TNA Deal Seems likely

[Michrome 0]

One other problem: If TNA becomes viewed as a thorn in the side by Vince, what are the odds of him not just raiding their talent for the heck of it?

 

1) They're all under contract.

 

2) They're all too small

 

3) The best ones like Styles work in a way that only a select few in the WWE could keep up.

[Guest Goodear]

But why in the world would they want to bring in Terri?

 

Cue someone saying that NWA will hire anyone that WWE lets go.

 

Cue someone else then saying that they shouldn't pass on talented people just because WWE used them.

 

Cue someone else saying that they'll hire the untalented ones too.

[Chuck Woolery 0]

Cue me saying "Obviously, they want that blockbuster Terri/Goldilocks feud."

 

Why else would they sign her?

[thuganomics 0]

Um... because they want to make sure that Dustin Rhodes doesn't come back?

[Guest MikeSC]

Most of the TNA talent are signed into two year contracts, Mike.

 

Although they can take Indy bookings, they can't sign any type of contract with the WWE. Besides, I doubt most of the talent will head to the WWE anyways (since quite a few were originally from there).

One thing: As WCW showed with Mike Awesome, when you have MUCH more money than the opposition, you can find a way around every contract.

-=Mike

[Michrome 0]

It depends on the contract strength. The ECW ones had easy loopholes, don't know about the TNA ones.

[Guest Burning Hammer]

The loophole in Awesome's contract was one of two things. 1. He never signed it and 2. Heyman didn't bother to actually honor his end of the contract by paying him.

 

To answer the ECW question from my post before. When I say ECW's fan base was greatly exagerated I mean that nobody outside of the internet followed there product. WWF fans knew what ECW was because of the Raw invasion and possible ppv exposure to the product but they didn't actually buy tickets to see them. They managed to sell out a 1,000 seat bingo hall in Philly and other small sized buildings before they got national TV. Their biggest crowds came from their tv exposure. People knew who they were but not that many followed it outside the smark crowd.

 

Also live attendance has nothing to do with the ratings you draw on tv. WCW proved that at the end of there run when they were still pulling decent cable tv ratings in the mid 2's (which were still top 25 numbers for cable tv) but nobody was going to there shows and most of the people that were there were comps. Also if you are going to use TNA's live attendance as a judge for their future ratings than ECW would also have been predicted to be in the .2's as well because for an indy they were healthy but for a national company there attendance was weak.

 

TNA is in a similar situation. People know that there is another wrestling option out there (especially if you order any sort of ppv at all) but can't watch it due to it not having a time slot. They certainly do have a lower visibility than ECW did before they went national but we aren't in the midst of a wrestling war anymore.

 

As far as your fox sports net argument goes I check those channels all the time to see what is on and most of my friends do as well. I mostly check to see if some IWA PR or TNA's syndicated show are coming on or for some EPL futbol. Not everybody is dim witted and can't use their remote to find something they like on tv. Not to mention if you watch FSN for your local team and then see an ad spot for a wrestling show and you happen to be a fan odds are you are going to try and catch it at some point (by the way everytime I watch a game on their they advertise for just about everything they are showing in the next few days from womens college basketball to their sports report to the fishing shows).

 

To TheMikeSC. I don't seem to see anyone here saying that TNA has an easy road to ratings success. They don't but the fact of the matter is they do have a lot of things going for them (as you said in another thread, well done by the way) to have decent ratings. Fact of the matter is a change in venue for them would be a great thing. I personally think they should chose Chicago as their home (how can a hot wrestling town be totally ignored by just about every major indy and the WWE to some extent is mind boggling. Shit ECW did some of their best business in that town) but going to Orlando is a step in the right direction. They need to get away from the Tennessee crowd that they burnt out when Raven didn't win the title (the crowd has never really recovered). If they can put on great tv remenisent of the Raven buildup to the blown title match they will put up solid ratings (when I say solid I mean between .5-1.0). Most of their success will be predicated on their booking but I feel they have the other aspects I've talked about going in their favor.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

The loophole in Awesome's contract was one of two things. 1. He never signed it and 2. Heyman didn't bother to actually honor his end of the contract by paying him.

 

To answer the ECW question from my post before. When I say ECW's fan base was greatly exagerated I mean that nobody outside of the internet followed there product. WWF fans knew what ECW was because of the Raw invasion and possible ppv exposure to the product but they didn't actually buy tickets to see them. They managed to sell out a 1,000 seat bingo hall in Philly and other small sized buildings before they got national TV. Their biggest crowds came from their tv exposure. People knew who they were but not that many followed it outside the smark crowd.

 

Also live attendance has nothing to do with the ratings you draw on tv. WCW proved that at the end of there run when they were still pulling decent cable tv ratings in the mid 2's (which were still top 25 numbers for cable tv) but nobody was going to there shows and most of the people that were there were comps. Also if you are going to use TNA's live attendance as a judge for their future ratings than ECW would also have been predicted to be in the .2's as well because for an indy they were healthy but for a national company there attendance was weak.

 

TNA is in a similar situation. People know that there is another wrestling option out there (especially if you order any sort of ppv at all) but can't watch it due to it not having a time slot. They certainly do have a lower visibility than ECW did before they went national but we aren't in the midst of a wrestling war anymore.

 

As far as your fox sports net argument goes I check those channels all the time to see what is on and most of my friends do as well. I mostly check to see if some IWA PR or TNA's syndicated show are coming on or for some EPL futbol. Not everybody is dim witted and can't use their remote to find something they like on tv. Not to mention if you watch FSN for your local team and then see an ad spot for a wrestling show and you happen to be a fan odds are you are going to try and catch it at some point (by the way everytime I watch a game on their they advertise for just about everything they are showing in the next few days from womens college basketball to their sports report to the fishing shows).

 

To TheMikeSC. I don't seem to see anyone here saying that TNA has an easy road to ratings success. They don't but the fact of the matter is they do have a lot of things going for them (as you said in another thread, well done by the way) to have decent ratings. Fact of the matter is a change in venue for them would be a great thing. I personally think they should chose Chicago as their home (how can a hot wrestling town be totally ignored by just about every major indy and the WWE to some extent is mind boggling. Shit ECW did some of their best business in that town) but going to Orlando is a step in the right direction. They need to get away from the Tennessee crowd that they burnt out when Raven didn't win the title (the crowd has never really recovered). If they can put on great tv remenisent of the Raven buildup to the blown title match they will put up solid ratings (when I say solid I mean between .5-1.0). Most of their success will be predicated on their booking but I feel they have the other aspects I've talked about going in their favor.

I think you are so wrong about ECW's audience only being a smark crowd. That just wasn't true at all. When they came to Buffalo, they drew 3,000 every time. Yes it was because of their TV, but that makes sense. I know a lot of people who loved ECW and were absolutely not "smart."

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

The loophole in Awesome's contract was one of two things. 1. He never signed it and 2. Heyman didn't bother to actually honor his end of the contract by paying him.

 

To answer the ECW question from my post before.  When I say ECW's fan base was greatly exagerated I mean that nobody outside of the internet followed there product.  WWF fans knew what ECW was because of the Raw invasion and possible ppv exposure to the product but they didn't actually buy tickets to see them.  They managed to sell out a 1,000 seat bingo hall in Philly and other small sized buildings before they got national TV.  Their biggest crowds came from their tv exposure.  People knew who they were but not that many followed it outside the smark crowd. 

 

Also live attendance has nothing to do with the ratings you draw on tv.  WCW proved that at the end of there run when they were still pulling decent cable tv ratings in the mid 2's (which were still top 25 numbers for cable tv) but nobody was going to there shows and most of the people that were there were comps.  Also if you are going to use TNA's live attendance as a judge for their future ratings than ECW would also have been predicted to be in the .2's as well because for an indy they were healthy but for a national company there attendance was weak.

 

TNA is in a similar situation.  People know that there is another wrestling option out there (especially if you order any sort of ppv at all) but can't watch it due to it not having a time slot.  They certainly do have a lower visibility than ECW did before they went national but we aren't in the midst of a wrestling war anymore.

 

As far as your fox sports net argument goes I check those channels all the time to see what is on and most of my friends do as well.  I mostly check to see if some IWA PR or TNA's syndicated show are coming on or for some EPL futbol.  Not everybody is dim witted and can't use their remote to find something they like on tv.  Not to mention if you watch FSN for your local team and then see an ad spot for a wrestling show and you happen to be a fan odds are you are going to try and catch it at some point (by the way everytime I watch a game on their they advertise for just about everything they are showing in the next few days from womens college basketball to their sports report to the fishing shows).

 

To TheMikeSC.  I don't seem to see anyone here saying that TNA has an easy road to ratings success.  They don't but the fact of the matter is they do have a lot of things going for them (as you said in another thread, well done by the way) to have decent ratings.  Fact of the matter is a change in venue for them would be a great thing.  I personally think they should chose Chicago as their home (how can a hot wrestling town be totally ignored by just about every major indy and the WWE to some extent is mind boggling.  Shit ECW did some of their best business in that town) but going to Orlando is a step in the right direction.  They need to get away from the Tennessee crowd that they burnt out when Raven didn't win the title (the crowd has never really recovered).  If they can put on great tv remenisent of the Raven buildup to the blown title match they will put up solid ratings (when I say solid I mean between .5-1.0).  Most of their success will be predicated on their booking but I feel they have the other aspects I've talked about going in their favor.

I think you are so wrong about ECW's audience only being a smark crowd. That just wasn't true at all. When they came to Buffalo, they drew 3,000 every time. Yes it was because of their TV, but that makes sense. I know a lot of people who loved ECW and were absolutely not "smart."

I think I would have to agree with you TC. The only time I feel as if ECW had a "smart" crowd was well before they were on PPV and was probably in the 94-95 area.

[Guest glennsoe]

FOX SPORTS NETWORK DENIES IMMINENT NWA:TNA DEAL

 

NWA:TNA's prospective FOX Sports Network TV deal is covered today in Michael Starr's column in The New York Post.

 

Noting yesterday's report on PWInsider.com, Starr contacted a FOX Sports Network Spokesman who admitted there had been discussions between the two entities, but nothing further.

 

"We've had some conversations with [NWA/TNA] but there's been nothing beyond that at the moment," said the spokesman. "If something was going to happen, we'd be looking at a mid-afternoon weekly show, and June would be a date we might be looking at."

 

The fact that FOX Sports even commented publicly is interesting, as TV companies are traditionally notoriously tight-lipped in releasing information for shows that they are in negotiations with.

 

NWA:TNA maintains internally that they close to completing the FOX Sports deal. Sources within the company indicate Jeff Jarrett is scheduled to travel to Orlando, Florida next week to meet with Universal Studios, one of the prospective locations for the tapings of the FOX Sports Network show. Other possible sites discussed internally include Las Vegas and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

 

NWA:TNA has been focusing all of their energies internally towards this TV deal, to the point that they reached out to Ring of Honor several weeks ago, fearing an email campaign by ROH fans towards TNA and FOX Sports could sabotage their prospective deal after TNA asked their contracted wrestlers to no longer appear on ROH events.

 

There have been discussions that TNA may change their business model should they attain the FOX Sports slot, but nothing has been finalized in that regard.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

mid-afternoon weekly show

 

Ouch. That kinda sucks.

[Guest Burning Hammer]

yeah that whole mid afternoon show thing makes me feel that Fox is talking shit. Why would you put wrestling on in the mid afternoon when most of your networks are either running replays or playing infomercials? Doesn't make any sense from a programming aspect. I'll take this quote with a grain of salt.

 

You guys can argue with me all you want about ECW and its attendance but without national exposure they were never able to draw the type of crowds they did after that exposure. Plus they couldn't go to Nashville, and other cities not within the sphere of the north east, and draw before they had the national show.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

yeah that whole mid afternoon show thing makes me feel that Fox is talking shit. Why would you put wrestling on in the mid afternoon when most of your networks are either running replays or playing infomercials? Doesn't make any sense from a programming aspect. I'll take this quote with a grain of salt.

 

You guys can argue with me all you want about ECW and its attendance but without national exposure they were never able to draw the type of crowds they did after that exposure. Plus they couldn't go to Nashville, and other cities not within the sphere of the north east, and draw before they had the national show.

1. No one started watching ECW because of the TNN show. Anyone watching that already was watching ECW.

 

2. ECW sucked by the time they got the national show (I'm assuming you mean TNN and not the syndicated Hardcore TV).

 

3. Of course TV helped them draw. That's how it works. You use your TV to draw houses and sell what you're trying to sell.

 

4. Outside of ppv's, and a few house shows towards the end, when did ECW ever venture outside of the north east (besides Florida)?

[Michrome 0]

ECW drew pretty much just as well prior to TNN as they did after. They were selling out the ECW arena weekly years before it (1,350), and did some major PPVs before it too. Syndicated TV did it for ECW, not TNN. The only people watching ECW on TNN were clearly already fans.

 

A mid-afternoon sunday show would be just fine.

[Guest MikeSC]

ECW drew pretty much just as well prior to TNN as they did after. They were selling out the ECW arena weekly years before it (1,350), and did some major PPVs before it too. Syndicated TV did it for ECW, not TNN. The only people watching ECW on TNN were clearly already fans.

 

A mid-afternoon sunday show would be just fine.

Unfortunately, FSN is mentioning a mid-afternoon weekday show --- which seems odd as I'd imagine baseball would pre-empt the living hell out of it.

-=Mike

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

They didn't say weekday, they said weekly.

 

That could still mean Sunday, midafternoons...which is right around what the speculation was.

[Guest MikeSC]

They didn't say weekday, they said weekly.

 

That could still mean Sunday, midafternoons...which is right around what the speculation was.

Oh, misread what they said. I was thinking "Wednesday at 4 PM? That is a REAL odd time for this"

-=Mike

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I misread it at first too.

 

It made me very concerned about what they were thinking.