Art of the Deal: WWE-TNA Partnership is great for wrestling

Good partnerships are tough to do in professional wrestling because it takes both parties to go in with an open mind. That alone is tough to do because each company has its own agenda that doesn’t usually mesh with the other companies. Egos are involved, business deals are on the line and it takes restraint and long-term planning to make it work.

Its why though that already the TNA-WWE Partnership is off to a rousing success and better than TNA’s previous partnerships.

We saw last night at TNA Genesis proof of that as the event was not just a great show but emboldened by WWE in several ways. From Paul Levesque and Shawn Michaels tweeting about it, WWE sending over talent to engage with TNA talent and overall propping up TNA

That is how you do a partnership folks, by helping each other out.

Again, credit to WWE/TKO because in the past, that was not the way of the company. The Vince McMahon playbook was to raid, ignore, and just treat the competition like it was beneath him. He did it with the territories, to WCW, to ECW and even TNA in the past and he had no problem doing so.

It made the company a lot of money and helped turn the WWE into the premier organization but at great cost of the wresting industry in general.

Meanwhile TNA has been the lone company since the demise of WCW & ECW to still be standing after all this. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett, the company has gone through ups and down, several networks, different owners and yet still surviving.

Before there was Tony Khan, Dixie Carter was the one who came in because she loved wrestling with a billionaire’s bank account. And while TNA had some great moments, you never got the feeling that they were embraced by the wrestling community.

It was either because of Vince Russo working there, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan being there or just Dixie not being able to run things properly. While Ring of Honor was the hardcore wrestling fans love, TNA was treated like a bastard stepchild.

Now with Anthem Sports running things, the company seems to have more of a direction that it has in the past. While Scott D’Amore did a great job resurrecting TNA from the abyss of irrelevancy, there were small things that added up such as.

Production quality for the televised product wasn’t on par.

Too many short term deals or ex WWE stars who never seemed to put people over until the very end.

Constant audio issues that had you thinking you were either too far away or too close to the ring.

It is one of the biggest benefits for TNA right now because they get to see how WWE runs things on their side of the production. They get to understand how detailed the planning of backstage skits and how to execute them. In short, WWE is going to help TNA produce a quality television product that everyone watching at home can enjoy.

For WWE, this gives them a chance to send some of the NXT kids out to live shows or road shows and work matches with crowds. No disrespect but the Full Sail crew is one that is very sanitized and to extent controlled by the WWE.

It’s usually the same group of people that go, everybody is there to have fun and the know when to cheer and boo from the production units.

When they go to TNA, they can learn how to work a crowd, dealing with people who want better than just a regular match. They can learn how to work with different wrestlers, different styles and adapt in the ring when things aren’t working or the crowd is simply not into the match.

It also allows WWE to have “First dibs” at TNA stars who are looking to either leave the company for WWE or AEW. Will it be a full raid like what was the standard in the past; definitely not as TKO seems to be trying to shed that image like a snake sheds it skin.

But you can bet when WWE wants to working with TNA talent it has its eyes on, they can come to NXT, get wined and dined so to speak and see the benefits of the company.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room; this partnership is partially happening because of AEW and Tony Khan.

I can’t stress enough how many people in TNA and Anthem were pissed off with the treatment during that “partnership” during the pandemic era. Ant Evans has confirmed to several outlets that part of the deal with the partnership was that Tony Khan couldn’t be made fun of.

Tony got to run his “commercials” where he would run down and mock TNA without reprisals.

Kenny Omega got to beat Rich Swann for the TNA title and then never dropped it back to a TNA talent. TNA talent never appeared on AEW nor was the company ever promoted by AEW on TNT. TNA talent jobbed to AEW talent at every stretch and were never pushed as equals or threats.

It was a one-sided partnership that was a factor in TNA changing course and quickly abandoning it as soon as they could.

That is part of the problem when partnerships are formed; one side views the other side as inferior and tries to get over on them. They view them as suckers who they can prey upon and take advantage of them at every step of the way.

It was done back in the territorial days, it was done in the WCW-WWE Monday Night War days, and its being done now. As the old saying goes “there are predators and prey” and that is how one group views the other.

Or the other partnerships are just talent swapping where one company sends talent to the other company and vice versa. But that is all, no promoting the other brand, no helping each other grow, just straight loaning talent from one company to the other.

What WWE is doing with TNA feels bigger in that WWE wants TNA to grow as a company and is helping them. That they are invested in TNA looking good and helping them flourish as a company going forward.

And you can bet that a side benefit is showing every wrestling company why they should work with them instead of AEW.

AEW will take all your talent, job them out and never promote anything of yours while the WWE will actually promote you on their platforms.

After quietly doing top quality shows and producing a solid product over the last few years, TNA now can focus on bigger long-term plans. Securing a TV that can bring them big revenue is the top of the list and don’t think that having WWE backing you up won’t help in a big way.

Are there concerns down the line that things might blow up; of course, as partnerships are always tricky. Expectations have to be tempered, companies and management go in different directions, and money makes things complicated.

But for now, the WWE-TNA partnership is a big step forward in helping both companies achieve their future visions. And that is nothing short of a great start.

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