TNA Sale Megathread

[cero2k]

As you may all know, right now Corgan, Aerolux, and WWE are all in negotiations to see who buys TNA's majority ownership. Corgan already said that if he buys it, the name goes. WWE would likely just buy some contracts, tape library and shut it down, and Aerolux likely doesn't have the funds to take it.

Regardless if it's Corgan or WWE, this may be the final week of existence of the name TNA.

Anyway, let's make this the topic to post all about the TNA Sale, we know it's coming, well i should be coming before friday

[cero2k]

PWInsider.com

In regard to several rumors that are making their way around tonight, there have been no changes in TNA ownership in any regard as of this evening and there have been no flights or talents canceled from next week's scheduled TV tapings.

Billy Corgan is scheduled to appear on ESPN's Dan Le Batard radio show at 11:30 AM, so it should be interesting to see what update he provides, if any, on the TNA ownership situation.

[Big Red Machine]

Wait... WWE really was the mystery buyer?

Anyway... I'm really just rooting for WWE. We have no idea what Aerolux will mean creatively (insert Harris Brothers Nazis joke here), and Corgan hasn't improved creative at all, so I have no faith in them to fix things up whatsoever. WWE will close the shop up and take a chunk of people, but I doubt they'll take back Drew, Ethan, and possibly Storm, plus I doubt they'll take the Wolves, which could free those guys up to help ROH (or, in Ethan's case, to hopefully not sh*t the bed in the ring like he has in EVOLVE), plus it would either leave PopTV wanting for a wresting show, opening the door for ROH... or WWE might use the time to stick NXT on the air.

[cero2k]

According to Meltzer, WWE made a really low offer and added no compete clauses to both Dixie and Corgan. So since Dixie is the one pretty much deciding who to sell, it's likely not passing unless they add more money to it.

I'm going against WWE buying it, they seriously don't need anymore libraries, they already monopolize wrestling as it is. Plus as you mention, there would be a LOT of talent without a job, or that would potentially start taking spots at places like ROH.

I'm down with Corgan taking control, I totally believe that we haven't really seen a Corgan-ran Impact, because with Corgan in charge, there is the potential that Gaburick would be gone, and we know Dixie would be gone. He would change the name of the promotion and what not. Corgan wasn't bad when he had Resistance Pro, i think he has a better idea of what wrestling could be if he can get away from the current TNA 'creative'

[Big Red Machine]

I'm going against WWE buying it, they seriously don't need anymore libraries, they already monopolize wrestling as it is. Plus as you mention, there would be a LOT of talent without a job, or that would potentially start taking spots at places like ROH.

Good. Let some of them start "taking spots" in ROH. I'd much rather see James Storm, Drew Galloway, and the American Wolves than the J. Diesel, Matt Taven, Will Ferrara, Brutal Bob & Tim Hughes, pointless bullsh*t involving Yano, and the Cabinet (and this is coming from someone who likes both Rhett and Caprice more than most, assuming they are kept to appropriate undercard roles). I don't even need to see Kazarian anymore (he certainly hasn't delivered to expectations), and if Dalton Castle isn't actually going to do anything, I'd rather he be reduced to a part-time role at best. I'm not even quite sold yet on Dijak (his showings at Field of Honor at and ASE will be big tests for him in my eyes). So I'd much rather have some highly-talented TNA castoffs than this group of guys.

I'm down with Corgan taking control, I totally believe that we haven't really seen a Corgan-ran Impact, because with Corgan in charge, there is the potential that Gaburick would be gone, and we know Dixie would be gone. He would change the name of the promotion and what not. Corgan wasn't bad when he had Resistance Pro, i think he has a better idea of what wrestling could be if he can get away from the current TNA 'creative'

The Grand Championship appears to have been his idea, so that right there tells you he just doesn't get it. He really comes off to me like a "throw random 'inventive' sh*t at the wall and just see what sticks" kind of guy, which hasn't worked at all.

[cero2k]

Billy Corgan Discusses His Negotiations to Buy TNA, The Status of Bound For Glory, Bidding Against Vince McMahon, More

source: http://411mania.com/wrestling/billy-cor ... lory-more/

-Billy Corgan appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show today to discuss his attempt to purchase TNA, the future of the company and more. Here are the highlights, courtesy of Pwinsider.com…

Corgan was asked if there is a bidding war for the company with Vince McMahon and if so, how does one compete with him. Corgan said that you don’t because if Vince McMahon wants it, there’s nothing you can do because he’s going to get it. Corgan followed that up by saying that he doesn’t believe that a Vince McMahon purchase of TNA is going to happen right now because Corgan would certainly know if that was the case, since he personally has a piece of the company. He said there’s something of a “standoff” right now among different sides to see what was going to happen with TNA.

Corgan was asked if the Bound for Glory PPV show is going to happen this Sunday. Corgan said that he doesn’t believe anyone involved in current discussions are going to do something that would put people out of work and not have a show. He said that the wrestlers just want to see a resolution so that a few months from now, they aren’t back in the same position. Corgan said that wrestlers he’s spoken to have asked him to not make a bad deal. He’s working on moving forward.

Corgan said professional wrestling is a tougher sell for advertising, because if you look at it from the perspective of a basketball game and wrestling each drawing a 1.0 rating, wrestling will get the lower ad rates because of the perception of what pro wrestling is. Corgan he wants wrestling to move forward in how it’s perceived and brought into the future and there are others who he respects in the company who feel differently. He described it as a battle for what the soul of the company should be.

He said that in wrestling, there is only one philosophy in wrestling – WWE’s – but there is a separate way to run offense and defense and have a different company, saying it’s like comparing Game of Thrones to Breaking Bad in that they are both successful TV series but completely different animals. He said that in wrestling, it’s looked upon as only one way can work, which is like every sports team being run from the mindset that only style of offense and one style of defense could work.

Corgan was asked what the problems hindering TNA were and he said that the company has lacked consistent capital and it’s hard to build and promote awareness and create something with that consistent backbone to help.

[cero2k]

I'm going against WWE buying it, they seriously don't need anymore libraries, they already monopolize wrestling as it is. Plus as you mention, there would be a LOT of talent without a job, or that would potentially start taking spots at places like ROH.

Good. Let some of them start "taking spots" in ROH. I'd much rather see James Storm, Drew Galloway, and the American Wolves than the J. Diesel, Matt Taven, Will Ferrara, Brutal Bob & Tim Hughes, pointless bullsh*t involving Yano, and the Cabinet (and this is coming from someone who likes both Rhett and Caprice more than most, assuming they are kept to appropriate undercard roles). I don't even need to see Kazarian anymore (he certainly hasn't delivered to expectations), and if Dalton Castle isn't actually going to do anything, I'd rather he be reduced to a part-time role at best. I'm not even quite sold yet on Dijak (his showings at Field of Honor at and ASE will be big tests for him in my eyes). So I'd much rather have some highly-talented TNA castoffs than this group of guys.

I'm down with Corgan taking control, I totally believe that we haven't really seen a Corgan-ran Impact, because with Corgan in charge, there is the potential that Gaburick would be gone, and we know Dixie would be gone. He would change the name of the promotion and what not. Corgan wasn't bad when he had Resistance Pro, i think he has a better idea of what wrestling could be if he can get away from the current TNA 'creative'

The Grand Championship appears to have been his idea, so that right there tells you he just doesn't get it. He really comes off to me like a "throw random 'inventive' sh*t at the wall and just see what sticks" kind of guy, which hasn't worked at all.

1) Assuming ROH would actually get rid of them instead of just pushing them into 6 man matches. And Matt Taven can be pretty awesome

2) I actually like the Grand Championship concept.
The direction would be something that we would need to wait for to see how it goes. Does Corgan try and continue TNA stuff or just completely DELETE and start anew.

[Big Red Machine]

I'm going against WWE buying it, they seriously don't need anymore libraries, they already monopolize wrestling as it is. Plus as you mention, there would be a LOT of talent without a job, or that would potentially start taking spots at places like ROH.

Good. Let some of them start "taking spots" in ROH. I'd much rather see James Storm, Drew Galloway, and the American Wolves than the J. Diesel, Matt Taven, Will Ferrara, Brutal Bob & Tim Hughes, pointless bullsh*t involving Yano, and the Cabinet (and this is coming from someone who likes both Rhett and Caprice more than most, assuming they are kept to appropriate undercard roles). I don't even need to see Kazarian anymore (he certainly hasn't delivered to expectations), and if Dalton Castle isn't actually going to do anything, I'd rather he be reduced to a part-time role at best. I'm not even quite sold yet on Dijak (his showings at Field of Honor at and ASE will be big tests for him in my eyes). So I'd much rather have some highly-talented TNA castoffs than this group of guys.

I'm down with Corgan taking control, I totally believe that we haven't really seen a Corgan-ran Impact, because with Corgan in charge, there is the potential that Gaburick would be gone, and we know Dixie would be gone. He would change the name of the promotion and what not. Corgan wasn't bad when he had Resistance Pro, i think he has a better idea of what wrestling could be if he can get away from the current TNA 'creative'

The Grand Championship appears to have been his idea, so that right there tells you he just doesn't get it. He really comes off to me like a "throw random 'inventive' sh*t at the wall and just see what sticks" kind of guy, which hasn't worked at all.

1) Assuming ROH would actually get rid of them instead of just pushing them into 6 man matches. And Matt Taven can be pretty awesome

Financially they'd almost have to, right?

2) I actually like the Grand Championship concept.

Really? Did you really like seeing that Eddie vs. Galloway match have such an atrocious, non-decisive, anti-climactic eding?

The direction would be something that we would need to wait for to see how it goes. Does Corgan try and continue TNA stuff or just completely DELETE and start anew.

it hasn't been just that, though. There was the "Valley of Shadows" match bullsh*t, and the Ultimate X with Royal Rumble-style entrances, and a lot of other things that escape me at the moment. He has been involved with creative for at least a year now and things haven't really improved.

[cero2k]

Financially they'd almost have to, right?
well, yes and no, if ROH is growing, they can hire more names, and in the same sense, ROH is the only promotion left on TV not WWE, so if these TNA people want to get TV time, they can low ball them on money. Also, who would ROH realistically want? wasn't Davey in bad terms? Maybe get Andrew Everett back, but they never showed interest in Trevor anyway, they don't get chicks, Lashley, Galloway, ECIII are all awesome, but i don't see ROH bringing them in. Maybe Bennett and MAria would come back, maybe Moose.

Really? Did you really like seeing that Eddie vs. Galloway match have such an atrocious, non-decisive, anti-climactic eding?
I like the concept of the division, it offers a lot of potential stories if they're smart, I think if they start to get a particular type of wrestler and start playing more on the point system, etc, this could be Pure Rules awesome. Eddie vs Galloway felt more like a shoot finish to me, so i did kinda liked it.

it hasn't been just that, though. There was the "Valley of Shadows" match bullsh*t, and the Ultimate X with Royal Rumble-style entrances, and a lot of other things that escape me at the moment. He has been involved with creative for at least a year now and things haven't really improved.
I didn't think any of those were that bad, I don't think wacky stipulations or putting names on matches is the problem with creative here. Hell, i even like the idea of putting names on matches, the name not really having to relate to a stipulation, it's a nice way to reference a match. I think it's pretty normal that just because Corgan joined the creative team, things weren't going to completely change, he still had Gaburick and Dixie with their spoons on the pot, and surely anyone who comes to a new job/team, you just don't come in trashing and deleting everything everyone else did, NOW he would have that power.

I do think Impact improved A LOT in the last year

[Big Red Machine]

Financially they'd almost have to, right?
well, yes and no, if ROH is growing, they can hire more names, and in the same sense, ROH is the only promotion left on TV not WWE, so if these TNA people want to get TV time, they can low ball them on money. Also, who would ROH realistically want? wasn't Davey in bad terms? Maybe get Andrew Everett back, but they never showed interest in Trevor anyway, they don't get chicks, Lashley, Galloway, ECIII are all awesome, but i don't see ROH bringing them in. Maybe Bennett and MAria would come back, maybe Moose.
I can see Bennett and Maria and Moose all definitely coming back. Everett, too, as I believe Corino is a big supporter of his and they were getting ready to use him before the big knee injury in 2014. I don't think they would be against using Lee, either.
Obviously ROH would want Eddie, and I can see them taking Davey back, at least temporarily. It's be insane not to bring him back for one-offs with Kyle, Fish, etc.
They are starting to use women now, and Gail Kim is the biggest active name out there.
Lashley might not due to Bellator, I don't think they'd want Ethan, but they'd be crazy not to want Storm and Drew (although Drew would obviously have to balance this with Gabe/what WWE wants Gabe to be doing in regards to ROH). And I don't think ROH can low-ball too many of these guys because NXT is a real option for some of them, and others could probably make a good chunk working for LU/indies.


Really? Did you really like seeing that Eddie vs. Galloway match have such an atrocious, non-decisive, anti-climactic eding?
I like the concept of the division, it offers a lot of potential stories if they're smart, I think if they start to get a particular type of wrestler and start playing more on the point system, etc, this could be Pure Rules awesome. Eddie vs Galloway felt more like a shoot finish to me, so i did kinda liked it.
They can do one or two new stories, yes, but I found that finish to be WAY too frustrating to justify doing, and the time limit restrictions will kill the matches. New stories are nice, but if you give me a choice between a new story with meh matches or a tried-and-true story with great matches, I'm picking the latter every time. Also, a lot of the stories you can tell with this can be told in better matches by just adopting regular time limits.
There are several major differences between this and the Pure Rules:

1. Pure Rules were regular wrestling rules with one modification. This is two MAJOR ones.

2. Pure Rules matches ALWAYS had a decisive winner and loser via standard wrestling victory conditions (pin, submission, DQ, count-out). I don't think anyone was ever even DQed for closed fist to the face when they had no ropebreaks left- and if it did happen, it was no more than twice.

3. Pure Rules were easy to keep track of. All you had to do was keep track of rope-breaks and the one closed-fist warning, and both the referee and the announcers helped you do that. In this, the categories are so nebulous that it is almost impossible for a fan at home to accurately keep track of who is "winning" the round as it goes on if the round is in any way competitive. Say what you will about the Hard 10 Tournament, but if you could remember all of the point values and keep track of them in your head, you could tell who was winning the match.

4. As we have seen in just about every sport that has them, fans who disagree with the judges' assessments get annoyed, and this is only exacerbated by the nebulousness and subjectivity of the categories. This is even more frustrating in MMA and boxing, we where want to get decisive finishes, and even more so in pro wrestling where WE DON'T NEED F*CKING JUDGES BECAUSE IT'S A F*CKING WORK.


it hasn't been just that, though. There was the "Valley of Shadows" match bullsh*t, and the Ultimate X with Royal Rumble-style entrances, and a lot of other things that escape me at the moment. He has been involved with creative for at least a year now and things haven't really improved.
I didn't think any of those were that bad, I don't think wacky stipulations or putting names on matches is the problem with creative here. Hell, i even like the idea of putting names on matches, the name not really having to relate to a stipulation, it's a nice way to reference a match. I think it's pretty normal that just because Corgan joined the creative team, things weren't going to completely change, he still had Gaburick and Dixie with their spoons on the pot, and surely anyone who comes to a new job/team, you just don't come in trashing and deleting everything everyone else did, NOW he would have that power.
The problem with Valley of Shadows was that they never told us what it was, because it was pretty much no different than a "Monster's Ball" or a No DQ's match or a Street Fight or whatever. (BTW, originally Monster's Ball WAS different, because the idea was that they wrestlers had been locked in a pitch-dark room for 24 hours before the match, left with nothing but their hatred of their opponent to sustain them through this mental ordeal, and then they were going to go take it out on their opponent in the match). The Ultimate X Gauntlet thing existed for no reason, and with no explanation of why it was happening and why some wrestlers were being treated unfairly. Like with Cornette's tenure as booker in ROH (despite his denials) it is logical to assume that if you see a marked change in the product dating from after someone joins the creative team, they are a big part of that change. You can't come in and trash an delete everything, but that's not what I'm asking for. What I'm asking for is improvement, and that has been VERY lacking.


I do think Impact improved A LOT in the last year
Some facets of the show have improved (mainly top of the card and importance of the world title), but there is still an over-reliance on pointless gimmick matches and overbooking, absolutely nothing happening in the women's, X, and tag divisions, and 99% of the storylines are so full of plotholes and contrivances that it makes me scream. Furthermore, in the past year they have started to rush through things and make decisions that seem to shoot their own booking in the foot, and the shows have become so full of padding that it is infuriating. Some of the actual booking in terms of who wins and who loses in ROH has been worse than in TNA, but TNA is the product I am considering giving up on because the shows are so infuriating to watch.

[cero2k]

sooo, according to Jim Ross. WWE buying the Tape Library is imminent, BUT they're not buying the promotion, just the tape library.

This would mean that Corgan (or whoever) would pretty much have to start from scratch, but with a TV deal, PPV deal, Roster, and all the equipment, regardless seems like TNA may end at the end of the year

another source

not gonna lie, this makes me sad

[cero2k]

not really sale related, but there is a rumor going round today that TNA is hiring Lenny Leonard

[Big Red Machine]

not really sale related, but there is a rumor going round today that TNA is hiring Lenny Leonard

That would be an upgrade, and also a surprising one. That would mean kicking Mathews out, and that would probably mean losing Madison Rayne, too.

[cero2k]

not really sale related, but there is a rumor going round today that TNA is hiring Lenny Leonard

That would be an upgrade, and also a surprising one. That would mean kicking Mathews out, and that would probably mean losing Madison Rayne, too.

sounds like a good deal to me

[Big Red Machine]

not really sale related, but there is a rumor going round today that TNA is hiring Lenny Leonard

That would be an upgrade, and also a surprising one. That would mean kicking Mathews out, and that would probably mean losing Madison Rayne, too.

sounds like a good deal to me

Yeah, but if TNA wanted to do something like that, they could have done it a long time ago.

[cero2k]

That would be an upgrade, and also a surprising one. That would mean kicking Mathews out, and that would probably mean losing Madison Rayne, too.

sounds like a good deal to me

Yeah, but if TNA wanted to do something like that, they could have done it a long time ago.

Well, there's always the "Josh is a Dixie guy", so we could already start seeing those changes coming. Lenny HAS to be cheaper than Josh too. and there's always the chance that Josh gets moved to a backstage job, Madison is already working KO's creative

[Big Red Machine]

sounds like a good deal to me

Yeah, but if TNA wanted to do something like that, they could have done it a long time ago.

Well, there's always the "Josh is a Dixie guy", so we could already start seeing those changes coming. Lenny HAS to be cheaper than Josh too. and there's always the chance that Josh gets moved to a backstage job, Madison is already working KO's creative

And if WWE says this means EVOLVE can't use Lenny, does that mean we'll get Joey Styles back in the booth on a full-time basis?

[cero2k]

And if WWE says this means EVOLVE can't use Lenny, does that mean we'll get Joey Styles back in the booth on a full-time basis?

maybe, as long as WWE is ok with that too

[cero2k]

[cero2k]

god knows what happens now, Dixie stays in power and TNA continues somehow.