TNA News: The Reason Behind Why Ring Of Honor Turned Down An Invasion Angle With TNA Wrestling
When Ring of Honor came to Destination America, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for TNA Wrestling. Not only was there rumors of TNA being removed from the network in September, but it looked like they were being replaced. Destination America executives didn’t tell TNA anything about ROH or what it meant for them until after everyone else knew. This seemed to be the network stabbing TNA in the back, and very undercutting. However, the network didn’t remove TNA. Instead, they are having ROH open for them each week.
Once this was made public, the idea of the two working together seemed obvious, right? Apparently not. TNA did want ROH to do an invasion angle with them. The two sides spoke on it a little while back. The idea was that it would help TNA greatly, since they need it. Plus, it would bring more attention to ROH. The issue in the end was that the two sides could not agree on how it would work.
According to PWInsider, TNA pitched the idea to ROH that they would like an ROH performer to come in and attack a TNA performer. They then wanted the ROH star to lose to a TNA star at a TNA event. ROH obviously didn’t want to do this, as it wouldn’t make them look good. On top of this, there was no word on a TNA star working an ROH event. It seemed like the two sides couldn’t agree on anything, so TNA went with the idea of an invasion from Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling.
This is what is known so far about the GFW/TNA storyline.
You might have seen a great deal of people signing with GFW, such as Magnus and Bobby Roode. Apparently, this is both real and part of a storyline. Many TNA stars are set to “defect” to the GFW brand. They will work GFW events, which helps the talent make money on the road while TNA is not doing any live events. They would then work TNA shows. Eventually, the two rosters will clash with one another. They might have some signed to both companies and make them choose which to side with.
There is really very little other information on this outside of that.
Many are wanting something secure. TNA is letting a lot of the contracts run out and plan to pay per event a talent is on. Without live events right now, there is really no security. People like Austin Aries took advantage of the situation and decided to return to Ring of Honor, where he knew there would be some added security and certainly a lot of live events outside of TV. The added TV deal only helped ROH financially, so they are looking to be in a good position.
This invasion angle with TNA is only being done to help with ratings. The problem is that GFW is not a big-name promotion. An ROH could have helped TNA’s numbers. It is doubtful anyone is going to buy up to get the Destination America network just to see this invasion. On top of all of this, invasions do not work as well as they could, because someone ends up losing and neither want that. The WCW/ECW invasion in WWE worked because WWE already owned the companies when they did the angle.
The idea presented that “there can only be one” worked out because, in the end, that was what it going to be regardless. While this invasion was certainly not brilliant, as many of the top WCW stars didn’t come in until after, it worked enough to make it a year-long storyline. With this, TNA might end up losing in the end simply out of business problems.
[IMG Credit: SportsRants.com, pwponderings.com]
