Impact Wrestling color commentator Josh Mathews spoke with Brian Fritz of Sporting News and was asked about a report that Anthem is losing money and wants to sell the wrestling company. “It’s really hard and difficult because we’re working so hard and diligently on three over-the-top networks,” Mathews said. “Ran Fighting in Germany which launched a couple of weeks ago, Pluto TV which is going to launch imminently and then GWN (Global Wrestling Network) which is going to be the most robust over-the-top network that’s our own that everyone across the board has a hand in and is working hard on.
“Then you wake up in the morning and read an article from Sports Illustrated saying that Anthem wants out and they’re hemorrhaging funds and they don’t want to have anything to do with this anymore. To me, that’s the furthest thing from the truth. They’re invested. We’re doing ‘Bound for Glory’ on Nov. 5 and all this momentum is going forward. Then one story and one thing and one negative piece of journalism comes out and it kind of puts you eight steps back and it’s really difficult… The future to me looks bright unless (Anthem) decide to close the doors, which I don’t foresee happening.”
Mathews was also asked about reports that Anthem wants to move company headquarters to Toronto and whether he would follow. “It would make sense but I don’t necessarily know if that’s their plan,” said Mathews. “I know that I went to my office (Monday) in Nashville. I believe I saw somewhere that somebody had said that all the offices right now are in Toronto and that’s just not true… I’d have to wait and see if that was a real conversation to be had,” said Mathews. “I don’t dislike Canada. I’m looking forward to going there for ‘Bound for Glory’ on Nov. 5.” Read the full interview at SportingNews.com.
Powell’s POV: It’s great that the company is lining up over the top networks, but are they really enough to cover the company’s financial losses? The company was hemorrhaging money under Dixie Carter, and there haven’t been many new revenue streams created under Anthem to think that the company is anywhere near profitable. At the same time, one can only hope that Anthem officials were prepared to lose money early and weren’t convinced that they could land a better U.S. television deal to help make up for some of the losses.
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