This week’s wrestling news cycle has become dominated by talk of WWE wanting to put AEW out of business. Rumors and reports have covered possible plans for adding a September premium live event to run on the same day as All Out, moving John Cena’s final match to oppose another AEW PPV, and helping TNA Wrestling land a media rights deal that would put Impact live on Wednesdays at the same time as Dynamite
.Now, we’re hearing even more about how the TKO-owned company’s existing partnership with TNA
could factor into the strategically-logical-yet-still-nasty business of wiping the closest thing WWE’s had to a competitor in a long time off the board entirely.
A rumor about Lorenzo Fertitta, who along with his brother Frank sold UFC to Ari Emanuel & team in 2016 for an estimated $4 billion, buying TNA picked up steam last night (Aug. 14). That was because Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp posted about it on social media to promote his Fightful Select post on Fertitta’s interest.
Sapp opened his report by indicating he wasn’t putting much stock in the rumor, writing that he was just “relaying some wild unsubstantiated rumors that are going to emerge regardless”. He wrote that Fertitta’s name “emerged from meetings this week”, pointing to this Conrad Thompson tweet as a sign of the chatter:
Sapp mentions that “TNA being on the market is nothing new”, reminding us of the offer they turned down from Scott D’Amore last year and two instances of Tony Khan having an opportunity to buy the promotion from current parent Anthem Sports & Entertainment. One of those was said to be before AEW launched, another “a few years ago”. A source told Sapp that the latter fizzled because “there wasn’t a lot of value for AEW in a TNA purchase, as most of the veterans in the company are on the ROH library as opposed to TNA’s.”
Whether or not UFC boss Dana White’s long-time business partner Fertitta does make an offer for TNA, WWE reportedly has an offer to match or beat any purchase price Anthem is offered for the promotion. The comes from today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, where Dave Meltzer writes that WWE’s arrangement with TNA is “similar to the deals WWE had offered various European groups” like wXw, Progress, and OTT. In addition to the talent swap element of the deal we see play out on Tuesday and Thursday (and occasional weekend) nights, “WWE also has the right of first refusal to match any other offers for TNA.”
And that brings us back to TKO & WWE’s alleged mission to drive Tony Khan out of the wrestling business. Metlzer again:
The idea is that anyone who buys [TNA] would do so with the idea of being friendly with WWE, not with the idea of being an enemy… The idea is to use the partnership and get TNA to the No. 2 spot, thus hurt AEW’s popularity and ability to get the next television contract in 2027.
Whoever this “friendly” future TNA owner is, they’ll supposedly put WWE’s interests first in their thinking about a new TV contract:
The key is that TNA will do much lower numbers on a Wednesday… The only people who benefit from it on Wednesday… are those who want to see AEW’s numbers hurt more than TNA’s numbers succeed.
In addition to NXT’s existing home The CW’s reported interest in TNA’s weekly show, Meltzer says A&E, WWE’s partners on shows like LFG and Rivals, could pursue Impact’s rights. TNA president Carlos Silva has said they’re working with CAA to secure their next media rights contract.
More to come, no doubt.
