Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
	Total Nonstop Action Wrestling logo
Acronym	TNA
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee
Founder(s)	Jeff Jarrett,; Jerry Jarrett
Owner(s)	Panda Energy (71%); Jeff Jarrett (29%)
Parent	TNA Entertainment, LLC
Formerly	NWA-TNA

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, Tennessee, with an office in Orlando, Florida. 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.

TNA is the first American promotion to exclusively use a hexagonal ring as opposed to the more conventional four-sided ring (the Mexican Asistencia Asesoría y Administración promotion also frequently utilizes a six-sided ring). 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", and heels and faces approach the ring via separate entrances.

History

File:Nwatnaoriglogo.jpg

Old NWA-TNA logo.

After the closure of World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in March and April 2001 respectively, there was still a demand for Southern-style and cruiserweight wrestling that Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) 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 All-Stars, had attempted to fill the void that the closure of WCW and ECW left, TNA has experienced the greatest longevity. 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 (allegedly because he blackmailed Vince McMahon for a large sum of money to wrestle a single match 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, the HealthSouth Corporation, withdrawing financial support (HealthSouth was having its own problems, being investigated for accounting irregularities). 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 privately held 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 (Dickerson later left the company in November 2005, and was replaced by Kevin Day). 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 USD offer to buy TNA from Panda Energy. The offer was withdrawn on May 31, 2005 after Panda Energy failed to express any interest. A $20,000,000 USD bid by Morphoplex, a major TNA sponsor, in late 2005 was similarly rejected. ^[4]

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 USD 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, TNA Victory Road 2004, 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, ^[5] with the weekly PPV earnings being their main source of revenue.

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 WCW's Clash of the Champions and the WWF's Saturday Night's 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.

Since September 27, 2005, TNA has taped two episodes of iMPACT! every second Tuesdays, with the first episode airing on October 1, 2005. Unlike the Fox Sports deal, TNA is not paying for the timeslot; instead, Spike TV controls advertising revenue. The primary sponsor of TNA is the health drink manufacturer Morphoplex, which pays TNA $200,000 USD per month.

On November 7, 2005, it was confirmed that TNA have a video game deal with Midway Games. In the past, video games have been a major source of revenue for other wrestling promotions. The game will be titled TNA iMPACT! is currently scheduled to be released in 2007 for PS2 and XBOX.

TNA had long expressed an intention to begin touring in 2006, with many different potential target sites. The most likely of which were supposedly Buffalo, New York (which had been described by Dixie Carter as a strong pay-per-view market for TNA), Detroit, Michigan (where booker Scott D'Amore has staged many shows in the past) and the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where several former ECW employees have regional fanbases). TNA is scheduled to hold a house show at the Compuware Sports Arena in Plymouth, Michigan on March 17, 2006.

TNA has also worked out an agreement with Hermie Sadler's United Wrestling Federation to produce a series of TNA-brand House shows throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast area, the majority of which will be based in Virginia.

On February 6, 2006, citing viewership growth for the program, Spike TV announced that iMPACT! will be upgraded to a regular weeknight primetime slot, Thursdays at 9:00 PM ET, starting on April 13, 2006. Encore broadcasts will be moved to Saturdays at 11 PM ET.

Current champions

TNA recognizes the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships as their top titles. Traditionally, the world 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 the only championship created and owned exclusively by TNA. Wrestlers who win all three titles are said to have won the TNA Triple Crown.

Organization

Booking committee

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. As President and Vice President of TNA Entertainment respectively, Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett hold veto power over any decision. Prior to the creation of the committee, booking power was typically vested in the hands of a small number of people. Jeff and Jerry Jarrett were initially reponsible for booking, followed by Vince Russo, then by Dusty Rhodes. At times, the position of booker has been coterminous with the on-screen position of Director of Authority.

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 (for purposes of storylines and angles) it is still mentioned at times on-camera.

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. They represent TNA as a general manager or Chairman.

Erik Watts (July 23, 2003 - January 28, 2004)
Vince Russo (February 18, 2004 - November 7, 2004)
Dusty Rhodes (November 7, 2004 - June 16, 2005)
Larry Zbyszko (June 19, 2005 -)

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). To further emphasize this point, the slogan "It's not about weight limits, it's about no limits" was created by TNA and is used to describe the division. 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 independent promotions. It was featured in the October 4, 2005 DVD release "The Best of the X Division, Volume 1".

In November 2005, it was revealed that the X Division wrestlers consider that the division wrestlers are governed under an unwritten "code". This was after A.J. Styles confronted Samoa Joe after he had, according to Styles, breached the code by violently attacking his tag team partner Christopher Daniels, following their victory at TNA Genesis.

Tournaments

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 an annual 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. The 2004 Super X Cup was a twenty man gauntlet match held at TNA Victory Road 2004 that was won by Héctor Garza. However, Garza received no title shot.

America's X Cup Tournament

In early-2004, TNA hosted the America's X Cup Tournament that included Team USA, Team Canada, Team Mexico, and Team Britain. Team Mexico enjoyed the most success, winning the America's X Cup and defending it against the other Teams while never losing the Cup.

World X Cup Tournament

The follow-up to the America's X Cup Tournament, the World X Cup Tournament featured the previously named Teams with the exclusion of Team Britain. Team Japan was brought in to replace Team Britain. Team USA ended up winning the World X Cup Tournament.

On the February 18 edition of iMPACT!, Jay Lethal became the first member of 2006's Team TNA in the World X Cup, defeating Shannon Moore and Roderick Strong in a three-way.

References

External links

Official websites

Fansites

TNA:UK - United Kingdom TNA website, in-sync with TNA on The Wrestling Channel.
TNA UK - Additional United Kingdom TNA website, providing up-to-date news in-sync with TNA on SpikeTV.
TNARevolution - TNA Wrestling fan operated website
TNAEurope.com - fan site designed specifically for European fans
TotalTNA Another TNA fan site.
TNAHeadlines.com Great TNA Wrestling website featuring exclusive interviews, spoilers, news & results. Plus several TNA photo galleries!