TNA threatens litigation against "internet news sources" for defamation

In response to the report in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Destination America has provisionally decided to cancel all TNA programming after the end of September, TNA has issued a vague statement to other wrestling websites denying the story without explicitly referring to the exact rumour they were attempting to refute:

"It has come to our attention that several internet news sources have falsely attributed statements to TNA, its executives and broadcasting partner. These false statements constitute defamation and if necessary we will seek all legal remedies available to us."

It's important to note that Dave Meltzer claimed in his report that Dixie Carter didn't respond to any questions on the subject when he sought clarification on the matter. One wonders how his statements could possibly be deemed defamatory if the owner of TNA didn't take the opportunity to inform him that they were false before publication when she had ample opportunity to do so?

On his message board forum, Meltzer was laughing off the legal threats, likely because he is highly confident that his in-depth report was factually accurate:

"Guess who didn't get one threatening e-mail.

Plus, I have records of all my e-mails over the past two weeks to Dixie addressing every issue covered."

In this fight, I am on Meltzer's side, as privately I heard a very similar account of what's going on behind the scenes with Destination America and TNA before he even published his newsletter yesterday. It all seems like a rather belated attempt by TNA to have a chilling effect on the wrestling media to prevent the publication of further embarrassing stories in the future.

Regarding how TNA has responded to their wrestlers and other staff members over this news story leaking, whose jobs would be jeopardised if Destination America cancels Impact, accounts differ. PWInsider.com was told that the same vague official statement above was issued via email to the TNA roster and staff, whilst Dave Meltzer has claimed that the rumours will be addressed at their next set of television tapings in late June. Personally, I think TNA's workers deserve better. They shouldn't be kept in the dark for the next month as they worry about their jobs. But then again, this is a company that thinks so much about their workforce that they can't bother to pay them on time.

Speaking of late payment, Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net is reporting that Eric Bischoff, Jason Hervey, and Garett Bischoff filed a breach of contract lawsuit against TNA last week for unpaid money in the amount of $114,500.02. Although Eric left TNA in late 2013 and his son Garrett hasn't been used by the company since around the same time, their contracts didn't expire until the end of March 2015, and TNA kept paying them on time through September 2014. According to Powell, payment problems then started escalating and they haven't been paid yet for the final three months on their contracts:

"BHE attorneys notified TNA on November 4, 2014 of a breach in the terms of the agreement for October pay, and advised that the company had 20 days to rectify the situation. A second notice was issued twenty days later notifying TNA that they had failed to cure the breach. TNA eventually issued payment of $101,500 "on or before January 1, 2015," according to the lawsuit. However, BHE is seeking that same amount of unpaid money for the final three months of their contract, which expired on March 31, 2015."

Before this lawsuit was filed there were letters between TNA's attorney Guy Blake and Bischoff Hervey Entertainment's attorney Bryan Lewis, which indicated there was confusion on the latter side over whether the last payment was in connection with a settlement offer that was on the table or a reinstatement by TNA. Lewis wrote that BHE was ready, willing, and able to perform under their agreement in the event that TNA was reinstating that agreement. It's likely that TNA will attempt to argue that they were well within their rights to withhold the final payment, as BHE hadn't done any work for the company in quite some time.