Have you noticed a "TNA Invasion" happening in the last couple of years in WWE? The following ex-TNA wrestlers have joined WWE in the last three years. Kurt Angle A.J. Styles Bobby Roode Eric Young Matt Hardy Jeff Hardy Rockstar Spud ECIII Austin Aries (who then went back to TNA) The Dudley Boys (since retired). Jeremy Borash That is to just name a few. I have held the belief that one day, down the track, TNA Impact will finally fall over and be bought by Vince McMahon, like WCW, ECW, World Class etc were. Now, a lot of you won't like that, but I can see it happening. TNA changes owners all the time, and has numerous problems. I give kudos to it for lasting this long. But it can't keep doing it forever. Every promise of finally being successful is met with a false dawn. Every attempt to keep afloat is temporary, until someone else came along and put forward their vision, until they are moved along. In the last three years, the company gone from Dixie Carter, to Billy Corgan trying to own it, to Jeff Jarrett and Anthem, to now just Anthem. People think that WWE owning it is a bad thing. But look how WCW, ECW etc live on. Their shows are on the WWE Network, not forgotten or ignored, but highlighted. Vince knows better than to pretend that WCW, ECW etc never existed. Instead, he keeps them alive through the Network. The same will happen to TNA. Imagine when A.J. Styles retires, and footage of his time in TNA can be shown during his Hall-Of-Fame induction. Also, it isn't Vince putting TNA out of business. They did that themselves by their unstable leadership and poor direction. The product in the ring was great, but those running it didn't have a clue. It isn't like Vince using tactics like he did to beat WCW or ECW. He actually competed with them. TNA was never competition, and admitted such when they pulled out of going live Monday nights against RAW, after getting thrashed when Bret Hart returned to RAW. I don't put TNA in the same ballpark, business wise, as WCW when the Monday Night Wars started. WCW actually beat WWE in the ratings for 82 weeks. ECW was innovative and bringing something fresh and different to the table. Yet they both folded, and got swallowed by WWE. TNA isn't in the same class as those promotions, so what hope does it have?
They can certainly make use of the tape library. I don’t see it as WWE taking over Impact, so much as it’s just that the guys who have come in are some of the top wrestlers in the world and TNA isn’t a viable place for them to wrestle anymore. It makes sense hiring guys with name value and the trend now towards letting them keep their nanes and acknowledging, if not by name, that they’re well-known seems to support that shift...I like that they don’t pretend these guys are new. Impact has done something pretty remarkable despite all it’s problems and quality, in lasting as long as it has done mostly at a national level when so many wrestling companies don’t get off the ground. If WWE bought and could make use of their footage on the Network, I’d love have that library easily accessible on the Network.
TNA death and buy out rumours have been going on for years and years yet the little company that could keeps swinging back, refusing to die. The WWE/NXT roster is fairly huge right now with more talent on it that the company has seen possibly ever. They really don't need the extra talent that TNA has wrestling for them right now. The one thing they do have is that library though and I'd be excited if WWE consumed TNA and opened that wonderful vault of content on the Network. There's so much I'd like to go back and revisit, like Beer Money vs MCMG and Angle vs AJ Styles, Styles vs Chris Daniels ECT ECT ECT.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Impact wrestling or whatever it's called is the "nugget" of the wrestling business.
Angle, The Hardys, and Dudleys were WWE guys first, though it is strange to think that Kurt’s Impact run was over a decade compare to his just over 6 year WWE run. There’s been a change in WWE when it comes to signing talent. They realized how badly they were shooting themselves in the foot by not looking at indies and small promotions. There’s this huge gap in about 2006 to 2012 where they really failed to develop any new stars. They were focused on flop hosses and John Cena. Impact should have been a bright spot for farming talent. It’s shocking that WWE never made any push to sign Impact’s core group of main event talent. Maybe they did and we just don’t know, whatever happened is irrelevant speculation. Fast forward to now and the biggest and most talented guy to ever come out of Impact is the WWE champion. Styles has been nothing short of excellent and is already a first ballot hall of famer after two years. It’ll be interesting to see how things go in the next few years. I think we’ll see the TNA originals stay far away from each other, if only to avoid chants. That can’t last forever. We’ll never see a TNA invasion angle. WWE would only ever buy that promotion for its tape library in order to get more content on the network. Impact just won’t die, and that’s great. Say what you will, hate if you’ve got to, but nothing changes the fact that more non-WWE promotions for wrestlers to work in is a good thing. I tried to watch Impact this week. I found it difficult to follow to say the least. The opening bout between Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne) and Fallah Bahh for the now generic Grand Championship was blah. The angle in which Aries won their world title really undervalued their product. You can just show up and get a title shot? The world champion can book his own impromptu matches? Eli Drake lost in under two minutes? I seriously wonder how long until we see him back in WWE. The big change is WWE started letting guys be themselves. They signed AJ Styles as the Phenomenal AJ Styles, not some random name generator crap. Why would you come to a company that takes away your name and identity? Your brand is your meal ticket on the indies. WWE took that away from anyone they signed so they could use their investment elsewhere. It’s amazing to see Samoa Joe wrestling under that name. How many years ago would he and others have come over if they could have been themselves? Unlike the WCW guys, the Impact guys are being pushed. Imagine being an Impact guy and thinking about how brutally WWE treated much bigger stars coming out of WCW. Now anyone on the indies sees AJ as WWE champion, Roode as US Champion, Joe went one on one in a PPV main event against Brock Lesnar. They can go to WWE and not be completely buried. The Impact guys having a presence in WWE does not show an interest by WWE acquiring that company. It shows WWE recognizing their failure to build new stars within the last decade, so they’re finally swallowing their pride and signing some of the best wrestlers in the world.
It does seem like their trying to buy all the talent out of TNA recently only big name their missing from their homegrown talent is James Storm, I also wouldn't mind seeing other past talent like Jeff Jarrett, Kaz and Daniels, Jay Lethal and the Beautiful people. I do think fans should have given TNA more of a chance back in the day as most of their talent seems very popular now.