It would appear TNA has been given a death sentence as Spike-TV has decided to no renew their television contract with the wrestling company. This news started breaking around midnight on Sunday. TMZ came out with a report as TMZ Sports is developing a reputation for breaking news as they do in entertainment circles for wrestling.
The news that Vince Russo was connected with the company that came out last week might have been a final straw for Spike-TV to pull the plug. Russo is given a bulk of the blame for the death of WCW. Now another wrestling companies death will be placed on his hands by many. Still to say it was one thing as to why this happened would be foolish.
This was a company that while some say had finally bottomed out and was building itself back up in reality was still badly damaged they only drew 67 people to a baseball stadium somewhere in Kentucky. They struggled to sell seats for their NYC tapings that were held in the same location that Raw was taped back in the 90’s. Which is a smaller venue than where ROH runs in the same building at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
TNA short of a miracle will die come October if not sooner. First real sign will be if they follow through with their second set of tapings planned for beginning of August in same venue. If they do that will get their tapings done to their drop dead date on Spike-TV I believe. After that it is searching for a miracle.
When you consider the WWE did not find much interest to leverage against USA/NBC Universal was next to nothing. If WWE can’t get on Fox Sports 1 or 2 safe to say TNA has no chance. The idea has been floated that Jeff Jarrett and his Global Force Wrestling could jump in TNA’s spot has been speculated on. Jarrett apparently signed a deal when he left TNA that would complicate that process this is assuming Spike even has any interest. I would suggest they don’t and plan to use Glory Kick-Boxing to replace TNA to some extent as the programming to partner with MMA Promotion that Viacom/Spike TV owns in Bellator, Not a weekly show obviously but something much closer to MMA. To put in perspective Glory it is rumoured did not even out draw Ring of Honor recently on PPV. So they are not a bigger draw than TNA but far less tainted. In fact something that hardcore fight fans think can grow.
Speaking of ROH what this means for them is obvious a shot at bringing in some more talent to an already talented roster. Being owned by Sinclair a television company it is not going to change their broadcasting all that much. It might encourage them to do more PPV depending on how they did on their first time out.
As for the WWE there is some debate on Twitter if WWE would go after any of the TNA talent. I claim they will not given recent cost cutting moves and having passed on A.J Styles and pretty much any top TNA talent that has left that has not had a prior history with the WWE. WWE has made roster cuts and been in cost cutting mode so it would be somewhat hypocritical to all of the sudden be adding talent. Even past talent like Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy and Bubba Ray Dudley I honestly don’t see them being interested in.
Obviously a lot of this info is just coming out the fallout of all of this will go on perhaps for months depending on how TNA tries to handle this. In any case as much as I have had zero love for this company especially in the last year or so. I still am sad to see people in wrestling business with one less place to try and earn a living. From the wrestlers to all the people behind the scenes that we do not see.
I am happy for Ring of Honor though as they have a real chance to be the number two company in North America and continue to grow. Will see what all this means for them when all the smoke clears.
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