While speculation has claimed that TNA has been pulling our chain in regards to a potential TV deal, it appears that they will be announcing a new deal at some point within the next week, according to PWinsider . Word came out that two Discovery-owned networks, Velocity and now Destination America, were both interested in bringing TNA aboard. WGN, another likely candidate, announced a new wrestling show recently which would probably mean TNA is out of talks with them.
There have been several rumors of networks over the last few months, even a potential rumor that TNA will be staying on Spike TV for a lesser amount. However, it was reported recently that Spike TV executives want to “get out of the wrestling business.” This pretty much means Spike is out in regards to any current or future deal.
Fans and especially TNA talent are not getting their hopes up on any sort of TV deal until an official announcement and press release comes about. No one could blame them either, as neither have heard much regarding the company.
Lately, TNA talent has not been happy with the company. They have no live events set up until January, and TNA officials haven’t spoken to the talent much at all about where they could be going. On top of this, TNA is done with tapings until the first of the year as well. It is now being said that TNA will be announcing a new TV deal sometime this week. This will most likely happen closer to the weekend, due to TNA wanting to have their final taped event shown before they announce anything.
This week, TNA is set to show their final taping of the year. In the following weeks, “Best of Impact Wrestling” was set to take place up until the end of the year. However, due to TNA potentially announcing a new TV deal, the company will probably end up nixing all planned shows until the end of the year on Spike TV. TNA would either show them on the new network or add new tapings.
What happens is currently unknown, but TNA would most likely love to end up on a bigger network. Places like Destination America and Velocity are not on all cable and satellite packages, and some that do have it may not have it on their package. On top of that, finding the channel would also prove difficult. I can confirm that DirecTV does have both, however. Discovery may also promote them a bit more, especially on the parent channel.
Discovery had an interest in wrestling earlier in the year, and there was word that WWE may have been in talks. However, obviously those plans did not work out, and WWE ended up staying with NBC Universal for a slight increase in yearly revenue.
While the new network is not yet known, we at least know some sort of announcement is set to come out within the next week for TNA. Where TNA ends up right now is a mystery, but at least we know they are ending up somewhere, which is better than what we had heard in previous months.
[IMG Credit: TNAinsider.com]