Harris Bros / TNA situation is weird. Getting Breaking Bad season 5 vibes. Jack / Jesse.

People don't get how Aroluxe, which is a small company with 7 employees, could have the means to prop up TNA.

Its April so it time for the Annual TNA is Doooooomed and or total shite. TNA haters will no doubt be right one year even if they were cheated out its Doom last year which must have really hurt given the torrent of hate currently flowing.

Only because before Dixie's Parents have bailed them out now they have said they are not giving anymore money to her or TNA.

Yes but i've been reading the TNA is crap and is doooommmeed posts since i've been coming her when Challenge started showing TNA. And its usually the same people saying the exact same thing at this exact time of year, and they seem so disappointed when TNA doesn't vanish like anti magic.

Not that i'm necessarily disagreeing since i'd miss it less now than if it had vanished say when the Spike deal ended

Considering it's Dixie's plaything and kind of has a parent company, it's playing out like (realistically) it was always going to. Reverting to a glorified and far less relevant indie on TV around the world.

The recent "report" by a well known source that a tv company is looking to buy TNA to give it some Turner/WCW like backing has some very suspect detail... While it suggest ROH owner Sinclair, that group is hardly a Turner and has not had WCW success with ROH. While the report goes on to say TNA offered 10% of itself to the likes of "Sony 6" in India but made that sound like writer speculation by adding "and to Challenge in the UK" - no one would go to Challenge as it is likely to be no more than a channel management department within the Sky Group... you would say "TNA went to SKY" not to Challenge surely if there was any "insider truth" to it

Talking of TNA output though...
The "beat down of DG" at the end of a "future match for the title build up" segment was so badly set up.

Then there is an ironic WWE v TNA visual thing to note.
WWE is so heavily "scripted" the "mid rant" new wrestler enters ring interruptions always come over as unnatural... something that, because it seems more thrown together / ad-lib TNA versions look more like "interruptions" than WWE "my script runs out at this point and i have nothing left to say (puppet goes limp as camera off it) as the music kicks in
BUT
the "always working" WWE matches flow better because the wrestlers know each other day in day out as the house tour and tv shows fill many days of the week, every week...
while the "batch" system of TNA and their indy work seems to mean TNA wrestlers have less familiarity or even ring rust and thus have clunky looking matches...

The irony with the TNA posts is that it usually is the same people saying it and the thing is, those are the people that at home will sit and watch it. Those are the die hard fans that wont go anywhere. The fact they still talk about it and keep up to date on it all proves that.

Sinclair Broadcasting is worth around $5.5 billion and owns a number of television terrestrial affiliates across the US. They're fairly wealthy. ROH was bought by Sinclair and run as a self sufficient company rather than having money chucked to them like Turner and WCW.

Dixie Carter has been fairly consistent in that she does not want to give up control, so going out to partners to try and continue her reign isn't something that unlikely. The recent Sinclair developments would allow her to make some money and get out with her head held high. TNA as a company is done. The brand is toxic, they can't attract more than a few hundred on the road for tapings, no one buys their PPVs or merchandise and their home DVD sales are negligible. The only revenue stream appears to be the tv deals from India and the UK, which don't appear to be enough to keep a company taping once a month a float.

Sinclair are interested as they might be rebranding the existing tennis channel into the American sports network and like the idea of using the TNA library as cheap filler. ROH can use the international TV deals as ways to expand overseas as getting TV deals can be difficult.

https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/725818579887738880

Poor TNA.

$5bil sounds a lot but they are a tiny player in a pond of whales...

time warner = $60bil
comcast = $148bil
netflix = $38bil
cbs = $25bil
disney = $ 170bil
viacom = $17bil
discovery = $16bil
even scripps networks is $6bil and no one has ever heard of them (they do the food network etc in america)

the point is, sinclair has not had the fire power (or perhaps desire) to really push and even then they are up against a wall of firepower back... the old "if you are not top 3 get out of the market" is a strong driver for investment and sinclair is not on the table let alone top 3

Hardly eric Young was incredibly annoying and boring.

Towards the end he was don't know if that was down to TNA booking him that way or he just gave up trying but since his last heel turn he has been god awful.

Before I kinda liked him I never thought he was the best and thought the only reason he got the title was with the scruffy beard he kinda looked like Daniel Bryan and TNA wanted to cash in on his popularity.

I do think he's a good hand to have around as a mid carder if he is willing to try.

Tweet says more than that, reading between the lines you could easily think Trips is trying to kill all the competition.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's an attempt to sign Grado/Galloway/both before the November Raw/Smackdown tapings in Glasgow.

Scripps own 50% of UKTV alongside BBC Worldwide.

Sinclair is a competent TV company that has done a good job of gradually growing ROH. They were never going to invest a ton of money in order to rush them into a WCW mark two. Sinclair see the tape library and the international TV contracts as a worthy pick up. TNA is worthless otherwise.

If Sinclair pick up TNA I think they will just fold it into ROH with ROH taking over.

I agree if they buy they don't want TNA but the International TV Deals and to a slightly lesser reason the Tape Library.

lol TNA 'not competition' indeed.

I can't believe the IWC were dumb enough to fall for that.

Only two of the former TNA talent have directly come from TNA to NXT. Do you seriously believe WWE sees TNA in it's current state of 250,000 viewers on a nothing network as competition? If they had taken TNA'S top stars at the height of it's success, there could be an argument that they felt TNA was competition but it doesn't hold up in 2016 where they are effectively picking up the scraps.

So tell me again why James Storm going back to TNA was a good idea?

Plus nobody ever said they didn't have good wrestlers in fact one of the biggest problems was they had some of the best wrestlers in the world.

It was the way the company was/is run that was/is the problem.

Because he was offered more money. Of course, he then practically admitted that it was the only reason (which is of course perfectly fine and the best decision for his family) when a few weeks into his return he started talking about how he still wants a Mania moment.

Pretty good reason though IMO

Hilarious delusion.

That people don't believe WWE views TNA as competition or that people think WWE does view TNA as competition?

The weird thing with WWE is they try and promote their NXT show as a developmental program, yet most of the roster is at least 30 years old and older.

The fact of the matter is for guys like Eric Young and Bobby Roode, even AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. The IWC can praise them being in NXT but they've spent a good chunk of their adult life working elsewhere. The chances of them even being promoted to the main shows and getting a push is very slim because they're too old.

They got it right with Paige. Paige was what? 21? That's what NXT should have been about and instead you have all these middle aged men debuting and of course the IWC put's it over and puts them over but let's face it, everyone of them has had their best days at TNA. It's like Sting and Kurt Angle. Even Hulk Hogan's last match. RIC FLAIR'S REAL LAST MATCH..........all happened at TNA. For everyone of them, their last good times in a wrestling ring where they could all still go were at TNA, not WWE or WCW.


And the same goes for these slightly younger guys in AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Samoa Joe........they do OK, but they're not a patch on their real prime years which were at TNA and I can only imagine the reason they are in WWE is because the WWE maybe wants them as trainers or helping out as agents. They're just too old to start putting on TV on Raw and Smackdown. The WWE casual audience doesn't know who they are. You see Raw just now. Most of the NXT guys are flops anyway. The audience doesn't care.


And as for WWE's opinions on TNA? Any google search on those names brings up TNA. Casual fans of the WWE wont know about it but it's not that hard to find out. The WWE doesn't mention TNA and the only reason I can imagine is they are a form of competition. The WWE's version of wrestling is a very mild, very safe, very rigid actually.......it looks awkward at times, cartoonish style and using those TNA guys as an example and even Del Rio back in Lucha Underground, it's like night and day. The WWE way is very..........hmm...........it comes across very choreographed. These guys aren't doing things to their full potential. If TNA weren't competition WWE would mention them.

Instead Triple H seems to like hiring all their ex stars, it's just a shame their mostly married men with kids heading into their late 30s. If it was the main roster that would be one thing but developmental? Hmm I dunno. I think if I was running farm system I'd be hiring single carefree 21 year olds and not middle aged men in their late 30s. Get more mileage out of them.