To preface this: No, there was no ruling today. That’s coming Monday (October 31st), though Billy Corgan was happy with how it went:
https://twitter.com/Billy/status/791402309834027008
Nate Rau of the The Tennesseean, the paper of record in Nashville, live tweeted today’s hearing in Corgan v. Impact Ventures LLC, where Billy Corgan attempted to get an injunction against the company. Rau also filed an article after the hearing, and here are some of the key takeaways from his coverage…
Billy Corgan's lawyer, Scott Sims, presents his client's case in a hearing in the lawsuit involving TNA wrestling https://t.co/lMXhSlx7DX pic.twitter.com/FWd6mhsSoo
— Tennessean (@Tennessean) October 26, 2016
Corgan’s side was largely what we already knew/had reported, with the exception being that at one point, his lawyer slipped and revealed that TNA’s debt to Anthem Sports and Entertainment (Fight Network parent company) is now $1.8 million. It had been $1.1 million before the latest round of TV tapings, so it looks like TNA spent $700,000 for that week of shows. Since it included Bound For Glory, that’s probably more than the average block of shows due to both the extra day and the live satellite time required for pay-per-view, which TNA didn’t put down the money for until late in the previous week.
Travis Parham, TNA wrestling's lawyer, presents their case during a hearing in the lawsuit involving Billy Corgan https://t.co/ADf2D0XvTO pic.twitter.com/Q5OPTZ92JL
— Tennessean (@Tennessean) October 26, 2016
TNA’s attorney argued that the company is not insolvent, and a lot of his claims were met with guffaws on Twitter. Even if TNA had defaulted, he said that the contract, which would give Corgan Dixie Carter’s 92.5% of the company, is illegal under Tennessee law, adding that it would“make a loan shark blush.” It seemed as if much of his argument was based around chiding Corgan for arranging a “heads I win, tails I lose” deal as opposed the legality of it all, though.
As for Anthem? Their attorney said that the company is willing to pay off Corgan’s loan minus a transaction fee that TNA owes him, which largely echoes what their press release said last week. Ray wrote that Anthem “owns licensing rights to TNA’s lucrative video library,” but it’s still unclear just what that means. Taken literally, it sounds like Anthem can license the back catalog both for The Fight Network and to third parties to make back what it loaned TNA.