Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialSudden Impact: Sorting Out This TNA Mess

Sudden Impact: Sorting Out This TNA Mess

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Let me preface this by letting everyone know, I am not going to use this post as a rant or an avenue to take cheapshots at anyone or anything, including WWE. I’m aware that people will read the first sentence or two and decide if they’re going to spend the next ten minutes reading a post about a topic they may or may not be interested in. It is my hope that everyone who clicked on this editorial sticks around to read it in its entirety and contributes to the conversation. Having said that, let’s dive in and see if I sink or swim on this.

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been several reports pointing out certain issues about TNA Impact Wrestling. This first part will be about what we’ve heard as far as the reported pay issues. Apparently the talent was being paid a couple of days late. This report came with an explanation attached that the Panda Energy Corporate Office was in the process of moving offices and payroll was late. Okay. That sounds somewhat reasonable. It’s happened to me once or twice with a company switching payroll services. Of course, I wasn’t employed as an independent contractor so they needed to fix mine and the 500 other employees at my job with great haste to avoid a lawsuit. But these sort of things do happen in the working world every now and again. So, there. It happened and life goes on, right? I wish it was that simple. The issue I have with all of this is the way the story was carried out. According to the Wrestling Observer, somebody in the Panda Corporate Office verified the payroll mishap. That is a bold-faced lie. First, no one in payroll will speak with the press. *Corporate Ethics 101 here folks.* Corporations, especially large ones like Panda, have a PR department that handles any and all press inquiries. As someone who worked closely with the PR department in a large corporation, I can tell you with a high level of surety, no PR department rep would ever confirm such a thing to any member of the press. So, either Dave Meltzer is really close friends with a high ranking member of Panda’s PR department who whispered this in his ear, or he made it up in a lame duck attempt to add credibility to his story. I’m banking on the latter here.

The fallout of this story is the breaking out of an all out war in the discussion forum here at EWN, and I’m sure at other sites as well. Good debate is healthy, but some of the discussions I’ve read, and have been involved in *thank you Christopher Pelton*, have gotten somewhat ugly. The great debate in this case is, “TNA is Dying” vs “No It’s Not”. Well finish that one off a little later on in this post. But for now, we’re going to move on to the second part of this pay issue story.

According to reports, some production crew workers were late receiving pay for services rendered from the Maximum Impact Tour in the UK this past January. When this report came out at the end of April, the crew workers were apparently paid 2 months late and short up to $1,000. Now, any logical person can see the red flag of this report right on the surface. What production worker continues to perform work duties for a company that hasn’t paid them? Ask yourself that question. Would you do it? Would you work for free? And this has reportedly happened in the past, most notably, last year’s UK tour. All that piece of information does is weaken the initial report, and strengthen my argument of the simple question, “who works for free?”. I’m an open-minded person but I cannot take to heart any report that has nothing substantiated. All we hear is, “production crew workers not paid”, but we didn’t get any names, nor was the leg work done to see the fine print of the vendor contract. Again, I go back to my experience in the working world and the large corporation I worked for was a staffing company. I have experience in dealing with vendor contracts. For example, if I wanted to provide staffing to any Atlantic City casino, I would have to abide by their vendor agreement which says we get paid on a net 120. What that means is, 120 days will pass before they process my invoice, send it through accounts payable, cut the check, and send out the bulk payment. A process which easily takes 3 or 4 more weeks on top of the initial 120. I know that info is boring but there is a point. Nobody is reporting on what the vendor agreement says. All they say is, “production crew not paid” with zero info to follow up with it.

Since Taz confirmed the pay issue for talent, and also stated how TNA handled the situation professionally, I buy the payroll mishap. But clearly, I don’t buy the production crew story. We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I’m of the opinion, and I feel it’s a logical one, that the production crew story is a figment of a not-so-clever writer’s imagination. However, this has poured fuel onto the fire of the TNA debate. Is TNA dying? Are we seeing the end? Well….

The most recent report is the kicker for me. The Wrestling Observer apparently reported that Destination America is having ‘buyer’s remorse’ with TNA. The reported pending cancellation of TNA Unlocked is what sparked this one. Apparently, Destination America doesn’t want any secondary programming for TNA. Okay. While it’s possible Unlocked will be cancelled, in what way does this confirm Destination America is unhappy with TNA? It doesn’t. But to read the reports and articles about this, you would think it’s set in stone. Now last time I checked, Destination America is holding a three-hour special. I’m not a rocket scientist, but that sounds like the opposite of a network being “unhappy” with a show. Not only that, but Impact Wrestling is the largest viewed program on that channel by a long shot, just about doubling the viewers of DA’s next highest rated show, Buying Alaska. That’s pretty good considering it’s on one of the worst prime-time slots you can have. Now obviously, I don’t know for certain so DA could be unhappy with TNA for whatever reason. Maybe they were expecting TNA to bring in a million viewers. But that doesn’t make sense either because Discovery Communications knows very well that DA is a difficult channel to grow. That’s why it’s on the upgraded packages on cable providers, along with Hallmark Movie Channel, Pivot, and a slew of other useless channels that are grouped together to justify paying $10 extra for one of the premier sports channels like the horse racing channel, CBS Sports, or the YES Network. Logic would suggest, Discovery Communications recognizes this. I think it’s a fair assumption that Destination America, who has come out with three press releases in praise of TNA, is perfectly happy with the current arrangement.

I know there are more arguments against TNA, such as no longer having AJ, Daniels & Kaz, or Joe. But I can always counter that by mentioning EC3, Bram, The Wolves, Drew, Micah, and Eli Drake as more than suitable, possibly even better replacements for the aging faces that defined TNA 10 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I hate that those 4 are not here. But they weren’t making much of a difference where it counts. Sure, we have our opinions on how good they are for the product, but ratings didn’t move one way or the other with them there. It’s possible to point at Joe’s departure as a potential reason why they can’t get themselves back up to the high 400K’s in viewership. But, the drop off wasn’t so drastic as to be considered alarming.

Let’s conclude this by revisiting the debate. Is TNA dying? Are they are on life support? Their last legs? Have they reached the end of their rope? Are they sinking? Drowning? Barely keeping their heads above water? My money is on NO. This is not the end of TNA. I think they need to hit the reset button on some things. I think there is a lot of room for improvement. I think there are drastic changes that need to happen. I could sit here for another hour listing what I think would improve things but let’s leave that to the discussion forum. I’m really looking forward to this one.

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Thanks for reading everyone. Be Safe.

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