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TNA's New ROH Policy

Critic of the DawnPosted on 08/20/05 at 05:52:38

In a pre-pay-per-view meeting, TNA officials informed all superstars that they are no longer permitted to perform at indy shows that will be released on DVD and sold nationally through major stores such as Best Buy. TNA has their own DVDs coming out and they don't want their superstars competing with themselves. TNA officials made it clear to the wrestlers that they understand the importance of working the independent scene on their bottom line and DVDs that were released in house by indy groups (such as CZW, FIP and ROH) would not fall under the umbrella.
Source: PWI

From where I sit, this serves a dual purpose for TNA.  First of all, it keeps their wrestlers at least somewhat exclusive by limiting their availability to the mainstream audience to TNA products.  This makes perfect sense as a policy for TNA to undertake due to their new SpikeTV deal, which they hope will catapult them to ratings success.

The second purpose seems a bit less altruistic to me.  ROH as been purposefully put on the list of places where their workers are free to work, but considering I can't think of any indy promotions that ARE nationally distributed in major stores, it raises a thought in my mind.  Considering ROH is pretty much the only indy promotion in the country (other than TNA) that is nearly big enough to attempt a national distribution deal, this could be interpreted as a pre-emptive move by TNA.  The message from TNA's management to ROH seems fairly clear.  "We're willing to do business with you, but only if you limit your attempts at growth and accept this as a one-sided relationship."  

This leaves ROH with an interesting choice.  Either let TNA dictate the terms of their business model to them, or risk most of TNA's talent being taken off of ROH shows.  Considering the recent loss of Punk and the upcoming departures of Spanky and Gibson, this leaves ROH somewhat between a rock and a hard place.  To grow, they need established main eventers.  But by taking the steps required to keep two of their biggest stars (Styles & Daniels - more on Joe in a moment), they could limit their ability to deepen their fanbase.

Joe is an interesting exception to this.  I believe he has a clause in his contract that specifically prevents TNA from keeping him from working ROH shows.  While TNA probably can't outright forbid it, however, they CAN threaten to kill his push.  

This is definately good business by TNA, in that it leaves the door open to what is proving to be a very fruitful relationship with ROH while making it clear who is in control in the relationship.  Still.  As a big ROH fan, this annoys me, and I'm not sure whether Daniels and Styles are worth being in an appeasement relationship with TNA.  If Joe and possibly Austin Aries are added to that list, however... TNA will really have ROH right where they want them.  Much as I enjoy Homicide's work, he can't carry ROH's shows alone as their only consistent main eventer.

Eric "Critic of the Dawn"
AnubisPosted on 09/09/05 at 09:26:16

I dunno, I read your report from the ROH show you were at, and although I've never seen ROH, it sounds pretty damn good.  People are important, but so is booking.  It sounds like ROH could hold their own without TNA talent, it would just take them longer to build up.

Of course, that means this decisions seems to be to either choose the security of maintaining work with TNA and hope TNA makes it big so they can both profit, or take a chance of competing with TNA and later WWE as the ECW of the three (to compare to the previous wars) and hope they can pull through.

ROH seems to be managed better and booked about as well as ECW, so I see that as a fighting chance.  It really, in my opinion, depends on where ROH wants to go with their business.  If they WANT to compete on an international level, they need to break away from TNA.  If they're satisfied as they are, then no reason to shake the boat.

If all their shows are as solid as the one you described, I do believe they'd have a pretty good fighting chance there.  As for CM Punk doing well in WWE, well, I'm probably safely betting he'll never be World Champion there, but stranger things have happend.  He should really stick to the alternative shows because he's not exactly the WWE style; just ask Chris Jericho.
Psymin1Posted on 09/09/05 at 16:12:44

I read your report from the ROH show you were at
Where can you find these at?



~Pymin
AnubisPosted on 09/09/05 at 22:41:35

It's just a couple topics down, titled "The RoH Title Controversy".

http://www.tnm7.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=indy;action=display;num=1119192893

CotD posted it as the second post in respose to the OP.  Good stuff.