We’re a little more than a week removed from the utter panic that was TNA’s allegedly impending doom leading up to Bound For Glory. Rumors swirled that flights were canceled — then they weren’t. Rumors swirled that TNA didn’t have enough money to pay for Bound For Glory to actually happen — then it happened regardless. Reportedly, money came in at the last minute from a mystery investor to keep the ship afloat, but it’s done nothing to actually clear up just who currently owns TNA, nor who is going to own it a week from now. We know Billy Corgan is angling to purchase TNA and rebrand it, and we also know that WWE was working on a deal to purchase TNA’s tape library, according to Jim Ross.
Well, it seems like the proverbial Ernest “The Cat” Miller is out of the bag, thanks to an email survey sent out to a number of WWE Network subscribers via research company Intellisurvey. A large portion of the survey was based around asking users about potential price points for the WWE Network in the future, with each successive tier having greater benefits and perks. You can see a screenshot courtesy of Redditor rflairfan1 below:
In case you didn’t read closely enough, here’s what should have caught your eye:
That’s right: “Access to independent wrestling content such as TNA & Ring Of Honor” is included in the list of potential content for WWE Network in the future. This was listed on a number of different pages of the survey, numerous screenshots of which can be seen here. (You can attempt to take a version of the survey here, though you may not make it to these screens if your preliminary answers don’t meet their criteria.)
Now, this survey doesn’t necessarily mean WWE Network will be implementing different pricing tiers — it is a type of survey commonly used in marketing called conjoint analysis. A conjoint analysis survey is a way for marketers to allow those being surveyed to place different values on different features they would like, and after enough data is gathered, it can be used to determine which features are most important to the user. By using the hypothetical pricing tier structure, it allows for the user to assign value to what they like the most, hence allowing for more accurate data.
Not only does this survey dump a whole pile of fuel on the fire of WWE purchasing TNA’s library, it also insinuates there may be a relationship forming between Ring Of Honor and WWE that has previously not been publicly disclosed. Of course, many of WWE’s biggest stars in recent years have come through ROH’s ranks (including Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and CM Punk), so acquiring that company’s video library would also help piece together the puzzle of their careers for future retrospectives, just as acquiring TNA’s library would do wonders for video packages on AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries and more.
Is it it possible this survey just listed those two companies randomly, as a flight-of-fancy idea to see if WWE fans would be interested? Sure. But the timing of TNA’s financial woes, WWE’s reported interest and this survey appearing sure seem a bit more than coincidental.
