SirEdger Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 This cannot be good for TNA going forward. I don't know what D'Amore could've done to justify getting fired weeks into a successful rebranding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 What the hell is happening in the pro-wrestling landscape ? This is insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 I get the impression he was rubbing people in Anthem the wrong way and they got tired of him. Fightful seemed to suggest in their report that the feeling was he was trying to become the face of the company and that didn't sit well with the corporate overlords. On some level I can see that, but dude performed necromancy with TNA so you'd think he'd have a longer leash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 40 minutes ago, sek69 said: I get the impression he was rubbing people in Anthem the wrong way and they got tired of him. Fightful seemed to suggest in their report that the feeling was he was trying to become the face of the company and that didn't sit well with the corporate overlords. On some level I can see that, but dude performed necromancy with TNA so you'd think he'd have a longer leash. I sure hope it's only this. In which case, sucks for TNA, because he's the guy that has been responsible for every really good TNA periods basically, and the reconstruction of the last 4/5 years would not have happened without him. Gotta say this though. He absolutely loved to put himself in the limelight (and he is a good performer anyway) and it was more and more evident lately. BUT. After a successful rebrand, getting rid if the guy who very much was the face of that rebrand (and maybe that was the issue with Anthem) and a big reason why IMPACT has been so positive these last few years is probably gonna damage the locker room morale pretty big, as it makes the entire move like it's broken already. Now. If there's nothing wrong about D'Amore. Coach TK. GET HIM IN AEW YESTERDAY ! HE'S THE GUY YOU NEED ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strobogo Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 I would imagine he's in a good position to get a very good offer from AEW and WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 The Jarrett/Dutt connection would not make it hard for him to get in friendly contact with AEW. Wouldn't it be hilarious though if TKO just got rid of Levesque as they clean up the space and The Guy from TNA ends up being the most powerful booker in pro-wrestling ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 46 minutes ago, El-P said: I sure hope it's only this. Yeah I am not so sure the story is as simple as "Anthem's higher ups are a bunch of morons." It could be the case, sure, but at the same time firing someone who was well-liked by wrestlers and was good at their job is a bit too sudden to not raise any eyebrows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 You know that theory that everything evolves into a crab at some point? I think the wrestling equivalent is that Jeff Jarrett ends up becoming the most powerful person in the business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 50 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said: Yeah I am not so sure the story is as simple as "Anthem's higher ups are a bunch of morons." It could be the case, sure, but at the same time firing someone who was well-liked by wrestlers and was good at their job is a bit too sudden to not raise any eyebrows. At the same time, let's be real. It's all about Vince. If the Vince thing wasn't there, overwhelmingly there, that would not even have scratched my mind. I had the same thought when the Rossy thing happened last week. 49 minutes ago, sek69 said: I think the wrestling equivalent is that Jeff Jarrett ends up becoming the most powerful person in the business. It's coming. Eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autistic Dragon Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 I agree it doesn't make sense to fire D'Amore considering the work he's put into bringing TNA back from the brink. But in the interest of fairness, here's what they are saying the goal of bringing in Mr Cicione... Quote The move aims to further integrate TNA Wrestling into Anthem’s Entertainment Group, of which Cicione is the President, leveraging the entire Company’s resources to add more value in areas including production, distribution, marketing, viewership, customer acquisition, digital revenue streams, ad sales and sponsorships, digital tech operations, and more. Let's assume for the moment they're being sincere, better production is certainly a good thing. And if a new distribution deal/marketing strategy puts more eyes on the product that can only be a good thing. I agree this is a confusing forst move but we should consider that maybe there's a plan in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 The abruptness of D'Amore's firing makes me think there's more to this story. I just hope it's not related to abuse allegations. Unless some troubling #SpeakingOut news comes out about D'Amore (and just to be clear, there has been no indication of that), there's no way to spin this as anything other than a disaster and TNA once again getting in its own way. At best, Cicione won't be as incompetent as Jim Herd. That's a pretty low bar to climb though. The wrestlers seem pretty heartbroken about it. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2024/2/7/24065482/tna-wrestlers-react-scott-damore-firing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autistic Dragon Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 Here's a more complete statement regarding D'Amore's firing courtesy of PWI. https://pwinsider.com/article/180103/scott-damore-fired-as-tna-president-complete-details-and-statement-from-anthem-sports-and-entertainment.html?p=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 I can understand Anthem wanting to bring them closer in the fold, but firing the guy who poured his soul into rebuilding the company is an odd place to start. They seem to want to paint this as a corporate reshuffling but those usually involve more than just one person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 Corporate bullshit trite. Per Meltzer, D'Amore was all in on rebuilding TNA and going harder on the market, and Anthem went like "yeah, no" and are just happy with filling their TV time as with TNA/IMPACT as it is. It's completely pathetic. The company is also build around a bunch of guys who are super loyal to D'Amore (Alexander, Young, Kazarian, Moose, Edwards). This is a really dumb move on Anthem's part. Old double J is gonna have a field day with this, considering what he had to say about Anthem before. Come on Coach TK. D'Amore is your guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 I am pretty sure I discussed this either in this thread or the other one about TNA being the worst company in wrestling history. Anthem are a Toronto company, and trust me, they suck. They aren’t interested in being number one, and I don’t even think they are interested in presenting a particularly good product. They are interested in “content.” They just want stuff to fill airtime. Anthem own The Fight Network and they used to have contracts to show all sorts of interesting stuff, NOAH, New Japan, ROH, Pancrase and most notably they even used to be the exclusive home of the UFC in Canada at one point. Then they started losing money. So they started cancelling the agreements to show all that different stuff and started showing crappy martial arts movies and infomercials. At some point, they realized that it would be cheaper for them if they just bought TNA from Panda Energy and made The Fight Network the home of TNA. Once they did that, they started flooding the channel with TNA content, because the library is so huge. But they aren’t interested in competing with WWE, AEW, or anybody else. They just need content, cheap content for their crappy channel. They also own AXS in the United States and I’m sure it’s the same there. They buy shitty little TV channels, and they want content to fill the hours. I honestly don’t think they are interested in being a major player in any way, shape or form. That would involve spending money and they aren’t interested in that. At one point The Fight Network used to be good until they bought it. Then they ruined it with their cheapness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 So apparently D'Amore approached Anthem to buy TNA. And there goes nothing. It's so ironic that TNA was basically rebuilt under the IMPACT Wrestling name, and that's when the company turned around in term of perception and as an actual product (in term of quality, not business/awareness and all that good shit that have nothing to do with actual quality). And as soon as they went back to the TNA brand name, it's a mess again. It's really too bad for all the talent for were all hyped up and optimistic, and of course D'Amore himself. Corporates are useless people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alucard Posted February 9 Report Share Posted February 9 AXS used to be all about Impact. Showing old PPVs in the afternoon leading in to Impact, plus Impact in 60, and a replay afterwards but now it's all cut out to just the one Impact showing, NJPW after and that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outsider Posted February 18 Report Share Posted February 18 TNA talent should Unionize and elect Scotty D. as the leader. Tell me that it wouldn't work. Perfect time to Unionize and force the corporate geeks to bring Scotty back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 21 Report Share Posted February 21 Is it just me or does this reek of Josh Alexander being held hostage by his new TNA corporate overlords? TNA Wrestling Exercises Its Option to Extend Contract of Josh Alexander https://tnawrestling.com/2024/02/20/tna-wrestling-exercises-its-option-to-extend-contract-of-josh-alexander/ Just to be clear, I'm well-aware WWE and AEW do the same thing (Brian Cage getting his AEW contract extended is especially baffling), but I'm guessing no one in TNA is making WWE or AEW money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted February 21 Report Share Posted February 21 Well, the issue here isn't just that they are extending his contract, but more that they are doing so after firing the head booker who was massively over with your main eventers (and honestly, most of your roster) just because he wanted more control. It looks even worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 21 Report Share Posted February 21 Agreed, Bubba. I hope Alexander takes a stand, no-shows the rest of his dates, and starts working indies. The cheap penny pinchers at TNA won't be able to do a damn thing about it. It's not like they can afford to sue him, or would bother spending the money to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted February 21 Report Share Posted February 21 I'm almost impressed at how little time it took Anthem to destroy the rebuild of TNA that Scott D'Amore orchestrated. All that's missing now is Dixie Carter running things again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted February 21 Report Share Posted February 21 Scott D'Amore not only brought back TNA, but also LOLTNA as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 27 Report Share Posted February 27 Dunno where TNA is going, but at the very least, No Surrender had a killer main event in Chris Sabin vs Mustafa Ali. And Alex Shelley vs Moose was also terrific in a very different way. Overall, the show was quite good (despite a single Kon match, what the fuck were they thinking ?), but those two matches really gave it a big time feel. ABC vs Grizzled Young Vets was also pretty damn good, with a terrific ending stretch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenese Sarwieh Posted March 11 Report Share Posted March 11 Sacrifice delivered a decent performance overall, with Nemeth/Maclin's standout performance earning a spot in my notebook. However, my primary concern with TNA is the stagnation in their programming, despite having talents like Maclin, Speedball, and Something underutilized. Seeing Bailey relegated to pre-shows, Something misplaced in the X-Division, and Maclin's uncertain trajectory post-program with Nemeth only accentuates this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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