MVP’s biggest what-if from his TNA run is Spike TV buying the company outright, and he thinks the network had a reason to want it.
He set the argument out on Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze, while being careful about what he actually knows.
“For me, my experience, the biggest what if I think would be what if Spike was actually allowed to buy Impact. And again, I don’t know the exact facts on this, but I was told the rumor was people have said that Spike was interested in buying Impact without Dixie, or without Dixie having an on-screen role.”
The timing, as he understands it, was tied to Spike losing its biggest property.
“I know at one point because Spike lost UFC, and that was a big deal for them. And they were, as I understand it, there was interest from Spike because behind one or two other shows, I think Impact was the highest-rated show on Spike, and it had the Cops lead-in.”
UFC moved from Spike to Fox at the start of 2012, taking with it the programming the network had built much of its identity around. Impact continued to affect Spike until the relationship ended in 2014.
TNA moved to Destination America in January 2015, a channel MVP says he had only heard of because of a cable package he bought for something else.
“I remember when the executives came in, and they gave us these hoodies and all this. And Destination America, the only reason I knew it existed was because I paid for the extra channel on my cable, the extra tier, so that I could get beIN Sports that had all the soccer.”
“Destination America was rednecks looking for Bigfoot, rednecks barbecuing, rednecks looking for ghosts, fishing, rednecks fishing. And somehow, oh, and wrestling too.”
He said each move took the company further down.
“After Destination America dropped, then they went to I don’t even know. But they went from having a very good deal with Spike to getting a lot less with another network, to getting even less with whatever.”
TNA moved from Destination America to Pop TV at the start of 2016, and the company changed hands the following year when Anthem acquired it from Dixie Carter. MVP was clear that none of this is a criticism of where the company is now.
“Hey, they’re still around, and they’re doing great business now.”
He has a line he has used about the company for years, and said it was harder to deliver this time.
“This kind of stings because Sabu is no longer with us. He passed on. But I tell the time when the apocalypse comes, the only thing that will still be around will be rats, roaches, Sabu, Sandman, and Impact Wrestling. They just won’t die. They will not die, and that’s good for the wrestling fans. That’s good for all my people that work there.”
Sabu died in May 2025 at the age of 60. He came back to who he thinks should have been running it.
“At one point, man, Impact had so much momentum, and their ratings were strong on Spike. So again, I say my biggest what if was what if Spike bought Impact and people who really knew wrestling ran it.”
He also raised a second what if, about the arrivals who were brought in to turn the company around.
“I think what if Bischoff and Hogan never came in? What if the people that killed WCW weren’t brought in to save him?”
Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joined TNA in late 2009 and were the dominant creative force there for several years. Both had held senior positions at WCW during the period in which it lost its position to WWE and was eventually sold.
