This is, admittedly, a sort of niche bone to pick with TNA and AMC. I’m aware that this broadcasting error did not happen to everyone watching TNA’s AMC debut — I’m even aware that this experience did not happen to everyone in the United States, where I was watching. However, this broadcasting error certainly happened, and I think that it put a damper on what was, admittedly, a pretty meh show.

The IInspiration put their Knockouts World Tag Team Championships on the line for what very well could be their final match in TNA. Ultimately, Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay dropped the titles…and I only know that because of my colleague’s wonderful writing. I did not watch the Knockouts World Tag Team Championship match. I wasn’t in the bathroom. I wasn’t away from my desk. I was here, with the AMC broadcast turned on, and instead of watching McKay and Lee defend their titles, I was greeted with several ad breaks and a minutes-long waiting screen.

I know that broadcasting mistakes are going to happen. They happen with WWE, they happen with AEW, and they are going to happen with TNA. Such is the reality of simulcasts. However, most simulcast mistakes only cost us about a few minutes of our broadcast, and both WWE and AEW typically pad their transitions in and out of commercials so that should a broadcasting error happen around an ad break, we only miss a few inconsequential lines from commentary. I don’t remember the last time a professional wrestling simulcast had a broadcasting error so long that I missed an entire match. I don’t remember the last time a wrestling show messed up on the ad break transition so bad, I missed an entire title match.

The temptation is there to claim that TNA is conspiring against the departing Lee and McKay, but the out-of-broadcast evidence doesn’t point in that direction. I genuinely think that this was a huge blunder by TNA and AMC…which is still not great. While AMC+ does not have nearly as much salt in the game as, say, Netflix or HBO Max, they are still not a new streaming service, by any means. They launched in 2020. They have service in several countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. This isn’t a rookie service. This fumble on a significant night like this — on the historic TNA’s debut on their platform, in a pop culture world that is more receptive to wrestling than its ever been — is unbecoming of them.

Is this the end of the world, and the end of TNA? Not really. It was just the cherry on top that made a whatever debut even more of a hassle to watch.

Written by Angeline Phu