There has been further details on the backstage reaction to TNA Wrestling’s cuts to several key names within the company.
On Thursday, May 30 several cuts within TNA were made by the promotion’s parent company: Anthem.
The names cut according to PWInsider were TNA’s Creative Director Dave Sahadi – who had been with the company for almost its entire history, as well as Head of Creative RD Evans.
Then, just days later on June 2, PWInsider would confirm another departure as one of Anthem’s highest ranking officials Lou D’Angeli was also let go.
D’Angeli served as Vice President of Marketing for all of Anthem and had previously held positions in Cirque du Soleil and WWE.
Following news of D’Angeli’s exit Dave Meltzer addressed the current state of TN, as well as the reaction within the company to the cuts:
“They have no marketing team, they have no live events team, they have nothing booked after… the first weekend of April – they have a taping booked in Tampa, but there’s nothing after that.
“What that means? Don’t know. In theory WWE is sending them talent for the next pay-per-view in exchange for Jordynne Grace working three dates for them, for WWE. I mean everyone’s kind of waiting, they know something’s up but they don’t know exactly what.
“Scott D’Amore was let go and when that happened it raised a lot of eyebrows. And D’Amore knew it was coming, tried to buy it and got turned down. From there, everything we had heard is that Anthem was trying to spend less.
“So I think the situation was… whatever the losses were, they were more than Anthem was happy with to keep the number one rated show that they have.”
Meltzer would then go on to comment on TNA IMPACT’s current performance on AXS TV:
In recent weeks they haven’t even made the Top 150 on Thursday nights, so I don’t even know what their ratings are other than number 150 is 0.01 so that tells you that they’re either 0.01 or 0.00. It means as far as 18-49 it means 19,000 or less in 18-49 in the whole country. For AXS TV it’s actually the highest rated show they have but 19,000 for the whole country that’s not a lot of people.
“Clearly, very clearly Anthem is looking to cut back on expenses for this project, for this company and what that means long-term remains to be seen.
The news has come on the back of what had been an exciting week for the company, with Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace appearing on NXT TV and follow up reports of future collaborations with WWE.
JJA Sport Studio will continue to provide updates on the situation as/when they become available.
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