Major Backstage TNA News & Notes Inside, & More
It was reported on Wednesday by TNAWrestlingNews.com that Johnny "Havoc" Devine of Serotonin ripped on his TNA character at a recent indy show. Devine is saying that he was misquoted and that it was all a misunderstanding. What he actually said was, "I will not wrestle on a Bad News tribute show dressed as a comic book character. Bad News was never anything but himself and I refuse to be anything but myself on a show dedicated to his memory." Devine worked in one of the reincarnations of Stampede Wrestling many years back when Allen was announcer and the unofficial mentor to the wrestlers. Also, Devine actually likes his character as he is the one who came up with it.
It looks like it's going to be scalpers night off in Nashville on June 17th as ticket sales for TNA's Slammiversary pay-per-view have been sluggish to say the least. If you go to Ticketmaster.com, you can still get a third row seat. On the first day tickets went on sale at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, which was two Saturdays ago and had TNA talent on hand to sign autographs, only 67 people showed up. There were 67 people there because a person who was there noted that nobody ever got behind him while he was waiting in line for his ticket. The reason for the sluggish sales may be due to the high ticket prices. Ringside seats are $125, which might be out of the price range for the Nashville locals who were used to getting in for free when TNA ran weekly pay-per-views there. The crowds at the weekly pay-per-views often appeared to be at a very low level of income and are regarded by some as one of the lowest socio-economic crowds to ever witness pro wrestling events, so that might explain why the ticket sales have been really bad. The Municipal Auditorium holds about 8,500 people, so TNA has their work cut out for them.
TNAWrestlingNews.com is reporting that bringing in former NFL player Frank Wycheck to wrestle James Storm in a match looks to be a last ditch effort at boosting sagging ticket sales for Slammiversary. Wycheck hosts a high-rated radio show not to mention that there is a gigantic picture of him hanging from the Titans' stadium, so as you can see, he still is a popular figure in the area. Every local news outlet covered this story last night, including airing footage of his scuffle with Jeff Jarrett at a weekly pay-per-view in 2002.