TNA Slammiversary XXII - SATURDAY, July 20, 2024 - Live from Montreal - Only on PPV

[Chris]

In fairness, I think most of the numbers they got weren't "bad" for TNA as in they were fine and content with getting those numbers most of the time until the times they tried to be WWE never increased them. Wrestling is so much healthier now though yeah

 

[Chris]

Though you've got to understand what I mean with the visual of BFG 2011. Awesome looking show

How do you think I felt when I told all my friends that Hogan coming in and moving to Monday's was going to be real competition. I was like 13 years old but still, that was embarrassing

 

[Leon TrotSky]

How do you think I felt when I told all my friends that Hogan coming in and moving to Monday's was going to be real competition. I was like 13 years old but still, that was embarrassing

Must have sucked when Hogan turned out to be worse than nothing

 

[Chris]

Thankfully none of my friends believed me in the first place so they didn't follow along to make fun of me

 

[Leon TrotSky]

Your friends were smart

 

[Smart Marx]

Once TNA got 12 monthly PPV events in 2006 they made more than made enough to fix their payroll issues. This was when they could bring in big names and landed Spike and whatnot.

Even when the Hogan era dropped the buys down, it was still their top revenue source. Dixie cutting the PPV schedule basically bankrupted TNA to the point she couldn’t even pay to keep AJ who didn’t even want a raise to stay.

Doesn’t help that she also went on the road while cutting her only revenue stream.

 

[Chris]

Yeah and important to note back then, I don't think they were getting any real money from Spike like companies get now, TV was still huge and growing so you took the exposure

 

[Smart Marx]

How do you think I felt when I told all my friends that Hogan coming in and moving to Monday's was going to be real competition. I was like 13 years old but still, that was embarrassing

To be fair, I was older than that and hoped Hogan would be beneficial to TNA. I never thought he’d save them, but certainly assumed a consistent bump from what they were doing without him.

 

[Chris]

I wasn't naive enough to think Hogan himself would even bring much good, I just thought it was a great sign they were making a move that big and there'd be more. I underestimated how harmful Hogan would be lol

 

[Smart Marx]

Yeah and important to note back then, I don't think they were getting any real money from Spike like companies get now, TV was still huge and growing so you took the exposure

Exactly. I’ve heard without confirmation that Spike did give TNA bonuses to help attract Kurt Angle and Christian, but that was basically it. Definitely didn’t get tights fees like AEW is negotiating today.

 

[Chris]

I wanna say they did cover the expenses of the second hour of Impact too when that was added bc they wanted it

 

[Smart Marx]

I wanna say they did cover the expenses of the second hour of Impact too when that was added bc they wanted it

Which makes sense because TNA was also trying to be live at the same time so a second hour was expensive. Still, TNA fronted that live expense on their own for the first hour for years. Which shows had they not rocked the boat on the PPV business, and didn’t let hogan reinvent the wheel, they’d have been fine.

 

[Leon TrotSky]

We talking about the six sided ring? I'll say this before I go to sleep: it was necessary to change back. The problem was having six sides in the first place

 

[Smart Marx]

We talking about the six sided ring? I'll say this before I go to sleep: it was necessary to change back. The problem was having six sides in the first place

I have to disagree there. I’m over it now, but removing the six-sided ring did irreparable damage to the fans trust in the brand. They could have slowly phased it out later if needed, but doing it when hogan got there was a recipe for disaster.

 

[Chris]

I'm more than okay with 4 sides after hearing all the talent say they prefer it, that's a concession I'll make bc it did look cooler lol