IMPACT Wrestling Official Thread

All wrestling outside of ROH discussion welcome here!
User avatar
DXvsNWO1994
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9450
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:53 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by DXvsNWO1994 »

For all the talk of Low Ki burning bridges, TNA/GFW is the one bridge he never seemingly burns. He always leaves and comes back. Leaves....and then comes back. Rinse and repeat.
Image
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

Jeff Jarrett taking an indefinite leave of absence for "personal reasons". Apparently was intoxicated at Triplemania. Also there were plans for Jeff Jarrett vs Alberto El Patron at Bound for Glory.

And it appears that the GFW/Impact merger has not yet been completed, so Jeff could conceivably pull all the GFW branding from the company if they don't bring him back.

What a freaking gongshow.
Mr. Mojo Risin
Posts: 2400
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 11:37 am
Location: Wisconsin
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by Mr. Mojo Risin »

famicommander wrote: Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:36 pm Jeff Jarrett taking an indefinite leave of absence for "personal reasons". Apparently was intoxicated at Triplemania. Also there were plans for Jeff Jarrett vs Alberto El Patron at Bound for Glory.

And it appears that the GFW/Impact merger has not yet been completed, so Jeff could conceivably pull all the GFW branding from the company if they don't bring him back.

What a freaking gongshow.
LMFAO
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=112141

Looks like Anthem is already sick of losing dumptrucks full of money. Could be looking to sell GFW and get out of the wrestling business altogether.

Question is, will someone else line up to try to save this sinking ship again?

Wouldn't it be hilarious if Billy Corgan bought it and merged it with the NWA?

NWA-TNA -> TNA Wrestling -> Impact Wrestling -> Global Force Wrestling -> NWA
User avatar
Wilson
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1802
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:05 am
Location: US Northeast

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by Wilson »

Somehow, the company has still seen darker days. Wish the roster well and the company luck. I don't watch either promotion, but losing LU and Jarrett Vortex Wrestling so close to each other would be very bad for the industry.
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

Not necessarily. Sometimes a company needs to die so that its resources (in TNA's case it would be talent, media visibility, and video library) end up in the hands of more capable people. If after 15 years a company is still losing multiple millions of dollars and wasn't even really profitable when over 2.5 million people per week were watching, it's probably time to call it.

Lucha Underground would be a real loss simply because they do things no other promotions are doing. We're going to lose something unique.
User avatar
Wilson
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1802
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:05 am
Location: US Northeast

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by Wilson »

For wrestling fans who don’t care much for either promotion, of course it’s damage unnoticed. It’s bad for the wrestling industry because lots of people will be out of a job, talent will be offered wages lower than they deserve, televised wrestling gets halved, freelance talent will have two less places to work, investors might get weary about the business in general, affiliated promotions will have adverse effects, etc.
User avatar
supersonic
Posts: 7665
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Edgar Martinez Dr S
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by supersonic »

User avatar
DXvsNWO1994
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9450
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:53 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by DXvsNWO1994 »

So this is such a strange situation that brings up so many questions. What's weird is that we've been going through this same song and dance with TNA/GFW every summer/fall for the last several years. It's almost seasonal. The leaves are starting to change colors, the return of (American) Football is upon us, and TNA is once again on it's death bed. It's almost gotten to the point where TNA potentially dying has become a "boy who cried wolf" situation.

I'm surprised that this Anthem deal is seemingly falling apart at the seams. It honestly seemed like things had stabilized, but I guess not. What's even more surprising is that Anthem hasn't even bothered to complete the trademark on "GFW" yet, so Jarrett could literally take the name and leave the TV show (and the company as a whole) without an identity.
Image
User avatar
supersonic
Posts: 7665
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Edgar Martinez Dr S
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by supersonic »

Observer:
Impact Wrestling announced on 9/5 that Jeff Jarrett, who was running the wrestling end of GFW and is part-owner of the company, was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company to deal with personal issues.

According to those close to the situation, the personal issues aspect of the story is legitimate and public story is accurate. The public statement made by the company is that Jarrett would be available as a consultant as needed.

It was clear that the decision was not something he knew about in advance because he sent out a Tweet that morning talking about going back into the office to start a day of work, and that day was scheduled to host a party for the company staff at his home, which ended up being canceled.

However, others in the company were aware of this for at least a week. There were a long list of reasons involved that date back several months, including a screaming match with Bob Ryder at a television taping, although issues between the two were settled quickly, but it was said the situation was very bad when it happened. Another was what Reby Hardy called unprofessional drunk text messages that were sent to her that she had talked about on Twitter some time bac regarding her own going public on the Broken Hardy intellectual property argument. The messages had gotten around to some in the company. There were other incidents and it appears the breaking point, had to do with his behavior at TripleMania in Mexico City on 8/26, where Ed Nordholm, who runs the company for Anthem Sports, was on the trip and who is the person who made the call to remove Jarrett. Jarrett was said to be not in shape for wrestling, but also stumbled down the ring steps (although he wasn’t the only person on the show who had trouble with the steps) and did little wrestling.

There was also an argument with Vampiro backstage that night, since the few people aware ahead of time were talking about it after Ed Nordholm and Jarrett had gotten back from Mexico. There was another incident, although one could argue Jeff was in the right, where he got into a confrontation with Jhonny Gonzalez, the superstar boxer in Mexico who held four world titles and is married to Sexy Star. It was when Jarrett was telling Sexy Star that she was out of line and needed to apologize and Gonzalez, who is not a big guy, a champion at featherweight and bantamweight, got in Jarrett’s face and defended his wife. I’m not sure if Jarrett knew who he was at first, but at one point he did know and they were face-to-face and Jarrett told him he didn’t give a shit who he was, that she was out of line and needed to apologize.

Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reported that with Anthem losing significant money, that sources close to the situation say Anthem is ready to pull out of running a wrestling company and is ready to sell. Multiple sources in the company deny the story, but that type of story is also always going to be denied until it happens for the obvious morale reasons. Also, because even those at the top would probably not be in the loop on a sale and have it kept from them if there is such a thing.

One person who denied the story said, “Anthem wouldn’t be spending a considerable amount of money to launch the new multi-company app we just announced last week on TV if the plan was to shut down and sell the tape library. It was the long-term goal from the start. All the cross-promotional matches we are doing is being done to lay the groundwork for content that will be offered on the OTT, AAA, Crash, NOAH and Impact libraries. Costs have been brought way under control and they are pretty far into plans to move everything to Toronto. Huge tax savings and government assistance.”

On the 8/31 TV show, the announcers had talked about the Global Wrestling Network streaming service. They didn’t go into detail, just saying it would be launched soon. They will be streaming Impact, likely after it first airs on TV in the U.S., Canada and U.K. I’d think, similar to what ROH does.

Still, there is no way they can make the revenues, at least at any time in the near future, to cover the expense of the promotion, so whoever owns it would have to have deep pockets to cover losses for an extended period of time, with no guarantees things would change.

As noted last week, the inability to get a new U.S. television deal, and thus remaining on Pop, was bad because it’s clear the company can’t grow financially while on the station and the current status doesn’t appear to have any way to make money. In addition, after testing the waters with the three house shows in the Northeast, one of which was canceled and neither of which drew well, no future house shows are on the schedule, as is nothing past television tapings in November after Bound for Glory.

Barrasso noted the value in selling to WWE, which would acquire a tape library that could be used for the WWE Network and other projects since it contains footage of some of the biggest names of the modern era, including many who are stars on the current roster like A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode. However, given that Anthem also owns The Fight Network, it means the tape library has a lot of value to them as a station and even if they were to sell the wrestling company, the value of the tape library to them is significant. Selling the tape library would appear to be the least likely thing that would happen out of this right now.

When Dixie Carter was in talks with WWE in the past, which was denied to those in the company at the time, it was about selling the tape library as WWE had no interest in running the promotion. An added situation is that the intellectual property the company claims ownership includes the Broken Hardy gimmick, which would remove any obstacles of the Hardy using the gimmick in WWE.

It isn’t clear who else would be interested in buying the company. When it was for sale the last time, the only interested parties were Billy Corgan, ROH and WWE.

Last year Corgan was interested in taking over the company. Corgan and Nordholm have had talks, as he worked as a liaison in an unsuccessful attempt to settle the Broken Hardys issue and they have talked, but those close to Corgan have said there have been no approaches to Corgan regarding the company being for sale, and one would think if it was for sale, the first people talked with would be Corgan, WWE and ROH.

Clearly in response to sale talks, TNA sent out a release later that day talking about plans to launch the Global Wrestling, a streaming service giving news access to the complete TNA and GFW libraries, a key thing because the idea is if they were selling the company or tape library, they couldn’t launch the network. They also announced an Impact Wrestling Channel on Pluto TV, an over-the-top service in the U.S. They announced Impact would remain on Pop TV as we reported last week, and remain in the Thursday at 8 p.m. time slot. They also announced a deal with 7Sports to put Impact on ran FIGHTING, a fighting station that airs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Because all the paperwork on the GFW merger with Impact Wrestling hadn’t been completed, the talks would be regarding Impact Wrestling and not GFW. One source close to the situation described the merger as being far from done, even though the company sent out a press release on the merger April. However, the feeling is that for the time being, it makes no sense to do another rebranding, so the GFW name will continue to be used on television.

The creative side of the company right now will be in the hands of John Gaburick, Scott D’Amore and Sonjay Dutt. Gaburick being one of those in charge of wrestling becomes interesting since there was a lot of heat and criticism from when he was in charge in the past. All the key people on the creative end were either brought in specifically by Jarrett or those who are long time friends of his. D’Amore was the company’s booker when it had its best run as far as the PPV business and quality of PPV shows went. D’Amore will also remain the company liaison to Japan, NOAH in particular, and Jeremy Borash will remain the liaison to AAA and The Crash in Mexico.

Jarrett had been on television doing a television feud with Dan Lambert, although like when Alberto Rodriguez (El Patron) was suspended, the pre-taped television wasn’t changed. Jarrett was also scheduled for a package that was put together before he was let go for Jarrett and Jeremy Borash to comment on the Sexy Star situation from TripleMania.

PW Insider had reported that Jarrett vs. Alberto had been scheduled for Bound for Glory on 11/5. That match was going to originally be set up with an angle at TripleMania, which would have been inserted into the show. However, Alberto was not at TripleMania due to his own issues with AAA that weren’t resolved. The original version was that Jarrett would be teased against Alberto, trying to build an angle around Alberto’s suspension where he’d blame Jarrett for suspending him. In the original version, it would be a big swerve where everyone would think Jarrett would wrestle, only to have it changed the night of the show to Rey Mysterio Jr. However, that fell through and negotiations with GFW and Mysterio are no longer taking place as he’s heavily involved with The Crash and there had been too many issues between the two sides of late, and some dating back several months. Among those issues was the Crash heavily promoting Bobby Lashley and getting all his papers in order for a show in Tijuana, only to have Impact at the last minute replace him with James Storm. Another of which was that Jarrett had agreed to lose his hair to Mysterio at a big show in Tijuana later this year, and after shooting the angle, the next day, with no warning, Jarrett announced the Impact deal with AAA and ended up working TripleMania.

Still, those incidents happened prior to the talks of Mysterio vs. Alberto for Bound for Glory, and Mysterio was still in the plans for a surprise role, but in the end the negotiations for Mysterio fell through and all talks of him coming in right now appear to be dead. When Mysterio fell through, the idea changed back to Alberto vs. Jarrett in a singles match. At this point it’s not clear right now what role Alberto will have on the show.

Based on different sources, talent was said to be “80 percent” to “100 percent on board with the changes and were taking this move as a positive, although they couldn’t possibly be taking any rumors of a sale as a positive.

If the Lambert angle even lasts past Bound for Glory, it can be easily transferred to Jim Cornette as the GFW authority figure, since that’s also been pushed on television.

However, the status of both Cornette and Dutch Mantell, who were in the company due to longstanding friendship with Jarrett, are in question, although for now they are still with the company. One company source said the decisions regarding both men were up in the air, and in the case of Cornette, there was at least a feeling of downplaying or not having an authority figure, which is his television role and it all depends on creative direction. Cornette wasn’t involved in creative and his only role was as an on-screen authority figure. If authority figure angles are done away with, that changes a lot of the creative direction. Similarly, the future of Karen Jarrett and Bruce Prichard are up to the new creative team. Karen Jarrett was working in the office as well. Whether that continues is also up in the air.

The creative has improved under Jarrett, particularly the quality of the show stemming from the last television tapings. And most of the damage was done prior to his return, but the new storylines haven’t led to any kind of a ratings increase. And in the big picture, that’s a moot point with GFW having signed with Pop for another year, meaning they have television and short-term ratings are what they are. But even if ratings improve, they aren’t going to be able to make any serious money off U.S. television, which means from a business standpoint things will remain tough.

Rebecca Hardy posted on Twitter that, “Y’all trippin if you think Imma be anything but laughing at the misfortune of someone who went so out of their way to f*** with my family. FOH. Not gonna get a fake response out of me. You’d be doing the same thing if you were in my shoes.”
maxx_powerz
Posts: 406
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:18 pm

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by maxx_powerz »

When they say that "ROH" was interested in buying Impact last year, I wonder (assume?) if that really should be SBG. And if so, what their intent was / is. Run both promotions independent of one another to double their content? Merge them under one name, maybe after an "Invasion" angle? Hard to imagine the video library was the driving force since they aren't even making use of the library they already have.
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

Mike Johnson did say some time ago that ROH is working on an over the top digital service, and I did get that email from the help line saying a new website is on the way. Of course, we don't have any timelines but it wouldn't be too surprising if it were just the video library.

If GFW/Impact actually loses as much money as it's rumored to, I don't see why Sinclair would want the whole thing. They have some good talent and good UK+India TV deals, but not much else. Probably makes more sense to just buy the video library and try to sign individual talents.

There are a lot of guys with a shared ROH/TNA history so there's a lot of potential for new compilations and documentaries, too.
dhads7161
Posts: 2193
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 11:23 pm
Location: Southeast Missouri

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by dhads7161 »

Hell, a DVD of TNA/ROH doppleganger matches from the early days.
famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

Sounds like they're rebranding back to Impact again.

Also, they're running Bound for Glory and then 5 days of Impact tapings at a venue built in 1898 in Ottawa. Nordholm said they are "hoping" for 500 fans per night.

Six nights in a row is a lot, especially considering they're going to have to charge for tickets unlike at the Impact Zone.

Still pretty sad that they "hope" to draw 500 fans to their biggest show of the year with a card that will feature Johnny Mundo, EC3, James Storm, Eddie Edwards, El Hijo de Fantasma, Texano, Pagano, Eli Drake, Bobby Lashley, and Alberto El Patron (and presumably some NOAH talent). Not to mention Canadians like Gail Kim and ol' Petey Williams.
User avatar
supersonic
Posts: 7665
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Edgar Martinez Dr S
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by supersonic »

User avatar
DXvsNWO1994
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9450
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:53 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by DXvsNWO1994 »

So has anyone actually tried out the Global Wrestling Network yet? Any opinions?
Image
User avatar
supersonic
Posts: 7665
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Edgar Martinez Dr S
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by supersonic »

Best place for that discussion is Wrestling Forum’s TNA section.
User avatar
supersonic
Posts: 7665
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 8:53 pm
Location: Edgar Martinez Dr S
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by supersonic »

famicommander
Posts: 3446
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:15 am

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by famicommander »

At this point if it comes out next week that John Gaburick has been huffing paint thinner while writing their shows, I won't be surprised.
TYFDK
Posts: 3590
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:34 pm
Contact:

Re: The TNA Thread

Post by TYFDK »

In positive news, there's a UFC fighter on an MMA news show live on Twitter right now advertising Bound for Glory, so that's pretty cool.
Post Reply