TNA to announce major TV deal!

[Booker Thee]

Source: PWTorch]

-- Multiple sources in TNA have been saying that the company is on the verge of announcing a huge new TV deal in the United States. The announcement could come within the next couple weeks, however they are bound in a confidentiality agreement and cannot detail what it is to anyone yet.

-- Most expect that since Spike TV has not expressed too much interest, TNA has struck a deal with WGN. WGN has been brought up in the past as the fallback plan if they couldn’t reach an agreement with Spike TV. WGN was once a “Superstation” like TBS, however due to lack of new and original programming, they have dropped in popularity.

-- It’s possible that TNA could get a great deal with airtime on WGN, meaning a Monday night primetime slot in the hour preceding WWE RAW. There is also the possibility that they could run a two hour show, with one of the hours overlapping RAW.

[cdewar19]

WGN isn't even available everywhere in the country. I would think getting a better timeslot on FSN would be a wiser business decision.

[Booker Thee]

Well, there are some positives to this over FSN.

Firstly, we get WGN here.

Secondly, consider that TBS was hardly a superstation when they began airing wrestling. Now I realise it's much more difficult to become a 'superstation' in todays competitive market, but TBS was practically built on WWE, NWA and WCW wrestling as cheap entertainment anchors and original programming to boot.

WGN would also be less likely to pre-empt TNA for sports.

WGN may be more interested in giving TNA a prime time spot and that is very important right now. I still think TNA's best bet is to grab a two hour monday slot opposite WWE and hope the Monday Night War starts again or at least with millions of wrestling fans tuned to WWE on Monday;s, that some of those fans might check out TNA during commercials etc.

If I was Jeff Jarrett and I got the prime time spot, I'd realise that this is likely my last opportunity to grow TNA. I'd cut some of the dead weight like Nash and X-Pac and focus on the young guys with some decent former WWE talent like DDP, Rikishi, Test, Gunn etc. I'd develop a kick ass angle to book-end the first episode of the new TV and I'd go on the offensive in being as cool and edgy as I could in attacking WWE on every show.

That would excite me...

[Showtime]

It would be hard to be cool and edgy as WGN would more than likely use their "family values" rules like they did to WCW near the end.
Anything to "edgy" may find them looking for another station.

[Booker Thee]

And that is not good since WWE will have much more leeway then they currently do when they get back to USA.

The interesting thing will be to see what Ted Turner does, if anything, when TBS's non-compete expires next year.

[cdewar19]

WGN, at least during baseball season, will be just as likely as FSN to pre-empt wrestling for baseball, since their parent company also owns the Chicago Cubs, which is WGN's main meal ticket.

Showtime also makes a good point about WGN's "family values" clause, which may dummy down the product to early 90's WWF levels, with zero blood allowed. That's a major step backwards, IMO.

[Booker Thee]

I read somewhere that the majority of Cubs games are during the day and few are on Monday nights.

The 'family values' thing is tough, but Bichoff found ways to be 'cool' on TBS, so is JJ is smart, he can pull it off and if they were able to recreate the Monday Night Wars, they won't be on WGN long before a cable network offers them a better deal...

[cdewar19]

The only problem is that cable networks don't want wrestling for the most part. Also, if JJ was smart (and he isn't) he would not have booked himself as the Triple H of his company.

The Cubs play tons of home games in the afternoons, but almost 100% of their away games on Mondays would be night games, and I don't think the Cubs would get brushed aside for wrestling.

[Booker Thee]

I recently read one 'insider' report that stated JJ has wanted to lose the title for a long time, but others around him wanted him to keep it until a credible champion could be found. Whether that is true or not, who knows.

I was a strong believer in JJ keeping the strap because if casual WWE viewers tuned in and saw Monty Brown as champ, they might tune out just as quickly. JJ has credibility. I think he regained the title from AJ last year because of the Hogan angle. I think DDP was worthy of winning the strap. But I also assume their desire was to build AJ back up to be champion. Perhaps even to then elevate Daniels and let those two guys be their top stars and let JJ help elevate other guys.