TNA Still Profitable?, iMPACT Video Game, iMPACT! Record, More
Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (F4WOnline.com)
? TNA Wrestling was profitable this year before the video game release, and even with the game doing poorly most of the losses will be on the Midway side of things. PPV numbers are largely the same as last year, and so are house show numbers.
? The TNA videogame is estimated to have sold about 425,000 units, which is more than initial projections, but it is still considered a disappointing number. Midway was hoping that the TNA game could help save the company, but with a poor launch and a lot of sales coming off of discounted prices, that is not the case. Midway is currently $240 Million dollars in debt, and they have 50-days to pay $150 Million to creditors, which doesn't look like it will happen considering the company is only sitting on $10 Million. With this being the case, insiders are saying that Midway is 50-days from possible bankruptcy. Midway did announce "iMPACT! 2" for sometime in 2009, but this was seen as a way to the creditors that they have an asset and to hold them off from shutting down the company. Unfortunately most feel that "iMPACT! 2" will be rushed, and the problems of the first game will not be fixed.
? The 12/4 edition of iMPACT! set the company's all-time audience record owith 1.8 million viewers, beating out in total viewers, both episodes of Ultimate Fighter as well as the 12/2 ECW, even though all three episodes drew a higher rating than iMPACT!. iMPACT! did a 1.18 cable rating with a 0.91 in Males 18-34 and 0.89 in Males 35-49. Its greatest audience gain over usual was in the Males 50+ demo as the show drew a 1.20. In segment-by-segment notes, the Samoa Joe vs. Booker T match lost a slate of viewers. The match lost 46,000 viewers. "ODB's Angle" with Taylor Wilde & Roxxi, as well as backstage promos featuring Team 3-D with Joe and Beer Money trying to get Abyss drunk gained 76,000 viewers. The mixed tag match featuring Christy Hemme & AJ Styles vs. Awesome Kong & Scott Steiner gained 30,000 viewers. The X Division tag match featuring Eric Young, Consequences Creed & Jay Lethal vs. Sheik Abdul Bashir, Jimmy Rave & Sonjay Dutt gained 30,000 viewers. More backstage stuff including a "Sarah Palin" promo with The Beautiful People, "Rough Cut" with LAX, and another segment of Abyss getting drunk gained 46,000 viewers and did the show's peak rating at 1.25. Following the backstage segments, the ratings sank. The big promo segment featuring Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle & Rhino lost 92,000 viewers. The Rhino vs. Sting main event match was the big loser of the night, losing a whopping 137,000 viewers to finish at a 1.10 rating.