It was reported over the weekend that TNA Wrestling would be announcing a TV Deal with a network later this week. Along with that, after this week TNA will potentially be done with Spike TV all together and have shows broadcast on the new network. While the last part is not confirmed yet, various sources have reported it thus far. We do, however, know that TNA will be signing a new deal soon.
Where will they end up? At last word, that will be under the Discovery banner and on either Velocity or Destination America . Both of which are not in every American home. Around 50 percent of Americans have them. Meanwhile Internationally, TNA has other plans in place. This is only affected American viewers.
TNA will be the flagship show on the network, which is a departure from what they were on Spike TV. They will also be key in helping the network grow and TNA will also end up being promoted far more. One of their biggest issues with Spike was that they didn’t want to promote them much at all. In fact, most promotion happened during Impact Wrestling broadcasts. How do you promote something to the people already watching?
TNA had legit issues with Spike, but obviously Spike had problems with TNA as well. Therefore, we cannot say either side was worse or better than the other, but we do know now that TNA is at least set for an American TV deal.
The deal is expected to be around two years long, which will massively help TNA out a lot. Many have speculated that TNA is at risk of going out of business, on top of this talent has been asking questions and reportedly have gotten nothing back from management. Dixie Carter will most likely talk to talent this week about the plans for TNA, but we can assume that TNA will announce something later this week.
The reason we can is that TNA’s final taped broadcast of the year happens this Wednesday. After that, “Best of” episodes are set to air on Spike until the end of the year. That means the company would be more than able to talk about a jump after the Wednesday show. If they did it now, they risk it not being shown and that could be a problem for future storylines.
TNA fans will surely rejoice for this, and rightfully so. Many were concerned that a TV deal would not come. Now that it has, regardless of where, a breath of fresh air can be taken for the fans and obviously TNA itself. The TNA budget will still be tight like it was previously, however a TV deal being guaranteed may open their pockets a bit.
[IMG Credit: Fansided.com]