News On TNA Live Event Attendance From This Weekend

There were three TNA live events this weekend that apparently had small crowds. They were TNA’s first live events in the US this year. TNA official Bob Ryder took to his Disqus account to play down rumors of poor live event numbers.

“Just dropping by for a quick hello. No questions, been a long weekend of house shows and I have an early flight. We had three good shows. Everybody worked hard and fans were entertained. First night we had 850, 500 in Morgantown, and 750 in Belle Vernon. For our return to the road after several months we were happy with the turnout and hope to build on those numbers with shows in Beckley, Salem, Thibodaux, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Biloxi.

Been reading some of the comments and some of you guys need to turn those frowns upside down! 🙂 We may not be announcing things on a time line you want us to, but we have some good things coming and will make announcements once we have finalized the things we are working on.
We are working on everything from how and where we promote house shows, to how we handle merchandise and photo opportunities at the shows, to looking at new talent, etc etc.

Don’t join the doom & gloomers who find joy in constantly predicting our demise. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon, and we are still a strong number 2 in the United States – nobody else is close.
If you will be in the Charlotte area please join us for BFG. If not, please watch the PPV.
Thanks for your continued passionate support of TNA. Good things are going to happen soon.”

Ski’s Take – So with all the bad press recently (click here and here for a recap), Mr. Bob Ryder has come out and used Disqus of all platforms to address some rumors and allay fans fears.

Now I have to talk about the elephant in the room and ask why he’s used Disqus to talk to the fans. Was he trying to release his comments, but bury them on a platform that wouldn’t get noticed? Who knows, I just feel it’s very very strange. Anywho……

Is he really serious by saying that TNA are a strong number two promotion in the States with house show numbers like that? RoH’s past few house shows have been legit sell outs. They have been touring the country non stop, had PPV’s (and some iPPV’s), and secured a TV deal on Destination America. Compare that with TNA’s first house shows this year drawing paltry numbers, very limited PPV’s and losing their TV deal for the second time in two years.

I really am not knocking or bashing the company at all. I know my last few articles have been about TNA, but that’s because I was fan at one point. When the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kaz, Christopher Daniels, Petey Williams et all where there, busting their asses every single week to make the show a legitimate contender for the number two spot. But then, for whatever reason (as many have been speculated over the years), it all quickly and quietly went wrong for them. Talent unhappy, crowds dwindling, network executives pulling the plug…..Dixie and co have, in my eyes, not done a single thing to correct it all.

I’m saying what I’m saying as I desperately need TNA as a whole to pull their head out of their ass and wake up. You can’t make comments like what’s been said today and recently without strong hard actions to make them count. Hell, if a little blogger like me can find out information I have given today, imagine what all the respected journalists can dig up.

Dixie, stop it with the blue sky thinking and comments, and start acting. Yes as Bob said, we fans are not happy with announcements coming on the timeline we want. That’s because the announcements have been few and far between, and so totally out there that they don’t make sense. You don’t have long left on the network that you’re broadcasting on. How about you make the last few months the best you and the company can possibly be? Show potential suitors what they could be getting from yourselves, pack it in with the announcements, tell your talent what the plan is going forward, and make the company what you and every wrestling fan wants…..a viable alternative and a strong number two promotion.

Thanks to WrestlingInc for the tip.