The arguments against this are obvious. All of their
employees, from the wrestlers to the ring crew to the caterers, live in the US.
That creates a travel issue. For some it would probably create visa issues too.
TNA would have to fly their roster over regularly or encourage them to
relocate, the latter option seeming massively unlikely. They’d also have to fly
over their ring crew, or hire new people to do the same job over here. The
former is a huge financial and logistic inconvenience, the latter a move that
would almost certainly cause resentment and a good deal of head shaking.
Then there’s the loyal following the company has in the
US. No, it’s not much of one but it’s there. It’s possible those fans would
feel abandoned or, for want of a better word, cheated if TNA were suddenly a
promotion based abroad. That would almost certainly be the case with the crowd
TNA gets at its regular haunt in Orlando. TNA is not in a position to be
courting displeasure so that’s a pretty big concern.
I also think there would be a stigma attached to moving
TNA out of North America. Basically big time wrestling in the west occurs in
North America, thanks in large part to the global dominance of Vince McMahon
and his merry sports entertainment troupe. TNA already has the stench of
inferiority. Moving to another country, no matter what benefits it carried,
would look like a retreat, a backward step, an acknowledgment from TNA that
they can’t compete in North America. That’s obviously not something TNA should
be courting.
But there would be benefits to the relocation. Clearly,
otherwise why would I bother suggesting it?
The obvious one to cite is TNA’s immense popularity in
Britain. The group’s annual television tapings in Britain are renowned for
attracting the biggest crowds of the year. This year the crowds TNA drew
exceeded those they’ve had for pay-per-views in the States. British fans seem
keener on the TNA product, perhaps because there are less options for wrestling
on a televised level in Britain, making said supporters more interested in
seeing a televised product that can challenge WWE’s dominance. If they feel TNA
has a shot at doing so they’re wrong, but it would be a neat explanation.
For whatever reason TNA attracts large crowds in Britain
and is routinely the most watched programme on Challenge, the channel they air
on here. So running tours in Britain would get TNA better crowds. And they’d be
able to use arenas of the same sixze they already do but have them filled. That’d
be nice for them, I’m sure.
They’d also have access to a competitive production
industry and great talent who would not only be cheap to hire but who are
unknowns in mainstream wrestling. An influx of dozens of new names all at once
wouldn’t work but if they were staggered and filtered in over time TNA would be
able to build up a fresh roster, something they’ve been in desperate need of
for a long time now, without paying through the nose.
Imagine getting to see this guy more often! |
We’re not just discussing British wrestlers here. TNA
would be able to make greater use of wrestlers based in mainland Europe (or,
more simply, Europe, as tends to be said here) were they based in Britain. Wrestling
is big in Germany and Italy, for example. They’d still need to pay travel costs
(or at least I assume they would) but it would be less expensive than flying
guys to Orlando and would allow TNA to present itself as a global organisation
with stars from a variety of countries.
This wouldn’t necessarily prevent TNA from running shows
in the Americas. They could simply spread their efforts there out a little
more. In theory that should make TNA a hotter ticket when they return to the
homeland, although there we get into the whole quagmire of the booking of the
TNA product, which is an entirely different story. Suffice it to say that TNA
could cut down to two or three multi-day blocks of television tapings a year in
North America for a year or two and not feel any ill-effects from it.
At the moment Britain and Ireland get two WWE tours and
one TNA tour a year. Besides that all that’s available are smaller scale
independent groups of varying quality. Some of them are great and they bring in
talent from all over the world. But they don’t use big arenas and their shows
do not have the frequency of TNA’s. For the sort of event we’re discussing you
need WWE or TNA.
The argument to the case in favour of a move is that the
UK market would get burnt out quickly. And that’s not entirely unreasonable. At
the moment British fans can see TNA as a novelty and an underdog to support as
opposition for WWE. People will buy a ticket to go to their local TNA show in
Britain regardless of storyline content because the opportunity only comes up
once a year.
It’s a treat, but that would quickly change for most
members of the public if TNA became a regular fixture. The boundless optimism
of the British public with regard to TNA is a myth, in that it’s not boundless.
Overexposure to the nonsense of the average Impact would numb people’s passion
and that would lead to decreased ticket sales and less rowdy crowds. Then TNA
would be back to the position they’re in now, only they wouldn’t even have a guaranteed
hot set of shows to fall back on once a year.
But that would take time to come about. I think TNA could
get eighteen months or two years out of Britain if they planned their show
dates well enough and managed a marked improvement in storyline content while
over here. Personally I’d organise four blocks of TV tapings a year, in London,
the northwest, Scotland and Ireland. Those are the areas that seem to have the
most passionate TNA fans (and wrestling fans in general) in the British Isles
and visiting them once a year would help TNA to avoid oversaturating the
market. They could head to the US for the rest of their shows. My excellent
maths skills tell me (working on the basis of recording six TV shows over three
days every month and a half) that this system would require four returns to
North America every year, and that’s assuming they wouldn’t want to do two
tapings at the same British Isles location in a year, which they could probably
get away with.
On the whole I think a relocation is something that could
work to TNA’s advantage. It would let them make better use of their most
passionate fans and bring in new talent to create the illusion that they’re a
thriving, expanding promotion. That’s precisely what they need to do if they’re
to survive.
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