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TNA up for sale?

Saw this from The Cubs Fan on The W who was reporting about what Dave was saying on The Wrestling Observer podcast last night...

 
Your thoughts?

I was listening to that podcast on the way home from work, yeah.  Obviously there's only two viable options here: Viacom buys it and runs it as a TV show, or Vince buys it for the video library and picks at the bones of the talent left.  

Unless maybe Steph was cashing in those $14 million worth of stocks for something OTHER than building a house...

Comments

  1. We should pool our money and buy it. With all the great booking ideas always being posted here we could make tens of hundreds of dollars. I'd be willing to throw in $50 if we can get Hillbilly Jim as the GM.

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  2. HHH: "Pops, TNA is for sale"
    VINCE: "That Nice Ass? Get me 20 minutes with her."

    Only being half facetious, Im not sure Vince knows ANYTHING about TNA.

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  3. Im im for 60 if I can get first dibs on Hemme and Tessmacher

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  4. Yeah, really one TNA documentary DVD set recoups the entire cost of buying the promotion. It's a no-brainer.

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  5. I'll pitch the 20 that I just found under the seat of car.

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  6. I'll check Groupon!

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  7. Does it? Who would buy a TNA doc?

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  8. I'm sure he know it exists and who some of the major players are. That's probably it.

    I wouldn't be surprised if HHH has seen more of it, if only to scout out some of their wrestlers.

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  9. Viacom buys it and gives full creative control to Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan after Hogan gives a long, "poor me" speech about how Dixie Carter was holding him back.

    Watch out, Vinnie Mac!

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  10. Presuming he pays a similar price as WCW's video library (say 2 million as a ballpark), they just need to sell 100,000 units of a TNA DVD and boom, money made back.

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  11. Id be shocked if he knows anyone besides Hogan, Sting, and ppl whove worked for him.

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  12. What do ww think it goes for? Considering how cheap he got WcW...

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  13. Yeah, by 'major players' I meant more the people running it - like Bischoff, Jarrett (once upon a time), etc. Not who the wrestlers are.

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  14. Gotcha. Chances hes EVER watched an entire Impact show?

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  15. Let's start a Kickstarter! Imagine how well a company would be run if it was partially owned by every wrestling nerd on the Internet. Nothing could go wrong in that scenario, NOTHING!

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  16. Vince? I'm going the full Blutarsky: 0.00.

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  17. In all honesty, I don't want Vince to buy it. I want an alternative even if it's the bastard, deformed mutant that TNA is.

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  18. And that's just from the doc set. The "greatest matches" compilations could easily double that.

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  19. It will sell more than WCW. Vince got it cheap because of all the outstanding lawsuits.

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  20. So if Vince buys it...That makes ROH #2.


    Who the fuck does that make #3

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  21. Also indirectly, the "Greatest of" Sting, Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy DVD sets would be more complete.

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  22. After who, who in North American Wrestling is bigger then ROH and smaller then WWE with TNA out of the picture?

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  23. Especially if it means we get that 3-disk Sting set.

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  24. If #2 becomes #3, then #4 becomes #3.

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  25. *facepalm*

    I misunderstood your intent, my apologies.

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  26. Christ I can't stand listening to Dave talk. He, yknow, pauses and, yknow, I mean, derails and yknow, I mean, he, yknow...like he got electrocuted or something. At least Marty Jannetty can blame it on the drugs.

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  27. Who's #4 in the US, though?

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  28. Kickstarter is a great idea. A $50 donation will get you one booking decision. A $100 donation and you get to pick a champion. A $500 dollar donation and you get to BE a champion.

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  29. I want to do commentary.

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  30. Let's be honest, all people will want is pictures with Tessmacher's ass.

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  31. Shane is going to buy it. Then he'll sell the time slot and wrestler contracts to Bischoff and everything else (tape library, intellectual properties, etc) to WWE/Vince.

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  32. If I may stroke my own ego:
    I'd be an AWESOME commentator with some practice

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  33. Was my actual question

    It's either NWA or PWG I'd imagine

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  34. The additional title reign each tonight gives them, what, roughly 25 world title reigns between them?

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  35. I don't even like TNA and I'd absolutely buy a History of TNA with some of their best matches on it in a second.

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  36. I hope the Consortium buys it (the consortium is Ric Flair).

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  37. Randy Orton = No Buys

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  38. No buys. I'll stick to old footage on YouTube and New Japan for my fix.

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  39. I found out the hard way that owning a business doesn't mean you're automatically entitled to sleep with the employees. That's how I lost my McDonald's franchise. Well that and I was violating a bunch of child-labor laws. That was a sordid chapter of my life.

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  40. Bryan the two time WWE Champion for a total of less than a day.

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  41. If Vince does buy TNA, what DVDs are a sure-thing? Sting and Angle, obviously, maybe another Jeff Hardy set, along with a "Rise and Fall" are my guesses (even if there never really was a "rise" for TNA.)

    I just can't see them doing any best-of sets featuring Bound or Glory, Impact or the X-Division. And if Styles and Joe don't go along for the ride and do something in WWE, I don't think those discs are getting made, either.

    A "Self-Destruction of Vince Russo" might be fun, though.

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  42. Man's got a broken foot! Cut him some slack.


    Although it drives me nuts when he'll casually drop some bit of juicy info and be like "We'll talk about it after the show" or like in this one where he mentions Bischoff getting sent home and then says they'll discuss it on Monday. I'M PAYING FOR THIS SHIT, DAVE! My $10 a month says give me the dirt now!

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  43. Lugerville: Population YOU, Bryan.

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  44. Ive been raving about it in the other thread but this has HHH logic all over it...

    HHH will go over Bryan at some point in the next few months, Cena will them swoop in to take Bryans place as the lead face vs the establishment, because Bryan "was just an indy guy who couldnt get the job done." HHH will then lladown for Cena. Hell rationalize not giving Bryan his payoff because, in his mind, "Im just building a bigger payoff for our top star, John Cena."

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  45. WWE will get its 2.7-3.1 and keep selling the MERCH.

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  46. The kids LOVE John Cena and Randy Orton. Can't get enough of them. BEST FOR BUSINESS. PPV is an archaic concept that's only successful for dinosaurs like UFC who think drawing 350,000 buys for a low-end show is something to brag about. WWE is TELLING STORIES. Kids love stories! And pink shirts!


    BEST FOR BUSINESS.

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  47. Anybody claim the 14 million hit.

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  48. How has there not already been an Angle set, anyway? Sting I get, I'm sure they'd ideally like to wait until he does something with WWE (one match, a Hall of Fame induction, whatever). Maybe they're waiting until they can actually have Angle in the documentary, but I dunno, it hasn't really stopped them before from just doing a "Best matches" type DVD (and then later releasing a documentary with even more matches once he's available).

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  49. Whc will go on last for first time on ages imo. I say its perfect time to unify the titles n just hv one.

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  50. Next time I'm rooting for a three hour reign so he can just barely crawl over one day. Maybe he'll win the title in the Youtube preshow and then drop it at the end.

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  51. It became 2009 so gradually, I hardly noticed.

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  52. God, Im fired up. Time to sip on a Stoli.

    For those who dont think Bryan hasnt been hurt by the last few months of booking...laying down for someone isnt the only way to lose momentum. If youre a hot new main event act, its important that you get your run or the proper payoff at the right time. If you dont get the strap or the belt at the proper time A) your heat will dissipate or B) youll never get the belt and guess what...your heat will dissipate. See HHH vs Goldberg

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  53. 60 thousand might get you near the front of the line.

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  54. Shareholder conferences: for when you need a good laugh about the deterioration of an industry you love.

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  55. Dragon Gate USA is somewhere in there, I'd imagine.

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  56. Did Eric Bischoff get sent home, or is he just out with the flu?



    TUNE INTO MY IMPACT RECAP TO FIND OUT!

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  57. But... But... The chase! The money! The chase! Bryan... Big star! CHASE!!!! This is said. Am going to go check out the hockey scores. I am, after all, from Winnipeg... Damn.

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  58. What was that clang I heard? Oh, someone else hitting their head against the you know what...

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  59. They make too much money selling replicas to dump one. Especially now that Cena has the WHC I can see kids forcing their parents to buy them one of those to go with their spinner belts.

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  60. Don't forget Tout! It's kinda like Vine, except IT'S NOT VINE!

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  61. Trips raw promo further digs the ditch deeper for d bry now too. What a Dick.

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  62. Don't forget about that kids love watching TV shows that end after they've been in bed for 2 hours.

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  63. IT'S JUST LIKE VINE EXCEPT NO ONE USES IT! SO IT'S EASIER TO BE SEEN... OR SOMETHING. HASHTAG WASTE OF FIVE MILLION DOLLARS

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  64. Eh, I don't know how long Cena holds the WHC for. The fact it got out right away he's only working Smackdown until Survivor Series sure makes it seem like Sandow (who's at least winning matches again, even if no one is seeing it happen) is going to cash in sooner rather than later.

    The fact that Bryan being repeatedly screwing is coming to the benefit of Orton (the one guy who deserves a title run least) just makes it all the more infuriating. I haven't watched since Summerslam and I'm glad for it, because I was among those who said "No" when the post subject was stated everywhere then because I knew what was coming.

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  65. HHH: "umm, Vince, I think we should hold off on giving Bryan the belt for 3 months. You know, because in 3 months itll REALLY mean something. "

    3 months later, aftee Bryans heat is slowly disappearing..

    HHH: "Vince, we cant give him the belt now. Hes not over anymore. I told you he wasnt sustainable. "

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  66. You know what, I kind of love the WWE. Every cynical, bitter, paranoid comment people make at the beginning of an angle usually comes true. It's doing a lot for my self-confidence as a paranoid cynic.

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  67. Ha. Agreed. HHH is nostradamous himself

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  68. I'm sure Cena is going to be handing the jobs out left and right after how his last one worked out

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  69. I'm the most optimistic guy on the planet. WWE booking is pretty much the only thing that can make me cynical, because they do this over and over again. And this time they were even up front about it.

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  70. They have to change the WWE title as much as possible because of that superlong and boring CM Punk reign over something like 15 ppvs.. They have to retrain the fans to think that the champ may lose as the title at any ppv. And if the fans know that, they will obviously buy the ppv more often. Thus equaling more money for the WWE,
    This is all super simple.

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  71. One plus: at least Albertoverrated is no longer a champion.

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  72. Yeah really....I got some shoots that are new to me too that I must fire up. Didn't see the PPV and my friends and I were watching the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street for some reason. I think I got the better deal even then.

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  73. Not yet...where's the celebrity to have one of said title changes?

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  74. Honest question. Why do people still think the brand split is a thing? It's not. Who cares if he works Smackdown? The World Title storylines get advanced on Raw just as much if not more than they do on Smackdown. The only real reason the WWE title wasn't on Smackdown for awhile was the last three champs (from Survivor Series 2011 to Summerslam 2013), Punk, Rock, and Cena, don't really work Smackdown except occasionally. Bryan and Orton have been all over Smackdown since they started feuding for the WWE title. If they do go to a Punk/Orton feud, it could be a bit of a problem unless either Punk or Cena work on Smackdown more often (ideally they'd at least be pushing one of the top two title feuds on the show each week), but working Smackdown isn't a requirement for the WHC anymore. The Brand Split is over and has been for a long time.

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  75. Vince would win that battle with his eyes closed.

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  76. Quick 2009 Parallax not to get married!

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  77. Time for me to hand in my smark card.


    I don't know what it is, but I just know that outside of some force of nature like an injury, this is going to end with Triple H tapping to the YES lock.

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  78. Good point. Um, non wrestler?

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  79. "Best of flippy matches with blown spots" Vol. 1-8

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  80. Yes, he has to do it so people think of that instead of a similar image from 2004.

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  81. But it'd be fun! Plus, if he's done his job and trained HHH and Steph to be his successors they may do better than we expect.

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  82. Yup. Back to 1997 I go! Wake me when things don't suck.

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  83. I see your 97 and raise you late 80s.

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  84. For those who wondered why Steph made that investment, it was to buy copious amounts of glass. I wonder why...

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  85. That new ceiling ain't gonna build itself!

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  86. Man, optimism sounds hard. I need a beer just thinking about it.

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  87. I see your '09 and raise you '03.

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  88. If it makes kids want the Big Gold, then let Cena reign for a while! Plus it keeps Alberto away from it.

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  89. This is one of the dumber things Ive read on the BoD. And Jesse Baker posts here

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  90. My bad then. I didnt get the sarcasm with your original post without that last line.

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  91. I wonder what they'd do for a TNA Documentary. I don't think they'd give it a "Rise and Fall" treatment, just because there wasn't ever much of a rise.. that I'm aware of anyways.


    I imagine they'd go with a "lol they thought they could compete" storyline.

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  92. I dont know how to install the wwe app. Explain it again to me Michael Cole

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  93. Ahem....compare this booking to Lex Lugar's title chase...Lugar sure as heck was screwed out of the main title time after time...

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  94. Your_Favourite_LoserOctober 27, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    so she and hhh can throw stones

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  95. If only you lived in Texas, none of those things would have been a problem.

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  96. They're not running shows right now.

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  97. "The Sad Sad Tale of TNA: No One Tries to Compete With the WWE"

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  98. Is out of bussiness...

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  99. And because Turner said that were not going to air WCW regardless of who owned it, leaving Vince as the only buyer. If Spike is wwilling to stick with TNA then it still somewhat attractive.

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  100. There is an Angle set: http://www.amazon.com/TNA-Wrestling-Kurt-Angle-Champion/dp/B001ELXT0C/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382968389&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=tna+kurt+angle+dv


    I'm honestly wondering how much value the TNA library has. Certainly, if you want a complete pro-wrestling library, there's value, and there's money in being able to make a complete Flair/Angle/Sting/Hardy set.


    But would anyone here put out money for a Best of TNA 3DVD/2BR set? Best of Bound For Glory? Rise and Fall? One Night Only? I think the ECW library is going to prove more valuable to WWE than TNA.

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  101. I'd speculate it's actually worth less than WCW. WCW at least at one point in time drove ratings and had big, recognizable names. And at the time of purchase, there was thought that an Invasion angle would be worth money. Does anyone think a TNA invasion would draw a dollar?

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  102. Yeah, except at the point of purchase it wasn't driving ratings. And those big, recognizable names were not part of the purchase.

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  103. I don't see them doing much with the library but I do see Vince wanting it. Plus they could quickly make and throw some new best of's up on Netflix. It'd be free to do for all intents and purposes.


    Best of Christian? Why not. Include the Christian Cage stuff, his return, etc. CM Punk has some matches you could use. The Sandman has some stuff. Again, maybe not a DVD worth of stuff, but enough for a Hulu viewing or two and I can't imagine it would cost that much to buy.

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  104. How do the last six months of ratings of Nitro compare to today's TNA?

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  105. It's hundreds of hours of WWE Channel content for a, I'm guessing, relatively cheap price.

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  106. Nitro's ratings were irrelevant, because Turner made it clear they weren't going to WCW on their network regardless. If Spike wants to keep TNA, then that potentially makes TNA a more attractive property, regardless of how it's ratings compare to the last 6 months of Nitro.

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  107. The Invasion angle would be worth money to the WWE, it was worthless to any other potential buyers.

    I have no idea if TNA will go for more or less than WWE. But WCW's history, recognizable names, and potential angles with those names don't mean a thing if there's only one party who was interested in buying it. Once Turner said they were not going to air WCW on television no matter who owned it, the only person interested in buying it was Vince, which is why he was able to pay very little for it.


    If Spike is still interested in keeping TNA on their network, then that is the biggest hurdle that any potential buyer would have to deal with, which might lead to people other than Vince being interested, which would act to drive up the price.

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  108. I'll argue the opposite. If Spike wants to keep TNA, then it reduces the value to WWE. Spike's a Viacom channel. WWE has strong relationships with their competition, NBC/Universal (owner of USA and Syfy). If Spike insisted on keeping TNA on its networks, WWE might determine that would be an obstacle to ownership (why risk damaging your network partner, especially with the WWE Network on the way?).


    Weirdly enough, the termination of the Turner/WCW relationship probably made the purchase more feasible in WWE's eyes. While they didn't have the strong relationship with USA that they have today, certainly the idea of running WCW TV (which was an objective of the purchase) was more appealing if WWE was free to negotiate with any network. If the WWE had been limited to only showing WWE programming on Turner TV, a company that Vince didn't have a good relationship with, one has to wonder if they would have even considered the deal.


    Remember- at the time of acquisition, it was thought that the real steal of the deal was the WCW brand and the opportunity to reinvigorate said brand, which had dominated cable ratings only a few years previous. We didn't realize that it would an impossible tasks for the McMahons and a WWE roster that had spent the last few years doing everything they could to survive and thrive against WCW. There's a reason that the first time the Rock confronts Booker T on TV that he says, "And who the hell are you?" The WWE culture mandates that you look at every other wrestling promotion as garbage. Your competition is Disney, not other wrestling shows.


    I still don't think WWE has any interest in TNA as an active company. If the company goes under, I doubt more than four of TNA's roster makes it onto a WWE show. Sting's really not interested, Angle and Hardy are huge risks, and the rest of the talent would already be with WWE if that company had any interest. No TNA wrestler will get onto WWE programming without spending serious time at the NXT facilities (and swallowing a lot of pride).

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  109. Any chance Bischoff could scrounge some money again from investors or something like he did before WCW went belly up? The whole reason his "Fusion Media" withdrew their letter of intent to buy WCW was when Turner said they wouldn't be airing it on tv anymore. I do think Viacom would prefer to have the product on tv if possible.

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  110. Your_Favourite_LoserOctober 28, 2013 at 10:26 AM

    they already have plenty of sabu matches from the original ecw

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  111. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryOctober 28, 2013 at 11:47 AM

    As much as I hate to say it, probably CZW. Chikara is dead, PWG doesn't run enough shows, Evolve/DGUSA draw crowds of about 75... You could also make a case for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, who have a TV deal, even if it's on some obscure network that no one gets.

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  112. I don't It is labled on my cable as WWE: NXT

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  113. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryOctober 28, 2013 at 12:21 PM

    Nor do I, but I wouldn't really argue against the point either. It's not like the brand split or WWECW, it really is in it's own little world. I wish I could watch it on cable...


    But yeah, CZW is my answer for the original question.

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  114. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryOctober 28, 2013 at 12:43 PM

    Why would you want Bischoff to buy the company? His involvement is the main reason the company is in the shit shape it's in right now.

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  115. It would be nice for Eric to lose his own money on a wrestling company for a change. Maybe it would teach him that it's not a good idea to wheel out your childhood idol for shit loads of money when you have overhead and your pay is derived directly from the company turning a profit.

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  116. Ambrose and (if he survives the politics) Hero two former CZW Champions on the roster already.

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  117. I will chip in a few quid. I don't want an onscreen or office role I just want to force Chavo to become a rich white guy with a hobby horse, managed by his Dad, thus combing the three things that got him over without invoking Eddie's name every other sentence.

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  118. Let's be honest, how much are we really missing if we pretend that Sting's career ended in March 2001 on the last Nitro?

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  119. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryOctober 28, 2013 at 4:39 PM

    Sure, but that would take about 12 hours.

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  120. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryOctober 29, 2013 at 11:39 PM

    Pretty sure Punk worked there for a while too. I mean, if he worked for IWA-MS (the TNA to CZW's WWE of deathmatch crap) then I'm sure he worked for CZW. In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone signed by WWE that came up through the indies worked at least 1 or 2 matches there. Outside of Bryan, that is.

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