Sports Entertainment

Woefully Inept said:

I have no idea but if I had to guess I'd say yes they have. They're notorious for not paying talent.

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They've never canceled plane tickets before a major PPV and told talent that the PPV might not happen, because they can't afford to run the PPV. If you listen to what one of the potential buyers is saying (Billy Corgan), they need to sell out to get a cash infusion, or shutdown. Billy Corgan has funded TNA the last three months' tapings, but won't put any more cash in unless he gets a larger ownership stake.

The real problem is that when Spike cut TNA, revenues dropped by 50%. They need to be on a larger channel than PoP. Whoever comes in is going to have to change channels, or dump a lot of cash in for a long time.

Shonuff said:

They've never canceled plane tickets before a major PPV and told talent that the PPV might not happen, because they can't afford to run the PPV. If you listen to what one of the potential buyers is saying (Billy Corgan), they need to sell out to get a cash infusion, or shutdown. Billy Corgan has funded TNA the last three months' tapings, but won't put any more cash in unless he gets a larger ownership stake.

The real problem is that when Spike cut TNA, revenues dropped by 50%. They need to be on a larger channel than PoP. Whoever comes in is going to have to change channels, or dump a lot of cash in for a long time.

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Reports are that WWE and Corgan continue to negotiate with Dixie, but that a third party fronted the cash for the PPV this weekend. Dixie wants $40 million for a company that's never turned a profit!

hahahahaha Dixie is fucking delusional but that's no real surprise.

Woefully Inept said:

hahahahaha Dixie is fucking delusional but that's no real surprise.

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In this case, she's apparently got no choice. She's borrowed so much against the company, that she'll be left holding the bag if she doesn't get enough to cover the debt. Either way, she's done. Why would she sell off the company and be left with a pile of debt?

The main problem (other than not ever turning a profit) is that the contracts are written so the talent can quit at any time. TNA's not worth $1m if all the talent goes back the indies upon a WWE takeover.

It's kind of a mess, given that WWE paid $4m for WCW, and Dixie wants 10x that for a company that is nowhere near successful.

Tarrant said:

It's inly a matter of time before WWE swoops in and buys them out of bankruptcy.

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I'd say there are higher odds Dixie just shuts down, because the company is not worth the $40m in suspected debt. She's had to borrow money from Panda Energy (duh), but lately from Aroluxe and Corgan just to operate another day. There's not really a plan other than to live another day. She'll give a percentage of ownership to anyone who lends her money to get through one more taping. Corgan has a percentage from fronting them money on the last three tapings. Meanwhile, the economics aren't getting any better. PoP is paying them almost nothing for their product, and they don't have money coming in from live shows, PPV's or from having their own online network with paying subscribers.

Wrestling has been on the wane for years, every company's viewership has dropped the last few years. Networks know this, so they aren't paying. It's a buyer's market.

If you dropped 40m on TNA, you'd have to spend probably another 100m to make sure there's cash to operate a year, minimum. Dirtsheets say Panda Energy dropped 5B (B denoting billion) over the life of TNA! If WWE bought the company, the best course of action would be to shutdown operations like it did with WCW, rather than sink more into this moneypit. NXT does what TNA does, but better. There's no need for a TNA brand under the WWE umbrella, when viewership is plummeting. If every federation's ratings had an upward trend, then maybe. The market is shrinking, not growing.

As the saying goes from stock brokers, "Never catch a falling knife."

WWE will buy nothing more than the IP rights and the tape library. There will be no TNA afterwards unless you pay $9.99 for the WWE Network!

Tarrant said:

One thing I wish WWE Network would do is get agreements with small Indy Feds across the nation to broadcast their shows.

Work out some deal where each channel that broadcasts those local shows (fed is responsible for taping and submitting content to the network) is linked to that Feds site and they get a percentage of ad revenue or whatever. (Clearly I'm no expert but you think a deal could be had) It's clearly a deal that benifits the local small feds the most but then the Network gets the reputation of actually being a true all things wrestling network.

It would help the industry as a whole I think.

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There's nothing in that for WWE, except to make the indies stronger and grow competition. They have plenty of stuff to upload to the WWE Network. The number being bandied about is that they haven't uploaded even 10% of the WCW library.

unfortunately, you're never going to find a successful business that promotes and feeds it's competition, EVEN IF they get the lion's share of the profits. it's just backwards business practice even if it benefits the industry as a whole.

Tarrant said:

Competition is good for WWE, they know it, we know it, everyone knows it. Also it gets more people interested who are only interested in the Indy scene...which is a ton of people.

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When Vince bought WCW, what did he do with it?

but it WASN'T competition. WCW was bought out and was immediately phased into the main product.

Tarrant said:

Started an invasion angle of WCW trying to take over WWE, trying to replicate what happened during the Monday night wars there by giving the illusion of the competition that he knew was good for his business.

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...before deleting the brand altogether.