Former TNA production manager, Randy Ricci is claiming that Knockouts Champion, Madison Rayne has been forced to miss recent TNA house shows as she is unable to pay for travel to make it to the shows.
Ricci makes the claims on his blog, which you can see by clicking here.
All I can say is wow. It seems so absurd that it could be true, this is TNA after all. If true, and I do stress if, what does it say about the division that the Knockouts Champion can’t afford to travel to shows? Really unfortunate.
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TNAFan80 wrote: “I pose a question to everyone: if the pay in TNA Wrestling is so bad, then why do the Knockout’s keep resigning with TNA, instead of returning to working multi-indy dates or seeking out employment in WWE?”
Because indies are even worse unless you are a big name. Its great to have companies like Shimmer and WSU, but they only tape a few times a year. In TNA you can at least have 4+ shows a months, that supplies you at least with basic income. Additionally being on national tv also raises your stock value somewhat. So they dont resign because the pay is great, they resign because the alternative is even worse.
Diva Derby, really WWE’s Divas’ are unique?
What was the difference between Sunny, Sable (heel), and Trish Stratus (heel)?
What was the difference between Maryse and Melina (heel)?
Beth Phoenix is being used the same way Chyna was during her brief face run in the Women’s Division.
Michelle McCool and Layla El are WWE’s “Beautiful People“, not unique or original.
Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly wear similar outfit’s A LOT.
Nattie is a 3rd generation superstar, who wears the colors of the Hart Foundation … unique how?
Jillian’s look is a look you can see on any independent wrestling show around the United States.
“They try to give each diva her own look and persona” … did you mean dyed hair and a boob job?
There is NOTHING that sets the Divas “miles ahead” of the Knockouts, you can replace one diva with another in WWE and get the same basic match OVER and OVER.
@DivaDerby
and wwe are??? Name one woman (besides trish & lita) that has become a star???…that’s right you can’t. And the wwe are just as bad tna, every single woman on both rosters are interchangeable (yes even TBP, Tara, Melina & Kelly) not to mention both companies have a roster full of women with no personalities. It just so happens that wwe pays the divas more (not because they treat the women better but because they make way more money then TNA)…So if your going to call out TNA on all their BS then you should do the same for WWE.
@TNAFan80 & Juan
You’re looking for similarities between the wrestlers. You could say the same thing about Kane/Undertaker, Vader/BigShow, etc. If a match was booked between Vader Vs HBK, they could replace it with BigShow Vs Chris Jericho. All wrestlers can be replaced with another wrestler. Even the greats are eventually replaced. The Rock left, Hogan left, yet the WWE is still around. All wrestlers are in a way interchangeable. But, that doesn’t in any way mean that they are all the same.
You compare Trish to Sable and Sunny! Those 3 women are extremely different. What they do have in common is that they are charismatic. It’s the key to being an effective wrestler. They all seemed to find a niche in the WWE because they pretty much just turned up the volume on their own persona. That’s why their gimmicks worked so well. Sable was dominatrice type that was a bitchy, in your face type. She was at the time like a female stone cold in a way. Sunny was a cute bubbly valet, they are currently trying to build Tiffany into the new Sunny. Trish was a real wrestler, whereas the previous two where valets. Trish had her own unique move-set, look and she even had her own merchandise line. You know you have something unique in the WWE when you’re able to sell your own merchandise. Sable & Sunny both also had their own merchandise in the WWE.
Maryse and Meline! I don’t know how you could compare them. Why not compare Hogan and Flair? Melina is an amazing wrestler! Maryse is a mediocre wrestler that is over because she’s charismatic and funny.
You know a wrestler has something unique going when you feel their presence when they walk to the ring. Natalya has that presence to her. She does have Hart Foundations inspired ring attire, but it looks amazing on her! She is unique because she’s the first hart female wrestler in the WWE. She’s also working hard to develop her character.
Like Natalya, what all these women have in common is that effort is put into them to individualize each diva. That’s something TNA does not do. Kelly Kelly isn’t anything to brag about. She’s just there as a typical cute valet type. But, quite a few of the other divas do their own unique look. By unique I mean that what they are current doing makes them stick out from the other female wrestlers. If you look hard enough, you will always find something similar. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about music, movies, TV shows… in any genre of entertainment you will always find something out there that’s similar if you look hard enough. Nothing is 100% original nowadays. Everyone is “inspired” by someone else. if you like the entertainer you say they are “inspired” if you want to be negative you say “copy.” Either way, this is common in all facets of entertainment, the WWE is no exception. But, none of the divas are exact clones of previous divas. If they did that no one would care. The success divas are inspired by previous divas, but they make their gimmick their own by injecting their own persona into their characters.
Lay-cool is a lot better than The Beautiful People. First off, McCool has her own unique ring attire, so does Layla. That alone individualizes them. Layla is more charismatic than any of the Beautiful People. They are both female stables, but the comparisons end there.
Jillian has horrible ring attire. I mentioned that most do have unique ring attire, but not all of them. You can see that they put effort into giving each diva their own look though. That’s something you can’t say about TNA.
The divas are not all the same. If you can’t see it, then you’re part of the Bishoff group that sees all wrestlers as interchangeable. You can theoretically replace HBK with Chris Jericho, but that does not mean they are the same.
Some divas really haven’t done much, like Rosa. Most of what you both said applies to divas like Rosa. But, not all, some divas have been build into a unique WWE superstar.
raynelane Its been a great few days on the road but I’m looking forward to 9 days at home and a Cubbies game while I’m off! Goodnight all! XoXo! Madison Rayne posted this message from her Twitter Account yesterday. I got this from her official website ashleylane.com. If you don’t believe me check it out for yourself. Her next schelduled house show date is Friday May 13th. Again I got all this info from Madison Rayne’s Official Website ashleylane.com. I want to give a shout out to all involved with DivaDirt.com. Hands-down one of the best if not the best online wrestling websites going today. Keep up the great work !!!! On a personal note Vince and Dixe WAKE UP AND START PUSHING THE DIVAS AND KNOCKOUTS TO THE MOON !!! THEY CAN DRAW RATINGS AND MONEY IF GIVEN THE SAME STORYLINE TREATMENT AND IN-RING TIME AS THE GUYS !!!! It’s ashame that this will NEVER HAPPEN but a person is allowed to hope and dream.
@ Diva Derby i completely agree while WWE may hire women they believe to fit the “Diva image” for the ones that they push they do attempt to give them individual characters and indidvual attire
Dark Joker, I called bullshit on the guy who wrote the blog right from the very start. I posted a list of ALL the live event results for 2010 and as of May 6th, there have been 34 live events and Madison Rayne has worked all but 9 of them.
TNAFan80 I think the story was the Tara vs ODB matches on two events were meant to be Madison vs Tara, but Madison couldn’t do them, and it worked out because Tara didn’t like working with them anyway.
To me, the issue is: even if this isn’t true, it easily could be. So, yeah, TNA still look bad here regardless. Madison and many of the other women do probably lose money on the road, especially ones like her and Daffney who only make $200-$300.
Basically, if we heard a report “Maryse couldn’t afford to make a house show” no one would take it remotely seriously and there wouldn’t even be a discussion. But people think this is true (regardless of whether it is or isn’t) because TNA are well known for paying their women peanuts.
I run a wrestling forum, and I post when live events are announced by TNA and update it regularly with talent/matches/results and looking back over my data, at no time was Madison Rayne listed for a live event then removed and replaced by another Knockout (either ODB or Daffney). The only time I had a Knockout listed and then had her replaced was when Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky flew to the United Kingdom to work the tour when Awesome Kong no-showed her dates..
I’m not sure if this has been said yet because I didn’t read all of the comments, but Madison took to her MySpace to clear the air. She said her being pulled from shows has nothing to do with money issues at all but that she’s been given 10 days off to rest her body as she had a nagging injury.
“I don’t see why so many people totally ignore the fact that TNA doesn’t go on the road 300+ days a year. If Madison had a WWE schedule, based on the reports of her TNA salary, she would make about $60,000 a year. Which is the same amount as a low tier WWE worker would make.
So, like I said, why is everyone jumping on TNA? Realistically, Madison is making a dang good amount of money for only working about 5-10 minutes a show. If she goes to 4 house shows, that is barely an hour a week.
I am not saying I agree with how much she is getting paid considering she is the main title holder and is a part of a big ratings draw for TNA. However, just think about how little work she is actually doing. Even Kevin Nash aka Big Lazy does more on the shows he is on than Madison.”
FINALLY something we agree on! I think it incredibly stupid do even bother to compare the two promotions in so many ways. Some people like to make fun of this aspect and that about TNA and criticize, all the while not considering the company’s “youth” and the fact that they are not yet touring/making money/selling merch/getting exposure like WWE, etc. There’s a lot of “Ooo, WWE is better!” that goes on but the fact of the matter is NO WWE IS NOT, at least not the current product. They excel only in terms of what their MONEY can do. And I’m not impressed by what money can buy alone. “Wrestling entertainment” or “wrestling” AND “entertainment” are the primary objectives of either company and for me the level of both are about the same for me right now – they both have problems (TNA: Hogan/Bischoff/Flair-fest, WWE: Guest hosts and the same few guys clutching to their top spots).
I put it how much Divas vs Knockouts are paid in perspective. And yes, still they’re probably getting paid much too low. But the fact of the matter is, WWE need not even be a part of the conversation. They’re different companies. Come on now!
“and wwe are??? Name one woman (besides trish & lita) that has become a star???…that’s right you can’t. And the wwe are just as bad tna, every single woman on both rosters are interchangeable (yes even TBP, Tara, Melina & Kelly) not to mention both companies have a roster full of women with no personalities. It just so happens that wwe pays the divas more (not because they treat the women better but because they make way more money then TNA)…So if your going to call out TNA on all their BS then you should do the same for WWE.”
This is just too dang true!
DIVADERBY: No matter how hard we try to see it, there is rarely anything unique about Women’s Pro-wrestling as far as the WWE and TNA are concerned. All the personas you’ve mentioned earlier have been done before. The story lines are rehashed. The only one that no one can emulate, in terms of character, is Lita. I don’t remember seeing anything like her despite the fact that her character is pretty clear cut (especially when she was a face.) Her swagger makes it impossible for divas like Ashley to mimic her even though the WWE tried that.
That’s why I don’t really watch pro-wrestling for the storylines. I just want to see a great match. And in that respect, TNA did better before the “washed up old boys” decided to ruin everything.
YES people. I SAID HULK HOGAN IS WASHED UP. The only thing keeping him around is the quiet courtesy one would give an old man telling a joke older than his listeners.
“I’m not sure if this has been said yet because I didn’t read all of the comments, but Madison took to her MySpace to clear the air. She said her being pulled from shows has nothing to do with money issues at all but that she’s been given 10 days off to rest her body as she had a nagging injury.”
thank you for that. sounds real truthful, too, considering she didn’t outright say there’s NO heat backstage at all. hope she gets 100%!
There’s this old saying, “The more things change, the more things stay the same”. Almost every other day, we’re hearing a different story regarding Madison. We probably won’t know what’s really going on with her and TNA.
Whatever is going on, what is staying the same is that the Tara story Is showing it’s true nature: bulls#@t. They threw her under the train to cover up the true story between Madison and TNA, whatever it is; and we may never know. Plus in a small way they put ODB legs on the tracks too. Like I stated before, the holes in this story were uncovered when Kong defended Tara.
Remember a 155lb Victoria in a banana costume doing the job by losing a match by taking a top rope, cross body block from Maria, who weighs about 100 pounds soaking wet and dipped in cement; yet she’s difficult. Vince has fired people for less, but she wasn’t.
The only person right now that could replace Tara, besides Kong, is Mickey. Do you think that after what Mickey has went through with the WWE she would even consider going to TNA with all this going on, for a fraction of the money? Hell no!
WHY ARE PEOPLE COMPARING LAY-COOL WITH THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BECAUSE IF THERE GOING TO DO THAT THEN I THINK THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE GOT THE RING ENTRANCE FROM VINCE’S DEVILS BECAUSE THEY HAD THE SAME TYPE OF SEXY ENTRANCE WHERE THEY GO BETWEEN THEIR LEGS…..LIKE VELVET DID WITH ANGELINA AND CANDICE DID TO EITHER VICTORIA OR TORRIE!!!!
I would be concerned about the financial status of TNA if they are not willing to help out with travel expenses for Madison or anyone else.
For what it’s worth I asked that TNA source over at the f4w board (the one who’s always leaking news, and broke the story about Tara leaving) and he insisted it was true. She’s not the first either: Traci Brooks lied to management about an injury once because she couldn’t afford to go to a taping.
I don’t know where some of you are getting your bullshit stories, but TNA flies talent into live events, tapings, and pay-per-views. TNA talent does NOT fly themselves into live events, television tapings or pay-per-views. TNA has a staff who takes care of all the travel arrangements for their talent and at no time does a TNA talent have to fly themselves to an event.