Problem is, TNA never figured out how to turn that TV audience into money, except in the form of TV rights fees. And that money is apparently gone. ("Gone" as a relative term, I'm sure they're getting *something* from PopTV and from overseas, but I'm guessing "Not much".)
Multi-Million Dollar Investment Firm In Talks To Become TNA Wrestling Partner
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Problem is, TNA never figured out how to turn that TV audience into money, except in the form of TV rights fees. And that money is apparently gone. ("Gone" as a relative term, I'm sure they're getting *something* from PopTV and from overseas, but I'm guessing "Not much".)
Welllllllll...... I never said their model worked.
When it comes time for the history of TNA to be written, a lot of people are going to focus on relatively inconsequential stuff like storylines, or perhaps symptoms of TNA's historic problem like their spending spree of 2009-10. TNA's issue is and always has been long-term planning. Typically when you run a business, you have a five-year plan. (Which I can speak from experience typically never resembles reality and requires constant updating.) Up until they decided to go big, it seems like they were enjoying stable, steady growth; then, they spent a lot of money hoping for an immediate return.
Ever since that didn't work out, TNA seems to be reacting to circumstances, rather than making any long-term plans. I'm quite sure their business model in 2011 didn't forecast them being a television-only show in 2016, but I don't think they were thinking anything regarding the long-term future by that point. This isn't me necessarily knocking the whole "invest big and Hail Mary" theory of investment; if you've got the money to play around with, sometimes it works out quite well. I'm quite sure that if TNA were to cease operations, Dixie Carter won't be heating up Spaghetti-O's in a microwave.
If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's this: investing in professional wrestling is for suckers. If you want to have a good time and have the money to spend, go for it- if I win the Powerball despite never buying tickets, it's on my bucket list. But if you really, really want to make money from professional wrestling, go to college or a good media school, get a degree in something like communications, and apply for a job with the WWE. (Don't emphasize how much of a fan you are, you might think it'll help your job chances but it's actually kind of the opposite.) It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to break into the 'making money' level by becoming a professional wrestler, plus the travel's comped.
Welllllllll...... I never said their model worked.
It's not just TNA, even though TNA gets the most crap. Nobody--not Eric Bischoff, not Paul Heymann, not the Jarretts, not Jerry LAwler, not Hogan and Hart and XWF, nobody--except Vince McMahon have figured out how to run a pro wrestling company where more money comes in than goes out. It's a TV business AND a live event business AND a merchandising business AND now a subscriber-based service AND a star-making business.
TNA has kept the doors open for nearly 14 years. That's more than anyone else has done since pro wrestling started to transition from the territories to national or syndicated TV.
Well, when they brought Hogan and Bischoff in, they had a plan--"Be what WCW was." It wasn't a very good plan, but they at least had a picture in their heads of what things would look like in 2015 if things went well.
There was the embryo of a plan before that, be the "alternative wrestling" show, the Sam Adams to WWE Budweiser. X-Division, Knockouts, Tag Teams, more indy-style action with a lighter touring schedule. They never quite put that together either, with Jarrett and Sting and always another WWE/WCW big name or two cycling through the main event. Not sure if anyone in NAshville had that plan for TNA, but plenty of people on the internet did.
Actually, that plan for TNA could be phrased as "be what NXT is now."
Very true. TNA 2009 could have taken what they had post-Jarrett, and built up the "cool wrestling show that your dopey little brother doesn't like" with Styles, Joe, Daniels, Kaz, Pope, Angle, Dinero, etc. But Hogan and Bischoff chased away the wrestling hipster fanbase that you could build that on, leaving nothing much.