Big changes happening in TNA

[Stopspot]

So, TNA has been under new management for a while now, with Ed Nordholm, a executive for parent company Anthem sports helming the ship as the new boss. He's brought back Jeff Jarrett as a executive and with Dutch Mantell brought in as head of creative. This is obviously leading to a few changes. And a lot of stuff went down yesterday.

John Gaburick is being pushed down the totem pole in TNA, Gaburick was a big player backstage in the Carter era, and was responsible for bringing in talent among other stuff. He was basically Triple H. I assume he is replaced by Jarrett more or less.

Drew Galloway and TNA are parting ways. This was from all that can be gathered a simple amicable split with no bad feelings. They just couldn't come to a agreement on a new contract.

There's more, the Hardys are leaving as well. Their contracts expired yesterday and they could not come to a new agreement either. Apparently TNA were slow on sending out new offers and wanted 10% of Matt (at least)'s outside bookings as well as other sneaky clauses. Hardy told them to stick it.

Problem is Jeff and Matt are the current TNA tag champions. Matt offered to come in and work the upcoming tapings to drop the belts, but TNA are refusing to work a title program with uncontracted talent. As a response the Hardys are holding the belts hostage.

There's also talk of TNA moving away from the TNA name. They have begun phasing out the TNA initials and are basically now just referring to themselves as impact. They have a strategy in place according to Meltzer to complete a full name change. But they have not come to a decision on what. Jarrett wants them to become GFW, but Nordholm and Anthem want them to just be Impact.

 

[RedDwarfTechy]

I don't know how smart it would be to change to GFW with the reputation it has.

Why wouldn't TNA just allow Hardy's to drop the gold?

Where do you think the Hardy's are headed? ROH? WWE?

 

[¡Tranquilo!]

Mike Bennett and Maria are gone too...

 

[Rosie]

Well...TNA/Impact, just when they were looking up, things came crashing down....AGAIN. Losing three big stars in two days, and with Maria and Bennett also leaving...

They may be risking DELETION!

 

[Jacob Fox]

I don't think the GFW name will in any way be detrimental to TNA if they went that direction. I mean, GFW's biggest baggage is that they haven't been able to get off the ground... continuously trying to promote a promotion that couldn't take off. If TNA became GFW, then that baggage would basically disappear because it will appear as GFW enveloped TNA. That's just my opinion concerning the effect that would be had if they changed names.

That being said, I don't really know if it's the best idea. I guess I really don't have an opinion on what they change it to. I DO think they need to change it from TNA, however. Short of changing it to WCW, it would be hard to find a name that carries as much negative baggage as TNA does now.

As far as the Hardys go, I assume they will just strip them of the belts. I almost wonder if they didn't demand the 10% in an attempt to get the Hardys to not resign. Yeah, everyone is concerned that the Hardys are the biggest names in TNA and it's a bad idea to lose them... but I think it could be beneficial. They would be losing two guys who have creative control over their characters, simply by losing the Hardys they will be drawing attention to the promotion. People will turn into Impact to see how this turns out and it gives them an opportunity to do something in order to try and convince those viewers to keep watching.

I dunno. I don't see any of this as really damaging to TNA in the long run. We'll see, but I think they'll come out of this in a positive way.

 

[Snowman1]

After catching last week's show I'm... A little more positive about giving Impact another chance, but this is a massive blow... Point by point.
-I still don't think the rebranding will do any good. People beg for TNA to change everything then laugh when they do. Wanted Dixie gone? Fine, here's Anthem. Want wrestling people in power? Fine, here's Jarrett. Want people in power that aren't Jarrett? Why cater to you now?

-It feels like TNA's identity is leaning in the direction of putting on fun segments and promos. They're behind Smackdown in that regard but it's a start... And obviously losing the Hardys is a gigantic blow to that as well as to Matt and Jeff. With them gone, I'm not sure if ROH will help with the ludicrousness of the Broken Universe as TNA is... Sub-zero interest in seeing them in WWE... Galloway's (sadly) one of their best in-ring guys and it sucks to see him go. Got a great roster of talkers and two guys you want to watch wrestle... Meanwhile Maria and Mike being heat magnets is a massive loss to the brand....

But as Fox said, Impact's done some good things. It's clearly in a much better place than the Destination America run... But get NO buzz when Matt and Jeff aren't on. Any publicity for the rest of the show is a good thing, now good luck trying to keep eyeballs... :/

 

[Stopspot]

As far as the Hardys go, I assume they will just strip them of the belts. I almost wonder if they didn't demand the 10% in an attempt to get the Hardys to not resign. Yeah, everyone is concerned that the Hardys are the biggest names in TNA and it's a bad idea to lose them... but I think it could be beneficial. They would be losing two guys who have creative control over their characters, simply by losing the Hardys they will be drawing attention to the promotion. People will turn into Impact to see how this turns out and it gives them an opportunity to do something in order to try and convince those viewers to keep watching.

I dunno. I don't see any of this as really damaging to TNA in the long run. We'll see, but I think they'll come out of this in a positive way.

This is the premise I am working on as well. It's known that both Mantel and Jarrett are not fans of the "Broken" gimmicks at all. And the Hardy segments have seen diminishing returns since the first Final Deletion. I think they are thinking (and I agree) that it is better for TNA in the long term to get two big paychecks out the door. And sort of do a hard reboot.

 

[t4terrific]

Impact Wrestling is a good name for the promotion, but they need a third word to complete the package.

It needs to be IWO, IWA, or IWF. Something like that.

 

[Stopspot]

It's not a written rule that a wrestling company has to have 3 letter initials.

 

[Rosie]

It's not a written rule that a wrestling company has to have 3 letter initials.

Blasfamy! Three letters are how it should be! ~

 

[Stopspot]

Blasfamy! Three letters are how it should be! ~

Tell that to Progress wrestling. Who have no initials. Or All Japan and New Japan, who have Four. Or NOAH, who have none

 

[Stopspot]

In more changes. Bruce Pritchard is back with TNA. He will apparently have both an on screen and backstage role.

 

[Crithu]

I heard that they are looking to sign some young guys to contract and build them up. If so I think that's a good move. TNA was always the best when they were working on building their homegrown talent as opposed to already established stars (not to say there's not a place for them in TNA, just that the focus should be on younger talent).

 

[Crithu]

They have signed a new UK TV Deal, so Impact will now be airing on SpikeUK on Fridays. I think that's already a good start. (Impact Wrestling Announces New U.K. TV Deal With Spike U.K. - WrestlingInc.com)

I didn't mention it in the last post, but not resigning the Hardy's is bittersweet. They were obviously the most popular act that TNA had going, but they definitely had one of the top paydays from the company. Without their contracts, the company could sign several younger stars for the same amount, which would better fill out the roster.

 

[Stopspot]

As of yesterday's taping it is official.

TNA is dead. They're just Impact Pro Wrestling now.