Source: Darren Wood of The Wrestling Press
The following questions and answers were taken from an interview with Jeremy Borash in the most recent issue of The Wrestling Press magazine, which you can read for free by clicking here (caution – this will open a PDF). During the interview, Borash said that TNA Wrestling is “extremely open in the fact that the fans saved our TV deal” in the United Kingdom. Also, he said he “would move the company [to the United Kingdom] in a heartbeat.”
Some selected questions and answers are included below, but you can read the entire interview at the link above.
TNA recently were left without a TV station here in the UK, were you disappointed or let down by Bravo being cut and were you and the rest of the company confident in finding a new TV station?
I was part of WCW and there are decisions made in the entertainment business that are down behind closed doors, in board rooms and obviously it’s part of the industry. So of course we were disappointed about Bravo closing, but it didn’t take long for our fans to speak up and say we want TNA wrestling. So when I say our fans saved the TV deal here in the UK, that’s 100% true. Look at the viewership we have on Challenge, right now. I believe everything happens for a reason.
Challenge TV is primarily a re-run game show channel, did this worry you at all when the deal to be showcased on that channel was finalised?
No because the beautiful thing about our fan base here, is they will find us. For me I was so excited that we were going to be on freeview, just because of the amount of homes we can reach. I mean now we can be seen in 90% of homes in the UK, that’s huge. As far as I’m concerned as long as they can get us and as long as they can find us I had no worries. It doesn’t matter what channel we were on, our fans will find us as our ratings speak for themselves. So many people now have the opportunity to discover TNA.
Does being broadcast on Challenge enable or offer TNA any further opportunities here in the UK that maybe Bravo weren’t willing to give you?
Right off the bat, with Challenge it’s a new relationship and I think they’re going to be pleasantly surprised with how hands on we are in our operations. We are very open with our fans, we will always answer their questions. Dixie Carter has always had the stance of you respect every fan who has paid their hard earned money to come out and watch. You talk to every media outlet that wants to talk to us and spread the word of TNA. This is against what I see as a very arrogant approach to business, it’s a new era, its 2011. Arrogance does not work in the market place anymore, what works is being appreciative of your audience. Our talent signs more autographs, does more meet and greets than any other wrestling company in the world. Personally for me I will never forget being a fan of this business, I appreciate the fans and unfortunately that isn’t agreed with the very arrogant approach for our company. I wouldn’t want to work with a company that is arrogant.
TNA is doing pretty good numbers here in the UK since going on Challenge, and in some cases is getting better numbers than WWE programming. How important are the ratings for TNA programming here in the UK to the company?
Our programming is now being distributed to 120 countries and that’s fantastic. Here in the UK is the only place that we are beating our competition (WWE) in the ratings so that’s great. It feels good to beat the competition obviously. We don’t live and die by the numbers like it may have been ten years ago because there are so many other outlets and revenue streams for our company, but obviously television is most important. To be able to pull the numbers we are is a big deal, it’s important and we couldn’t be happier with the numbers.
What are your thoughts on taking Impact on the road and is this something the company is looking to do more throughout the year?
We just did the show last week and that was our first time out and we wanted to see how it went, not only did the entire night go smoothly from a production stand point but everyone left the arena high fiving each other because we were proud we had done this. We didn’t know if we could do it, to tape two shows in one night takes a lot of organisation and a lot of pressure and it was a long day. We needed to prove to ourselves we could do it and we did. I would love to see the show more on the road, I love being in front of different crowds, the atmosphere is fantastic, everything we do is well thought out and planned and hopefully down the line there will be more shows out of the impact zone.
What are the chances of having a TNA pay per view or an Impact taping in England and have any talks happened about this?
We just did a show in Fayetteville and it gave the show a real different look, we are trying new things. We realise that we need to take it on the road, if it was up to me we would move the entire show over here. Because of the fan base, because of their enthusiasm. They’re a different type of fan, they bring rowdiness to the sports they watch like football and darts. The fan base here is made for wrestling. If I was in charge I would move the company here in a heartbeat. I would love to perform in front of these fans every week and it would be a better TV product for it. I can assure you that bringing TNA here to the UK is on our list of things to do.
