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45 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

I guess I missed something with Jericho and WWE. He did the deal with Owens and left after Mania, is that right?

He stuck around for about a month after Mania - he was written off TV the Smackdown after Payback, due to a beating from Owens, to go on a Fozzy tour.

He then did an unnanounced one-off return on a Smackdown in July, doing a 3-way with Owens & AJ Styles which was the match in which AJ won the US Title back from Owens. That's his final WWE appearance to date.

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I really don't see why Jericho or anyone of note or value would bother getting involved with Impact these days. Up to a couple of years ago, sure. But now- what's the point? They are sadly nothing more than a glorified indy show with a little TV deal. They were *the* place to be if you were a former WWE/ECW/WCW guy without a contract at Stamford or if you were an exciting indy talent that WWE didn't see anything in. Their in-ring product was much more exciting than WWE's for many years.

Now it no longer has that appeal. WWE hoovers up the best indy talent and the ones they don't bother with (along with former WWE guys) wrestle for a combination of ROH, New Japan and the top indy (inc British) promotions instead. Their appeal of having the best in-ring talent is now covered by everyone else- those already mentioned plus WWE and NXT.

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Any chance he could be buying major shares ? I mean it’s highly unlikely but he has the money. Completely rebrand it the Jericho Wrestling Federation or whatever and go from there ? 

I mean yeah that sounds dumb but no dumber than getting involved with the TNA brand, right ?

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Maybe it's something to do with the cruise. More likely than him actually going there.

 

At this point what are the chances of any promotion getting a good TV deal? Let alone Impact. Genuine question, would it take someone with megabucks hiring loads  of ex WWE guys? TNA had it so good with spike. What a mess it is now

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I do think this is probably TNA's best new admin setup this year (there's been about 9 of them). Callis, Nordholm and D'Amore seem to make sense a trio, and Don Callis and Scott D'Amore know the scene, they know how to put people in buildings, so you have way more chance with them in charge than Jarrett trying to run buildings in the US. Thing is, though, you need money. And unless someone comes on board with money to spend I cant see it going past a level what they are at. Wish them luck, though, because I do like Don Callis.

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Jericho's involvement with Impact holds a lot more intrigue for me than anything he might do in ROH or Japan. I've never followed those territories but I used to watch TNA and still keep half an eye on it via this thread. So when I hear he might turn up in the Impact Zone, I've a personal frame of reference and it means something to me, along with others in the same boat. It's what's got us all talking about him now, which has always been his MO whenever he's been out of the spotlight for a while.

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14 hours ago, HeavyT said:

At this point what are the chances of any promotion getting a good TV deal? Let alone Impact. Genuine question, would it take someone with megabucks hiring loads  of ex WWE guys? TNA had it so good with spike. What a mess it is now

I think we're past the point of ex WWE guys particularly being a draw. If TNA couldn't figure out how to capitalise on Jeff Hardy (when, the last time he'd been on TV, he'd been WWE Champion), Kurt Angle in his first ever non-WWE appearances, Hulk Hogan, or just about anybody else they ever signed, and turn that into an appreciable rise in viewing figures or attendance, then I doubt anyone can.

If any non-promotion is ever likely to get a decent TV deal, it's going to have to be one that breaks the mould. No one's going to seriously invest in WWE-Lite any more, and TNA's problem is that they have never grown out of being WWE-Lite, or just being reactionary to whatever WWE is doing.

I'm a firm believer that wrestling's boom periods are as much about changes in presentation, production or distribution as they are about the actual talent involved. Whether that's Vince Sr. being the first promoter to really embrace television, the WWF and pay-per-view, World Class and Memphis utilising fast-paced music video style editing and highlight packages, WCW running Nitro live, ECW embracing a grungier lower budget aesthetic and turning that into a positive, so on and so on, all the way up to the WWE Network, success always comes from making wrestling look new and exciting.
Wrestling has been on TV, consistently, since the 1950s. RAW has been on for 25 years, and not appreciably changed its format or presentation in 10-15 years - so, no matter who the talent are, or what's happening on any given episode, every time you tune in you can't shake this feeling of "same old shit". Someone else doing WWE, but not doing it as well, is going to elicit the same response while also feeling like a cheap knock-off.

Someone needs to package wrestling differently to get people's attention before we see another promotion get a major TV deal - I'd think something along the lines of Lucha Underground, but not so niche a product, and on a major streaming service like Netflix, but would be more likely than a company like TNA getting a big prime time deal. With streaming becoming bigger and bigger, traditional TV's not necessarily the biggest measure of success any more - the downside right now is that lots of promotions have their own streaming or OnDemand service, which is fine for their fans, but isn't growing the audience; the next wrestling promotion to make it big will be one that gets a significant deal with a non-wrestling service like Netflix.

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I imagine once Netflix get into the live streaming game (with Amazon going for live streaming rights for sports, and with the loss of the Disney library starting to impact things over the next year, I imagine it'll be sooner rather than later), wrestling might be quite an interesting concept for them to embrace. Be it a Lucha Underground (I know they already ave it in the US), ROH, or maybe even the revived NWA under Billy Corgan, I imagine that might be a game changer for the industry as a whole. I appreciate the WWE network already exists, but Netflix's subscriber base vs WWE is night and day, so I could definitely envision Netflix wanting a piece of that pie if there is a niche. 

 

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Can someone who knows just clarify for me, Callis on Killing the Town called TNA the 2nd biggest promotion in the US, surely for the love of god that can't be right can it? When was the last time they got 1 person to pay for a ticket to watch them, aside from BFG? In fact on the contrary, they pay poor fuckers. How much money do they make from shop TNA, from merch? Basically what I want to know is how much money do TNA make/lose in a year, 2016 for example?

Now I look at ROH, who legit sell out buildings they run, attendances are good, Final Battle has already sold out. They must kill it at the merch stand cos all the indy shirts are cool n that. They have a TV Deal and are on this Fite app, how many people watch there show?

Then I look at a company like PWG, who have no TV Deal but the tickets for live shows are like rocking horse shit, sell out in like 3 minutes and go for decent dollar, they then sell DVD's I'm guessing by the bucket load and again, must do well with merch etc.

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Yeah, I can't see any metric that would class TNA as the second biggest promotion, though they still carry that perception for a lot of people, and perception's half the battle.

Worldwide, you're looking at WWE, NJPW and CMLL as the top three - I doubt TNA even factor into that equation whatsoever. I'd hazard a guess that ROH are doing better financially, and attendance-wise, than TNA in the US. TNA might win out on TV revenue, but I can't imagine there's much in it.

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54 minutes ago, mim731 said:

I imagine once Netflix get into the live streaming game (with Amazon going for live streaming rights for sports, and with the loss of the Disney library starting to impact things over the next year, I imagine it'll be sooner rather than later), wrestling might be quite an interesting concept for them to embrace. Be it a Lucha Underground (I know they already ave it in the US), ROH, or maybe even the revived NWA under Billy Corgan, I imagine that might be a game changer for the industry as a whole. I appreciate the WWE network already exists, but Netflix's subscriber base vs WWE is night and day, so I could definitely envision Netflix wanting a piece of that pie if there is a niche. 

 

I don't see it personally- when you mention it being live streamed anyway. Indy promotions will need to be so much more on point to be in a position to broadcast their shows live- with Lucha Underground there seems to be an insane amount of editing so running live shows is a non-starter for them you'd imagine. ROH still doesn't look decent TV ready and possibly never will. Plus, LU tape an entire series over a couple of days, which keeps costs much lower, so running regularly is also a no-go.

Lucha is on US netflix now, isn't it? Any idea how well it's doing? That's clearly the first one to come to mind that could potentially do we as a non-WWE lite product. The only others I can think of are the likes of Progress- very much an alternative to WWE that can reach a niche audience.

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Yeah, I don't think live is the way forward for a streaming service wrestling show - too expensive, and likely lesser quality, and not so much in line with how most people seem to use the likes of Netflix; they want to binge watch.

I don't think airing live is the be-all and end-all of wrestling any more, and if a company can get a well promoted Netflix deal, and a production style/image that makes them stand out from the crowd enough to attract non-fans, even spoilers might not be that much of a factor. Lucha Underground is the sort of model I'd look for, but less adult and violent, to appeal to a broader audience. A show produced as a TV show first and a wrestling show second, rather than just pointing a camera on a wrestling ring for two hours.

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Oh I'm not suggesting it's the best/only way to go, but with Amazon/Facebook/others entering the arms race of live streaming events, I wouldn't be wholly surprised to see Netflix consider it as an avenue if LU does decent numbers. More as OTT content or to augment taped shows on their platform. 

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Yeah, there could definitely be a spot for live wrestling if the interest is there - similarly to the early days of TV, when wrestling got on TV purely through how cheap it was to produce; point a single camera at an event that's already happening, no need to hire a studio or much of a crew. It would be cheap, easy content - but it would never trouble WWE, and that's what I was pitching at with the model I was talking about.

If that did start to happen, I'd be more curious about how things would pan out in terms of wrestlers' contracts and royalties. One of the most interesting things happening in wrestling at the moment is WWE losing that particular stranglehold, as more avenues are becoming available to allow wrestlers to earn a full-time living (or close to it) without working for WWE, while WWE stars are likely seeing a significant drop in earnings from royalties since the Network launched.

Edited by BomberPat
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