With An ‘Invasion’ Coming On TV, TNA And Global Force Wrestling Needs To Merge Companies

A lot has happened in the world of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Global Force Wrestling in the last month or so. TNA put on their 13^th anniversary Slammiversary show which many called a throw away pay-per-view if there is such a thing. GFW began their baseball stadium shows in what many are calling disappointing when it came to attendance and visibility. TNA has a new World Heavyweight Champion in Ethan Carter III and GFW announced tournaments for their four main titles and the name of their new TV show. With all the movement from both companies, one thing is very apparent…

TNA and GFW need each in the worst way.

At Slammiversary, TNA founder and GFW head Jeff Jarrett came in and the King of The Mountain match, a match he created. He left with the KOTM Title and promised to bring it to GFW, an action which has many in the wrestling world believing that this would be the start of a massive invasion angle between the two companies. This thinking became a little clearer when TNA star Eric Young appeared at a GFW event claiming that he was there to bring back the title back to his company. With Magnus leaving TNA and going to GFW and James Storm leaving TNA and reportedly headed to GFW, the seeds are there for an angle that could help both companies in the short term.

Invasion angles have been done for years in wrestling, going back to when Jim Crockett Promotions (NWA and early WCW) purchased Bill Watts’ UWF (Universal Wresting Federation) in 1987 and when the WWF purchased WCW in 2001. The problem with these two “invasions” was that Jim Crockett Promotions and the WWF were unwilling to get the other company’s wrestlers “over” and become successful. Instead of building a balanced roster on both ends and having competitive, back and forth matches, both companies decided to make the other companies look buffoonish and weak which led to the audience not caring about the other company and never taking them seriously. The WWF/WCW invasion angle could have went on for years but instead it lasted for all of six months due to the lack of talent on the WCW side (with the exceptions of guys like Lance Storm, Booker T among others) and terrible booking decisions.

The TNA/GFW invasion serves two purposes. It helps TNA come up with better storylines for their roster as the mass exodus continues from the promotion (MVP just announced he is leaving TNA on Sunday). The roster is reeling and the company itself is on what many are calling its “last legs”. With their future on Destination America still up in the air, TNA is throwing a Hail Mary and hoping that a well-booked and logical invasion angle could propel them back to the number two promotion in the U.S.

For GFW, the invasion will help their visibility. Their first baseball stadium shows drew hundreds…yes you read that right, hundreds. For the most part Global Force Wrestling is an unknown entity with anyone besides hardcore wrestling fans. They do not have a TV deal even though they are taping a few episodes of their “GFW Amped” television show this weekend. The roster is a mishmash of wrestlers from different promotions from around the world so they don’t have any homegrown guys as of yet. The one thing that it does have going for them is that it’s a new promotion so fans will become interested in the product…if they know about it at all. Jarrett going back to TNA, while a good story and something that needed to happen, was really to get the Global Force Wrestling name in public on a television show that goes to millions and not just on the GFW website, Twitter or YouTube.

While an invasion angle could help both companies, what’s the end game for TNA and GFW? To be honest the only way both companies will continue and prosper will be for both companies to merge.

Yes….I said Total Nonstop Action and Global Force Wrestling needs to join forces to survive.

TNA is in downward spiral right now with their future clearly in doubt. A thin roster, network issues, low money and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. GFW wishes they had TNA’s problems because they have no money, no network and a roster of wrestlers from all over the place. You take Jarrett’s goodwill with the different promotions around the world and TNA’s television and you have a vehicle for young, unknown wrestlers to become stars and get noticed…what TNA was about before the Hogans, Nashs, Bookers and others came into the TNA, took bags of cash in the night while doing nothing to help the new generation.

While both companies are keeping their distance and doing periodic talent exchanges, both Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett need to sit in a room and figure out how to merge their companies. People will say that by merging, both companies failed separately and needed each other to continue. To those people I say that there is nothing wrong with that. The wrestling landscape is difficult right now due to the fact that the WWE is the clear cut number one. The battle for number two is an uphill climb because the WWE monopolized the industry so sponsors and advertisers are already locked into the juggernaut that the WWE. On the television side, there are not many stations that want or need wrestling on their network. Your wrestling promotion will most likely end up on an upstart channel with limited distribution, which has no idea how to market and sell pro wrestling and who are clueless about their other programming…kind of like Destination America with TNA.

By merging, TNA and GFW can join forces and give themselves a chance to survive by taking the positives from both companies and putting them together. Instead of Jarrett running around the free world looking for TV and TNA possibly doing the same in the fall, they can run around together in order to find a new television home. No fighting for possible arenas and halls for shows, they are in it together. It’s a win-win for both companies.

It seems as if TNA has found its stride as the last few Impact Wrestling shows has been good but no one is watching. People have given up on the product and do you blame them? No one is watching GFW and their attendance figures shows that very clearly. Isn’t time for both companies to “Mount Up” and do what’s best for their respective businesses? It’s their only way for survival.