TO FEE OR NOT TO FEE? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
When NWA TNA doesn't have an exclusive deal with a wrestler, do they have the right to charge others for using the same talent? They think so. Being a booking agent, and treating talent as your own property are 2 very different things. As TNA attempts to be Total Nonstop Authority with non exclusive wrestlers, we confront the issue. Below is a story that is growing each day and is updated in real time. This article will be updated as stories break. (An alert will be posted on the mainpage as this story is updated.
MAY 4, 2004 @ 7:00PM
TNA - TOTAL NONSTOP AGENTS
As I commented a few weeks back, NWATNA thinks that they are the next WCW. And now, they are going to attempt something, that will change the scope of not only indy wrestling, but their roster as well.
Buck Woodward over at PWInsider is reporting that NWATNA is going to attempt to levy indy promotions a "surcharge" for use of their contracted employees.
The surcharge is rumored to be 15% of the wrestler's indy pay. For example: If Wrestler "A" charges $1000 for an indy appearance, the promoter would pay the $1000, plus a $150 "booking fee" payable to NWATNA.
There are going to be alot of problems with this scenario. I will get into this quite a bit on the hotline tonight. Some of it will show how a promotion can avoid this "fee", and why NWATNA is going to have a hard time trying to charge "booking fees". Especially if promoters start avoiding booking certain talent, expect wrestlers to be quite upset.
MAY 6, 2004 @ 9:45PM
"TNA + FEES = EXCLUSIVE CONTRACTS"
I had the pleasure of speaking to an attorney today who happened to be a wrestling fan. We went over many things, one being this TNA "contract" & "booking fee" matter. To sum it up, he said that it was simple: These contracts are exclusive TNA deals for wrestlers. They have to be because TNA is treating them as their own property. And if someone wishes to "use their property", they want to charge a fee. When I said TNA thinks they are the next WCW, many people found those comments intriguing. Now everyone is saying the same thing. I will get into much more detail on the hotline tonight about it. From income tax filings, to workers comp insurance, well get into it all tonight. Also, I have spoke with 2 wrestlers currently in TNA who are friends of me. I can tell you that many guys are not to happy at what TNA may be attempting to do. Some think they will actually lose money from lost bookings. One promoter told wrestlers he would pay the 15% booking fee. But he isn't going to pay for the wrestler's travel expenses.
Some also feel that if TNA pulls them from certain feds, they may lose that booking opportunity with that fed once they leave TNA.
MAY 7, 2004 @ 5:35PM
"LEGAL LOOPHOLE OUT OF TNA'S BOOKING FEE."
3PW made an interesting announcement yesterday, saying that they will be using AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels for the remainder of the year. I say interesting because this is something I guarantee you see several promotions do. I will get into it on the hotline tonight. But it is definitely a legal, legitimate loophole in favor of the promoters who are using NWATNA talent.
Now in no way shape or form am I saying that 3PW inked those two stars because of this "loophole". However, from a conversation I had with an attorney today, the loophole is legit, its legal, and it's simple:
If a wrestling promotion "inks" a deal with a wrestler who works for TNA before June 1st, TNA cannot charge a fee. If the promotion makes an agreement with a wrestler (before June 1st) to be part of their respective roster for a year or two. TNA cant charge a booking fee. Most important, the wrestler does not have to appear each show to be part of a roster.
TNA cant charge a booking fee for a wrestler who already has a deal with a company to be on a promotion's roster. If they try, then it's a royalty not a booking fee.
Here's an example how TNA could charge the fee. And we will use 3PW for example. Lets say 3PW has an event August 1st. And Christopher Daniels is on the card but has no opponent announced.
Now let's say TNA called 3PW and offered Low-Ki for that show as an opponent for Christopher Daniels. If 3PW accepts the offer, then TNA would be entitled to the fee because they just acted as a booking agent for Low-Ki.
Here's another example. A promotion is doing a certain "extreme" angle. TNA calls a promotion and offers Raven & Sabu for as a tag team for that promotion. And, the two sides negotiate a fee of $2000 total for both wrestlers. If the promotion accepts the offer from TNA, then TNA could charge the fee.
Of course TNA could threaten the wrestler of not offering a new contract as retaliation. But by promotions meeting with wrestlers and making committments such as 3PW did with AJ & Daniels, TNA cant charge a fee on them for the rest of the year.
Compare AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels to cigarettes. Lets say as of June 1st, you would have to pay a 15% tax on all cigarettes bought. If someone stocks up and buys a year's supply before 6/1, he/she doesn't pay a tax on them.
However, after 6/1, any additional cigarettes bought, you would have to pay a tax. Now let's see what promoter(s) "stock up" on TNA smokes. Remember, even if this is 100% legal, not too many wrestlers have that trust and connection with a particular indy fed. Therefore, even if promoters wanted to do this, the wrestler would still have to feel comfortable enough to agree to it.
MAY 9, 2004 @ 2:00PM
"USA PRO PULLS TNA TALENT OFF FUTURE SHOWS BECAUSE OF NEW BOOKING POLICY."
If you read our previous articles, this was bound to happen. USA Pro Wrestling's CEO Frank Goodman has issued the following statement. As you will read, USA Pro has pulled contracted talent off of future shows due to NWA TNA's new booking policy. They are the first promotion to take such action, and by far not the last.
NOTE: In the next few days, 3e6r.net will be further writing an article on this TNA matter. It will include an apology to Ring Of Honor. It appears Feinstein may have been the scapegoat for TNA pulling stars off ROH shows. It will however leave quite a few of you scratching your head about two very important points in this matter. You dont want to miss it.
USA Pro Wrestling's Official Statement Concerning TNA & Booking TNA Contracted Talent
Last week TNA announced that they were putting in place a new booking procedure which affected indy promoters who wished to use wrestlers who were contracted to TNA. The new rules state that anyone wishing to use TNA talent must put in writing their request, give the dates the pay and so on as well as send TNA a 50% deposit and a 15% booking fee to TNA and something that wasn't announced but would be common sense to anyone with a brain is that TNA would want to exercise some creative control regarding their contracted talent on any show which they were booked on thus to make sure that a wrestler who is pushed to the moon on TNA isn't jobbed out or embarresed on an indy show.
Now if i was a new promoter or a promoter who didn't have long term relationships with 90% of the talent on the indys or have friendships with the wrestlers outside of the ring or if i didn't run over 400 indy wrestling shows i wouldn't have any issues with this new booking procedure set forth by TNA but i do know 90% of the talent and i do have relationships with many of the wrestlers outside the ring and i have run over 400 shows and i do book many of these wrestlers on other promoters shows and i feel that in my 20 years in this business i have earned an excellent reputation and in my position i dont feel the need tp pay anyone 15% to do what i can do myself and have done and i will not ever pay a deposit to anyone for anything except if i am doing business with them for the first time or if i am booking someone i do not know and doesn't know me. I also cannot run a sucessful indy show knowing that any angle or match i do can be altered by TNA to protect their own talent.
Now TNA has set forth the date of June 1st as the date that these rules will take effect and i have many of these TNA contracted wrestlers booked from May 14th thru Sept 17th and each and every wrestler booked who is contracted to TNA was booked thru myself and not using a booker with the exception of AJ Styles who was booked thru Bill Behrens and all of these wrestlers have angles and stories planned beginning May 14th and since i will not agree to any of TNA's rules The Amazing Red, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels will be removed from all USA Pro and ICW shows beginning May 14th. Now TNA did not pull these wrestlers from any of the USA Pro shows and Bill Behrens through more then half a dozen phone calls with me tried very hard to rework the new rules as to make it easier for USA Pro to make this work but as i said earlier we will not book any wrestlers that we are capable of booking ourselves and have booked ourselves through an agent or another company. I will say again that Bill Behrens was extemely easy to deal with and was trying to make concessions but i did not feel that this new booking procedure was good for myself or USA Pro Wrestling.
I would not be shocked if at some point in time USA Pro did work with TNA on obtaining talent that we did not have a relationship with but we cannot let an outside company have any type of creative control over a wrestler winning and losing on our shows. Now i would like to state that i fully understand that TNA would not like to spend the money on say an AJ Styles and invest in him being world champion and then have an indy show ruin him by jobbing him out to Joe Schmo so i do understand their points i just dont feel its the right situation for us.
Now in closing i would like to say that we and in we i mean Indy promoters we do not have a contract with TNA and if we were to use a contracted TNA wrestler on any of our shows we would not be at fault it is the wrestler/talent who is contracted and has a responsabilty to work out any issues he has in his or her contract with TNA. I will continue to book who i want when i want on my shows and its the talents responsabilty to inform me that he cannot work for me or he wants to work for me and if he's contracted to TNA then i would inform him that its his job to let TNA know he is working for me and for him to work out anything he has to with them but to please leave me out of it.
Anything else i say would just be me rambling saying meaningless garbage.
CHECK BACK IN A FEW DAYS FOR MORE NEWS ON THIS STORY
Thanks for reading.
Anthony DeBlasi
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