Matt Hardy is pushing back on the idea that TNA is falling apart behind the scenes.
TNA has been dealing with plenty of chatter after recent staff changes, including Tommy Dreamer’s exit from the company. That naturally had fans wondering if something bigger was going on with the promotion. Hardy addressed all of that on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, and he made it clear that he does not see TNA as a company in financial danger. Hardy said the situation is more about TNA cutting costs and changing how it wants to handle deals moving forward.
“We’re actually going in the opposite direction. They’re actually saving money.”
Hardy then explained why some people may want out of TNA right now. According to him, it comes down to the company offering per-night deals instead of full-time arrangements.
“The reason a lot of these people want to leave is because they’re being offered per-night deals, and it is what it is.”
That is a pretty simple answer, and it explains a lot. If people were expecting full-time money or a bigger commitment from TNA, a per-night deal may not be what they want. That does not automatically mean the company is going under. It means TNA is tightening things up and not handing out the same kind of deals across the board.
Hardy also brought up TNA President Carlos Silva and said his job is not to think like an old-school wrestling promoter. His job is to make the company more profitable, even if that means letting people walk when the deal does not work for them.
“Carlos, his job, love him or hate him, is to streamline money and make the company profitable and maximize profit as much as you can.”
Hardy said Silva does not operate with the usual wrestling mindset. If someone does not want to stay under the terms being offered, Hardy said Silva is willing to let them leave instead of playing hardball.
“He doesn’t have a wrestling mindset at all… If someone goes like, ‘hey, if I can’t get a full-time deal, I want to go, he doesn’t have a wrestling mindset at all…he goes, ‘okay, if this isn’t working for you and you don’t want to be here, I’m not going to hold you up. I’m going to let you go.’ Which is definitely not the wrestling mentality, not something that Vince would do, not something that TKO would do.”
That is where this gets interesting. Hardy is basically saying TNA is being run more like a business right now, not like a wrestling locker room where everyone gets locked down just because they might be useful later.
Do you think TNA is making the right move by tightening up deals, or should they be locking more people down full-time? Let us know what you think in the comments.