Yup, since July.

I think this sounds good on paper until you start considering the likely/viable alternatives. It gets a little less good then.

I agree actually. They have signed Josh Mathews who I think is a solid replacement and if they really wanted to they could pull Tenay in for the PPVs.

There were rumours that Velvet Sky was seeing Bully Ray behind Sabin's back before his contract expired.

Matthews as lead play-by-play doesn't do much for me to be honest.

Could be worse, they could have Michael Cole

This is TNA's moment to start a fresh with new characters, new gimmicks, sensible and logical booking and making exciting matches.

For me I would do the following.

Get rid of the bloody lasers as they look early 90's.
Bring Josh Matthews in along with Taz and hire bully ray as the heel commentator.
Have 4 sided ring.
Bring in part time cruiserweights to help fill the lower/midcard and to have fast, high flying matches like WCW use to do in 1996.
Keep Dixie off TV forever.
Try to improve the production value as much as possible.
Advertise, Advertise, Advertise.
Stop trying to be WWE and be Total Nonstop Action
Either your PG or TV 14!!
If your aiming for attitude era crowds then go to the colleges and university's and if you produce high spots and good story lines then the fans will come.

I don't know Matthews has always come across as very flat to me. Of course its hard to tell how much of that is just the WWE setting/environment. If they're going have Matthews as lead play-by-play though I'd ditch Taz (who I find even more unbearable than Tenay at this point) and go for a completely new announce team.

On a channel that around 50% of TNA fans won't be able to watch 'cause it's not on basic cable and it's not on a lot of cable systems, period.
That's a HUGE step back, let's not kid ourselves. They're making less money and they won't be getting financial help to the level Spike did (they paid tapings and the salaries of some people, including Bobby Lashley). They have to start from scratch basically, it's up to them to make it work, keeping in mind that the brand is toxic, has bled money for the past year, they can't draw flies and they need to rebuild back trust in the audience,

Heh, they aren't going to do that.

And as for logical booking, I'd guess Mr. Russo will be back, assuming he's not already.

They won't get rid of the 6 sided ring either! ... I reckon they'll get 150K viewers on DA! ... It's a cable channel that isn't on any cable networks apparently!

(TNA could be dead in 12 month)

Don't be ridiculous. They've signed a multi-year deal with the channel so they'll still be around this time next year.

Apart from signing Hogan and Bischoff, they've shown little sign of the kind of financial mismanagement that could see them fold.

It's not ridiculous .... if no-one bothers to tune in they won't last long regardles of the contract they've signed! .. this has done nothing but prespone the inevitable tna have 1 foot in the grave & the others quickly slipping!

tenay is just so poor. he was good in WCW as the 3rd man who could reel of the move names and give good background on wrestlers.

however as the main guy he simply cannot convey any excitement.

i mean literally vince macmahon could walk out on middle of impact and tenay would be like "and there is vince macmahon, the owner off wwe, walking right into the impact zone. now lets go backstage to see how gail kim is getting ready for her title shot later"

as for russo, i would LOVE it if dixie brought him back and gave him 100% control but i cant see it, she probably vexed with him for leaking that email and also prob wants yet another rebirth in a different direction me thinks.

Ratings are relative and not absolute.

Looking quite broadly at Destination America's numbers it will likely accept although not be especially overjoyed with around 150k+ at this point (and would likely be OK starting a little lower than that as long as there are signs of growth) and be overjoyed with anything 400k+. And if its a lot bigger than 400k Impact likely lands as their biggest show. Its probably also worth mentioning that Destination America's primary demographic target 25-54 not the more traditional 18-49 demo. So potentially Impact could be quite useful in helping to increase their exposure viewers to younger viewers and help broaden their audience or Impact's appeal to older viewers is going to start becoming more important. I'd guess option one is what's being eyed.

Its also probably worth mentioning that its possible we won't actually see Impact's numbers at least not consistently unless Destination America and/or TNA release them. Its probably not going to make the cable 100 at this point. And Destination America's numbers aren't widely reported at this point to put it mildly.


These multi-year contracts usually have a handful of get out clauses written into them. Its likely that there will be performance based criteria written into the deal. So while its a multi-year deal its still entirely possible (although not likely I'd admit) that Destination America could ditch Impact during the run. Equally they are going to have to perform if they want to extend the deal or find a new home further down the line.

I'm not going to get into the financial management of TNA at this point though. Partly because we don't have the actual numbers to go off but given that its rare that you find anyone with even limited knowledge of the situation who believes their making money I'd say there's every reason to be concerned on that front. In general the company does seem to be staggeringly mismanaged but again with no actual data to back that up I don't really want to get into it.

Oooh didn't know that.

I like Tenay, hope they don't get rid

I always thought Sabin was Crazy Steve!

I don't mind tenay / tazz either! ... it would be annoying if they were like JBL everyweek! ... Squealing (like a crazed schoolgirl) when goldusts & usos go head ta head for the 3464435(TH) time!

If you subscribe to Neilsen in the States, you can get that info outwith the top 100.

That information is also limited though and not at all widely reported. It also depends on what Destination America is paying Nielsen to count.

If DA is looking to grow, they'll need fully credible figures in order to sell advertising. I suppose it depends on how serious Discovery are about growing the channel.

I think for any announcer to perform well they need to be interested and excited. wrestling is fake and everything about it is fake but you need the announcers to be into it and believe it in order to sell it to viewers at home. You can't have announcers outhere that don't care about what's going on in the ring, it shows.

I hope they do hit the reboot button and am glad the deal includes more TV than just Impact and hopefully they will get behind TNA and promote TNA, something Spike rarely did. I'm sure TNA asked what the ad revenue was for the other shows on the network and what their current top shows were making from advertising. I don't think they would go into losing money. I think if they are smart they will get someone completely new to do the booking and writing of the TV shows. This relying on old times from the wrestling business doesn't work and let me tell you this, the demographic for this channel might not be the same as the other major cable channels out there but it's still an audience. It's still people that want to sit and watch TV and enjoy the shows they are watching. They are not wrestling fans. All the wrestling fans in the USA already watch Raw on Monday and a small amount of them watch TNA or DVR TNA and watch it later. I know it's a wrestling show but that shouldn't be the focus of the show. They need fresh writers, fresh characters, the kind of show that people all ages will watch. The people that already watch this Discovery Channel are going to discover TNA probably for the first time, they need to put out a product that will make people stay on the channel and keep watching and likewise with Discovery they should be working with TNA to get the most eyeballs on their channel. The wrestling business is dead in the water. 10 minute fake fights isn't gonna do it. It's gonna take some hard work and effort to get this thing right.

Look what Lucha Underground is doing now, something different, uniqe, it's exciting and engaging. The time flies by. It's filmed like a movie, it takes itself seriously and plays seriously. It never feels cheesy or corny. TNA should follow suit and present their wrestling product in a completely different way, nothing at all like the competition and stick to it. Get an identity and tell people who they are and what they are and stick to it. I would even go as far as reformatting the shows. I wouldn't even have a Dixie Carter or GM. I'd tell people right off the bat what the matches are that night. Maybe have fan involvement for stipulations, even something like the Nitro girls but have them out there with bikinis on and getting the crowd going and doing something with the main event or gimmick matches. Maybe having a leaderboard for the championship contenders or even better why not split the show into 2 one hour slots? Why not have 1 hour on Tuesday night and one hour on Thursday night? Or Wednesday and Thursday? Not only can you hype a main even for the second hour that week but you're still getting your 2 hours of TV and all the talent get TV time. It will fly by. It could be like any sport/tv show. You can get one good hour of TV and then you get a little something else to look forward to the next night or two nights later. You have maybe 3 good matches on the show, a few promos to sell THOSE matches, maybe some character vignettes and that's it. You still have your wrestlers interacting and storylines but it's done in a way that IF it were real.....that's how it would be. And splitting the show up over a few nights and just calling them Impact is again.......something that's never been done by any wrestling company. That idea alone is a new way of presenting professional wrestling on TV. 42 minutes minus commercials over the course of a few days. It's no different than watching a few football matches or a few days of golf or Eastenders.

good post hazy

I think UFC is the modern day wwe in most people's eyes these days! 😳

(PS, What ratings does ufc get on fox? Is it better or worse then wwe?) 😇

@hazy once LU gets a netflix deal it'll be a serious force ta be reckoned with! 👍

I can't stand that Menagerie music, i hated it when they just played it constantly till after the match and they left, had to mute the Tv.

@alex tna on challenge gets about 100K per week don't they? & still sell out their UK tours so atleast the tna fans are loyal despite being insignificant in numbers! 👍