The numbers may be accurate but numerous sources have also stated that TNA cutting their number of PPVs was a big reason for their financial straits this year. Even with 10,000 buys, those PPVs were still profitable, because they weren't on the road. It was NOT a cost-cutting measure to get rid of them.

Removing the additional PPVs was an attempt to bolster TV ratings by putting the minor ones on as SpikeTV specials. It has worked but only to a very small degree - the specials often see ratings increases, but they are marginal.

Also, considering that they don't do PPVs very often, I don't get why TNA just don't try simple, week-to-week booking like NXT rather than all the convoluted power struggles and Dixie behaving like a third-rate Stephanie McMahon.

If they had momentum their business would show signs of growth. Their ratings are stagnant, whats left of the PPV business is poor and their house shows are regularly being cancelled or putting out a limited schedule.


I'm sure you can hunt around a find some people who dislike TNA, however I subscribe to the Observer/Figure 4 website, so I can only really comment at close hand on them and I say safely over the years that Meltzer and Alvarez are not anti TNA. If TNA do something right, they praise them for it. If they do something wrong, they say so. Just like WWE, just like New Japan etc. If TNA are struggling, then it doesn't benefit anyone to stick their head in the sand and pretend the company is doing great.

I think one of the problems is that there is a core of TNA fans who will cheer anything TNA does, whether it's good bad or indifferent. Places like TNAsylum and TNA Mecca are pretty bad for it. You get fanboys for all different things, so it's not exclusive to TNA fans.


The figures are confirmed with people inside and involved with the company. Are TNA announcing them publicly? No. They're a private company. (Also given how bad they are who would) Does that mean the figures are wrong. No.

When you have a guy like Meltzer whose been doing this for 27 years plus, his array of contacts in very deep. There's a reason why many people within the industry use the Observer as the official business journal.

In regards to the ratings, Hogan hasn't meant anything for TV ratings in years when used as a regular character. Funnily enough, the Observer broke down Hogan's tv rating drawing power a while back (I think I should get commission). It was Bischoff who always thought that whoever had Hogan would carry the audience.


The bigger the wrestling industry is the better for everyone. From the fans, to the wrestlers and the newsletter guys. Hell many people within WWE have publicly said the lack of competition has been a bad thing for them.

The other thing is though that WWE doesn't treat TNA as serious competition now, because is isn't. Years ago, WWE did treat TNA as a more serious competitor when they started getting some momentum with Angle vs Joe, however TNA is miles away from legitimately challenging WWE now. UFC are WWE's main rival now.

TNA is a company from it's existance that has been in survivor mode. They didn't have a lot of money and their way to get the product out there was via weekly PPVs which is a model that was never going to work, To be fair, TNA have done well to last this long, but it was always going to be an uphill struggle. if it wasn't for Panda Energy, they would have shut down a while back.

It was taping on the road that cost TNA a ton of money. $600,000 is supposedly the figure. Hogan was on $35,000 a shot as well.

Very rough calculations here......

If you have PPV and it does 10,000 buys at $35 a buy, that's $350,000 minus the cable/satellite tv's cut which is usually at least 1/2, plus actually show expenses and talent costs. It's understandable why they cut PPVs.

They're only filming these one night only shows as a way to fulfill international tv contracts.

http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/p...10035214.shtml

This fills me with a bit of hope. They always seem fairer than the other sites.

As a side note, Xplosion was great this week. The DJ Ion vs Tiger match was interesting and I forgot what a classic the Wolfe vs Angle match was. (Although in sad for how Nigel's career turned out) He was a great wrestler that made old school grappling gripping. If things had been different I wonder if he'd been the first British champion? (I feel Magnus could borrow a few moves of him... if I see Magnus have another failed back body drop into clothesline I'll go potty)

I don't mind them trying to make new stars, but a stable made of Dixie Carter, the man formerly known as Derrick Bateman, Magnus, Rockstar Spud and Zema Ion is stretching it a bit too much
P.S. Nigel was ROH World Champion, so he was World Champion before Magnus.

EC3's been the highlight of recent weeks for me.

Ah, I didnt know that. I was assuming the press release they put out to be factual

Those certainly are very rough calculations because you have ignored:

* International revenue from PPVs
* The fact that the minor PPVs emanated from Universal Studios, vastly reducing running costs and adding in a merchandising stream
* TNA's top talent such as Hogan & Sting were used more sparingly for PPVs, again saving money. Those who were paid on a per appearance basis were often not paid much at all

I never said that TNA were making millions off their PPVs - only that they were profitable, even marginally. I suspect they were making small margins on their PPVs and so decided to take the risk of cutting those margins with the hope of growing the TV product.

On an interesting side note, Impact drew its highest viewership in months this week in the US. I guess AJ Styles = ratings.

-International revenue from PPVs is pretty much non existant, they don't air on PPV outside of the US.
-They aired from Universal Studios, yeah, but they don't see money from there (people get in for free in the vast majority)
-Hogan did pretty much all PPVs, Sting a little less but Hogan maybe skipped a couple of PPVs in its run.
Bottom line is if they were making money they would still do 12 PPVs, they're now down to 3.

I'll go further than that:

Let's say Genesis did 15,000 buys last year (for example). The ppvs cost 35 dollars, from which they see 40% if they're lucky (WWE sees 40% from PPV providers, let's say TNA see the same amount). It's 14 dollars multiplied by 15000 = 210.000 dollars. Take away from that the talent salary (Hogan alone made 35,000 dollars per appearance but you had also Angle and Jeff Hardy just to name two), the production expenses (satellite feeds, camera crew and so on), the fact they don't see money from people coming in (except the 50-60 who have the VIP experience) and there's no way they made money out of those shows.

And it wasn't the ppvs that put them in trouble, it was the tapings outside of Orlando. Those shows cost 600.000$ per taping and they drew pretty much nothing (the camera shots were so tight on Impact sometimes that you could just see the first 3-4 rows and not see the rest of the arena because it was empty). They were in such trouble that they were basically forced to go back to Orlando touting it on a press release and saying "Orlando is the new hub for Impact Wrestling, bla bla bla". Now they're going BACK on the road again because Universal Studios don't have a place for them after all and won't for a while. They're now taping like 2 months of shows in advance (they'll do SIX Impact Wrestling in England), it's the Disney tapings all over again.

It's a company that now has no choice but to restructurate and sadly you can see the tv product is vastly cut down from a production point of view. It's good that they did that but is it too late? I guess we'll see (especially if Spike gets SmackDown, that's probably the nail in the coffin for TNA). The business NEED an alternative to WWE (not because WWE sucks, but because with a company in good shape WWE can be challenged and with competition the people getting the most are the talent, economically speaking, and the fans who get two good products.

One of the reasons cited for TNA having to make financial cutbacks during the summer/autumn was loss of revenue compared to the previous year and cutting PPVs was mentioned as part of that. The PPVs did make money, however little.

Yeah I read that Dixie claimed that, but honestly I think she was either clueless or lying through her teeth. The 600.000$ tapings expense is what really hit them hard.

Shame if AJ Styles = Ratings because he's gone lol. Still good ratings for the show though

Could it not be both though? Expensive tapings and less PPVs. I mean, they still film those stupid One Night Only shows in the Impact Zone so could they not have a couple more proper PPVs there? I doubt it would cost much more.

Is anyone else surprised that TNA's deal with Challenge was renewed? I thought that since Challenge is owned by Sky, WWE would have put pressure on Sky not to sign a new deal.

I'll opening admit my back of the fag packet calculations aren't bang on accurate. Jack Foley has largely covered the situation.

Good news on the increase on TNA viewership. My understanding was that it was a quieter than usual Thursday night in the states and it's TNA's biggest angle in months.

In regards to this weeks Impact....



The proper PPV shows are usually live, so has increased costs. The ONO shows are taped and shown months later, which heavily reduces the costs.


Like I said earlier in the thread, WWE don't see TNA as a legitmate threat.

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/...87157324_n.jpg

800 paid for a house show. Sad considering Sting, who does a limited house show schedule, was on the card.

That is very sad sight. If you can't sell out a school you've got no chance

I'm not surprised. That would be WWE acknowledging TNA exist

I'm surprised that they even bother if that's the audience they are drawing. They'd almost be better taping about 4 weeks of TV ahead so that they can tour outside the US more often.

Their house shows are supposed to be really good too.

They do film that far in advance that's the confusing thing. The December One Night Only show was filmed in March! They are supposed to be filming six UK iMPACT shows on their next tour

There's a PPV on Challenge on Wednesday - I'm assuming it's a One Night Only one ?

WWE don't really need to do anything do they when the people in this thread and others like it do their job running TNA down for them.

Seriously does anybody actually like TNA in here or do you all just think it fun to constantly say TNA is Doooommmed all the time.

It's the done thing for the self appointed "IWC" to claim TNA is doooooomed all the time. They've been saying it for almost the entire lifespan of TNA so far, so I think the idea is that they're hoping to one day get it right so they can say "I told you so" ..

Not meaning to be rude, But there is this funny image of Vince Mcmahon in his big chair refreshing this thread and laughing. Plenty of people put WWE down as well.