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

[KingOfMetal]

Can anyone else see WWE buying ROH and TNA like they did with WCW and ECW in 2001.

 

 

If they bought ROH footage just think of the dvds they could produce with the footage.

 

 

Another Punk dvd

Daniel Bryan

Antonio Cesaro

Seth Rollins

 

etc

 

I see what your saying, but come on.

And to be honest, I can't see them buying the whole tape library just for a handful of guys, and they would only put one (two at a push) matches from ROH on said-superstars DVD, otherwise it would come across as they had a ton of great matches that were not WWE matches.

Take Punk for example, I'm sure he'll get another DVD/Blu Ray some time in the future and if they were to acquire the ROH library you could have matches from the feuds with Raven, Samoa Joe, Generation Next, Jimmy Rave, Colt Cabana plus matches from his World title run. But WWE simply wouldn't pick that many to showcase, so it wouldn't be worth buying the library outright. they'd be better just paying Sinclair Broadcasting Group (or whoever owns the relevant bit of the library) a one off fee for the matches they specifically want.

 

Also, WWE didn't buy the assets of ECW until 2003 but they did pay to use the logos et al from 2001-2003 to whoever owned the assets at the time (I think the end of the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD says New York Post, but i could be wrong)

Edited July 4, 2013 by KingOfMetal

[Loki]

I don't think TNA's going to fold, but if it DID or if Panda decided to get out of the game, it'd be interesting to see what happens.

 

There was a point where TNA was financially self-sufficient, even profitable, and pulling in decent ratings on Spike. If only from Spike's POV, they like having a decent wrestling show on their network, so I could see them buying TNA outright from the Carters and running it themselves.

 

Other options I guess would be Bischoff buying TNA, changing the name and doing his own thing. He came close with WCW, I'd imagine there's still some ambition there.

 

If WWE were to buy it, it'd be for the tape library - plenty of grist for the mill that will be the WWE network. Plus if they did pick up a few of their stars, running the footage on the network would help establish them.

 

It's more likely though that all this action is an attempt to correct TNA financially so they can continue on the road. One thing Dixie's always been good at is the money side of things.

[King Pitcos]

If WWE were to buy it, it'd be for the tape library - plenty of grist for the mill that will be the WWE network. Plus if they did pick up a few of their stars, running the footage on the network would help establish them.

The only stars TNA has are ones that WWE already owns many hours of footage of from their WWE or WCW days. Showing some clips of shitty TNA on the WWE network (that's probably never going to get off the ground anyway) wouldn't do much for a Bobby Roode or James Storm making their debut on Raw. Sure, showing them doing their specials on someone like Jeff Hardy or Sting might not hurt, but then it's a question of cost. If they're getting TNA's footage for a couple of grand, it'd be worthwhile. If it's any more than that, probably not. All the TNA and ROH highlights in the world wouldn't do for Samoa Joe what The Shield's debut did for them, and all that cost was three busfares to Big Bossman's house to pick up his old tops. As said, if they ever need the odd ROH match for DVDs of Punk and Bryan, or eventually maybe Rollins, and even Cesaro if he ever gets not-shit, it'd likely be more cost-efficient to just license the one or two matches for the DVD. The only reason it'd be worth buying TNA's or ROH's video library is if it was cheap as chips and the network needed hours filling.

[Sexy Dad]

I'm a bit miffed about Joey Ryan getting the sack. He was getting airtime throughout last year when he wasn't on the roster and was 'invading' the impact zone, Taz and he were having arguments over online radio shows and he eventually got a match at Bound for Glory....all to be fired eight months later. He had a solid bit of character that could have been put to good use in some lower card feuds, but then again with the BFG series, similar X division triple threats and Aces and Eights segments happening each week there wasn't too much room for him.

 

Gutcheck should be knocked on the head now too. It's difficult to get excited about the contestants being sent to developmental anyway, let alone hearing that every fucker involved (except Jay Bradley) has been given their marching orders.

 

Looking at this though, it doesn't like they're on the verge of closing down or anything. If Mr Anderson's contract is left to run out and Hogan goes back to sporadic appearances for a bit then it'll look like they're taking a bit more action to cut costs.

Edited July 4, 2013 by thesimonbegz

[Magnum]

I'd hope it's not going to come down to WWE buying TNA - I really can't stand WWE these days and TNA is about the only thing that keeps me even nominally interested in modern wrestling.

[pgi86]

Looking at this though, it doesn't like they're on the verge of closing down or anything. If Mr Anderson's contract is left to run out and Hogan goes back to sporadic appearances for a bit then it'll look like they're taking a bit more action to cut costs.

Indeed. These releases seem like a case of them releasing a bunch of people who they're not using (but are contractually obligated to pay a downside guarantee to). Which makes a lot of sense. If they start cutting out some of the higher paid talent on the roster then I would be a lot more worried about their financial state. Apparently they have enough cash to keep Taz around instead of replacing him with the much cheaper Keneley so they're not out of cash just yet. And besides, I've learned a long time ago not to buy into "TNA will be dead in x amount of weeks" speculation. This type of speculation pops up almost on an annual basis and nothing ever comes out of it. If it ever happens that's fine, but until it actually happens I don't buy this doom & gloom "TNA is closing doors soon~!" talk.

[TheShowOff]

Taz resigned with TNA: https://twitter.com/officialtaz/status/352525499530088450

[ColinBollocks]

Like others have said, TNA will be in business as long as Spike want them. Frankly, these cuts should have been made months ago, if they had a solid plan for taking Impact on the road, but as we're all aware TNA is generally run on arbitrary decisions. It's good that they're finally getting their arse in gear and making changes. Although the renewing of the Taz contract is odd, I wonder if it's to keep Spike happy and show they still mean business.

 

Other options I guess would be Bischoff buying TNA, changing the name and doing his own thing. He came close with WCW, I'd imagine there's still some ambition there.

Interestingly enough, there was a lot of rumours last year that Bischoff/Hogan were having talks with Spike about fucking off TNA and starting a new promotion. There is a lot of money to be made with a decent sized wrestling company that can successfully shill to it's audience, it's why Heyman wanted his cut if he was brought in.

[Sphinx]

What's the backstory behind Jay Bradley? When I saw him he looked like he had potential.

[quote the raven]

S massive cuts in talent? Behind on pay?

 

This isnt looking good at all.

[Sexy Dad]

When TNA first went on the road, weren't there reports saying how venues were paying them roughly $25,000 to bring the show to them which was effectively capping potentially bigger profits on the ticket sales but meant that they weren't going to be going into the red whilst on the road. Obviously by the time you have paid for flights, hotel for the big guys and transporting the ring etc around they would have likely only been breaking even.

 

Are the large arenas an issue? Or is it predominantly the expense of being live the real issue?

[ColinBollocks]

Large arenas they don't fill are a problem, but the bigger issue is production costs. Doing a quality wrestling show on the road costs a fortune. WWE were even considering doing taped Raws to save some a fortune. If TNA were filling these arenas they'd be fine, but they're clearly not.

 

Does anybody know how many people have to attend for them to break even on these Impact shows?

Edited July 4, 2013 by Blackson Jackson

[TheShowOff]

Crimson is gone as well apparently.

[KingOfMetal]

Large arenas they don't fill are a problem, but the bigger issue is production costs. Doing a quality wrestling show on the road costs a fortune. WWE were even considering doing taped Raws to save some a fortune. If TNA were filling these arenas they'd be fine, but they're clearly not.

 

Does anybody know how many people have to attend for them to break even on these Impact shows?

 

I'm not sure of the exact amount, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that a weekly episode of Raw costs around $200,000 to run, including everything involved such as building hire, production costs, pyrotechnics etc.

 

theres no way that TNA are running shows and profiting/breaking even if the arena are paying them $25,000. Weren't Spike covering some of the costs when Impact went on the road the first time?

[UK Kat Von D]

Crimson is gone as well apparently.

 

Woah slow down on the breaking news updates, its hard to keep up