Impact Zone or Pay Per View Zone?

By Chad Smart

I touched on this a few months ago when I wrote about different aspects of business TNA needed to change. With the announcement of Slammiversary taking place in Orlando at the Impact zone, I felt compelled to do a full write up about how TNA needs to stop doing pay per views from the same place they do weekly television.

I still don’t understand why TNA considers Bound For Glory their Wrestlemania. Yes, it was their first Sunday night three-hour pay per view, but in my eyes, Slammiversary should be their biggest show as it’s celebrating the formation of TNA. Plus it’s the only TNA show to include a number instead of the year. You know, the same way Wrestlemania is talked about by which Wrestlemania it is instead of the year it took place. If I ever get to talk to anyone in TNA management one of my top ten questions will be to explain their reasoning in this regard. Even if Bound for Glory is their main priority when it comes to pay per views, Slammiversary should at least be one of their top four shows. Right?

I bring this up because as I said in the intro, Slammiversary is going to be held at the Impact Zone in Orlando this year. Looking at past Slammiversary events, three have been held outside of Orlando while this year marks the fourth time (and 2^nd consecutive year) it is being held in Orlando. While TNA has seemed to commit to Bound for Glory and Lockdown being held outside Orlando on a yearly basis, why have they seemed to default back to Orlando for Slammiversary?

I know nothing about the inner workings of TNA. I don’t know how big the company is employee wise, or how many departments make up TNA. For all I know they could have ten guys doing the job of 50. Or at least that’s how I hope TNA is structured given their head scratching decisions sometimes. Could they not find a venue to run Slammiversary in or did they not think about Slammiversary until Lockdown was over? Is it simply more cost effective to run a PPV from the Impact Zone?

Whatever the reasoning, in my opinion, running Slammiversary in the Impact Zone cheapens the show from being a must see event to being another run of the mill show. Any PPV at the Impact Zone looks just like an episode of Impact because it’s the same layout, the same set, and the same fans. Nothing screams, hey look at me I’m a meaningful show. If TNA doesn’t care enough to make the show something special, why should the fans care?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it over and over again I’m sure, TNA has been around for almost 9 years yet has made minimal growth in that time. The only growth that can be seen externally is the growth of the number of ex-WWE Superstars on the roster. While they are doing more house shows than they were five years ago, attendance for those shows are more in line with what Ring of Honor is drawing rather than what WWE is drawing. TNA has a weekly show and monthly PPVs. Ring of Honor sells DVDs of shows and has an Internet PPV every couple of months.  After 5-6 years of having a weekly national show and monthly PPVs, there is no reason for TNA to still not being able to pack venues ECW was packing back in the ‘90s.

I’m getting off track. I’ll save my, “why hasn’t TNA gotten out of the starting blocks” rant for another time.  The purpose of this writing was simply to take TNA to task for not running more PPVs outside the Impact Zone. If they’re going to do 12 shows a year they should really try to make each one unique. And if that’s too much to ask, they should at least make their top 3 shows unique. Is that too much to ask?