TMZ Sports first reported that TNA Impact Wrestling on Spike TV will not be renewed by the network. The company has been with Spike TV since October 2005.
While ratings usually hover around 1.2 million viewers on Thursday nights and once served as lead-in for Bellator, the promotion has fallen on hard times. Attendance and finances have been the leading causes for the downturn in what is the de facto number 2 professional wrestling company.
According to Dave Meltzer on Sunday night’s Wrestling Observer podcast, the TMZ report has been confirmed by people within TNA. The current deal runs through October although it’s not clear whether Spike TV will continue to air it through the end of the deal.
Recently, King Mo re-emerged with the organization and it’s not clear whether he will continue on as part-time wrestler, part-time MMA fighter if TNA continues on another network.
Payout Take: It’s an interesting move on the part of Spike TV to cancel TNA as it does have a following of at least 1 million viewers each week. Compare that with Bellator ratings and TNA would seemingly be safe on the network. Perhaps TNA is going a different direction here. As for TNA, it’s not clear if the company will fold or seek to find another network to air on. But, if you look at the WWE’s rights fee deal, pro wrestling may not be a burgeoning property in the television industry.
Several factors hurt TNA. Pulling IMPACT off the road last year,not reaching 2 million weekly viewers,and a lack of ad dollars. TNA has turned the corner recently in ratings for its NYC shows with 1.4 million viewers. but it seems to be to little to late.
TNA gets 1M viewers a week on SPIKE and got dropped… UFC on Fox is only 2 -3M viewers on FOX on the best night of the week!!
2-3M viewers for their absolute best 4 free shows of the year…
I don’t understand what the confusion is. It says TNA has a lot of financial issues. Spike didn’t want to resign a long term deal with a company heading toward bankruptcy. This has nothing to do with ratings. Basically Spike is looking at a company that could lose all it’s assets and talent and Spike be stuck in a long contract with them while TNA would lose ratings without its stars. So why sign a company with issues on the horizon? That’s what I took from this.
For a company that is losing all of its asset and talent and has alot of financial and creative issues, 1M viewers week in and week out is pretty good.
If TNA put on a PPV quality show four times a year on SPIKE, I think it could get
2.5M+ viewers easily.
I’m not sure why Spike is dropping them – maybe BS is right and it’s because of TNA’s internal financial issues – but their ratings are higher than Bellator’s which should make all MMA fans worry. On the plus side, Viacom owns Bellator so they will probably stick with those guys longer than they would with TNA and I’m guessing that a Bellator show costs significantly less to put on than a TNA show (in terms of salaries, production etc.) but I could be wrong.
What’s going to lead in for Bellator now? Cops? Bar Rescue? 1000 Ways to Die? I can’t see this being good for Bellator’s ratings but we’ll see.
Fredrickson,
I didn’t say they don’t have assets now. I said Spike might fear they could lose them at so e point in the future. If TNA isn’t managing their money properly then when wrestlers contracts are up they might lose them. If you were spike why sign a 5 year deal with TNA if they could lose their talent 2 years in? Spike loves the ratings but being tied to a sinking stone is not a good idea. If they know TNA is in financial trouble then It is wise to not resign them.
This will cripple BMMA. Not only do they not have a lead in. But wrestling fans have no reason to even tune to Spike TV at all. Which not only MMA pulls some of its fans from but BMMA puts most of its fans from. How many will get out of the habit of even checking Spike? How many were watching BMMA because it conviently followed TNA? BMMA also ran ads during wrestling to promote their product and events and fighters. How can you reach them now if those fans to to WWE and the network they are on? It’s going to get tought for BMMA.
Coker will save Bellator and ride that cash cow back to glory..
Do some of you even watch Bellator? Talking about how Bellator is losing it’s lead in? TNA hasn’t been Bellator’s lead in since April 4, 2013 the end of season 8.
hmmm maybe catch a contractor moving to thursdays this fall? followed by hungry investors or cops re-runs? a lot of cash flow freed up. a nice spot for roh maybe? if roh is tied up then theyll have to ride out that void. might not even be a void at all. anything can happen in television.
they can use the aforementioned ideas or like lighting in a bottle something new comes along and boom it creates tna at its peak style ratings and spike moves on without a care in the world. or they continue to drop and drop and drop. quite sure theyve had back up and replacement plans for some time now
John Frederickson sucks dick.
Your first comment was good, but stop with your terribly offputting hyperbole, BS. If you cared at all about something called “credibility,” you’d choose your words wiser. “Cripple”?? I am constantly aaamazed by BMMA’s ratings despite its horrendous product, and that’s because Spike is a tremendous draw/default/go-to for young males who have nothing else to watch. Hence why it has such an advantage over FS1. You make good points sometimes, but if you want credibility (unlike Dana), heed my advise.
Also (and I’ve been wanting to say this forever now), pleeease pay better attention to grammar and sentence structure — periods and commas are NOT interchangeable. Yea yea, call me a grammar nazi or whatever … I’m not saying all this for me.
I honestly could careless if my bad grammar bothers. I believe I communicate my point just fine.,?!'”:;()-/,,,,,which is the point of a written language.
I believe what Spike is doing here is actually trying to “Cripple” TNA and force them to sell the promotion to Spike/Viacom. They already control BMMA and have fighters contracted to both. So if they got word TNA was having a little financial issues. What better way to get the company than to catch them with their pants down and cut out their tv revenue?
But what do I know. I don’t have any credibility. Because apparently poor grammar means you also can’t have any intellegence in any other relm. It also must prevent me from drawing conclusions and have business sense according to AK. Lol
Btw, anyone who disregards my points over grammar is a retard. If you can’t look at the point and determain it is credible with a little common sense. Then clearly my posts were not meant for you. Some people suck at math I suck at English. Who cares!
so ak is “constantly amazed by bellators “ratings”” LMFAO
so lets see… shall we start with the beginning of season 10?
the season where after it was over with they effectively CANCELLED the season tournament format? ok lets go!
rampage unperformed, I repeat rampage UNPERFORMED
this so called “big season debut” lost spike tv 47,000 viewers in primetime……..
next week they lost spike 232,000 viewers in primetime……..
march 14 they lost spike 214,000 viewers in primetime……..
march 21 they lost spike 291,000 viewers in primetime…….
march 28 they lost spike 190,000 viewers in primetime…..
over the course of a mere few weeks they lost spike nearly 1 million viewers in primetime………….
should i continue muther fucker?!?!
now you understand why the idiotic tournament format
(with NO LEGITIMATE DRAWS) was CANCELLED
you havent a clue what youre talking about my friend……
Please continue on with 1000 Ways to Die! We request more episodes, get the crew back together. This show is amazing, everyone I have told about it is now addicted to it. It has the best black humour with interesting fact, a perfect way to end the working week. Your fan from Australia.