What Do YOU Think Was the Final Straw for Spike?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

It seems like a real answer never really came out since both sides were playing so nice with each other. But what do YOU think it was?

[Wolfman Rose]

[Martin: #TeamBella Treasurer]

For me, I've always wondered whether Spike was just wanting to finish things with TNA. Like it was a natural end rather than a blow up between the two companies. They were putting money into the company that was doing OK ratings cable-wise, but they were just still chugging along and not really growing enough for Spike to get any money back out of it. Of course, did Spike do everything it could on their end to boost figures (advertising etc.)?? TNA were, and I believe are still, growing well internationally, but that doesn't benefit Spike at all. It could have stayed on Spike for years to come, still do a decent rating but not benefiting their own growth.

[WWEedy]

Nothing. Everything about tensions between them was propagated by smarky wrestling goons on the internet and people who had an agenda looking for attention ie. Dirt-sheet Writers and Russo.

In my opinion, the two sides came to a mutual end to their agreement. Spike actually made offers to TNA which if there was a blowup wouldn't have happened and didn't officially end talks with TNA right up until pretty much hour 0, those offers didn't work out and TNA went elsewhere. Simples. Not everything needs a convoluted back story with twists and turns and explosions. Business is not an angle.

[kingoftheindies]

I think Russo played a part in it, but I also think that as the year came to a close, TNA was not a high priority for Spike. Did TNA screw up a lot with what was a golden ticket? Yes. Did Spike do everything they could to promote TNA? Not really. In the last 2 years TNA fell behind Bellator, Bar Rescue, and Ink Master on Spike's priority list. Then this year you also had the restaurant renovation show start up.

I think TNA's rapid decline due to no forward planning for taking the show on the road also helped to make Spike's decision not to renew easier.

[chrom]

The Company never growing, back in 07-09 TNA was Spike's prized show but they never grew after that. If they were maintaining two million viewers and 1.4 ratings like they had before Hogan, they'd likely still be on Spike. They kept promising how they were going to break through the barrier each year and gathering 2.0 ratings but they began to dwindle downwards instead of going up and they lost millions of dollars in the company which had become bloated and no longer producing good results for them as well as the public nightmare that was backstage with no leaders and nobody motivated or wanting to be there and Spike eventually got shows that were getting higher ratings than them and were much cheaper to produce and they decided TNA wasn't worth it anymore.

[kingoftheindies]

Dec 12, 2014 10:24:45 GMT -5 WWEedy said:

Nothing. Everything about tensions between them was propagated by smarky wrestling goons on the internet and people who had an agenda looking for attention ie. Dirt-sheet Writers and Russo.

In my opinion, the two sides came to a mutual end to their agreement. Spike actually made offers to TNA which if there was a blowup wouldn't have happened and didn't officially end talks with TNA right up until pretty much hour 0, those offers didn't work out and TNA went elsewhere. Simples. Not everything needs a convoluted back story with twists and turns and explosions. Business is not an angle.

Fair point as well. I think it's fair to say both sides were ready to move on in a way. It's come out that TNA had better offers than Destination America in terms of money and visibility, but DA offered them the best package of things they wanted to do.

[Hit Girl]

They realised they weren't big enough to handle the enormous success of TNA

[The Dark Order Inferno]

The people running TNA wanted more than Spike thought they were worth, simple as that.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the Carters thought Destination America were worth a gamble rather than accepting a lower offer from Spike as it would give them a better shot at getting more programming on the air to recoup the loss of revenue from Impact. The bar is a lot lower for a smaller channel and they could be at the forefront of Discovery TLC-fying another of their stations, switching from low rated fact based programming to general entertainment/utter garbage.

[Deleted]

#ItHappens.

But, in actuality, the problems occurred long before, when TNA wasn't developing as a company that would justify both ratings and advertisement revenue. If anything, every single opportunity TNA had to go to the next level, they squandered and were left in a worse state.

[Cyno]

I'm sure Russo being hired behind Spike's back played some part of it, given that Spike executive's outright hate boner for the guy. I don't think it was THE thing that broke down their relationship, but it sure did hurt.

Probably other things, too. TNA wanted to do more stuff and Spike was tired of paying the checks of their higher salaried talent without any sort of ownership stake or at least real growth.

[________ has left the building]

The final straw was Bellator doing a strong number on ppv. SPIKE stopped giving a shit about TNA once their true pride and joy was a success. TNA only got their last contract renewal because of Hogan and Bischoff were available to woo SPIKE executives with promises of higher ratings and revenue. TNA failed that and SPIKE channeled their energies into Bellator with Impact withering on the vine.

[Push R Truth]

I imagine the Spike/TNA relationship was like a Parent/College Kid relationship that went sour.

Parent gives their kid a couple hundred for books/ramen noodles/random expenses on the first day of college to help them.
Kid spends the money on the first night on drugs and hookers, then turns around and begs for more money.

This happens a couple times before the parent just says piss on it and cuts their kid off to fend for themselves.

[Deleted]

I thought Spike was trying to refocus branding. Like how the CW did when they dropped Smackdown. SD was pulling some of their highest numbers, but they still wanted out of wrestling because they were going for a different demo.

Wrestling seems to skew older than people would normally think. WWE's recent numbers came back and the average age was like 41? So if Spike's trying to grab a younger audience wrestling won't help that.

[Deleted]

Dec 12, 2014 12:28:31 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

I thought Spike was trying to refocus branding. Like how the CW did when they dropped Smackdown. SD was pulling some of their highest numbers, but they still wanted out of wrestling because they were going for a different demo.

Wrestling seems to skew older than people would normally think. WWE's recent numbers came back and the average age was like 41? So if Spike's trying to grab a younger audience wrestling won't help that.

Well, that's slightly different. In CW's case, it was part of Dawn Orstoff's master plan to cater exclusively to the 18-to-35 female demographic (ironically, she was the UPN executive at the time of the merger, yet cared little about the UPN shows), which is alright if you are on cable, but as far as being network TV goes, it was poisonous, so her removal was the best thing for the network. Spike was similar, but they just wanted that younger male audience, and while pro wrestling sounds like something that could attract younger audiences, it is MMA today that does so, while wrestling is for older people.

But I still view that if TNA had succeeded, Spike would have at least shown some interest. Plus, the Bellator tie-ins weren't as horrendous as some people made out. We had a bitchin' TNA Champion this year because of it.

[Sephiroth]

No real blow up. They weren't drawing the kind of ratings they used to and Spike got themselves a new baby called Bellator. Simple as that.

[kidglov3s]

I think a few factors may have been:

1. TNA became more of a headache to support and the product started to look cheap after the poor decision to take Impact on the road and the fallout from that. When TNA was settled in Universal it seemed to be a more low-maintenance enterprise all around.
2. TNA ratings drew less than COPS reruns

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I think right after Hogan left they realized how money they lost and wouldn't be getting any of it back. But I think it began after the Monday night massacre, before that debacle even the president of spike was supporting TNA, then that shit happened, I don't think the relationship was ever the same.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I kinda agree with the mindset that Spike was just kinda done with 'em.

[Racksman]

prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/October_1,_2005_iMPACT!_results