The past few weeks have seen TNA wrestling make some major cuts to both backstage talent, as well as wrestlers. This turn of events has led to a renewed and particularly virulent strain of TNA’s Dyingitis to break out amongst many online forums and even larger wrestling news sites. Some of the opinions being spewed are so adamant about what is going wrong within the company- even though there is so much illogical pessimism- that the coffins for the company are being carved as we speak by a large amount of so called “fans”.
The most important story to come out so far, in terms of fuelling the negativity, is the firing of Jesse Sorensen. Now Jesse was a real star for the future when he emerged about two years ago, until he tragically broke his neck in a PPV match back in 2012. After recovering from the injury and finally being cleared to wrestle (according to many sites), Mr Sorensen took the decision to permanently retire from in-ring action due to the overbearing doubt in his mind about future risks to his health. TNA then gave him a contract as a Marketing Assistant as a show of loyalty and empathy to a young man who was hurt on their watch.
Skip forward to over a year later and TNA’s financial output has increased drastically due to so many people clamouring for the company to take Impact Wrestling on the road. The production costs for such a venture must be huge and something had to give. Ultimately, TNA had to cut less important contracts to free up some money to make up the shortfall. These unlucky contracts belonged to men and women who have families to support and thus emotions run high. Unfortunately within a business, emotion must be kept separate and so Sorensen, Tara, D’Lo, Prichard et al were given their marching orders. Out of any of these names, I would love one single fan to honestly pick one who is a true game changer to the company. With a straight face it can’t be done.
So I now reverse the situation onto the fans who say TNA is now dying. Really? TNA has spread it’s global exposure, gained good crowds on the road (in the shadow of the WWE juggernaut) and is sacrificing dead weight. These are not the movements of a company about to go WCW. Dixie Carter gets so much criticism from fans, which I honestly put down in a large part to old fashioned chauvinism, yet Mrs Carter is a very wealthy and talented woman. Without her TNA wouldn’t be here now. Sure she’s made mistakes but so has the almighty Vince McMahon (Steroid scandal, Katie Vick, WWECW) yet he seems to avoid the harsh vitriol that Dixie Carter has to endure.
Let’s look at the positives in the company right now: Sabin as champion; KOs getting decent air time; fresh X Division talent; the return of the MEM; better storylines with decent pay offs. Of course there are negatives too, like the Aces & 8s; dearth of KO talent; poor tag team division; Taz on commentary. However, the positives seem to be tipping the scales and I can see the rest of 2013/2014 being a real purple patch for TNA.
Let’s not get blinded by negativity and the spiraling pessimistic commentary it brings. TNA is a ballsy company that deserves our supports. No, it needs it.
I chalk it up to the vast majority of the vocal fans on the interwebs either 1) not having any professional experience working at a high level for a small-to-medium size business or 2) just being too young to understand that certain business decisions need to be made.