Talking Points: Who Should “Be A Star” In TNA?

Perhaps the WWE put the strong arm on TNA one too many times…

All this talk about litigation got me to thinking, and all this thinking made me want to write.

The following is taken from The City Paper: Nashville’s Online Source for Daily News regarding TNA’s lawsuit against Brian Wittenstein and the WWE.  *Note: Pay special attention to statements in bold…

A WWE official notified TNA on May 7 about Wittenstein’s breach, but the lawsuit claims WWE waited three weeks before telling TNA. WWE fired Wittenstein after they learned what he did, according to the lawsuit.

Two days later, Flair attempted to terminate his TNA contract. He also failed to show up for TNA events from May 10-15, including a pay-per-view show. TNA now believes that Flair may be headed for WWE, the timing of which, it claims, is “suspect.”

“In order to injure TNA and gain a competitive advantage, WWE intentionally interfered with TNA’s contractual relationship with Ric Flair and maliciously used the trade secrets and confidential information provided by Wittenstein to approach Ric Flair,” the lawsuit reads.

The story continues…

Overall, TNA is suing for interference with existing contracts (against WWE), breach of duty of loyalty (against Wittenstein), conversion, breach of contract, civil conspiracy, unfair competition and violation of the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

The much larger WWE, founded in 1952, is based in Stamford, Conn., and made $123 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2012.

If you read my previous post about this mess, then you pretty much know how I feel about the accusations (innocent until proven guilty, right?); but that’s why I love reading, because it’s fun and you get to sift through all the bee-ess to get to the heart of the matter.

For example, this one sentence tickled me: TNA now believes that Flair may be headed for WWE, the timing of which, it claims, is “suspect.”

According to our good friends at TNAsylum, Flair has been a thorn in TNA’s side since signing with them many moons ago.  In fact, he’s been partying it up a bit too much in Orlando and tends to cause a particularly high level of financial grief for the company whenever he struts into a bar.

The way the article at TNAsylum was written, one would think TNA was attempting to get rid of Flair, but clearly that isn’t the case at all.  Why would Flair want to return to the soul-stealing, baby-punting, puppy-slicing evil corporation that is the WWE, especially after Dixie Carter graciously allowed him to receive his second WWE Hall of Fame induction atWrestleMania 28?

James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch even went as far as to post a note about Dixie’s interview with Busted Open satellite radio, where she commented on how TNA would never benefit from Ric Flair’s appearance at the event…

That incident makes the next statement more chuckle-inducing: [The WWE] used the trade secrets and confidential information provided by Wittenstein to approach Ric Flair.

By “trade secrets” and “confidential information,” I’m sure the lawyers meant “They lured him back by tying stacks of $100 bills to shoe strings and dragging it along the ground.”

Wait, there’s more: In order to injure TNA and gain a competitive advantage, WWE intentionally interfered with TNA’s contractual relationship with Ric Flair…

That’s right; the much larger company that made $123 million in revenue the first three months of the year needed Ric Flair to gain a competitive advantage over TNA, the smaller company who’s first quarter 2012 revenue numbers weren’t revealed or even mentioned.

The WWE boozed Flair up in all those bars and, in the most convoluted way since the year-long Immortal feud, interfered with Ric Flair’s contractual relationship with TNA.

And TNA, the company that paid top female wrestler Gail Kim handsomely, the company that paid top female wrestler Tara handsomely, has been taken completely off guard by these low-down, shady WWE tactics?

That’s right; TNA is the hapless victim that is standing up to the evil corporation for the sake of justice and all that is right in the world.  Yes, TNA is indeed the virtuous underdog looking to end the oppressive and unethical practices of Vince McMahon’s heinous empire.

After all, TNA would never do anything as such to injure the WWE to gain a competitive advantage;  they surely didn’t intentionally interfere with WWE’s contractual relationship with Jeff Hardy to woo him to TNA on Jan. 4, 2010 after the man had a verbal agreement to return to the WWE after healing from some “nagging injuries…”

TNA would never engage in acts of unfair competition, such as encouraging fans and its workers to make slanderous comments specifically about the WWE and Vince McMahon on tape to air on television…

I’m certain that TNA has informed the WWE of every single released worker that has revealed trade secrets and insider information of every single ex-WWE employee they’ve hired…

And I’m also extremely positive that TNA has made so much money that there’s really no need of any payments they may receive from a) winning the lawsuit or b) settling out of court with the WWE.

So here’s the real question: is TNA fighting for survival or taking advantage of a disgruntled former employee’s dumbass decision?

The Old and the Ornery (Work in Progress)

Oh my God, who the hell cares?!

Okay, I was gonna start on a piece criticizing this episode of TNA Impact, and yeah, it sounds wrong doing so only 34 minutes in, and Aaron McGruder told me that criticizing something during the duration of that very thing was against standard etiquette, but come on, look what I’m dealing with this Thursday!

Hulk Hogan is talking to the four most visible (arguable) stars on the show about who is going to take on the world champ, and for what?  Why was he holding the script to the show, the “format” as he called it?  Why were the four three arguing?  When did the male variation of a soap opera become an ACTUAL soap opera?!  I always say that pro wrestling is a soap opera with violence, and ever since the world got more PC and General Hospital had to conform to a more peaceful world, pro wrestling is all we – we being men, women, small lizards and the people of Fiji – got left.  But that being said, we need a soap opera with violence, not just a soap opera!   Why the hell is Gail Kim cutting stupid promos?  Why are male AKAs assaulting Devon?  I think I speak for a lot of people with this clip, and with this clip I pledge to conclude this rant against the TNA machine (as rusty as it is) later:

TNA Files Lawsuit Against the WWE for “Stealing Talent”

Your honor, the prosecution rests.

Apparently TNA has filed a lawsuit against the WWE and some former disgruntled worker.  The basis of said lawsuit: the ‘E is trying to “steal” TNA’s talent.

Click the link to check it out; in case you’re too lazy to do that, here’s the basics of the suit:

TNA employed this guy named Brian who worked with booking talent in independent organizations.  Brian leaves TNA in 2011; voluntary or involuntary is anyone’s guess.

The WWE hired him sometime in the early part of 2012 and let him go in April after he tried to pass them the ol’ okie doke under the table about some of TNA’s contracted talent. Allegedly it took the WWE a month to give TNA the heads up that they had a snitch in their ranks.

Around that same time Ric Flair approached TNA and tried several ways to get out of his contract, much like Randy Orton attempted to get out of the Marine Corps.  Someone in TNA put two and two together, and the term “litigation” sounded much more like a feasible option than frittering away their time with useless pastimes, like planning and booking the card for the company’s biggest Pay Per View of the decade.

A hearing is set for next month for the case, and an injunction has been issued to the WWE demanding that they and Brian return any confidential stuff Brian gave them about TNA while he worked for the world’s most evil sports entertainment organization ever.

So there you have it; TNA is looking to take the WWE to task for “stealing talent” and will ultimately prove that Brian and the WWE are conspiring to kill the company…as if they needed any help doing that in the first place.

In all seriousness this is big news, but not big in the sense that some may think it is.  Our good friends over at TNAsylum have already started to weigh in on this; check out their thoughts.  While I don’t see the picture from exactly the same perspective that some do, I will admit that the situation places TNA in a very interesting position.

Who am I kidding?  This is perhaps the most frivolous thing TNA could engage itself in at the moment.  It wasn’t more than a few days ago when Ric Flair’s name was being discredited by every single TNA-related outlet around the world.  Now all of a sudden it appears he was a part of a devious plot to “kill” TNA?  Wait…didn’t they fire him???

Brass tax: the WWE will probably settle out of court, give TNA an obscene amount of money, and Dixie Carter will finally be able to pay off all of her student loans.  The show will continue to garner piss poor ratings and the rest will be told to us on a WWE produced, three disc DVD set containing TNA matches prior to January 4, 2010.

Some fans would readily agree that this lawsuit proves that the WWE fears TNA as competition (…seriously…?), and the only way Vince McMahon can crush his competition is by raiding their talent pool.  I don’t believe that sh*t at all.

If anything seems to me, and this is just my opinion, that this makes TNA look like the WWE’s second developmental.  From that perspective, TNA is well within its rights to sue the WWE because, after all, if they are a developmental system for the ‘E, then they should be justly compensated for the loss of talent.

But why are we getting our panties in a bunch over “talent” raiding?  McMahon did it to the NWA and gave us Hulk Hogan.  Eric Bischoff did it to Vince McMahon and gave us Hall and Nash.  Dixie Carter did it to Vince McMahon and gave us TNA’s Kurt Angle AND Jeff Hardy.  No one cried foul play in those instances, so why is it such a “damning” thing all of a sudden?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems super silly for anyone outside of TNA and the WWE to make a big deal of this lawsuit until more news is released.  Other than that, if we can stand on our high horses and assume the worst case scenario for the WWE, we can also point an equally accusatory finger at TNA for treating its own talent and staff like crap, thus creating the atmosphere for them to even entertain a conversation from a Titan Towers rep.

I honestly pray TNA puts more effort into building the card for Slammiversary than they do chasing this pipe dream of a lawsuit.