Report: Financial and other frustrations lead to Bobby Roode & Eric Young leaving TNA

After some alleged mis-reporting of news from their subscription-only Elite area, PWInsider released a detailed report of what their sources tell them led to Bobby Roode and Eric Young leaving TNA following their tapings this past weekend.

While Mike Johnson stresses that each man's situation is unique, and that neither can be reduced down to "each asked for pay raises and were turned down", it does seem like money was a factor in both men's thinking.

Roode's circumstances are described as being similar to AJ Styles' when he left back in 2013. His old deal was one of the most lucrative in the company, and given TNA's current position in the market and his place on the card, they could not justify re-upping him at the same rate.

In addition to being too expensive for the company, Johnson's sources also indicate that Roode was unhappy with recent slow payment issues. While TNA completely caught up with back pay for the wrestler, something else happened which triggered "more frustrations" and nixed a pending deal to keep him around.

Young allegedly had a new offer on the table, but he was not happy with the amount - or the fact that performers with less experience and/or who had demonstrated less loyalty to TNA were offered the same or better deals. When he voiced these issues to management, Dixie Carter and team asked him decide if he wanted to stay or go, and EY decided it was time to fully test the market (his old contract gave him more flexibility than others on the roster to work on other projects).

The door is theoretically open for either man to return, possibly as soon as the next Impact tapings in late April, but while the departures were amicable, that scenario doesn't seem likely.

Losing two of their champions isn't ideal for TNA, but the report puts their fortunes as no better or worse for these exits.  They are independent of Panda Energy, surviving largely on international TV deals and looking for investors. PWInsider says they do have more signings coming, so they're not without funding, just tightening the purse strings a bit and, perhaps wisely, not wanting to invest too much of their budget on wrestlers who have been with the company for most of its history.

Stay tuned to see if new stars rise to take Roode & Young's place, and how or if that changes the prospects for TNA.