Evidently, even in the wrestling business, timing is everything.
According to several sources, it appears WWE is closing in on purchasing TNA Impact Wrestling. While Billy Corgan has been working to make the purchase of the struggling outfit, the three week time table he told ESPN in an interview that he may need to make this happen may not be quick enough with other vultures closing in.
A story on Camel Clutch Blog states, “Dave Meltzer speculated on the situation on a recent Wrestling Observer Radio podcast and believes that Vince and company will close the deal much faster than the three weeks needed by Corgan.
“Meltzer also reported that the company is carrying a lot of debt. This makes the purchase much more complex than WWE’s acquisitions of ECW and WCW. ECW was bankrupt and McMahon was already a creditor. WCW was shelved with no television deal and an afterthought of a large corporation. Vince won’t likely get the same pennies on the dollar deals he got in those aforementioned takeovers.”
For those who remember, this isn’t the same situation WCW was in when McMahon made the purchase on May 23, 2001, but it could be seen as something similar in that the owner of WWE is buying a product on life support and in need of a new look and cash. It is also similar in the way McMahon may scoop in and take the company from Corgan, who is the president of the company in August.
In January 2001, Fusient Media Ventures inked a deal to buy World Championship Wrestling. However, the deal fell apart when AOL's Turner Broadcasting decided to drop WCW from its TBS and TNT channels.
With all the news swirling over what will happen in the near future, one can only speculate what happens next. I have been a big proponent of a deal like this not working for WWE. The brand split followed by low ratings hasn’t been the boost the McMahons had hoped for since the “new era” of the company began two months ago. In the interest of playing devil’s advocate for a few minutes, there could be some real advantages to making this kind of purchase. Here are five reasons WWE buying TNA could pay off in the long run.
5: Another ‘ Invasion’ angle
Vince McMahon proved to be an evil genius not only purchasing WCW but also acquiring ECW as well. The thought of a mega wrestling promotion with such stars as Booker T, Chris Jericho, and Ric Flair was enticing, to say the least. Add Raven, The Dudley’s and other hardcore legends and you had a wrestling menagerie of sorts.
After the dust settled, there was more volume to WWE’s roster, which also created new feuds and more fan excitement. Could the same thing happen here with wrestlers from TNA who were once part of the McMahon flying circus? Could you imagine Aron Rex, Cody Rhodes, Drew Galloway and Bobby Lashley all returning to the scene of the crime, wanting their “revenge” for being booking poorly? If you like the sound of that, give me a “Hell Yeah!”
4: The Hardy’s
The Hardy Brothers made their name in WWE and could back to an inflated tag team situation or could become singles stars again. There has been plenty of rumors that WWE is interesting in Jeff Hardy’s contract and maybe bringing Matt Hardy’s “broken” gimmick to Stamford. Both brothers were immensely popular during the Attitude Era and could help continue to strengthen a tag team division that is growing stronger by the minute.
It is also not out of the realm of possibility Jeff hardy may get his wish of headlining WrestleMania. He has said in the past he would also like to work with The Undertaker. With there being talk of Bubba Ray Dudley wanting to come back to TNA, could this also mean the Dudley Boyz become a player in the tag team scene again? Can someone say TLC?
3: Strength in numbers?
The one thing the WCW buyout did not do is help the women of WWE. In this case, the opposite might happen. The women of WWE who are on the current roster are good and could be better. Gail Kim wrestling Sasha Banks is a main-event match waiting to happen. Add others to the mix and there is a chance WWE can use this to springboard a pay-per-view event of women’s matches.
The numbers of both men and women help with programming that could be added to the WWE network. Also, WWE would be entitled to the company’s catalogue, which means more shows and programming added for the low cost of $9.99. Hulk Hogan once said he was asked if he wanted to buy WCW, but balked at it. He also said he regretted it because of the catalogue that was part of the transaction.
2: Ethan Carter III
I have talked before about the ones that got away. Ethan Carter III is as close to a homegrown star in TNA as there has been since Bobby Roode and Eric Young were part of TNA’s originals. Michael Hutter actually got his start in WWE before moving on to TNA. In 2006, Hutter signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he wrestled as Derrick Bateman.
He was worked in the WWE developmental territories Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) and he became the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship with Johnny Curtis. Curtis went on to become Fandango. During his time with WWE, he competed in the fourth and fifth seasons of NXT. It would be the one that got away came back to where it all started.
1: More programming on basic cable
While I am not for the continual saturation of wrestling programming on television now, and hope at some point WWE moves to all content shown on WWE Network (it can happen) I suspect the McMahons could use the purchase of TNA to creatively come up with another weekly program for basic cable viewers.
While WWE is on Monday and Tuesday nights on USA Network, could this make it possible to bring back such hits as Saturday Night’s Main Event? McMahon is always thinking bigger is better in every aspect of his creation of this business. Marketing and television revenue are no different. Does this also help with his piece of the network pie?
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