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Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

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Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) is an American professional wrestling promotion, founded by Jeff Jarrett and his father Jerry Jarrett in May 2002, and now owned by Panda Energy International. The company operates out of Nashville, with offices in Orlando and Manhattan. TNA was originally a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and was also known as NWA: TNA, but withdrew from the NWA in 2004, in the process acquiring the rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Tag Team Championships until the year 2014.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
AcronymTNA
Founded2002
HeadquartersNashville, Tennessee
Founder(s)Jeff Jarrett
Jerry Jarrett
Owner(s)Dixie Carter
ParentPanda Energy
FormerlyNWA: TNA

TNA is the first promotion to exclusively use a hexagonal ring as opposed to the more conventional four-sided ring, though some Mexican lucha libre promotions have been known to use six-sided rings at times. TNA is also unorthodox in that championships can change hands as a result of a disqualification or count out, thereby nullifying the "champion's advantage".

History

After the closure of World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in March and April 2001, there was still a demand for southern-style and cruiserweight wrestling that Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation was not fulfilling. TNA attempted to cater to this niche market by offering an alternative to the (then) WWF, and by recruiting many former WCW and ECW performers who had not signed with WWE. On May 10, 2002, J Sports and Entertainment (a limited company with Jerry Jarrett as chief executive officer and Jeff Jarrett as president) announced the formation of Total Nonstop Action.

While several companies, such as World Wrestling Allstars, had attempted to fill the void that the closure of WCW and ECW left, TNA has been the most successful. Some suspect a partial motive behind the creation of TNA was to provide employment and mainstream exposure for Jeff Jarrett, the son of long-time wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett, who was unemployed after the collapse of WCW, and was unable to find work with the McMahons (ostensibly because he blackmailed Vince McMahon for a large sum of money to perform after his contract expired while he held the Intercontinental Championship in 1999).

From its formation, TNA lost large sums of money, leading to the initial investor, HealthSouth Corp, withdrawing financial support. In October 2002, Jerry Jarrett sold his controlling interest in the company to the privately-held company Panda Energy International. On October 31, 2002, Panda Energy and J Sports and Entertainment created the limited liability company TNA Entertainment (J Sports and Entertainment was later dissolved). Jeff Jarrett was appointed Vice-President of TNA Entertainment, while Dixie Carter, the daughter of Panda Energy chairman and chief executive officer Robert W. Carter and a former TNA publicist, was appointed President. Panda Energy owns 71% of TNA Entertainment, LLC. [1]

Dixie Carter is an avid wrestling fan, and has become highly involved with the day-to-day operation of the company. Panda Energy also appointed Chris Sobol, the Panda Manager of Business Development, as TNA Vice President of Operations, and former Panda Energy executive Frank Dickerson as chief executive officer. TNA has continued to lose money since the takeover by Panda Energy, with costs of approximately $1,000,000 per month not offset by revenue [2], but Panda Energy has repeatedly reaffirmed their committment to TNA. It should, however, be noted that Panda Energy has itself been described as "financially struggling". [3] In September 2005, Robert Carter estimated that TNA would become profitable by 2006.

In May 2005, the Nelson Corporation tendered a $10,000,000 offer to buy TNA from Panda Energy. The offer was withdrawn on May 31, 2005 after Panda Energy failed to express any interest.

Business model

The original TNA business model was different from that employed by WWE in several key ways. By not touring like other major federations have done, TNA was able to keep costs down. TNA's original system of programming comprised weekly cable pay-per-views.

While most major promotions had aired monthly PPVs, not having a weekly network, syndicated, or cable show from the outset was a radical departure from the norm. The weekly TNA PPVs were priced at $9.95 per week, much less than the monthly WWE PPVs. The weekly events were also transmitted free - albeit with a six-month delay - on The Wrestling Channel starting March, 2004; this being the company's first foray into the international market.

Initial estimates by TNA showed that about 50,000 PPV buys would be needed each week for TNA to break even. Actual buys, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, ranged from anywhere between 5,000-15,000 on a weekly basis. After 111 weeks, TNA ceased their weekly PPVs on September 8, 2004. On Sunday November 7, 2004 TNA Wrestling held their first three hour PPV, Victory Road, with buys for the PPV estimated to be in the low 10,000s.

TNA began airing TNA iMPACT! on June 4, 2004 on FOX Sports Net. iMPACT! was taped on Tuesdays in Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and then broadcast between 4:00pm and 5:00pm on Fridays on FSN in most markets (iMPACT! was also syndicated throughout Europe and Asia). TNA purchased the one hour time slot from FSN at the cost of $30,000 a week, [4] with the weekly PPV earnings being their main source of revenue.

Since December 2004, reports have surfaced that several workers have been shorted in pay, with Sean Waltman in particular claiming that he had not been adequately paid. However, TNA is known to have a policy of paying wrestlers for scheduled dates regardless of whether they actually wrestled or not. Two instances of this would be when the taping schedule for iMPACT! changed and after TNA's TV deal with FSN lapsed.

On May 27, 2005 TNA aired its final episode of iMPACT! on Fox Sports Net. iMPACT! averaged a 0.2 household rating over the course of its existence. This left TNA with no television deal other than the monthly PPVs, so on July 1 TNA teamed up with RealNetworks to stream iMPACT! from their official website via RealPlayer. They also enabled people to download iMPACT! through BitTorrent. At the same time, TNA began seeking a more profitable television outlet. TNA first began negotiations with WGN, with a proposed Monday evening timeslot running parallel to WWE RAW, but they could not come to an agreement. TNA then began negotiations with Spike TV for a rumored Saturday night timeslot, a traditional wrestling timeslot dating back to the days of Clash of the Champions and the Saturday Night Main Event. On July 21, TNA announced that they had secured a deal with Spike TV to air iMPACT! as part of Spike TV's Slammin' Saturday Night block, beginning in the autumn of 2005. TNA will tape two episodes every other Tuesday as of September 27, and will begin broadcasting in October 2005. Unlike the Fox Sports deal, TNA will not be paying for the timeslot; instead, Spike will handle the advertising (and take the majority of the revenue from such), with TNA providing the content in exchange for national exposure.

TNA has become extremely popular in Canada, where a French-language iMPACT! appears on RDS, thanks in large part to the TNA incarnation of Team Canada. They even have a separate Canadian TNA website hosted by Team Canada.

This Sunday, October 23, 2005 will be TNA's biggest Pay-Per-View called Bound For Glory. It will have the feel of WWE's WrestleMania and will be over 3 hours with the first 30 minutes free.

The PPV will include the following matches: Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash with Tito Ortiz as referee - TNA Title Samoa Joe vs. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels - Ironman II - X-Division Title Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin vs. Matt Bently - Ultimate X Match Sabu vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rhino vs. Abyss - Monster's Ball II Monty Brown vs. Lance Hoyt and 2 other matches

TNA has expressed an intention to begin touring in 2006.

Current champions

The TNA World and Tag Team Championships are national titles owned by the National Wrestling Alliance. Traditionally, national champions regularly defend their titles against local contenders in the various NWA territories. This has rarely been the case since TNA began using the titles in 2002, but TNA has leased the titles from the NWA until 2014, removing these obligations from the champion. The X Division Championship is a regional championship, created and owned exclusively by TNA. Wrestlers who win all three titles are said to have won the TNA Triple Crown.

Championship: Held by:
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett
NWA World Tag Team Champions The Naturals
TNA X Division Champion A.J. Styles

Organization

Episodes of iMPACT! and pay-per-views are booked by a committee headed by Scott D'Amore and containing Jeremy Borash, Mike Tenay, Dutch Mantell and Bill Banks. Other employees have a varying degree of influence, with Jeff Jarrett in particular regarded as politically powerful. As President of TNA Entertainment, Dixie Carter holds veto power over any decision.

X Division

The high-flying, high risk style of wrestling (derided by some as being spotfests) had been one of the key reasons viewers turned in to WCW and ECW. Rather than emphasizing the fact that most wrestlers who perform this style are under 220 lb (100 kg) by calling it a cruiserweight division, TNA Wrestling decided to emphasize the high risk nature of the moves these wrestlers perform (there is no upper weight limit on the X Division title, though in practice most of the champions have been cruiserweights). Although it was de-emphasized throughout 2004, the X Division is generally regarded as one of the key attractions of TNA, and was replicated in several other promotions.

Director of Authority

The TNA Director of Authority (DoA) is the (figurehead) head official of TNA. The DoA is given onscreen credit for making matches.

Championship Committee

The TNA Championship Committee was a group of wrestling veterans who acted as arbitrators, determining a winner in the event of a time limit draw. The Committee consisted of Harley Race, Larry Zbyszko and Terry Funk, with Funk later being replaced by Roddy Piper. After Race and Piper gradually departed TNA and Zbyszko was "promoted" to Director of Authority, the Committee essentially ceased to exist as a physical on-screen body, though it is still mentioned at times on-camera.

Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament

Beginning in 2005, the Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament is an annual tag team tournament held to commemorate the memory of the late Chris Candido, with each team containing both a young rookie and an established veteran. The 2005 Tournament was won by Sean Waltman and Alex Shelley.

Super X Cup Tournament

Beginning in 2003, the Super X Cup is a biennial tournament in which a number one contender to the TNA X Division Championship is crowned. The 2003 Tournament was won by Chris Sabin, and the 2005 Tournament was won by Samoa Joe.

See also

References

Official websites

Fansites

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