TNA branching out: Will it have any effect?

[Enigma]

According to Variety, Jeff Katz's American Originals has signed TNA Wrestling to a branding deal. American Original will work with TNA to help brand the company in regards to entertainment industry opportunities.

TNA recently received positive publicity for their part in the recent Comic-Con event, where TNA received its biggest exposure in front of the Hollywood industry. Katz will also be working with former WWE Creative member Chris Bell to adapt the sports documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster into a scripted feature. Katz will also be working with Paul Heyman on a potential project.

Hollywood producer, Jeff Katz, has posted more information regarding American Original's decision to sign TNA. "I've sat idly by for years as the business crumbled, new brands and talents emerged and the current status quo was established," Katz said in his blog on The Heyman Hustle site, "Well, I'm no fan of the current status quo. I think the wrestling industry needs to stop fighting the wars of the late 90's and start looking forward. I think it's time to evolve and I look forward to working with Dixie Carter and company to give her company and this business a little something different".

And TNA continues to rise.

If anyone doesn't know what it means exactly, TNA will be able to get their wrestlers on TV talk shows, Movie deals like WWE films has, etc.

 

[AzLunchbox]

Not only that but there's now (if i read correctly) a mutual link between TNA and Paul Heyman!!!!!!

That could possibly lead to bigger and better things! here's hoping.

 

[rnzrkorip]

tna continues to rise, and wwe continues to sink (at least it seems like it at times). how very interesting. sad, but interesting none the less.

 

[Jimmbo420]

This is so exciting!!!! I love TNA and it is so awsome and facinating to watch its growth...over the last year since BFG '08 they have grown SO MUCH....its truely amazing and awsome to watch if youre a tna fan.

does anyone know when TNA and this company will start working together??? right away i hope!!!

and what does this mean?? better production value for impact?

first the playboy deal, now this!! lets go TNA!!

 

[blair4107]

Seems like just yesterday TNA was still running the weekly PPVs. Ha, anyone remember TNA Impact on FSN? It aired at like morning/afternoon on Fridays, terrible time slot then Spike picked it up and still aired TNA in a bad time slot (Saturday night) but they made them prove themselves worthy before moving them up to primetime. More time passes, they gain an hour to their programming. So far, for all the criticism it gets the company still just seems to be growing fine.

As others have said, now TNA will now have all new opportunities like being able to act in films (and without the embarrassing "WWE Films" logo).

 

[Lancer]

Well this is good news for TNA if they wish to grow...for some reason the company has been expected to grow exponentially overnight, since they have signed all these "huge" stars, and have gotten an extra hour on Impact and so forth.

Good step to gain some more exposure, as TNA stars will apparently have more TV appearances and roles in films and all that. What I hope they don't do is just throw all the former WWE stars in all the roles...this will do almost nothing to help TNA gain mainstream exposure, as the casual watcher will just wonder to themselves 'wasn't Kevin Nash retired from the WWF?' or something like that.

 

[Muffin Top Merkley]

WHO TOLD YOU THAT LIE! TNA IS A SINKING SHIP THAT IS SINKING SLOWLY! SO.... THEY ARE COPYING WWE AGAIN EH! THIS TIME WITH THE MOVIE BIZ DEAL THINGY!

First of all LOUD NOISES!

Secondly, TNA is coping WWE because they have partnered with someone who is in the movie buz? Really?

I suppose you:
-Never eat Burger King because they copied McDonalds.
-Never drink Pepsi because they copied Coke.
-Don't go on Facebook because they copied Myspace, Fiendster etc.

And don't act like the WWE has never copied things.
On Raw (June 27th,2009) They copied a Shaq commercial from ESPN almost word for word! (Scrabble)


But don't worry. Someday you'll become an adult, and will be capible of providing intelligent import into a conversation.

 

[Christian Battlez]

Well congratulations to Dixie Carter and TNA on continuing to move forward a little at a time. But how successful will any of these TNA wrestler featured films be? WWE stars like Kane, Ken Kennedy(at the time), Steve Austin, and John Cena have all been in films done by Lionsgate and the WWE. All of those films lost money except the Marine which broke even. People know those WWE stars they have name value. Not near as many people watch TNA so how can you expect them to make any money from people watching movies from relatively unknown wrestlers.

 

[Reddannihilation]

Well congratulations to Dixie Carter and TNA on continuing to move forward a little at a time. But how successful will any of these TNA wrestler featured films be? WWE stars like Kane, Ken Kennedy(at the time), Steve Austin, and John Cena have all been in films done by Lionsgate and the WWE. All of those films lost money except the Marine which broke even. People know those WWE stars they have name value. Not near as many people watch TNA so how can you expect them to make any money from people watching movies from relatively unknown wrestlers.

Actually, as a film student I can tell you right now that by not having the films centered around the fact that the star is a wrestler is a good thing. The reason all of the WWE films you mentioned flopped is because they were horrible. They just expected all of the WWE fans to go and see them because they had WWE stars in them so little effort was put into the scripting, acting, etc. By comparison a film starring say, Christopher Daniels (no idea if he has acting skill) could turn out a better film, because more work would be done on the story, etc.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

It has been recently reported that TNA has signed a "branding" deal with American Original(a production company). The company American Original will help "brand" the company in regards entertainment industry opportunities.

The American Original brand will help represent TNA, with things such as movie deals, talk show appearances, cross branding(like the already confirmed Playboy deal)and will most likely lead to more sponsor ship deals and it will no doubt get TNA's name out. But do you think in the large spectrum will it do anything?

Just because "TNA Superstar" Kurt Angle is co-starring in some shitty Dlist movie will the ratings go up? Will the playboy angle draw any new perverts(opps I mean fans ).

Is it going to breath new life into TNA. And what kinds of promoting/branding would you like to see?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Well, I don't necessarily think it's going to hurt TNA by at least trying. However, I doubt that this will ultimately change TNA's direction when it comes to a ratings increase. While a Knockout in Playboy magazine might seem like a big deal, what's really going to make it stand out? I mean, Playboy has never had some girl with a hot body and big ol' knockers get butt ass nekkid in it's pages right??? Right?????

As to the movie thing, I wouldn't exactly get my hopes up about anything major happening with that. For the most part, professional wrestlers and movies don't go well together. More often than not, they tend to be involved in very poor excuses for films. Dwayne Johnson may have made it in the movie biz, but Dwayne Johnson had a natural charisma coupled with good looks and athletic ability that Kurt Angle just doesn't have. But hey, we might all be surprised by it. I won't hold my breath, but never say never.

 

[Kenny Powers]

I'm hoping it will have an effect. It's great to see and listen to Kurt Angle on Howard Stern and Bubba the Love Spounge. Bubba is a huge TNA fan and is widely popular on satellite radio. I think playboy will help their chances too as long as the Knockouts don't suffer from the same curse as the former WWE divas. Triple H and John Cena are on talk shows and shitty movies, why not TNA. As long as TNA doesn't have celebrity guest hosts like Raw, they will be fine.

 

[yoshi_doce2006]

It wont hurt TNA. It will bring TNA more exposier and bring them in some more money sure, and that is what it is about. Making the money. In that area it is a good deal.

 

[LokiCobain]

haha as if WWE put out some quality films...

I agree with Jack-Hammer though, that it won't hurt. The more your name gets out there, the better. When ESPN bashes WWE, WWE is at least getting mentioned. There's no such thing as bad publicity. TNA got some exposure when Pac-Man Jones was involved with them, and more things like that won't hurt. They've gotten other minor celebrities (Kyle Vanden Bosch of the Titans and Granderson of the Tigers), and those are at least something. Kurt Angle on Late Night with Conan or other shows like that would be great for TNA, since he's a legitimate athlete in his own right. Even MVP on the View gained traction, so really anything will be at least a bit helpful.