More On TNA Woes: Another Lawsuit, Tax Lien Issued, Who Funded Tapings, Corgan Tipped Off Pop TV?
As noted, TNA President Billy Corgan filed a lawsuit against Impact Wrestling, parent company Impact Ventures LLC, TNA Chairman Dixie Carter, Dixie's husband Serg Salias and TNA Chief Financial Officer Dean Broadhead this past Wednesday in Nashville, which is sealed.
Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that there is also another lawsuit against TNA by Audience of One Productions, LLC, who produced a couple of television tapings last year as well as the 2015 Bound For Glory pay-per-view. The company never got paid and a payment system was worked out. They received the first payment, but never got the rest. They are seeking around $300,000 for the money owed and interest.
In the lawsuit filed by Audience of One, David Bixenspan of SEScoops noted that it mentioned that the debt that TNA owes Aroluxe Media is on file with the Tennessee Secretary of State. In their database, there is a filing on September 30th, the Friday before Bound For Glory, from MCC Acquisition Corp. in Canada, which would indicate that they financed the pay-per-view and last week's television tapings. Everything related to MCC Acquisitions Corp., including their address, is related to Anthem Sports and Entertainment Corp., which is one of the parent companies of The Fight Network which is also owed money by TNA. According to The Tennessean, Anthem owns some of the rights to TNA's video archives. It was also noted that there was a UCC filing this past Tuesday, the day before Corgan filed his lawsuit, listing Dixie as the debtor and Corgan as the creditor, so Dixie also personally owes Corgan money. According to Wikipedia, A UCC form "is a legal form that a creditor files to give notice that it has or may have an interest in the personal property of a debtor."
Bixenspan also reported that the state of Tennessee issued a tax lien against TNA for unpaid taxes, which was filed last month on September 8th. The state of Tennessee could seize TNA property if the debt is not repaid. It was noted that if someone were to buy the company, Dixie may have to take a lower sale price so that she can pay off the lien, otherwise the new owners could have the state of Tennessee going after them for the tax liability.
As for the lawsuit filed by Corgan, Meltzer noted that Corgan had funded several television tapings earlier this year with the belief that he was going to buy the company, but Dixie was not selling to him after all. He wanted his money back since he thought he was putting money in to buy it, but they don't have the money to pay him back so the suit was filed.
"There's fraud involved as well," Meltzer said. "[Corgan] not being told of certain financial things and information withheld by Dixie Carter to Billy Corgan that he should have known."
It was noted that the lawsuit may be unsealed next week. As noted, there is a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday in Nashville.
As we mentioned earlier, Meltzer had also reported that last night's Impact Wrestling was almost pulled by Pop TV yesterday afternoon due to a musical rights issue. The show ended up airing with some wrestlers coming out with dubbed in crowd noise instead of their music. It was noted that there was a period yesterday where it looked like there was a good chance that Pop would pull the show until the issue was settled and the songs were edited out of the show. According to PWInsider, the themes that were pulled were written by Dale Oliver and there is a financial issue over whether TNA had proper rights to them. While not confirmed, PWInsider stated that multiple sources told them that it was Corgan who informed Pop TV about the issue.