TNA 5/31 Show Cancelled; WGN Deal Confirmed

Date Added: May 26, 2005

The following is From BetweenTheRopes.com's message board:

Sources have confirmed to Between The Ropes the following details on TNA Wrestling's television future.

This Tuesday's TNA Impact tapings on May 31 at Universal Orlando are cancelled. With the Fox Sports Net deal expiring this weekend, television will go dark temporarily.

As we've speculated all week, TNA will begin on Monday nights in prime time on WGN from 8:00pm - 10:00pm ET. The start date on WGN will be the day after Slammiversary - Monday, June 20.

The WGN show will air live every other week on Monday's from Universal Orlando. Shows will be taped on Tuesday's to then air the following week. The first live show will be Monday, June 20 with a taping on June 21 to air on Monday, June 27 on WGN.

TNA should make an official announcement imminently.

Hopefully it all works out. I only watched Impact once and it was at 4 AM on a Saturday morning. Their FOX Sports timeslot sucked.

Well, It Looks Like I Won't be watching them anymore. I Don't get WGN, And even if I Did, I Wouldnt watch TNA Over Raw.

I certainly will be flipping channels. The biggest downfall to this is that less people have WGN than FSN.

AW Crap!Another Monday Night Rivalry is gonna start now :mad:

AW Crap!Another Monday Night Rivalry is gonna start now :mad:


A rivalry isn't a bad thing. It will force Vince to stay on his toes. However, some of the big differences are:

1. WGN isn't seen as nearly as many homes as USA/Spike TV

2. TNA doesn't have the money that WCW had

3. TNA has some great young talents, but do not have marquee names that will attract the casual fan.

WGN use to show WCW back on Saturday Mornings around 1990-1992.

I hope that AJ Styles comes to the WWE.He could have great matches with Shelton Benjamin,RVD and Rey Mysterio

Ugh, I don't like flipping channels. :-/

I certainly will be flipping channels. The biggest downfall to this is that less people have WGN than FSN.

The one positive thing I feel about TNA being on WGN instead of FSN is that at least, TNA will have a stable time slot. When TNA was on FSN, they put it on Friday afternoons (most of the time). I don't even think that all of FSN's affiliates had the TNA program. TNA had to pay FSN for the time slot rather than being able to truly make a profit off of their show.

I kind of see TNA as the only real worth successor to WCW (in terms of providing an alternative to the more cartoonish WWE). Unfortunately, TNA doesn't have a wealthy benefactor so to speak like Ted Turner was for WCW. It's too bad that TBS doesn't seem to be attempting to jump the the TNA bandwagon. It seemed sort of like an institution to watch Jim Crocket Promotions/World Championship Wrestling on Saturday afternoons on the TBS (which like WGN, is a "Superstation").

AW Crap!Another Monday Night Rivalry is gonna start now :mad:


i think its a great idea. We can flip back and forth now when Viscera is trying to shake his big ass!

Major Breaking News On Spike TV/TNA Negotiations
Date Added: June 20, 2005
Story By: Tim Brown
The following is from MultiChannel.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. fare will depart this fall, but Spike TV evidently won’t go without grappling.

Sources close to the network said the men’s-targeted service is finalizing a deal with Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (TNA) for a weekly late-night run.

Just two weeks ago, it appeared as if TNA was moving toward a pact with Superstation WGN, but sources said those negotiations broke down late last week.

Spike officials would say only that the network is in “continuing discussions” with the upstart pro-wrestling outfit. But sources said Spike is targeting a one-hour, late-Saturday-night time slot for TNA, which has been without a network outlet since its one-year agreement with FSN expired last month.

Under that deal, TNA leased time on FSN for its weekly Friday-afternoon series.

It’s unclear if TNA would pay Spike for carriage. Representatives from the organization could not be reached for comment by press time.

In April, Spike opted against renewing WWE’s highly rated Monday Night Raw franchise -- which will return to USA Network this fall -- in favor of upping its investment in original programming.

Spike has also made a major commitment to combat-sports outfit Ultimate Fighting Championship, renewing freshman reality series Ultimate Fighter and agreeing to run six live UFC events over the next two years. It will also telecast 26 one-hour episodes of a still-untitled series featuring classic footage of UFC events.

Is Velocity going to be aired on USA too with TNA coming in on their timeslot, or what?

Is Velocity going to be aired on USA too with TNA coming in on their timeslot, or what?

WWE Velocity and WWE Heat along with the Sunday Morning show WWE Experience will be gone from Spike TV along with WWE Raw as of September 2005. As of right now all 3 weekend shows are cancelled, however USA has already committed to an our of WWE programming outside of Raw on the weekends. But as of right now, nothing has been reached as to the WWE's weekend TV plans on the USA Network, but Spike TV will be through with WWE as of September.

If you recall WWE Sunday Night Heat actually debuted on the USA Network in 1998. This was even before Smackdown's debut which occured in 1999. WWE Sunday Night Heat was actually the #2 show next to Raw and was even LIVE every other week and featured all the top main eventers, of course this was before the roster split. WWE Heat went to a taped format featuring lower card talent once Smackdown hit the airwaves in August 1999. WWE Velocity debuted in 2002 on Spike TV (then TNN - The National Network), so if any show is going to get cancelled, I would say Velocity since it was not an original USA Network creation.