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Obviously the big news is that TNA has signed a TV deal with Destination America. The company is currently working on finalizing plans for their next TV tapings, which may come as soon as the week of 12/15 in the Mid-West. The company also has holds on The Manhattan Center in New York City the week of 1/6, but if they tape in December, they may let those holds go and instead tape in January during the European tour.
As Dave Scherer and I discussed in detail yesterday in the PWInsider Elite section, one of the reasons TNA signed with Discovery’s Destination America is that the company will be an important cornerstone of the Network. While they are taking a step backward in the amount of potential viewers who receive the Network vs. their former home at SpikeTV, they will be much more at the forefront of the Network’s promotional and marketing ends. Destination America’s social media changed all their graphics to showcase TNA talents as soon as the deal was signed. The Network will also provide TNA with the chance to potentially produce additional programming beyond Impact Wrestling, which considering how badly Dixie Carter has wanted to get into reality TV, may be the proper venue for her. Carter was adamant during TV negotiations that the company not just sign a deal for just another two hours of Impact Wrestling, feeling that if they did that, the company was dead in the water in terms of growing their brand in the future. She wanted a partner they can grow with and they may have found that in Discovery Communications.
Although it’s been portrayed that TNA was in dire straights without SpikeTV, that really wasn’t the case as the company had a number of potential suitors they were negotiating with via their representatives at UTA. It was entirely possible TNA was going to land at WGN America, although that would have meant they were off TV until the second quarter of 2015, which TNA just couldn’t have for obvious reasons. There were also discussions at different points, that we are aware of, with FOX (I am told the ownership of the series was a big sticking point there, as it was when the company met with them in 2010) and with CMT.
Then there was SpikeTV. A SpikeTV source states they were still in discussions with TNA for a “lesser deal” before the two sides agreed they were parting ways just a few weeks ago. Spike had wanted to pay less for the programming as they and TNA were unable to hit the 2 million viewer milestone that was agreed upon as a goal when they signed their last deal in 2010, but there was still interest in maintaining the relationship in the company. After all, SpikeTV Network President Kevin Kay didn’t just happen to show up to one of the NYC TV tapings for no reason, didn’t keep them on the air “to be nice” and didn’t salute TNA on the way out – the two sides were still negotiating. Those negotiations ended, officially, about 2-3 weeks ago, according to Spike sources, who told me that TNA was never going to get additional programming on Spike, especially when there was a major push within the network to put their resources towards more serious dramas. In the months to come, there will be a serious attempt to rebrand the appearance of the network into something grander. Spike wants to be more AMC and less of a “Cops” rerun network.
The reality was that even if TNA had signed a new deal with Spike, they weren’t going to get the type of promotional push that Destination America was going to offer and the chance to do additional programming, something TNA has wanted for years, as recently as wanting to broadcast what are now the One Night Only PPVs as monthly specials, which Spike declined.
TNA officials are extremely happy that the deal, which was agreed upon about a week or two ago and finalized earlier this week, was done, especially in an environment where Jeff Jarrett has been pitching a promotion and there’s a belief that others (Eric Bischoff's name has been bandied about, but I believe he is still under a no compete with TNA) have been as well, but have been unable to get a TV deal done while TNA was able to get something locked in for the next several years.
The feeling internally is that now that the TV deal is done, they can work on locking in some new talent deals, focus on the creative for 2015 and re-work the company from the inside out, something John Gaburick has been working on. The live event touring will likely remain light for the time being as the feeling is it can’t currently support them financially the way that it needs to, so it’s going to be babysteps in that they are going to work on building storylines and securing talent first and hopefully bring in fan interest before trying to take the product back out on the road. They are already working on overhauling the TNA website, with Josh Mathews already on board working on the digital end of the company.
On the talent side of things, Kurt Angle, who WWE offered a one-year, full-time deal to several months back, was at the forefront of the Destination America promotional material and looks to be remaining in a part-time position as he attempts to also bridge into more acting work. Gail Kim, who’s deal was expiring, was also promoted heavily. Bobby Lashley, in the midst of his best career run to date, will split his time between TNA Wrestling and Bellator. Others who’s deals have expired have agreed to work on a per appearance basis. The lone talent question mark that remains currently is Bully Ray, who may have actually ended up too expensive for TNA to re-sign given what his market value is worth, but now that TV is secure, that could change as well. He’s obviously valuable in terms of being able to get heat, have good matches and bring others up to a higher level over the course of working programs with him. In 2014, those are all very desirable qualities.
TNA sources declined to comment on Alberto Del Rio’s statement to fans over the weekend that he was coming into the company.
With the move from SpikeTV, TNA is now off TV in Canada as of January. A top TNA executive stated yesterday that the company is already working on securing a new deal in that country, so for those of you who are North of the Border, TNA hasn’t forgotten about you. The company’s other international TV deals are unaffected by signing with Destination America, although the deal gives Discovery Communications (Destination’s parent company) the rights to distribute TNA Impact Wrestling internationally in certain markets that weren’t named in yesterday’s announcement.
Impact Wrestling will remain a two hour series. What day of the week it will air has not yet been finalized, although Tuesday or Wednesday appear to be the smart bets.
What is believed is that TNA is getting far less from Discovery then they were getting from SpikeTV, so any moves the company makes going forward will have to be from the perspective of getting the most out of the least. They are going to have to be smart with their spending and with what they do. After all the cost-cutting they have gone through in recent years, TNA has to work within their new budgetary concerns in order to survive or thrive long-term.
TNA will continue with SpikeTV episodes through 12/24, with next week’s episode billed as the start of a look back at “The Best of 2014” for the promotion. There was actually a hell of a lot of good wrestling towards the second half of the year, so the company will have a lot of good matches to showcase.
Oh and as if there wasn’t enough going on, TNA crowned new champions last night with Taryn Terrell winning the Knockouts title and Low Ki winning the X-Division belt.
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