The problem with Bully Ray is whilst he was great in his heel role in TNA, to most WWE fans (who haven't watched TNA), he's just the guy who used to be part of the Dudley Boyz.

Well .. Dudley Boys & Hardy Boys would certainly give the wwe tag team division a short term fix! ... I'd even have Bobby Roode & Austin Aries as a tag team! ... I'm bloody sick of watching the goldusts & usos every week!

The only people that could realistically walk straight into WWE are Dudleys, Hardys and Angle. Jeff is on record (whilst under TNA contract) that he wants to retire in WWE, Angle has been talking about having an interest in going back for a while.

The rest, they would probably go through NXT. It happened to Steen, Devitt and KENTA, it sure as anything would happen to Joe, Aries and the like. It's said its so people are seasoned in the WWE style, more so after the original Sin Cara couldn't/didn't adapt.

But I'm not sure we're even at that point or whether WWE would even be interested in the contracts for the majority. The tape library, I can certainly see them being interested in for full career documentaries for Dudleys, Sting, Angle, Jeff Hardy, Flair etc.

In hindsight, WWE should never have got rid of Buh Buh/Bully Ray years back. He could easily have been JBL level main event heel in his mid 30's. Like JBL he got a babyface push in 2002 before suffering an injury before then returning to the tag team division. Unlike JBL though they never tried him a heel singles guy. TNA did and he turned it up a notch.

Magnus is destined for WWE next year, regardless of whether TNA survives. He's the sort of guy Triple H would sign in a heartbeat: 6'4, former world champion, looks like a star, can cut a promo, 5 + years of television experience and still in his 20's. He's probably the only TNA guy I see on the WWE roster a year or so from now.

Magnus IMO was possibly the worst champion I've ever seen in TNA wrestling ... About as bland as bland can get, so I guess ya right he'll be no1 on trips shopping list!

If Spike drop TNA, what happens to the deal with Challenge? Would they be able to sue if TNA can't deliver contractually agreed upon content to their network? Or is their deal tied into Spike's deal?

Well I would have thought their deals are individual but I posted that here before and apparently they aren't. If Spike drop TNA and there is no new deal, obviously TNA can't function without that money or clearance IMO so are most likely done and all of their international deals are done also. But obviously that's just opinion, probably completely wrong.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the Carters are worth billions and could settle any disputes civilly but Spike help fund and produce the product that is distributed internationally so their deals in the UK, Mexico and India could be affected by their cancellation in their domestic market. Having multiple contract violations internationally is not something I imagine they wish to deal with.

Isn't Challenge owned by sky? ... so SKY effectively air both tna & wwe in the UK!

They have 17 contracts for Impact worldwide (just from a quick look on Wiki so could be more or less), including the US, so they can't all be linked to Spike can they?

Their TV deals will be based on whether the company is active or not IMO so if Spike drops TNA and no new deal is formed BUT the company choose to/can stay active (however possible that is), they will have to provide programming to the 16 non-domestic broadcasters they have been paid to do so.

I'm sure financially it won't be an issue for the Carters, as you say they are worth billions. One thing that is strange to me is that it's always spoken about that Vince should be worth billions off the back of WWE but one of the companies with a billionaire went under and the second doesn't look far off it.

Time Warner was merged, they closed WCW but the company continued, the subisidiary didn't. WWE has tried to expand but they don't have Warner Bros Studios, DC Comics, the Looney Tunes etc

WWE is it's own entity and Vince has been a billionaire twice, he just hasn't sustained that value.

Panda Energy and the Carter's investment portfolio is vast and global, Vince doesn't have energy plants and water refineries.

I have a feeling WCW was on Bravo when it was bought out and shut down. Unless the TNA tape library is bought by somebody then what is left of TNA could allow Challenge to run old episodes until the deal ends. Or Challenge simply air another old game show in its place. Either way, I don't think TNA at the big of concern to Challenge and vice versa. It's a relationship of convenience rather than something which would involve disputes.

Might be wrong but I don't think the Carters are billionaires either. Multi millionaires for sure, but I don't think they're worth close to what many wrestling fans think they are. Panda Energy has seen huge amounts of money pumped through it, but that seems to be due to massive government investment due to the type of company it is. Only a small amount of that will likely end up as net profit, with an even smaller amount going the Carters. The company HQ is very modest.

You see, here you're just repeating the dirtsheet narrative on TNA, which I don't agree with.

My opinion is that TNA were a fairly well run little promotion who got bought by some rich people. They took a big risk trying to create the next WCW, and made some very entertaining if chaotic TV in the process. They eventually found that making the next WCW was impossible in the current wrestling market and started scaling the business back. Everyone seems to forget that bit: Bob Carter publicly stated that TNA would be intentionally scaled back. That led to coming off the road, the loss of half the roster, and ultimately Spike not renewing the show. TNA without Carter cash injections may or may not prove viable. Right now it honestly looks like it wont.

Consider this: If TNA only failed because of "bad decisions", rather than the fact that the US wrestling market can't support a second televised national promotion right now, where's the new no. 2 company snapping at TNA's heels? Why isn't TNA being driven out of business by this company? Why does it look unlikely we'll see a replacement for TNA in the next few years, if ever?

The dirtsheet line on TNA is myopic. It fails to recognise that the wrestling industry generally is a shadow of its former self and is still shrinking. TNA are a casualty of that. But it's much easier to pretend it's all the fault of a middle aged woman and her "bad decisions".

It is not "dirtsheet narrative" at all, it is fact.

TNA have not held a show since October 12 2014. That is fact.
TNA have no shows booked until January 2015 at the earliest. That is fact.
Workers contracted to TNA have not worked for the company, therefore not paid, since October 2014. That is fact.

It isn't some conspiracy against TNA, it is the reporting of fact. And no not just the fault of Dixie, I don't believe it all falls to Dixie but bad decisions have contributed. And that isn't a dirtsheet narrative, that is my personal opinion. Not everything can be a conspiracy against TNA, sometimes it just has to be accepted how badly they've f'd up.

All of those things are facts, but they've got nothing to do with what I'm saying!

TNA has failed because the wrestling audience generally has shrunk, which isn't entirely its fault.

And I never alleged a dirtsheet 'conspiracy'. Dirtsheet writers aren't setting out to deceive anyone. But their narrative is shaped by the fact that 90% of their sources are WWE affiliated in some way, and that they're wrestling buffs who find it hard to see the bigger picture of how the industry is declining.

Well if they have nothing to do with what you're saying, I'm not sure why you responded to my post saying I'm just repeating dirtsheet narrative.

Do you deny that terrible decisions have been made which have contributed to their downfall? It isn't just the wrestling industry declining, it is in part their terrible decisions. And not just Dixie's but the people she chooses to surround herself with in the company.

Whether it's written as "dirtsheet narrative" or "dirtsheet conspiracy" is irrelevant. Dirtsheet writers are writing what TNA have provided them with. The dirtsheet narrative seems to be that TNA is failing, which it is. And I agree the wrestling audience is shrinking but TNA are not failing for simply that reason IMO.

So TNA are just a victim of circumstance rather than woefully incompetent? Ok then...

TNA have been hemeragging cash from day1 according to Bob Carter that's why he decided to close the chequebook and call it a day! ... which naturally caused tna to scale-back accordingly!

(I blame dixie for giving hogan & bischoff too much power ... They should've concentrated on promoting the younger talent but did everything but!)

I think they reached their zenith but the market wasn't there. I thought they had a decent little setup in 2009 with a good tag division, good women's division, veterans, watchable story lines etc. The booking from 2006 - 2009 left a lot to be desired yet it wasn't what I'd call bad. But even then the likes of Booker T, Mick Foley, Sting, Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash didn't push them beyond that 1.2 average rating.

Even if Vince Russo, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff had not any input, there is nothing to say Spike TV wouldn't have got bored after 10 years. There is nothing to say the product would be any better or any more marketable. Only thing you can conclude is that Panda Energy wouldn't have burned as much cash.

Outrage at a staged wrestling event? Really? You know it's not real, right?

Spike were paying at least part of some of the big contracts, certainly Hogan's. So while they were clearly determined to help TNA develop, if those sorts of people weren't brought in while adding little value, Spike might have been more willing to stick with them. If TNA had managed to stick to their late-2009 booking model, I think they would be in a far healthier position today. 2010-11 really derailed them big time.

You've also got to bare in mind that after all the help and money Spike gave TNA, Dixie did lie to Spike officials about Russo working there. Not a great way to treat a business partner.

Kent Brockman: "Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charge that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down 80%, while heavy sack beatings are up a shocking 900%."
Homer: "Oh people can come up with statistics to prove anything Kent, 14 per cent of all people know that."

if they kept vince russo they would be ahead of wwe now

their fault, no one elses.

But what are these "terrible decisions" which sunk TNA? I actually remember arguing with you about this more than a year ago (nostalgia ), and I thought, and I still do, that most of the "terrible decisions" you cited made perfect sense for TNA to do at the time, and in many cases were things which their critics were urging them to do!

I'll be fair: I think if TNA had been the best, most innovative and exciting wrestling product TV had ever seen, Panda's gamble would have paid off and it would have reached WCW levels. As it was, it was booked pretty much about as well as any other wrestling promotion: Not really good, not terribly bad.

As it was, in a market where interest in wrestling was declining anyway, that wasn't good enough. I absolutely don't buy the "TNA was booked and run completely incompetently" line. It was run fine by wrestling standards - that just wasn't good enough in challenging times.