TNA Wrestling: Big Moves Made by TNA and Spike TV the Week of Bound for Glory

While TNA is gearing up for their biggest pay-per-view of the year this weekend—Bound for Glory—both the company and the network that airs their flagship television show made moves this week that could have an Impact (no pun intended) on the company down the line.

On Tuesday, Spike announced that Jon Slusser has been named to the newly created position of senior vice president, sports and multi-platform programming for the network.  The move resulted in the dismissal of Brian Diamond, Spike's former Senior VP of Sports and Special Programming.

Diamond had been one of TNA's biggest supporters at the network.

In a press release, Spike said Slusser "will be charged with creating live, multi-platform, socially driven events with convergent opportunities for Spike TV’s expanding male audience.  His focus will be on identifying sports and events that are a strategic fit for the brand."

The press release also mentioned the network will continue to have a mixed martial arts presence even after losing their deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to FOX earlier this year.

Slusser previously served as senior vice president of Spike Digital Entertainment, a group which he helped create that includes Spike.com, GameTrailers.com, UltimateFighter.com and GameTrailers TV—a weekly TV show on Spike (that airs late night after Impact) where he also served as executive producer.  He joined MTV Networks in 2006 when his GameTrailers.com website was acquired by Viacom.

Will Slusser be as supportive of TNA as a fit for the Spike TV brand as Diamond was?  Only time will tell.

TNA itself also made a move when it announced former World Wrestling Entertainment writer and Ring of Honor producer Dave Lagana was hired this week.

However, this move was not the latest in changes to TNAs creative division—to go along with Vince Russo being demoted from Head of Creative in favor of Director of Talent Relations Bruce Pritchard.  Lagana will not be working on Impact.

Instead, PWInsider reported that Lagana will be working alongside Jeff Jarrett and Dutch Mantel as part of the creative team of a new project TNA will be launching in India later this year.  The project will be a new weekly series airing in India and will not use the TNA name.

Not only will the show have a separate creative team from Impact, but also a separate roster of former WWE/TNA/WCW/ECW talent as well as independent workers.

Both Sonjay Dutt and B.G. James were in India recently scouting talent.  Ten out of 100 Indian talents were chosen and brought to the United States to train.

James recently re-joined the WWE on a trial basis as a backstage producer.

According to the PWInsider report, the new series will air in India on The Colors Network (known here in the United States as Aapka Colors in the U.S), a Viacom-owned network that launched in
2008.

There are no indications the show will air in the United States at this time.  However, Colors is carried on several satellite systems including the Dish Network.

The success of the project should be interesting as India is a strong wrestling market—a big reason the Great Khali has had such a long tenure with the WWE.  The fact this show is airing on a Viacom-owned network could signify that TNAs relationship with the company does indeed remain strong.