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TNA Wrestling today announced the release of Jesse Sorensen. Sorensen, 24, was seriously injured back on February 12 at Against All Odds 2012 suffering a C-1 vertebrae fracture and spinal cord edema. While he had been reported to be ready to return to the ring, he had been working backstage as a marketing/production assistant while waiting for his return. Instead, the company gave him his release today.
Sorensen joins a growing number of recent TNA releases including Tara, D.O.C., D’Lo Brown, Matt Morgan and most surprising in Bruce Prichard. Prichard was Senior Vice President of Programming and Talent Relations and his release came after months of heat coming down on him for allowing contracts to lapse and for paycheques not being released on time. D.O.C., Rob Van Dam, Devon and Velvet Sky were all examples of contracts that lapsed when Prichard was supposed to take care of them so the talent didn’t miss any time. It’s believed that Prichard refused to restructure his deal with the company when they asked all TNA agents to move towards pay per night contracts from their original salary contracts. Eric Bischoff even stated on Twitter that Prichard left because, “he puts family first.” It looks like TNA is replacing Prichard with former WWE Tough Enough producer John Gaburick, who was signed to be their vice president of television product.
The problem wasn’t so much in letting Prichard go. Prichard wasn’t well liked in a job where people are probably going to dislike you anyway for asking them to take less money. However, when Terry Taylor was in the role previously, talent expected to be kept were negotiated with plenty of time left on the contract and not left to the final minute. It’s said that even Bully Ray’s contract was up in the air prior to No Surrender last year despite being one of the most important characters in the company at the time (and still is today). The real problem was the timing. Last Saturday at a TNA house show in Cape Girardeau, MO agent Pat Kenney had to tell the crowd that half of the wrestlers were not allowed to work due to commission licensing issues and offered refunds. This was specifically part of Prichard’s job as head of Talent Relations and in letting him go, TNA never looked to see if he had taken care of the future shows for talent licenses across states. More proof it was good to let him go but it was another moment of TNA losing money when it shouldn’t have due to mismanagement.
TNA Wrestling President Dixie Carter addressed the locker room before last Thursday’s tapings to inform everyone that every member of talent is being evaluated and that more cuts could be made for the long term good of the company. Carter also noted that the company spent a lot of money on their One Night Only tapings back in March to fulfill their international pay per view contracts and rushing those tapings was a big reason for the financial problems. This comes directly against reports from Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer that the real reason is the cost of taking Impact Wrestling on the road. Meltzer said that on the road tapings are currently costing the company $600,000 per taping, much more than renting the Universal Studios sound stage was costing them. Carter could have been downplaying the costs or Meltzer may have been incorrect in his information but what would be worse is if both are correct. The company lost a great deal of money on the One Night Only tapings and are now bleeding even more money on the road. TNA cannot return to Universal Studios for at least a year as the building they used is now being rented to a new tenant.
The releases of Tara and Matt Morgan made sense. Tara was the highest paid Knockout despite not being the best worker (Gail Kim) or the most recognized (Mickie James) while Morgan seemed to be re-signed because TNA didn’t sign him fast enough (Prichard error) and Morgan floated around waiting for a WWE call that never came (due to a lawsuit between WWE and TNA that WWE had inside information to poach talent). Morgan simply re-signed with TNA despite the company having no real plans for him.
However, releases like Jesse Sorensen (his return from a life threatening injury might have been one of the biggest babyface moments in recent history) and D’Lo Brown (he’s said to have been well liked backstage and agreed to the new contract restructuring before being released anyway) cause one to take pause at the future of TNA. Contract confusion is not a new issue for TNA. They once announced the release of Sean “X-Pac” Waltman when he wasn’t even under contract with TNA at the time. Kind of reminds you of Chris Jericho’s “Empty FedEx Package” story about WCW.
TNA has rarely had times of good management decisions backstage. The strongest time of the company when it came to their internal structure was back when Scott D’Amore and Dutch Mantell (Zeb Colter) were agents and the company just launched their Knockouts Division. This was back in 2007 before the return of Vince Russo. This was also one of the best times for TNA Impact for ratings (the Knockouts were regularly the highest quarter hours) and buyrates (Lockdown in 2008 had 55,000 reported buys with Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe in the main event). While many thought the company would finally rebound without Vince Russo, his departure coincided with the arrival of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. While fans thought storylines would be stronger with former WWE writer Dave Lagana (and in many ways they are), the company still dealt with “WWE hangover”, where former WWE stars would come in and take spots form established TNA talent.
Nothing has changed with Pritchard leaving as Gaburick replaces him. If Gaburick was good enough for his position, I doubt he would have been let go by WWE. That said, TNA talent so far is said to like him better. The company has tried everyone from Rob Van Dam to Jeff Hardy as World Champion and ratings continue a soft drip decline.
It can be difficult to be a TNA Wrestling fan these days, especially if you are tired of hearing about WWE fans speculate if Vince McMahon purchased the company. Last year between Lockdown and Hardcore Justice was one of the best periods in TNA history, as well as the best period for North American pro wrestling in 2012. 2013 doesn’t have the same hype or emotion, even after Chris Sabin repeated Austin Aries X Division cash in to become TNA World Champion. All the notes are the same but they are off key. It used to be no matter how poor the product, TNA was owned by an oil magnate to keep it from going under. The recent financial woes make things seem like those days are over. If it’s true that TNA is simply hurting for money due to One Night Only then this is a temporary issue financially. If it’s true that TNA is losing more than a half million dollars per taping with no possibility of the company returning to Universal Studios for a whole year, we might see Panda Energy pull the plug before that day comes. Either way, in the words of former head of Talent Relations Terry Taylor, the problems start at the top. It certainly isn’t the talent unable to produce great wrestling (watch Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell from Impact two weeks ago, one of the best matches of the year), but the administration unable to properly support the company. TNA leaking money is nothing new. TNA leaking money, losing talent every day and refunding fans for talent not licensed for a show? That’s ominous.
Here’s hoping it’s darkest before the dawn. Everything in life, especially pro wrestling, is better with choice.
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