We know by now that Destination America is set to remove TNA Wrestling from it’s line-up by September. However, there are rumors that the network could remove the show by the end of the year. Now, it looks like Ring of Honor is also in danger of seeing the boot from Destination America at the end of the year as well, despite the numbers being respectable for them at their stage.
According to Cageside Seats , Destination America plans to remove both promotions by the end of the year because they want to move away from pro-wrestling.
This is clearly a big blow to both promotions, one of which has only had a small amount of time to really prove anything to the network. It does make sense, however, as they were hoping to see much higher numbers than what they are getting. However, this was expected by many pro-wrestling purists, as neither TNA nor ROH were capable of bringing in the kind of fans that a WWE is able to do on a normal basis.
TNA alone couldn’t get to a 2.0 in their history on Spike TV, so what makes anyone think they could get higher numbers or even the same when they moved to Destination America, a network on a higher cable package? Fans who might have watched off and on, or your random channel surfers will now be out of this discussion and then you’re left with families who either really love TNA or simply have higher incomes.
TNA was desperate to find a new TV deal by 2015, and Destination America bit. They bit for far less than TNA wanted or even needed, but at the same time, they were at least worthy of a deal. At this point, if TNA loses this TV deal, it is uncertain if any network will take a chance on them. There is a reason a company loses two television deals in the span of a year. That puts a lot of caution into play.
ROH is lucky if they lose their deal. They are still owned by Sinclair Broadcasting . They will still be able to broadcast on their networks. They simply wanted the Destination America deal because it is a national television contract. TNA will not have any of this.
TNA will attempt to survive on their overseas deals, where they do a good bit better than they do in America for whatever reason. However, many experts feel that this will not be enough to keep TNA going. ROH will not have any issue from this as they do not have big money contracts nor do they have any issue working without a big television deal. They’ve done it for years. One company will certain survive this loss, the other will have extreme difficulty.
[IMG Credit: YouTube]
