Speculation On WWE Buying TNA Library

[Jack-Hammer]

F4WOnline.com stated a little while ago that there's speculation going around that WWE will make an offer to purchase TNA's video library if they're unable to secure a television deal with another network. According to the report, the going rate is currently $500 per hour of footage and that TNA has a little over 1,000 hours of TNA iMPACT/Impact Wrestling footage, that's not counting the various ppvs they've done over the years.

So, IF the amount per hour of footage is accurate, then the cost of the TNA's library of every TV show and ppv event would be somewhere in the neighborhood of about $650,000 to $675,000 range. So, again if that price is accurate, it'd be it's not exactly a huge sum of money for WWE to pay. I don't see there being a lot of demand for TNA footage, but it could be put to some degree of use I suppose at some point.

 

[Navi]

Would have thought in all the time that TNA has been around, there would be more than 1,000 hours of taping's available. It's a small price to pay really for all the work they put out there, a lot of it being crap, mind you.

Adding it to the WWE Network might get some new subscribers, although probably not enough to make up the cost of buying it in the short term. Still it's a wonder why the WWE would want it in the first place.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Y'know what'd be awesome? WWE produced TNA DVD's. Complete career sets on Angle, Hardy, The Dudleyz, Hogan's last match, that strange time when Sting worked for TNA for 8 years.

There's a lot of quality footage in the TNA archive. TNA have just never exploited it because, well, they're useless.

 

[rge2010]

I find this rumour hard to believe. Lets be honest, the only 2, possibly 3 superstars within that footage who WWE would have any interest in are Sting, Angle and maybe Hardy.

Unless WWE purchases TNA then I see no reason to own the footage.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I’ve been watching every WWE, WCW, and ECW PPV on the Network from Starrcade 1983 onward, in chronological order. When I get to November 2004, it would be really great if TNA PPVs were included. The possible $700,000 price tag is not high enough to justify WWE NOT buying the footage. I would think and even $1,000,000 would be a fair price, but not a dollar higher than that.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Personally, I'm not really sure why WWE would have any interest whatsoever in purchasing the TNA library, especially when the asking price would allegedly be upwards of a half a million dollars, and WWE appears to be cutting costs in many areas, such as letting talent go, firing behind the scenes guys, and trimming the fat wherever possible regarding production costs. And before any TNA zealots get their noses out of joint and get all defensive, I'm not bashing the product or the quality of footage found amongst it. I'm sure there would be plenty of quality programming for those patient enough to sift through it.

I can understand why the WWE features vintage WWF/WWE content. That's self explanatory. It's also clear to me why they feature old WCW material. WCW was clear competition to WWF. The ratings back that up. Their video library is likely fairly extensive. The Monday Night Wars, the nWo, all that stuff, I can understand why WWE would feature that in their library, especially when Vince purchased it all in a fairly high profile manner in the dying days of the company. And a lot of their talent ended up on the WWE roster, some pretty prominently, whether it be those who jumped ship just before, or those who came over afterwards. There's clearly value in featuring WCW on the WWE Network.

Even ECW. WWE tried to rebrand it and pass it off as a third brand for a while. They purchased the vestiges of the company, and usurped any value from it, salvaging whatever talent they could from it. ECW had a cult following which WWE (and TNA for that matter) have tried to capitalize on.

Regarding TNA, though, it's different. They've never been true competition to WWE. Let's not be defensive, that's the simple truth, no offense intended. Their ratings came nowhere near WWE numbers. WWE, at least on the surface, has consistently been pretty dismissive of the existence of TNA. Few of their talent have ended up there. Those who have become available were either not pursued at all or were low balled. And I'm not convinced that if TNA folds (which is hardly a certainty), we are going to see very many of their guys turn up on RAW or Smackdown or even NXT. At least superficially, WWE has consistently treated TNA like any other Indy company, so I'm not totally certain they are going to feature them in any capacity on the WWE Network.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind it at all. If I could get it for a song, I'd probably do it. But I'm not so sure that a company exhibiting cost cutting measures is going to purchase they vestiges of a company that they (at least publicly) view as a glorified Indy product.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

WWE holds all the power here. I would guess that the market for TNA footage is WWE and WWE only. WWE can set their price. TNA's best chance of getting WWE to bite would be to sell on the point that maybe someone from TNA will go to WWE and get big. If for example Magnus, goes to WWE and has a successful career WWE, will what the full career coverage. Otherwise i dont see that much value. I think WWE has enough Hardy, Sting, and Angle footage so I don't see that as a selling point.

Much like their rumored offer to AJ Styles I expect they will make an insulting offer and not think twice about it.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Personally, I'm not really sure why WWE would have any interest whatsoever in purchasing the TNA library, especially when the asking price would allegedly be upwards of a half a million dollars, and WWE appears to be cutting costs in many areas, such as letting talent go, firing behind the scenes guys, and trimming the fat wherever possible regarding production costs.

I'd argue that in the right hands, it could easily make big return on investment, particularly if any of the TNA guys end up coming over to WWE. For instance, suppose Kurt Angle makes his return to the WWE, hangs around for a year, and then has a swan song at WrestleMania 32. The WWE can put together possibly multiple Kurt Angle DVDs that show footage from WWE and TNA, and his return to WWE. Content is worth its weight in gold. You have a promotion that lasted longer than ECW, and features a lot of talent that either did or could grace a WWE ring.

Not only that, WWE would just add to its hold on pretty much the entire history of wrestling, at least that which has made its way to recorded media. I don't think you can really go wrong holding that kind of content as an asset. It eventually pays for itself, and then some.

 

[Shocky]

Take a look at what the WWE owns in their archives. There are some terrible promotions with a terrible product in the vault. TNA has a slight following, and nearly half of their content will be available in HD. Getting the entire library for under a million is a steal. The WWE network will always be in need of new content, adding 1000+ hours of semi-current footage is a no brainer.

 

[hollowpoint]

I wouldn't look too much into this. Maybe from the aspect of having something else to add to the WWE Network library, but that's probably the only value I can see from it. It was a lot of bad storylines and the matches weren't that great either. IMO, they have the talent, just need the writers and executives to be able to put a better product out.

 

[bioshock]

Would have thought in all the time that TNA has been around, there would be more than 1,000 hours of taping's available. It's a small price to pay really for all the work they put out there, a lot of it being crap, mind you.

Adding it to the WWE Network might get some new subscribers, although probably not enough to make up the cost of buying it in the short term. Still it's a wonder why the WWE would want it in the first place.

How could you expect more hours of footage? They been around for 8+ years or what ever, but for the most part they only ever had 1 or 2 hours of wrestling on per week. For a few years I think they only had 1 3hr PPV a week or something I forget, and for a while they were only on 1hr on FSN. Unlike WWE which for the most part since the 80s they have had 2 to 3 programs per week. Like Superstars, Challenge, Primetime, PPV. Or like now with Raw, SD, Superstars, Main Event, PPV. The most shows, the more hours it adds up to.

Now OT, I wish WWE would just partner up with TNA and air what they have on the Network, or if they did buy TNA' library then it would be nice to see some of those old TNA events in the first few years, as they had some really good stuff going on then.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

I don't wish to be rude to the TNA talent that put on their best efforts each and every match they had. But the product was stale from day one. Only on 4 occassions I ever felt that they did anything memorable at all...
1, Kurt Angle debut, 2, Christian Cage wins the TNA heavyweight title, 3, Jeff Hardy Debuts, and 4 Ken Anderson wondering around aimlessly on an Impact show and kept saying "I'm an asshole!" (something that baffled me it was that poor).

The fact they had the talent like AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Christian and Booker T in their ranks at one point or another (and at one point all of them at the same time) - they did nothing. They wasted tonnes of money on Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan and none of them delivered a decent return on investment.

TNA failed because it had no branding. There was nothing significant about them - they used WWE rejects. They could have hired talent from all around the world and brought them in and had a thriving Tag Team rank.

For gods sake between them WCW & WWF used to pull in 9.0 ratings 16 years ago. Granted that they aren't going to get that figure again because of the Internet; but there are enough fans out there to make it a profitable and sustainable business. They just have to brand their business properly, stop with stupid STUPID STUPID storylines and base it on competitive wrestling. Get rid of the red and black arena set up - make it blue and bright, but with something different. Anything that isn't like WWE raw. REbrand the product.

I live in the UK - we get TNA impact and their PPV's free on a tv station available to every UK household. It is free. I won't watch it even though it is free - it is that repugnant to me.

Sure blame Vince Russo but the buck stops with the owners. IF they want to trash their own business - so be it. But that could have been profitable.

 

[I_Like_All_Wrestling]

If I had to make a long term bet, I'd bet on WWE buying the library. They would at least inquire about it. As other have said, it would give them more Sting, Angle, Hardy footage. If they wanted to do more ECW stuff, they'd have more Raven and Dudleys footage. They'd have early CM Punk and Mickie James (and late Mickie James). They get more Hogan and Flair footage, not that most would be interested in that particular footage. Most importantly, they keep all major wresting footage in the WWE and away from someone else.

And, while this might be far fetched, let's say Jarrett's GFW gets somewhat popular. I'm sure there will be TNA guys there, now so more than ever. By acquiring the library, WWE would keep that footage out of their hands. Even if WWE doesn't want it, that doesn't me they'd like to see someone else with it.

At $1M or less, WWE could almost certainly turn a profit by producing specials and DVDs. At the very least they'd likely break even.

 

[Bockwinkel's Class]

Take a look at what the WWE owns in their archives. There are some terrible promotions with a terrible product in the vault. TNA has a slight following, and nearly half of their content will be available in HD. Getting the entire library for under a million is a steal. The WWE network will always be in need of new content, adding 1000+ hours of semi-current footage is a no brainer.

Hell, Vince owns the AWA's tape library for that matter. And World Class. Licensing, trademarks, tape libraries.....Vince has a history of going after them whether or not there's any real historical connection to the WWF/E. There's money to made in on the trademarks alone.

 

[baufan2025]

Meanwhile TNA: "I'm not dead yet!"

Even if TNA does go under Dixie will hold on to those tapes just so she can pull them out when she wants and see herself on tv.

 

[J.J.]

From a business standpoint this makes perfect sense. It doesn't totally matter about Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle and the Dudleys because WWE has plenty of footage of them.

They'll have footage to guys that weren't stars in WWE or even apart of WWE. Like Styles, Roode, Storm, Abyss, Joe, ect. Great Knockouts, X Division and tag team footage.

Not to mention Jeff Jarrett footage that Jarrett wouldn't be able to obtain himself.

 

[lil steroid meat]

Obviously them purchasing the library would be a good thing, you get complete Angle, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Hardy, Hogan, Flair and Sting sets along with an unbiased account of the company's rise and fall (I say unbiased because WWE has no stock, ego-wise, in how the story is told, since they were never "losing" to TNA; it was never personal like it was with WCW).

However I'd take it a step further and say that WWE should purchase TNA outright and run it as a separate brand/company under them. Let them have a separate writing team and allow them to take Main Event's television time, or even just run it on the Network after NXT. Maybe have Paul Heyman book it. It would be a neat way to offer alternative product without any real consequence. It's honestly what they should have done with WCW instead of a brand split. WCW should have taken Smackdown's spot.

 

[shafe_41]

As many of said, there's really no point. Hell... I could get a loan and buy the TNA Library for that much and figure out something to do with it. Other than the total career retrospectives on some of the guys that have been in TNA, WWE, etc... it holds no other value.

Plus if you want my opinion, I think the in-ring action of TNA from about 2004-2007 puts WWE to shame in that same time period. I got hooked on TNA back in 2006 and there were some pretty incredible matches happening on their PPVs. The only person those involved though were Angle. Maybe some Christian but I cant imagine WWE doing a career retrospective of Christian. I don't know. Personally, I don't think the TNA tape library has any value to Vince. He might do it just because it costs next to nothing. But I don't see the purpose.

 

[Navi]

How could you expect more hours of footage? They been around for 8+ years or what ever, but for the most part they only ever had 1 or 2 hours of wrestling on per week. For a few years I think they only had 1 3hr PPV a week or something I forget, and for a while they were only on 1hr on FSN. Unlike WWE which for the most part since the 80s they have had 2 to 3 programs per week. Like Superstars, Challenge, Primetime, PPV. Or like now with Raw, SD, Superstars, Main Event, PPV. The most shows, the more hours it adds up to.

I never really thought about the numbers, and to tell you the truth thought they had been around longer than that. Yea that sounds about right when you put it that way.

Cant see this bringing any hardcore fans over to the WWE though as they are pretty decisive in the fact that they don't like the WWE, and that's why they watch TNA to begin with. Even if the WWE brought in some of the bigger TNA names, they wouldn't switch or subscribe to the network. From what I've read they are most likely to follow Jeff Jarrett's new company before they'd commit to the WWE.

 

[d_henderson1810]

If WWE get access to the TNA library, then I am certain to subscribe to the WWE Network the minute it hits my country (Australia), because it means that I can watch every WWF/E, WCW, ECW AND TNA PPV ever! COOOL!

One of the first TNA matches I'd watch is the Kurt Angle-A.J. Styles 1-Hour "Ironman" Match I keep hearing about.

 

[4realpeoples]

F4WOnline.com stated a little while ago that there's speculation going around that WWE will make an offer to purchase TNA's video library if they're unable to secure a television deal with another network. According to the report, the going rate is currently $500 per hour of footage and that TNA has a little over 1,000 hours of TNA iMPACT/Impact Wrestling footage, that's not counting the various ppvs they've done over the years.

So, IF the amount per hour of footage is accurate, then the cost of the TNA's library of every TV show and ppv event would be somewhere in the neighborhood of about $650,000 to $675,000 range. So, again if that price is accurate, it'd be it's not exactly a huge sum of money for WWE to pay. I don't see there being a lot of demand for TNA footage, but it could be put to some degree of use I suppose at some point.

Purchasing the video library of TNA would only be worth while to WWE if and only if TNA was to go out of business. TNA might be in need of money but that doesn't mean it will be closing doors right after SpikeTV says no more wrestling. However, with the price for the footage WWE would be stupid not to buy the video library of TNA.

But when one analyzes the content of wrestlers that have appeared in TNA, WWE could use that footage for future documentaries. Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, CM Punk (yes... I know), Sting, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, Goldust, and there's even more. But most of these wrestlers have had one or more documentaries made for them already. Again, the TNA footage at that price would possibly generate many times what was paid for the library.

The footage could also be used to lure more subscribers to the WWE Network. Footage from WWE, WCW, ECW, WCCW, NWA, and with TNA added to that there is much more reason to sign up for the Network. I would actually watch some of the TNA footage if it did appear on the Network. But they would have to start recognizing their championships which may not be a bad thing.

Again this just merely speculation. I will believe that WWE has an interest in purchasing TNA's video library when there's an announcement on WWE.com or TNA videos appear on the WWE Network.

 

[Pedigree1]

I have no l idea why wwe would even be interested in TNAs library. TNA has been around for what 12 years or so. Pretty pathetic they have only 1000 hours of footage. That amounts too just over 100 hours a year of footage.

The offer though is pretty insulting to TNA but good for the wwe. If they are able to acquire TNAs library, I can imagine it would be immediately available on the network. As far as dvds go, angle, sting, and hardy would be the only gems out of the group. Maybe hogans last match. This of course only happens if TNA can't reach a tv deal

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

There's little point of WWE acquiring TNA's catalogue until they cease to operate, unless they can cut a deal whereby any future footage 'belongs' to WWE as well, which won't happen.

If and when TNA goes out of business, WWE WILL make a play for the catalogue, no doubt about it. Their game plan is clearly to be the archive of professional wrestling in North America (as an aside, I enjoy their documentaries, I wish they'd hurry up and do ones for the Canadian promotions they have footage for, like Stampede and Maple Leaf Wrestling!)

One thing I'd like them to consider - unlikely for a number of reasons but perhaps increasingly viable as the network needs an injection - is to offer spots on the WWE Network to the likes of Impact Wrestling, or perhaps even give an international presence to one or the Japanese major leagues? They aren't in competition with them, certainly not with TNA, but keeping TNA in existence will be good for pro wrestling, as the fewer promotions are around, especially 'exposed' promotions, the quicker the talent pool dries up as fewer youngsters pursue wrestling as a career.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Take a look at what the WWE owns in their archives. There are some terrible promotions with a terrible product in the vault. TNA has a slight following, and nearly half of their content will be available in HD. Getting the entire library for under a million is a steal. The WWE network will always be in need of new content, adding 1000+ hours of semi-current footage is a no brainer.

They may as well buy it. WWE own pretty much every tape library of US wrestling that is worth owning, and about $750,000 for everything TNA has ever produced would be more than worthwhile, even just for the footage the company has on Kurt Angle, Sting, The Dudleys and Jeff Hardy, maybe even Christian if WWE ever decided to do a DVD on him.

TNA have had a huge number of great talents appear in the company, and many big names of the past like Hogan, Flair, Nash, Savage, Hall etc. The DVDs WWE could release utilising this footage would make is a shrewd purchase in my eyes.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I've been waiting for the day when WWE would inevitably buy TNA/TNA's tape library for about 3 years now, I can't even imagine how anyone doesn't see the value in the purchase.

Leading up to WM31 and a Sting match, they could recoup the value of the footage on Sting's career alone. For other guys though, who are practically all but guaranteed to return to WWE one day (Angle, Hardy, etc.) it will be pivotal if they ever want to assemble a true career spanning DVD. Not to mention other talents, who I still fully believe will get a shot one day (even if it's brief) like AJ Styles or Samoa Joe.

Also, for all the TNA haters out there. I know that their product has been dodgy at best at times, the writing often subpar, even borderline unwatchable, but I will say this. Over the course of the last decade there have been a LOT of great matches, and this would be a really strong selling point for the network.