Destination Success: Impact Wrestling and the Power of Margins

Note, I usually don't like to do pieces analyzing the business side anymore. I find that microanalyzing buyrates or ratings can get really pedantic. However, I feel like with this one, there's a great point to be made.

Brian Kendrick, foundation of a better Impact
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

Anyway, the buyrate numbers for Destination X are in, or as in as they can be for a company that is under no obligation to release its numbers publicly. Apparently, the buys were somewhat dismal, albeit comparatively speaking to their recent forays into PPV, they were par for the course. Conservative estimates place the number of buys at 8,000, about 500 fewer than their previous PPV, Slammiversary. That might sound like a failure, but as K. Sawyer Paul pointed out, it really wasn't in the grand scheme of things.

While the number didn't spike like some of us here might have hoped, I still think that DX was very much a success for the company, or at least a success for the maligned-by-management X-Division. We can very much agree that the difference between 8,500 and 8,000 is almost negligible in the grand scheme of things, right? So basically, DX and Slammiversary did almost the same number of buys. Assuming that the pre-wage overhead for both PPVs was the same, the rest of the costs are going to be determined by the monies paid out to the talent. The biggest name on the show in terms of a wage was Samoa Joe, Abyss or AJ Styles. Most of the wrestlers fall under the pay grade of "might have to apply for food stamps if miss more than one date", which means they're cheap. Meanwhile, Slammiversary had wages drawn by some of the heavy hitters in terms of salary. Ken Anderson, Kurt Angle, Sting, Scott Steiner, Bully Ray and one of the only Knockouts reputed to be making a decent wage in Mickie James were all on the card. Replacing them with guys like the Young Bucks, Austin Aries, Zema Ion, Mark Haskins, Shark Boy and Alex Shelley had to have brought costs down significantly, right?

So while the people who apparently don't like the X-Division in the front office might use this 5.9% as ammunition against putting more of a spotlight on these guys, what they don't realize is that it's very much a condemnation of the actual power the former TNA has in the marketplace, especially that of the supposed "stars" they have in the fold. If Angle and Sting and Anderson are only worth 500 more buys than Aries and Ion and Haskins, then is it fair to say that maybe their drawing power worth the exponential increase in salary, especially given that the former group has expenses taken care of as well while the latter group must self-fund to get from show to show? Looking at the margins, it has to make some kind of sense to people that maybe going cheaper and going younger might just be the road to take.

KSP closes his post with "The X Division guys aren't the ones who should be worrying about their jobs." In a fair world, that would be the case, but Impact Wrestling throughout its history has shown that don't make the best business decisions all the time. However, they really need to take a good, hard look at the way things are run. Maybe that whole "the Network is mandating the push for the X-Division" trope that ran on Impact last week is more shoot than not. Maybe the faith in Brian Kendrick, Shelley and Aries is real and a sign of things to come. But you'd have to forgive me if my faith in a bunch of stubborn men with their minds entrenched firmly in 1998 isn't as strong as it is in other promotions' booking (and I'm not even talking WWE here). If the rumors of spite and thickheadedness are true, then Impact is once again about to react to "bad" numbers in order to submarine change.

The thing is, for me, the best parts of Impact are when the X-Division is featured by itself. Not the bullshit Bischoff-is-trying-to-kill angle, but the one that's featuring Shelley and Kendrick dealing with a marauding Aries. To me, even when they're not wrestling, it's an intriguing angle. The quality's better, mainly because it's an issue among three guys based on a story that involves issues that are wholly in character. No one is shooting. No one is doing it for the respect of "the boys in the back" or for "stroke". All three, especially Aries who's awesome and Kendrick, whose character actually fits him, (key word, CHARACTER) are intriguing to me. The best part is that the blowoff is going to happen in the ring in what should be a match that at least tries to be innovative and entertaining.

I know some of that is subjective. I know that not everyone is going to go for the X-Division, but at the same time, forging ahead with the innovative in-ring stuff while having simple angles out of the ring, but teasing that direction has worked in the past. The Joe/Daniels/Styles stuff wasn't exactly fully capitalized on either. Meanwhile, the warmed over faux-Attitude/Monday Night Wars rehashing has been proving to drive the fan interest into the ground. So, when presented with two numbers that are somewhat similar, shouldn't you want to explore the thing that hasn't been tread upon instead of the thing that has been producing declining numbers over the months?

But again, Impact hasn't been known for its business prowess, especially when the money mark of an owner's representative eternally has a certain Noo Yawker in her ear about what makes good wrestling. It's a shame too, because Impact has a chance to try and give something to the fans while taking in something in return.

And hell, if the business model grew, maybe they could afford to pay Jesse Neal and the rest of the crew enough money so that they would get a paycheck even when they missed dates because of injury, y'know?

Impact's X-Division Storyline and Props

A happy ending for Impact... rare.
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

Back when TNA got its rebrand into Impact and declared that "wrestling mattered", they started an angle about Eric Bischoff hating the X-Division and wanting to get rid of all the wrestlers. It involved him going over Generation Me with the help of Matt Hardy (funny, all three of those guys are gone from Impact, either permanently or "temporarily") and Abyss taking out Kazarian and winning the X-Division Championship, eliciting lulz around the Internet. With Impact's track record of emphasizing and then deemphasizing the division, I was not the only one who was pessimistic about their ability or desire to pay it off in a way that would be satisfying to the great number of fans who cared about the more exciting wrestlers in that subset.

A funny thing happened though, as at Destination X, an event dedicated to that troupe of wrestlers and their brand of exciting fare, they paid the angle off in a very satisfying manner. In the Brian Kendrick/Abyss title match, the former Spanky won when his compatriots came out and thwarted Bischoff and his minions from pulling a screwjob and keeping the belt on Abyss. Afterwards, they all celebrated the title coming back to their own kind, and we actually had a satisfying resolution to the whole storyline.

For a company that is known for start-stop angles with no resolutions, this is not trivial. In fact, it should be applauded. My guess is that one of two things happened to make sure that we had some kind of finality to this angle. One is that Vince Russo actually is changing and made the call for the simple ending. Two is that Russo had nothing to do with Destination X or that storyline, and it was someone else, be it Bischoff, Hulk Hogan or someone wholly different that we're not considering. My guess is the latter.

It's not often that Impact deserves credit for producing a mostly satisfying story, but hey, I guess a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in awhile. I'm not getting my hopes up as to this becoming the norm, because hey, if I did that, I'd just be setting myself up for disappointment. They need to prove they can produce good stories all the time before I can start getting into what they're doing without any skepticism as to whether it's going to turn out alright by me, the viewer.

But that doesn't mean that I can't call a spade a spade and give them credit when they earn it. They've certainly earned it here.

Destination X Matters

A Double Matters, Wrestling Matters

I asked Justin Henry on the latest episode of The Wrestling Podcast to sell someone who might not normally order an Impact PPV. He pretty much gave what I thought was the perfect pitch. Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Mr. Anderson and the rest of the regular rabble were not advertised for it. They're building it around the guys you want to see, the "10 percenters" so to speak. For the first time since rolling it out, their slogan of "wrestling matters" actually rings true, not some hollow, trite phrase they use to troll WWE's mantra of "we're an entertainment company".

Seriously, the card is loaded. About the only thing that looks unappealing to me is the existence of Abyss on the card, but at the same time, his feud with Brian Kendrick has been entertaining (even if it's been carried by the former Spanky). There's AJ Styles against Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe taking on Kazarian, a duo of matches that appeal to the old-school X-Division fans. There's a harkening back to one of the best in-ring feuds in ECW history with Rob Van Dam taking on Jerry Lynn. Douglas Williams has an open challenge. There'll be an Ultimate X match with Robbie E, Amazing Red, Alex Shelley and... ugh, Shannon Moore (okay, two unpalatable people on the card). Finally, in what's probably the most important match on the card, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, Shiima Xion (as Zema Ion) and Low Ki will be competing for a contract.

With that being said, this is the perfect opportunity for you to tell Impact that yes, this is what we want to see. It's this kind of wrestling that will make Impact a true alternative. The only way to send a message to Dixie Carter and company is to order this if you can. Obviously, if you can't afford it, then no, I'm not talking to you. If you're busy with other plans, then no, I'm not talking to you. However, if you've got the money and you want to watch this, then do it.

If you want to see the former TNA actually follow through, then buy this PPV. If more people buy this, then it sends an ultimatum to the people in charge. That ultimatum through your dollar is that you want to see more of this and less of the weaksauce bullshit they were giving you with the other PPVs. If you get the wrestling, you keep watching and buying. If not, you jump off-board. Simple as that. Because let's face it, Dixie and her cronies don't always listen to their fans. I mean, Hardcore Justice did good numbers last year, and it was business as usual within two months.

What you shouldn't do, though, is pirate this. More than any PPV, whether it's WWE, indie or Impact. A pirated view of this show is another voice that won't be heard. It also reinforces the stereotype that all the "10 percenters" don't care about spending money and will just steal everything. Plus, stealing is wrong, but that last argument never, ever stopped someone from pirating anything before.

Seriously, this is the perfect opportunity to send a message to Impact. Tell them that Destination X matters. Tell them that wrestling matters. It's a win-win. If they pay attention, then you get a better product to watch. If they don't, you can write Impact off forever.

Because believe me, if this PPV does good numbers and Dixie and Co. DON'T recognize that this is what people want to see? Then the company deserves to rot.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography