Bad News for TNA Star Zema Ion

After a rough few weeks, there's even more bad news for injured TNA star Zema Ion.

Scott Hall and Jake Roberts have found success in the area of online fundraising for medical bills. In fact, Hall, in particular, ended up exceeding the amount needed by thousands of dollars.

But Ion's similar attempts to raise money for his surgeries related to his appendix issues (as I discussed earlier this month) have not had anything close to the same result.

As Mike Johnson over at PWInsider notes, Ion's fundraiser was ultimately unsuccessful, with the star only garnering a fraction of the sum needed:

"The fundraising campaign to help with the medical bills for TNA star Zema Ion following an emergency appendectomy failed to raise the needed $30,000 the campaign was hoping to raise.

The campaign raised $6,648 in the end. Ion will still need another surgery to remove a growth on his bladder that was found during the initial surgery.

"

"TNA has yet to (at least publicly) provide any sort of financial assistance for Ion's medical bills."

It's sad that Ion fell short of his goal, but maybe not that surprising. While he has been a regular character in TNA for two years, he still doesn't have anything close to the profile that Roberts and Hall, both major stars back in the day, have.

The situation also reflects badly on Ion's employers, TNA.

Of course, TNA supporters could point out that Ion's injuries are not related to his in-ring career, and the company is therefore under no obligation to help him out financially.

This is a perfectly valid point.

However you have to wonder why TNA has totally ignored the situation. Surely, the company could have at least have plugged Ion's fundraiser on its television show, iMPACT? It would have taken all of 30 seconds, if that.

The show does get one million viewers a week and is Spike's most watched show, after all. This could have helped out Ion greatly.

Or maybe TNA President Dixie Carter could have plugged the campaign on her official Twitter account? Hey, she tweets about everything else. Why not this?

It doesn't help that TNA's competitors have seemingly rushed to help out the wrestler.

Small Chicago indie GALLI hosted a benefit show for the star earlier this month. WWE developmental wrestler Xavier Woods kindly promoted the fundraiser on his Twitter last month and, per the fundraiser's front page, donated money too.

Is it really that smart of America's No. 2 promotion to continue to ignore this?