What it Will Take to Make TNA Wrestling Serious Competition for WWE

The landscape of professional wrestling changed forever when on March 23, 2001 Vince McMahon bought what remained of the assets of World Championship Wrestling. Wrestling fans had to wonder, would another group rise and pose a serious threat to McMahon and WWE?

Six years later, we are still waiting.

Not that TNA Wrestling which airs its Impact! show on Thursday nights on Spike TV hasn't given it a try. It has come a long way since its debut in May of 2002. TNA had what was once a unique business model: air a weekly pay-per-view show at $9.95 per show. Interesting but not something the average fan could continue to afford. TNA abandoned this concept in September of 2004 and began airing three hour monthly pay-per-views however, these pay-per-views much like the previous weekly offering continued to suffer from low buy rates.

Securing a television contract for Impact! met with similar difficulty. TNA secured a deal with Fox Sports Net to air its show but TNA had to pay the network for that time. By not being placed in a regular time slot, the show failed to gather a foothold and wallowed in low ratings. Enter Spike TV. WWE had just left Spike for the USA network and Spike stepped in a scooped up Impact! on October 1, 2005.

TNA is owned by Panda Energy International Inc. which has a 72% stake in TNA and has controlling interest. One has to wonder if oil executives know anything about wrestling and really have the desire to compete with McMahon. TNA did make many strides in 2006, landing stars such as Sting, Scott Steiner and Kurt Angle to the TNA roster. However, Impact! continues to draw a little over a million views each week, it's pay-per-views draw considerably less buys than WWE's do and there is very little touring by TNA outside of the Orlando, Florida area. What can TNA do to really become a viable alternative to WWE and compete with them on a national and even and international basis?

1. Open up the purse strings and give WWE a fight!