5 Things that will happen if WWE buy TNA
TNA wrestling has been around since 2002, following the death of WCW and was started by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett. Since its inception, TNA has tried to be WWE lite and has failed repeatedly, often giving up on what made them successful like the X-Division and the Knockout’s division to focus on wrestlers let go by the WWE.
Rumours of TNA’s problems began since Spike TV refused to renew their contract at the end of 2014 causing them to move to Destination American, which effectively halved their viewership. TNA moved to Pop TV at the beginning of 2016 which hurt their viewer base even more.
Rumours of TNA’s dire financial situation have been floating around all year and reports that WWE want to buy TNA and their tape library surfaced early September. Will the sale go through? We don’t know for sure but there were rumours of renewed talks between Billy Corgan and WWE that surfaced last week. This, along with the rumours that TNA almost didn’t have the money to go through with the Bound For Glory show, just add strength to the sale rumours.
With the possibility of WWE buying TNA getting stronger, let’s take a look at what could happen if WWE buys TNA outright (and not just the tape library).
5: TNA gets shut down
The first thing WWE will do after purchasing TNA is the obvious – they’ll shut TNA down as fast as they can. No, they won’t continue with TNA as a separate brand and showcase it on the Network. WWE will have the option to bring in some of TNA’s talent but there is no chance of them keeping TNA alive when they already have NXT which is one of the hottest products in professional wrestling right now.
If WWE buys TNA, we will have another promotion out of business and gobbled up by the WWE juggernaut. It will mean one less place for upcoming wrestlers to go to look for more mainstream exposure. This purchase would be great for WWE but terrible for the wrestling industry as a whole. After all, TNA were the second biggest promotion in the United States less than a decade ago.