TNA/WWE Sale Rumors Go Back To June – TNA Calls Corgan a ‘Predatory Lender’, Corgan Says TNA Likely Misled WWE

According to Pwinsider.com, while Billy Corgan’s lawsuit is still sealed, his response to TNA’s claims was filed with the Chancery Court this morning.

Corgan stated that “Defendants first attempt to portray Corgan’s complain and application for injunctive relief as nothing more than a back-handed grab for power.” He says that he has great passion for TNA Wrestling’s talents and fans and that the “last thing” he wanted to do was file suit, but he had done everything he could to avoid litigation and was forced into it due to the defendants’ “repeated willful disregard of their contractual obligations to him.” he then claims that documents produced on their own “demonstrates that defendants have been engaging in an orchestrated effort” to deprive Corgan of those contractual rights.

The TNA side is arguing that any injunction should be denied because they “have secured financing to pay Corgan the full amount to which he is entitled.” Corgan responded that is false and “defendants have merely obtained a proposal for financing a portion of the amount Corgan is due, and that financing proposal is premised upon conditions that cannot be fulfilled, named obtaining a release from Corgan that is not obligated to provide and will not provide for various reasons.” TNA wanted him to release them from all claims in order for Corgan to get his money, which he refused.

In regards to TNA being insolvent, Corgan claimed that the defendants have attempted to provide “circumstantially” that Impact Ventures is solvent based on “a jaundiced view of certain investment and asset purchase proposals. Even so, Impact Ventures’ true debts are higher than any value of its assets even suggested by that circumstantial evidence. Thus, it is clear that Impact Ventures is insolvent and that Corgan is entitled to exercise Mrs. Salinas’ voting rights in the company.”

The response also say that the defendants have labeled him as a “predatory lender” with “strong arm loans.” Corgan responded that he took the risk of investing “significant sums” into Impact to save it from being “shuttered” and negotiated “at arms-length” terms that all parties agreed to. His goal now is to stop the defendants from reneging on their promises to him. Corgan noted that “adding insult to injury, the documents the Court ordered defendants to produce demonstrate that defendants misled Corgan every step of the way.”

In order to prove TNA insolvent, Corgan noted the following issues, which have gotten progressively worse since August…

* The American Express, Audience of One and Bankcredit Capital Finance lawsuits.

* The company being in such “dire straits that it was unable to pay officers’ salaries” as of August 31st; specifically noting that Dixie Carter and Serg Salinas are owed in back pay.

* As of September 1st, “checks issued to talent bounced”, with Dean Broadhead stating in one document, “We owe talent money. We owe employees money. we (sic) many vendors money.”

* As September 8th, Impact Ventures was unable to pay its state taxes, leading to the tax lien.

* As September 8th, the company’s operating account was overdrawn by [redacted] yet the company had trade accounts payable totaling at least [redacted.]

* As October 3rd, Impact Ventures was unable to pay vendor “Seismic Sound” a redacted amount, leading them to threaten collection actions.

* November TV tapings were postponed due to lack of funding.

* The defendants not paying talent and blaming Corgan and the temporary restraining order for not paying them.

* The company owes money to a “SRX Consultancy.”

Corgan went on to say, “Although expressly stated, defendants also appear to argue that they can continue to dig the company deeper and deeper into a financial hole by obtaining additional debt to fund their operations.” Added that even after they secured a loan from MCC Acquisitions in September, it was not able to finance it’s production of tapings in October as well as avoid the plethora of collection lawsuits and the tax lien. Corgan added, “Simply put, it defies logic to assert that Impact Ventures can somehow make itself solvent by becoming more and more insolvent.”

Corgan argues that the defendants have not provided the Court with “any direct evidence of the value” of their assets. “Instead, defendants only offer weak circumstantial evidence in the form or investment and asset purchase proposals from Corgan and WWE.” Corgan adds that the evidence “does not even come remotely close” to proving the company is solvent.

Corgan again states that he was never told the true nature of the company’s debts and that it is unclear if the company ever “advised” WWE what the levels of Impact Ventures’ debts were in September 2016. The filing goes onto say “If defendants falsely represented to WWE that the company’s liabilities were only [redacted] as stated in the June 30, 2016 balance sheet, the evidentiary value of any “offer” WWE may have made would be even more dubious.”

Corgan is arguing that he has the right to either demand payment or convert his debt into a 36% ownership of the company.