Spike TV’s parent company Viacom is not planning on commenting on the current situation with Spike TV apparently not planning to renew iMPACT! Wrestling. A source indicates that Viacom does not want to ruin what little leverage TNA has. This is because when WWE returned to the USA Network in 2005, Viacom publicly announced that it was not renewing its deal for WWE Monday Night RAW. This hurt WWE’s negotiating power in the midst of a deal and caused a lot of professional bitterness between the two powers. Viacom wants to avoid a similar incident with TNA.

Two of the factors being discussed are how much Spike can make off staying in business with TNA and the issue with Vince Russo. The source says the Russo issue is not as big of a deal as people have made it out to be, despite Russo officially leaving TNA on Wednesday. The deal comes down to money at the end of the day. TNA’s iMPACT! Wrestling is still the top rated show on Spike TV and pulls in more viewers than any other programming on the channel. However, due to the money Spike TV is putting into iMPACT!, the costs of licensing, and the lack of significant ad revenue, Spike wants to make up for its losses by airing cheaper programming with better advertising in those time slots. A similar situation occurred with WWE Saturday Morning Slam and Main Event. Both shows drew better numbers than comparable shows on their respective networks, but both shows were not renewed for the same reasons.

If Spike TV does offer TNA a new deal, the offer TNA would have to accept is too low for the company to continue operating in its current form. TNA management promised the roster some type of good news by the next set of iMPACT! Wrestling tapings in two weeks. So we could know more about TNA’s future by around that time.

Then fucking advertise, how hard is it to get ad revenue in this day and age?