In a conference call back in May of 2012, TNA President Dixie Carter had discussed TNA Wrestling cutting back to 6-8 live pay-per-views a year. It looks like Carter is going all in on the old saying that sometimes less is more.
Impact Wrestling announced this evening their plans to overhaul their Pay-Per-View business model by reducing their live pay-per-view broadcasts to only four PPVs a year. The pay-per-views that make the cut? Genesis (January 13th), Lockdown (March 10th), Slammiversary (June 9), and Bound for Glory (October 13th).
The PPV pricing structure will change slightly as well. Beginning with Slammiversary, pay-per-views will be priced at $39.95, with Bound for Glory being the exception, priced at 44.95. The presumption is TNA wants to truly turn Bound for Glory into their WrestleMania.
Replacing the axed monthly live PPVs will be seven “One Night Only” pay-per-view specials, priced $14.95. The first two “One Night Only” specials have been announced to be the “Joker’s Wild Tag Team Tournament” and a X-Division show titled, “X-travaganza.”
PWInsider is reporting that the themes for the other shows will be:
- TNA Hardcore Justice 2: a “hardcore” show
- TNA “10 Reunion”: a reunion show featuring former stars and the return of the six-sided ring
- TNA Knockouts Knockdown: a Knockouts tournament show
- TNA International Incident: an International Tournament show for a TNA title shot
- TNA X-Division World Cup Tournament
- TNA World Cup of Wrestling: a 4-team series, composed of a Heavyweight, Tag Team, and X-Division wrestlers that culminates in a “two ring, triple chance Battle Royal.”
I must say, bravo to TNA for some truly outside the box thinking on this one. During the Monday Night Wars back in the Attitude Era the wrestling pay-per-view calendar bloated to the point where quite recently WWE was holding sometimes 2 shows a month. With buyrates in the crapper, it’s a smart move on TNA’s part to focus on upping the quality of their pay-per-view product.
Hopefully, less pay-per-views will mean longer feuds to build big pay-per-view matches, something sorely lacking in today’s world of monthly pay-per-view cycles. Another side effect of less pay-per-views is the possibility for these longer feuds to be blown off on Impact Wrestling, resulting in more quality matches on free TV. Always a good thing.
What’s your take? Smart move or Desperation Move?
CDWS on Twitter
People used to forget that this company lived on PPV for about 3 years (2002-2004) and had weekly $10 PPV’s. These prices are actually very reasonable compared to WWE. BFG, which is TNA’s “Wrestlemania” is $20 less than WWE’s Wrestlemania, and even the monthly “3 Hour specials” are fairly priced. I see nothing bad here… I’ve been saying TNA was too expensive for what they was putting on TV for years
I’m really intrigued to see how this works out for them. I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit of a shift in the way the PPV schedule is run overall.