The Hardys set off on their ‘Expedition of Gold’!
TNA (aka IMPACT WRESTLING!) is in a major state of change, let’s get ya up to speed!
Jan 5th 2017: Anthem Sports announce they’ve majority control of the company.
• Dixie was demoted to ‘advisory board’ and still has a 5% minority stake.
• Billy Corgan, after contesting, accepted a buyout of his stake and is fully done with TNA.
• Jeff Jarrett (and his wife) returned to TNA as Executive Consultant, as well as his boy Dutch Mantell as Creative consultant. This means although Jason Brown is the CEO, Jarrett is pretty much in charge, and Dixie has no say.
What’s happening now?
Jarrett/Anthem have issued new contracts, like his old ones – to pay wrestlers ‘per day of taping’ rather than ‘per episode you appear on’. This is a major downgrade in pay – for example, say you filmed 6 episodes of impact over two days. At $10,000 per episode, you used to be paid $60,000. Now you’re being paid $10,000 per day, so you’re being paid $20,000 for the same work.
Jeez, what else?
The other stickler with the new contracts is that they want control over your independent bookings, AND to take a 10% cut. This is a slap in the face, as many wrestlers earn more working indy shows than in TNA.
Eh, won’t wrestlers just bail?
Yeah, that’s what’s happening. Contracts have expired and weren’t re-signed – The Hardys (oh man!), Drew Galloway, Mike & Maria Bennett & Jade so far.
Who’s definitely staying?
Bobby Lashley, Moose, Eli Drake, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards and EC3 are all locked into contracts so they’ll be at the next set of tapings. (Davey Richards’s contract is expiring soon though)
How come they’re doing all this?
This is a *major* cost-cutting measure, and to lock down wrestlers so they can start touring again.
Didn’t they lose a lot of money the last time they started touring?
Yes, millions. Leaving Orlando was a massive financial mistake. Hopefully they won’t start touring soon.
What’s the good news to all of this?
Today they announced they’ve struck a TV deal in the UK with Spike UK! iMPACT returns to UK TVs on April 21st. Spike UK is an offshoot of Channel 5/Viacom, so this bodes well for getting back on Spike TV in the US. That’d be a big plus as they don’t get paid by PopTV. Also they’re saving a lot of money by paying talent less (lol!), so it will be easier to start turning a profit. Hopefully enough wrestlers stick around for people to keep watching. And for fans, Broken Matt has had a great run in TNA – it’d be amazing to see him in WWE (Matt’s been name-dropping multiple promotions, including New Japan)
They’ve also gotten rid of the Owl logo:
RIP Anthem Owl 2017-2017. We hardly knew ye.
