Panda Energy has nothing to do TNA. They operate on separate wavelengths. Rayne can give you a better breakdown of that than I can, so if he's up for typing it out again, I'll defer to him.
I'll take your throw, and hopefully work towards ending this whole "Panda Energy's Bank Account" obsession.
Once upon a time, there was a man who was the majority owner of an energy conglomorate called "Panda Energy". He had a daughter, who though having many faults, did have an interest in professional wrestling, during a phase where there was an opening for an alternative to the WWE product, which had recently finished swallowing its only competition. (And as a result the WWE was having some pretty horrible indigestion.) So this man gave his daughter a sum of money to purchase and operate a professional wrestling company called "TNA". This was done with TNA as a division of Panda Energy, causing many people to ask why a company that built power plants and little else would become interested in professional wrestling.
TNA continued to grow, yet had trouble crossing the profitability threshold. While their revenue continued to increase as the company grew larger, their expenses increased at a quicker pace. Then, one day in January 2009, the company stopped growing, but expenses kept building. The man that was the majority owner of Panda Energy was placed in the awkward position of explaining to his co-owners why he was spending their money on a money-losing professional wrestling promotion, when they had invested their money in power plants.
So TNA was split from Panda Energy. At the time, it was viewed as a classic case of a larger company splitting a failing division so that it could die without impacting their financials. This had an immediate and drastic effect on TNA, as they now had to keep revenue and expenses in a strict relationship to each other.
But a funny thing happened. TNA did what few people expected, and rebuilt themselves around their changed financial situation. Shit got real for a couple of years; they weren't able to retain some of their most valuable talents. But this was a couple of years ago. Panda Energy no longer needs to be feeding TNA money, because TNA has rebuilt itself into a company which isn't spending more than it can afford to invest. Their revenue is lower, but their expenses are much lower as well.
AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME, it's difficult to get a clear picture on TNA's financial status; their free agent shopping spree could either be read as a major investment to rebuild their ratings on a new network, or as using capital acquired as a result of their contract with POP. What it
does indicate is that TNA does have money available to spend on free-agent signings.
Which brings us around to AJ Styles. Undoubtedly, the WWE offered AJ more money than TNA would. This is not a "TNA can't afford it" statement; it's a "how much is AJ worth?" statement. To the WWE, AJ Styles (
at this moment in time) is a huge pickup; he's coming off of a big run in Japan at the same time the WWE is trying to launch their Network over there. To TNA, they pick up AJ for sentimental reasons. AJ's a very talented performer, but he's not a guy who's going to make 50,000 people every week ask why they aren't getting POP on their cable network.
There comes a point where you have to say "would spending all this money on one guy be worth it, brother?" To TNA, I'm sure the sentimental value of his return would be worth quite a bit, but it's not worth getting into a bidding war with the WWE over- especially when TNA doesn't have this magical pot of unlimited money which some people think they do.
