How WWE’s Influence May Lead To New TNA Media Rights Deal
Two networks that currently air WWE shows and may be interested in airing TNA Impact as well.
TNA Wrestling President Carlos Silva recently spoke about how he is trying to find a new distribution deal for the 23-year-old wrestling company. Currently airing on AXS TV in the US, their television audience is small, so a move to a bigger network makes sense.
“We’ve been working on it since the beginning of the year, really since I joined. And it really has accelerated over the last 60 days.
I think we could be in a 60- or 90-day window to get something done. I mean, as you know, the media landscape is changing every single day, and literally week to week things are changing. It’s never done until the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed, but we’re working hard at it.”
When asked for more details about negotiations, Silva made it clear that it would likely lead to TNA going live nearly every week. Currently, TNA usually tapes most episodes of Impact in advance, but they do have some live episodes as well.
“We’ve been asked by many partners that they’d like it to be live 52 weeks a year. And so we’re talking through how we would do that. Maybe it wouldn’t go live in January straight away, 52 weeks. But we would certainly lean into that to try and make it happen now.”
WWE Influence Could Lead To TNA Finding New Home For Impact
As for what networks might want to show TNA Impact, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that The CW and A&E both have interesting. The CW airs WWE NXT on Tuesdays while A&E airs WWE LFG on Sundays, and has also shown other WWE shows on Sundays, including biography shows about the talent.
“Both A&E and The CW have been rumored as potential new broadcast partners for TNA. Due to the working relationship between the two wrestling promotions, WWE would have been involved in the discussions with either network.”
There is a WWE partnership with TNA that officially started earlier this year, and there are rumors that WWE might want to buy TNA as well.
It was theorized by Meltzer that Wednesday would be the “best night” for WWE’s interests by putting TNA against AEW Dynamite, but Sunday was also mentioned as a possibility since that’s the night when A&E has aired WWE shows in the past.