Some TNA News

[Guest savagerulz]

Credit: PWTorch/DVDR

 

Kevin Day, who replaced Frank Dickerson as CEO of TNA Wrestling a few weeks ago, has instilled a new attitude within the ranks of the company. Day, who is in his early 30s, was promoted from within Panda Energy to get the financial end of TNA running efficiently. He has made it clear that there is no room for any dead weight among management, creative, or talent. "He is a bottom line kind of guy," says one TNA employee, who has been impressed with Day's energy and resolve.

 

The feeling is that Day will do what is necessary to make TNA as financially solvent as possible, ridding TNA of any wasted expenditure. One source notes that if WCW had Day in the late-'90s overseeing the company's expenses, they'd still be in business. It doesn't mean TNA is operating on the cheap, but it does mean nobody can expect a guaranteed job due to tenure or even sacrifices made three years ago in the early stages of the company's operation.

 

His predecessor, Frank Dickerson, was more laid back. In his late 50s, Dickerson was a father-figure, interested in getting to know everyone as people. He served a valuable role in getting contracts organized last year.

 

Day entered his job with almost zero knowledge of pro wrestling, but a strong track record within Panda as a bottom line type of guy who can cut waste, but recognize where money needs to be spent.

 

The structure of the company and who is responsible for what is still being worked out as the company continues to grow from a father and son operation to a significant division of a large corporation. Day is attempting to delegate roles for each member of management and make sure wrestlers are being paid in accordance with their value to the company today. He has a straight forward attitude and seems less interested in becoming friends compared to Dickerson, who was well liked and considered effective at his job.

 

Terry Taylor has been promoted to talent relations director, basically the same position John Laurenaitis holds in WWE and Jim Ross and J.J. Dillon previously held in WWE. Taylor has worked underneath Ross in the talent relations department in the WWF in the late-'90s and had several management and creative positions in WCW under Eric Bischoff. Taylor previously had been working in the production truck with additional unofficial duties as a liaison between management and talent.

 

Jeff Jarrett is not scheduled to be in the World Hvt. Title picture for the next few PPVs at least. As TNA expands, Jarrett has realized his need to step back from trying to wear so many hats. While he still has tremendous influence on the creative direction of the company and holds a V.P. title and is co-owner of the company, he is not as dead set on being the sole wrestler the company is built around at this point, perhaps because he senses Dixie Carter and Kevin Day don't think that's the best plan... Dixie Carter continues to be very active within TNA, working with business affiliates, promoting the company, and overseeing the entire operations. She is spending less time getting to know individual wrestlers since she found herself in a position common to new executives in wrestling companies over the years, where wrestlers tried to befriend her and get her to see things their way. She is still visible and friendly, but now has enough of a foundation to her wrestling knowledge that she doesn't answer every call from every wrestler anymore as she once did...

 

Christian, The Dudleys, and Rhino have formed a bit of a clique in TNA. They tend to dress apart from the rest of the wrestlers, but when they are around the everyone else, they are friendly and fit in well.

 

Apolo has been officially released, deemed unreliable by management. Only Dutch Mantel was particularly high on Apolo, based on his friendship with him while he was booking in Puerto Rico.

 

Monty Brown may be held back within TNA because his in-ring skills are not progressing at the pace everyone would like. The problem for Brown is that he has a successful personal training business in which he works five days a week earning well into six-figures annually. There are some within TNA who feel Brown should be working harder to get weekend bookings that don't interfere with his other job, not because he needs the money, but because he needs the experience. Even working eight times a month might not be enough for him to get to the point he needs to be as a top level worker, but it's better than the three times per month he's currently working, some of those being shorter squash matches in which he is protected.

 

TNAWrestling.com is featuring secret video shot by Alex Shelley of Sting and his family in public. It is the launch of an angle involving Shelley stalking Sting and eventually drawing him out of retirement. Shelley is getting the coveted spot of feuding with Sting because he is seen as one of the most cooperative and hard working young wrestlers in TNA.

 

There is some second-guessing now of the Sting retirement angle, in part because it was so convincing. The Saturday night ratings above 1.0 have dropped off back to the 0.7 mark, actually a notch below the average on Spike TV so far. The feeling is that as segments air with Sting, including footage of him with his family, in upcoming weeks, that viewers will being to realize Sting is returning, and that will help boost ratings again.

 

Dutch Mantel tends to do the vast majority of the actual script writing, but the other voices on the creative team contribute beforehand to what the actual content of the TV scripts will be. Jarrett remains the most influential person when it comes to the big picture plans for major angles and PPV main events.

 

Low Ki was considered for LAX, but he will be booked in the X Division instead. Ricky Vega isn't considered ready yet, so Hotstuff Hernandez is slated replace Apolo full time in LAX. There is also interest in Rick Banderas, but he is locked into a contract in Puerto Rico, so TNA may not be able to sign him at this time. The TNA booking team is not familiar with Homicide's work in ROH, so they're not sure how much to invest in him at this point. He is also been working with an injured shoulder, which has slowed down his in-ring work so far.

 

Early TNA powerbroker Bob Ryder is attending virtually all TV and PPV events as he is the main travel agent for the promotion. He remains tight with The Naturals and AMW, but doesn't have much of any office power with Dixie and Day... Lance Hoyt's push was slowed due to earning a rep for being impatient with is push and complaining too much. The feeling was the crowd pops he was getting in Orlando were going to his head.

 

There's talk of bringing Jeff Hardy back for TNA's return to prime time. Shannon Moore is a good friend of Hardy, so TNA management may put him in charge of being sure he shows up.

 

In a message on his website, UltimateWarrior.com, the Ultimate Warrior wrote that he'd like to wrestle Bill Goldberg in TNA. "It would be very interesting. What would be more interesting is if the TNA execs had the creativity, integrity and balls to entertain it seriously. Frankly, what they should do, if they want to be competitive (there's that nasty blood, sweat and tears word again), is sell some of those construction materials Daddy Jarrett has laying around, and put up the financing to bring in Goldberg and Ultimate Warrior and let us try to beat the intensity out of one another. Now there's an idea--an attention getting one, and a money making one.