Well he still going in the TNA hall of fame right?

The story goes a house show last night in Maryland was his final date. God knows what is actually true about TNA.

They can't be stupid enough 2 let him go surely?

(There's a dozen others I'd get rid of before bully!)

Terrible news about Bully. Everything points to Aries winding down too (probably retirement). I feel like as soon as the Carters got involved, TNA became a house of cards build on Bob's money injections. As soon as Bob removed the life support, the chain reaction was inevitable:

No crazy money = No Hogan & Sting, no bi-weekly touring Impact, and eventually no AJ or Angle either. Losing these things (despite the ratings remaining more or less unaffected, which is completely miraculous) = (quite probably) no TV deal. No TV deal = no company.

Much as Bob was upset at pouring money into TNA with no return, without his money the company will now soon be virtually worthless. Having said that, was TNA ever actually viable?

It was struggling to survive the moment it was launched. My feeling always has been that the wrestling market probably isn't there nowadays for a #2 US promotion with national TV.

Anyway, at times they've put out some great TV. One day people will look back at some Impacts and say: "Hold on, I thought TNA was supposed to be garbage?". I hope they can keep going, but if I had to bet on it, based on the hard evidence we have right now, I'd probably bet against it.

Bryan Alvarez said there was a period pre Hogan where TNA was profitable, though as I said before God knows what actually goes on inside TNA.

I can see ray either completing the program with the hardys because it's "good for business" or he'll do it because they'll agree a short term contract extension or something like that.

for them to drop the hardys/3D program before the blow-off match would just be absurd.

IF this is all true though, to be fair.

Be a massive loss Bully.

I presume if TNA does go under, Vince will pick up the tape library. It could prove useful for the inevitable documentaries of Angle and Sting.

He has no need for the library, so i doubt that'll happen. But then TNA are a long way from going under at the moment.

Alvarez probably ranks somewhere below Caldwell in terms of reliability for me, who in turn ranks somewhere below a horoscope written by Tony Blair. But that's still a nice, encouraging thing to hear. If the company successfully manages to scale back to 2009 levels and return to profit, that's quite an achievement. It's notoriously hard to shrink a business.

There's an interview with Kurt being touted on a few sites where he says UTA might be holding up a Spike deal, by actually encouraging TNA to hold out for a better contract than their current one. I don't see why they would be in a position to expect that, given the loss of Hogan & Sting, and WWE's disappointing new deal, but it's a possibility I hadn't thought of. It's true those agencies will always tell you to turn down the first offer. I still personally think it's more likely Spike are dropping or lowballing TNA. But I'd love to be wrong!

TNA could and should have been a good no. 2 promotion, however rubbish booking and overspending on old stars didn't help. When you consider that TNA could have had guys like Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins for a lot less than some of the old guys like Nash, you realise they've wasted money.

Supposedly, TNA had lost $46m as of a few years back when they spoke to Heyman as he saw the books.

TNA have zero leverage in negotiations with Spike. It looks unlikely that any main cable channels want wrestling and considering September schedules are usually finalised by now, the best TNA can hope for is a Spike renewal on a lower offer, minus 15% UTA automatically take in these deals.

“IMPACT WRESTLING will remain a vital part of Spike TV's programming on Wednesday nights, 9/8c, through the end of the year. Negotiations remain ongoing beyond this time frame.”

Tonight marks IMPACT WRESTLING’s official move to Wednesday nights. Tune in at 9/8c for the most anticipated night of hardcore wrestling on television. One of TNA’s most popular annual Pay-Per-Views “Hardcore Justice,” will be featured tonight, free on Spike TV.

http://www.impactwrestling.com/news/item/6020

I suppose the viewing figures for Wednesday night will be interesting.

Awesome, just got in and saw this on the TNA site.

This totally changes my view on things. Spike have no reason to offer TNA an extension if they don't ultimately want to keep them. If they wanted to drop them they'd just do it when the contract expires on September 25th.

So what's holding up the negotiations? It could actually be UTA advising TNA to hold out for better terms. It could be Spike wanting to pay less or have more creative control. It could even be Spike wanting to buy a stake. We'll find out I guess.

Really pleased

Also, didn't Meltzer say negotiations were over and No Surrender would be the last Impact on Spike? Just sayin'.

Definitely. I'm not expecting great things. Shall we have a sweepstake? I'm going for ... hmm ... 800,000? I hope that's not too high.

They're taping impacts for broadcast after Bound for Glory a month before it, which is odd, but I guess it matters less than the tv deal.

I'm probably wrong but I don't see that much of a drop off to be honest. They've got a pretty solid base of 1.1m who tune in each week (due to the figures being pretty similar each week I would assume they are the same people) so I think they will be at 1m as a minimum.

It's obviously good news that Spike are keeping them through 2014 but I won't get my hopes up just yet about a deal into 2015. This could just be Spike giving them time to find a new deal after the money they have pumped into them.

No, they're not through BFG with the tapings yet. They still have some episodes to tape before the ppv and they'll tape them in 3 weeks in Betlehem. They'll tape a One Night Only PPV as well.

Who said they got an extension? For all we know they could be there without a contract until December (ECW did in 2000, same channel). They got more time, which is good, but it's still a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way before they're out of the woods.

The taping on 19th Sept is presumably going to be for the 15th & 22nd October Impacts*, after BFG which is 12th October. They're taping two a night and have done up to 10th September already.

*Unless it's the ONO, in which case the 18/9 taping would be for 15 & 22/10

Well they've obviously extended the contract for two months as they were due to be off air in October and now they aren't.

I personally think taping post-PPV episodes before a PPV is a terrible idea. I hope it's a one-off due to extenuating circumstances.


TNA site says:

Friday, September 5, Charlottesville, VA ONO: Turning Point
Saturday, September 6, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina ONO: Rivals
Sunday, September 7, Fayetteville, NC "International Television Event"
Tuesday-Friday, Sept. 16-19, Bethlehem, PA "IMPACT WRESTLING Live!"

http://www.impactwrestling.com/live-events

So a) dirtsheet sites wrong as usual. b) looks like two, maybe 3 house shows converted to ONOs. Eight(!) weeks of TV at Bethlehem.

That's a lot of TV at Bethlehem. Hope they can draw.

I'm more optimistic. I don't see why Spike would extend their run unless they have some interest in keeping TNA. They're not a charity, they're not going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

hardys vs 3d was great, tna been putting on same cracking matches recently.

There are reports out that TNA have had their deal renewed because Spike are still looking to purchase a majority of the company and don't want to be in a position where IMPACT isn't airing.