WWE News: TNA Flights And Matches Cancelled For TV Tapings, Is WWE Sale Imminent?
Possibly the biggest story of the week has to be TNA Wrestling and their possible sale. Right now, there are three parties involved in the possible sale of TNA. First is Billy Corgan, who has been with the company for a year now and was just named TNA president. The second is Sinclair Broadcasting, the company who owns Ring of Honor, who wants TNA due to the television deals they have overseas combined with the current cable deal they have with Pop TV in the United States. The third and final party is WWE, who truly wants TNA due to its library of content.
While WWE would most likely take on some of the TNA talent, especially those who they feel can fit in their system, they really just want content for the WWE Network. TNA’s library also allows for WWE to make DVD content for the likes of Samoa Joe and AJ Styles despite both having near or a little over a year in the WWE. On top of this, the TNA library also contains a decade’s worth of Kurt Angle and Sting matches that WWE would love to own.
According to a recent report out of the Inquisitr, it is said that Dixie Carter has been in talks for the last week with WWE regarding a possible sale, which makes some believe they are at the front of the line when it comes to a possible sale. While Billy Corgan makes the most sense, a lot gets in the way of this. Corgan did speak to Busted Open Radio today to talk about the entire TNA situation.
He said regarding the rumors of a TNA sale, “It’s reached a point where it’s going to have a transformational moment. Whatever’s going to happen this week or this weekend or whatever, is going to for sure – and this is not a wrestling angle – it is definitely going to change the direction of the company forever. Does that mean the company ends, does that mean the company begins a new era, does that I still cannot see? Obviously I am very much on the side and very much invested that the company would continue.”
This at least makes some realize that what is going on is not an act of any kind and that TNA is certainly in the stages of change. The major issue right now is that clearly TNA is in an issue and there are a lot of jobs that could be lost if Billy Corgan does not take over ownership here. He went on regarding the TNA situation, saying,
“I would caution people — because look. I am a fan. We all read the dirt sheets and stuff like that, and certainly the people that you mentioned — their word and their sources carry a lot of weight in the business. But I would ask everyone to step back and think for a second about all the talent on this roster and all the people that work behind the scenes, who are sort of hanging in the balance here and don’t really know what’s going to happen. And so we have to very sensitive to what that means, because at the end of the day I am working very hard to acquire a majority share of this company and I plan on carrying this company forward.”
Fightful reports that TNA talent and anyone involved with TNA wants Corgan to take over. The main reason is because they know what a deal with Sinclair or the WWE comes with — job loss. The real problem is that regardless of what happens with Billy, TNA is losing a lot of money. It is estimated that Corgan is worth $40 million, but he may have to give away a good chunk of that worth to buy TNA, and there is no telling what could occur if he does buy.
Let us say he does, can he really expect to solve TNA’s financial crisis right now? He’d have some help from investors, but unlike before when he just stepped in to help, he’s now paying it all with hope that investors would fork over some money when he needed it. If they aren’t doing that a lot now, why would they then? Corgan has had to step in right before and even on the day of tapings so that things got filmed. This kind of thing just can’t happen all the time.
A new monkey wrench was just thrown into play as well. Wrestling Inc reports that TNA has cancelled several flights and matches that were set to take place for the upcoming set up of Impact Wrestling tapings next week. Inc reports that talent they spoke with were nervous about the entire situation and that they didn’t even know if TNA Bound for Glory would even be happening at this point. This is possibly the biggest development regarding TNA, as the tapings were said to be going on as recently as yesterday.
If Corgan were to have bought the company, those tapings very well would have gone on as he would have funded them. He also doesn’t want to run into any problems with Pop TV, as TNA has to have content ready for them next week and beyond. While they can always run “best of Impact” matches for the next few weeks, they clearly cannot do this forever. The focus at this point seems to be Bound for Glory, but clearly those tapings are important to the PPV too.
With all of this going on, it seems more likely than ever that WWE or Sinclair may have already won the bid. WWE’s offer was said to have been relatively low considering what they paid for the likes of ECW and WCW who were worth more than TNA. They valued TNA at $8 million simply due to the library. WWE could also take on the debt of TNA and would cut many talent contracts, as well as all of management and all of production. Therefore, any of the major future debts would be gone outside of talent deals they chose to keep.
Corgan clearly confirmed exactly as the reports have claimed that TNA has to be sold as soon as this week. Things will certainly get interesting as the days pass. Each day we learn something new regarding TNA and their possible future. With this being a three-horse race with one side looking like it’s going to win off and on, we don’t truly know what will happen and can only really speculate who will come out on top at the end of this thing. The only thing for sure is that the Carter family will be out of the wrestling business by next week.
[Featured Image by Wrestlingnews.co]
