Major Backstage In-Depth Update On Danny Bonaduce & TNA Inside

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (f4wonline.com)

As rumored earlier, the match between Danny Bonaduce and Eric Young will not be taking place on the actual PPV broadcast of the TNA Lockdown PPV tonight in Philadelphia, PA and will instead take place as a dark match before the show.

There are some conflicting reports about why this decision was made. Dave Meltzer reported in the The Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week that Eric Young was told to report back to TNA if Bonaduce would be good enough to be featured in the ring during the PPV following the angle that was shot a few weeks ago at Bonaduce's morning radio show. Basically, the worry by TNA was that they didn't want to put Bonaduce on PPV if he wouldn't be good in the ring and would either make it a dark match or a match during the show. After they shot footage of the angle between Bonaduce on Young on the morning radio show in Philadelphia, Young gave the company the thumbs up and creative planned on putting him on the live show. However, TNA President Dixie Carter reportedly made the call a few days later to pull the match from the PPV as she felt Lockdown was going to be a serious show and didn't want a comedy match diminishing it. This explains why the footage between Bonaduce and Young never aired on TNA TV and was only featured on the TNA website.

The other conflicting report was that on Friday, a caller asked Bonaduce during his show why his match was not being advertised on TNA TV. Bonaduce told the caller he would explain everything saying he heard the rumor that Dixie Carter made the call for the match to be pulled from the main PPV broadcast feeling a comedy match didn't belong on the card with other serious matches. He said he was pissed when he heard about this and contacted TNA about it to see what the deal was. According to Bonaduce, Carter said nothing of the sort and the actual reason was that she wanted to put his match on the PPV pre-show so that it hopefully entices some people to buy the PPV. Bonaduce was said to really like the idea and considered it a compliment that they would put such a responsibility on his match. He also added that he didn't really care if he was going to be on the main PPV show anyway as he wasn't getting paid to do it and the only reason he was doing the match in the first place was to raise his profile in Philadelphia.

So either Carter made the initial decision and did the best spin job ever of trying to cover it up or that is the legit reason. Either way, the match is confirmed as taking place as a dark match and it now appears will be taking place on the 30 minute pre-show before the PPV. It should also be noted that TNA did receive a legal letter from the attorneys from "Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling" telling them that Bonaduce couldn't do the show because he was under contract to them. However, after negotiations with lawyers on both sides everything was eventually worked out.