Wednesday afternoon turned out to be a very busy day with the announcement that Ring of Honor has signed a 26-week agreement to being airing television on Destination America starting a week from tonight on 6/3 airing at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 CT) in the timeslot one hour before Impact Wrestling. Here is the latest following official press release details.
* TNA star MVP was the most vocal on Twitter immediately after the announcement went down and prior to a scheduled TNA conference call with talent. The former WWE star had stated that no TNA talent had been made aware about Ring of Honor coming to terms with Destination America until it hit the internet and social media on Wednesday afternoon.
* TNA star Rockstar Spud was scheduled at one point to take part in media to promote this week’s episode of Impact Wrestling and it was canceled at the last minute.
* TNA executives, including President Dixie Carter, would not answer any questions directly about the future of Impact Wrestling on Destination America during the call with talent.
* The current contract between TNA and Destination America reportedly prevents either parties from commenting on the current relationship publicly.
* Regarding questions about exclusivity of wrestling on Destination America, the UTA agency negotiated the contract with the network and not TNA.
* While the impression was given on the call that they could not comment, many contracted TNA talent believed that TNA wasn’t aware of the ROH deal until today.
* The call was described as getting “very heated” at one point including Carter telling talent that they “controlled their own destiny” and to show the world why they were the best.
* When issues of the past year were brought up including the PR handling of getting dropped by Spike and late pay, Carter responded as if pay issues were in the past.
* Some talents reportedly had differing opinions about the 90 minute call. Some felt better about things finally being addressed, while others described it as a “circus call.”
Sources: The Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online, PWInsider.com