Jeff Silverleaf
05-08-2010, 02:45 PM
After roughly 2 months into a war that TNA declared on WWE, TNA waves the white flag and high tails it back to Thursday nights. Unlike the first Monday night war, where it was winner take all, TNA and Panda Energy was unwilling to risk everything to become number 1 and now TNA has a hefty price to pay and it has nothing to do with WWE. It’s a price to be paid to the fans, Spike TV, sponsors and the talent that busted their backsides that brought TNA to the dance.
Price #1- The Fans. The question is how many TNA fans will now feel, consciously or sub-consciously, that TNA is inferior to WWE? We can look back and see that not one episode of iMPACT, or even on segment, score anywhere close to RAW at any point. Sure, TNA could have put on a better show but that’s an opinion, the fact remains that TNA had no impact on anything RAW was doing (pun intended). Another thing to consider is if TNA decides to go head to head with RAW again in the future, how many fans will care?
Price #2- Spike TV. What can you say? Spike has bent over backwards for TNA, more so than they did with WWE RAW before that and ECW TV before that. The USA Network doesn’t do for WWE what Spike has for TNA. Will the Spike execs lose faith in TNA after the Monday night failure? Sure, they have full support on Thursday’s, but for how long? After scoring a 1.5 on January 4th, TNA hasn’t been able to score a full ratings point since and there’s no guarantee that TNA will ever score a 1.5 again, much less have any stability in the ratings (which goes back to price #1). Also, Spike has been subsidizing TNA talent pay, if you are Spike, would you continue to do so?
Price #3- The Sponsors. This is the most often overlooked factor when it comes to competition between promotions. The sponsor’s guarantees cash flow for your program. The higher the ratings, the more sponsor’s will pay. The more money a promotion gets, they can get more talent, refine and enhance production, it’ll cut cost in the form of travel expenses and distribution of the product and most importantly, it’ll save Spike TV from having to spend money on TNA and make TNA more self-sufficient. Sponsorship makes everyone happy. The more sponsors you have the more successful a company is. That is why ratings matter. Now with TNA losing the very war they declared, other companies want to sponsor what may now be perceived, inferior program? Will they lose sponsors from this point on? It’ll be interesting to see in the coming weeks.
Price #4- The Talent. Here’s something that many may not know. There are some major talents in TNA whose contracts expire in August, September and October of this year. Here’s a list, if my sources are correct:
August: Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Hernandez, Taylor Wilde, Doug Williams and Shark Boy
September: AJ Styles, Taz, Team 3D, Jay Lethal, Abyss and Homicide
October: Matt Morgan, RVD, Sting, Madison Rayne and Rhino.
I hate to say it, but there are some that feel that one of the factors for TNA’s low ratings are that AJ was the champion and Abyss was forced down upon them. AJ and Abyss where bust their butts for TNA before the big names from WWE arrived, but since some do feel that way, why would Abyss and AJ not entertain offers from WWE or ROH if they can knocking? As for the Nash’s, Angle’s and Sting’s, how badly was their ego’s hurt by losing to Vince & Co. again? Considering that Wrestlemania 27 will be held in Atlanta and the Hall of Fame will be WCW themed, why wouldn’t Sting and Nash go for a short term deal? Nash has already proven that he will run back to Vince after being knocked down and it’s probably time for him and Sting to retire, so why not go out with a hall of fame ring? Besides, doesn’t TNA need more to create angles out of?
Also, keep in mind that Jeff Jarrett had announce on the radio show, Between the Ropes, that TNA is looking to increase its road schedule to be more WWE like this fall. The main reason why RVD, Kurt Angle, Sting and Team 3D signed with TNA was because that they would not be on the road. Now that may be changing. I don’t see many of them sticking around if they have to take on a “WWE like” schedule for les than WWE pay. If this scenario plays out, how will the younger talent react when they look up and see all the “Big Names” who promised them the future just walk out of the door?
With all of this being said, all is not lost for TNA. If they manage to bring viewers to Thursday’s with them, TNA may start to provide stable ratings and sponsors may continue some cash flow. TNA has a unique opportunity with this loss to WWE. They get a second chance to re-build the brand, but this time they HAVE to go slowly. They cannot expect to wait a year or 2 and decide to go after WWE again and they can’t simply hit the reset button again and start over. They have to continue what they or doing currently. If they stop trying to bring people in, or all current Angles and pushes, they will lose the fans they have. They can no longer want to be #1, when they start back on Thursday’s they have to be #1. TNA can no longer worry or mention anything about WWE, from here on out, everything has to be about TNA. If TNA can do that and continue to survive, then unlike the last Monday night war, we will have 2 different wrestling programs to enjoy.
Price #1- The Fans. The question is how many TNA fans will now feel, consciously or sub-consciously, that TNA is inferior to WWE? We can look back and see that not one episode of iMPACT, or even on segment, score anywhere close to RAW at any point. Sure, TNA could have put on a better show but that’s an opinion, the fact remains that TNA had no impact on anything RAW was doing (pun intended). Another thing to consider is if TNA decides to go head to head with RAW again in the future, how many fans will care?
Price #2- Spike TV. What can you say? Spike has bent over backwards for TNA, more so than they did with WWE RAW before that and ECW TV before that. The USA Network doesn’t do for WWE what Spike has for TNA. Will the Spike execs lose faith in TNA after the Monday night failure? Sure, they have full support on Thursday’s, but for how long? After scoring a 1.5 on January 4th, TNA hasn’t been able to score a full ratings point since and there’s no guarantee that TNA will ever score a 1.5 again, much less have any stability in the ratings (which goes back to price #1). Also, Spike has been subsidizing TNA talent pay, if you are Spike, would you continue to do so?
Price #3- The Sponsors. This is the most often overlooked factor when it comes to competition between promotions. The sponsor’s guarantees cash flow for your program. The higher the ratings, the more sponsor’s will pay. The more money a promotion gets, they can get more talent, refine and enhance production, it’ll cut cost in the form of travel expenses and distribution of the product and most importantly, it’ll save Spike TV from having to spend money on TNA and make TNA more self-sufficient. Sponsorship makes everyone happy. The more sponsors you have the more successful a company is. That is why ratings matter. Now with TNA losing the very war they declared, other companies want to sponsor what may now be perceived, inferior program? Will they lose sponsors from this point on? It’ll be interesting to see in the coming weeks.
Price #4- The Talent. Here’s something that many may not know. There are some major talents in TNA whose contracts expire in August, September and October of this year. Here’s a list, if my sources are correct:
August: Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Hernandez, Taylor Wilde, Doug Williams and Shark Boy
September: AJ Styles, Taz, Team 3D, Jay Lethal, Abyss and Homicide
October: Matt Morgan, RVD, Sting, Madison Rayne and Rhino.
I hate to say it, but there are some that feel that one of the factors for TNA’s low ratings are that AJ was the champion and Abyss was forced down upon them. AJ and Abyss where bust their butts for TNA before the big names from WWE arrived, but since some do feel that way, why would Abyss and AJ not entertain offers from WWE or ROH if they can knocking? As for the Nash’s, Angle’s and Sting’s, how badly was their ego’s hurt by losing to Vince & Co. again? Considering that Wrestlemania 27 will be held in Atlanta and the Hall of Fame will be WCW themed, why wouldn’t Sting and Nash go for a short term deal? Nash has already proven that he will run back to Vince after being knocked down and it’s probably time for him and Sting to retire, so why not go out with a hall of fame ring? Besides, doesn’t TNA need more to create angles out of?
Also, keep in mind that Jeff Jarrett had announce on the radio show, Between the Ropes, that TNA is looking to increase its road schedule to be more WWE like this fall. The main reason why RVD, Kurt Angle, Sting and Team 3D signed with TNA was because that they would not be on the road. Now that may be changing. I don’t see many of them sticking around if they have to take on a “WWE like” schedule for les than WWE pay. If this scenario plays out, how will the younger talent react when they look up and see all the “Big Names” who promised them the future just walk out of the door?
With all of this being said, all is not lost for TNA. If they manage to bring viewers to Thursday’s with them, TNA may start to provide stable ratings and sponsors may continue some cash flow. TNA has a unique opportunity with this loss to WWE. They get a second chance to re-build the brand, but this time they HAVE to go slowly. They cannot expect to wait a year or 2 and decide to go after WWE again and they can’t simply hit the reset button again and start over. They have to continue what they or doing currently. If they stop trying to bring people in, or all current Angles and pushes, they will lose the fans they have. They can no longer want to be #1, when they start back on Thursday’s they have to be #1. TNA can no longer worry or mention anything about WWE, from here on out, everything has to be about TNA. If TNA can do that and continue to survive, then unlike the last Monday night war, we will have 2 different wrestling programs to enjoy.