News On TNA Wrestling Having Payment Issues

Earlier this year, TNA Wrestling moved to a new channel in Destination America and thus far have delivered ratings that has made the channel very happy. However, the stigma and reputation that TNA developed during their days with Spike TV, has once again reared their ugly head. According to a report from PWInsider TNA is in the middle of an issue with its roster and paying them on time. Here are some excerpts from PWInsider’s report by Mike Johnson.

TNA is well behind on pay to their wrestlers, according to many talents who reached out to PWInsider.com under the agreement of anonymity over the past several weeks. One wrestler claimed the company is behind two pay periods while others have claimed they are still owed money dating back to February. With no TNA dates scheduled until the live Impact broadcast on 5/8, it has been a growing source of aggravation for TNA wrestlers as they are working the indy scene to supplement their TNA income.

In asking sources within the TNA office in Nashville, I am told that the pay issues are legitimate and have been a source of great frustration within Nashville over the last several weeks as well. While one source I spoke to denied talents were behind two pay periods, they did concede they have been behind on checks being cut to talents and that it was something TNA was trying to get a handle on over the last week.

There are notes in the story that also bring up how there’s been a bit of a hassle trying to get checks cut for the company, as they’re actually outsourced from Dallas where their parent company, Panda Energy is located. Panda Energy apparently moved their offices recently and the department that cuts the checks was closed during this time, so that also added to the time period of them falling behind on payroll.

Not to mention that TNA recently ran quite a bit of One Night Only PPV Tapings. These PPV’s don’t generate revenue for months to come, if at all, but their payroll increases due to bringing people for one off situations.

Frustrations with the TNA roster have started to boil over, as they were already forced to take on far more independent show bookings to generate income. TNA last taped shows for Destination America in mid-March and do not have any tapings scheduled until May 8th. TNA has also decided not to run any live events in 2015 as a cost cutting measure while they get situated with Destination America and get their financials in order. There have been other rumors of some live events happening again, but so far nothing has been announced. Unfortunately for the roster, the company has only been half successful on those items.

K-Tank’s Take: It’s bad enough if you’re a supporter of TNA Wrestling, having to watch the most popular roster members in TNA history leave, such as AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, & Velvet Sky. Now though, they can’t even pay the people who they convinced to stay.

Reading the article, it doesn’t sound like a situation where TNA is in the red and simply can’t afford the roster they had, and is possibly just a one time mix up that will be rectified soon. However, it does nothing for morale in the company when you go two months without booking a show and there were some wrestlers that spoke to PWInsider anonymously that said they were owed from February still.

The venture to Destination America has been successful, according to press releases sent by the channel, but TNA is never going to outrun their past skeletons and reasons why people gave up on them over the last couple years, if stories like this are going to keep coming out.

As I’ve stated in every recap I’ve done for Impact thus far on the site, TNA is putting on a quality product and deserves to be sought out by fans that may have given up on them, but when something like this comes out, those same people are going to just keep believing that TNA will die soon. I hope for the roster and the fans that stuck around, that this will just end up being a minor speed bump in an otherwise successful ride on Destination America.