Breaking News: Spike TV Makes Significant Investment in TNA Wrestling; Appoints Paul Heyman as Head of Creative
October 19th, 2009 - Irvine, CA
As the night drifted on after TNA's biggest show of the year, the 2009 edition of Bound for Glory. The news broke and everything changed. Bryan Alverez of the Wrestling Observer has reported that Spike TV has made a significant investment in TNA Wrestling, making the broadcast company the majority owner. As part of Spike TV's investment they will be giving TNA another hour of television time: a one hour Saturday night show designed to increase the amount of TV time for underutilized stars such as the tag team, knockouts, and X Divisions. That show will begin airing immediately next Saturday with the debut episode of "Voltage"October 19th, 2009 - Irvine, CA
Also as part of the deal, TNA will shift it's focus to becoming a TV company. As a result of the deal, TNA will drop from 12 pay-per-views a year to 4 quarterly events in January, April, June, & October beginning in 2010. However, the pay-per-views falling off the calendar will be replaced with 4-6 TV specials, three hour shows airing in place of Voltage on certain weeks. These TV specials will begin on December 5th, 2009 with a show titled "Against All Odds".
Potentially the biggest change with the announcement is that TNA will be hiring former ECW headman & WWE talent/creative executive Paul Heyman to head up creative in the new Spike TV era. Spike reached out to Heyman as part of the deal and was able to persuade him to make a return to the wrestling business. Sources have told us that Heyman was very impressed with TNA's roster and thought with better leadership and a capital infusion that there was a major opportunity to change the wrestling business. Heyman noted the recent success of Ring Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in his pitch to Spike management, noting that TNA has a chance to do something at a larger scale with Spike's investment. Heyman's main focus at this time is said to be to focus more on TNA's homegrown talent rather than on former WCW and WWE legends. Heyman also is said to have a vested interest in making TNA the world leader in tag team and women's wrestling. Heyman's role will be solely creative with no current plans for him to appear on TV. Other housekeeping items on this part of the news, Vince Russo has been fired with Heyman's addition and founder Jeff Jarrett will stay with the company in a backstage role and as an on-screen GM. More to come on this story as it develops.
Bound for Glory 2009 Results
The Amazing Red (c) defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Daniels, Homicide and Suicide to retain the TNA X-Division Championship in an Ultimate X match (15:15).
Sarita & Taylor Wilde (c) defeated The Beautiful People (Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky) (w/ Lacey Von Erich) to retain the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championships (3:00).
Eric Young defeated Kevin Nash (c) and Hernandez to become the new TNA Legends Champion in a triple threat match (8:55).
The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams) (c) and Team 3D (Brother Devon & Brother Ray) defeated Booker T & Scott Steiner (c) and Beer Money Inc. (James Storm & Robert Roode) in a Full Metal Mayhem Double Ladder Four Way match where The British Invasion become the new TNA World Tag Team Champions and Team 3D become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions (17:15).
ODB (c) defeated Awesome Kong and Tara to retain the TNA Women's Knockout Championship in a triple threat match (7:35).
Bobby Lashley defeated Samoa Joe in a submission match (7:20)
Abyss defeated Mick Foley in a Monster's Ball match with Dr. Stevie as the Special Referee (11:10).
Kurt Angle defeated Matt Morgan (14:45).
AJ Styles (c) defeated Sting to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship (13:15).
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As some of you may know, I start this thread over at WC and had to take a pause from writing due to some personal life stuff that unfortunately hit at the same time as WC shutting down. I took a pretty long break from working on this with about a week's worth of shows unposted before the Against All Odds special referenced above. I'm caught up on the TV and working on Against All Odds right now. I'm planning to start positing where I left off but I'll do some recap posts on the storylines that got lost to history with WC. Looking forward to being able to share this with you all.