Although Anthem is taking over TNA (and the deal may be signed as of today), there have been some delays with pay, at least with people in production. As of last week, there were people that were not paid for work they did through the October tapings even though they were told that the pay was coming to them last week. I would assume that all pay issues will be taken care of this coming week now that Anthem is in control. As we’ve noted before, Dixie Carter is out of power although she continues to promote the shows via her twitter account and she still lists herself as Chairman of TNA Wrestling but the reality is that Anthem is making the decisions now.
TNA is expecting their six-figure payment from Sony Six this week so that should cover any talent and/or production payments. The question is how does Anthem make money with TNA going forward? They are on a barter deal with Pop TV and if they want to get revenue coming in then it doesn’t seem like staying on Pop TV is ideal but networks are not exactly looking to shell out big money on professional wrestling. They also don’t have a UK TV deal after being dropped by Challenge TV. They are planning on doing house shows again but, as we saw with their house shows from 2015, it was tough for them to sell tickets and drawing 200-300 people to house shows is not going to make them profitable.
There are also plans to do a tour of India in the summer. The deal they have with Sony Six requires them to do a tour over there. They were supposed to tour in 2015 and 2016 and Sony Six could have terminated their contract with them but some sort of deal must have been worked out. At a recent meeting, Anthem overruled Dixie’s ideas to 12 weeks worth of tapings in India.
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