TNA Wrestling pulls its talent from Ring Of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

-- Figure 4 Weekly [www.f4wonline.com] reports today that TNA has pulled its talent from Ring Of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and other indy promotions that sell DVDs with TNA wrestlers' appearances. At press time ROH has not issued a statement regarding this matter and it's obvious and not a coincidence that TNA put their foot down once ROH announced a PPV deal yesterday. Now of course TNA has every right to do this as their wrestlers are contracted but it will be interesting to see how this will affect the indy landscape, promotions will have the opportunity to push newer faces on their shows but at the same time wrestlers like Alex Shelley, Samoa Joe, Homicide, Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, etc. help draw more fans to indy shows plus these wrestlers have had long relationships with places like ROH, PWG, IWA-Mid South, JAPW, CZW and other promotions that will end effective immediately.

Below is a statement released on PWG's message board:

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla ends agreement with TNA Wrestling
By Silverback, PWG Staff Writer

Los Angeles, CA - Generally, the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (http://www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com) news releases have been light-hearted yet informative, however that will not be the case on this occasion. Since our humble beginnings in July 2003, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has booked employees of TNA Wrestling to appear on our shows, in what can only be considered a successful relationship for all parties involved. Both companies experienced tremendous growth during this time period, admittedly with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla aided infinitely more so by TNA Wrestling than the other way around, and the relationship between the two companies has been affable. On April 24, 2007, TNA Wrestling presented Pro Wrestling Guerrilla with a contract that would prevent TNA Wrestling employees from appearing on DVDs sold through or distributed by any third parties. Because this would include long-time partner Highspots.com, as of May 3, 2007, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has severed all ties with TNA Wrestling.

Since February 2004, Highspots.com has been a major contributor to the success of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, by helping us to increase the popularity of our company through Highspots.com production and distribution of our DVDs. Since TNA Wrestling presented us with the contract on April 24, we have considered every possible solution, from opting out of our contract with Highspots.com, self distribution of events featuring TNA Wrestling employees (both of which, to their credit, Highspots.com was agreeable with), to releasing DVDs without the matches of TNA Wrestling employees through Highspots.com. Each solution, except one, was either financially irresponsible, meant higher costs for the fans, or would greatly compromise the quality of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as a whole. Therefore, we have been forced to end our business relationship indefinitely.

Because of this situation, TNA Wrestling employees Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley will not be appearing at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's DDT4 Tag Team Title Tournament on May 19 & 20. We at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla would like to apologize to Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, who along with Frankie Kazarian, were not simply employees, but part of the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla family. We would also like to apologize to Samoa Joe, Low Ki, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels, whom we had booked for upcoming Pro Wrestling Guerrilla events. We would also like to thank Homicide, Austin Aries, Petey Williams, and all those previously mentioned for their hard work and professionalism as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla wrestlers.

And most importantly, we would like to apologize to our fans, who have come to enjoy seeing TNA employees both at our live events and on our DVDs. Your appreciation and support gave the TNA employees a chance to wrestle at a level they often time are unable to. We hope you can understand that this was not an easy decision to make, but we did what we feel was best for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla now, and in the future. Later today, we will provide updated information regarding the DDT4 Tag Team Title Tournament, including the last team, more non-tournament matches, and the final DDT4 first round matches!
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