TNA asks AJ to leave ROH

[Guest TDinDC1112]

http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=1342&p=1

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Well...I think TNA was way out of line. RoH doesn't run anywhere near the south...so they aren't competition.

 

Until TNA gets TV and starts trying to run house shows...whatever their talent does on non-Wednesdays should remain none of their concern.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I will however...take this as a sign that things are actually moving in a positive, forward direction for TNA on the important expansion front...and let this thread get back to it's natural course...

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

The thing that kills me about this is that it simply shows how little TNA really knows......that is if this is true. But still, you figure that they might realize that having AJ wrestling in ROH might get them some more buys from people that watch ROH and usually never watch TNA. Now, I don't only mean AJ here. This could potentially be terrible for guys working in ROH.......

[Guest TDinDC1112]

You know, I don't understand how people think they're not in competition. If I have $40 I set aside every month for wrestling (keeping in mind I don't care about WWE), I can either buy 2 ROH tapes or get TNA every week. In both cases, both business plans are laid out where people have to spend $$$ to watch the product. Gate is irrelevant, although ROH's gate is starting to make them $$$. Anyway, are you going to spend $40 to watch AJ Styles every week, or $40 to watch him in ROH?

 

In my opinion, they are close to being in direct competition with each other. And yes, they have the same audience - the internet.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I figure TNA has wanted Styles to stop working for RoH ever since he started...since they are the only other really well known indy out there...

 

and they took the opportunity of the RF situation to see if they could get him to bite.

 

I in no way imagine they ever would have even asked Punk who is not only on the outs with TNA after the Teddy Hart incident...but had his contract worked out with the understanding that he had full control over his bookings since he's a bigger star everywhere else.

 

TNA looks at AJ as their top guy...and they've never been comfortable with him being a big star in RoH too. At least that's my guess.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

This all points to the fact that TNA must be real close to securing something on a national level as they clearly wouldn't want anyone to stop a national deal based on what some clueless TV exec might think is a relationship between themselves and another promotion (ROH) with some perceived legal issues.

 

Also, AJ only really wrestles in TNA and ROH, basically nothing else anymore. He used to do a lot indys all the time. This tells me that TNA must be paying him fairly decently.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Unless TNA can give him a solid reason to get him to leave ROH I think it's dumb. Want them to quit other indies? Pay them enough to make up for it

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Unless TNA can give him a solid reason to get him to leave ROH I think it's dumb. Want them to quit other indies? Pay them enough to make up for it

Given the way they spend their money...I don't doubt that they would do so.

 

The problem isn't financial...TNA goes through Panda's money like water anyway. If they stopped booking BG James they could give his money to Styles and he'd never have to work again.

 

The problem is that AJ prefers working for RoH over TNA. That really must bother Jarrett...and is probably yet another reason this happened.

 

So far I'm up too (in no particular order of importance):

 

1. TNA now sees RoH as competition. A competition that they flat out aren't going to win in terms of how they do business both in the ring and out.

 

2. TNA is walking on egg shells around these TV people, going so far as outlawing the word "damn" on ppv. I guess it's not impossible that someone thought the RF scandal cast a bad shadow over everyone connected in anyway to RoH. It doesn't make it accurate...but I can see them thinking it.

 

3. They're pissed he likes RoH more.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Hey...I wonder if this is why Abyss suddenly decided RoH wasn't for him after the RF stuff.

 

It's not like he was a key player or anything...but a paycheck is a paycheck...and he was quick to decline further work.

[Nevermortal 0]

 

"Hey AJ, yeah....we're going to have to make you go ahead and cancel another form of income. So, if you could go ahead and do that, it'd be just great."

[Guest Jimmy Saint]

Well you can understand why he likes ROH more seeing how they let him work half hour matches with workers like American Dragon.

 

Considering he had enough sense to turn down a sorry WWE deal you can see him telling TNA where to stick it. Christopher Daniels and Raven I can see telling them to fuck off too. They could make that TNA payday elsewhere fairly easilly.

 

The others Red, CM Punk, Sabin and Lynn. Have any of these been anywhere near the top of the card for TNA to be in the position to tell them to turn down other indies ? I think not.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

All that is fine in theory...but other than Punk in light of their not booking him...no one is going to tell TNA to fuck off...they're just going to politely decline.

[Guest Jimmy Saint]

Well yeah, its still telling the Jarrets to go fuck themselves and stick their contracts up their arses.

 

 

Just slightly more politely than that though.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Agreed.

 

I don't know what TNA was thinking.

 

It would be a different story if there was an actual plan in place that was going to require them to have talent working weekends...but there is not.

 

Until that day comes when TNA runs enough dates and pays enough to be a full time job for their talent...they should shut up and go back to figuring out how to make that happen. Then we'll cross this bridge when we come to it.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

The only problem I can see is TNA doesn't want their biggest star (not named Jarrett) to be associated with a promotion that was owned by a child rapist.

 

And I don't disagree with that thinking.

 

 

 

 

On the other notes, I hardly think TNA is threatened by RoH. One works more in the north-eastern area (and has expanded to Chicago shows I heard) while TNA runs in Tennessee.

 

Plus, isn't A.J. Styles one of the highest paid cotnracted workers in TNA? I'm not saying super money, but from an Indy promotion he's doing fairly well there.

[Guest OSIcon]

It's a really silly move on TNA's part.

 

All indications are that the contracts do not give TNA the right to keep them from bookings on days that TNA is not running a show. So all they can do is ask. Most wrestlers are going to be like AJ and decline, because obviously they want to keep the extra 2 paychecks a month that ROH supplies them. That leaves TNA with the wrestlers still working ROH but now also being mad at TNA for the request.

 

They could "punish" the wrestlers in attempt to get them to choose. Of course, that will just make the whole locker room unhappy. It can't be a positive working atmosphere knowing that if you work for ROH (or any other indy fed in the future that TNA does this to) that you will get punished (by a lack of push, financially, ect.). That would really bite them in the ass.

 

This has been said time and time again, but TNA really needs to realize where they are in the wrestling world. They are far away from competing with the WWE. You need to actually make money for that to happen. So instead of acting like the big number two promotion, they should be worrying about getting their own product to the point where they can move forward and make money. TNA can get TV now, but they will still not be in any better shape because they are just spending money without making any of it.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

OSIcon is pretty much hitting the nail on the head.

[SamoaRowe 0]

If TNA really wants to keep Styles, they should really consider booking him as if he is the star they seem to acknowledge that he is. This is like WWE with RVD... they don't want to lose him, but they don't want to give him any incentive to stay either.

[Michrome 0]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much. I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH. Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much. I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH. Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

And rightfully so......

[Astro101 0]

If TNA offered to pay for the loss of the ROH paycheck, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But my initial reaction to this was "tsk tsk no no"

[Guest TDinDC1112]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much. I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH. Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much.  I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH.  Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

And living in Pittsburgh(where the IWC promotes), AJ wrestles for the IWC all the time.....I would at least say 10 times a year.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much.  I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH.  Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

And living in Pittsburgh(where the IWC promotes), AJ wrestles for the TWC all the time.....I would at least say 10 times a year.

I'm assuming you meant IWC, and TWC is a typo. That's flat out wrong, he does not wrestle there at least 10 times a year.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much.  I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH.  Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

And living in Pittsburgh(where the IWC promotes), AJ wrestles for the TWC all the time.....I would at least say 10 times a year.

I'm assuming you meant IWC, and TWC is a typo. That's flat out wrong, he does not wrestle there at least 10 times a year.

Well the IWC(typo has been corrected), runs a show about once a month and he wrestles there at almost every show, so I said 10....as opposed to 12......

[Guest TDinDC1112]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much.  I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH.  Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

And living in Pittsburgh(where the IWC promotes), AJ wrestles for the TWC all the time.....I would at least say 10 times a year.

I'm assuming you meant IWC, and TWC is a typo. That's flat out wrong, he does not wrestle there at least 10 times a year.

Well the IWC(typo has been corrected), runs a show about once a month and he wrestles there at almost every show, so I said 10....as opposed to 12......

These are the matches he has wrestled there by my records:

 

IWC - this past weekend

IWC 3/14/03 – Styles vs. Super Hentai

IWC 8/23/03 - Styles vs. Cabana

IWC 11/22/03 - Styles vs. Sabin

IWC 12/12/03 - Styles – Cabana

AJ Styles vs. CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels .- 12/27/02 - IWC

Colt Cabana vs. A.J. Styles – 11/17/02 - IWC

 

Hardly 10 per year.

[Guest OSIcon]

I know he also wrestled Super Hentai in a rematch in April of 2003 (the 13th maybe?). Not sure if has had more matches in IWC beyond those (and that one addition) or not.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

By the way, AJ does still work indies every single weekend pretty much.  I remember talking to MKJ late last year after the 11/1 show, and he said one of his biggest worries going forward was TNA trying to pull AJ and Punk off of RoH.  Oh well, AJ refused, I'm sure Punk gave them the finger, and Daniels will tell them to fuck off too.

I collect AJ matches as I have just about every single one of his on tape, and I can tell you that right now through 2004, I believe he has wrestled a total of 3 non TNA/ROH matches. One in 3PW, one in Japan, and one this past weekend in IWC.

And living in Pittsburgh(where the IWC promotes), AJ wrestles for the TWC all the time.....I would at least say 10 times a year.

I'm assuming you meant IWC, and TWC is a typo. That's flat out wrong, he does not wrestle there at least 10 times a year.

Well the IWC(typo has been corrected), runs a show about once a month and he wrestles there at almost every show, so I said 10....as opposed to 12......

These are the matches he has wrestled there by my records:

 

IWC - this past weekend

IWC 3/14/03 – Styles vs. Super Hentai

IWC 8/23/03 - Styles vs. Cabana

IWC 11/22/03 - Styles vs. Sabin

IWC 12/12/03 - Styles – Cabana

AJ Styles vs. CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels .- 12/27/02 - IWC

Colt Cabana vs. A.J. Styles – 11/17/02 - IWC

 

Hardly 10 per year.

Come see me after 2004 is over......