TNA General Discussion Thread

[Chris]

I always suspected he tried ROH first too which makes that eventual purchase even funnier. I'd be shocked if starting from scratch was the original goal

 

[Chris]

TNA did attempt to sell to Tony Khan in 2018 and had talks about a year ago with Scott D’Amore about selling but turned D’Amore offer price down.

The exact quote from what i can find. He seems very against the idea WWE would want to buy it in the current climate, there's no benefit

 

[Sky]

And yet all the aggregators and grifters jumped right on the idea of WWE buying out TNA

 

[Chris]

It just doesn't make sense if they're getting better TV deals, you're not going to sell once you start doing better than you have for 10 years. Once those deals are up and if there's no renewal then that's when you'd look at it being possible

 

[Ricky Smarks]

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A bit of WON insight about the possibility of "WWE buys TNA"... Tony Khan tried it before AEW began and there were talks. Obviously nothing came of it

If this is true, that’s pretty interesting. I always thought it would’ve made more sense for Tony to have bought an established name and then tried to get it on a station like TNT. I wonder why the negotiations fell through.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

I always suspected he tried ROH first too which makes that eventual purchase even funnier. I'd be shocked if starting from scratch was the original goal

Same. I’ve always said this. It would’ve made far more sense if he had bought a company with a name brand. TNA probably had a stronger household name, but I always figured ROH was more his wrestling style so I figured he should’ve bought Ring of Honor especially since all the people he made AEW with in the beginning were strong ROH acts.

Which like you said, makes it even funnier if Sinclair turned him down and then sold it to him later.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Same. I’ve always said this. It would’ve made far more sense if he had bought a company with a name brand. TNA probably had a stronger household name, but I always figured ROH was more his wrestling style so I figured he should’ve bought Ring of Honor especially since all the people he made AEW with in the beginning were strong ROH acts.

Which like you said, makes it even funnier if Sinclair turned him down and then sold it to him later.

Probably for a lot less than tk was willing to pay in 2018 too. It's long been rumored he got roh for a song

 

[Ricky Smarks]

Probably for a lot less than tk was willing to pay in 2018 too. It's long been rumored he got roh for a song

Which is such a wild business decision when you think about what he was probably offering them. And you would have to thank he probably offered even more for TNA since TNA was already in a much better household name brand position so the fact that anthem turned down whatever he must’ve pitched them, I think definitely means anthem is more secure in their position of just owning a good television product than Sinclair was.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Which is such a wild business decision when you think about what he was probably offering them. And you would have to thank he probably offered even more for TNA since TNA was already in a much better household name brand position so the fact that anthem turned down whatever he must’ve pitched them, I think definitely means anthem is more secure in their position of just owning a good television product than Sinclair was.

Ig pride n no one cpuld predict a global pandemic whiping your biz. But ya hindsight 20 20 !

I think in the end a new brand was a good idea though

 

[OsBlaze]

Plus a new brand is best for the business as a whole, because that just means more options for the wrestlers in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

I disagree as far as like the scope of the wrestling business goes because I do think with how large AEW is and was going to be if presumably Tony did the same thing with TNA or Ring of Honor, I really don’t think the space is large enough for this many companies trying for a mainstream level, which is why every time one of TNA or Ring of Honor starts to spring back up one of the other ones kind of takes a dive a little bit and then you throw on MLW even attempting to try to hold onto any talent and it’s just been impossible for these third place companies that competing for the same space.

I mean Ring of Honor is really just an AEW brand at this point that doesn’t even have its own exclusive roster anymore which I do think has stabilized the space enough where TNA is finally able to start to pick back up which again shows that teetering. MLW though is back to taking a beating.

Don’t get it twisted though, AEW/Tony owning a company in the space and having a great tv deal and streaming is a net positive for the business.

 

[OsBlaze]

I disagree as far as like the scope of the wrestling business goes because I do think with how large AEW is and was going to be if presumably Tony did the same thing with TNA or Ring of Honor, I really don’t think the space is large enough for this many companies trying for a mainstream level, which is why every time one of TNA or Ring of Honor starts to spring back up one of the other ones kind of takes a dive a little bit and then you throw on MLW even attempting to try to hold onto any talent and it’s just been impossible for these third place companies that competing for the same space.

I mean Ring of Honor is really just an AEW brand at this point that doesn’t even have its own exclusive roster anymore which I do think has stabilized the space enough where TNA is finally able to start to pick back up which again shows that teetering. MLW though is back to taking a beating.

Don’t get it twisted though, AEW/Tony owning a company in the space and having a great tv deal and streaming is a net positive for the business.

I meant more so the wrestlers having a choice to go. Like some of the people in TNA right now I don’t think would be there if TK owned it. Maybe they would be, who knows. They could always I guess be in GCW, or MLW probably. Maybe TK doesn’t buy ROH if he has TNA, so that could be another choice, maybe. But yeah I just meant giving the wrestlers more choices and places to work.


I do think they need a more exclusive roster but they are a few people who honestly do just show up on ROH. Like it’s a small number but I would say those few are exclusive. Definitely needs to be way more though 100%. I’m fine however with a little bit of crossover.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

I meant more so the wrestlers having a choice to go. Like some of the people in TNA right now I don’t think would be there if TK owned it. Maybe they would be, who knows. They could always I guess be in GCW, or MLW probably. Maybe TK doesn’t buy ROH if he has TNA, so that could be another choice, maybe. But yeah I just meant giving the wrestlers more choices and places to work.


I do think they need a more exclusive roster but they are a few people who honestly do just show up on ROH. Like it’s a small number but I would say those few are exclusive. Definitely needs to be way more though 100%. I’m fine however with a little bit of crossover.

I totally see your point, but my counter would be though if Tony did own TNA for example then Ring of Honor would actually be a full-fledged company again and they would be able to hire the people that Tony didn’t hire for TNA. There’s always somebody that’s gonna take up the space that fell from the lack of an AEW or it could be MLW would be in a better spot right now or more likely both. They’d probably actually each take half of the space AEW would have.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

I think in the best timeline as far as the most of the pre-AEW companies having the best shot out I think if Tony bought Ring of Honor and Smashing Pumpkins bought TNA we’d probably see both of them doing the joint combined business of the three companies today (TNA/ROH/AEW).

 

[Ricky Smarks]

Maybe even anthem goes 50-50 with smashing pumpkins because that was the negotiations when Smashing Pumpkins got squeezed out.