"Just days before the move was announced, Destination America made the decision to cancel TNA Wrestling, with the time frame given at the end of the third quarter (roughly the last week of September, when the current television season ends). Key people at the Discovery Channel network were informed of the decision at that point.

The word internally was that while they considered the ratings good, the ratings were not good enough to justify the cost of the programming. The other problem was that so many regular station advertisers specifically did not want to advertise on the show.

It should be noted that when the word was sent out, it was stated specifically that TNA would remain on Friday nights, with original episodes, until that point, and informing people for the fall season plans for Friday nights. Just days later, they were moved to Wednesday.

The decision was meant to be kept secret, very much like Spike kept secret publicly last year its decision to drop TNA for months after the decision was made and reported. It doesn't serve the station or the promotion any good to publicly cancel the show this far in advance. The public acknowledgment was expected to come around the time the station listed its 2015-16 television season prime time lineup with the launch of up front advertising.

Those who were informed of the cancellation have not been told at this point anything different several days after the change of date was announced. But things obviously have changed, at least to the degree of moving days. So this story is very much ongoing. What is known is that Destination America reacts quickly to ratings. After the 3/13 episode, when the Friday show's numbers dropped to a new low, the decision was made to cancel the Saturday morning programming with the idea that eliminating the replay would help the Friday number, which is the only number they cared about. And Friday numbers did increase somewhat after that point. 

Eventually, they've dropped almost all their TNA programming except as far as time fillers, because of the difficulty in selling ads, and canceled all first run programming with the exception of the two hours of Impact airing multiple times on Friday nights. For the 5/8 show, the hope was going almost live would help deliver a big number, and Destination America also purchased an ad in USA Today to promote the show, thinking the added advertising and live would lead to an increased rating. Instead, the first episode did the second lowest number ever, and the replay, which is thought to be for the West Coast viewers in their prime time, did the all-time record low. Granted, that was more due to the NBA playoffs and going against a Cleveland Cavaliers game than anything else, but clearly the live hype meant nothing. Days later, the original decision to cancel was made." 

www.f4wonline.com/component/content/article/110-wrestling-observer-newsletter/42649-may-25-2015-wrestling-observer-newsletter-state-of-tna-nsacs-new-doping-penalties-and-more

shit

LOLTNA.

Im sure there will be another story disputing this considering the source, but we'll have to wait and see.

RIP

Sell the rights to Jeff Jarrett and let him rebrand TNA as Global Force Wrestling. Spike has always been far more interested in Jeff than they were in Dixie, anyway.

The TNA name isn't worth that much. It's better to just start off GFW with a clean slate.

I wish Dixie would let TNA just....die. It hasn't been that great [though recently with The Rising vs BDC...it has my attention] I have been following TNA since 04...and it is time to just let it go.

MooseNugget wrote:

The TNA name isn't worth that much. It's better to just start off GFW with a clean slate.

No, the TNA name is actually useless

but the rights to their trademarks "X-Division" and PPV names are worth a lot, as are their existing contracts with talents and their tape library, all of which could be part of the sale.

As noted, Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer that Destination America has canceled TNA effective the end of September. You can read Meltzer's full, detailed report in The Wrestling Observer (subscription required) by clicking here.

Meltzer noted that the main issue has been the cost of programming and advertising rates, as many regular sponsors on the station did not want to advertise on TNA programming. Meltzer also noted that the cancellation was announced to key employees before Destination America made the decision to move Impact Wrestling to Wednesdays and that the story "is very much ongoing." Because the cancellation was announced before the move to Wednesdays, the cancellation isn't definite, although he noted that it wasn't a good sign that people at the station haven't been told anything new since being informed of the cancellation.

TNA's Bob Ryder responded to the reports on Twitter, writing:

For almost 13 years some people have predicted we were about to go out of business. It's no more true today than it was then. #StandUp
— Bob Ryder (@brydertna) May 21, 2015


It should be noted that Ryder didn't mention anything about the promotion being cancelled, but rather tweeted about it folding.

its really sad tho seeing this happen to them. Yes they made mistakes year in and year out...but this is something that shouldn't be celebrated or anything.

Des America are fucking idiots, and a typical actions of a 3rd rate network. They're mad about the ratings...what the fuck do the expect...TNA is on a 3rd rate network on Friday night. You really think that was a good idea? Friday nights are a suck night for rating on any network.

Des America should be doing back flips and sucking TNAs dick because they are able to draw in 400,000 people to watch because everything else on their sucky ass network is god awful.

You put them on a awful night, you do an awful job in promoting them, and your a fucking premium network that people will have to pay 40 more dollars to get and you expected TNA a 2nd rate company to draw 1st rate ratings.

Fucking idiots.

The problem for Destination America is even though Impact does get higher ratings than any other show they have advertisers are not going to want to run ads on a pro wrestling show. Impacts brings in more viewers but it I guess it's not making Des America enough money to continue airing TNA.

I think it would have worked if TNA brought in viewers that would stick around and watch other shows. A rising tide lifts all ships short of deal. But TNA just doesn't mesh well with the other programming that's on that network.

Des America had to be fucking idiots if they thought TNA was going to bring in big numbers. No one is going to throw away 40 dollars a month for a package they will barely use for one show. Des America has shitty ass shows and TNA hands down in the best thing they have going for them.

I guess Bull doesn't like shows about Big Foot

I mean they should have at least given them 24 months to see what they can do. They barely have been there half a year.

- TNA has issued a statement titled “Regarding IMPACT WRESTLING” after the report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter yesterday that Destination America made the decision to cancel Impact Wrestling. The statement reads as follows:

“It has come to our attention that several internet news sources have falsely attributed statements to TNA, its executives and broadcasting partner. These false statements constitute defamation and if necessary we will seek all legal remedies available to us.”

Bull wrote:

its really sad tho seeing this happen to them. Yes they made mistakes year in and year out...but this is something that shouldn't be celebrated or anything.

Des America are fucking idiots, and a typical actions of a 3rd rate network. They're mad about the ratings...what the fuck do the expect...TNA is on a 3rd rate network on Friday night. You really think that was a good idea? Friday nights are a suck night for rating on any network.

Des America should be doing back flips and sucking TNAs dick because they are able to draw in 400,000 people to watch because everything else on their sucky ass network is god awful.

You put them on a awful night, you do an awful job in promoting them, and your a fucking premium network that people will have to pay 40 more dollars to get and you expected TNA a 2nd rate company to draw 1st rate ratings.

Fucking idiots.

Destination America went above and beyond to promote Impact, 100x more than Spike ever did.

I think Destination America just woke up to the fact advertisers hate wrestling because advertisers are retarded.

We previously reported that the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer featured a report that Destination America is planning on cancelling, or has given order to cancel TNA programming on the network. Dave Meltzer of the Observer mentioned that the cancellation was a decision made before Impact Wrestling’s move to Wednesdays, starting June 3rd.

TNA creative member and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan responded to these reports, and replied to a comment made by “Sign Guy Dudley” Lou D’Angeli of ECW fame. D’Angeli said TNA losing a TV deal is nothing to celebrate; Corgan said the situation is a “sloppy angle” and there are truths unreported, and that the person reported (Meltzer), is being “worked himself” by the situation.

Corgan also said he speaks from experience, in that Meltzer has made claims and reports without statement before, including against Corgan himself.

Well that sucks. TNA was really on the way to turning people like EC3 and Rockstar Spud to huge stars.