There are tons of questions regarding the future of TNA, as in the face of major cutbacks, there is much speculation regarding changes that will be made, and may need to be made.
The biggest story involves the future of taping on the road, as well as the future of a number of wrestlers whose contracts are coming due, including the company’s two highest paid and best known stars, Hulk Hogan and Sting.
Hogan, 60, the face of the company, has his contract due on 10/1. Eric Bischoff, his major ally, is the key person when it comes to creative and there would be a major psychological blow to the company if he left. However, whether cutting back on his contract would help cut back on losses is a different question.
Hogan isn’t the only contract due, with Mickie James and Ken Anderson having been written out at the last TV, even though the door is still open for both to return if a deal is worked out. It’s well known that A.J. Styles, who is now being pushed as the company’s top babyface, and will be doing a TV feud with owner Dixie Carter, has his current short-term deal expire at the end of the year. Sting’s contract also expires at the end of the year. A few months back, people in WWE were talking about having a legitimate shot at getting Sting for a WrestleMania appearance, something which hasn’t been seriously talked about in years.
Sting and Kurt Angle are the second and third highest paid performers in the company, although Sting works far more limited dates, including almost no house shows.
At another time, the renewal of Hogan and Sting’s contract would be considered formalities from the TNA side, with the only question being if they would want to leave. But with the financial problems the company is facing, and so many performers being dropped when their contracts have expired, or being let go, every major expense is subject to review.
In a very interesting political move, Jeff Jarrett, who had only been at television once in recent memory, was at television the past week. Jarrett was working behind the scenes as a road agent, including being the agent for all three of the Bound for Glory series matches that aired on the 9/12 TV show. Given the quality of those matches, his work would have to be viewed as a positive. Jarrett was a key power broker in the company from a creative and administrative side before Hogan and Bischoff were brought in. His departure from power was more related to Carter being mad at him when Jarrett lied to her years ago when she asked him if the rumors of he and Karen Angle (now Karen Jarrett) being together were true.
The latest cost cutbacks are strong talks of going back to a singular location for tapings early next year. They are committed to being on the road and have venues booked through the end of December, including at least three tapings in December, so they are going to be getting ahead on the schedule by a couple of weeks. They will probably tape all TV through the end of February when they go on the U.K. tour. So if a change is going to be made, late February or early March would make sense as the target date.
It is a step back, but financially, there is no other alternative. While the story just broke publicly, within the company, people have talked about it as a probability for about six to eight weeks. There were rumors even before that, because everyone knew the road tapings, which cost about $600,000 every two weeks, were bleeding the company dry.
For all the feeling that the stars come off as bigger stars when you see them in arena settings, in front of generally hotter crowds and made for better television, it has not led to the desired results.
The ratings are about the same. The TV audience itself is actually down due to fewer viewers per home. Attendance and PPV numbers haven’t moved. It’s also become harder and harder to sell tickets for the taping shows.
The old Impact Zone is rented out. The locations that were rumored are going back to Central Florida, likely Orlando, back to the Fairgrounds Sports Arena in Nashville, or to a casino site in Las Vegas.
Since most of the talent lives in Central Florida, and the production crew is mostly people based out of Florida, Georgia and some in Tennessee, Orlando would be far cheaper as far as travel expenses go. The Fairgrounds, the home for TV in its first few years as a weekly PPV property, is inexpensive to run, but it has the look of being so much more minor league than the Impact Zone did. The look of the show improved by night and day when they left Nashville.
Las Vegas sounds better and more importantly, will probably look better on television if they choose the right place. But even thinking for a second, those rumors make no sense at all. They’d have to fly everyone in, and that would undermine the entire cost issues of why they are trying to get off the road. The only people in the company that I know of based in that area are Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Kenny King, Mike Tenay and Samoa Joe is from there but at one point recently had relocated to Florida.
The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, the rumored spot since it was the last place they ran in the city, wouldn’t be available every other week on a Thursday because they’ve got a minor league hockey team as a regular client. It’s also too big, with a capacity in the 7,000 range.
Either way, in any location they are going to have a big problem when it comes to getting fans out and when it comes to fan reaction when the fans see the product so much. That was why they wanted to get out of Orlando in the first place.
There were a lot of positives with the Universal deal. The rent was said to be a great deal. There were tons of people in the park, so you could always get a few hundred park goers to come in to see them taping a live TV show, especially if Hogan is there.
Going to Las Vegas every other Thursday, I wonder about the ability to, even with papering or all free tickets, if they would be able to keep getting enough people out. They were able to get people to Nashville every Wednesday when the company had far less exposure and generally lesser stars, although they were mostly were giving the tickets away. Nashville fans are generally very responsive.
People forget that when Raw started, the idea was to tape once every few weeks from the Manhattan Center, and that was in New York with its huge population base. They started the run selling out and turning people away, But after a few shows, they were down to selling 300 to 500 tickets and had to get out of the Manhattan Center and take the show on the road. Of course in the long run, that ended up being a blessing in disguise.
They have to pick a place that they can let people in for free, because in this day and age, you simply aren’t going to sell tickets in the same location every other week. The Impact Zone was also great because seating was only done right in front of the hard camera, to where it wouldn’t look bad with a few hundred people in.
The question I’ve been getting a lot is people asking if I thought Spike and Viacom would be willing to buy the promotion, like they did Bellator, which would alleviate much of the current uncertainty and guarantee its future.
I have no way of knowing the answer. The reasons they gave when they bought Bellator would be just as logical for TNA, in the sense they’d own the property, and wouldn’t have to worry about losing it like they lost UFC when it got big. But I think Spike really wanted MMA on its station because it had a great history with it and the station was associated with MMA. Bellator was probably on shaky footing financially but they were the only real option to bring MMA back to the station.
Still, TNA does draw bigger ratings and can be used to promote Bellator in many ways. There were stories that reached key people in other organizations that the company was for sale, but those within the company don’t believe that’s the case, that the Carters have a ton of money and Dixie Carter is passionate about the business.
There is a feeling with the cost cutting and restructuring that is going on, TNA can be a viable business as far as not bleeding money. There were periods pre-Hogan that the company was breaking even on its own, or even making a profit. But at this point the reality has set in that it’s probably never going to get any bigger or more popular. And that can hurt the motivation level and morale in the sense of recognition they were never going to really be competition and they aren’t building something big, but simply staying alive. Their weekly television audience is actually incredibly loyal, given how well the show holds up on holidays and against major sports competition.
The one thing I’d bet is if a sale was to happen, particularly if it would go to Spike, that Bischoff would have the best chance to wind up as the guy in charge, because that’s how the TV industry works. Bischoff has a track record in television, and even though it’s been 14 years since the WCW business really collapsed and started heading for the iceberg, the success of something at the level of Nitro is something nobody else in wrestling except Vince McMahon has on their resume. Plus, if there is a sale, most likely the new owners would consider Hogan, with his name value, as the strongest commodity, and not as an expensive character who can no longer wrestle and doesn’t move numbers anymore.
Other talent has been openly speculating that with all the cost cutting, that they may not renew Hogan or Sting, with the idea it would save the company significant amounts of money and that it wouldn’t hurt ratings or attendance at all. But Hogan is the face and identity of the brand, so I don’t see him being dropped. Carter has a great affinity for Sting, and has talked him into staying for one more year, ever since the end of 2006, since when he signed his first deal that year, it was a one-year deal and at the time he felt it was his retirement year. But he’s now closing in on 55.
To Sting’s credit, unlike just about everyone else at that age, he doesn’t look it. While they have to do smoke and mirrors with his matches of any length, he doesn’t move like an old man, the crowds love him and his promo work is by far the best of his career.
But ratings are going to be pretty much the same whether Hogan and Sting are there or not, as Hogan’s big return a few weeks ago drew the same number they were doing when Hogan wasn’t around.
I know that there are people high up that have questioned the Sting deal for the past few years, but Carter always brings him back. For Hogan, there is the idea that his name being associated with the brand helps in ways like licensing or a video game deal. That made sense in theory. But after nearly four years, that didn’t materialize. Hogan is great for media because he can open doors promoting shows locally, but even when he does, they don’t sell many tickets.
At the tapings this past week, things were done to potentially write James and Anderson out.
James, who has been in the business since the age of 19 on the indie scene as Alexis Laree, and then in TNA, before making it big under her real name in WWE, was offered a new deal, but had not agreed to terms. We’re told she has interest in going back to WWE if the opportunity is there. She was fired the last time, which was a very unpopular move among fans at the time. There were several issues involved, none of which had to do with her ability as a performer. She was let go due to an outside the ring things including an incident that happened on a European tour where she was late and held up the bus from leaving. It was blamed on behavior issues strong enough that she lost her job.
Anderson’s contract expires in a few weeks. The angle on TV where Anderson, 37, was taken out on a stretcher and Bully Ray piledrove him on the floor, was used to write him out if he doesn’t sign a new deal. If he signs a new deal (he was making $2,500 per appearance), it’s left open for him to do a big return as a face and using that angle as an injury, a return from a concussion and neck injuries from the piledriver.
In my mind, they put him over way too much as a face in that final match storyline segment if he’s not coming back. It’s also TNA, so you have to speculate the possibility that they’ll do a big angle at Bound for Glory with Anderson and Devon (since they keep mentioning his name) either causing Bully to lose or even swerving everyone and they help Bully to win.
Also on the financial end, there have been reports this past week that all production people were caught up on back pay.
However, in checking, that’s not the case. The production people were paid something of late, but many were not caught up. Many had talked of quitting at recent tapings with people citing that their family members or wives were asking them why they keep coming to work when they aren’t getting paid. One production person was said to have quit before the most recent tapings. Even getting paid something was considered a good sign at this point. There is not a feeling that the company is going anywhere, with the idea it does successful numbers for two hours in prime time for Spike, well above their station average. But there is uncertainty about what form the company will take going forward with so many genuine stars and key people having departed in recent months.
