The concept of TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Wrestling originated shortly after World Championship Wrestling (WCW) ended in 2001. Bob Ryder, Jeff Jarrett, and Jerry Jarrett contemplated their futures in the professional wrestling business during a fishing trip. Only one wrestling product remained on United States national television: the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
The Jarretts found the financial backing they needed, and the company put on its first show on June 19, 2002. That night, however, in a dark match just before they went on the air, a 450 lb wrestler named Cheex hit the ropes with so much force that one of them broke. The estimated repair time was 30-60 minutes, which they did not have because the schedule called for them to go live in a few minutes, whether the ring was ready or not. Backstage, the producers shuffled the schedule so that some non-wrestling segments went first to give the ring crew some more time, but they did not have many of them.
Initially, TNA's weekly pay-per-view show operated as the company's main source of revenue, in place of monthly pay-per-view events used by other promotions. These shows started on June 19, 2002, and took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, nicknamed the TNA Asylum. After 27 months and 111 PPVs, TNA began holding a weekly television show and monthly three-hour pay-per-views. The last weekly PPV took place on September 8, 2004.
TNA Xplosion launched on November 27, 2002 as TNA's first regular cable show and featured exclusive matches from the TNA Asylum as well as exclusive interviews with TNA Wrestlers. On November 18, 2004, the show became a recap show of the previous week's Impact! in light of alterations in the taping schedule. Xplosion resumed airing exclusive matches (billed as "Xplosion Xclusives") once more on October 7, 2005 in addition to recapping Impact!. The "Xplosion Xclusives" also aired on the now-ceased TNA Global Impact! internet show.
In May 2004, TNA Wrestling introduced a television program, TNA iMPACT!, produced at Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios Florida and broadcast on Fox Sports. With the switch to cable television, TNA discontinued their weekly pay-per-view shows in favor of a monthly 3-hour pay-per-view format as previously utilized by WCW and ECW and as currently used by WWE. The television contract with Fox Sports expired in May 2005 and was not renegotiated, leaving TNA without television exposure.
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This prompted TNA to air iMPACT! via webcasts - originally made available via BitTorrent and eventually via RealPlayer - and on Urban America Television replacing Xplosion. During this time TNA continued pursuing a profitable television deal for regular broadcasting. In April 2006, TNA began a partnership with YouTube, under which TNA supplied YouTube with exclusive video-content in exchange for hosting, leading to the production of internet shows. led to the introduction of TNA Mobile and mobile fan-voting. TNA has also launched "TNA U TV"; podcasts aired through YouTube to help promote the company.
In October 2006, TNA began holding select pay-per-views outside of its central filming location, the TNA Impact! Zone in Orlando, Florida, with TNA Bound for Glory 2006.
Impact! expanded to a two-hour format on October 4, 2007. On October 23, 2008, TNA made the transition to HD and since then all programming has been broadcast in high-definition.
In 2010, TNA hired professional wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and former WCW President Eric Bischoff. Both obtained a position behind the screen (Bischoff was part of creative and Hogan a consultant) and made some changes. They also hired many high-profile ex-WWE wrestlers, including Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson and Jeff Hardy, while returning to a four sided ring. On February 15, 2010, TNA made a new deal with Spike TV, which moved Impact! to Monday nights, directly opposite of Raw (Although the network kept the Thursday night slot open for repeats of the Monday night shows). On May 3, 2010, TNA moved Impact! back to Thursday nights, re-branded as "TNA Thursdays".
At the same time Spike also picked up TNA Reaction (stylized as "TNA ReAction" or, alternatively, as "TNA ReACTION"), which became a regular one-hour docu-series on June 24, 2010. "ReAction" focused on the stories and characters of TNA Wrestling and previewed the upcoming episode of "TNA iMPACT!"
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On February 24, 2011 TNA began holding Impact! tapings at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. On May 3, 2011, TNA Impact! On November 7, 2011, TNA revealed that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) would become TNA's official developmental territory. In December 2011, TNA debuted their new India-based subsidiary promotion Ring Ka King. On May 31, 2012, Impact Wrestling began airing live at a new start time of 8pm EST on Thursday nights. The live schedule would continue throughout 2012. On July 11, DirecTV, the carrier of Spike, blocked all Viacom stations affecting TNA viewership from DirecTV subscribers. After DirectTV and Viacom reached agreement, the removed channels were added back on July 20.
In March 2013, TNA began taping Impact from different venues around the United States and terminated its lease with Universal Studios. On March 14, 2013, TNA introduced a new universal HD stage which would be used for all weekly programming. TNA formed a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1 beginning in July 2013 with a meeting between TNA founder Jeff Jarrett and Wrestle-1 head Keiji Mutoh. It was arranged for Jarrett to wrestle for Wrestle-1 in October 2013. In November, A.J.
From the period of 2013 to 2014, many well-known names or veterans of the company left TNA. Hulk Hogan's contract with TNA expired in October 2013, and he returned to WWE in early 2014. In December 2013, A.J. Styles left TNA after his contract expired. Styles later said that he could not accept TNA's new contract offer which would see him take a 60% cut in pay. Also in December 2013, TNA founder Jeff Jarrett "resigned" from the company. TNA accepted his resignation but clarified that Jarrett was still an "investor" in TNA. In spite of his investor status, in 2014, Jarrett revealed plans to start a new professional wrestling promotion, Global Force Wrestling. In response, TNA refuted the report, stating that negotiations were still ongoing.
On August 14, TNA moved Impact Wrestling from its Thursday timeslot to Wednesday nights. The 2014 Bound for Glory pay-per-view was held in collaboration with Wrestle-1 in Tokyo, Japan on October 12; the TNA World Heavyweight and the TNA World Tag Team titles were not defended at the event, which featured TNA wrestlers James Storm and The Great Sanada against Wrestle-1's The Great Muta and Tajiri in the main event.
After Bound for Glory 2014, TNA effectively went into hiatus due to Impact Wrestling ending their contract with Spike TV and its subsequent move to Destination America. As revealed on November 19, 2014, TNA ended its relationship with Spike and instead partnered with Discovery Communications to distribute its programming beginning in January 2015. In the United States, TNA programs, including Impact Wrestling, moved to Destination America. Discovery also held rights in selected international markets. Spike's outreach at the time was estimated to be more than 97 million homes while Destination America was estimated to reach 59 million households.
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Impact Wrestling premiered on Destination America on Wednesday, January 7 at 9:00 pm. TNA also started two new shows: Impact Wrestling: Unlocked, hosted by Mike Tenay, and TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches, a series presenting the best matches in the company's history. From December 2014 to March 2015, several employees re-signed with TNA, including Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Gail Kim, Mr. Anderson, Abyss and Matt Hardy. Awesome Kong also re-joined the company following several years of absence.
Destination America gained over 41.94 million viewers over the course of 2015's first quarter, making this the channel's best first quarter ever, followed by their best May ever in primetime. In both cases Discovery Communications touted Impact Wrestling as one of the reasons for the increase in viewers.
On November 19, 2015, TNA signed a deal with Pop to air Impact Wrestling, where it premiered on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 in a live special held at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. With this move to Pop, Impact Wrestling introduced a new HD set, graphics and theme music. This show saw the semi-finals and finals of the World Title Series, which was won by Ethan Carter III. Husband and wife team Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis would debut soon after. Subsequent shows would include episodes taped during a tour of England, which would be the last TNA appearances for Kurt Angle.
TNA began taping Impact Wrestling from the "Impact Zone" at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida beginning with a live Impact Wrestling on March 15, 2016. On March 19, longtime TNA wrestlers Eric Young and Bobby Roode left the promotion after 12 years.
On August 12, 2016, Billy Corgan became the promotion's new President, while Dixie Carter became Chairwoman and Chief Strategy Officer. On October 13, 2016, Billy Corgan sued TNA Wrestling due to an unpaid debt which Corgan claims TNA Wrestling has defaulted on. The state of Tennessee has also put a lien on TNA Wrestling for unpaid taxes. Fight Network has since offered to help TNA Wrestling and repay Corgan for the loans. They have also offered additional financial assistance to TNA Wrestling to help keep them from filing for bankruptcy.
On October 31, 2016, Billy Corgan lost his injunction that kept TNA from selling the company, but TNA is required to pay Billy Corgan back by November 1, 2016. It is possible that one of the other minority owners could pay Billy Corgan, effectively making them the majority owner of TNA. On November 3, 2016, the company revealed that Anthem Sports & Entertainment provided a credit facility to fund operations for TNA, and that Billy Corgan was no longer with the company as President. However, Corgan himself has recently stated that neither TNA nor Anthem Sports & Entertainment has yet repaid the $2.7 million debt that is owed to him by TNA and, as such, he is considering suing, as well as converting the debt into a 36% stake.
In January 2017 CBS Corporation, which owns the Pop cable channel, joined Hulu's new live stream service to broadcast TNA. Anthem Sports and Entertainment purchased an 85% majority stake of TNA, re-incorporating TNA's parent company; Dixie Carter retained a 5% minority stake in the company, but resigned as Chairwoman after fourteen years with the company, and joined Fight Media Group's advisory board. Anthem's Executive Vice President, Ed Nordholm, became President of TNA's new parent company.
From June 2004 to March 2013, TNA taped its flagship show, TNA Impact / Impact Wrestling as well as its secondary show TNA Xplosion from the Impact Zone at Universal Studios' Soundstage 21. TNA started running house shows on March 17, 2006. In 2007, TNA Wrestling first toured Europe, hosting two shows at Porto and Lisbon in Portugal. In 2008, TNA wrestlers appeared at Wrestle Kingdom 2 in Japan. Later on in 2008, TNA conducted its first tour of the UK, with most shows selling out. In 2009, on TNA's UK tour, a house show at Wembley Arena in London broke TNA attendance records. On November 21, 2013, TNA returned to Universal Studios due to rising costs of taping Impact Wrestling from different venues. TNA began holding tapings at Soundstage 19 instead of returning to the original TNA Impact Zone, Soundstage 21, due to it being occupied by another tenant. On March 13, 2014, TNA began filming Impact Wrestling from another Universal Studios soundstage, Soundstage 20. From June 19, 2014, to January 29, 2015, TNA taped Impact Wrestling from The Sands Casino Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom in New York City. In late January 2015, TNA taped Impact Wrestling at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, The Manchester Arena in Manchester, England and Wembley Arena in London, England as part of their annual Maximum Impact tour, before returning to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.
Throughout its history, TNA has worked with several international wrestling promotions, with championships from those promotions sometimes having been defended at TNA events. Among the organizations TNA has worked with are Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Japan's Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Wrestle-1 (W-1), and America's Evolve Wrestling. On March 2, 2014, TNA collaborated with Wrestle-1 in producing the Kaisen: Outbreak supershow in Tokyo, Japan where three TNA championships were defended.
Since its origin, TNA has featured a high-flying, high risk style of wrestling known as its X Division. Originally, there was no weight limit on the X Division or its title, though in practice, most of the wrestlers in this division have been cruiserweights, with Samoa Joe, billed at 280 lb (130 kg), Kurt Angle, billed at 230 lb (100 kg), and Abyss, billed at 350 lb (160 kg), being notable exceptions. To further emphasize this point, the slogan "It's not about weight limits, it's about no limits" was used to describe the division. Although it was de-emphasized throughout 2007, the X Division is generally regarded as one of the key attractions of TNA and was replicated in several other promotions. In August 2011, a 225 lb (102 kg) weight limit was introduced. This was quietly repealed in March 2012. Changes introduced in March 2013, including a weight limit of 230 lbs.
From the promotion's first show in June 2002 until June 2004, TNA used a standard four-sided wrestling ring. In 2004, with the premier of Impact, TNA switched to a six-sided ring, as seen occasionally in the Mexican promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). TNA used the six-sided ring until 2010.
TNA wrestlers are forbidden by contract from working for other companies with televised wrestling shows, but are free to perform non-televised work for any other independent wrestling promotions, domestic or international, as well as televised events held by foreign promotions that TNA is linked to or has a working relationship with promotions such as Ring Ka King, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración. Many TNA wrestlers perform regularly for various promotions on the independent circuit in addition to TNA's weekly shows.
In 2012, TNA changed policy, preventing its talent from appearing at any independent events that are later released on DVD. This, however, was later altered due to the lack of TNA shows in late 2014, and many TNA stars appeared at indy events, but were not allowed to appear on any TV or pay-per-view tapings.
Below is a table summarizing TNA's television deals and their corresponding viewership reach:
| Television Partner | Years | Estimated Reach (Homes) |
|---|---|---|
| Fox Sports | 2004-2005 | N/A |
| Urban America Television | 2005-2005 | N/A |
| Spike TV | 2005-2014 | 97 Million+ |
| Destination America | 2015 | 59 Million |
| Pop | 2016-2018 | N/A |
Note: N/A indicates data not available.