Bob Ryder Responds To Reports Of TNA’s Cancellation

UPDATE: It was reported last night that Destination America made the decision to cancel iMPACT! Wrestling last week. This has caused quite the stir among fans, and TNA officials have not answered requests for comment. After being bombarded with questions, TNA’s Bob Ryder posted the following on Twitter:

For almost 13 years some people have predicted we were about to go out of business. It's no more true today than it was then. #StandUp

— Bob Ryder (@brydertna) May 21, 2015

For what it’s worth, the report never once said TNA was “going out of business.” We simply said Destination America will be ending their TV deal. Bob and other TNA officials have yet to address that. Coincidence?!

ORIGINAL: What this means is unclear following the show’s move to Wednesday, but according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Destination America made the decision to cancel Impact Wrestling last week. The decision was reportedly made a few days before the announcement that the show was moving to Wednesday and according to the site, those who were informed of the cancellation (including key people at Destination America and Dixie Carter) have not been informed of anything different as of several days after the Wednesday move was announced.

The decision at the time was made to have the show end at the end of the third quarter, or sometime around the last week of September. While Destination America considered the ratings to be good, they did not justify the price that the network is paying out for the show. Several regular Destination America advertisers have specifically expressed a desire not to advertise on Impact. Destination America is known to react quickly to ratings and they’ve dropped nearly every other TNA show except when needed as time fillers. There was hope that going nearly live on May 8th would help with bringing a big number and the network bought an ad in USA Today promoting the show. However that episode did the show’s second-lowest number on the network, a situation not helped by the fact that it was up against the NBA playoffs.

The decision was meant to be kept a secret, similar to how Spike tried to keep their cancellation of Impact quiet last year because it won’t help the remaining episodes of the show if the decision goes public. It was expected that the announcement would be made around the time that it listed its primetime lineup for next season.

While Dixie Carter was made aware of the decision early last week, it seems that most of the talent didn’t know. Carter has yet to respond to any questions about the issue.

Obviously this is a developing story and a lot is uncertain — most importantly, whether the decision to cancel the show or not still stands with the move to Wednesday. When we have more, we’ll let you know.

CONFIRMED: Destination America Has CANCELLED TNA IMPACT! Wrestling – The REAL REASON WHY LEAKED!!!!