Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I loved it when they all complimented Jay Lethal and said he was the funniest guy in the locker room and the future of the business ... and then sacked him.

 

I'm still stunned by the Jay Lethal firing. Not that I care for him or even rate him. But he got over and beat Ric Flair. They invested so much into him and then sacked. Confused the shit out of me that one. Seriously, everyone from Hogan and Bischoff to Flair and Nash to Joe and Bobby Roode loved him. Thought he was the greatest bloke on the planet (which apparently he is a super nice guy). Strange how they just sacked him. I think that was during the period where mad Janice got her sword out and started chopping heads off as well.

Edited July 22, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[pgi86]

I loved it when they all complimented Jay Lethal and said he was the funniest guy in the locker room and the future of the business ... and then sacked him.

That was mostly Hogan and Bischoff who liked him though and those two very rarely, if ever, get involved in the firing/hiring decisions. Being hired by Dixie herself, however, that presumably gives you more job security than if you can make Hogan and Bischoff laugh.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

According to ProWrestling.net, Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, TNA CFO Dean Broadhead and EVP Andy Barton were all backstage at last week's Impact Wrestling, and spoke to the entire TNA locker room about possibly continuing with budget cuts, warning everyone that they were still being evaluated.

Jesus! How bad is that? Telling the entire locker room "it could be you next lads" must be a moral killer? My God, this promotion must be on its arse.

 

Also, Jeff Jarrett is back! Is it really that bad that they need the help of someone Dixie Carter hates?

Edited July 22, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Loki]

I wonder what will emerge from all this? It does seem like a major restructuring is underway.

 

The one thing TNA have as a major asset is their Impact tv slot; everything else is window dressing. If they dumped house shows, PPVs, tons of contracts and just went back to filming tv (perhaps in another permanent location), as long as they produced consistent ratings for Spike you think they could carry on indefinitely.

 

Realistically, how many major full-time contracted wrestlers do you need to do 2 hours a week? Not that many.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Depends who wants to stay around working for a company under restructured deals. Its not just about TNA surviving. Its about keeping their roster and sending out the message they are an appealing company to work for. If everyone is getting re-evaluated, the bigger names just aren't going to be committed to work there. If they tell Bobby Roode, "we're going to put you on a 3 month rolling deal and drop your pay, and hopefully you'll still have a job by December" that might not work for him. He's got a family, he cant be living by the pay cheque. We seen with Alex Shelley, if the deal isn't fair, TNA wont budge and the wrestler wont be able to live on it. WWE will take a lot of the TNA roster, and New Japan might take some of them as well. Whether they will do something with them is another story, but Roode, Storm, Magnus and those types would definitely end up in WWE. Hardy will obviously go back in a flash. Angle's got enough money and may or may not be able to convince someone to employ him. Sting of course will have a job there. Gunner is still young. I'm surprised they didn't pick him up at some stage. Aries taking the same route as Alex Shelley if things get really bad. He's never been scared to walk out on a promotion. Hogan I can see leaving anyway. If the ship is sinking, Hogan's not going to be there when it hits the bottom. Then you have the likes of Anderson who shouldnt have a job anyway. WWE is a different promotion these days. Especially with Road Dogg and Billy Gunn there who know all this lot. I could see a few being picked up if TNA aren't in a position to pay them. And by the sounds of it, a few are looking at WWE as an option.

 

Having a tiny roster sounds good if you are NWA Hollywood. But you need a large roster if you are on TV. Its been stale for about 18 months now. Losing the likes of Roode and Sting would make it far worse. Especially if they have to move into a barn in Nashville to tape TV. You have to have different names and characters coming in to lift the workers you currently have and to keep the pace of the shows ticking.

Edited July 23, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[Ant]

I wonder if this will be second time lucky for Easy E to pick up a timeslot and wrestling promotion for a song? Or perhaps it will go back to Double J as champ beating all comers (recently released WWE stars) as Hogan, Sting, Angle, Hardy etc ride into the sunset (Stamford).

[ColinBollocks]

WWE is a different beast, in terms of how they do contracts. The company are now offering more top talent those limited dates deals, so I'm sure that will appeal to the likes of Angle/Hogan/Sting/Hardy. That was always the appeal of TNA for those types; limited dates for a good packet and without all the arse ache that comes with WWE. Now WWE have changed the business model a bit, surely they'll be snapping up anybody worth the investment.

 

I remember Meltzer saying that Triple H likes the idea of a rotating roster of names, like the territory days, which serves to keep the show fresh as well as slowly get the full-timers more exposure / popularity. Imagine a rotating roster with Lesnar/Triple H/Hogan/Sting/Hardy/Angle/Jericho/RVD/Taker etc. coming in for a few months or shows to freshen things up. Used correctly, that creates so many possible matches.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

TNA really needs to establish where they are going to be in the next few months. Its unfair to let the money run out and leave their roster in the shit. Selling it might be the best thing for the business as a hole. The Carters have took it as far as its getting. A reset might be what they need. Say Spike buys it, like they did Bellator, they could change the name, change the name of the show and bring in a President who isn't loyal to all these people we always see in TNA. They could get rid of Bob Ryder and Mike Tenay and that knob who does the music and Al Snow and that shit producer who only knows how to make TNA look like a smaller version of WWE. All these people who would rather see them promotion stay at the level its at rather than sack their mate could be gone. Bring in someone with imagination who hasn't got a inferiority complex because they used to work for the big leagues. TNA's most important asset is their TV deal. Thats more important than anyone that works there. I'd like to see them sell up, take the show off for a month or two and return acting as if its a brand new promotion. That might create a bit of buzz among the wrestling fanbase. Instead of "here's TNA revamping again". And with Spike owning it, Viacom and Spike would be forced into spending a load of money on it because it would be their company and their priority. The cash flow stopped for TNA ages ago when Spike realised it was pointless, so there isn't much significant backing right now from them.

 

TNA's never going back on the road after this. Its crippled them once, they aren't doing that again. If house show business was going to get better than a few hundred per arena each month, they'd have done it by now. They'll never get another video game deal because the last one bombed so heavily. And nobody will ever buy their PPVs in vast numbers because people have been burned so many times. Spike should buy it, sack every fucker and bring in a whole new team. Base them out in a different part of the US. Away from Nashville. You could have a brand new promotion by just picking up the scraps TNA left. And nobody wants to work for TNA right now. If it was owned by a network who was determined to make it work, away from the Carters, Bischoff, Prichard, Russo and everyone else nobody trusts, you might see a Prince Devitt or a John Morrison throwing his hat in there and seeing if they could make a go of them.

 

Or WWE could buy it and release that Braden Walker DVD finally.

Edited July 23, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[HeavyT]

I actually think scrapping TNA and starting from scratch could do wonders. The TNA brand just can't get any bigger Stateside it seems, but a new promotion consisting of their top guys and some fresh faces definitely could have a chance.

[300]

If Viacom were interested in buying it wouldn't they have done it already? I think you're dreaming.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

If Viacom were interested in buying it wouldn't they have done it already? I think you're dreaming.

Why would they have bought it previously? That makes no sense. They'd buy TNA if it was on its arse and wasn't anything more than a name. Why would they spend all that money to pick up a promotion that thay have signed to a deal to air programming? They'd buy it to keep alive one of the biggest ratings geters on the channel. They aren't going to buy it when it was rolling along and the Carters didn't want to sell.

Edited July 23, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[King Pitcos]

Going back to square one probably wouldn't do any good. For starters, who'd be in charge? There's only one person who has shown he knows how to run a major wrestling federation properly, and he's busy arguing with Triple H about Vickie Guerrero. After that, the names with the most experience in running wrestling -- Dixie, Bischoff, Heyman, Cornette, Russo, Jarrett etc -- are either clueless divs, or are working with WWE or have the stink of shitty TNA on them anyway.

 

They'd be back to the drawing board in terms of roster, licensing deals, branding, touring and the lot. They're not going to find bigger names than Hogan, Hardy, Angle and Sting. If they've got those four, it's just TNA anyway. If they haven't got them, it's a less attractive prospect for TV and merchandising than TNA is.

 

Has there ever been any evidence that TNA has ever turned a profit? I remember Dixie saying it a few years ago, but she still says it.

Edited July 23, 2013 by King Pitcos

[Loki]

It's a private company, Pitcos, so outside of what she says in interviews, no. I suspect it was profitable from about 2006 up to when they brought Hogan and Bischoff. That was the start of her huge money gamble.

 

Personally I think Heyman or Bischoff could probably run a decent wrestling company nowadays - both have much better contacts and more experience than when they last did it. If the two of them could actually work together, they'd probably do a pretty decent job!

[IANdrewDiceClay]

They'd be back to the drawing board in terms of roster, licensing deals, branding, touring and the lot.

If they are losing 7 figures a month and have ruined all their revenue streams, what's the point of continuing how they are going? Back to square one seems a million miles away right now. It goes back to what I was saying before. What is TNA? When they first started it was the search for the lapsed WCW fan. So they were setting their stall out positioning themselves as the distant second the minute they started up. The shit production federation with the wrestlers WWE dont want anymore. If they were to start up after a break in the same time slot and got off the ground running with new announcers, a new set up and everything else all shiny and new, you probably will be doing the same rating they've always done, but at least you might convince this audience that the new regime is worth putting money into. TNA draws at least 1.2 million a week. For them to only have 6000 people buying their pay-per-views is a shocking statistic. It scream that there is something fundamentally wrong with who is running it. And its called "TNA"? Who wants to let their kid pay their pocket money on that?

 

And I'm not saying get rid of everyone. I was more talking about the office and all these twats like Al Snow and Simon Diamond who are there only because they cant find work elsewhere, and they halt the progress of the promotion because they know for the company to go to the next level the likes of them should be gone. I'd keep Borash around. Roode, Storm, Styles, Aries and Magnus I'd keep. Someone like Hardy is worth keeping if you want to keep one star name around who is still young enough to be valuable. Then you'd have the likes of John Morrison, Alex Shelley, Prince Devitt and those lads. Get more aggressive in snapping up people who will become stars on Raw very soon. All those people you see on Raw, TNA could have had when WWE were going in a different direction. Look at Raw every week. You have an audience watching these long 20 minutes belters and nobody is tuning out. The market is there for good wrestlers going all out. TNA had that formula down in 2006, when they had Styles, Joe and Angle tearing it up. The very month after they drew their biggest ever buyrate with Joe and Angle, they followed up with Sting vs Abyss in a coffin of doom or something. I'm not saying TNA or a new promotion would be challenging WWE anytime soon or ever. But getting over 6000 buys and 400 people for a house show isn't to much to ask is it?

 

As far as who could run it, it all depends on who thinks they have a vision to get this thing going. I wouldn't know who would step up, but I bet someone would fancy it. The reason Bischoff was initially successful is because he surrounded himself with smart ideas men and he was good enough to sell them to his higher ups. Spike runs their ship the same way. If they owned TNA and handed control over to someone they hired, they leave him alone and let him do his business to get the thing running. Its never like that in TNA. Hogan and Bischoff came in and were told they had to work with Vince Russo. That killed that idea as soon as they walked through the door.

 

As far as it making money, it was profitable in 2009 when they got a large advance from Midway. Then they used that money on signing Hardy, RVD, Hogan, Bischoff, Anderson and a load of others and Janice Carter had to come in a starting cutting heads off.

Edited July 23, 2013 by IANdrewDiceClay

[pgi86]

Jesse Sorensen, who had been working backstage these past few months, has been cut.