Ric Flair Predicted TNA Would Go Out Of Business A Year Ago


Ric Flair may not be an expert on life outside the ring, but when it comes to the wrestling business, he’s a man of foresight.

Just how much foresight?

Well, in August of 2013, while appearing on The Steve Austin Show, he told host “Stone Cold” Steve Austin that TNA would go out of business soon. And while that hasn’t happened just yet, here we are a year later and the company — also known as Total Nonstop Action and Impact Wrestling — has its work cut out for it if it plans to keep going.

That’s because earlier in the week, Spike TV cut ties with the wrestling promotion, opting to no longer broadcast the Impact Wrestling TV show, TNA’s primary source of exposure.

While owner Dixie Carter isn’t throwing in the towel just yet, she’s had to say goodbye to some of her best talents like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Frank Kazarian, and Sting.

TNA ratings have been pretty stagnant for a while, a fact most will blame on the hair-brained decision to go WCW 2.0 with has-beens from the defunct promotion derailing the momentum they were building for their new stars when they first signed with Spike nine years ago.

Instead of going all in with stars like Daniels and Styles, they decided to bring in has-beens such as Scott Steiner, Hulk Hogan, and Eric Bischoff.

At one point, the company even brought in Ric Flair himself, which is how he was able to foresee the current situation so far in advance.

Flair, speaking to “Stone Cold” last year, had this to say when asked about the future of the company:

“I don’t think much longer…. They’re making live TV now. Her [Dixie Carter] father’s tremendously wealthy, but at some point in time, you’ve gotta say man,” to which Austin added, “a write-off becomes a loss.”

“Yeah,” Flair added.

http://youtu.be/F22EPu3mqYg

While TNA does still have some decent talent onboard, in spite of what they’ve lost, it’s unlikely that many of them will be in it for the long haul without a television contract in place, and since the consensus is that Spike made the cancellation decision on its own, it would be unlikely for a network of equal footing to pick up the product without a low-ball offer.

What do you think, readers? Is the prediction Ric Flair made a year ago regarding TNA going out of business about to come true, or do Dixie and company still have some gas left in the tank?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]

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