TNA president Carlos Silva is promoting this weekend’s Slammiversary card and spoke about the prospects for the promotion’s ability to find a stronger television presence in the U.S.
Silva was interviewed by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and described Impact Wrestling’s current plight on AXS TV, which has been the promotion’s home network in the U.S. since 2019:
AXS (TV) is part of the Anthem Sports & Entertainment family. We own it, Andy Schuon runs it on the entertainment side, and is my colleague and partner, and it’s been great. We do very well on AXS TV, but as you know, in the world of cable channels, they’re not growing and are not getting more widely distributed, so not as many people get to see TNA as we’d like. We have done some great deals in other countries, we did a great deal with Sportsnet in Canada, we did a great deal with Claro in Mexico and twelve South American countries, as well as over in India with a deal with WBD that we’ve had, those are going to continue to grow but my focus is getting more fans in America to see TNA and we’re working hard at it.
The company is staging one of its biggest shows in years with Slammiversary at the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York, this weekend. WrestleTix reports that over 4,400 tickets have been distributed, and Silva believes the show will aid TNA in its ongoing negotiations with potential media partners.
There’s a lot of moving parts in the media space. Every single day, we see a new strategy, a new platform, a new digital company, a new cable channel that’s being sold, so we’re trying to navigate through all those waters, but so far, so good. We’re working with CAA as our partner to help with that, they’re great partners to help us and as we get through this summer, we’re going to get a deal done and I think Slammiversary will be a big part of helping us to get the deal done because it will be a big show and all those things help.
Silva recently spoke with the JohnWallStreet outlet and said they are hopeful of landing a media rights deal in the U.S in the range of $10 million per year in rights fees.
Sapp asked Silva directly if AJ Styles would be at Slammiversary, and the TNA president responded that “It will be a phenomenal night”. This was promoted after Silva hinted at an appearance by the former star while promoting the pay-per-view on X.
TNA Slammiversary airs on pay-per-view this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, and we will have a Slammiversary review that night on the POST Wrestling Café.
