— Regarding Destination America’s decision to allegedly not renew TNA programming on their network, the decision was officially cemented two weeks ago with a company-wide memo that was sent out to all Destination America employees. That’s part of the reason the memo referenced Friday night’s as the move to Wednesday night’s was a very last minute/last ditch effort to try to increase ratings.
Destination America sent out a memo to employees that notified them that the cable network had made their decision not to renew TNA, and to use the rumored “out-clause” to get out of their contract with the wrestling promotion in the last week of September.
Below is part of the memo that was sent out to Destination America employees two weeks ago.
“Destination America is not renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015. When the up-front rate card is released, the Friday night anthology title will now be called ‘American Tales,’ which will be a combination of Paranormal and Americana programming. I hope this is good news given all of the advertisers that included TNA on their DNA list.”
For what it’s worth, TNA is not able to negotiate with other television networks while under contract with Destination America but you can bet your you know what that they will “secretly” try to contract other networks during this time now that word has leaked out that Destination America will not be renewing them. To be completely honest with you guys, TNA should actually be thanking the “dirtsheets” for the early heads up on the situation. As noted earlier, Destination Americas didn’t want word leaking out that they were cancelling iMPACT! and they were shocked when it surfaced online.
— Here is a new promo for this weekend’s EVOLVE 44, taking place in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, New York on May 31st. The promotion also has a show set for May 30th in Woodside, New York. The cards are below the promo.
EVOLVE 43 – May 30th (On iPPV)
* EVOLVE Title Match: Drew Galloway vs. Roderick Strong
* Johnny Gargano vs. Ethan Page
* Davey Richards vs. Drew Gulak
* Anthony Nese with So Cal Val vs. TJ Perkins
* Rich Swann vs. Trevor Lee
* Biff Busick vs. Mike Bailey
* Rey Horus vs. Drew Gulak’s new protege
EVOLVE 44 – May 31st
* DGUSA Open The Freedom Gate Title Match: Drew Galloway vs. Biff Busick
* DGUSA Open The United Gate Title Match: Johnny Gargano & Rich Swann vs. Drew Gulak & his new protege
* Davey Richards vs. Caleb Konley
* Chris Hero vs. Trevor Lee
* TJ Perkins vs. Mike Bailey
* Anthony Nese vs. Rey Horus
You can find out more here.
