Just picked up my new Powerslam (UK mag) and there is a very in depth four page interview in it with Paul Heyman, about Brock, UFC and TNA. From reading the interview it would seem Paul is making a very strong hint he will be heading to TNA if the deal is right. It was made on July 16th, so quite recent as well.
Reading his views on the Wrestling buisness, what TNA is doing wrong, and the sorta of things he would look at to improve it, I could really see his arrival at TNA being a huge boon. He picked out most of TNA's flaws in the interview right off the bat. He already knows where they are going wrong, and I really would like to see what he could do at the head of the company.
Some of the best lines from the interview for me where..
PowerSlam - You said in a previous Interview that 'TNA's biggest problem is they have no vision for their brand.' Nothing has changed since then?
Heyman - Unfortunately TNA's vision to get to 2015 is to go through 1995.
Let's get to the crux of the matter. Come on Paul: tell us. Are you interested in working with Dixie's company?
I'm interested in doing anything that is extraordinary, that is creatively stimulating and has a huge upside to it... I'm interested in owning the New York Yankees. I'm interested in being head of a network.
You Are? Where is this going?
I'm interested in running a franchise. And TNA is a franchise. If I think that it is a viable project that can make serious inroads and turn a huge profit, yes. In that aspect, absolutely it's something that has captured my attention.
Hypothetically speaking, what would TNA have to give you in order for you to make a commitment to the comapny?
I think UFC has the right model in terms of Fertittas and Dana White. It's a clear demostration of someone [White] who was given the ability to take a brand [UFC] which had some serious baggage to it and, yet, also had still had a huge upside available, and who was given the [opportunity] to sink or swim on his own merits and the merits of the team he put in place [to run the company].
The problems with TNA include, and are not limited to, the writing, the presentation, the marketing, advertising, cross-promotion, the synergistic opportunities that are wasted right now, the positioning of the brand itself to Main street, Wall Street and Madison Avenue. It's a complete overhaul thats needed...
[TNA] is, by all accounts, a wonderful place to work. I haven't heard a bad thing about Dixie Carter, even from people who no longer work in TNA and are angry about it. You have some great people who have come together. There needs to be a way to implement the vision both in terms of a different way for the product to reach out into the future, and also as a progressive way to address the business concerns that this well funded company has.
I assume 'buisness concerns' relates to the money the company is now losing. TNA was profitable in 2008, and at least for a part of 2009. In July 2010, it has been losing money for several months, due to the outrageous salaries paid to the likes of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair and the cost's related to iMPACT!'s disatrous move to Monday Night between March and May.
Bluntly, I don't think it matters if TNA is profitable or unprofitable at the moment. They have sucha small percentage of the market share, and they should have far more. There's a chance to take it, and they're not capitalising on their current position or structure.
I was heartened when I learned that Dixie was in serious talks with you. That she's speaking to you tells me she realises Hogan, Bischoff and Vince Russo have failed. If those three had the ideas and the overall strategy to make TNA successful, the company wouldn't need you, right?
I think the moment Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff agreed to work with Vince Russo and the moment Russo agreed to work with Hogan and Bischoff, it was destined to fail.
Why?
TNA is the victim of the road to Hell being paved with the best intentions. You could take Steve Jobs from Apple and Bill Gates from Microsoft, and create a a whole new Technology company. But if you were to make them co-chairmen, it's destined to fail because Jobs looks at creating a company, then building a company and having a management style and think-tank in a far different way than Bill GAtes would. It doesn't make either one of them wrong. It just means that when you mix two minds together, you water-down each instead of creating a collaborative effort.
Visions need to be very personal. And there has to be someone who has the ability to say, "I'm leading the direction of the company, and this is the way to go. And I will be judged as a success or a failure based on my ability or inability to implement this vision." When it's too many people's visions [for the company], you have to appease the other people, which immediately means you've entered into a mindset of compromise.
Do Hogan, Bischoff or Russo have the ability to pull it off? I don't have that answer. The asnwer I do have for you is that they're never going to get a chance to demostrate it, because they're spending way too much of their time trying to make sure that everyone in the room feels they have contributed, and that their sensitivities are appeased. And that is a formula for failure.
You've spent a lot of time in this interview talking about the wresting market share, and how TNA controls so little of it, even with the support of television partner Spike TV. My final question to you is: is Paul Heyman the man to help TNA reach out and seize considerably more of that market share?
I think Paul Heyman would put together a team of people that would be uniquely qualified to do so. I would not accept this job if I didn't think that I could put together a team that could make a serious go of this. Brock Lesner would not enter the octagon if he thought he was going to get his ass kicked and end up in the loser's column. Brock Lesnar went back into the octagon becasue he knew he could be the current, reigning undisputed UFC champion. I feel the very same way about the qualifications of a team I would envision putting together on behalf of TNA to directly go after a reasonable market share that is controlled by the WWE.
I'm not going to make any grandiose claims that we're going to knock Vince McMahon out of the buisness. I don't think anybody who's rational could ever make that statement. I don't think WWE is going to be driven into the ground. I don't think you're going to get TNA to be on a par, in terms of public perception or licensing, with a monolith like WWE. But you could build an amazingly successful and highly profitable company that can deliver a standard-bearing product thats is impressive enought to be cool again with kids of today in the face of the burgeoning UFC culture.
Just thought I'd share what I thought was a very interesting read for any TNA fans.
Reading his views on the Wrestling buisness, what TNA is doing wrong, and the sorta of things he would look at to improve it, I could really see his arrival at TNA being a huge boon. He picked out most of TNA's flaws in the interview right off the bat. He already knows where they are going wrong, and I really would like to see what he could do at the head of the company.
Some of the best lines from the interview for me where..
PowerSlam - You said in a previous Interview that 'TNA's biggest problem is they have no vision for their brand.' Nothing has changed since then?
Heyman - Unfortunately TNA's vision to get to 2015 is to go through 1995.
Let's get to the crux of the matter. Come on Paul: tell us. Are you interested in working with Dixie's company?
I'm interested in doing anything that is extraordinary, that is creatively stimulating and has a huge upside to it... I'm interested in owning the New York Yankees. I'm interested in being head of a network.
You Are? Where is this going?
I'm interested in running a franchise. And TNA is a franchise. If I think that it is a viable project that can make serious inroads and turn a huge profit, yes. In that aspect, absolutely it's something that has captured my attention.
Hypothetically speaking, what would TNA have to give you in order for you to make a commitment to the comapny?
I think UFC has the right model in terms of Fertittas and Dana White. It's a clear demostration of someone [White] who was given the ability to take a brand [UFC] which had some serious baggage to it and, yet, also had still had a huge upside available, and who was given the [opportunity] to sink or swim on his own merits and the merits of the team he put in place [to run the company].
The problems with TNA include, and are not limited to, the writing, the presentation, the marketing, advertising, cross-promotion, the synergistic opportunities that are wasted right now, the positioning of the brand itself to Main street, Wall Street and Madison Avenue. It's a complete overhaul thats needed...
[TNA] is, by all accounts, a wonderful place to work. I haven't heard a bad thing about Dixie Carter, even from people who no longer work in TNA and are angry about it. You have some great people who have come together. There needs to be a way to implement the vision both in terms of a different way for the product to reach out into the future, and also as a progressive way to address the business concerns that this well funded company has.
I assume 'buisness concerns' relates to the money the company is now losing. TNA was profitable in 2008, and at least for a part of 2009. In July 2010, it has been losing money for several months, due to the outrageous salaries paid to the likes of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair and the cost's related to iMPACT!'s disatrous move to Monday Night between March and May.
Bluntly, I don't think it matters if TNA is profitable or unprofitable at the moment. They have sucha small percentage of the market share, and they should have far more. There's a chance to take it, and they're not capitalising on their current position or structure.
I was heartened when I learned that Dixie was in serious talks with you. That she's speaking to you tells me she realises Hogan, Bischoff and Vince Russo have failed. If those three had the ideas and the overall strategy to make TNA successful, the company wouldn't need you, right?
I think the moment Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff agreed to work with Vince Russo and the moment Russo agreed to work with Hogan and Bischoff, it was destined to fail.
Why?
TNA is the victim of the road to Hell being paved with the best intentions. You could take Steve Jobs from Apple and Bill Gates from Microsoft, and create a a whole new Technology company. But if you were to make them co-chairmen, it's destined to fail because Jobs looks at creating a company, then building a company and having a management style and think-tank in a far different way than Bill GAtes would. It doesn't make either one of them wrong. It just means that when you mix two minds together, you water-down each instead of creating a collaborative effort.
Visions need to be very personal. And there has to be someone who has the ability to say, "I'm leading the direction of the company, and this is the way to go. And I will be judged as a success or a failure based on my ability or inability to implement this vision." When it's too many people's visions [for the company], you have to appease the other people, which immediately means you've entered into a mindset of compromise.
Do Hogan, Bischoff or Russo have the ability to pull it off? I don't have that answer. The asnwer I do have for you is that they're never going to get a chance to demostrate it, because they're spending way too much of their time trying to make sure that everyone in the room feels they have contributed, and that their sensitivities are appeased. And that is a formula for failure.
You've spent a lot of time in this interview talking about the wresting market share, and how TNA controls so little of it, even with the support of television partner Spike TV. My final question to you is: is Paul Heyman the man to help TNA reach out and seize considerably more of that market share?
I think Paul Heyman would put together a team of people that would be uniquely qualified to do so. I would not accept this job if I didn't think that I could put together a team that could make a serious go of this. Brock Lesner would not enter the octagon if he thought he was going to get his ass kicked and end up in the loser's column. Brock Lesnar went back into the octagon becasue he knew he could be the current, reigning undisputed UFC champion. I feel the very same way about the qualifications of a team I would envision putting together on behalf of TNA to directly go after a reasonable market share that is controlled by the WWE.
I'm not going to make any grandiose claims that we're going to knock Vince McMahon out of the buisness. I don't think anybody who's rational could ever make that statement. I don't think WWE is going to be driven into the ground. I don't think you're going to get TNA to be on a par, in terms of public perception or licensing, with a monolith like WWE. But you could build an amazingly successful and highly profitable company that can deliver a standard-bearing product thats is impressive enought to be cool again with kids of today in the face of the burgeoning UFC culture.
Just thought I'd share what I thought was a very interesting read for any TNA fans.
