If Vince Bought TNA

Garseys

Credit: PW Torch

During WWE's annual shareholders meeting on Friday, WWE CEO Vince McMahon briefly addressed a question on whether he'll consider buying out TNA.

"I don't know that they're for sale," McMahon said in a non-committal fashion. After a long pause as the shareholder asking the question pressed McMahon to give an answer, McMahon added, "Maybe."

The exchange at the end of the conference call was as follows:

Shareholder: When are you going to buy that three-letter company that's based in Nashville, Tenn., because they have the wrong people in charge of that company. Please save the business from Dixie Carter. (McMahon lightly laughs) Stephanie McMahon has more brains than Dixie Carter. (McMahon: Ooh.) I think if you buy it now, there's a shot at fixing that company up because I know you'll put the right people in charge of that company.

McMahon: I'm (long pause) - I don't know that they're for sale.

Shareholder: They're not for sale now, but I'm sure if you offered them something - I don't know, it's a 50/50 shot.

McMahon: Well - (deep groan) Maybe.

The exchange was removed from discussion earlier in the conference about WWE looking to acquire entertainment properties that fit their business model as part of the "New WWE" initiative, which TNA would fit into.

WWE said their goal is to find related content companies and "literally put them through the WWE system to create new revenue (for WWE)." WWE said the long-term goal is to acquire companies related to their content to grow the core business, which is creating content.

for anyone who wants to view the full meeting it's available here

the groutch

if Vince did buy TNA it'd be R.I.P. for wrestling

GTR63

the groutch wrote: »

if Vince did buy TNA it'd be R.I.P. for wrestling

Don't you mean the end of Sports Entertainment or Global Entertainment Companies.Either way I hope Vince doesn't ever buy them he killed ecw ten times over(despite 1 great ecw ppv & dvd).

flahavaj

GTR63 wrote: »

Don't you mean the end of Sports Entertainment or Global Entertainment Companies.Either way I hope Vince doesn't ever buy them he killed ecw ten times over(despite 1 great ecw ppv & dvd).

ECW killed itself.

the groutch

whatever they brand themselves as now, a televised "wrestling" monopoly is not good for anyone

we all saw what happened when they took over WCW and ended The Attitude Era

flahavaj

the groutch wrote: »

whatever they brand themselves as now, a televised "wrestling" monopoly is not good for anyone

They pretty much have a monopoly now. TNA has no effect whatsoever on WWE or the way they do business.

the groutch

flahavaj wrote: »

TNA has no effect whatsoever on WWE or the way they do business.

they must have an effect if they'd be even considering a takeover bid

flahavaj

the groutch wrote: »

they must have an effect if they'd be even considering a takeover bid

He gave a non-committal answer to some TNA pleb asking him a ridiculous question. I doubt you'll ever hear anything about it again.

Rjd2

the groutch wrote: »

they must have an effect if they'd be even considering a takeover bid

He was probably joking to be fair.

stiffler123

Dear God no. Piss off Vince, you have enough already.

CMpunked

We must remember, ECW had some financial backing from vince that was never known at the time, he saw something in them he liked and wanted them to be successful (some could argue it was heyman he was investing in).
I cant see Vince ever investing in TNA the same way he did with ecw. Theres just nothing that makes them 'original' anymore.

6 sided ring; Gone.
The X Division; Gone.
The place for up and coming indy stars to get on television and get their name out; also gone.

Bounty Hunter

discussion moved from the news thread which is not supposed to have chat

Garseys

I was wondering where my post went :pac:

Honestly Vince was joking. He's got bigger things to be worrying about.

If he did, I'd say we'd still see TNA, mainly since it's got Airtime so why not invest a bit and have ratings and advert revenue come in. It would fit in with WWE's new initiatives.

On the negative side, it's gonna take a lot of work for TNA to be in the black again so it would be a blackhole of money for the first while.

parker kent

The ECW killed itself stuff is a pretty simplified approach. There are plenty of other issues as to why it ended.

Anyway, if Vince bought TNA it would cease to exist and FCW would have a few new wrestlers. The rest would work the indies and Sting would have to say once more, "Sorry, no can do Vince". Vince buying TNA would not lead to a subsidised TNA continuing due to Vince's patronage.

Would be great to see the company being promoted through WWE's marketing machine, if it could still remain essentially the same product. Similar to the UFC's plan for strike force.Keep them both seperate entities, yet have the same owner. Its not to impossible to ask.....If it did happen....Vince may have learned from his mistakes with WCW and ECW.

jaykhunter

The name/company TNA is worthless to Vince. Like the tape library perhaps but the company structure isn't anything WWE has much, much better. The name itself holds no weight and honestly needs rebuilding more than anything else. Severe damage control because of all the badwill built up over the last few years.

However they do have talented individuals on board. If I were in Vince's ear i'd cherry pick the best of them (AJ, Beer Money, Guns etc) and build them up on SmackDown before moving some of them to RAW. (Same with ROH, DGUSA and NJPW for that matter)

I also really think that a WWE version of CHIKARA would do great business. Or at least better than NXT/aka worth trying. It would be a living comic-book with more an emphysis on characters/funny spots than legit competition. It'd be completely different to all of the other shows, more of a TV show ****com than anything else.

We might not be in another golden era with mega-over talent but we'd have a very good show with great talent. Just my musings....

parker kent

Vince could create a fantastic tag team division from TNA. Bring MCMG, Beer Money, AJ/Daniels etc to Smackdown and let them loose.

flahavaj

parker kent wrote: »

Vince could create a fantastic tag team division from TNA. Bring MCMG, Beer Money, AJ/Daniels etc to Smackdown and let them loose.

He would be far more likely to break them all up. Tag teams are simply not on the agenda as far as long term planning goes in his mind.

parker kent

flahavaj wrote: »

He would be far more likely to break them all up. Tag teams are simply not on the agenda as far as long term planning goes in his mind.

I have no doubt Vince would completely ignore them, like I said above if he bought TNA it would just mean FCW got a few new wrestlers.

Just saying he could, not that he would.

jaykhunter

It's very odd. Tag teams (and groups) can really make people take notice of a wrestler and get them over without giving them a high spot on the card.

Vince also thinks that changing the world/wwe title once a month will make people flock to see the PPV because you're gonna see a title change. This guy needs to go ASAP!

He is a genius and I have so much respect for him but he's lost his marbles.

mayordenis

jaykhunter wrote: »

Vince also thinks that changing the world/wwe title once a month will make people flock to see the PPV because you're gonna see a title change.

Thats simply untrue, Miz champ for more than 6 months, edge was champ for ages bar the Ziggler moment, I take your point but it's not helped with hyperbole :P

flahavaj

jaykhunter wrote: »

It's very odd. Tag teams (and groups) can really make people take notice of a wrestler and get them over without giving them a high spot on the card.

Vince also thinks that changing the world/wwe title once a month will make people flock to see the PPV because you're gonna see a title change. This guy needs to go ASAP!

He is a genius and I have so much respect for him but he's lost his marbles.

I'm not sure how he's lost his marbles. Tage team wrestling has been a joke since the 80's really, save for the E+C/Hardyz/Dudz era which came about almost by accident rather by design. Vince's reasons for not paying it attention are that they've never made him a dime of money, which is a reasonable position to take and that he has to pay more guys for a night's work if the mid card is littered with teams. Fair enough point too IMO.

I'd like to see more tag teams myself as I like that style of wrestling. But I can see their reasons for not doing so too. Its neither going to make no break teh company either way tbh. Fair enough a lot of world champions have come from tage teams back in the day - Bret, Shawn, etc etc. but its not as if WWE haven't produced dozens of superstars who started as singles guys either. His not concentrating on tag wrestling is hardly a reason to say Vince has "lost it" IMHO.

stiffler123

Are TNA in financial difficulty though or is this all speculation?

Rjd2

stiffler123 wrote: »

Are TNA in financial difficulty though or is this all speculation?

It was basically a light hearted question asked by a smark stakeholder at the end of the interview, typically the IWC have blown it out of all proportion though. :mad:

parker kent

flahavaj wrote: »

I'd like to see more tag teams myself as I like that style of wrestling. But I can see their reasons for not doing so too. Its neither going to make no break teh company either way tbh. Fair enough a lot of world champions have come from tage teams back in the day - Bret, Shawn, etc etc. but its not as if WWE haven't produced dozens of superstars who started as singles guys either. His not concentrating on tag wrestling is hardly a reason to say Vince has "lost it" IMHO.

I think you are undervaluing how much it played a part in starting Shawn, Bret etc. Even look at The Miz and JoMo. The Miz became a better performer in teaming with JoMo and Big Show.

The draw idea is probably over stated too. It should just be viewed as something that improves the overall show. I don't think anything other than the main events "draw". Building tag teams is a way of getting air time for at least 4 people and is good way of utilising talent.

jaykhunter

mayordenis wrote: »

Thats simply untrue, Miz champ for more than 6 months, edge was champ for ages bar the Ziggler moment, I take your point but it's not helped with hyperbole :P

I believe the statement I made about Vince re:World titles was from Dave Lagana's podcast. Thankfully someone convinced him otherwise. Pre-2010 (ie 2007-2009) it was roughly one title change per month (I'm sure I made a rant if u wanna search lol) but they've generally calmed down a lot since last year.

The bit about Vince losing his marbles was more of an off-hand statement from things we hear all the time from the dirtsheets, like changing who's winning/the layout of the card of Mania until hours before the show started, to only writing in Rock/Cena the RAW after Mania that afternoon, to finalizing the drafts just before the show goes on air. PowerSlam do an amazing "The McMahon Quarterly Report" segment which really expounded my PoV.

I believe Tripper will have a more grounded approach to pro-wrestling which would include making titles (including the Tag titles) relevant again.

Oat23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8lZRoC5b-o

Top rated comment on the video sums up how I feel.

First of all, the volume is horrible But other than that, how in the HELL is this dude gonna be a shareholder and he cant even coordinate his own shoes? Gonna wear sneakers on 1 foot and dress shoes on the other. *shakes head*

McLoughlin

Oatesy23 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8lZRoC5b-o

Top rated comment on the video sums up how I feel.

Looks like some kind of medical shoe on his foot protecting it from injury.

the groutch

Oatesy23 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8lZRoC5b-o

it's Bobby Boucher (aka The Waterboy)

barura

I'd like for Vince to buy it... ANYONE to buy it. Problem is, noone in that company has a head like Vince does. They have a head like Vince HAD. There is good reason why WWE has evolved the way it has and is still profitable. It wouldn't take a lot for TNA to turn around, but the owners are still doing dumb **** and living in yesteryear. There is a place for their style, but damn. Small promotions like CZW pull it off so much better. If TNA stayed like they did around 4 years ago, it would have been sweet. Russonomics, WCW 2.0 and other terms along those lines aren't exactly flattering. Just.. sigh. What's the point? We all know what's wrong, but they ain't going to change any time soon. I'd like to be proven wrong though, I will gratefully be wrong if it helps the promotion and not only that, the wrestlers who are killing themselves to put on a show for pennies.

drayme

As someone said they would be only interested in the tape library.

TNA has no identity or any committed fans like ECW had so they arent worth making a third brand out of even in the short term.

jaykhunter

TNA will never die as long as Dixie holds the purse strings. But there's been different dirtsheet reports saying Dixie's parents' are sick of her losing millions (and the mother is in charge), or that Serge had a lawsuit slapped on him for sexual harassment (thanks Honkey) but...... with all of the money they're losing.. maybe they will go under. If all that toilet-money stops flowing into TNA's hands and to the drain.

parker kent

It would be great if somebody with decent money and a fondness for wrestling bought it. Then handed over booking to one guy with a defined direction for the company based around creating and using their own stars.

Riddle101

Please god, don't let Vince McMahon buy TNA. I'm still bitter about him buying WCW, and I throughly believe Vince is killing wrestling. TNA is the only alterternative to WWE on TV, and proberly the best chance wrestling has before Vince kills it completely, and I know TNA is no where near the level of WWE and has a lot of flaws but I don't want Vince to own TNA. He'll just kill them like he did ECW, and bury most of the talent or at least the ones he chooses to keep.

stiffler123

Riddle101 wrote: »

Please god, don't let Vince McMahon buy TNA. I'm still bitter about him buying WCW, and I throughly believe Vince is killing wrestling. TNA is the only alterternative to WWE on TV, and proberly the best chance wrestling has before Vince kills it completely, and I know TNA is no where near the level of WWE and has a lot of flaws but I don't want Vince to own TNA. He'll just kill them like he did ECW, and bury most of the talent or at least the ones he chooses to keep.

Couldn't agree more. Vince basically shat on all the WCW guys that he hired after buying WCW. It would be a disaster. Plus there needs to be an alternative to WWE.

jaykhunter

I'll meet you halfway. What if Dixie dropped TNA and picked up ROH?

Garseys

jaykhunter wrote: »

I'll meet you halfway. What if Dixie dropped TNA and picked up ROH?

Oh GOD! :eek:

Charisteas

jaykhunter wrote: »

I'll meet you halfway. What if Dixie dropped TNA and picked up ROH?

That's half-way down one road. Half-way down another road would be if Vince bought TNA, but gave complete creative control to Paul Heyman

jaykhunter

Garseys wrote: »

Oh GOD! :eek:

It wouldn't be the worst, as long as she provides the cash. I mean ROH can always go back to being king of the indies. They've been in business (slightly) longer than TNA, yet they've not grown at all. As long as Russo is in charge, anything has to be up.