Professional wrestling's slow and agonizing death

Will WWE ever go back to its ‘glory days’ of the Attitude Era?

Thirty years ago, professional wrestling was thriving. Vince McMahon was basking in the glory of “Hulkamania” and the ascension of the WWF was on its way. Ric Flair was considered the top heel in the business, as he held the “Ten pounds of gold”, wrestlers in the NWA dreamed of wearing. In the AWA, Rick Martel was enjoying a lengthy run as the world champion. Martel was an underrated mat technician and Verne Gagne’s outfit was still a fixture in Minnesota and the Midwestern part of the country.

Today, wrestling is dying a slow and agonizing death. A once proud fixture in the borderline lexicon of mainstream entertainment, too much of a bad thing continues to erode the history of how I remembered it as a child. As a fan of almost 40 years, what is now on television and the Internet makes my stomach turn a bit and wonders out loud what the likes of Gagne, Eddie Graham and the Vince McMahon, Sr. are thinking right about now.

Wrestling took yet another hit on Friday when it was announced that TNA Impact Wrestling will not be renewed in January, 2016.

Joe Burgett of Inquisitr.com broke the news that Destination America will not renew the current contract of the struggling promotion, which much like WWE, has had to deal with low ratings, and financial issues this year. Given that the smaller, niche company is not the media and money-making juggernaut of WWE, the impact (no pun intended) is greater, which could lead to many solid performers looking for work to begin the new year.

As taken from the article by Burgett…

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that Destination America very well could opt-out of their deal with TNA at some point this month. It does seem that they did just that but decided to give them to the end of the year.

The Wrestling Observer, as well as other outlets, were able to get the Destination America memo that they sent out to advertisers some months ago.

“Destination America is not renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015. When the up-front rate card is released, the Friday night anthology title will now be called ‘American Tales,’ which will be a combination of Paranormal and Americana programming. I hope this is good news given all of the advertisers that included TNA on their DNA list.”

The DNA list is a list meaning “do not advertise,” which is never a good thing to be on as a program on any network. It is when a sponsor decides to not buy time during a particular program, even if they buy time across the entire network. Many of the advertisers saw the viewers of pro-wrestling as low income, despite Destination America being a channel that is high on all cable packages at the moment. They saw a down market there, which meant that they didn’t want to be seen advertising there. This despite TNA bringing in the highest ratings over any program on the network.

TNA has always played second fiddle to the big brother WWE. Stars like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, James Storm and Austin Aries have all thrived in the promotion, and veterans like Sting, Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash have added credibility to something started by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett 13 years ago.

Panda Energy International (a.k.a. Panda Energy) purchased a controlling interest (71%) in the company in 2002 from Jerry, re-incorporating it to TNA Entertainment, LLC in the process. Jeff, the company's former Vice President, departed the company as Executive Vice President of Development/Original Programming on December 22, 2013, but remained as minority shareholder until his return on June 24, 2015. Jarrett's departure as minority shareholder, & therefore his complete departure from the company, came as a result of his return to the promotion, with the deal for his return including the sale of his minority stake to Panda Energy.

Panda Energy founder Robert Carter and President and Chief Executive Officer Janice Carter's daughter, Dixie, is President of TNA.

The company previously bore the branding "NWA: Total Nonstop Action" (a.k.a. NWA: TNA) — at the time of its formation, it belonged to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). TNA was granted exclusive rights to both the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Tag Team Championship. TNA withdrew from the NWA in 2004, but was permitted to continue to use the championships until the NWA abrogated the agreement in May 2007. TNA became the first American promotion to make exclusive use of a six-sided wrestling ring as opposed to the more conventional four-sided ring.

By the same token, WWE has been hit with several social media barbs recently with current and veterans. The deaths of Dusty Rhodes and Roddy Piper have impacted the business. Vince McMahon has not been as financially fluid as he has been in the past and the ratings for Raw have been the lowest in anyone’s memory. Changes are needed, but they do not appear to be happening quickly enough.

If professional wrestling took a hiatus altogether, it might not be a bad thing for everyone concerned. But like a train wreck you have to continually watch, there is a belief “soap opera” will carry on.

For TNA, that might not be the case.

Burgett said while TNA Wrestling very well could be picked up by another American television network, it is unlikely they will as of now. They have lost two television deals in consecutive years. This does not look good in the eyes of other networks who would even consider TNA. While WWE has a proven track record that they could take with them to any network, TNA does not.

There will be plenty of speculation in the coming months as wrestling contracts expire and performers decide on their future. This could lead to an even greater train wreck fans will have to sit back and watch unfold.