There is “a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes” in TNA Wrestling, including several departures, as Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com pointed out last week. As PWMania.com previously reported, Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com reported that Lou D’Angeli (Vice President, Marketing for Anthem) is among those who are no longer with TNA. D’Angeli was regarded as one of TNA’s most senior officials.
Meltzer also reported that Lily Arenallo, D’Angeli’s assistant in live event promotion and marketing, was also fired.
Johnson said the following about D’Angeli:
“D’Angeli’s exit is especially shocking because the scope of his role for TNA grew exponentially over the last year or so, including bringing CM Punk to the table for negotiations with the company, setting the stage for Trinity (WWE’s Naomi) coming in, which developed out of initial conversations with Mercedes Mone in an attempt to set up Mickie James vs. Mone in TNA, and lots of additional creative and production work well beyond the marketing campaign and live event work that D’Angeli handled.”
It’s also reported that Dave Sahadi, the former Creative Director of TNA, left the position of promotion. After working for WWE, Sahadi spent nearly two decades as Director of TNA broadcasts under various regimes.
In regards to the departures, Meltzer wrote that “clearly the company is going heavy into cost savings mode right now but this has been called more than cutting to the bone and actually cutting bone.”
