What if TNA Signed with USA Network?

[scottcs88]

OK hear me out on this. As you guys know WWE Use to be on Spike TV but they left to return to the usa channel on Apr 4, 2005. now my question is. What if wwe stayed on Spike TV and TNA got the deal with USA Network?

With more people having USA Than Spike and USA Advertises more than Spike TV. Do you think ratings would go up for tna? or would ratings have stayed the same. If you guys notice not only did TNA Get on Spike but 6 months later on October 1, 2005 did Spike air for the very first time..

Now I never notice the time frame but its kind of strange that only a few months that wwe left to go back home to USA, that TNA Was picked up. Now to me I really wish wwe would of stayed and tna went to USA Channel.

Now this was tna's Roster back in 05

A1
Abyss
AJ Styles
Alex Shelley
Amazing Red
Andy Douglas
Apolo
Austin Aries
BG James
Big Tilly
Bobby Roode
Brian Gamble
Brother Devon
Brother Ray
Bruno Sassi
Buck Quartermain
Cassidy O'Reilly
Chase Stevens
Chris Candido
Chris Harris
Chris K
Chris Sabin
Christian Cage
Christopher Daniels
Dale Torborg
Dallas
David Young
Delirious
Diamond Dallas Page
Don Harris
Dustin Rhodes
Elix Skipper
Eric Young
Erik Watts
Gail Kim
Helvis
Jacqueline [as noted by Jazz49ers she did two shows in 2004 but didnt return fulltime until 2007 so your choice]
James Mitchell
James Storm
Jay Lethal
Jeff Hardy
Jeff Jarrett
Jerrelle Clark
Jerry Lynn
Jimmy Hart
Joe Doering
John Bolen
Johnny Candido
Johnny Devine
Jushin Thunder Liger
Kazarian
Kenny King
Kevin Nash
Kid Kash
Kid Romeo
Kip James
Konnan
Lex Lovett
Matt Bentley
Mikey Batts
Monty Brown
Nigel McGuinness
Petey Williams
PJ Polaco
Raven
Rhino
Roderick Strong
Ron Harris
Ron Killings
Sabu
Samoa Joe
Scott D'Amore
Scott Hall
Sean Waltman
Shannon Moore
Shark Boy
Shocker
Simon Diamond
Sinn
Sonjay Dutt
Sonny Siaki
Traci
Trinity
Trytan
Zach Gowen

Now Grant it the only huge name tna had was cage at the time but with dudley boys team canada and having incredible feuds at the time. I believe that tna could of got some really big ratings since USA is home to more people than Spike TV.

 

[John McHenry]

TNA's problem has never been it's roster or the amount of money their willing to throw at things, it's always been the writing/booking. So would they have gotten anywhere I doubt it because if that really would have been a deciding factor WWE would have left spike for greener pastures other than USA that was basic cable.

TNA's problem is TNA

 

[PHX]

End of the day no matter the network it all comes down to the inner workings of the actual company as to why it's not looked at as a big company. Couldn't have seen them getting big ratings because they simply didn't have any name value and didn't have same resources that WWE has that makes the machine that they are when it comes to the wrestling biz. I think in the end if anything USA would have booted impact from their network if their ratings weren't where they wanted it to be at because despite Impacts ratings not being great on spike it's still one of their most high rated shows. Don't think that would be the case on USA network.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Yeah I agree with the above, Money may have been more plentiful and exposure a bit more but they still wouldn't have grown much as the product would have been the same.

 

[Troy]

USA Network wouldn't have been interested in TNA at all. USA Network was a big network and it wanted WWE because it knew that RAW pulls in 5 million viewers a week at that stage TNA was pulling 100k viewers. Spike only signed TNA because they knew that the demographic they catered to liked wrestling and so they went and signed the second biggest wrestling company in the country that was similar to WWE.

If TNA were signed by USA Network I don't think it would have gone well. It is easier for TNA on Spike because of the demographics Spike target. USA Network target everyone and because of that TNA wouldn't have been able to make much impact as there was no draw. Everyone already knew about WWE and RAW so they would watch it. TNA was unknown except for hardcore fans, even now most casuals don't know about TNA, and therefore it would have struggled for ratings. Plus drawing 1.5 million viewers on USA probably would have meant it would be cancelled because it would have been one of it's lowest rated shows and it would have costed a lot to make each week.