I hope TNA stays on TV, any real wrestling would not wish any wrestling company to disappear from TV or not stay in business.
I will say this again though, Vince Russo has once again hit the nail on the head. Long gone are the days when TV channels will pay a lot of money for wrestling. There's a reason why WWE is footing the bill themselves to broadcast Smackdown Live and not the USA Network.
Wrestling is a 52 week job. It's a non stop business. On one hand wrestling can be very cheap to produce compared to other TV shows which when you look at some of the shows on at the same time as WWE and TNA, they can be in the millions, a budget of millions, maybe even per episode. Where the WWE is different is the WWE have enough fans paying for tickets where they can cover their own overheads. The WWE might not be in the big arenas every week like they used to be but they make enough money to not only cover the rent of the arena for the night but the wages of the wrestlers that night, the staff working behind the scenes who as employees will all be covered, their travel will be paid for, the WWE in many ways is giving away a free TV show. Basically saying to USA Network, Sky Sports, everyone else, here is our wrestling show, we are the most popular wrestling company in the world, you know people are gonna watch this show, you know you're gonna make money on advertising so what are you offering? Now baring in mind, even if everyone says NO to them and the WWE takes a huge hit and loses hundreds of milions of dollars collectively from their TV contracts, they could still go on, they could still operate a much smaller company just going from arena to arena and making money off the brand name. They can still cover their own costs, the don't need someone else to pay them money just to have a show.
TNA on the other hand are a different thing and many wrestling companies if they had the chance, would be in the same boat. TNA do not have a lot of stuff "inhouse". The WWE has their own "inhouse" people. They have their own production truck, they have their own camera crews, they have their own staff that can edit the shows, people on location every week doing those jobs, making video packages, people in Stamford doing video packages, we know they often flew the announcers in just to do commentary for their C shows and often redid parts of the Smackdown commentary. They do that in their own company, they are employees. TNA has to rent production trucks, a lot of their staff are freelance, they don't film week to week so they don't have week to week staff that can edit the shows and put video packages together, they are just like the wrestlers, once every few months you go in, do what's needed and get paid. Many of the people backstage at TNA don't actually work for TNA every day of the week or even once a week so when TNA does their TV tapings and they tape their shows in bulk to save cost, that's a lot of extra expense they have to put out to bring all those people in even if it is just doing their job over the course of a few days or a weekend and because TNA can't charge for tickets they have to rely on a share of the advertising they get from their TV contracts.
Where that differs from the WWE is, the WWE make their money back and cover their own backs. TNA can't cover all those wages, paying camera men, paying for the production truck, paying for the people to OPERATE the production truck, paying the wrestlers, make up ladies, staff to rebuild the sets and the rings, floor managers you name it,they RELY on that money to cover those costs. In other words they NEED someone to PAY them money for their shows because they can't make the money to cover their own costs.
And Vince Russo got this 100% right. The days when TV companies are gonna PAY money for wrestling is coming to an end. And like it or not, the reason the WWE is on TV in the USA and here in the UK and many other places, isn't because the companies like WWE, it's not because USA Network or Sky Sports like WWE, it's because it makes them money. It brings in money. Here's where the money issues come in. It was said that TNA's last set of tapings cost in the region of $500,000. Now that was over a few days and covered several tapings. There's no TV channel in the world that is gonna pay that money on a regular basis for wrestling or anything else for that matter unless it's a show or sport that absolutely 100% is gonna bring in millions of viewers and they're gonna make a ton of money off it. There's no way they wont pay it. So if TNA can't get someone to pay that kind of money at least once a month and they can't make $500,000 from ticket sales and merch sales and there's no other investors willing to pay that money for it then the shows don't happen.
But if you're lucky like the WWE and you're lucky enough to be able to have a show, make enough money to pay your rent and wrestlers and your staff and then move onto the next show and do the same then you have more chances of getting picked up because what you are basically offering is a free show, you're basically shopping your show around and you can safely say, we don't need your money, we'd LIKE your money, we'd LIKE to be on your channel but look, we don't need anyone's money, we can do this on our own. A big difference from TNA any many other indies if they had the chance to when they would basically say, we NEED your money, we can't do this WITHOUT money. A big big risk there.
I will say this again though, Vince Russo has once again hit the nail on the head. Long gone are the days when TV channels will pay a lot of money for wrestling. There's a reason why WWE is footing the bill themselves to broadcast Smackdown Live and not the USA Network.
Wrestling is a 52 week job. It's a non stop business. On one hand wrestling can be very cheap to produce compared to other TV shows which when you look at some of the shows on at the same time as WWE and TNA, they can be in the millions, a budget of millions, maybe even per episode. Where the WWE is different is the WWE have enough fans paying for tickets where they can cover their own overheads. The WWE might not be in the big arenas every week like they used to be but they make enough money to not only cover the rent of the arena for the night but the wages of the wrestlers that night, the staff working behind the scenes who as employees will all be covered, their travel will be paid for, the WWE in many ways is giving away a free TV show. Basically saying to USA Network, Sky Sports, everyone else, here is our wrestling show, we are the most popular wrestling company in the world, you know people are gonna watch this show, you know you're gonna make money on advertising so what are you offering? Now baring in mind, even if everyone says NO to them and the WWE takes a huge hit and loses hundreds of milions of dollars collectively from their TV contracts, they could still go on, they could still operate a much smaller company just going from arena to arena and making money off the brand name. They can still cover their own costs, the don't need someone else to pay them money just to have a show.
TNA on the other hand are a different thing and many wrestling companies if they had the chance, would be in the same boat. TNA do not have a lot of stuff "inhouse". The WWE has their own "inhouse" people. They have their own production truck, they have their own camera crews, they have their own staff that can edit the shows, people on location every week doing those jobs, making video packages, people in Stamford doing video packages, we know they often flew the announcers in just to do commentary for their C shows and often redid parts of the Smackdown commentary. They do that in their own company, they are employees. TNA has to rent production trucks, a lot of their staff are freelance, they don't film week to week so they don't have week to week staff that can edit the shows and put video packages together, they are just like the wrestlers, once every few months you go in, do what's needed and get paid. Many of the people backstage at TNA don't actually work for TNA every day of the week or even once a week so when TNA does their TV tapings and they tape their shows in bulk to save cost, that's a lot of extra expense they have to put out to bring all those people in even if it is just doing their job over the course of a few days or a weekend and because TNA can't charge for tickets they have to rely on a share of the advertising they get from their TV contracts.
Where that differs from the WWE is, the WWE make their money back and cover their own backs. TNA can't cover all those wages, paying camera men, paying for the production truck, paying for the people to OPERATE the production truck, paying the wrestlers, make up ladies, staff to rebuild the sets and the rings, floor managers you name it,they RELY on that money to cover those costs. In other words they NEED someone to PAY them money for their shows because they can't make the money to cover their own costs.
And Vince Russo got this 100% right. The days when TV companies are gonna PAY money for wrestling is coming to an end. And like it or not, the reason the WWE is on TV in the USA and here in the UK and many other places, isn't because the companies like WWE, it's not because USA Network or Sky Sports like WWE, it's because it makes them money. It brings in money. Here's where the money issues come in. It was said that TNA's last set of tapings cost in the region of $500,000. Now that was over a few days and covered several tapings. There's no TV channel in the world that is gonna pay that money on a regular basis for wrestling or anything else for that matter unless it's a show or sport that absolutely 100% is gonna bring in millions of viewers and they're gonna make a ton of money off it. There's no way they wont pay it. So if TNA can't get someone to pay that kind of money at least once a month and they can't make $500,000 from ticket sales and merch sales and there's no other investors willing to pay that money for it then the shows don't happen.
But if you're lucky like the WWE and you're lucky enough to be able to have a show, make enough money to pay your rent and wrestlers and your staff and then move onto the next show and do the same then you have more chances of getting picked up because what you are basically offering is a free show, you're basically shopping your show around and you can safely say, we don't need your money, we'd LIKE your money, we'd LIKE to be on your channel but look, we don't need anyone's money, we can do this on our own. A big difference from TNA any many other indies if they had the chance to when they would basically say, we NEED your money, we can't do this WITHOUT money. A big big risk there.
