TNA Wrestling to debut in Jan. 2015 on Destination America channel

[jbcarol]

Impact Wrestling, will debut Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 9 p.m.

TNA Wrestling will also premier a new television show on Destination America titled Impact Wrestling: Unlocked on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m., the promotion announced Tuesday.

Impact Wrestling: Unlocked will be a secondary show hosted by Mike Tenay that will take viewers behind the scenes and into the lives of those within TNA Wrestling.

Destination America today announced it is adding TNA WRESTLING'S GREATEST MATCHES to its weekend lineup of wrestling programming. An hour-long show, GREATEST MATCHES presents the most remarkable and unforgettable contests of iconic TNA superstars such as Kurt Angle, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches debuts with a three episode mini-marathon on Saturday, January 10 beginning at 10 AM ET followed by two new additionalpremieres on Friday January 16at 9AM. TNA WRESTLING'S GREATEST MATCHES will continue to premiere in its regular time slot starting January 17 on Saturdays at 12PM.

IMPACT WRESTLING moves to its regular time slot on Fridays from 9-11 PM ET beginning January 16 on Destination America. IMPACT WRESTLING: UNLOCKED, with announcer Mike Tenay, will kick off Saturday wrestling with premieres in its permanent (again, regular) time slot on Saturdays from 10 AM-12 PM ET followed by brand-new episodes of TNA WRESTLING'S GREATEST MATCHES at 12PM.

January Airings of TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches include:

Saturday, January 10

           10 AM ET: Best of Sting
           11 AM ET: Best of Kurt Angle
           12 PM ET: Best of Kurt Angle Part 2

Friday, January 16

           9 AM ET: Best of Rob Van Dam
           10 AM ET: Best of Mr. Anderson

Saturday, January 17 at 12 PM ET: Best of Jeff Hardy

[elvis26]

  what channel is destination America on on dish network?

[acey33]

Here's some more info...

TNA Wrestling set for new beginning with Destination America

Kurt Angle has had plenty of time to shine his Olympic gold medal or re-watch his greatest matches in TNA Wrestling. On the shelf for most of 2014 with injuries, Angle's future was as uncertain as the wrestling promotion he's led for most of the last decade.

Angle and TNA are set to reintroduce themselves to the pro wrestling world on a national stage.

TNA Wrestling has long reigned as the distant No. 2 promotion in the United States, yet had never positioned itself as a true threat to topple WWE and its sizable grip on the sports-entertainment industry.

TNA — short for, Total Nonstop Action — had been in limbo as it searched for a cable network for most of last year and lost franchise stars Sting and A.J. Styles to other promotions. Like a wrestling champ in a main event, TNA has kicked out on the two count to make it into 2015, ready for a fresh start on the Destination America network.

Bobby Roode defends the TNA Championship against Bobby Lashley on the debut edition of "Impact Wrestling" live Wednesday night from the Manhattan Center. "Impact Wrestling" will move to its regular Friday timeslot next week on Destination America.

Out of action since April, Angle promised a major announcement on Wednesday's debut.

"It looks like I'll be wrestling here sooner rather than later, if that gives you a hint," Angle said, chuckling.

The entire roster has been on hiatus since October after TNA wrapped up its old TV deal with Spike with a series of taped shows. TNA president Dixie Carter said TNA's No. 1 focus is on the TV-14 rated "Impact." It has put domestic touring on hold and will slice pay-per-view events down to "a couple when they make sense from a storyline standpoint," she said.

Carter said TNA wants to scale back on the crash-TV elements of a bygone era (like when a wrestler was kidnapped by ninjas) and return to quality matches and more sensible angles.

Carter, who will miss Wednesday's taping to represent the network at the Television Critics Association conference, said "Impact" will include more input from social media and incorporate elements of reality TV.

"We're going to pull the curtain back and have cameras where they've not been before," Carter said. "You're going to see some changes that will help the viewer feel a stronger connection to the show and the characters. It will be a new way of watching it compared to what we've had in the past."

TNA Wrestling aired on Spike for nine years but failed to gain anywhere close to WWE's 3 million to 4 million viewers on Monday nights. It shuffled times, aired live and promised big surprises; nothing worked. The biggest failure was TNA's ability to capitalize on what little drawing power former WWE stars like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Kevin Nash had left in the tank during their ill-fated runs with the company.

"Carter bid against herself and paid a fortune for veteran names rather than position the younger or homegrown talent as the stars," Prowrestling.net editor Jason Powell said. "Creatively, they failed to position the veteran names in a way where they were passing the torch to the younger wrestlers."

Angle was one of the few former WWE stars to deliver four-star matches and boast the name recognition needed to promote TNA to a global audience. The 1996 220-pound freestyle wrestling gold medal winner in the Atlanta Games has scaled back his professional commitments for TNA and will wrestle only occasionally this year. Angle was granted his release from his WWE contract in 2006 and signed later that year with TNA.

"I had an incredible career at WWE," Angle said, "but my career has actually been better in TNA."

Roode, Lashley, Jeff Hardy, James Storm and Samoa Joe are all positioned as TNA main eventers for 2015 and an alliance with United Talent Agency has the company owned by Panda Energy International hopeful of expanding its talent beyond its unique six-sided ring.

Unlike Spike's wide reach on most cable providers, Destination America is available in just under 60 million homes since launching in 2012 and airs shows such as "Hillbilly Blood" and "Ghost Asylum."

"Of course, it's a small concern," Carter said. "But the most important thing is, how important are we going to be to them and what are they going to do to build our brand using the muscle of Discovery."

For starters, TNA is expanding beyond the flagship "Impact" show and will have programming on Saturday mornings.

While WWE found success with "Smackdown" on Friday for years, the night is typically a graveyard for viewership and the 800,000 or so viewers TNA had dipped toward on Spike would be considered a booming success on Destination America.

"We felt there was an audience coming to Friday already looking for wrestling and we expect them to find 'Impact,'" said Marc Etkind, general manager of Destination America. "What we like about the wrestling audience is, it's an all-American audience."

[husker71]

if this thing with Fox doesn't get cleared up soon I wont have to worry about what station it is on on Dish(lol)   and I've had Dish for years and years  I am looking forward to the TNA however

[jbcarol]

http://botchedspot.com/comic/total-nonstop-accusations

Why should anyone care if TNA pays wrestlers on time? Maybe it's because if someone's going to invest themselves in a product, they'd like to know that wrestlers won't just up and quit over not being paid on time? Maybe people don't want to support a company that treats its employees that way? ...

I'm not one to be constantly worrying about wrestling business practices (not true, total lie), but as someone who is thinking about upgrading my cable package so I can get Destination America (competition BBQ channel), I don't really want to go through with it if it looks like TNA's (still) about to go belly up. Wrestlers not being paid on time makes me think it's about to go belly up.

[Jim]

I tried...really tried...to get into TNA, esp with their "reboot" a few months ago.  However, realizing how much of it was already taped and how they really never travel...plus the fact it felt like I was watching "Raw Lite", I checked out very quick.

[hvsupastar]

I tried...really tried...to get into TNA, esp with their "reboot" a few months ago.  However, realizing how much of it was already taped and how they really never travel...plus the fact it felt like I was watching "Raw Lite", I checked out very quick.

It could be a good show if they didn't try to be WWE.  ROH is ten times better than TNA at this point

[Jim]

Agreed abt ROH.  I've always enjoyed Jay Lethal, esp his Ric Flair imitations but was shocked that TNA botched what could've been something really special with those 2.  I've heard JL has got something good going on over there in ROH.  I need to remember to set the DVR or start looking for YouTube vids.

Anyone tried Lucha Underground yet?

[jbcarol]

 Vaughn Johnson @VaughnMJohnson  ·  12h 12 hours ago

Report: Destination America to cancel Impact Wrestling http://bit.ly/1SfFAOs

[jbcarol]

 TNA Creative @TNACreative  ·  17h 17 hours ago

Does anyone know a network stupid enough to give us 2 hours a week? Asking for a friend.

[hogsanity]

TNA Creative @TNACreative  ·  17h 17 hours ago

Does anyone know a network stupid enough to give us 2 hours a week? Asking for a friend.

I get 300 channels, and I cant think of one that would be better by showing tna wrestling.

[SwinerBock]

And now comes word today that Destination America is going to put ROH on as a lead-in to TNA...

[jbcarol]

And now comes word today that Destination America is going to put ROH on as a lead-in to TNA...

Destination America and Ring of Honor announced Wednesday that the two parties have entered a television agreement, and will begin airing 26 weeks of television on Wednesday, June 3 at 8 p.m.

While Ring of Honor landing a national television deal isn't all that shocking, what did take the wrestling world by surprise was that Destination America is the current home of TNA Wrestling's flagship show, Impact Wrestling.



MVP
✔ @The305MVP

At no time was TNA talent (that I'm aware of) notified of ROH airing on @DestAmerica . I'll refrain from commenting until after "the call".
1:56 PM - 27 May 2015

[hvsupastar]

Sounds like Destination America screwed TNA

[hogsanity]

Sounds like Destination America screwed TNA

TNA has not delivered ratings, especially in key demographics. Now, why anyone thought they would, on a channel most people have never heard of, is another story all together.

Like it or not, as far as tv goes, WWE is it. They have the marketing, the toys, the mechandise. IS the product as good as tna or roh? That is open for debate, but for someone to even remotely challenge them, or to just get a decent tv deal, they are going to have to find a way onto a much bigger venue than Destination America.