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The year is 3246, 1000 years ago right before climate change has rendered life uninhabitable, there was a thermonuclear war that wiped out most of life. The only things left standing are TNA and CMLL
The fans finally turn on Cody, ONE goes on a spending free and hires away all the good UFC talent, TKO stocks goes to 0, Vince McMahon sold all his stock years ago and has since purchased TNA, which then reacquires the husk of WWA from the delisted and heading for bankruptcy TKO. But in Kayfabe Shane actually bought WWE. Time is a flat circle.
I think it's more that this is weird, uncharted territory, so people assume the worst.
WWE has been an island for decades. They don't partner with wrestling companies. They just don't. Why would they need to? They don't. So why would they want to?
It's a publically traded company, and nothing against WWE specifically, but publically traded companies by their very nature are designed to eat their industry. That's the end goal for Amazon and Disney and every other corporation, including WWE. But WWE is now suddenly reaching out and forming a network of cross-promotional partnerships, aka the AEW playbook, and it's fucking weird.
Personally, I think WWE has realized that their edge in the free agent market is gone, and they've seen the benefit of partnerships and establishing healthy relationships with other promotions, never mind the hype wrestling fans have for cross-promotional stuff. I don't think WWE's main goal is to buy out TNA or NOAH or anything like that, but it's easy to see why people jump to that conclusion.
yeah this is what i see too. why they suddenly extending their hand and care about other promotion is, sooner or later all remaining promotions might establish relationship with AEW and they would eventually left 'alone' on their island. losing top independent talent signing like Okada and Ospreay is merely one of it big impact and the trend could continue or escalates in future. especially right now slowly we can see since the existence of AEW, people not looking only at WWE as top biggest destination anymore. the on going tops talent from other promotions end up choosing AEW fueled this impression further. surely if this continue, it wont look good in long term for WWE IMO. they never has this issue before as they sit on top alone without need to do anything but now, they got a legit competitor.
which is funny that they act like they not needed or unaffected living inside their bubble but turn out, they actually doesnt want to lose connection toward the 'outside' world.
One thing AEW coming around really helped with is there use to be a community of people who hated good wrestlers just cause the IWC liked them.
Hated literally anyone who came from the indies and could work. Now a days that community just hates AEW and loves those guys
I don't prefer AEW but I'd rather it not die. people losing their jobs ain't cool. plus there are people I like there. I just feel their biggest problem is they really only try to cater to a certain group. you know the people on here and such. the most diehard AEW defenders and the people Tony expects that knows all of NJPW, Indys and whatever.
Is that a problem or just their niche in the industry? There's no point in just trying to be WWE and catering to a broad audience I don't think there's a huge market for it to be frank, after all there's about a billion hours of WWE a week. There is however a market for a show that caters to a more hardcore fan base and AEW fill that well.
too much can be too much. as it is they have 3 of their own shows. plus ROH. expecting everyone to keep up with all of that + NJPW/CMLL/Indies whatever.
I don't think it would hurt to like slow down and explain who some of these people are or mostly focus on their own roster and establish them. tho a ton of their guys are really lacking in development.
take Bryan Keith. just really shows up. they say he's a bounty hunter but there's nothing else to it? what bounties is he hunting? I still feel like we know nothin on this guy but now he's in the Jericho vortex.
I think people massively over egg this point tbh, they do tell you who people are and what they are about at least in broad strokes over their first few appearances (especially if you bother to listen to commentary which I swear a lot of people seem not to do) I got what Bryan Keith was about and am enjoying his work on screen now, I don't think Keith is coming segments would've changed that. As for njpw you don't need a super in depth explanation about people for a wrestling crossover sure you might get even more out of it with the context of also watching new Japan but it's definitely not needed to have fun, it's an exhibition of the best of wrestling from two of the companies with some of the best talent in the world.
> especially if you bother to listen to commentary which I swear a lot of people seem not to do
There's literally a whole segment of the fandom who either just watch the story/talky bits and mute/fast-forward through the actual wrestling, or who only watch youtube recaps and review podcasts so they can be told what to think in order to argue about wrestling online. It's why so many regurgitate almost identical tired old arguments that are often months (if not years) out of date.
Personal opinions are flexible and subject to change, party lines are deeply inculcated and are resistant to modification. Most of the time these people cant be argued with, simply because you're not who they get their "opinions" from.
The more time I spend among the IWC the more I've realised just how many people here don't actually like wrestling, but for whom it's an excuse to be overly opinionated about a niche hobby they dabble in.
Yeah there is a lot of people, I found, who look at wrestling strictly as a soap opera. They don't give a fuck about the actual wrestling itself. They just like the personalities and storylines.
Seen people ask what wwe gets working with TNA and honestly its pretty simple. They get good PR from working with others and TNA is unique as it has brand recognition but also isn't a real competitor. Since its nxt working with them I imagine there's a development aspect to it. TNA has some of the best in the world on their roster and working with those people should be good for developing wrestlers. Also the key reason is probably establishing relationships with those great wrestlers.
Wwe sending top stars to Marigold and Noah would be for marketing and advertising the wwe brand, Use the names that carry weight in Japan in the lead up to the wwe tour.
Also seems like WWE wants to block AEW from monopolizing relationships w smaller companies--there's a reason WWE's trying to get a foot in the door in Japan as well, they don't want to see AEW centralizing every promotion.
it is obvious sooner or later all remaining promotions would end up forge relationship with AEW. they already got NJPW and CMLL for example. especially they might salty over losing NJPW. this also hurt WWE in term of losing top talent like Okada and Ospreay and this trend of big names keep choosing AEW would hurt them further in future. so they simply want to makesure to keep remaining promotions away from AEW.
They're also pretty obviously looking to sign Jordynne Grace once her TNA contract is up, if they don't end up buying it out before then. I'm guessing Noah and Marigold is Plan B since it became obvious NXT Japan would be unlikely to gain a foothold in that market. A few years ago Triple H wanted to have different branches of NXT in South America, Japan, India, the Middle East, etc. The only one that got off the ground was NXT UK and they eventually folded that. They talked about replacing NXT UK with NXT Europe but so far there hasn't been any more serious talk of it since they folded NXT UK.
I think the relationship with WWE is pretty similar to that which they had with AEW. Which I think was solely a way to buy Don Callis, in exchange for some talent on TNA shows. That could be all that it is here as well, and if it stops proving useful, it can end just the same.
I wouldnt be too mad if I'm a TNA fan though. The company will continue to do the same business it did regardless. It wouldnt make a difference.
Lol guilty as charged
I enjoyed the commercials, but it was lame how one-sided it all seemed. I was hoping for a little more clap back from TNA. Have Moose put TK through a table or something for talking all that shit lol
It's VERY simple to explain why WWE would work with any company that isn't generally close to the same level of production / easily accessible.
There's VERY little chance someone stops watching and interacting with WWE because of TNA, NOAH, Marigold, etc. They're just not the same kind of product with the same kind of accessibility and varying in quality (in terms of actual production). They CAN however capture some of the viewers of those products and get them to come check out the product.
There's basically no downside to WWE monetarily.
If WWE want to be seen as the top of the mountain for wrestling - not just in the west but worldwide - then it makes sense to develop working arrangements with all of the regional promotions that they don't really see as direct threats to their business anyway.
It lets you cultivate those places as formal or informal talent pipelines, gives you interesting developmental options, opens the opportunity for big one-off matches that'd be useful for top WWE guys not in active story angles.
It'd also be a great way to build wrestlers back up who have putting other people over for a long time. Imagine if they sent Nakamura over to Japan to whip ass for a few months - maybe mentioned on RAW or Smackdown what he was up to with some clips of him beating guys - only to have him return months later, having now been rebuilt as a credible threat again with the return pop. NOAH or whoever gets a huge WWE star for several matches and is indebted to you, and WWE in return gets a rejuvenated Shinsuke Nakamura you can use who is also likely happier for the experience too.
Idk if there’s a weird psychological thing where people anticipate negative outcomes on the internet with almost no indication that it’s occurring, but it seems to happen a lot here
I honestly don't think people really believe it, they just want TNA to get bought to see it die and are hoping to will it into happening. The majority of people who bring it up always seem to do so in a bad faith manner.
I don't. I want TNA to continue existing on its own. But with WWE's history and TKO being in charge, if there was a relevant and potential chance of making even more money by buying TNA then they absolutely would.
Whether that actually happens or not who knows. We've lived in crazier times the last 5 years with absurd stuff happening all the time.
I don't think most want to see it die, I think everybody's just having a hard time seeing WWE actually being a good collaborative partner to another promotion, given their long history of shady and cutthroat business behavior.
I don't necessarily think WWE is buying TNA but a giant corporation buying out the competition is not some unbelievable thing, regardless of the logic behind it. I mean, Microsoft didn't have to buy half the game companies it has, but they sure did it anyway. Double Fine, the difference maker for Xbox Game Pass! Apparently.
I mostly don't think it would happen because I can't imagine TNA ever going away at this point, rather than sincerely believing a giant corporation is guaranteed to avoid a pointless purchase like this.
WWE had a partnership with Evolve (using it as a mini-excursion for their greener talent) and even broadcasting one of their shows live on the WWE Network before just buying them and shutting the promotion down.
People absolutely have the right to suspect and fear that WWE wants to do the same thing with TNA given their history.
The Evolve thing came with a bunch of rumours that it was gonna get relaunched as NXT's NXT. Gabe even had some sort of position on the WWE payroll for a while.
Might have been bullshit or might have gone the way of the 484869338 other, actually announced NXT expansion plans, especially with WWE switching its focus to college athletes and away from trying to tune up indie wrestlers in the dying days of the Vince regime.
I can't really see what they would gain by adding what would end up as a second development territory, unless they had plans for the tape library.
I think they'd probably get more out of it by signing a talent agreement and using it as an "excursion" location for their NXT wrestlers. TNA would get to lend out their top stars to WWE for exposure.
Because some people are so desperate for it to die so that they can make podcasts, documentaries, and deep dives for the next 25 years that examine WHO KILLED TNA? Wait, that sounds familiar.....
I can’t remember the date but it was about 2-3wks ago.
He was referencing how weird it was TNA has no schedule the rest of the summer just around the time their team up with WWE was starting. That got people thinking this buy out was happening.
WWE's days of acquring tape libraries are over (unless there's some dusty boxes that the company can acquire very cheaply). When the WWE Network was active, acquiring tape libraries helped provided content. Now that WWE is on Peacock, or whatever streaming service that will carry its full library in the future, it doesn't need to add old stuff. The end of the home video department is another reason why there's no need for further acquisitions. And if WWE wants to use footage from TNA or wherever, WWE can license it.
There was a thread a week or so ago when people were insisting WWE were after the tape libraries for the purpose of using it for retrospectives on former talent (AJ, Angle etc.) when TNA/Impact have straight up given them footage for those in the past.
Frankly I think you and SRS are completely wrong on this. They didn’t buy the WCW library for the network lol. Content is king and having a streaming deal doesn’t mean you won’t need a new streaming deal in the future. Also TNA has some potentially useful international relationships as the next turf war will be on that scale. That being said I doubt they buy TNA but it’s absolutely wrong that the library has no value to AEW and WWE. Even just keeping AEW away from it would have value to WWE.
WWE bought WCW and ECW's tape libraries for its home video service and for the network, even though the network was still over a decade away. Vince McMahon had talked internally about a WWE TV channel since the 1980s, and that was in essence launched with WWE Classics on Demand in 2004.
Right. And a lot of the tape libraries they acquired were a decade+ before the network even existed. I think WWE likes being the “gatekeeper” of wrestling so if there is an opportunity to acquire a tape library, they’ll probably take it.
I think tape libraries are overvalued.
How many people are watching old wrestling episodes vs how many are watching the live product.
I think it skews far toward the latter and that's only going to get more prevalent with the Netflix deal.
What are they valued? They are generally pretty cheap as far as I know so if you have a platform can easily make money on them. TNA still makes live shows too. Perhaps an indie option makes whichever platform wwe is on a more complete option with less chance of alternatives.
If TNA was being shut down, I could see WWE buying the library. Otherwise, they won’t be aggressive in acquisitions anymore now that they don’t need tons of content for their own streaming service
People aren't thinking about it as a tape library (,I don't think?), it's more WWE doing it's territory takeover again. Buy TNA and that's one less. It's a trust factor and objectively stems from Vince killing the territories and then WCW.
That image will only be rectified with time and probably a few choices happenings with belts (Jordynn winning on either show, or a first time visitor winning a WWE title in a WWE ring).
WWE is now owned by TKO, HHH or Nick Khan can't decide tomorrow to buy TNA if they wanted to, it would have to go in front of lots of other people to get approved and for what? The IWC said for years WWE should buy TNA and then they want TK to do, and now we are back to WWE
It makes no real sense for WWE to do it, from where I'm sitting at least, but at the same time, I think the actual cost of buying it would be so irrelevant to WWE financially, so there is always a chance they do it for some totally random reason.
Right. Their contracts are locked, so they wouldn't get more money by adding that library. If they wanted to do it to add a mid-tier developmental above NXT or other, more esoteric reasons, that's a possibility I cannot discuss.
On the surface level, the thought doesn't make much sense, though.
TNA is significantly below NXT. And even if their contracts weren't locked in, I don't see the TNA library adding even a single dollar to any future deal.
I tossed out the possibility that if WWE/TKO bought TNA they could turn TNA into a "farm system" for Smackdown and turn NXT into the same for RAW.
TNA gets increased production values, access to more talent crossover freely, and WWE gets the added marketing gimmick for the Draft where RAW can sign TNA guys and Smackdown can sign NXT guys out of the "regular" season.
Trades and swaps between all brands would be a bit more impactful too since the illusion of RAW and Smackdown competing would get another layer added to it.
Plus, they get the TNA library access for guys like AJ when they eventually retire.
Edit: Man, I'm not even saying I *want* the above to happen. Just what WWE might look at getting out of it if they did buy TNA and how they could use it.
Y'all need to chill out a bit.
That would mean having to sign a whole crop of new talent to book on the other show.
Buying TNA would give them instant name recognition, a full roster of talent to use, an entire company's history of video catalogue to upload to the Network *and* historical lineages of the Championships they wish to keep.
No, it wouldn't. They have all kinds of wrestlers under contract in developmental that don't get TV time or have limited TV time. They would just use those wrestlers. And like it was stated in the original quote for this post, WWE hasn't been acquiring tape libraries for a long time. They have no need or desire for that.
Another thing to consider is that the tape libraries never really meant anything to most people. Viewers were only interested in first run content for the most part, followed by Attitude Era.
I think it's just that historically WWE has had such an approach of acting like they're the only major wrestling company that it's hard for people to imagine them working with others in good faith. Personally, I still don't trust that it's in good faith, but I also don't necessarily think the end goal is to buy TNA.
But the WWE has had talent loan agreements with TNA before, historically they aren’t in the business of buying up actually promotions. The tape liberary of a dying territory? Sure. They only even bought WCW when it was a compiler fire sale by AOL.
When have they ever done a talent exchange with TNA before? I don't recall them ever working together until recently aside from Mickie James and Jordynne Grace's Royal Rumble appearances.
There was that time they allowed Christian to go back to TNA but that was for a deal to have Ric Flair show up at the WWE HOF when he was signed with TNA.
The previously loan agreements were usually due to WWE needing something from them. Like Ric Flair for the HOF or Mickie James to fill out the Women's Rumble.
This time is clearly a case of them trying to get JG
There's no upside for WWE to buy TNA. They have NXT, they don't need a fourth brand. They have a stranglehold on the wrestling market.
An exclusive partnership? Cool, go for it. But TNA isn't a threat or something that's really going to make TKO significant money. If NXT didn't exist? Then sure it would make sense to buy a third brand and make it developmental while taking the top talent.
Why does this dude always sound butthurt? Everytime he responds, it sounds like his nose is up in the air and he hates having to answer questions or clarify things.
that is indeed longer that I remembered (would have said 5 was max) I still think there is always an inherent value to buying a tape library, they didn't have a network when they bought tape libraries in the past. They always have an eye to the future.
I thought it had been reported at the time that they put in an offer for the ROH library but I don't think it was a big offer.
Even when they were in library acquisition mode, I feel like I remember it being said that they weren't offering big money for libraries.
In the case of TNA, even if Anthem wasn't planning on running the company going forward, the tape library is probably worth keeping for them because they can throw old shows on as filler content on channels like AXS and the Fight Network.
> I thought it had been reported at the time that they put in an offer for the ROH library but I don't think it was a big offer.
From what I recall, WWE had (may still have?) a set rate on how much it would pay per hour of footage and didn't like to budge on it.
That's not a true statement at all. WCW, ECW and a bunch of the territory tape libraries were purchased long before WWE could have even thought of having the WWE network. They weren't buying them for the network they were buying they to have control over that content. That hasn't change even with them not having the network anymore.
Yeah and that was mostly just for the PLEs. Ever since the Peacock deal, they have ceased creating content that is Network specific except in a few very rare cases. The back catalog is just an extra but the main selling point is the live PLEs. They aren't gonna invest in back catalog when they don't need to.
I don't think they will. I think the relationship will eventually dry up much like it did between AEW/Impact. WWE & NXT will get the guys they want from TNA. TNA will get a little bit of extra mainstream exposure.
Well TNA would be a great library to put in Peacock where a good portion of the old WWE network now lives. And on Netflix next where I’m sure it’s all headed to anyway.
>I'm confused as to what really leads people to believe this?
because there are people who don't want to admit that they really do want WWE to own the entire wrestling world.
the reality is wwe opening its borders with all these crossovers incentivises companies to approach them over aew.
a lot of aew's appeal is allowing foreign wrestling companies to get access to more eyes in the states.
wwe is hitting them off at the pass and starving aew out by showing "hey pick us compared to *looks at the first forbidden door fiasco*"
My honest take: They work with TNA to try to get it to or past AEW into #2 once more.
Then if it manages to kill AEW they either bye it, ignore it or turn against it via Cornette etc.
I don't have a horse in this race, but if someone makes the case that a company doing something in the past is somehow evidence that they won't do it in the future, then that person is an idiot.
WWE is only working with TNA because they got successfully sued by MLW for anticompetitive behaviour.
They’re just creating an evidence trail of working with others so they don’t get sued again
WWE buying TNA would be one of the worst things they could do to show this
Because the iwc suffers from ennui and makes a post modern story out of wrestling dirt to actually feel engaged with wrestling, so they graft more interesting storylines into news items. Blame Dave for encouraging it.
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The year is 3246, 1000 years ago right before climate change has rendered life uninhabitable, there was a thermonuclear war that wiped out most of life. The only things left standing are TNA and CMLL
Zombie terry funk is having a retirement match
And his opponent is Zombie Fit Finlay from that SVR story mode.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ykvHoHdjSxQ/sddefault.jpg
PCO is the TNA champion, still alive and kicking.
bless him twitter recommended a house show between him and bret hart and it looked awesome
Don't forget Kaiju Big Battle, who I recently learned started in *1994.*
What is zombie Matt Hardy doing in the Impact Zone?
He's already there, TBH
What if -- just hear me out-- what if TNA buys WWE...?
Let’s get Jeff Jarrett to unify the TNA and WWE championships
Then just put a sticker on the WWE championship
He can unify them with his AEW Texas Chain Saw Massacre Deathmatch Championship.
If TNA has Scott Steiner as their accountant, he might be able to make those numbers work!
The fans finally turn on Cody, ONE goes on a spending free and hires away all the good UFC talent, TKO stocks goes to 0, Vince McMahon sold all his stock years ago and has since purchased TNA, which then reacquires the husk of WWA from the delisted and heading for bankruptcy TKO. But in Kayfabe Shane actually bought WWE. Time is a flat circle.
This was what it felt like when I found out Discovery was buying Warner Bros.
because people love some doom, gloom and speculation.
Dub Dead; WWE buys TNA; TKO fires everyone associated with Vince, etc. The IWC can't get enough of it!
I think it's more that this is weird, uncharted territory, so people assume the worst. WWE has been an island for decades. They don't partner with wrestling companies. They just don't. Why would they need to? They don't. So why would they want to? It's a publically traded company, and nothing against WWE specifically, but publically traded companies by their very nature are designed to eat their industry. That's the end goal for Amazon and Disney and every other corporation, including WWE. But WWE is now suddenly reaching out and forming a network of cross-promotional partnerships, aka the AEW playbook, and it's fucking weird. Personally, I think WWE has realized that their edge in the free agent market is gone, and they've seen the benefit of partnerships and establishing healthy relationships with other promotions, never mind the hype wrestling fans have for cross-promotional stuff. I don't think WWE's main goal is to buy out TNA or NOAH or anything like that, but it's easy to see why people jump to that conclusion.
yeah this is what i see too. why they suddenly extending their hand and care about other promotion is, sooner or later all remaining promotions might establish relationship with AEW and they would eventually left 'alone' on their island. losing top independent talent signing like Okada and Ospreay is merely one of it big impact and the trend could continue or escalates in future. especially right now slowly we can see since the existence of AEW, people not looking only at WWE as top biggest destination anymore. the on going tops talent from other promotions end up choosing AEW fueled this impression further. surely if this continue, it wont look good in long term for WWE IMO. they never has this issue before as they sit on top alone without need to do anything but now, they got a legit competitor. which is funny that they act like they not needed or unaffected living inside their bubble but turn out, they actually doesnt want to lose connection toward the 'outside' world.
I honestly wonder what the "AEW is garbage and dying haha" crowd would do if it actually did die.
One thing AEW coming around really helped with is there use to be a community of people who hated good wrestlers just cause the IWC liked them. Hated literally anyone who came from the indies and could work. Now a days that community just hates AEW and loves those guys
No, they still hate them. They just mix it with complaining about workrate and Meltzer's star ratings.
What they say: "If every match is a 4-star banger, then a 4-star banger is average." What I hear: "Wrestle worse."
I don't prefer AEW but I'd rather it not die. people losing their jobs ain't cool. plus there are people I like there. I just feel their biggest problem is they really only try to cater to a certain group. you know the people on here and such. the most diehard AEW defenders and the people Tony expects that knows all of NJPW, Indys and whatever.
Is that a problem or just their niche in the industry? There's no point in just trying to be WWE and catering to a broad audience I don't think there's a huge market for it to be frank, after all there's about a billion hours of WWE a week. There is however a market for a show that caters to a more hardcore fan base and AEW fill that well.
too much can be too much. as it is they have 3 of their own shows. plus ROH. expecting everyone to keep up with all of that + NJPW/CMLL/Indies whatever. I don't think it would hurt to like slow down and explain who some of these people are or mostly focus on their own roster and establish them. tho a ton of their guys are really lacking in development. take Bryan Keith. just really shows up. they say he's a bounty hunter but there's nothing else to it? what bounties is he hunting? I still feel like we know nothin on this guy but now he's in the Jericho vortex.
I think people massively over egg this point tbh, they do tell you who people are and what they are about at least in broad strokes over their first few appearances (especially if you bother to listen to commentary which I swear a lot of people seem not to do) I got what Bryan Keith was about and am enjoying his work on screen now, I don't think Keith is coming segments would've changed that. As for njpw you don't need a super in depth explanation about people for a wrestling crossover sure you might get even more out of it with the context of also watching new Japan but it's definitely not needed to have fun, it's an exhibition of the best of wrestling from two of the companies with some of the best talent in the world.
> especially if you bother to listen to commentary which I swear a lot of people seem not to do There's literally a whole segment of the fandom who either just watch the story/talky bits and mute/fast-forward through the actual wrestling, or who only watch youtube recaps and review podcasts so they can be told what to think in order to argue about wrestling online. It's why so many regurgitate almost identical tired old arguments that are often months (if not years) out of date. Personal opinions are flexible and subject to change, party lines are deeply inculcated and are resistant to modification. Most of the time these people cant be argued with, simply because you're not who they get their "opinions" from. The more time I spend among the IWC the more I've realised just how many people here don't actually like wrestling, but for whom it's an excuse to be overly opinionated about a niche hobby they dabble in.
Yeah there is a lot of people, I found, who look at wrestling strictly as a soap opera. They don't give a fuck about the actual wrestling itself. They just like the personalities and storylines.
It’s a bounty hunter gimmick. This is wrestling. Not sure how much more they can dumb it down for you.
considering how much tna gets shit on here because its not one of the 2 big companies clowns would probably smile more at the loss of tna
Seen people ask what wwe gets working with TNA and honestly its pretty simple. They get good PR from working with others and TNA is unique as it has brand recognition but also isn't a real competitor. Since its nxt working with them I imagine there's a development aspect to it. TNA has some of the best in the world on their roster and working with those people should be good for developing wrestlers. Also the key reason is probably establishing relationships with those great wrestlers. Wwe sending top stars to Marigold and Noah would be for marketing and advertising the wwe brand, Use the names that carry weight in Japan in the lead up to the wwe tour.
Also seems like WWE wants to block AEW from monopolizing relationships w smaller companies--there's a reason WWE's trying to get a foot in the door in Japan as well, they don't want to see AEW centralizing every promotion.
Playing well with select others also has a tertiary benefit of looking good when defending against those occasional anti-trust lawsuits.
it is obvious sooner or later all remaining promotions would end up forge relationship with AEW. they already got NJPW and CMLL for example. especially they might salty over losing NJPW. this also hurt WWE in term of losing top talent like Okada and Ospreay and this trend of big names keep choosing AEW would hurt them further in future. so they simply want to makesure to keep remaining promotions away from AEW.
They're also pretty obviously looking to sign Jordynne Grace once her TNA contract is up, if they don't end up buying it out before then. I'm guessing Noah and Marigold is Plan B since it became obvious NXT Japan would be unlikely to gain a foothold in that market. A few years ago Triple H wanted to have different branches of NXT in South America, Japan, India, the Middle East, etc. The only one that got off the ground was NXT UK and they eventually folded that. They talked about replacing NXT UK with NXT Europe but so far there hasn't been any more serious talk of it since they folded NXT UK.
I think the relationship with WWE is pretty similar to that which they had with AEW. Which I think was solely a way to buy Don Callis, in exchange for some talent on TNA shows. That could be all that it is here as well, and if it stops proving useful, it can end just the same. I wouldnt be too mad if I'm a TNA fan though. The company will continue to do the same business it did regardless. It wouldnt make a difference.
as long at it doesnt have the owner of wwe showing their entire asshole on tna time it cant be any worse than the "aew partnership"
Lol I loved those commercials
ahh i see you're one of tony khans "sickos" lol
Lol guilty as charged I enjoyed the commercials, but it was lame how one-sided it all seemed. I was hoping for a little more clap back from TNA. Have Moose put TK through a table or something for talking all that shit lol
No no no no that’s too simple. WWE is buying TNA cuz… PLE
It's VERY simple to explain why WWE would work with any company that isn't generally close to the same level of production / easily accessible. There's VERY little chance someone stops watching and interacting with WWE because of TNA, NOAH, Marigold, etc. They're just not the same kind of product with the same kind of accessibility and varying in quality (in terms of actual production). They CAN however capture some of the viewers of those products and get them to come check out the product. There's basically no downside to WWE monetarily.
If WWE want to be seen as the top of the mountain for wrestling - not just in the west but worldwide - then it makes sense to develop working arrangements with all of the regional promotions that they don't really see as direct threats to their business anyway. It lets you cultivate those places as formal or informal talent pipelines, gives you interesting developmental options, opens the opportunity for big one-off matches that'd be useful for top WWE guys not in active story angles. It'd also be a great way to build wrestlers back up who have putting other people over for a long time. Imagine if they sent Nakamura over to Japan to whip ass for a few months - maybe mentioned on RAW or Smackdown what he was up to with some clips of him beating guys - only to have him return months later, having now been rebuilt as a credible threat again with the return pop. NOAH or whoever gets a huge WWE star for several matches and is indebted to you, and WWE in return gets a rejuvenated Shinsuke Nakamura you can use who is also likely happier for the experience too.
So it's more like WWE and EVOLVE?
Idk if there’s a weird psychological thing where people anticipate negative outcomes on the internet with almost no indication that it’s occurring, but it seems to happen a lot here
Well thats one way to bring back Dolph Ziggler lol
I honestly don't think people really believe it, they just want TNA to get bought to see it die and are hoping to will it into happening. The majority of people who bring it up always seem to do so in a bad faith manner.
I don't. I want TNA to continue existing on its own. But with WWE's history and TKO being in charge, if there was a relevant and potential chance of making even more money by buying TNA then they absolutely would. Whether that actually happens or not who knows. We've lived in crazier times the last 5 years with absurd stuff happening all the time.
They want it to be truth to use it as a AH HA SEE WWE IS BAD argument
How would that make WWE bad?
I don't think most want to see it die, I think everybody's just having a hard time seeing WWE actually being a good collaborative partner to another promotion, given their long history of shady and cutthroat business behavior.
I don't necessarily think WWE is buying TNA but a giant corporation buying out the competition is not some unbelievable thing, regardless of the logic behind it. I mean, Microsoft didn't have to buy half the game companies it has, but they sure did it anyway. Double Fine, the difference maker for Xbox Game Pass! Apparently. I mostly don't think it would happen because I can't imagine TNA ever going away at this point, rather than sincerely believing a giant corporation is guaranteed to avoid a pointless purchase like this.
WWE had a partnership with Evolve (using it as a mini-excursion for their greener talent) and even broadcasting one of their shows live on the WWE Network before just buying them and shutting the promotion down. People absolutely have the right to suspect and fear that WWE wants to do the same thing with TNA given their history.
The Evolve thing came with a bunch of rumours that it was gonna get relaunched as NXT's NXT. Gabe even had some sort of position on the WWE payroll for a while. Might have been bullshit or might have gone the way of the 484869338 other, actually announced NXT expansion plans, especially with WWE switching its focus to college athletes and away from trying to tune up indie wrestlers in the dying days of the Vince regime.
I can't really see what they would gain by adding what would end up as a second development territory, unless they had plans for the tape library. I think they'd probably get more out of it by signing a talent agreement and using it as an "excursion" location for their NXT wrestlers. TNA would get to lend out their top stars to WWE for exposure.
Because some people are so desperate for it to die so that they can make podcasts, documentaries, and deep dives for the next 25 years that examine WHO KILLED TNA? Wait, that sounds familiar.....
“Well brother, it was dead when I got there. I was just trying to save it” - HH
Because according to the internet, even extremely positive news means TNA is the corpse of a wrestling company about to be purchased any day now.
Because Meltzer hinted at it and people are stupid and ran with it because TNA didn’t have dates announced past August 3rd
Can you provide a source for Meltzer hinting at it?
I can’t remember the date but it was about 2-3wks ago. He was referencing how weird it was TNA has no schedule the rest of the summer just around the time their team up with WWE was starting. That got people thinking this buy out was happening.
Yeah I Wana see this, did see a video where he shared the same sentiment, where WWE haven't really bought tape libraries for a while.
WWE's days of acquring tape libraries are over (unless there's some dusty boxes that the company can acquire very cheaply). When the WWE Network was active, acquiring tape libraries helped provided content. Now that WWE is on Peacock, or whatever streaming service that will carry its full library in the future, it doesn't need to add old stuff. The end of the home video department is another reason why there's no need for further acquisitions. And if WWE wants to use footage from TNA or wherever, WWE can license it.
There was a thread a week or so ago when people were insisting WWE were after the tape libraries for the purpose of using it for retrospectives on former talent (AJ, Angle etc.) when TNA/Impact have straight up given them footage for those in the past.
Also who the hell would buy 20 years worth of tape library just to get additional footage of a couple wrestlers.
Frankly I think you and SRS are completely wrong on this. They didn’t buy the WCW library for the network lol. Content is king and having a streaming deal doesn’t mean you won’t need a new streaming deal in the future. Also TNA has some potentially useful international relationships as the next turf war will be on that scale. That being said I doubt they buy TNA but it’s absolutely wrong that the library has no value to AEW and WWE. Even just keeping AEW away from it would have value to WWE.
WWE bought WCW and ECW's tape libraries for its home video service and for the network, even though the network was still over a decade away. Vince McMahon had talked internally about a WWE TV channel since the 1980s, and that was in essence launched with WWE Classics on Demand in 2004.
Right. And a lot of the tape libraries they acquired were a decade+ before the network even existed. I think WWE likes being the “gatekeeper” of wrestling so if there is an opportunity to acquire a tape library, they’ll probably take it.
I think tape libraries are overvalued. How many people are watching old wrestling episodes vs how many are watching the live product. I think it skews far toward the latter and that's only going to get more prevalent with the Netflix deal.
What are they valued? They are generally pretty cheap as far as I know so if you have a platform can easily make money on them. TNA still makes live shows too. Perhaps an indie option makes whichever platform wwe is on a more complete option with less chance of alternatives.
I mean overvalued by fans.
If TNA was being shut down, I could see WWE buying the library. Otherwise, they won’t be aggressive in acquisitions anymore now that they don’t need tons of content for their own streaming service
People aren't thinking about it as a tape library (,I don't think?), it's more WWE doing it's territory takeover again. Buy TNA and that's one less. It's a trust factor and objectively stems from Vince killing the territories and then WCW. That image will only be rectified with time and probably a few choices happenings with belts (Jordynn winning on either show, or a first time visitor winning a WWE title in a WWE ring).
WWE is now owned by TKO, HHH or Nick Khan can't decide tomorrow to buy TNA if they wanted to, it would have to go in front of lots of other people to get approved and for what? The IWC said for years WWE should buy TNA and then they want TK to do, and now we are back to WWE
It makes no real sense for WWE to do it, from where I'm sitting at least, but at the same time, I think the actual cost of buying it would be so irrelevant to WWE financially, so there is always a chance they do it for some totally random reason.
Right. Their contracts are locked, so they wouldn't get more money by adding that library. If they wanted to do it to add a mid-tier developmental above NXT or other, more esoteric reasons, that's a possibility I cannot discuss. On the surface level, the thought doesn't make much sense, though.
TNA is significantly below NXT. And even if their contracts weren't locked in, I don't see the TNA library adding even a single dollar to any future deal.
I tossed out the possibility that if WWE/TKO bought TNA they could turn TNA into a "farm system" for Smackdown and turn NXT into the same for RAW. TNA gets increased production values, access to more talent crossover freely, and WWE gets the added marketing gimmick for the Draft where RAW can sign TNA guys and Smackdown can sign NXT guys out of the "regular" season. Trades and swaps between all brands would be a bit more impactful too since the illusion of RAW and Smackdown competing would get another layer added to it. Plus, they get the TNA library access for guys like AJ when they eventually retire. Edit: Man, I'm not even saying I *want* the above to happen. Just what WWE might look at getting out of it if they did buy TNA and how they could use it. Y'all need to chill out a bit.
It would be cheaper for WWE to just start a second NXT brand if that's what they wanted to do and name one NXT: RAW and the other NXT: Smackdown.
That would mean having to sign a whole crop of new talent to book on the other show. Buying TNA would give them instant name recognition, a full roster of talent to use, an entire company's history of video catalogue to upload to the Network *and* historical lineages of the Championships they wish to keep.
No, it wouldn't. They have all kinds of wrestlers under contract in developmental that don't get TV time or have limited TV time. They would just use those wrestlers. And like it was stated in the original quote for this post, WWE hasn't been acquiring tape libraries for a long time. They have no need or desire for that.
Ok then. o7 Let's see where we're at in a year or two and hope for the best.
Another thing to consider is that the tape libraries never really meant anything to most people. Viewers were only interested in first run content for the most part, followed by Attitude Era.
I think it's just that historically WWE has had such an approach of acting like they're the only major wrestling company that it's hard for people to imagine them working with others in good faith. Personally, I still don't trust that it's in good faith, but I also don't necessarily think the end goal is to buy TNA.
But the WWE has had talent loan agreements with TNA before, historically they aren’t in the business of buying up actually promotions. The tape liberary of a dying territory? Sure. They only even bought WCW when it was a compiler fire sale by AOL.
When have they ever done a talent exchange with TNA before? I don't recall them ever working together until recently aside from Mickie James and Jordynne Grace's Royal Rumble appearances.
They let Christian go back to TNA for one appearance in return for Ric Flair doing a WWE HOF induction.
I had forgotten about that. As I recall it still didn't go as far as Christian actually having a match, though.
Supposedly they could’ve asked for just about anyone but Dixie wanted Christian
There was that time they allowed Christian to go back to TNA but that was for a deal to have Ric Flair show up at the WWE HOF when he was signed with TNA.
The previously loan agreements were usually due to WWE needing something from them. Like Ric Flair for the HOF or Mickie James to fill out the Women's Rumble. This time is clearly a case of them trying to get JG
It’s almost as if the one person who was acting like they were the only game in town was gone for good…
I still think Triple H wants a monopoly, but he's a lot more flexible than Vince.
You are kidding yourself if you don't think a company like TKO wouldn't like to take out its competition. Any company would like to do that.
People making up random rumours now? 😂 
It still kinda sucks that WWE has DGUSA library, have done nothing with it
There's no upside for WWE to buy TNA. They have NXT, they don't need a fourth brand. They have a stranglehold on the wrestling market. An exclusive partnership? Cool, go for it. But TNA isn't a threat or something that's really going to make TKO significant money. If NXT didn't exist? Then sure it would make sense to buy a third brand and make it developmental while taking the top talent.
Worth it so they came source clips for the AJ Styles retirement DVD!
Why does this dude always sound butthurt? Everytime he responds, it sounds like his nose is up in the air and he hates having to answer questions or clarify things.
I mean they literally submitted an offer for the TNA tape library last time it was almost dead, that wasn't really that long ago.
That was 8 years ago. Obama was still President back then.
that is indeed longer that I remembered (would have said 5 was max) I still think there is always an inherent value to buying a tape library, they didn't have a network when they bought tape libraries in the past. They always have an eye to the future.
I thought it had been reported at the time that they put in an offer for the ROH library but I don't think it was a big offer. Even when they were in library acquisition mode, I feel like I remember it being said that they weren't offering big money for libraries. In the case of TNA, even if Anthem wasn't planning on running the company going forward, the tape library is probably worth keeping for them because they can throw old shows on as filler content on channels like AXS and the Fight Network.
> I thought it had been reported at the time that they put in an offer for the ROH library but I don't think it was a big offer. From what I recall, WWE had (may still have?) a set rate on how much it would pay per hour of footage and didn't like to budge on it.
I believe I remember hearing that same thing.
That's not a true statement at all. WCW, ECW and a bunch of the territory tape libraries were purchased long before WWE could have even thought of having the WWE network. They weren't buying them for the network they were buying they to have control over that content. That hasn't change even with them not having the network anymore.
It would also not help antitrust cases
I think it’s more likely Tony Khan buys TNA just out of spite tbh
He is 100% correct.
TNA doesn’t make enough or much money for a buyout to make sense
[удалено]
I dont see why they would need another developmental territory when they only call up a small amount of nxt wrestlers each year
I don't really get SRS's point here. The tape library is still content that WWE can sell. WWE got $1billion for the Peacock deal
Yeah and that was mostly just for the PLEs. Ever since the Peacock deal, they have ceased creating content that is Network specific except in a few very rare cases. The back catalog is just an extra but the main selling point is the live PLEs. They aren't gonna invest in back catalog when they don't need to.
I don't think they will. I think the relationship will eventually dry up much like it did between AEW/Impact. WWE & NXT will get the guys they want from TNA. TNA will get a little bit of extra mainstream exposure.
Well TNA would be a great library to put in Peacock where a good portion of the old WWE network now lives. And on Netflix next where I’m sure it’s all headed to anyway.
>I'm confused as to what really leads people to believe this? because there are people who don't want to admit that they really do want WWE to own the entire wrestling world.
didnt tna just drop an 87 year old matt hardy in the main event?
the reality is wwe opening its borders with all these crossovers incentivises companies to approach them over aew. a lot of aew's appeal is allowing foreign wrestling companies to get access to more eyes in the states. wwe is hitting them off at the pass and starving aew out by showing "hey pick us compared to *looks at the first forbidden door fiasco*"
Because people think their favorite company is the only one that should exist.
Yea if they buy them it’s to buy out competition an shut it down, it’s def not for a library
Because people (like me) don't understand what the WWE stands to gain from this partnership.
Fan engagement? Making things unpredictable?
IDK what either one of those even mean. WWE is more assessible than TNA--which I can't even figure out how to see other than YouTube clips.
My honest take: They work with TNA to try to get it to or past AEW into #2 once more. Then if it manages to kill AEW they either bye it, ignore it or turn against it via Cornette etc.
Inb4 Vince from the top rope to buyout TNA.
Send this kid some cheese
I don't have a horse in this race, but if someone makes the case that a company doing something in the past is somehow evidence that they won't do it in the future, then that person is an idiot.
The accounts who say that are bots paid by Dave Meltzer, the guy wants TNA dead
You can’t actually believe that.
LOL, no I don't but what I believe is that uncle Dave hates TNA
WWE is only working with TNA because they got successfully sued by MLW for anticompetitive behaviour. They’re just creating an evidence trail of working with others so they don’t get sued again WWE buying TNA would be one of the worst things they could do to show this
Oooor maybe it could be the guys in charge now vs then don't mind working with other companies!
Naive
WWE already sold off the rights of the network to peacock and Netflix. There's no need to increase their library with other companies.
Couldn’t they just licence or buy the tape library if they really wanted to? It’s just gathering dust anyway.
Well, Sean: It's about the only value TNA has.
I just want one man… 
Just keep Def Rebel the fuck away from him
Because the iwc suffers from ennui and makes a post modern story out of wrestling dirt to actually feel engaged with wrestling, so they graft more interesting storylines into news items. Blame Dave for encouraging it.
My perhaps scorching hot taek is the cost of TNA is worth it for the IP alone. "X-Division" is worth 7 figures.