TNA was cancelled by SPIKE TV...or was it?

While this will likely be an episode of POTSY AND THE TURD, Rob wanted to give his thoughts on this ahead of time to really let the information soak in.

With roughly two months left on their Spike TV television contract, news has been circulating all over the internet (from TMZ, to all the wrestling websites) that TNA Wrestling's contract with Spike would not be renewed, and this late in the game means shopping to another network is very difficult, because fall lineups are all but finalized.

The real question is, if they were not planning on making SOME kind of offer, wouldn't they have already stated publicly what would be in that time slot? Again, most channels are gearing up for the fall season, and need to be telling people when to watch a new show, or fear that it won't sell at all.

TNA is one of the few programs on Spike that garners a million viewers in it's first run broadcasts, so cancelling sounds like a bad move for both. However, without knowing what the production costs are per episode, nor knowing what the rights fees are to broadcast, this may simply be another deal where too much money is being spent to look like the competition, and not enough reward is coming back through the door.

My take on it is that I anticipate a deal being made, one that is more beneficial to the television station, since they hold all the weight when it comes to bargaining. They can tell the Carters that their product doesn't have a home, make them terminate the contract of workers they don't want employed, and even change their time slot to something more beneficial to them. Heck, with all the money they are reportedly losing, now would be the time for the Carters to consider just dumping the property and letting someone like Tommy Dreamer run it for Viacom, who would be a suitable buyer, considering they purchased Bellator.

In this situation, I would anticipate that a steady product with first run airing every week, if found to be profitable for Spike, who is aiming at an 18-45 male demographic, would end up signing a more appealing deal with someone they already have a good relationship with (besides the Russo hiring, apparently).

Ultimately, it's up to both sides to agree to continue, maybe with new terms to the deal, or go their seperate ways. If they choose the latter, I would hope that any unaired footage would be packaged and sold as online content, or sold to a company like ROH.

I'd just hate for there to be nowhere for some of these talents to go if WWE doesn't want them, especially with the looming budget cuts coming from them in the coming weeks.

-Potsy