As we reported in our rumor-roundup earlier today, there's a good chance that Bully Ray has worked his last date for TNA. Before explaining why this is a bad sign for TNA's future, lets explain how this went down.
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, Bully Ray held a backstage meeting with the TNA crew at Sunday's house show in Hagerstown, MD to personally say his goodbyes to everyone as he was possibly leaving the company for good.
The reason for Bully Ray's potential departure is that his contract expires before TNA's next set of events in early September and the two sides have so far been unable to come to a new agreement. The contract talks are not dead, but the company is going to move forward on the basis that he won't be back. The belief is that Bully Ray has been the latest victim of TNA's ongoing cost cutting drive, given that he was one of the few wrestlers left who was making reasonably big money.
Two months ago, Bully Ray honestly admitted that he would jump back to WWE in a heartbeat if Vince McMahon ever snapped his fingers, so clearly that's where he hopes to end up. However, even if there's no interest from WWE, Bully Ray may still be able to make more money from independent dates and tours of Japan than from TNA's low-ball contract offer, like AJ Styles has already been able to do this year. Which explains why he is unlikely to be back.
The timing of Bully Ray leaving TNA is absolutely mind boggling, as the last several months of television was built around him trying to and eventually succeeding in powerbombing Dixie Carter through a table, Team 3D was set to be inducted into the TNA Hall Of Fame at Bound For Glory, and he was currently in a three way tag team program with The Hardys and The American Wolves which wasn't blown off at the last set of Impact tapings.
It shows how cash-strapped and disorganized the company is that they could allow such loose ends to be left untied. TNA really should have signed Bully Ray to a short term contract extension at the existing rate so they could write him out of the storylines properly and have him put over a rising star on his way out.
The reason why Bully Ray's disappearance is such a bad sign for TNA's future is that he was the most powerful wrestler in the promotion by virtue of being a highly respected road agent and having such creative influence over his own programs (in fact, the feud with Dixie Carter was his own idea). Few people had more clout in TNA than Bully Ray. Indeed, only 11 days beforehand Bully Ray was giving a pep talk to TNA talent with John Gaburick about how the company wasn’t closing, they were working on a bunch of different deals and everything would be fine.
At the very least, this is a morale killer for those unfortunate souls left in TNA who are likely feeling badly misled now that the company's biggest preacher has decided to leave the rickety ship. It's also a sign that TNA is rapidly devolving back to its Nashville roots where everyone is paid peanuts so that the promoter can (attempt to) squeeze out a frugal profit. Most worryingly, Bully Ray would have been the wrestler who was most in the know about what was really going on with TNA's negotiations with Spike TV and other networks. Would he have been so quick to leave if he genuinely had absolute confidence that TNA would sign a new TV deal within the next six weeks?
True, there was a glimmer of optimism when TNA announced last Thursday that Impact Wrestling would be making a permanent move to Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET starting this week, which was a nice gesture on Spike TV's part so they could avoid competition from the NFL and possibly WWE Smackdown in the fall. But given that this was such a last minute decision, TV shows are often moved time slots before being cancelled and still no deal has been announced, TNA are clearly not out of the woods yet by a long shot.