Watry Q&A: TNA Drama, WWE’s Use of Goldberg, More

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and October 2015’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

Backstory

Feel free to send feedback on this ‘once a month’ column. Should I continue it? Tweak the idea? Expand on the replies more? Let me know what you think going forward.

TNA Impact Wrestling Drama

JP Prag: If you want to delve deeper into this, you can research into why investors stay in unprofitable franchises. There are a number of case studies on unprofitable minor league baseball teams that lose money every year but the owners want no changes. Usually it is a way to create a loss on a personal income statement and lower assets on a balance sheet basis in order to lower effective tax rates or even owing taxes at all.

If the additional investment to keep the company going is less than the cost of paying taxes (because you can claim the whole loss of the business, not just what you put in, including non-cash items like depreciation and amortization), then it will make sense for some people to feel they have a right to do this.

Good stuff JP. Thanks for writing. This has always been a long standing theory on how/why TNA manages to continue. Panda Energy or whoever the heck is in charge these days can just use the failing entity as a tax write off and not care. As somebody noted in the comment section, isn’t this what Donald Trump has done to protect himself and bottom line elsewhere? If it is smart to do, then you do it. Pretty simple strategy.

As for TNA Impact Wrestling and their business practices, I have long questioned where they actually get money from to turn a profit, which they have reportedly been at various different times. Do they run weekend live events? Um, no. Have not for a long time, despite the BS “logistics” excuse the executives want to stooge off to reporters. The fact is the events were not profitable, so why bother? That takes care of that avenue. Then there is pay-per-views. Again, no. Not a chance people spend money on them. TNA told fans they were unimportant and worthless. In turn, the shows ended up being…unimportant and worthless. The company did that to themselves, all the while blaming the ‘PPV market’ and blah, blah, blah. Ask UFC how PPVs are. Ask Floyd Mayweather. Heck, even WWE still loads up their pay-per-views a few times a year. If you build it, they will come. TNA never did that. No money from PPV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfh5xoEI0_4

Television tapings? Nope, fans get in for free. No money. Rights fee to air on POP TV? Reportedly, it was a pay cut from Destination America in 2015 and was an even deeper pay cut from their tenure on Spike TV. All the while, other rumors suggest it is actually an ad revenue sharing deal. Since it is TNA and in the wrestling business, not much will come from sponsors, if anything at all. Again, no money. Merchandise? VIP packages? Right, like t-shirts and action figures are just flying off the shelves. Their DVD business is nearly non-existent, just as their main website (and Youtube page) is a laughing stock – instead of a viable extra source of income.

Long story short, none of this is new. I have eight years worth of columns discussing these things. Yet, NOW we are all supposed to be shocked by the impending lawsuits and debt? In October 2016, NOW we are dumbfounded?!?! Right. However TNA makes money or plans to make in 2017 is beyond me. Can’t just be a failing company and tax write off forever, can you?

WWE No Mercy 2016

Shawn Diiorio: No Mercy was historic. A jobber won in the main event.

…but Bray Wyatt won.

Oh, I see.

Ken Wood: How is BB Over the Top? Last season of BB was disappointing to me after Bridgette got kicked out. I literally didn’t care who won by the end, they all played such disappointing games.

This past summer’s season finale set me OFF! I wrote about it extensively last month (on another website). Bridgette has been super cool to my sister and I in the past, so she is in good standing with me. Big Brother Over The Top has been fine I suppose. American has A LOT of influence though. Luckily, their decisions have been in line with me. Otherwise, I’d be against the public having so much power. We will see if that backfires later on. Good idea on the 10 minute nightly recaps and one hour weekly Wednesday night episodes (both at 9pm central time) for those not wanting to watching everything 24/7 on the live feeds.

GOLDBERG!

WWEFan: Goldberg was booked as underdog against Triple H and Evolution which was a big mistake. And Goldberg should’ve won the title at SS. The guy was on fire that night. But politics and WCW stigma screwed Bill Goldberg in WWE.

Ah yes, the tired “politics and WCW stigma” junk. Gotta love internet fables. Goldberg beat The Rock clean, beat Chris Jericho clean, beat Christian repeatedly, looked ridiculously strong against Triple during their feud, pinned Shawn Michaels, pinned Randy Orton, beat mid-carder after mid-carded on RAW, winning over HHH twice (also clean) in World Title PPV main events, had a dominant Royal Rumble showing, got the spotlight on a Smackdown exclusive pay-per-view, and in his final match with the company defeated BROCK F’N LESNAR CLEAN at WrestleMania XX! Yep, that pesky WCW stigma and those darn politics…

Respectmyname: Steiner was horrible by then.He didn’t need the title

Still amazing to me that 13 years fans are still crying over Scott Steiner not doing well in WWE. Yeah, totally Triple H’s fault. Totally.

3 Colours Beige: One word: Nunzio.

A very good highlight of Bill Goldberg’s run in WWE. He lost what, twice? In a year? For a guy who was very clear in his desire to fulfill a one year contract and then leave, it is pretty special he looked THAT strong. Mind boggling folks proclaim otherwise. Shout out to HockeyFan91 for the logical comment on the subject.

The Darren: This wasn’t most memorable moments. It was an entire WWE retrospective.

Yes. Yes, it was.

The New Day

chris: New day and your columns ROCK

Thank you sir. Stay tuned. More goodness coming!

Michael Jad: New day rocked, now they suck.

Honestly, I never liked it when fans say a certain talent “sucks.” Seems kinda insulting past the point of critiquing. I only had it in the column because of the obvious New Day chant. Interesting opinion though because before they rocked, they didn’t exactly rock but now they do…or don’t anymore. Funny.

Francois Chamberland: Just a quick thing…you say that the fought the league of nation at Wrestlemania 32, which is correct, but one or two lines later you say that it was at Wrestlemania 33

Hey man, hope all is well! Only a typo, please do not mistake that for me wanting to see another match between The New Day and The League of Nations at WM33. No thanks! I would go back and edit it, but I don’t care. : )

Maravilloso: Every great angle, every great group, has an expiration date. It’s part of the business. In order for other teams or groups to rise up, New Day needs to be phased out until WWE plans what to do with Kofi, Xavier and Big E.

It has been two years. I am not ready for the group to break up. Not yet anyways. There are plenty of ways to shake up the formula than the standard “Turn them heel!!!” response. Be creative. Let them figure it out as a trio until they break the record. Then make a plan for WM33 and beyond. However, I do have my eye on the future for what each guy will do individually (again). Has to be on WWE’s mind as well.

Qwaar: So when do we think Watry jumped the shark?

Eight years ago when I wrote my first column?

AG Awesome: What bugs me is the tag title reign became a numbers thing rather than an actual memorable run. Besides them being pretty fun characters (who I still enjoy watching) they’ve done almost nothing with their time as Champs. I was hoping after the Dudley feud maybe they’d have a tougher, more serious side to their characters. A character element that enabled them to put the joking and silliness to the side when push came to shove with the right opponents. Instead they just went right back to being weird. Shame! Shame! Shame!

Speaking of the SummeSlam retaining… It was a big wasted opportunity to fix The Club’s awful booking. By destroying New Day’s chance at breaking Demolitions record they would have made The Club major heels while giving New Day a much needed new motivation and edge

That was my same argument. The Club were struggling without AJ Styles. The duo could have gained something had they won the tag titles and demolished The New Day at Summerslam. Given both teams a new attitude and demeanor. Nope, just the usual outcome, and now here we sit. Even as much as I didn’t care for The Wyatts feud (another non-title PPV loss for the longest reigning tag champs for those keeping score), the added intrigue over Xaver Woods acting serious was a welcome change for them. I loved it. Twenty four hours later, it was back to jokes and BOOTYOS cereal for Sonny Boy! Yet, John Cena gets flack for supposedly no-selling a loss…shocking…

TNA Talent To WWE?

Go2Sleep: I’m going to have to hit the Dummy Button on al of you for not mentioning E-Li-Drake!

A fine choice. That is part of the problem with only listing five guys – you have to leave some people out. Gail Kim, despite anything she says, has taken the big WWE payday before and likely will again. Some X-Division guys are always there for the new cruiserweight division on Raw. Jade had a couple of WWE appearances, so you know somebody had an inkling to sign her. Lots of wrestlers. Eli Drake is somebody I could see returning to WWE down the road. Right now though, he needs to turn the volume DOWN just a bit (from what I have seen). Conventional wisdom in wrestling is you take your true personality and turn the volume up. Well, not always. Drake can scale back on the unfunny comedy and be a legitimate player.

John Curiel: Shut up about WWE buying TNA!

To be fair, I never said it was happening and instantly shut down all the rumors to the contrary. Bad sources were reporting that junk. I could name names on the worst sources in wrestling, but if you haven’t figured it out by now, that is on you.

Jason S: But he doesn’t consider the TNA championship a “world title”, so therefore it doesn’t count. And when the creator of such riveting phrases as “Heck on a Deck” says something, rest assured, you should hang on his every word.

It isn’t an official World Title though. PWI finally got it right after years of debate. R-Truth isn’t a former World Champ, sorry. Nor is Chris Sabin or Eric Young. Christian is a two-time World Champion, with both reigns coming in 2011, not five or ten or however many times he won the belt in TNA. Same with Ring of Honor or any other place. Just because you are a company and have a top title defended all around the globe doesn’t make it a recognized World Title.

Dorath: No list with Jeff Hardy can be taken seriously.

Joking? Jeff Hardy will be back in WWE. It is just a matter of time. I won’t rehash history for you (assuming you watched WWE in 2009), but he was one of the biggest main event stars before leaving for TNA. Like top of the top of the top. Right next to DX, The Undertaker, and John Cena. Some may argue even above them in some areas. Pretty shocking he has been gone for seven years and hasn’t returned yet. It’ll happen eventually…

That does it for October. Now go read me boost numbers (as usual) in Wrestling Fact or Fiction and let me know if this concept is something you’d like to see again in November.

Self Promotion

Watch Big Brother Over The Top on CBS All Access.

NFL season is finally here! Colts over Packers is my Super Bowl pick, write that down.

Tons of columns posted last week – find them on my Twitter account! Speaking of…

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