TNA Impact Wrestling has had a truly sad fall over the last year. While the ratings have stayed pretty much the same, and rescinded a bit, since it premiered on Spike TV in 2006, the expiration of that contract, followed by a temporary renewal through the end of the year, has created a difficult situation for Dixie Carter and Company.
With uncertain futures, many of Carter’s finest wrestlers have left the company for the Indy scene, and she has had a difficult time cobbling together coherent storylines for fans to stay tuned.
Those problems manifested themselves in a big way with the latest ratings release of the TNA Impact following Bound For Glory, typically the company’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year.
The show going in to BFG drew a 0.85 cable rating and posted 1,102,000 viewers. After BFG, you would think that viewers would want to tune in and see the fallout, but the exact opposite happened.
Instead of seeing a bump or even a status quo, Lords of Pain reports that the number fell to a 0.8 rating with 982,000 viewers.
Most believe this is due to the uncertainty that continues to surround the product. While WrestleZone reports that TNA will announce a new TV deal within the next 10 days — and that report was two days ago by the way — the deal isn’t done yet .
Wrestling legend Jim Ross — an industry expert — has said on numerous occasions that TNA Impact will not survive without a U.S. television deal.
Sensing this to be the case, the company has seen an exodus of top performers, and so it does make life difficult on Carter when it comes to keeping her company together.
Nevertheless, the ratings nosedive for this latest edition of the weekly wrestling show is indicative that the problem may go beyond bad luck and speak to an overall disappointment in the product.
Bound For Glory buy rates would paint a more complete picture of whether the in-ring product is turning off fans, but the company doesn’t usually announce that, so it’s hard to tell.
One particularly sad thing about the low ratings for this latest edition: it featured one heck of a fatal four-way main event with Eric Young, Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, and Bobby Roode squaring off against one another.
Hopefully, Dixie Carter will be able to put together a U.S. television deal soon, or perhaps a big signing , in order to attract more top performers and keep her current roster happy.
Until then, what do you think caused the ratings drop for TNA Impact ?
