Source: The Wrestling Observer
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is suggesting that TNA Wrestling is in a tight spot financially. Note that this is purely speculation on behalf of the Observer and has not been confirmed by anyone employed by or affiliated with TNA Wrestling. In fact, the style in which the Observer’s story is written suggests that the writer is simply putting together the pieces in his head and coming to a conclusion on his own terms. As you’ll see below, it seems that the writer from the Observer simply thought, “New talent costs money, billboards cost money, live shows cost money…TNA must be running out of money!”
Here is the report running around the internet:
Since January, the company has ballooned its roster to over 70 performers with the notable additions of high priced stars such as Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and the former Mr. Kennedy. Furthermore, the company has added the costly expense of going live every other Monday night and promotion of said move (i.e. airing commercials during Monday Night RAW and running Billboards in Times Square). Other than slight bumps in house show attendance and merchandise sales, TNA has to little to show for its efforts. In fact, ratings are at its lowest levels in four years due to the move to Monday nights.
Again, as you’ll note – none of these items are summed up with facts and there is scant talk about new revenues from new sources. Also, the fact that some of the new talent are working without being paid (i.e. Bubba the Love Sponge) has not been addressed.
Joe’s Comments: This is just another silly internet rumor. Like most silly internet rumors, someone made a logical connection and ran with it as an “inside story.” If TNA was going under, you’d see people getting dumped left and right and the show would have never moved to going live every other week. This rumor will blow over sooner rather than later.
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Joe I agree this is clearly a silly internet rumor. We can gather from past statements from Dixie, Hogan, and Bischoff about TNA that they went to Spike for the increased production cost of going live every other week. So for the writer at the Observer to include increased production costs in this report is mind numbing, from most accounts live is costing Spike and not TNA. So clearly the increase in production cost isn’t burying TNA.
Also he mentions the ratings, yet Spike’s 18-34 demo is up on Mondays, meaning they likely are making more ad money on Mondays than they were. Whether the increased production cost are equal to the increased ad revenue is debatable but I’m sure Spike knows more about it than the Observer guy.
Exactly, William. For some reason, those who believe that they are “in the know” seem to have it in for TNA. Many of these doom and destruction reports that I see out of the established internet smear machines are very reminiscent of what I saw on the internet 12 and 13 years ago – people thinking that they are “insiders” because they draw seemingly logical conclusions.
At this point, those haters make me laugh.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the WWE isn’t behind some of this disinformation. Part of marketing a brand is making the other brand look suspect.