10 Things That Would Happen If WWE Buys TNA
Is Vince McMahon About To Strengthen His Monopoly?
Barely a month passes without new rumours of TNA’s imminent demise surfacing. The Nashville-based promotion have seemingly been operating on the edge of bankruptcy for years, but like a stubborn cockroach in a nuclear fallout, they keep surviving.
Things reached a nadir in 2015 amid reports of unpaid wrestlers and the company barely having enough money to cover their television tapings. Coupled with TNA’s continued creative struggles and the much-maligned POP TV network deal, 2015 appeared to ring the company’s death knell, but they remain a going concern in 2016.
Aroluxe Marketing and Billy Corgan have both pumped money into TNA in recent months, but it hasn’t been enough, and a complete buyout looks inevitable. Their off-screen woes persist in spite of several on-screen improvements, and the latest reports suggest that TNA are looking to sell for $4-6 million by October 2nd, or they won’t be able to cover their next set of tapings.
Who’ll take the plunge, though? Corgan’s made no secret of his interest in purchasing TNA and Sinclair Broadcast Group (Ring of Honor’s parent Company) have been mentioned, but the most intriguing rumour of all comes from WWE.
The reported valuation is a drop in the ocean for Vince McMahon’s empire, and purchasing TNA would further strengthen WWE’s position as an industry-dominating monopoly. Such a move is rife with positives and negatives, and while we wait to find-out if there’s any truth to the rumour, here are 10 things that will happen if WWE buys TNA.
10. An Immediate Shutdown
First and foremost, fans can expect an immediate shutdown of all TNA-related activities should the alleged WWE deal go ahead. While WWE’s 2001 WCW purchase brought rumours they’d maintain the brand with its own separate show, their ECW revival was a complete disaster (One Night Stand aside), and there’s little reason to believe they’ll do this with TNA.
For one, TNA is still hemorrhaging money. They exist on a taping-by-taping basis, and continually rely on cash boosts from their investors to keep themselves afloat. There’s simply no business sense in WWE maintaining an operation that isn’t financially viable, and with NXT already losing money for the company, there’s no value in a second brand that costs more cash than it brings in.
The “TNA” and “Impact Wrestling” brands are damaged beyond repair at this point. Years of mismanagement have ground their reputations to dust, and they’ve become punchlines for pro-wrestling failure. Their reputation for calamity is too deeply-ingrained to ever be washed away, and while Impact has quietly become one of the most consistent wrestling shows on TV, only their hardcore fans remain. Should the purchase go through, WWE aren’t going to want to associate themselves with these brand names: they’re going to nuke them.
Other than keeping the bulk of TNA’s employees in a job, there’s no real reason for WWE to maintain the company’s operations. Look for an immediate closure as soon as the deal goes through.