TNA Wrestling: Circling The Wagons Or Circling The Drain?
TNA Wrestling has officially lasted approximately one year longer than World Championship Wrestling did, and while TNA, at its peak, never reached the levels of success that WCW did, the similarities in missteps, lack of leadership, and eventual demise, are aspects that the two companies share in common.
Much has happened since TNA started back in 2002. Jerry and Jeff Jarrett founded TNA, which had an auspicious beginning as a weekly pay-per-view event. During a time when entertainment brands were just figuring out that the internet was even a tool they should consider, the Jarretts were banking on weekly, reasonably-priced events that spread the going PPV rate of roughly $40 per month across four weeks. From there, the company jumped to a syndicated time slot on Fox Sports before landing on Spike TV, which had rebranded as a men’s lifestyle channel and had experienced ratings success as TNN with WWE Monday Night Raw‘s brief early-2000’s temporary departure from the USA Network, a network to which WWE would later return.
From 2004 to 2010, TNA taped and broadcast their weekly IMPACT! television show from Universal Studios, Florida, which was also, ironically, the same location that WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff moved television tapings to after pulling WCW off the road, eliminating house shows during a time when the company couldn’t draw. While the Universal Studios crowd, made up largely of theme park attendees, were not necessarily comprised of fans of professional wrestling, it made for a suitable ambiance drawing local wrestling die hards creating an environment known to TNA fans as the “Impact Zone.”
The company had gained significant momentum by offering professional wrestling fans an alternative to the programming WWE was producing on USA. TNA employed a six-sided ring and hedged their bets largely on older, more recognizable personalities such as Jeff Hardy and Olympic gold medal wrestler Kurt Angle to join a roster of younger, self-made and independent wrestling stars, such as A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe. In addition, TNA elevated the cruiserweight style wrestling brought to the forefront via WCW’s Cruiserweight Division with their own X-Division, featuring high impact, exciting talents such as Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and ECW mainstay Jerry Lynn.
Then, in 2010, TNA President Dixie Carter, who had assumed operational control of the company when Panda Energy, an energy company owned by her father Bob Carter, purchased a controlling interest in TNA, announced the signing of wrestling’s biggest icon, Hulk Hogan, and his co-hort, the man who had brought WCW to prominence, Eric Bischoff. Upon Hogan and Bischoff’s advisement, TNA began making aggressive changes to the company’s brand, including switching to a traditional four-sided ring, launching an aggressive touring schedule, and going live, head-to-head, against Monday Night Raw.
TNA’s ratings never spiked due to the signings of Hogan, Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Scott Steiner, and a whole slew of aged, if familiar, wrestling legends. An attempt to recapture the magic of the nWo was even attempted with Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean Waltman being brought in as “The Band,” as in, “The Band is back together.” Unlike the New World Order, however, this group featured Scott Hall and Sean Waltman deep in the throes of addiction, as well as an aged Nash rendered virtually immobile due to age and injury.
Meanwhile, Hogan, who most certainly made Panda Energy break open the piggy bank, was plagued by severe back injuries that necessitated several invasive surgeries and kept him out of the ring with the exception of a couple of forgettable showings against and with Sting. TNA changed the name of their flagship show to Impact Wrestling, dropping the Total Nonstop Action aspect of their name while never actually changing the name. The show became untenable, the budget grew out of control, and the constant changes and tweaks made a poorly written show virtually impossible to follow. Then there was Vince Russo, for apparently longer than anyone realized. The downward spiral had begun.
Following Hogan’s departure and subsequent return to WWE, TNA continued to be in flux. Former WWE staffer “Big” John Gaburik assumed control of the creative direction of the company, despite having no direct experience with writing a wrestling show. Another person who had no experience was Smashing Pumpkins lead singer and lifelong wrestling fan/frequent ECW appearer Billy Corgan, who was hired on to the writing staff, and according to Peter Helman of Stereogum, is quitting twitter, in part, to concentrate on his duties with TNA.
Perhaps TNA’s most tumultuous period has come over the last year and a half. TNA’s main face, A.J. Styles, left the company following a protracted contract negotiation, followed by Daniels and Kazarian. Then TNA lost their television deal with Spike, losing the prime source of revenue the company had. The company went into immediate damage control and scheduled several overseas tours in an attempt to tape as many weeks of Impact Wrestling ahead of time as possible. Frequent word began to circulate of late, and sometimes entirely missed, paychecks and a tightening of the purse strings by the elder Carter. Guaranteed contracts were abolished for all but a select few, and many TNA mainstays, including “Cowboy” James Storm, Eric Young, and Magnus, were released from their contracts and subsequently signed with Jeff Jarrett’s new venture, Global Force Wrestling. To make matters worse, TNA’s new television home, Destination America, opted not to renew Impact, leaving TNA without a TV home, and the revenue that comes with it, for the second time in a year.
Deadspin‘s Tom Breihan says that he “isn’t ready to pull the plug on the company just because they don’t have a TV deal,” but the fact that even a minor cable network like Destination America doesn’t want TNA programing speaks volumes about how the company is viewed. While professional wrestling has always been a consistent ratings winner, it’s a tough sell to advertisers when the product is good, which TNA’s, despite excellent young talent who are producing physically impressive matches, sadly, is not.
Breihan might not be willing to call it, but TNA’s demise is almost a certainty at this point. The only surprise will not be when it happens, but that it didn’t happen years sooner.
[Cover Photo: TNA Impact! Logo / TNA Entertainment, L.L.C.]
