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POOR TNA
One has to really feel for TNA Wrestling.
The promotion was slated to return to Spartanburg, SC for the first time in a decade this weekend, but Hurricane Helene had other plans.
In the wake of that horrific storm, the entire Spartanburg area as well as lots of other surrounding towns and cities have been devastated. One fan who lives in the area has described it as most of the area being without power, people charging their phones in their cars and very few gas stations and restaurants even being able to open currently.
That's the backdrop for TNA trying to film their final TV episodes leading to Bound for Glory in Detroit.
Forget running a building that may or may not have power. Let's think about all the other logistics: flying in and housing wrestlers and a crew for the shows, setting up and breaking down. Getting fans to attend in the aftermath of a complete, literal disaster zone being dropped in their hometown. Trying to produce a taping that looks suitable for the run up to your biggest show of the year.
It's almost unfathomable, but to their credit, TNA keeps trying to make the impossible happen, shifting the taping days in hopes of the power coming back on and being able to entertain the fans who still want to attend - while getting content for the company's most important asset, their weekly series.
In the midst of all this chaos, the company is at the same time trying to process refunds from fans who aren't able to attend the ever-shifting new dates, having to do so while their landscape keeps changing and trying to get this all processed through Ticketmaster, which even on the easiest days, their partners have to jump through hoops to get things processed.
Certainly, compared to the devastation Hurricane Helene has brought (and as someone who lives on the water in NYC, this sort of storm is one of my worst nightmares), what TNA is going through is nowhere near as important, but in a business where every piece of minutiae is criticized, TNA deserves some praise for trying to figure out a solution despite being thrust into a vortex through some truly bad luck and timing.
As I publish this, who really knows if the promotion will run those tapings and certainly they are going to be losing money between flights changing, hotels changing, dates changing, etc. but I give them credit for still trying to trudge through the impossible here. Even if the shows end up canceled, TNA is really trying to do their best to make the impossible happen.
TO FOX, OR NOT TO FOX - WHO KNOWS....YET
The latest alleged television deal for AEW is FOX, according to a conversation Swerve Strickland was having on a live stream that was immediately clipped and shared. For the record, I have no idea whether the two sides are talking but I do know that before FOX and WWE ended their relationship, I had heard FOX was soliciting ideas from other companies to at least test the waters and see what was out there - so I can absolutely see there were at least conversations.
That said, yes, we all heard what Swerve said, but I advise everyone to not get ahead of themselves.
One of the downsides of social media and seeing people throw out opinions as if they were fact and conjecture as if they were bible is watching the proliferation of utter silliness being thrown around, getting fans all excited for things that have no bearing in reality and seeing the disappointment and even bitterness when their theories and hopes don't come to life. It happens with comic book fans and Star Wars fans, and it happens a lot now with wrestling fans as well.
A great example was the fate of The Lucha Brothers in AEW. If you believed social media accounts purporting to be insiders, the team allegedly signed with WWE (not true), allegedly WWE was already designing and creating merchandise (not true) and that Tony Khan had allowed Rey Fenix to exit even though he had months and months of time that could be due the company due to past injuries (you guessed it, not true.) Even though PWInsider.com had reported the team was still signed to AEW, was still regularly communicating with AEW but not being used and could not legally sign elsewhere, the garbage continued to pile online, with some even claiming we were making things up or lying, because, that would benefit PWInsider.com...exactly...how? Yet, the team remain under AEW deals - and all signs are that Fenix may indeed have close to 3/4ths of a year left with the promotion.
The point here is there are a lot of people who want to completely delude themselves because they believe the first thing they happen to read or really, really want their wish fulfillment to come true. I get it. I wanted great things to happen that would make me happy as well in all the things I enjoy, but that's not life. So, even though Swerve Strickland made that comment, that doesn't mean a deal's done and assuming anything is, well, it's silly.
So, how about no one get ahead of themselves and assume it's a done deal, no one criticize the idea (yet) and everyone just assume the first opinions you hear aren't exactly stone cold facts.....Yeah, I don't think anyone will listen to me either, but one can dream, right?
NXT NEEDS PHILLY
There's been a lot of talk about NXT on the road and whether they will continue to run 'larger scale' tapings after next month's Chicago and Missouri dates. They want to put the best foot forward for their new broadcast partner, the CW Network and certainly, they want the brand to be something grander than running the Performance Center. They'll need venues they can fill, but if the Missouri move is any indication, they cannot regularly run the types of venues that Raw and Smackdown fill, especially not the day after a Raw show.
Enter the 2300 Arena. It makes sense that NXT could fill the venue, which has its own in-house lighting rig, video trons and backstage production area. If the place is good enough for MMA that airs on ESPN, why not utilize it for the CW Network?
I don't think NXT should run there weekly, but three or four times a year, it would be a nice destination building with great atmosphere and history that the brand can use to boost its energy level before a live audience.
Orlando is great, but the difference is, fans in Philly will pay to give you that level of engagement, so why not?
What would WWE have to lose?
SOMETIMES, A HAPPY ENDING
One has to be excited for Armando Alejandro Estrada, who did indeed get a happy ending with the signing of a WWE Legends deal earlier this month.
Estrada, who cut his teeth in then-WWE developmental Ohio Valley Wrestling before aligning with Umaga on WWE's main roster, was one of the best managers and talkers of the last few decades in WWE. The only problem was he accomplished all this when Vince McMahon ran the company, so everything that garnered attention from the fans at times ran roughshod against McMahon's ever changing whims.
Then, when Umaga was elevated to Wrestlemania 23 main eventer, you had Donald Trump and Vince McMahon involved in the Bobby Lashley story...and suddenly Estrada, despite being great, was out due to no fault of his own. He was relegated to WWE's ECW and later released. Then, when he received a second chance and was re-hired (since, you know, he was actually great at what he did), the company forgot to use him. Then, when he asked the company when he was starting, he was out again! It was stupid at the time and it's stupid looking back.
Estrada did some independents, opened a restaurant, had a family and moved on. He loved the business but he had a daughter to raise - a daughter who he never told he was even in WWE until she was 10 years old. Now, signed to a WWE Legends deal, he gets to be associated with the company again and is in the mix for video games, t-shirts, action figures and to once again be associated with Umaga - only now, his family, especially his daughter, gets to enjoy the ride as well.
For all the focus we all have at times on the seedy and sad side of professional wrestling, it's nice to see someone get a happy ending, especially when they never, ever deserved having the rug pulled out from under them to begin with.
Congrats Armando!
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com.
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