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WWE Buys TNA: Expect These 3 Things To Happen Next If Deal Goes Down

By Aric Mitchell
Published on: 19:43 PST, Sep 30, 2016

WWE and TNA have gotten a lot of press this week over a pending deal.

With Impact Wrestling showing signs of improvement — particularly on the backs of Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero — the possibility poses the question of what happens should the deal go down.

While a WWE-TNA deal would be good for most involved, the positive feels are bittersweet for many fans, who feel the Impact Wrestling product is just starting to come into its own thanks to the efforts of Billy Corgan.

The former Smashing Pumpkins frontman has injected fresh excitement into the brand with the Grand Championship Tournament and the build to Bound for Glory.

But now new reports indicate BFG might be cancelled as different interested buyers, Corgan included, circle the proverbial roadkill. Who ends up with ownership will ultimately determine what happens in the short-term with the company’s flagship pay-per-view as well as the long-term, with the question of whether it will even be on the air in a few weeks.

If Corgan is able to purchase majority interest in the company, look for Impact Wrestling to hang around, at least until it gets a better TV deal or Pop TV decides to eventually cancel. If WWE — one of the rumored interested parties, according to Flickering Myth — wins, it’ll be a different story entirely. In fact, here are the three most likely things you can expect.

1. Impact Wrestling will be cancelled.

WWE has very little reason to bring Impact Wrestling into the wrestling fold. It’s already something of a minor league wrestling promotion compared to Raw and Smackdown Live. For those two shows, the “minor league” already exists in TNA, and that product is often better received than WWE.

While it does feature some old school TNA talent, the show is mostly younger stars — the WrestleMania standouts of tomorrow. If Impact Wrestling were to continue, it would pretty much be NXT Lite.

2. The TNA Wrestling Library will hit the WWE Network.

Of the reports that name WWE as one of the interested buyers, the most likely purpose it would have for shelling out the necessary funds would be to purchase TNA’s content for the WWE Vault on the WWE Network. The direct-to-viewer channel is always adding new material from other promotions as well as the original WWE library. TNA would be one more thing it could offer to sweeten the deal and get people to part with their $9.99 per month.

It would also be beneficial to the company because many of their stars have landed at TNA throughout their careers, so it would offer a comprehensive overview of the latest talent way back when — especially important for engaging newer wrestling fans, who want to see more of today’s favorites when they were up-and-comers.

3. The roster will be stripped for parts.

Part of the tragedy of cancelling Impact Wrestling at this juncture is the fact it has some really strong talent working for it.

Bobby Lashley, Mike Bennett, Moose, Aron Rex, EC3, Maria Kanellis, Allie, Drew Galloway — this is but a short list of the true talents the division has — while not all would be a good fit for the main brand, they could eventually get there through a career resurgence in NXT.

Already the offshoot is using Bobby Roode, a former TNA great, as well as Samoa Joe. Since it’s a goal of Vince McMahon to tour NXT more and establish it as its own premier brand rather than just a training ground, parsing the best TNA talents to help develop younger wrestlers would be the way WWE would likely wish to go.

But what do you think, readers?

Is it a good idea to put in a bid for Impact Wrestling at this point? Does Impact Wrestling have a television future (or a future period)? What do you think WWE would do if it bought TNA? Sound off in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Simon Q/Flickr Creative Commons/Resized and Cropped/CC BY-NC 2.0]

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