TNA's Many Troubles Over The Years

What's good y'all? It's your boy Ross back at it again with another video. So, we're going to check out TNA Wrestling is dying. Now, we all know TNA has had their fair share of issues, especially when it comes to financial situations. People not getting paid properly, money not being used where it needed to be used, people not even getting compensated for, you know, injuries and stuff like that. There's been a lot of stories of financial issues and people going into business for themselves and it happens in a lot of companies. Happens in WWE. Granted, you know, they've built a name for themselves over the years to kind of be able to work with people and stuff like that. They're just a big conglomerate. Then it happened in WCW and you've seen how that played out. And sometimes these financial issues and struggles and creative differences even happen in AW, but they're still doing well enough still be on television and people getting paid properly. So, we're going to check out some of the shortcomings that TNA has ultimately faced over the many years. Appreciate all the love support you guys have shown on the channel. Let's get right into this video. Man, >> at one point, [music] TNA wrestling was more than just an alternative to WWE. profitable, growing, [music] and building a roster of wrestlers that felt different from anything fans were seeing elsewhere. But today, TNA is [music] struggling to keep talent, grow its audience, and define what it actually is. So, what went wrong? To understand that, we need to know how TNA came [music] to be. From the mid90s to the early 2000s, wrestling experienced a boom in popularity. This was thanks largely to the Monday Night War. WWE'se's Monday Night Show Raw would go headto-head with WCW's Monday Night program, Nitro. This real life competition got fans invested and forced both [music] companies to put on the best show possible. This in turn resulted in both WWE and WCW seeing millions of viewers tuning in and tens of thousands of fans packing arenas and stadiums. However, every bore eventually ends and [music] in March 2001, WWE came out on top when it purchased WCW. At the same time, WWE also acquired another rival company, ECW. This left a major gap in the wrestling market and several wrestling startup companies tried [music] to fill it. While most failed as soon as they started, one succeeded and that was TNA or Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling. [music] TNA's origins can actually be traced back to WCW's closure. During WWE'se's final years, one of the company's top stars was Jeff [music] Jarrett. Jared had previously wrestled for WWE, but his relationship with the company and its owner, Vince McMahon, ended [music] poorly. In 1999, while Jarrett was still part of WB, he won the Intercontinental Championship. However, he held on to the title past the date his contract expired. Jarrett then extorted McMahon and WWE, demanding $300,000 in exchange [music] for relinquishing the championship. McMahon begrudgingly agreed, and Jared competed in one match where he lost the title and then quickly joined WCW. [music] However, after WCW went out of business, WWE refused to rehire [music] Jared. With no other major wrestling company to work for, Jeff realized he would need to start his own. [music] Using the $300,000, Jeff Jurrett launched TNA Wrestling and the company hosted its first show on June 19th. >> I didn't know that. Now, that part I didn't know. I knew about the him basically saying, "Hey, Vince, you want this title back? You have to pay me." I didn't know that's what he did with that money essentially and started up a rival promotion. It's kind of crazy how things fall into place. one domino falls and then ultimately other things happen and here we go with TNA being created cuz he was extorting Vince. That's crazy, bro. Like I said at the beginning of this video, even WWE has had to deal with some, you know, financial situations, but the thing is about them, they've been such a big company for so long, they can throw away some money and then shoe you away because they don't expect you to cause any problems or really worry about you after you leave WWE until certain stuff like this happened. 2002. [music] The company was off to a good start, but they didn't have a deal with the TV network. That's when TNA got creative. Instead of doing monthly pay-per-view events like WWE did, TNA would run weekly pay-per-view events. Having the shows on pay-per-view also meant that TNA could show and say [music] basically whatever they wanted, and that was what TNA was trying to brand itself as. The company wanted to be seen as edgier than WWE, like having women dancing in cages and tense bloodshed. [music] Even the name TNA was a double antandra sounding like T and A were tits and ass. While the company had a clear identity, problems were already brewing behind the scenes. Jeff Jarrett had hired a man named Jay Hassman to get [music] TNA picked up by pay-per-view companies and make sure they were running ads on TV. Hman told Jared that the first TNA show had 80,000 buys and Jared began estimating TNA's budget based on this number. However, Jeff Jarrett would later find out that Hman [music] had lied and the actual amount of buys was under 20,000. Just months after the company launched, [music] TNA was already having financial issues. To save the company, Jared began looking for investors. The healthcare corporation Health South had initially agreed to invest in TNA, but the deal fell through when it was revealed that Health South was committing accounting fraud. In desperate need of financial assistance, Jeff Jarrett turned to a woman named Dixie Carter. Jarrett had hired Carter's marketing agency to help advertise TNA. When Carter [music] heard of TNA's financial struggles, she spoke to her parents who owned a multi-billion dollar energy corporation called Panda Energy. Carter [music] convinced her family to invest in TNA and Panda Energy became majority shareholders. Dixie Carter was named TNA president and while Jeff [music] Jarrett no longer >> imagine you just having like a uh born into a family of billionaires or however that plays out and you can just like hey can we invest in this and they're billionaires so it's like they can decide yes or no easily you know look at the numbers all right cool that's crazy some people are just you know fortunate enough to be in those situations where you can just ask family members you know parents or whoever, hey, you want to invest millions of dollars into this company? Ah, [ __ ] it. What's the worst that could happen? [laughter] >> Had complete control of his company. [music] TNA had some financial stability. Over the next roughly 2 years, TNA would continue [music] to produce weekly paper to her parents who owned a multi-billion dollar energy corporation called [music] Panda Energy. Carter convinced her family to invest in TNA and Panda Energy became majority shareholders. Dixie Carter was named TNA president. And while Jeff Jarrett no longer had complete control of his [music] company, TNA had some financial stability. Over the next roughly two years, TNA would continue to produce weekly pay-per-views, [music] but knew that if they wanted to be profitable, they would need a national TV deal. The opportunity finally came in May 2004 when TNA signed a deal with Fox Sports Net. This led to the launch of Impact, [music] TNA's weekly flagship show, which would play a pivotal role in TNA's identity. While TNA could do whatever they wanted on pay-per-view, that wasn't the case on Fox Sports. [music] Rather than produce less edgy, watered down shows, TNA decided to reinvent itself. [laughter] The company would shift its focus toward the athletic [music] inring side of professional wrestling, positioning itself as an alternative to WB's [music] more entertainment-driven product. This new direction was showcased at TNA's Unbreakable pay-per-view where up and cominging wrestlers AJ Styles, Mojo Joe, and Christopher Daniels competed in a triple threat match, which is [music] widely considered one of the greatest in TNA history. Not only did this match displayed the sports focused wrestling that TNA was trying to build its identity around, but it also showed who TNA was building the company around. While TNA would use [music] veterans and established talent, they prioritized younger wrestlers whom the company could brand as their own. On top of that, around the time Impact launched, TNA began using a six-sided wrestling ring. This [music] made TNA instantly look different from not just WWE, but just about any wrestling company, and the ring became another key part of TNA's identity. TNA was slowly building momentum, and while their contract with Fox Sports Net expired in May 2005, the company soon secured a new and [music] better TV deal. WWE'se's Monday Night Raw had been airing on Spite TV for 5 [music] years, but in September chosen 5, Raw left the network. However, the executives at Spike still wanted wrestling, and this made TNA a perfect [music] fit. On October 1st, 2005, Impact began airing on Spike TV, which not only gave TNA the most exposure they had ever had, but also secured a much higher paying TV deal. This allowed them to bring in bigger name talent such as Sting, Christian Cage, and Kurt [music] Angle. This larger revenue stream also allowed TNA to retain talent, preventing them from leaving for WWE to be or elsewhere. In fact, even when TNA wrestlers had the opportunity [music] to join WWE, not all of them took it. For instance, Abyss turned down a Wrestlemania match against the Undertaker to stay with TNA. At the same time, TNA's viewership was slowly [music] increasing. While there was still a gap between them and WWE, TNA was proving it could grow its audience and become [music] a solid number two. However, this is also when cracks in TNA would begin to form. As stated, TNA had built much of its identity [music] around being the opposite of WB. While WWE leaned into sports entertainment, TNA positioned itself as the more athletic wrestling focused [music] alternative. But once the company landed on Spike TV and felt pressure to grow its ratings, it began adding flashier, more sensational entertainment [music] elements to its show. a prime example. >> And that's the thing that some people may not realize, like some of these networks, they want you to perform a certain way. Especially if they went from WWE being on there and used to these type of numbers to another wrestling company, but not getting those same type of numbers. They're going to ask you, "Hey, look, we need y'all need to do something. We need to get these viewers up. We have people sponsors that's trying to run ads. We need we need to figure out a way to get more people watching. Hence, this is where you get story lines that may not fall through, you know, for the fans or they're trying different things because they're trying to get as many eyes on the product so they can keep that deal because if the ratings get really low, that's when negotiation, all right, we we're not going to renew this contract. That goes for WWE, AEW, whatever show, live wrestling show. If the ratings get to a point where it's just getting abysmal, they'll cut their losses before they just sit up there and deal with it and try to renew a contract. So, this is when NFL football player Adam Jones appeared in TNA in 2007. While things like this led to some criticism amongst fans, [music] TNA remained strong and continued to grow. By 2009, the company had a few years of profitability and was ready to take the next [music] big step forward. In October of that year, TNA announced their biggest signing yet, Hulk Hogan. While Hogan didn't have the same star power as he had in the 80s and 90s, this was still a big deal for TNA. And it didn't [music] stop with Hogan. TNA began signing a lot of major talent like Jeff Hardy, Ron Van Dam, Ric Flair, and more. TNA also brought in Eric Bishoff, the former president of WCW and the one who helped make WCW a serious competitor against WB. Bishoff and Hogan would have both on-screen roles and behind the-scenes authority. On paper, this sounded [music] great. However, their influence was a mixed bag. Hogan officially debuted in TNA on a special Monday night episode of Impact on January [music] 4th, 2010. For the first time in the company's history, TNA went head-to-head with WWE'se's [music] Raw. Despite the competition, TNA did its best numbers yet with the episode peaking at 3 million viewers. While this was great for TNA, this wasn't the only effect Hogan and Bishoff had on the company. About 2 weeks later, TNA had ditched the six-sided ring in favor of a traditional four-sided one. Bishoff later said the decision was made because the six-sided ring was a distraction, and there [music] was no reason for it. As I mentioned earlier, the six-sided ring was a key part of TNA's identity, and fans made their opinion of the change known right away. >> We want sixides. [laughter] Even before Hogan and Bischoff came to TNA, the company was trying to balance the sport [music] and entertainment sides of wrestling. However, it felt like it was starting to become uneven. The homegrown talent was being pushed aside, and TNA was being perceived as the place for exb wrestlers. After the success of TNA's first Monday night episode of Impact, the company permanently moved the show to Monday nights, competing with Raw every week. While this worked well in 1995, when WCW began competing directly with WB, [music] TNA was in a much different situation. By 2010, Raw was much more established and wrestling fans have spent over 15 years watching it regularly on Monday night. >> And that's the advantage. Even though >> there was still it was a lot of stuff that was, you know, kind of driving fans away for the most part. The thing that works with WWE even today, and they'll always have fans for the most part, is because once you've gotten accustomed to it, that's it. It's It's rare that I'm not saying it's rare. People, you know, do leave from watching. I've done it myself. But when you are actively for the most part been watching it majority of your life, you're probably going to have it, you know, on maybe in the background. You may not even be watching it, but you'll it'll be like muscle memory to check out Monday Night Raw. So they'll always, for the most part, have a baseline of viewers. No matter how bad the show gets, they will still have a baseline of viewers because people have grown up watching WWE and only WWE. You know, you're able to gain some of those fans depending on how the booking and the entertainment value is going, but for the most part, fans will still watch the product no matter how bad it gets. Some people will turn away, others won't. So with TNA going headtohead, this is a different situation from the Monday Night Wars with WCW cuz WCW have really built up a really good fan base to the point where they were overtaking WWE for a while like 83 weeks some would say, but this is a different situation around that time. And even if they are putting on good shows on TNA, it's just hard to beat a juggernaut like WWE because they've built that they've ingrained that loyalty to their fan base. So, >> also TNA hadn't been around for even 10 years yet and was still growing its audience. On top of that, while Raw was live every week, TNA would go back and forth for being live [music] and pre-recorded. All this made the Monday Night War a bloodbath with Tina getting destroyed in TV viewership and ultimately having to move Impact [music] back to Thursday night after just a month and a half. >> I mean look look at that bro they tried you know 1.5 but then after that it just you can see they averaging Monday Night Raw was going to consistently stay at the three three million range and they can only do so much. they can only do so much because they've already built a fan base here, a loyal fan base while they're still trying to grow it. Now, maybe if they're averaging one to two million consistently, then maybe that would make sense. But even then, once again, it just depends on how creative both the shows are at that at that point. And people were still enjoying for the most part what Monday Night Raw was offering. do back to Thursday night after just a month and a half. While TNA President Dixie Carter and Spike TV ultimately had final say, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff were the driving force behind the decision to go head-to-head with WWE. [music] But the biggest problem with Bischoff and Hogan wasn't that they were trying to change TNA. The problem was that many of those things that got stripped away [music] were what made TNA feel different in the first place. By signing exb wrestlers [music] and going headto-head with Raw, TNA was starting to feel like WB Light. And this is the first time the company [music] was really struggling with his identity. But that wasn't the only problem TNA was having. Signing all these bigname wrestlers and going live regularly was costing TNA a lot of money. TNA of course knew this going in, but the company wasn't seeing a great return on this investment. [music] TNA slowed things down and after moving back to Thursday nights, they had regained their regular viewership. [music] In 2013, Hulk Hogan's contract with TNA would expire and he left the company. While some would see this as a positive change, TNA's identity and creative direction were still murky. [music] TNA was struggling to find the right balance between borrowing from what made WB successful and establishing its own unique identity. TNA's lack of direction became [music] very apparent in the summer of 2014 when they brought back the six-sided ring. While this was welcomed by fans, it seemed like the company wasn't sure what [music] they wanted to be. Additionally, there were problems brewing behind the scenes. By 2014, [music] TNA's team viewership hadn't really grown. Oh my god, that's that's just a sick spot, bro. >> With them averaging around a million viewers [music] for each episode of Impact. On top of that, advertisers historically don't pay as much to their commercials on wrestling shows, and this was true for TNA. All this was especially bad news as [music] TNA is beginning discussions with Spike TV about renewing their agreement. However, there would be one incident that put the nail in the coffin. Vince Russo, a controversial wrestling writer, had been working for TNA [music] for most of its existence. But in 2012, it was reported that Russo and [music] TNA had parted ways. This was likely because Spike TV specifically told TNA they didn't want Russo writing or involved with the shows. [laughter] However, in July 2014, [music] it was reported that Vince Russo was secretly working with TNA in a consulting role. This came after Russo had accidentally sent an email to wrestling journalist Mike Johnson. Spike TV was upset by this and after 9 years, TNA left Spike with the final show airing on December 24th, [music] 2014. Fortunately, TNA did find a new TV network pretty [music] quickly. Beginning in January 2015, Impact began airing on Destination America. Unfortunately for TNA, the move was a major step down from Spike TV. Destination [clears throat] America was available in fewer homes, which meant TNA was reaching a smaller audience. Just as important, [music] the New Deal reportedly brought in far less money than TNA had been making on Spike. This forced just about everyone in TNA to take a pay cut. And while some would stay, many of TNA's established homegrown names like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Samojo would leave. TNA was going through a transition. And unfortunately, it wasn't by choice. While TNA performed decently on Destination America, the partnership ended after only a year. Destination America cited the cost of TNA [music] and the difficulty of selling advertising as the reasons for ending the partnership. TNA did find another TV partner, but [music] the deal was a mixed bag. In January 2016, TNA began airing Impact on Pop TV. Pop had a similar reach to Destination America, and Impact brought in a similar number of viewers. And what's crazy, the fact that they ended up finding out that uh that Russo was still working with TNA, they if if they actually really truly cut off ties, be honest with you, maybe they would still have that Spike TV deal. But once they found out, and they weren't supposed to find out, obviously, once they found out, they was like, "Yeah, we out of here." That's crazy when the network's like, "No, he can't be involved in none of this." And they still find out that he's involved and kicked him to the car. Like, nah, you gotta go, bro. I mean, to be fair, Vince did the same thing. They kicked him out of TKO. Well, TKO kicked him out of WWE, but he was still involved. He was just involved on the low, but he was still involved. Granted, I'm willing to bet people at TKO kind of knew. So, that's a different situation, but somewhat similar. >> Around 300,000 per week. However, while Destination America paid a rights fee, which meant guaranteed money, POT TV did not. Instead, [music] TNA and Pop TV split the revenue generated by ads that aired during Impact. This wasn't ideal, and to make matters worse, [music] TNA was still struggling to attract advertisers. Aside from TV deals, things would be shaken up behind the scenes. [music] In 2016, several groups and individuals took stakes in TNA, and the Canadian media company Anthem Sports and Entertainment ultimately became the new majority owner. This helped provide TNA [music] with some financial stability, and during this time, TNA would also experience creative [music] success. The TNA wrestler Matt Hardy developed a new persona called broken Matt Hardy. This led to some very innovative and unique [music] storytelling and matches, which helped give TNA some buzz and nice bump in viewership. [music] TNA was still trying to find its identity and it seemed like this wacky unorthodox style of presenting wrestling could be the company's new direction. However, in early 2017, Matt along with his brother Jeff, who was also a key figure in the [music] broken story line, would leave TNA. TNA did try to continue with similar storylines and matches, but none of them achieved the success broken Matt Hardy did. 2017 also marked the first full year that Anthem was in charge of TNA. They felt the best way to move TNA [music] forward was to stop calling it TNA and rebrand. However, this would be a disaster to say the least. [music] In early 2017, Anthem renamed TNA to Impact Wrestling. The name obviously coming from TNA's weekly [music] flagship show, Impact. Additionally, Anthem brought back the man who founded TNA, Jeff [music] Jarrett. Jared had left TNA in 2014 to launch his own wrestling company, Global Force Wrestling. [music] Upon his return, Jerro was promoted to executive producer and chief creative officer of Impact Wrestling. [music] With Jeff Jarrett back in the company, it was decided that Anthem would acquire Global Force Wrestling and merge it with Impact Wrestling. The company would now simply be known as Global Force Wrestling or [music] GFW, while The Weekly Show would be called Impact Wrestling. However, this unintentionally led to a whole host of problems. [music] During this time, Jeff Jarrett was struggling with alcohol. This was put on public display just a few months after the GFW rebrand [music] when Jarrett appeared intoxicated at a Mexican wrestling show, throwing tortillas into the crowd. This ultimately led to Jarrett leaving the company after less than a year. [music] However, the deal for Anthem to acquire Jarrett's company, Global Force Wrestling, had not been finalized. This not only led to Jarrett suing Anthem, but also forced Anthem to revert to calling the company Impact Wrestling. Wow. >> Just a reminder, the company started as TNA in [music] 2017, changed to Impact Wrestling, then to Global Force Wrestling, and then back to Impact Wrestling, all within the same year. >> And as a fan, that can get confusing. I'm not going to lie to you. Even though you may think it's not that big of a deal, if you're a new fan or trying to get into that, it's going to be confusing. Like, wait, wasn't it just this? Wait, what is it? It can get confusing. And when you're trying to increase your viewership and audience, they like things simple. If it's not simple, if it's too confusing, if the names keep changing, eventually they'll be like, "You know what? I'm kind of cool on all of this. I'm going just take a step back." So >> 2017, damn, that's a brutal spot. Not a great year for the company, formerly known as TNA. 2018 was much more stable by comparison. Former [music] TNA backstage personnel Scott Deore would become the executive vice president and begin taking over the day-to-day operations of the company. Around the same time, Impact Wrestling would revert to the foresight ring. Although there was far less controversy this time, the company also began adding promising [music] talent to its roster, such as Pentagon Jr., Ray Phoenix, and Brian Cage. 2018 was much less eventful for TNA, and the company got some muchneeded stability. However, [music] 2019 once again brought with it more bad news. Impact's three-year deal with Pop TV ended and a new [music] agreement was not reached. Impact Wrestling ultimately found a new home on the Pursuit channel simply because their parent company, [music] Anthem, owned a significant stake in the network. However, Pursuit's reach was less than half of Pop TVs. Additionally, their programming was mainly hunting, fishing, and outdoors content, which made Impact Wrestling not [music] a great fit. Thankfully, things would change relatively soon. In late 2019, Anthem gave majority control of another network, Access [music] TV. Access not only had a larger audience, but also had programming much more aligned with Impact Wrestling. But since Anthem owned the network, Impact still wasn't being paid for their content, [music] and their weekly episodes averaged only 95,000 to 150,000 viewers. Impact was clearly in a worse place than it had been just [music] 5 years ago, and the company was losing money year after year. However, the company deserves credit for managing to survive. And while the 2010s were definitely a tough decade for Impact Wrestling, 2020 was right around the corner, [music] and this would hopefully be a much better decade for the company. Impact Wrestling began the new year by making history when Tessa Blanchard won the Impact World Championship, becoming the first and [music] only woman to hold the title. While this got them some attention, Tessa's championship reign would become a nightmare for Impact. One day before winning the [music] title, Tessa made a tweet saying, "Hey women, try supporting one another. cool things happen. This led to multiple female wrestlers accusing Tessa of bullying and belittling other female wrestlers and even spitting in a black woman's face and calling her the n-word. Tessa denied the allegations, but fans and wrestlers alike didn't [music] buy it. Shortly after Tessa's historic win, the CO 19 pandemic began, leading to a flurry [music] of new problems. Tessa lived in Mexico at the time, so traveling was difficult. To keep her involved in storylines, Impact had asked her to film [music] some interview/promo clips from her home. However, Tessa refused to send them, forcing Impact to reshoot several segments for at least one episode. Tessa's contract with Impact Wrestling [music] was set to expire, and on top of the bad public reputation she had, the company simply decided to vacate the World Championship without Tessa ever losing it. [music] 2020 was off to a rocky start, but around the middle of the year, things started to turn around. TNA's [music] 18th anniversary event saw the return of several former Impact stars and the debuts of a few established [music] names. Additionally, in December, AEW, which had emerged as the new second largest wrestling company, began a partnership with Impact Wrestling. [music] This saw wrestlers from Impact appearing in AW and vice versa. On top of that, AEW's [music] Kenny Omega and Christian Cage would win the Impact World Championship and the title would appear on AEW programming. The partnership gave TNA some buzz and legitimacy, which it desperately needed. However, this didn't translate into [music] meaningful boosts in TV viewership or any long-term momentum, and the partnership ended in October [music] 2021. For the next roughly 2 years, Impact Wrestling would do more of the same. Anthem's ownership provided Impact with a permanent TV deal and a steady stream of funding, but the company was losing money and was fading into obscurity. By the early 2020s, there were more wrestling [music] companies and shows out there and Impact seemed to be getting lost in the shuffle. The company realized they had to do something and they came to the conclusion that they needed to take a step backwards [music] to move forward. In October 2023, Scott Deore, who had been promoted to president of the company, announced [music] that Impact Wrestling was reverting back to TNA. This was met with a lot of enthusiasm from fans [music] and the rebranding officially took effect in January 2024. However, just weeks after the name [music] change, TNA would make a controversial decision. In February, the company announced that they had fired Scott Deore. De Moore was seen as the driving force behind TNA, and the decision left fans and [music] TNA wrestlers unhappy. In his place, an Anthem executive named Anthony Sichone became the new president of TNA. To Sichon's credit, TNA had [music] a big win just a few months after he was brought on. In May 2024, TNA [music] and WB's NXT brand started exchanging talent. This morphed into a full-on partnership when in January 2025, both WWE and TNA announced [music] a multi-year agreement. Like with AEW, this would see TNA wrestlers appearing in NXT and NXT wrestlers appearing in TNA. This partnership did benefit TNA in some meaningful ways. TNA saw a significant rise in live attendance with the 2025 Slamversary event setting TNA's highest attendance record in North America. Additionally, this gave TNA some much needed legitimacy and buzz. I do remember this partnership. I do remember this. They were getting a lot more love and obviously Vince is out the door at this point. So if Vince was there still, this would have never happened. They've done some stuff, little cross promotion, certain wrestlers being in the Royal Rumble that still worked with TNA, but nothing to this extent where they're actually having a TNA versus NXT type brawl. I thought that was actually pretty cool. and it was bringing more eyes to the company. So, it was it was somewhat you could say effective, but just like WWE, they they were scouting and they were taking talents that were, you know, kind of at the top of the card that they wanted like a Joe Hendry. And look at Joe Hendry now. They're not really doing too much with him to be honest with you. Unfortunately though, this wouldn't translate [music] into TV viewership, and the partnership ultimately led to some of TNA's biggest stars, such as Joe Henry and Jordan Grace, leaving TNA to join WWE. However, the partnership with WWE did help TNA secure its biggest deal [music] since signing Hulk Hogan. In late 2025, it was announced that Impact would air on [music] the AMC network. While AMC wasn't as large as Spike was, this was still a big step forward for TNA. For the first time since 2014, [music] the company was now airing on a major network. It was a long journey, but it felt like TNA was finally making a serious comeback. However, as often goes in TNA, when something good happens, something bad is bound to follow shortly [music] after. TNA's first episode on AMC was received poorly, both in terms of the show's quality and viewership. [music] debut episode for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it seemed like [music] TNA had a chance to usher in a new era, but instead gave more of the same. In terms of viewership, TNA's first episode on AMC drew 173,000 viewers. That was an improvement over what the company had been doing on Access TV, but it was still [music] well below TNA's debut on Destination America in 2015, which drew [music] more than twice as many viewers. Now, TNA did actually improve its AMC viewership, and later episodes were better received. However, TNA would then make a decision that cost them goodwill with fans. Because TNA wrestlers often have lower salaries, they usually take bookings with smaller independent wrestling [music] companies. This had never been an issue until suddenly in April 2026, TNA started pulling their wrestlers from certain independent events. The specific events that TNA wrestlers got pulled from were ones where a TNA wrestler was scheduled to have a match against an AEW wrestler. This wouldn't have been so bad, but TNA had previously approved these matches and only pulled their wrestlers a few weeks before the [music] events. TNA said the reason as partner conflicts, which many fans took to mean TNA was simply doing it to appease WWE. >> This led to TNA getting a lot of bad press. And [music] unfortunately for them, it didn't stop there. >> Like that's literally what it is. Like you can tell the reason why they're doing that is because of their partnership with WWE. WWE TKO. clear about. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I know y'all work with them in the past, but nah, don't do that [ __ ] If you want to work with us ever in the future, don't do that [ __ ] That's literally what it is. In June 2026, TNA released several wrestlers and backstage personnel, saying the cuts were part of an effort to streamline operations and improve [music] profitability. For many fans, the timing was hard to ignore. The move to AMC was supposed to make TNA feel bigger, [music] a chance for better production, stronger stories, and fresh talent. Instead, it felt like the company was in the same place it had been in for years. And that gets to TNA's biggest [music] problem, identity. For years and years and years, the company has struggled to define what it wants to be, and more [music] importantly, what makes it mustwatch. This is what makes TNA's story so frustrating. The company once had real promise. It created stars, gave fans an alternative, and even had profitable years. But over the last decade and a half, TNA [music] has spent more time surviving than growing. Its finances are private, but based on its history of ownership changes, cost cutting, debt issues, and repeated [music] resets, it's probably fair to say that TNA has lost more money overall than it has [music] made. And with the cuts, backstage rumors, and constant questions about Anthem's long-term plans, it's easy to understand why some fans believe TNA could eventually be sold. Whether that happens or not, the bigger issue is that TNA feels like a shell of what it once was. Some people would say the same thing about the Undertaker [music] to see why fans have lost. >> Hey man, this is u one of those things where it's really unfortunate. Obviously, this company has been a staple in professional wrestling in the United States. And they've always tried to fight an uphill battle. You can tell just over the years. And certain decisions, you know, ultimately hurt them in the long run. Um but the problem I guess you can say is just been the management and how money has been used and and deals not being you know properly you know executed in a sense and like they said they've ultimately they would get so far and then it would be financial issues. Then they get so far again then there more financial issues and then they're changing their name to this to that to this. Then there's, you know, people getting fired. There's a lot of things going on and always trying to find their identity within the wrestling space. It's been tough for them for a very long time. And then once AW came into the mix, yeah, they had a slight partnership, but ultimately AEW was still benefiting from that. And then they partnered up with WWE for a little bit. And yeah, it was cool, but guess who still benefited from that? WWE. So all these other companies, bigger companies, take it away from what TNA, the little that they had only for it for it to benefit the other companies. And it's it's really unfortunate, but there are still people that enjoy the product, still people that, you know, want to, you know, tune in and check out the show. So I want to ask you guys a question. Are you guys still actively watching TNA? And what's your favorite era of TNA? Have you been watching from the very beginning and you've never stopped despite the name changes and the different apps and and networks is on? Have you always been watching TNA as well? I want to ask you guys that question to all the TNA fans out there. But I appreciate all the love support you guys show on channel road two 200k. Appreciate y'all kicking me. See you on the next one. Peace.