|
Tons of issues going on regarding money stemming from the decision to tape Impact on the
road at the cost of $600,000 per taping, with no increase in ratings or revenue. A lot of things
are breaking at press time and this is what we know. It’s the cost of the tapings that have
made the financial situation so bad. Dixie Carter had noted before that had she done it earlier
she would be risking the future of the company. Many in the company, notably Hulk Hogan
and Eric Bischoff, had pushed for getting out of Universal Studios and taping on the road as
the needed game changer. But there has been no increase in revenue to offset the expense,
and ratings have actually declined.
There were reports at press time of people, particularly with higher contracts, being asked to
change their deals. ProWresetling.Net reported Bruce Prichard, the head of talent relations
and also head of creative, was asked to restructure his deal, and could be leaving, and that DLo
Brown was gone as well. Brown was the road agent for almost all the house shows. The
report was that Brown was asked to change from going on a weekly salary to a per event
deal, which he agreed to, but then was told he was being let go. We were unable to confirm
that at press time.
The Prichard story appears to be accurate. Based on what we were told, Prichard was asked to
restructure his contract, but he had not made a decision one way or the other about it. So he’s
more up in the air right now than gone, although something like that changes by the hour.
TNA has made commitments to where it will be very difficult to change from the road
tapings until the end of this year. But the big problem is what happens even if they decide
they have to go back. Universal has changed the sound stage and it apparently has a tenant, so
going back to the old Impact Zone, even if they wanted to do it, appears not to be an option.
So they would have to find a new permanent home if that’s the direction they want to go, but
being able to get that with the kind of deal they had in Orlando would be difficult. Plus, what
was good about Orlando is that as an attraction at the park, where people could get in free
with park admission, there were always hundreds of people who could help fill in and make it
look presentable for television. In a new permanent location, whether they’d be able to
maintain a crowd every week would be difficult. Bellator runs weekly and they mostly sell
their shows to casinos and let the casinos try and sell the tickets or fill the place. But that’s a
lot easier with an MMA product. TNA has been able to do this for very few shows, although
Impact tapings are more attractive in that regard than just house shows. The problem is the belief that wrestling crowds don’t spend money at the casinos as compared to MMA crowds, so the idea is even if they have to paper the tickets for a Bellator, a lot of those people will hang around the casinos to meet the fighters and gamble or spend money at the restaurants
and the like.
------
Lisa Marie Varon (Tara, 42), was released on 7/16, in a minor surprise, two days before the
TV tapings in Louisville, a city she had lived in for many years. Her cut was a cost cutting
move. Tara had been managing the Bro Mans (Jessie Godderz & Robbie E), who had just
started in the role of a comedic lower card tag team. With so many cuts of late due to
financial issue, nothing should be a big surprise. Varon had been with the company more than
four years, starting on May 28, 2009. She had signed a one year contract and after failing to
come to terms on a new deal, lost a match where she vowed to retire if she lost to Knockouts
champion Madison Rayne on May 16, 2010. She signed a new contract shortly after, and
came back as Rayne’s bodyguard, with the idea that Rayne had the power of her and could
get rid of her by enforcing the retirement stip unless Tara agreed to do whatever she wanted.
They ran that for a year until a stipulation match result allowed her to stay without being
subservient to Rayne. She had a number of other roles including tag team partner and mentor
to Miss Tessmacher, and then turned heel on her for a feud, before most recently doing the
girlfriend of Godderz angle. Varon came from a wrestling family, with three older brothers
who did well in the sport. Varon, after college, was a fitness competitor, including winning
the 1998 Miss Galaxy event, where Torrie Wilson was a competitor. The two became friends
and Wilson invited her to a show, where she did a cameo on an episode of Nitro. She was
interested in doing pro wrestling at that point, but WCW didn’t offer her a deal. She later met
Joanie Laurer (Chyna), who encouraged her to try and join WWF. At the same time, she
started training at Rick Bassman’s wrestling school in Southern California in 2000. Bruce
Prichard, who worked in talent relations and regularly attended UPW shows, signed her with
her first role as one of The Godfather’s Ho’s. After that role ran its course when the
Godfather character was changed to the Goodfather, she was sent to developmental, working
in both Memphis and later Louisville, before returning to the main roster as a wrestler in
2002. She was tired of being used to put others’ over with less ability, so in late 2008, asked
for her release and retired in January, 2009, although came back for a WrestleMania Battle
Royal. She said she was going to train for MMA, and began training BJJ in Louisville. She
negotiated with several MMA promoters but was far apart on price to fight as her belief on
what a former WWE woman’s star doing an MMA fight was worth was a lot higher than
what promoters were paying woman fighters. She eventually signed with TNA. During her
career she held the WWE women’s title twice and TNA Knockouts title five times. She and
husband Lee Varon opened up “The Squared Circle” restaurant in Chicago, where they have
get togethers with wrestling fans every Monday night for Raw, Thursday for Impact and
Sundays for PPVs.
------
Also cut was Andrew Hankinson, 29, who was Doc of Aces and 8s. His contract expired on
7/12 and TNA made the decision not to renew him. On television, it looked like they were
building an angle where he was mad at Aces and 8s were being voted down as Vice
President, to lead to a face turn and a feud with Anderson. Of course the first tease of a guy
going face made no sense, with the ridiculous booking of the match where he wouldn’t lay
down for Ken Anderson, then attacked Anderson, and seconds later Anderson beat him
anyway in that Battle Royal to get into the Bound for Glory series. The vote was not written
as a way to write him out, but to heat him up and the plan wasn’t to cut him, but his contract
expired without Bruce Prichard signing him to a new deal. It’s the same thing that happened
to a lot of guys, including Bobby Roode. So he may still be brought back. Hankinson was a
high school football star who worked indies. He didn’t place in the 2004 Tough Enough (the
one with Ryback and Miz) but ended up signed because of his size. He worked as the
Imposter Kane in 2006 and Festus from 2007 to 2009, before losing weight and becoming
Luke Gallows, and was cut in 2010 by WWE. He signed a one year contract with TNA this
past July to be part of Aces and 8s.
Taelor Hendrix, who at first claimed it was her choice to leave the company based on not
signing a new contract, in an interview on Headlock’s Radio, admitted that while she was not
planning on signing a new deal, the company released her when they did the multiple
releases. She said she was unhappy and that a lot of people were unhappy in OVW. She said
TNA had sent her papers to extend her contract at the current rate (believed to be $2,000 per
month, plus an additional per event appearance if she worked on TNA shows, and she was
getting very rare work). She felt she wasn’t having a good experience there and wasn’t going
to sign the extension, but before TNA was aware of that, they rescinded the offer and released
her. The fact they had sent her to extend her contract right before releasing her would indicate
something changed, and with multiple cuts and not just one person, it wasn’t about her as
much as cost cutting. She said that the Gut Check concept had been a failure, she felt they
don’t publicize OVW enough, and also noted that in its online Gut Check polling, TNA was
putting real names of wrestlers out for the public to vote on without asking their permission.
She said she thought Gut Check was good at first, but TNA has released everyone who won
at this point except Jay Bradley and Wes Brisco, who both came from WWE, and Lei’d Tapa.
Sam Shaw is still on the roster as well. Regarding people being paid late, she said that it
affected everyone from the biggest stars on the roster (and at one point a few weeks back,
even Hulk Hogan was late on being paid) all the way to the people in developmental at
OVW. Hendrix appears to be continuing her training in OVW as she was doing before being
signed.
_________________ Drop In wrote: I'm picturing a 12 year old Bob Loblaw bitching out a Randy Savage Wrestling Buddy for botching his finisher. Also envisioning Bob Loblaw getting bitched at for lighting the living room table on fire for said finisher.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
I agree with Punk vs. Austin but was trying to keep it as realistic as possible of what could happen.