TNA News: Despite Taking Impact! on the Road, Viewership Continues to Slump

When TNA finally left the Impact! Zone three weeks ago, the wrestling community grew excited to see the company go down the right path, taking Impact! Wrestling on the road permanently. 

For three weeks, Impact! Wrestling viewers have witnessed much larger and livelier crowds. It appears TNA has broken out of its shell and truly elevated itself to become the No. 2 wrestling promotion behind the WWE. For the first time, TNA has become a true alternative product to the WWE.

Yet, despite airing its flagship show from larger arenas, TNA has not seen its viewership spike. Instead, Impact! Wrestling's viewership has remained consistent or dipped lower.

The timing of moving Impact! Wrestling on the road permanently was questionable. Given the WWE is in the heart and soul of its WrestleMania season and the NCAA March Madness tournament is going on, TNA could easily find themselves lost in the shuffle.

This was evident on the Thursday, March 28 edition of Impact! Wrestling. The show, which aired from Jonesboro, AR. had just 1.31 million viewers and scored a 0.3 rating in adults 18-49. Meanwhile, the NCAA March Madness tournament ranked No. 1 on cable television Thursday night with 4.65 million viewers.

Although the timing was questionable, TNA has shown the past three weeks why Impact! Wrestling is heading in the right direction. The product has become better, in thanks to Bully Ray joining Aces and Eights, and seeing crowds into the thousands is a major improvement over a sound studio at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fl.

Instead of its disappointing viewership numbers early on, TNA should continue to keep focused on its product. As TNA progresses into the latter part of the year, the company could find itself breaking more attendance records with a solid television product for viewers to watch.

No matter what the viewership results might say, TNA is on the right path to grow Impact! Wrestling to extraordinary levels in the future.