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Spike TV had no confidence in TNA Wrestling

By Brandon C. Williams

May 15, 2013; New York, NY, USA; 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle attends the wrestling meet between Iran and USA at Grand Central Terminal. Iran won the meet 18-8. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
May 15, 2013; New York, NY, USA; 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle attends the wrestling meet between Iran and USA at Grand Central Terminal. Iran won the meet 18-8. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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A general lack of confidence in TNA Wrestling’s management is the reason why Spike TV is dropping “Impact Wrestling,” according to a story in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

In the story, Spike TV — which will continue running the show until the end of January — states that has grown weary of dealing with the company and feels that TNA’s management is incapable of improving the product, while holding little hope that it eventually could. Even with the recent change to airing “Impact Wrestling” on Wednesday nights, viewership continues to fall along with ratings.

TNA has reached out to the Velocity Network (owned by Discovery Channel), yet there has been little to no progress with the negotiations. Other networks have doubts about picking up a show that Spike TV is dropping despite the fact it once had decent ratings and averaged up to 1.4 million viewers each week.

Should a deal with Velocity be reached, TNA would have to make extremely drastic alterations to the show, which would include cutting production costs along with further paring a roster that has been gashed with cuts that resulted in the loss of such TNA stalwarts like A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels and Kurt Angle.

The relationship between TNA and Spike TV took a turn for the worse when it was discovered that Vince Russo was secretly serving as a consultant for the company. Spike TV executives have had little respect for Russo, and the outing of his presence was a point of no return for Spike TV, although it has not admitted it publicly.

“Impact Wrestling” has aired on Spike TV since October of 2005.

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