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A Top TNA Employee Possibly Jumping Ship To ROH – What’s The Deal And Who Is It?, Details Inside

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Partial Source: Pwinsider

UPDATE x 8: As previously reported, Spike TV will
apparently not renew their contract with TNA and iMPACT! Wrestling will be
canceled if the company can’t find a new TV deal. Now Dave Lagana, a former WWE
creative writer and current Director of Creative Writing for TNA, has allegedly
approached Ring of Honor for a job. He reportedly wants to produce future live
PPV events and manage ROH’s online and social media presence.

He has worked for TNA since October 2011. However, after he left WWE (where
worked as a writer and producer for six years), he worked in Ring of Honor as a
backstage producer. He gained some recognition of the internet with the “I Want
Wrestling” podcast in 2011. There appears to be early interest from ROH in
bringing him back.

UPDATE x 7: According to sources, when asked for a comment
on the story, a Viacom (the parent company of SpikeTV) representative stated the
following…

“Per Viacom company policy – we don’t comment on ongoing
negotiations.”

UPDATE x 6: Following the news that Spike TV is not
renewing TNA’s TV deal in October, Dixie Carter and TNA’s Bob Ryder posted the
following on Twitter today…

UPDATE x 5: Late Sunday night, news broke that Spike TV
has canceled TNA iMPACT! Wrestling and will not be renewing their TV deal, which
expires in October.

As noted earlier, TNA held a major company meeting on
Friday and dropped the bombshell news on her staff. According to sources close
to the situation, she attempted to spin the situation in her favor, saying that
TNA decided to leave Spike TV because they failed to promote the company
effectively. While she might have a point there, all indications are that Viacom
and Spike TV made the decision to end their relationship with TNA for a variety
of factors.

Spike’s decision to not renew TNA’s TV deal was made
immediately after news of Vince Russo working for TNA became public. It was
rumored for months that Russo was working as a consultant for the company, which
he and TNA vehemently denied. Earlier this month, Vince Russo inadvertently CC’d
Mike Johnson on an internal email intended for Taz and Mike Tenay, essentially
confirming that he was in fact working for TNA.

There were many reasons
that TNA did not want that knowledge made public. First, Russo’s reputation
speaks for itself and the majority of wrestling fans would not have a lot of
faith in TNA’s decision to rehire one of the most infamous and controversial
writers in the industry. There was also an issue of TNA’s relationship with The
Great Muta and his Japanese Wrestle-1 promotion, which currently has a
partnership with TNA. Muta has very negative feelings about Vince Russo due to
his negative portrayal of Japanese wrestlers over the years. It’s believed that
he was assured Vince Russo was not working for TNA when he agreed to partner
with TNA and host Bound For Glory in Japan later this year.

However, the
main reason TNA did not want Russo’s involvement made public was because Spike
TV executives despise him. There are a number of reasons Spike did not want
anything to do with Russo, many of them related to the type of programming Russo
presented during his previous run with the company.

TNA is obviously in a
very bad spot right now. With just two months before iMPACT! Wrestling is
dropped from Spike TV, there is not a lot of time for them to find another cable
network willing to pick them up. Additionally, it’s highly unlikely they will be
able to negotiate a new contract that will earn them anything close to what they
were getting from Spike. TNA’s current International TV deals are not lucrative
enough to keep the company going and the company will have a very hard time
doing live shows in the Untied States without a national TV
clearance.

UPDATE x 4: The Wrestling Observer notes
that a number of media sources are now confirming that Spike TV will not be
renewing iMPACT! Wrestling when the contract expires in just over two
months.

There were reports that Carter positioned to her staff at a
meeting on Friday or Saturday that they were leaving Spike on their own volition
due to a lack of promotion, but others have confirmed Spike had told Carter they
were not going to offer a new deal.

The decision came days after Spike
found out that Vince Russo was still working for TNA.

At this point
direct sources at Spike did not respond to questions from just after the meeting
and most within TNA, including talent, were not aware there was any issue until
today when rumors started flying.

This puts the company in grave
position. They have UTA representing them in an attempt to get a new television
deal, but unless they could get a deal that pays similar to what they were
earning on Spike, financially, the company that had been struggling financially
with the Spike payments, would not be in good shape.

This past Thursday’s
episode was the highest audience for the series since April of this
year.

UPDATE x 3: Here is the full TMZ.com article
regarding the split between TNA and SpikeTV:

TNA Wrestling’s
flagship show “Impact Wrestling” could soon be without a home — Spike TV
quietly let the league know it’s not renewing their TV contract … TMZ has
learned.

Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the deal … tell us
Spike execs contacted TNA President Dixie Carter this week to break the news —
and the following day Carter informed members of her inner circle.

TNA’s
current deal with Spike reportedly runs through October. It’s unclear at this
point when “Impact Wrestling” will stop airing on Spike.

We’re told
there’s no bad blood, and Spike gave TNA such advance notice so it would have
time to shop for a new TV deal.

TNA’s show debuted on Spike TV in
October 2005 — and helped the league rise to #2 on the wrestling scene … behind
the WWE.

We’ve called TNA and Spike for comment … so far, no word
back.

UPDATE x 2: According to TMZ, Spike TV
“quietly” informed TNA that they would not be renewing their TV contract.
Sources close to the situation state that Spike TV executives that contacted TNA
President Dixie Carter this week to break the news, with Carter breaking the
news to members of her inner circle the next day.

TNA’s contract
reportedly runs through October, but at this time it is not clear if they will
run episodes through then or not. Spike TV reportedly told TNA of the news now
to allow them to shop for a new TV deal.

TNA iMPACT! debuted on Spike TV
back in October of 2005.

UPDATE: WWE Hall of Famer Jim
Ross sent out the following very interesting tweets on Sunday
night:

ORIGINAL: Okay so
take this as a rumor for now, but it’s a pretty big rumor and is getting some
traction around the internet, thus our reporting it to you. Dixie Carter held a
meeting at TNA headquarters in Nashville on Saturday and it concerned the
results of a meeting with Spike TV representatives on Thursday
afternoon.

According to sources, multiple people close to both TNA and
Spike TV have told them that Spike doesn’t want to renew its contact with TNA,
which would mean that iMPACT! would be cancelled if they can’t find a new
network very quickly. There’s no word on whether the negotiations are still
trying to work out a last-minute deal or not.

TNA’s deal with Spike is
reportedly set to expire in October. It’s important to note that the show is
still under contract to air in other countries, but whether that would be
economically feasible without the revenue from an American cable network or not
is up in the air.

More on this story, obviously, as we learn more.

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