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TNA for Sale


EN090

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I'm slow to the party here but here are a few thoughts.

 

Does anyone expect anything other than

a) someone buys it & it's just another money mark replacing the old money mark & the same people or new people continue to run the promotion in obscurity

b ) WWE buys it just to continue to control the universe

c) it simply just goes out of business

 

While I tend to agree with the person a few pages back who said it wouldn't be a bad idea to rebrand it & change as much as possible to distance it from TNA, then I have to ask what the point of buying it would be?  Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy the timeslot from Spike and just open up a separate/new group?  Why buy the company for anything other than the TV slots if you are going to change it to the point of not acknowleging history?

 

I don't know, and I largely don't care since I don't really have time to follow current wrestling but I do know that TNA going down & not having a distant #2 where people can theoretically make money in the business will be very bad & just another nail in the coffin of an extremely slow dying business.

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Does it shock anyone that its possible that TNA screwed up there sale just like everything else the've done?

 

Eh, it's not like they were going to be able to stop something like this getting out.

 

Especially if a potential buyer (Bischoff) intentionally leaked it out to drive down the price.

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Let's say WWE buys it (I seriously doubt this will happen) or they just closeup shop and all their talent is on the open market

 

- Sting goes to WWE for sure.  Heck, he might be headed there anyway

 

- I don't know what Hogan is doing right now, but he's no doubt going back to WWE at some point

 

- Hardy they would absolutely hire

 

- Angle.....I kind of doubt it.  That he sent feelers out to them when his last contract was up and they had no interest was pretty telling.  The guy is a trainwreck, who they ran out of their company in unprecedented fashion.  The fact that TNA has employed him all these years, through multiple arrests and public incidents, obvious drug and HGH/steroid use, and just general insanity, says everything about their company.  Maybe at some point if Kurt chills out they'd put him in the HOF, but then again, I don't expect Kurt to chill out anytime soon.

 

- I think they would bring in Samoa Joe for a few reasons.  A) he's good, and they can always use good performers.  B  )He's one of the few guys that actually drew money in TNA, and I'm sure WWE is aware of that, and C) he's got some friends in high places there

 

- Storm and AJ might be shit out of luck.  Too old to put too the system, and too "TNA" to push on the roster, is what they'd probably think.  If they were desperate I could see them bringing in AJ and giving him a push, but I don't think they're desperate right now (other than when it comes to John Cena)

 

- I've read and heard for years that Bubba will never be welcome back in their lockerroom, and I tend to believe that.  Again, if they were desperate maybe, but I don't see it.  He's 42, and a prick.  He can ride out the rest of his career making good money in the indies/foreign circuits.

 

- Ken Anderson?  No f'n way.  He pissed off all the right people

 

- Magnus?  Probably.  He's young and he's got the right look, and he doesn't seem to have the TNA stink yet because they haven't majorily screwed up his pushes yet, though that may be happening as we speak

 

- As for the rest of the roster, I feel like WWE would poach some names you wouldn't expect.  Wes Brisco probably gets another shot due to family connections.  They'd probably bring in several of the women.  Taryn would deserve to be signed but probably wouldn't.  Gail would have a job if she wanted it.  Maybe Tapa, though she's kind of redundant since Snuka has the same gimmick.  I could see Eric Young because they like versatile comedic performers like him and he's kinda mainstream with his tv show.  Guys like Ion, Spud and Robbie E might get a look, but would for sure be sent to Florida.

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Does it shock anyone that its possible that TNA screwed up there sale just like everything else the've done?

 

Eh, it's not like they were going to be able to stop something like this getting out.

 

Especially if a potential buyer (Bischoff) intentionally leaked it out to drive down the price.

 

Thats my point they go in wanting to keep it on the down low so the price stays high but dont take into account the Bischoff and even possibly Jerrett would be more then happy to leak. Its not like its hard to look up either guys history.

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Wouldn't Gail Kim practically be guaranteed a job in hopes of landing Robert Irvine on the Divas reality show? She didn't seem to like it in the WWE, though, so she may say "screw it" and stay home.

 

Regarding EY, if the WWE were looking for more comedy performers, they would've re-hired Colt Cabana. 

 

The national and foreign TV clearances has gotta be the big thing. I'd change the TNA name in a heartbeat and try to start over as fresh as possible.

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There are serious sale talks going on behind the scenes. After we reported it over the weekend, a lot of places ran with borderline ridiculous stories. What I can say at this point is that there is a potential buyer that has been looking at the company. Reps for the potential new ownership group have been at the offices. Talk of a potential sale has been going on for months, but has reached a serious enough point where things are at a significant stage. It is not entirely clear who will end up in power and run the company if and when the deal being negotiated goes through, and what percentage of the company, or if the entire company, is what is being negotiated. One source with significant knowledge of what is going down said the new group is unlikely to get involved without owning a controlling interest. Also, regarding speculation in various media of names involved, all of the speculation is way off, that much I know. It doesn't appear Viacom has any interest in buying the company (even though TNA gets far better ratings than Bellator, it's not as valuable because it can't get the corporate sponsors or ad revenue) and the parties involved come from outside the pro wrestling industry. The people who have at least been negotiating the most seriously are not from Viacom. The people involved have been successful in a number of other businesses. Just my gut says they are buying it more as a television property with the idea that future rights fees as those number escalate for sports will make it valuable.

The fact sale negotiations are as far along as they are and Hulk Hogan wasn't signed seems to indicate the new ownership group didn't feel he was a priority in the deal, or else TNA would have been aggressive in locking him up.

 

 

Meltzer in this week's observer. Doesn't sound like Bischoff, since he would insist on Hogan being signed.

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Fox buying them would be the greatest thing that ever happened to them, but that means they end the deal with Spike, and that seems like the biggest chip TNA has.  And I don't know how that would work with the international deals, most of which are with different entities, many of which have channels owned by Fox as competitors

 

I was actually thinking maybe Sinclair should try to buy them, and roll them together with ROH.  They have obscene amounts of money and have been growing rapidly in terms of the channels they hold interest in.  They could afford it.  And if they're serious about wrestling being part of their programing, getting TNA's talent and especially production crew would be a huge improvement for them.  Again though, that might kill the deal with Spike.

 

On Gail Kim....who is Robert Irvine and why is he famous?  Is he known mainstream?  I've never heard of the guy.  WWE would absolutely want her regardless of who she's married to, but I don't know if the interest would be mutual.  Isn't the reason she jumped from TNA to WWE because she felt like she couldn't turn down the contract they offered, and ended up being miserable and underpushed and jumped back as soon as the contract was up?  So yeah, she might not be hot on the idea of going back there

 

On EY.....I definitely think they'd want him.  He's not the same guy as Colt Cabana.  He's also a better worker for what they want, and funnier.  I get the sense that Cabana's attitude in developmental might have hurt him too, the way he talks about it now.  He didn't like being stuck there for so long, and he despised Bill Demott.  I think they put him on tv the way they did as a rib on him.  Getting video time on wwe.com was likely Joey Styles....and Cabana claims that the decision makers had no idea about it and don't pay attention to stuff like that.  Which I believe considering the time.  They seem to pay more attention now, but there's still tons of stuff on wwe.com that you would never see on tv.

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Chris Jericho needs to show up for Barkers 90th birthday just to hassle barker at his job. Oh and the topic of TNA, like I said I'm surprised Richard Branson has never dabbled in wrestling it seems up his alley nows a better time then ever. In reality I can't see anyone else interests besides Viacom if the price is right and The Jarretts. Yeah I know Bischoffs out there but I don't see him buying it. Jeff buying it would pretty much just be Lillie waking up and reading 2010 to now was all a bad dream. If he comes back all the goofy crap that made TNA seem like something different and an alternative like the six sided ring king if the mountain and so fourth will be back.

 

Jarrett buys it and the first ep of the relaunch is a skit of him waking up in bed and shaking his head, trying to gather his senses, he then looks over at the bedside table and sees he is still TNA World Champion and goes back to sleep.Cut to a dark arena, Planett Jarrett music hits and he struts out with the belt to cut a promo about how wierd everyone's been acting but that things are still as normal as they have ever been blah blah... yadda yadda yadda...

 

Basically hit the reset button to a time before all this happened.

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Fox Sports buying them could be bad news for the wrestlers. It means they only want a TV product and aren't bothered about house shows. Which takes away A LOT of dates.

 

Although, ideally, they'd let wrestlers have 100% control of their outside dates, meaning they were actually independent contractors.

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Fox Sports buying them could be bad news for the wrestlers. It means they only want a TV product and aren't bothered about house shows. Which takes away A LOT of dates.Although, ideally, they'd let wrestlers have 100% control of their outside dates, meaning they were actually independent contractors.

Why wouldn't Fox want to tour if there idea is to have TNA as a rights fee chip? The only way to make TNA that is to grow it in popularity.
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It's pretty hard for TNA to make money on house shows, though. Always has been, especially since Don West left.

 

And it sounds more like they want TNA as TV filler.

 

It's all speculation.  Only person who said it could be FOX is a guy in this thread.

 

If it was Fox it would be primarily tv driven, but if they could do live dates that make money they would do it.  And if someone semi-competent was in charge of booking dates and promoting them they could make money.  TNA is so weird when it comes to house shows.  They run in places like Miss, Louisiana and Texas often and draw shit crowds, yet still book shows there.  Maybe because talent could drive and didn't have to be flown in, I don't know.  They've always drawn better in places like NY/NJ, Philly area and Chicago.  I'm sure the reason they didn't run those places more is the price of booking the venues and flying in talent, but it's better than drawing flys in the bumfuck south.

 

As far as TNA controlling the indy booking rights of their talent and taking a cut of it, it's one of the worst moves they've ever made, and that's a long list.  For what they pay the people who would do indy gigs, and how little they book them on shows, that's shameful.  Especially given the fact that a lot of guys could make more with indy gigs than being paid by TNA minus the cut they take.  It also probably cost them a lot of credibility and talent that might have potentially been looking at them as an option.  It's so widely known the way they screw over talent at this point that only people who have no shot at being hired by WWE look to go there.  All the best talent now just waits it out for the chance of a WWE tryout.

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TNA should have partnered up with the big Indie companies way way way back and just had guys wrestle for companies they had working agreements with. Appear on other guys shows, dvd's, ect. At first they did do that when they had to defend the NWA Title But eventually TNA went with it's us or no one and screwed a lot of guys and gals out of alot of money they could have been making on the Indies. Over time the TNA name could have been built up and they wouldn't of had to worry about breaking into markets. They could have then concentrated on doing big shows in the big cities.

 

Another option would have been for them to stick to historic wrestling area's. I forget who said it here, but a while back they said TNA should have just hit the old Mid Atlantic route. Work a loop between Baltimore, Washington, Charlotte, Raliegh, Columbia, and Atlanta. Maybe hit Cincinatti go as far west as Chicago. But just stick to historic wrestling towns.

 

Of course their biggest problem always has been and always will be promotion. All the times TNA has been around here in NYC or the surrounding area, I have never once heard a radio commercial for a show. WWE manages to get commercials for shows on WFAN. Never anything in the Daily News or NY Post. Most of the time when TNA runs a show the reason it draws so little is cause no one knew they were there.

 

If TNA is sold, who ever buys it needs to overhaul the hell out of it's promotional department. If they want to survive they need to get the damn name out there.

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The weird thing with their promotion, or lack thereof, of house shows is that they've shown they're capable of promoting the hell out of shows on a local level at times.  Not often, but at times, and the houses have shown it.  I don't know why they didn't consistently promote shows, probably a combination of general incompetence and money.  But if they couldn't afford to staff a dedicated street team for local marketing, maybe like 5 people to just set up partnerships and sponsorships with local businesses, make connections with people who can promote the show for you, go and shake hands, put up posters and flyers etc etc. they didn't have any business running a lot their shows.  Promoting an event isn't rocket science.

 

They handled the booking thing in the worst, most short-sighted way imaginable.  Once they got on Spike they got it in their heads that they were now a big time national promotion, and that national tv was payment enough and they weren't going to leave any more money on the table.  Except they were still the same old TNA that very few people pay to see, and they weren't competent enough to turn it into a deal that actually worked for their wrestlers.  And they saw ROH as competition too I guess, and didn't want them benefiting from using TNA wrestlers.  I can understand not wanting guys working for ROH, but not letting them book their own dates, taking a cut of their pay, and not letting them show up on a DVD if it was say Chikara or PWG was ridiculous

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IF TNA were to fold at some point, which I honestly doubt, it's going to be pretty surreal coming to a wrestling message board and seeing people cheer the demise of a "major" wrestling organisation. I don't watch TNA, but some of y'all are really interesting wrestling fans.

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