA World title the week after Wrestlemania 30 in a clear ripoff of the more successful Daniel Bryan storyline in WWE. As noted, this wouldn’t even have been a huge deal on its own, but Spike TV hated Russo so much that they actually called off negotiations when they learned that Dixie Carter had been lying to them about Russo’s employment.
    The contract cutbacks, starting with AJ Styles. In a clear sign that the company had given up trying, they began scaling back their talent pay to per-night contracts where possible and simply cutting guys otherwise. The first major victim of this was AJ Styles, the wrestler who had competed in the first match for TNA in 2002 and had been the face of the company ever since. His firing over money was a clear sign to everyone in the promotion that management no longer had interest in trying to compete, and others soon followed.
    Hogan left for WWE again when his deal expired. Ric Flair soon followed. Sting opted not to sign a new deal, instead testing the waters with WWE despite reportedly getting lowballed with a Legends deal instead of a full wrestling contract. Longtime TNA tag team Bad Influence was cut at the end of their contract and are probably making more money doing independent wrestling shows anyway. Kurt Angle has been making noise about wanting to return to WWE for months now. The message was loud and clear: TNA no longer cared about star power, only saving money and surviving.
    Leaving the Impact Zone in Orlando. Although this one was a case of TNA actually doing what everyone online had been griping at them to do for years, it was a major factor in destroying the company. TNA had been taping their weekly TV show at Universal Studios in Orlando for years, running a couple of weeks' worth of tapings at a time in front of a crowd of tourists who were let in for free. On the bright side, they saved on arena costs by taping the shows for free in exchange for publicity for the theme park. On the negative side, everything else.
    Crowds were beyond stale after a couple of years of this setup, the production looked minor-league, things were booked to please the Impact Zone faithful who reacted only to guys they liked and not to anything that drew money or ratings. So in another thing you can blame on Hulk Hogan, he talked Dixie Carter into ending the deal with Universal Studios, instead branching out for a series of tapings on the road to freshen up the look of the show and convince Spike that they were a major league promotion.
    However, and this is likely where the major financial difficulties started from, a TV taping turned out to cost the company upwards of $650,000 per show. That’s a big jump from “free,” and to say that the Impact TV taping tour was an epic disaster is putting it lightly. Production was non-existent and shows ended up looking like they were taped in a dark bingo hall, with only the UK tour shows seeming like a big deal when they made it to TV.
    Even worse, when the plug was pulled on this experiment after a few months, Universal Studios had rented out the Impact Zone space to another tenant, leaving TNA homeless and with no money. They were able to negotiate a last-minute deal for one set of tapings in Orlando to tide them over for a month in the summer and then what appears to be their final tapings in New York on Spike’s dime. But almost certainly if they had stayed in the Impact Zone in the first place and saved themselves the millions of dollars, much of the money problems that followed wouldn’t have occurred.
    But hey, they’ve got three months left to find a new home for Impact Wrestling, so maybe I’m just being a pessimist as usual. With TNA, though, the worst is usually the news to bet on.
    The news will mostly be bad for the poor fools left employed by them, as WWE almost certainly has everyone they want already under contract. One or both of the Hardy Boyz could still find their way into WWE if they pass the drug tests. At the very least this could freshen up the tag team scene on RAW, with the Hardys, Dudley Boyz and Beer Money all joining as soon as contractually able, but it doesn’t seem likely that WWE is signing new expensive talent at a time when they’re desperately cutting their own talent to make up for WWE Network losses.
    It could be a really dark time upcoming for the business like in 1994 with the business on the verge of collapse, or it could be a really fun time like in 1996 when it rebounded thanks to fresh talent jumping to WCW.
    Either way, interesting times.

  2. #2
    OLYMPIAN PTB's Avatar
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    Jim Cornette spoke on the email fiasco last week on his radio show, I'm sure he is rolling on the floor upon hearing this! Anything involving the demise of Russo and Dixie makes him gleeful.

    Never was a big fan though... I thought it was a place for WWE/WCW players past their prime.

    For Sports Entertainment - WWE all the way
    For Wrestling... Ring Of Honor
    Last edited by PTB; 07-28-2014 at 01:11 PM.

  3. #3
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    About time

  4. #4
    FREAK Triple-H_2005's Avatar
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    No shock here...TNA has never been great, but the last 3-4 years have been unwatchable.

  5. #5
    OLYMPIAN ~gymdiva~'s Avatar
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    they could still get a deal in place since the deal with Spike does not run out until October

    you know, TNA had a great product when the X Division and the women were allowed to flourish-the women were beating WWE in their matches for a time-shame to see another product ruined that had potential as an alternative to the "richer" product


    NXT anyone?

  6. #6
    OLYMPIAN Darkseid's Avatar
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    TNA using very poor copy cat stories from WWE and not differentiating their product from the competitions make them fall off with the fans. I think they are going to survive this TV deal by moving into another TV station in a rush so let see.
    S.M.A.R.T. TRAINING CERTIFIED, SPORT NUTRITIONIST CERTIFIED, System Engineer,CISCO CCNP Data Center, CCNA Data Center, CCNA Routing & Switching, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CCNA Wireless, CCDA and CCENT Certified. COMPTIA A+ and NETWORK+ Certified.

  7. #7
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    Dixie Carter needs to remove herself from story lines. It was a bore seeing her getting into ridiculous conflicts with wrestlers.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by hifrommike65 View Post
    Dixie Carter needs to remove herself from story lines. It was a bore seeing her getting into ridiculous conflicts with wrestlers.
    I second this ... IMO , no women should step foot in the ring unless it's commercial break ..

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  10. #10
    OLYMPIAN KTTraining's Avatar
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    It's too bad that a lot of wrestling fans seem to want to see TNA fail . For the good of the business itself , I hope they can figure a way to keep a tv deal .

  11. #11
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    Botchamania clap clap clap clap clap clap!

    SO...does this mean Ring Of Honor is number 2 now LOL

  12. #12
    FREAK Triple-H_2005's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KTTraining View Post
    It's too bad that a lot of wrestling fans seem to want to see TNA fail . For the good of the business itself , I hope they can figure a way to keep a tv deal .
    I don't think anyone WANTS them to fail (except maybe Cornette!), but if they're serious about being #2, they have to be unique. Until recently, there's been about 70% BADLY acted backstage vignettes to 20% wrestling to 10% misc. They need to be a WRESTLING company...they have the talent.

  13. #13
    FREAK Triple-H_2005's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnnyStyles View Post
    Botchamania clap clap clap clap clap clap!

    SO...does this mean Ring Of Honor is number 2 now LOL
    The minute that Dixie Carted let the first Jeff Hardy "Willow" promo air, ROH flew past TNA!

  14. #14
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    I am not a TNA fan, never have been and well never will be anymore

    I am however a Professional Wrestling fan and this is VERY disappointing. The problem with it is, there is no competition with the WWE, WWE has the market on lockdown. TNA never got started because they kept using Old WWE angles, Old WWE wrestlers, OLD PAST THEIR PRIME writers (Vince Russo) and had that STUPID 6 sided ring.

    Its sad all around because all those guys in TNA are done for if and when TNA closes up shop. The WWE has made it KNOWN that they are no longer signing guys to their developmental over the age of 32 (which is a MAJORITY of TNAs roster). Sure they can goto ROH, JCW, Tommy Dreams House of Hardcore...but being on National TV is done.

    It's sad because the Carter's had a great thing going...and then killed it.

    Read a report today that in the past 3 years....TNA lost $45 MILLION dollars...WTF

  15. #15
    OLYMPIAN Darkseid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnnyStyles View Post
    Botchamania clap clap clap clap clap clap!

    SO...does this mean Ring Of Honor is number 2 now LOL
    ROH is not an option, their TV value is very poor and I'm talking about lighting so after watching for a couple of minutes I get bored. The Talent and matches are good.
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