TNA Officials React To Rumours Of A Potential Sale
The ownership group of TNA Wrestling has responded to rumours about whether the company is actually for sale.
It’s a big weekend for wrestling Premium Live Events and Pay-Per-Views featuring some big companies. WWE has the main roster PLE Night of Champions on Saturday, June 27th at 1 p.m. ET from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and then on Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET is NXT’s Great American Bash from Orlando.
On Sunday night, June 28th, AEW is also presenting its annual Forbidden Door PPV with an 8 p.m. ET start time.
Meanwhile, TNA presents its annual Slammiversary PLE on Sunday, June 28th, with an early start time of 4 p.m. ET. It’s considered a smart strategy to avoid going head-to-head with other shows.
When AEW Owner Tony Khan was asked about buying TNA potentially for around $40 million, Khan scoffed at the idea and said no.
“No.” (laughs) “It has value. It would have to be the right price. The video library has a lot of great wrestlers over the years. Certainly not the top priority for me as an acquisition right now. It’s not something I’ve had any serious conversations about.
Like a lot of things in life, it could be an interesting purchase if the price was right, but isn’t that true of so many things in life? There are a lot of excellent automobiles that I would love to have in my garage, but it would depend on the price. At ($40 million), no, absolutely not.”
TNA officials are likely aware of the chatter, which is why PWInsider reached out to them for a comment. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reports that TNA and its parent company, Anthem Media, stated that the company is not up for sale and that Anthem has not been seeking a sale. Regarding the number that has been thrown around (perhaps the $40 million price tag), it would be “under valuing” TNA, according to sources at Anthem.
It was also added that WWE doesn’t have the right of first refusal to match any offers for the company. It was reported in the past that WWE’s deal with TNA would allow it to buy the company if the opportunity presented itself, but that may not be true.
PWInsider added this quote from a source within TNA/Anthem about the sale rumours.
“A social media account with no track record or real following threw out grandiose statements and everyone parroted it for no reason other than to grab attention for themselves.”
Another point made in the story noted that when former TNA Head of Creative Scott D’Amore tried to buy the company a few years ago, his attempt was shut down, and he was fired by the company.
Lineup For TNA Slammiversary
TNA Wrestling presents Slammiversary on Sunday, June 28th, beginning at 4 P.M. ET on TNA+ LIVE from the Agganis Arena in Boston, MA. The action begins with the Countdown to Slammiversary, streaming LIVE and FREE on TNA+ and TNA digital Platforms presented by iHeartRadio at 3 PM. ET!
Here’s the full lineup for TNA Slammiversary:
- TNA World Championship: Mike Santana (c) vs. Nic Nemeth
- TNA World Tag Team Championships Ladder Match: The System (c) vs. The Hardys vs. The Righteous vs. The Great Hands
- Knockouts Championship: Lei Ying Lee (c) vs. Xia Brookside
- X-Division Championship Ultimate X Match: Cedric Alexander (c) vs. Leon Slater vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Mr. Elegance vs. Fabian Aichner vs. KC Navarro vs. Amazing Red
- TNA International Championship: Mustafa Ali (c) vs. TBD (open challenge)
- Knockouts Tag Team Championship: Elegance Brand (c) vs. Rosemary & Allie
- No Surrender Match: Eddie Edwards (with Alisha Edwards) vs. Moose (with Johnny Dango Curtis)
- AJ Francis vs. Elijah (winner receives rights to Elijah’s music and likeness)
- Eric Young vs. Ricky Sosa
- Indi Hartwell vs. Mara Sade vs. Elayna Black (pre-show)
