10 Ways TNA Totally Screwed Themselves Over

TNA had a great thing going in 2005. They had a good deal with Spike TV, the X Division was flourishing, they’d signed Sting, and they were starting to stand-out from WWE for the very first time. Sadly, they decided to torpedo all of this by bringing Vince Russo back to the company the following year, and the most maligned man in wrestling started picking the product apart.

Boneheaded gimmicks like the electrified steel cage match and reverse battle royal became commonplace. Bit by bit, Vince Russo’s penchant for the ridiculous chipped away at TNA’s reputation, and he wasn’t removed from his writing position until October 2011.

It gets worse, though. It became apparent in April 2014 that Russo had secretly returned to TNA, and had been working as a consultant on the sly. Russo was eventually forced to come clean on his role, and it had disastrous consequences for TNA. The company hadn’t made their network, Spike TV, aware of Russo’s return, and it reportedly played a huge role in Spike’s decision decision to cancel Impact.

TNA have never recovered from losing the Spike deal. Their ratings plummeted on Destination America, and they currently struggle to draw more than 350,000 viewers a week on Pop TV. Considering their last show on Spike had an audience of 980,000, that’s a huge drop, so not only can Russo’s appointment be blamed for TNA’s creative downturn, but also costing them the most valuable TV deal they’ve ever had.