16-06-2016, 22:05
Quote:TNA, in its struggle to stay alive, had quite the past week.
With four days of television scheduled in Orlando and the company owing money in different places, Dean Broadhead, the Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer at TNA spent all day on 6/9 and 6/10 essentially saving the company.
Exactly what happened isn’t clear, but they needed money and to close deals immediately or the tapings wouldn’t have happened. Aroluxe, which controlled the equipment being used, demanded at least some of the money owed or they wouldn’t do the production and there would be no time to get new equipment and a new company.
Billy Corgan, who was starting his role as a heel authority figure on television, put money into the promotion. While we can’t outright say Corgan’s money saved the promotion, these things seem to have happened at the same time. Corgan is apparently a legitimate minority owner of the company, to somewhat mirror a television role. Whether he is putting enough in that it’s smooth sailing is unclear, or whether this was simply a stopgap infusion of cash needed to get past this taping.
Corgan is apparently turning into a heel authority figure, William Corgan, and it appears Dixie Carter will feud with both he and Maria Kanellis as a major program going forward.
With the shows this week, which ended on 6/15, TNA will have television taped through 6/29, meaning they will have to start taping again on 7/5. As has been the case in the past, talent has been told of a July taping, but no dates are on the schedule.
On Facebook, Broadhead wrote: “On Thursday and Friday, I logged over 80 business calls on my cell. Attorneys, accountants, vendors, bankers and employees. Maybe time to retire. But maybe not until everything is in its right place. To answer your why question, I had (a) 12 hour time frame to secure interim financing so that production trucks could roll. Lawyers, bankers, accounts and owners. Some of them were out of the country, some of the West and East coast, so that is the reason for all the calls.”
It was strange that he would put that up on his social media account, essentially making it public how close TNA came to having to cancel its PPV and television tapings. If talent and employees weren’t concerned before, this was the confirmation of just how close the company was to being done.
There is also the thought that TNA wanted out that Corgan had invested as a way to attract other money. However, that doesn’t look to be the case since Broadhead a few days later deleted his post. But that was after his comments led to stories everywhere of how close TNA came to not being able to tape.
At the same time, Rick Schoenen of the Alliance Media Group, which promoted TNA’s January television tapings, noted that he has yet to be paid by TNA and that local media and vendors were after him for money.
“I don’t know who else to contact or reach out to. Dean (Broadhead) will not communicate with me and I am being held responsible for this mess.”
After he went public, TNA did contact him.
TNA has had a history of paying some people and not others, often months late and in time people felt they were having their intelligence insulted by the obviously faulty excuses being used for checks not arriving.
At the same time, TNA is in negotiations for big money deals. One wrestler whose contract is coming due was offered a six-figure deal by TNA to come in and be a top star. The person is expected to take a lower WWE offer. New TNA champion Bobby Lashley was signed to a new deal this week, and it was expected that the other key deals, Drew Galloway, Matt & Jeff Hardy, were going to be negotiated at TV this week. The deals TNA is looking for would be where TNA would have exclusivity and book the talent to independent promoters. Galloway works a heavy independent schedule, while the Hardys make huge money on independent shows not just for wrestling but for merchandise, autographs and photos, so giving up those rights would be very significant money. Lashley is still under contract to Bellator so his deal couldn’t be exclusive, and he’s been working on a regular basis with Elite Lucha Libre in Mexico.
Another thing to look out for is the India tour, which is now scheduled for late this year. While Sony Six does pay some of the costs, the tour will also cost TNA a significant amount of money. But if they don’t do the tour, they breach their contract with Sony Six, and that contract is one of the few sources of significant income they still have left.
While all this was going on, another minor disaster struck on 6/14. TNA was scheduled for what was billed as a live Impact show, called “Gold Rush,” coming off the Slammiversary PPV. They show was actually taped, but it was sent as is with very little time for editing, to Pop TV. Because of a thunderstorm in Atlanta, where the Pop transmitters are, there was an issue that didn’t allow the show to air. The show did air in its normal time slot in Canada. The issues in the U.S. weren’t fixed until about 10:50 p.m., or nearly two hours after the show was to start. Pop kept showing an endless loop of commercials and some brief wrestling clips over-and-over. When the show finally aired, it aired almost commercial free. Pop did a make good and gave TNA a second airing on 6/15 at 9 p.m.
Taken from the observer. I often wonder just how this company is still around given how its run reading this report.
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